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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..24f57db --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #62378 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62378) diff --git a/old/62378-0.txt b/old/62378-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 327cbd2..0000000 --- a/old/62378-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4639 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Heart of Oak, vol. 2 of 3, by William Clark Russell - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Heart of Oak, vol. 2 of 3 - A Three-Stranded Yarn - -Author: William Clark Russell - -Release Date: June 12, 2020 [eBook #62378] -[Most recently updated: April 16, 2021] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEART OF OAK, VOL. 2 OF 3 *** - - - - -+-------------------------------------------------+ -|Transcriber's note: | -| | -|Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | -| | -+-------------------------------------------------+ - - -NEW BOOKS AT EVERY LIBRARY. - - -SONS OF BELIAL. By WILLIAM WESTALL. 2 vols. -LILITH. By GEORGE MACDONALD. 1 vol. -THE PROFESSOR'S EXPERIMENT. By MRS. HUNGERFORD. 3 vols. -THE IMPRESSIONS OF AUREOLE. 1 vol. -DAGONET ABROAD. By GEORGE R. SIMS. 1 vol. -CLARENCE. By BRET HARTE. 1 vol. -OTHELLO'S OCCUPATION. By MARY ANDERSON. 1 vol. -HONOUR OF THIEVES. By C. J. CUTCLIFFE HYNE. 1 vol. -THE MACDONALD LASS. By SARAH TYTLER. 1 vol. -THE PRINCE OF BALKISTAN. By ALLEN UPWARD. 1 vol. -THE KING IN YELLOW. By ROBERT W. CHAMBERS. 1 vol. - - -LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY. - - - - -HEART OF OAK - -VOL. II. - - - - -PRINTED BY -SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE -LONDON - - - - -HEART OF OAK - -A THREE-STRANDED YARN - - -BY - -W. CLARK RUSSELL - -AUTHOR OF -'THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR' 'THE PHANTOM DEATH' -'THE CONVICT SHIP' ETC. - - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - -IN THREE VOLUMES--VOL. II. - - -LONDON -CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY -1895 - - - - -CONTENTS - -OF - -THE SECOND VOLUME - -CHAPTER PAGE - XI. THE CREW LEAVE 1 - - XII. MR. SELBY TAKES UP THE STORY 41 - - XIII. THE HULL 69 - - XIV. STILL ADRIFT 92 - - XV. THE ICE IN THE SOUTH 120 - - XVI. THE AURORA AUSTRALIS 145 - - XVII. THE THICK OF IT 169 - -XVIII. IMPRISONED 192 - - XIX. MR. MOORE CONTINUES THE STORY 221 - - - - -HEART OF OAK - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE CREW LEAVE - - -The sail shone like a peak of ice against a belly of soft snow-cloud -right ahead--that is, ahead as the hull's bows lay. I should have -supposed it ice, but for the captain, who stood close beside the -companion holding the ship's glass: he said, 'There she is, miss.' - -'Is she coming this way?' cried I, shivering with cold and passion. - -'I can't tell as yet. She's only just been sighted. Bear a hand with -the first empty tar barrel you can get hold of,' he bawled, moving -forwards, and he continued to shout, but I could not gather the -instructions he delivered. - -Presently Mrs. Burke joined me, and then Mr. Owen swathed to the -nostrils. - -'It's almost too good to credit,' he exclaimed! 'Can they be mistaken? -Is it ice? If it should prove a ship!' - -He went sliding and staggering towards some men in the waist, and stood -questioning them, heedless of the captain. - -With the promptitude of seamen the crew collected a lot of stuff for -making a smoke; they stacked a large heap of material near the gangway -and set fire to it, and in about ten minutes a thick body of blue smoke -was rolling over the rail, and clouding upwards with many a sparkling -ruddy gleam shooting up tongue-shaped or arrow-like into the throat of -the sooty pouring. - -It was wide daylight and the antarctic day young, but the clouds rimmed -the horizon with the shadow of night, and the crimson light of the -flare promised as swift an intelligence of our forlorn condition as -the smoke. The seamen continued to feed the fire; and all the while -Captain Burke was stretching his telescope at the distant gleam; the -men again and again turning their eyes from it to him with looks -growing dark with impatience and consuming anxiety. Mr. Owen had -fetched his binocular glass and strained his eyes through them without -intermission. Mrs. Burke and I standing in the companion, which was -the one sheltered part of that long stretch of frozen deck and smashed -bulwarks, gazed without speech. - -Suddenly a sailor, one who had been most active in feeding the fire, -sprang on to the rail: he grasped a spear-shaped projection of ice, -which broke short off and he fell on his back; he sprang again with an -oath, and after looking, turned to others who were standing near the -fire and roared: - -'Mates, she's leaving us, by God!' - -'She takes us for a whaler trying out. There's no good in smoke as a -signal down here,' said a sailor. - -'It's our chance,' bawled the fellow who had sprung and fallen, now -throwing himself back on to the deck. 'There mayn't come another for -weeks. What's to happen then? Are we to drive about in this fired ocean -till we ends as froze-up corpses? I'm for following her.' - -'Take her bearings, bo'sun, while she's in sight,' shouted a seaman, -and the huge sailor, as obedient as though the captain had given the -command, rolled aft and put the sharp of his hand upon the compass bowl. - -'Captain Burke,' exclaimed one of the seamen, in a voice startling with -its sudden savage note of revolt, 'we've had enough of this. There's -nothen that's a-going to be of any use to us in them booms.' He pointed -behind him with his thumb. 'There's our chance. We'll run ourselves -into her sight and she'll pick us up.' - -'Hold your jaw, you Johnson!' said Captain Burke, who was as white -as the deck in the face, though his eyes showed dangerously, like a -madman's who watches his chance to leap upon you. - -'Hold _my_ jaw?' growled the seaman, a hairy scowling man in a yellow -sou'-wester, dropping his head into an insolent butting posture. -'Why, so I will arter I've told yer that when them masts went we was -quit of your blistered articles, and here's one as ain't for stopping -one bloomin' minute longer to mess and muck about with jury-masts, -pennorths of parasol to be blowed over the bows as soon as they're up. -Mates,' he yelled, 'I'm after that ship whilst there's time. Who's for -coming?' - -As though there had been something quickening and thrilling as -magnetism in the sailor's shout, the whole of the men made a jump for -the boat, one of the first being the boatswain who was coming aft from -the compass when the seaman bawled the invitation. - -The smoke of the flare had flittered down into a curl of pale blue -vapour, which blew over the rail feather-shaped to the sea. The captain -stood this side of it, watching the men in a staring idle way whilst -they went to work at the boat with gleaming knives, hacking and cutting -at her fastenings--he seemed as though deprived of his reason--then he -roared out: - -'Leave that boat alone. Don't touch that boat. She belongs to the ship. -She's my property. Overboard and swim for that vessel there if she's -your chance, you dogs! But leave that boat alone.' - -A few turned their heads to look at him and then went on passing their -knives through the lashings, clearing away the booms and so forth. - -'Stop him!' shrieked Mrs. Burke. 'Help, Mr. Owen! What can he do? -What's the use of it? They'll kill him!' and I too screamed when I saw -the captain rush upon the nearest of the men regardless of their naked -knives; he struck out right and left, flooring two, but a third--none -of them I observed offering to hit him back--crooked his leg at the -poor man's heels, and he fell, fetching the iron-hard snow-coated plank -a thump that left him motionless. - -Mrs. Burke rushed to his side. The boatswain cried out: - -'He's no right to stop us, mum. It's our lives we're working for and -thinking of. You and him and the lady'll come along too. Now, mates, -whilst there's daylight, for God's sake!' - -Mr. Owen crossed to the captain's side and assisted Mrs. Burke to drag -him aft. His figure slipped over the frozen snow as though he was -lifeless, but they had not dragged him a dozen paces in the direction -of the companion-hatch when he cried out and struggled. Mr. Owen let -go; with the help of his wife he got on his feet. - -'Get me some brandy,' said he. - -I heard him and made with what speed I might for the cabin, my face -bloodless and my heart beating as fast as a watch ticks. That brief -scene of conflict, like to one of those terrible mutinies I had read -of in sea tales, had been shocking to witness, on top as it was of our -helpless and awful situation, and all the anguish of expectation and -fear which had filled the past few days. I was sick and nearly fainted. -I sat down to catch my breath and press my temples. Before I found -strength to rise, Mrs. Burke descended, followed by her husband. - -He seated himself at the table, upon which he lay his right arm and -buried his face in it. She coaxed him after a little into taking some -brandy, and then observing my state she got me to take a sip. - -Meanwhile overhead I heard the crew busy with the long-boat; her keel -thundered as they ran her to the side for launching. Their movements -were full of feverish bustle; in truth they were working for life or -death; they meant to catch the ship and there remained but a very few -hours of daylight. - -'Does your head pain you, Edward?' - -'No,' he answered, and strained his hearing to catch what was passing -above. - -'Will they let us know when they're ready to take us?' I cried. - -'Take us!' the captain exclaimed, with a sudden anger in his whole -manner as he turned towards me. 'They may take you, but I stop here.' - -'No, no, Miss Marie,' cried my poor old nurse, 'they must not take you -without me, and my place is by my husband's side wherever he is. Think -if they should miss the ship, which is more than likely: they'll be in -an open boat in this frozen ocean! Fancy being in an open boat in such -weather as that of the night before last! You would not live to see -to-morrow's dawn. And how should their going concern us? If they fall -in with the ship they'll report we are here and the vessel may return. -If they miss her they are in an exposed open boat, and we are in a dry, -comfortable hull, with a good warm cabin to sit in, and no worse off -than if all the crew were aboard. For what can they do? If the ship -comes, she'll come whether the crew are on board or not.' - -'But are the three of us to be left alone?' I exclaimed. - -'The dogs could have helped me,' muttered the captain. 'We blew -northwards yesterday and to-day we sighted a sail. They are villains to -steal my boat, the only remaining boat. But I am too few for them--I am -too few for them.' He clasped his hands upon the back of his head as -though he was in pain there. - -Just then four or five seamen came tumbling down the companion-ladder: -one held a lighted lantern. This man exclaimed: - -'Capt'n, the boat's alongside, and all's ready.' - -'What are you doing down here?' thundered the captain. - -'The victuals we want are in the lazarette,' answered the man. 'No good -lifting the main-hatch and overhauling the cargo when all we need's -handy here.' - -Even whilst he spoke the rest had pulled up a little square hatch -cover with an iron ring in it; it fitted a large manhole a few paces -abaft the companion-ladder; this hatch conducted to a part of the -after-hold called the lazarette, a sort of store-room in which the -cabin provisions and wines with other commodities were stowed. - -Captain Burke jumped from his seat; his wife fell upon him shrieking, -and with her arms about his neck forced him to sit, beseeching him to -have patience, to let the men have their way, to attempt no violence -or they would kill him. He trembled with rage and weakness and grief, -but he understood his powerlessness--which was merciful, for there was -an angry stubbornness in the hurry and motions of the men which was as -good as advising their captain, with a curse and a threat wrapped up in -the hint, not to meddle with them, not to offer to hinder them if he -valued his life. - -Very promptly the lot emerged from the lazarette, bearing cases and -sacks, hams, cheeses, and so forth. They no doubt guessed they'd come -to want plenty of provisions should they miss the ship they were -after. They ran headlong up the ladder, none heeding us, but not above -two minutes afterwards the boatswain's burly figure showed in the -companion-way, and he bawled down: - -'Capt'n Burke, we're all ready, and there isn't a second to lose. Ain't -you going to join us along with the ladies?' - -He received no reply. - -He repeated the question, roaring it out in a bull-like bellowing, and -then came a step or two down the ladder to stretch his neck that he -might see us. I cried out: - -'Are we to be left alone?' for I cannot express the horror that chilled -me when I thought of the sailors leaving us to save themselves, -insomuch that they might be on board another ship sailing towards the -sun ere the Southern Cross was trembling in the south that night, -whilst the three of us who stayed--two of them women--might go on -rolling about in a wrecked and crusted hull till she grew sodden and -sank, or split against an iceberg. - -'Come you along with us, miss, if the captain and his wife won't leave -the vessel!' cried the boatswain. - -'No!' shrieked Mrs. Burke. 'Would you expose a delicate young lady in -these seas in an open boat? Fools are you yourselves to go. You'll be -heard of no more.' - -The boatswain without another word withdrew his great developed bulk -from the hatch, but he was instantly replaced by another figure, and -Mr. Owen's voice, shrill with excitement and hurry, cried down: - -'Mrs. Burke, Miss Otway, aren't you coming? They'll be putting off -without you if you pause.' - -'He does not ask my husband to join them,' screamed Mrs. Burke, 'the -wretch! does he think I would leave my husband?' - -Mr. Owen came swiftly down into the cabin and talked like a man in -delirium. - -'You have no right to keep this young lady with you. Captain Burke -sticks to his hull from sordid motives. That's his look-out. Life's -more precious than cargo. Miss Otway was entrusted to my care. I insist -upon her being permitted to accompany us. Her father looks to me for -her well-being. She is eager to go with us and you will not suffer it.' -Thus he raved on. - -'Leave this cabin,' cried the captain, springing up. His face was full -of blood, his blue eyes blazed; he had already been worked up into -madness, and I was certain by his insane manner of starting from his -chair, if the doctor did not go instantly the captain would destroy him. - -But it was at that moment that the boatswain bawled on deck. 'Come -up!' were the words I caught, sounding through the companion-hatch in -a muffled note of thunder. 'Up with them who's going.' More was said -which I did not hear. - -'By keeping her, you are murdering her, and her blood is on your head!' -cried Mr. Owen like a woman in a frenzy of passion, and rushed up the -ladder. - -'Don't believe him,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke, grasping my hand, with a -wild, short, passionate laugh that had the note of an hysteric sob. -'You shall see the boat presently. You shall see it out upon the -water. You will judge then who would kill you. Oh, not I, not I, my -flower; not I, your poor old nurse!' - -I clasped her round the neck and sobbed. When I looked up Captain Burke -had left the cabin. - -We were apparelled for the deck, and finding the captain gone, we -followed, and though scarcely five minutes had elapsed since the -boatswain bawled, already the long-boat was some ship's lengths -distant, bowed almost to the line of her lee rail by a great square of -white canvas, shaded here and there where the moisture had not dried -out of it. She looked full of people as she rose to the head of the -folds, ripping through it with the icy breeze fresh off her bow, till -the lift of the foam sparkled in a fountain-like arch right athwart her -forward, and her speed raised two humps of froth on either quarter, -and shot a long milk-white glance of wake, bright as a meteor's line -of light, far astern of her, lifting and falling on the swell, and -defined to its extremity even amidst the smoke and snap of the running -seas. - -Captain Burke with one hand grasping the edge of the companion stood -watching her. When we came up his first words were, after a brief pause: - -'They'll overhaul the ship if they can only get a sight of her. Look -how she sails, and how finely she is handled.' - -'She may be the means of saving us,' cried Mrs. Burke. 'What use were -they on board of us? But they're useful there. They'll be sighted and -rescued, and we shall be hunted after.' - -But I did not want her nor her husband after I had watched the boat -a little to tell me that, unless they quickly encountered succour, -their situation, crowded together in a small exposed space, would be -terrible. Also, since Mrs. Burke would not have left her husband, I -should have been the only woman in her. I cannot say how the mere -sight of her as she swept onwards, dwindling as you gazed into a mere -toy, regularly sinking out of sight till nothing showed but a gleaming -curve of her topmast cloths, wan and slender as a distant sea-fowl's -pinion, then taking the slope till she leaned, poised and foaming for -a breathless instant, upon the flying summit: I cannot tell you, I -say, how solemnly and awfully that mere toy, full of human beings, -emphasised to my perception the vastness and the loneliness of this -cold, green, heaving breast of ocean. - -Captain Burke took the telescope out of the companion and swept the sea -for some little distance on either hand the boat's bows, pausing on the -lee side of the fabric where, my sight being good, I spied a point like -a light tipping the sea-line against some dark clouds there whenever -the hull soared. - -'That's the ship,' said he, pointing. 'They may catch her! Why, had I -thought of it--but who's going to make proposals to mutineers?--the -scoundrels have stolen my only boat. How do they know in leaving us -what's to become of us without a boat?' - -'Had you thought of what?' said his wife. - -'I'd have given them a handful of rockets.' - -We stood watching the boat till the white spot she became was one with -the breaking seas. The hull looked indescribably forlorn. The sense of -all life, saving us three, having gone out of her, brought a deeper -spirit of desolation into her labouring shape. Oh, the heart-sickness -that came into you out of her dismal regular rolling in the trough! -The swell lifted her, the seas burst upon her weather side as against -a rock, broke into smoke, and smote the hollow they sprang from with -the loud hissing of a hail squall. There was a constant dreary gleam of -ice as the fabric swayed, pallid glares along her side, blue glancings -from the long barbs at the catheads; the frozen snow the whole length -of the deck had a shrewd keen sparkle. In places along the working line -of the sea hung motionless the faint marble of bergs; but long before -the boat was lost to view the feather-tip of sail she was pursuing had -vanished. - -Captain Burke carefully and closely swept the horizon, then replaced -the telescope. - -'A few hours often make a mighty difference at sea,' said he. 'By this -time tomorrow we may be towing northwards.' - -'Have the men gone away without a compass?' said Mrs. Burke. - -'The bo'sun owned a compass that was a curiosity of casting and -graving: I remember he showed it to the mate. They'll have taken that -with them. And now,' said he, speaking with more cheerfulness than I -had observed in him for some days, 'let us go below and get something -to eat. There's fuel enough to keep the stove going for a long spell. -The hull's as staunch as she was on the day we sailed. Any moment -you may see something that will look like ice climbing the sea into a -whaler's breast of topsail and stump topgallant masts. So call things -at their worst, miss,' said he, 'for then we may believe that their -mending's at hand.' - -Mrs. Burke and I went below; the captain remained on deck. Between -us we dressed the dinner table. She did not want me to help her. She -said it was her duty and joy to wait upon me. 'To think of Miss Marie -Otway,' she exclaimed, 'laying a table-cloth and putting knives and -forks upon the table that a plain merchant-skipper and his wife may -dine.' - -I kissed and went on helping her; any sort of occupation was welcome: -for, argue as the captain and Mrs. Burke might, the abandonment of -the wreck by the whole of the sailors had raised a horror in me, and -filled my heart with deep secret distress and dread; so that, whenever -I thought of our situation, it was with a shudder at the emptiness of -the rolling broken hull. - -I believe the hour was not far from two o'clock. Already the gloom -of the early antarctic night was in the cabin, but the lamp swung in -flashes through the shadow, and you could only have told that the gloom -was gathering when you looked at the portholes. We sat beside the stove -waiting for Captain Burke; by-and-bye his wife grew uneasy, and went on -deck to seek him and call him down to dinner. - -I was then alone, and sat very cold and wretched. I had been alone in -this cabin before--that is, since the masts had gone; but then there -had been the tread of feet overhead, the knowledge of a plentiful, -hearty life in the ship. Now all was as hushed as the tomb in that way. - -After I had been waiting four or five minutes, I saw two small points -of light in the gloom where a locker ended, and where some few feet -of ship's wall ran clear. I stared, suspecting an illusion, and then -believed it was phosphorus or something jewelled with light by decay as -rotten timber is. But on a sudden the two shining spots came stealing -out into the whiskers and ribbed shape of a huge lean, grey rat. I -jumped up with a shriek and the thing vanished. - -My nerves gave way, and, marvelling at Captain and Mrs. Burke's -absence, I went on deck to look for them, trembling with disgust and -terror. - -The daylight was small, but the snow along the decks made a whiteness -in the air, so that perhaps even in the darkest hour you would be able -to detect anything in motion betwixt the rails. Here and there about -the leaden rolling ocean broke sudden glares of froth. The shadow had -blended the sea-circle with sky, and nothing was visible save a smoky -thickness of vapour breaking up to windward where it soared, and ashy -in places with rain or snow. I stood in the hatch and looked along the -deck and saw nobody. This so frightened me that I shrieked out Mrs. -Burke's name. Nothing answered. I trembled with dread and the bitter -cold of the wind, and crossing the deck that I might have something -to hold by, went forward, occasionally screaming out the name of Mrs. -Burke, but never getting an answer. - -The galley door was open: nobody was in it. I was half fainting with -terror; I could not imagine what had become of my companions. Was -I alone in the ship? Oh, never could I make you understand what my -feelings were whilst I stood running my eyes first forward and then -aft, straining along the ghostly slanting glimmer of the decks for a -sight of one or another of my friends, hearing nothing but a strange -moaning noise of wind in the sky, and the long rolling thunder of -moving mountains of water, the early night darkening fast down all -round, the closing in upon the ghastly, weary, tumbling hull, lifting -its bowsprit and splintered stumps of masts in postures of agony -defined as existence itself could make them! - -I had just sucked in my breath to send forth another scream, when I saw -a figure in the little hatch called the forescuttle, which led into the -forecastle. - -'Who is that?' I cried. - -'Is that you, Miss Marie?' called the voice of Mrs. Burke, and she rose -through the hatch. - -'I thought you were lost. I thought I was alone,' I cried, beginning to -sob with a sudden passion of hysteric relief. - -'My husband went down into the forepeak to get some coal,' said she, -not perceiving that I cried. 'He asked me to help him by pulling up -some buckets as he filled them. We are not quite done, but do not stay -on deck, my dear. We shall be with you in a very few minutes now.' - -On this I returned to the cabin, but much shaken, and so low-spirited, -I had never before felt more miserable. - -I entered the cabin with eyes a-search for the rat, and could not sit -still beside the stove for thinking of the beast, for at every moment -I was coining the lights of its eyes, the gaunt crouched shape of it, -out of some shadow here or there; and if I saw it not in imagination, -I figured it as under my chair. However, soon after I had returned, -the captain and Mrs. Burke entered the cabin, the captain bearing two -buckets and his wife one, full of coals. - -'Now,' he exclaimed, 'for a little wash after that job!' and he took -a kettle of water off the stove and carried it to his cabin. His wife -followed him. - -They came back soon and we sat down at the table. Whilst we ate Mrs. -Burke explained how her husband had attached a block to a beam in the -forecastle and rove a rope through it with a hook at one end, and how, -standing in the forecastle, she had hauled up the buckets as he filled -them deep down in the forepeak. - -I told them of the horrible rat I had seen. - -'Don't let it scare you, miss,' said the captain. 'Rats at sea haven't -the viciousness of the beasts ashore. They'll drown themselves in a -man's savings of molasses. They'll creep into his bunk and nibble his -toe-nails. That's about the worst that I can recollect. They may be -destructive to ships and cargo, but they've got their instincts, and -know when on the ocean they're dependent on sailors.' - -He doubtless said this to hearten me. Mrs. Burke changed the subject by -speaking of the melancholy appearance of the forecastle. The hammocks -swung, she said, as though every one held a man; the sailors' chests -were scattered about, there was a smell of tobacco in the place as -though the sailors had scarcely extinguished their pipes. The captain -had put out the forecastle lamp. It was alight when they entered. -Not that it would have set fire to the ship. It was sputtering and -smelling, with a thick coil of slush rank smoke spreading in a little -cloud under the deck out of a small greasy flame. - -'The silence is shocking,' she said to her husband. 'I looked to see -the heads of men peering at me over the edges of the hammocks.' - -'There may be heads of men nearer than we think,' said he. 'I'll -give ourselves a chance this night.' He looked up at the clock under -the skylight and seemed to calculate, and then said, 'The boat went -swiftly. She may have run into the ken of the ship--some box-ended -waggon of a south seaman, no doubt, slow as a baulk of timber working -to windward on a two-knot tide.' - -'What will you do?' said his wife. - -'I'll send up a rocket occasionally. If she picks up our people she -might stand down to look for us--she might. I'll do more,' he added -after a pause. 'I'll give them a flare or anything else that may be a -bright light to see us by--a lantern on the stump of the foremast, or, -better still, under the bowsprit where it'll dance.' - -'Can a hull like this remain long afloat?' said I. - -'Ay, miss.' - -'I thought when a vessel was dismasted she became a wreck, and went -quickly to pieces.' - -'Over and over,' said he, 'you may have heard, you must have read, of -derelicts, whose log-books showed they'd been washing about for months, -sliding north and south, east and west through the summers and winters -of the ocean. A well-built ship is so hard to knock to pieces that -when she's abandoned she's as dangerous to navigation as an uncharted -rock. Again and again they talk of sending gunboats to blow derelicts -to pieces and clear the road. They're hard to extinguish, even with -gunpowder, as hard to expel as a madman's fancies. This craft is safe, -believe me, and will provide us with a secure sea-home until we're -fallen in with, which may be tomorrow.' - -This sort of talk did me a world of good, and I began to cheer up and -feel something like my old self. I was now used to the motion of the -hulk, at least in such a sea as then ran, though a landsman coming on -board for the first time would have been instantly thrown, so swift, -abrupt, and shooting were the rolls. This afternoon we did not notice -any particular weight in the race and lift of the swell and sea; there -had been a dumbness in the looks of the weather throughout the day, -though a fresh wind blew with a flaying, razor-like edge of frost in -it. Captain Burke said he expected a quiet night; that is, no more wind -than had blown through the day. He built up a good fire for us, and got -his wife to boil some coffee, whilst he fetched a number of rockets to -carry on deck. - -With the wish to amuse me he asked if I would like to see a rocket -fired, and whilst Mrs. Burke made some coffee I followed him above. -Night was upon the sea, and its shadow was as a wall for the ice spears -along our rails to brandish their gleams upon. The captain fitted a -candle-shaped thing into a rocket in the bulwarks near the wheel and -fired it, and the rocket sprang high in a line of sparkles, leaving a -red ball of flame floating close against the clouds, which reflected -the radiance as though to a touch of sunset. I watched the red ball -float down the wind and expire. - -'We'll send up a second for luck,' said the captain. - -This was a white light and the dazzle of the flash was lightning-like: -a thin long wake of the brilliance dimly glanced, serpentine, off the -peaks and slants of the heaving waters and the sky opened as to a -star. But the night was the darker for that light when it went. - -'Now, who's to tell,' said Captain Burke, 'what eye has seen those -rockets? Never give up heart at sea, miss. We'll go below for a cup of -hot coffee, and then the brightest burning lantern aboard shall be made -fast in some place where it can be seen.' - -I returned to the cabin with a little spirit of elation working in -me, a strange possession in the presence of that reeling shadow of -frosted hull and the blackness winding round about, pallid here and -there with the wild dim light of froth. It was occasioned, no doubt, -by the sending up of the rockets, by some faint hope or fancy of their -being seen, with a half-formed vision of the ship the crew that day had -pursued staggering down towards us then, a pale shaft aslant, gaunt -with lean canvas breasting slowly, with many eyes on the look-out. - -The three of us sat drinking coffee, and our talk ran in the way of our -deliverance. The captain named our chances. - -'Yes,' cried I, 'but if a ship should refuse to tow you, you will not -surely remain on board this hull and keep us with you! Sooner----' - -I broke off. - -'Sooner what, miss?' said he, rounding his face upon me, crimson on one -side of it with the fire. - -'Sooner than that we should remain here in the hope of saving the -property you possess in the hull, I would give you under my hand an -undertaking that my father will make good the amount of your loss.' - -'We'll see you safe; we'll see you safe,' he exclaimed with a slow -smile. 'Anyhow, you're better here than in the long-boat where you'd be -if Mr. Owen could have had his way.' - -'Ay, if they're not aboard a ship they are cold now, I warrant, those -poor men in that open boat,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke. 'And if the breeze -should come on to freshen so as to fling spray over them, that must be -the freezing part. Not to be able to get up and walk, and to feel the -brine raining upon your back and hardening into a mask of ice about -your neck!' - -The captain got up, but as I did not watch him, I know not whether he -went on deck or to a cabin. When he returned he held a large ship's -lantern, a globe of white glass framed with metal. He fetched some oil -from the pantry, carefully trimmed and then lighted the lantern. - -'This will handsomely jewel the bowsprit,' said he. 'She'll make a -starry dance of it there, toss it as proudly as though it were a gem on -her brow, and she was still clothed in her last week's beauty of white -wings. Heigh-ho! 'Tis no time for fine fancies. Sit ye here, miss; -I'll not have you again expose yourself above; but, wife, you can rig -yourself up so as to give me a ten minutes' hand on deck. I may want to -seize a block to the bowsprit and run this light out.' - -She clothed herself for the bitter cold, and bidding me not be afraid -though a hundred rats should come and stare, she went up the steps -after her husband in the almost noontide light of the lantern that -swung in his hand. - -The emotion of light-heartedness was ended; it had been but as the -gleam of a star in black water on a cloudy night--the sky was folded -up, my heart was dark again, I found no light nor life of hope in -it. They say that hope springs eternal; I vow to God then I felt as -hopeless as if my end was at hand whilst I sat alone when they had gone -to show a light on the hull. I closed my eyes that I might not see the -rat should it come, and so, sitting with the glow of the fire upon my -face, I beheld a vision of my house: it rose upon my darkened gaze; I -saw the wintry scene of Channel waters, the glance of foam through the -flying clouds of snow; I saw myself walking with my sweetheart upon the -stretch of sands, pausing to gaze at the beauty of the forming breaker -and to hearken to the cries of the skyful of blown gulls. I saw my -father; but what I chiefly remembered was the sensation of bitter cold -which had sunk chill to heart and marrow, when I entered for the first -time the cabin I was now occupying. - -I shivered and buried my face and rocked myself, my eyes still sealed. -I may have lost thought of time in musing; I started, looked round, -and found by the hour that they had been on deck nigh twenty minutes. -I thought this was a long time for Captain Burke to keep his wife -exposed, and still I concluded that the job of securing a lantern to -the bowsprit might run into time aboard a dancing, jumping, slippery -hulk; so I continued to wait, all the while straining my ears, till -hearing was made an anguish of by the constant cheats of sound. - -I could bear it no longer. They had been absent half an hour and five -minutes. I did not expect to hear their footfalls through the frozen -snow on the planks; nor would their voices reach me if they remained -forward; but why did not they come? I waited another ten minutes, then -went on deck. - -I looked, and was almost paralysed with terror; had I been an instant -sooner, an instant later, it could not have been; but my eye went -to it as I rose through the hatch at the breathless moment of its -happening--and this was it: low over the sea in some quarter I could -not name hung the moon, red as the sun in fog; she had just broken -out through a mass of heavy black vapour; a ragged edge as of scud -was floating off her upper limb like a last lingering shadow of -eclipse, as I looked; and right athwart the orb, centering it, was -the body of a bird, doubtless an albatross; and the instant picture -was that of some wondrous, gigantic, glowing shield hanging over the -sea, and approaching the hull on the back of a huge seafowl. But in a -heart's beat the deception went: the bird whose distance created that -marvellous illusive perspective curved in its flight and winged out of -the illuminated circle and was gone, and in the next breath a lift of -black stuff like the dingy smouldering of a candle-wick overspread the -moon and hid her. - -I looked along the deck, and as before, so now, I beheld nothing -moving. I tried to reason with my terrors by supposing that the captain -had again gone below to shovel up more coal, and that his wife waited -in the forecastle to help him. But whilst I looked and strained my ears -I heard a moan; again and yet again it came; I could not be mistaken. -I went forward and heard the moaning whilst I advanced, and when I was -close to the galley I saw a figure on the forecastle and heard the -moaning again. - -I stepped close, my heart almost stopped, my blood almost frozen. The -white of the deck made a light of its own, as I have told you, and -I saw Mrs. Burke lying on her side. She lay close to the fluke of -an anchor that was stowed upon the forecastle on the starboard, or -right-hand side. She moaned and continued to moan; I dropped on my -knees, and grasping her hand cried, with my face close to hers to see -if her eyes were open, for her moaning was that of a dying person: 'It -is I. What has happened? Are you ill? Where's your husband?' - -She answered feebly, moaning at every other word: - -'He has fallen overboard. He went on to the bowsprit with a lantern and -slipped. Oh, God, my heart breaks, my heart breaks! I ran and fell and -I cannot rise. I have lost him--oh, my heart!' - -I cried in a passion of horror and terror, 'Captain Burke drowned!' and -then, figuring him battling for life alongside, I sprang to my feet -and went to the rail and looked over. But there was nothing to be seen -save an inky cloudiness of moving waters, shaping and dissolving, and a -dim light of foam when the ship's bows pitched, and there was no other -sound but that of the washing of brine pouring along the side, and a -noise of wind overhead. - -I went back to Mrs. Burke and knelt by her again, and cried: - -'Cannot you rise that I may help you to get to the cabin?' - -She moaned, but did not speak. - -Then my heart gave way wholly, and as I knelt by her side I clasped my -hands, and looked up into the darkness, and cried out of my loneliness: -'What shall I do? What shall I do?' - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -MR. SELBY TAKES UP THE STORY. - - -Having been blown considerably to the southward of our course by a -succession of hard northerly gales, the barque 'Planter,' from London -to Adelaide, on a dark, bitter, raw morning of July 1860, was breaking -the seas close hauled, looking up for as much northing as the seating -of the wind would allow. - -Our long topgallant masts were down on deck, and we showed nothing -above the topmast cross-trees. Under single-reefed topsails and reefed -foresail we rolled sluggishly onwards, making small way; the swell was -wide and strong, but the wind blew without spite, save for its edge, -and the seas ran small. - -My name is Ralph Selby. I was chief mate of that barque, a vessel of -four hundred and sixty tons, Walter Parry, master, John Newman, second -mate. I had charge of the forenoon watch, and it was now about nine -o'clock, but dark as at any hour of the night. All my sight had been -going for ice whilst it remained black; throughout this had been so -with the rest of us, since seven o'clock of the preceding evening we -had nearly fallen foul of ice mountains three times. At midnight, -indeed, the air being then like fog with snow, a loud and fearful cry -from the forecastle had preserved us by the dark of our nails, we were -in time by a few heart beats only; the whole mass looked aboard us as -we surged past with our helm hard up, floating off on a heave of black -fold that carried us clear, though it nearly thumped the channels off -our sides with the lumps of loose ice it slided us into. The paleness -of that mountain went up into the sky high above our mast-heads; the -roar of the sea bursting at its base was louder than any surf I ever -heard ashore; rock-blasting shocks in thunder echoes came out of the -heap, which perhaps sank two leagues backwards into the blackness. - -We drove clear and lost it, but for the rest of the night those who had -the watch kept staring with all their eyes. - -Whilst I leaned over the side searching the darkness off the bow, there -broke over the starboard quarter the cold pale day of that desolate -part of the world. The dim light seemed to sift to the zenith through -the clouds like steam under the rolling sky. In twenty minutes it was -daylight all round, the ocean a dirty freckled green, swollen in folds, -and flashful with the short running seas of the then light breeze. The -horizon opened into a hard green distance, working like a revolved -corkscrew against the stooping soot past it, though overhead it was -middling fine weather, streaks of dim green sky veining, into a look -of marble, a surface of compacted yellow stuff; down which the brown -scud was sailing south-west. - -Crossing the deck to peer to leeward, I instantly caught sight of a -sail, a white square of canvas which, coming and going this side the -horizon, puzzled me during the moments I kept my naked eye upon it. I -fetched the glass and on pointing it resolved the object into a ship's -long-boat, full of people. She was heading to close us, but did not -look as though she lay nearer than we; I observed no distress signal. I -thought I could count eight or nine heads. The gleam of oilskins came -off the men as the boat lifted. With the sheet flattened right aft the -little fabric shredded through it nobly, flinging the water away in -smoke, and rising with the dance and skill of the galley-punt of the -Downs to the head of every hurdling sea. - -The sight of her put a full spirit of civilisation into the desolate -scene; and yet I guessed that exquisite distress lay dumb for distance -only in that open leaping boat, gone now behind a hill of brine, now -straining her square of cloths aslant on a rolling peak. - -I sang out to the fellow at the wheel to let her go off by a point, and -was going to make my report to the captain when he appeared. His eye -caught the boat in a moment, and exclaiming, 'What have we here?' he -levelled the glass and said: - -'Pretty nigh a whole ship's company adrift.' - -We closed her rapidly and were presently within hail. - -'Take us aboard for God's sake, sir! Half of us are dead with the -cold,' cried a lamentable voice, no man, whoever he was that spoke, -rising nevertheless. - -We manÅ“uvred that she might sheer alongside; we then backed our -topsail yard and her sail dropped with a run. But the men seemed -scarcely to have life enough to catch hold of the coil of rope that -was flung to them, and then when she lay hard by you saw by the rise of -her to the height of our topgallant sail, then by the fall of her into -a hollow twenty feet deep, that if those men were to be rescued they -must be whipped aboard. - -So a tackle was secured to the main yard-arm, and the rope slackened -away to let the boat soar and sink fair under the whip; the captain -then sang out for the strongest to send the weakest, themselves -following. A huge, fine fellow with red whiskers answered with a -paralytic flourish of his hand, and without delay the whip end was -secured to one of the people and quickly as might be he was swayed -aboard. - -I was too busy with superintending these proceedings to do more than -glance at the first of them as they hauled him over the side; and just -took notice that he was a short man, cloaked and thickly wrapped, -with bushy hair, not a sailor, and he looked frozen to death. He was -carried into the cabin and another man was got aboard; he too seemed -lifeless. There were nine or ten, I am not sure. One by one we swayed -them over the rail, the last man to come being the big fellow with the -red whiskers. - -Those who seemed dead--of these there were four--were carried into -the cabin; the others who were able to crawl were helped into the -forecastle. - -'What's to be done with the boat, sir?' said I to the captain. - -'Oh, what can be done with her?' said he, with a shrug and an askant -look of longing at the fine little craft. 'We should drown her if we -towed her, and we can do nothing with her now. Let her go.' - -I went forward by the captain's orders and saw to the men who had been -sent into the forecastle. Hot grog and food were given to them; they -were partially unclothed and chafed and wrapped in blankets. The only -one who did not seem to need this care was the burly, red-whiskered -seaman. He had stripped himself of his waterproofs, and after -swallowing a couple of steaming glasses of grog, and eating pretty -heartily of cold beef and biscuit, he asked for some warm water to wash -the frost out of his face; which done, he fell to clapping his arms -upon his breast, and shooting them out to right and left, kicking his -legs about likewise; then turning upon me who stood watching, he said -he was ready to step aft and spin his yarn to the captain. - -We were a barque with a short poop; I took him into the cuddy, and -there left him in order to look after the ship, so that I did not -learn the story of this crew until a little while after he had related -it to the captain. When I regained the poop the boat was showing and -vanishing some distance astern. It made me shudder to think of exposure -in her in these seas, and under the wild sky that was stormily sipping -the sea-line with its black lips of vapour, though on high, over our -staggering mast-heads, the heavens continued to lie a little open. - -I saw them coming and going with steaming stuff from the galley, and -guessed they were ministering to the poor frozen wretches in the cuddy. -By-and-by the red-whiskered man went forward, and a little later up -came Captain Parry. He approached me, and with a shocked look on his -honest sailorly face said: - -'I'm afraid three of the four are dead. We can't put any life into -them. The fourth man stirred after some chafing, and when some hot grog -had been spooned down his throat, and he's now got his mind. But I -don't like to think how it's going to prove with him; his fingers and -thumbs look to be mortified, and if his boots are pulled off his toes -'ll come away.' - -'Which man is that, sir?' - -'The first man we got aboard, a man with bushy hair. He was doctor in -the ship.' - -'And the others are dead?' - -'I never saw a frozen to death body. Newman says they're dead. He's -been groping after any hint of life and finds none.' - -John Newman, as I have said, was our second mate. He had been bred to -medicine, changed his mind, and gone to sea at two-and-twenty, and was -now, at the age of thirty, with a master's certificate of competency in -his desk, earning five pounds a month as third in charge of a little -barque. We all looked up to Newman as a medical authority; he had -during the passage doctored some of us very skilfully; in pronouncing -the man dead he knew what he was talking about. - -'This is their yarn,' said the captain, and now I repeat in brief what -he related. - -Their ship was the 'Lady Emma.' She sailed from the Thames April 2. A -few days before this time--namely, on July 2--she was thrown on to her -beam ends by a terrific squall; they cut away to right the ship and -all three masts went smack-smooth saving the foremast, of which there -remained a jagged stump of some twelve foot. To this next day they -secured an arrangement of boom and square-sail, which blew over the -bows on the wind suddenly freshening. - -The captain was a little broken in his spirits and weakened in his -intellect by this calamity; also it was said forward that it weighed -upon him to remember that a strange man wearing his face and aspect -had walked on the forecastle one night. His hope was to blow north and -fall in with something that would give him a tow to a port, he (it was -understood) having a considerable uninsured venture in the vessel. -The crew sickened of his notion, seeing no good nor hope in it; and -on catching sight of the topmost canvas of a ship they launched a -long-boat, hastily provisioned her, and went away in pursuit, leaving -behind the master, his wife and a young lady passenger: but through no -fault of the men, as the captain and the others declined to accompany -them. - -They lost the ship and wore for the hull afresh, missed her, and -stood north-east by a compass which did not appear to have been very -trustworthy. They were exposed for two nights and very nearly two days, -and another night must have killed them all. The dead men were the -steward, a Dutch seaman who had been ill for weeks with rheumatism, and -another. - -'How should the wreck bear now, do you think?' said Captain Parry. - -I reflected, and after recalling the weather, and estimating the -boat's sailing powers and the like, I answered if she was to be -sought she might be found about one hundred and fifty miles distant -west-south-west. - -'I make her further than that,' said the captain. - -'Perhaps so, sir.' - -'But your bearings about tally with mine. I think it's our duty to give -those people a chance for their lives. Three of them! and two of the -three, women, Mr. Selby! And the passenger, I understand from Wall the -bo'sun, is the daughter of an English baronet--the skipper's wife was -her old nurse--she was sent out for her health.' - -He looked thoughtfully round the sea, then told me to get the yards -braced in, and going to the wheel, shifted the course, making a fair -wind of the breeze, and the ship drove along. - -The main difficulty lay in the shortness of the time of daylight. We -were not going to hunt for a large becalmed craft, clothed like a -pyramid to the trucks, and courting the eye like an iceberg, but for -a low dismasted hull, which might slide past us within musket-shot in -some hour of blackness, and no man dream it was near. But the captain -was resolved to give the poor people a chance: there could be no -question that the master of the ship, his wife, and a young lady were -alive, locked up, helpless and hopeless, aboard a hull which at any -hour might float away in staves from the side of an icehill; and it -was right, it was our duty, it was a service that God would expect of -us, that humanity required of us, to search, even at some peril to -ourselves--loss of time counting for nothing when the errand is one -of mercy--seeing that the hull lay, perhaps, within two hundred miles -off, and her inmates in a situation to continue alive for a long while, -the boatswain Wall having told Captain Parry that she was plentifully -stocked with coal, provisions, and liquor. - -All that day, till night blackened out the scene, we kept an eager -watch upon the sea. It held fairly clear, a slender promise overhead -in greenish streaks of an opening heaven, though the horizon scowled -with snow-clouds. We sighted several icebergs, but saw nothing of the -wreck. When it fell dark that afternoon, we shortened sail to two -close-reefed topsails, furling the foresail, and rolled onwards slowly. -The swell was high and ran strong from the westward, but the sea curled -lightly. A few wan stars blinked in the rifts. The cold was intense. -The rigging seemed to take a new thickness of ice when the night came, -and the running gear was as stiff as bar-iron in the shears. - -I guessed that Captain Burke (as I was told his name was) would show a -light every night: he had lanterns and oil and an altitude that, with -his freeboard, might give him twenty feet above the water in his stump -of foremast. But we searched in vain for a sparkle. For my part, I -took but a halfhearted view of the quest; yet it was a thing not to be -omitted by an English seaman: no man of the slenderest mercy of heart -would have foregone it. - -I had charge of the middle watch, and being a man of some imagination, -I cast my mind into the misery of the poor people who were somewhere -out upon those black, swollen waters in a flat wallowing hull, and -I shuddered and grieved when I thought of them. The life of a lofty -superstructure of masts and spars, with canvas to spread or reduce -at will, was in our ship; I felt the buoyant rise of her on hills -of ink rolling invisible; I'd step aft to search the gloom astern -and on either quarter, and mark the dim snow of the wake sheeting to -the taffrail with the droop of her stern, and hear the grind of the -wheel-chains, and see the illuminated disc of card trembling the course -at the lubber's mark betwixt faithful oscillations, as though it were -the spirit of the ship, naked and shining, and revealed in all its -sublime guiding and informing motions; and then my mind would go again -to that dismantled hull somewhere out in the freezing blackness here or -there, a coffin of a ship with three live people locked up in it! - -It came on to blow in hissing snow-squalls a little before daybreak. I -got two hours' sleep after eight o'clock and turned out for a mouthful -of breakfast: when that meal was ended, the dull day had whitened -through the snow upon the skylight glass, and in a cabin window I saw -the sea, lifting close with the ship's lurches, rolling astern and -quickly out of sight into the blowing flakes. - -The captain came below: he shook the snow off him by the stove and said: - -'No signs of the hull. Nothing can be done if the weather don't clear. -It's as thick as smoke all round, and if we go on making southing in -this fashion we shall be running down the South Shetlands.' - -'To pick up a wreck like this, sir,' said I, 'you may need to cross and -re-cross your track a hundred times over.' - -'I should never be able to sail away with a good conscience either,' -said he. 'To leave three people to wash about down here, to perish -certainly after a horrible time of it! Though it should cost a week of -cruising to rescue them--'twould be like murder.' - -He stepped into his cabin with unsettled looks and a face of agitation. - -He was one of the humanest men I ever met whether at sea or ashore. He -was not what would be called a gentleman by birth, but he was a man of -God's best moulding, a simple, generous, just person, beloved of his -crew, his officers' friend and companion, and their kindly counsellor -as well as commander. I never heard a coarse word escape him nor a -harsh one to even the most provoking of his people. He was an honour to -the flag of his Service. - -When I went on deck the weather had somewhat cleared round the ship, -but the snow was whirling grayly against the soft dark thickness to -leeward, whilst the windward sky was black with cloud of a true Horn -pattern, low-flying, shredding off its edges, and swollen with burdens -of hail and sleet. - -I went to the starboard rail to take a long, careful look round, never -knowing but that all on a sudden, in a flying way, the hull might leap -into sight out of some green trough dim with salt breeze. Mr. Newman, -heavily clad in sea boots and yellow oilskins, was standing for shelter -under a square of canvas seized in the mizzen rigging. For my part I -never wore an oilskin in my life. I was to-day clothed as I always went -in bitter weather, north or south: in a thick pilot coat, thick pilot -cloth trousers, a warm fur cap with ear-covers, thick mittens, and a -shawl round my neck. - -I was straining my sight into the whirling gray thickness over the bow, -the ship then being under two close-reefed topsails and stern main -trysail, and surging over the high swell and through the broken rugged -seas at about five knots; when a man who was descending the starboard -fore-shrouds with a coil of rigging round his neck missed a ratline -with his foot and slapped at another with his hand: it parted at the -seizing and he fell overboard backwards. - -In the swift glance I had shot, my sight being already bent that way, I -saw the ratline he had clapped hold of stand out from the shroud like a -bar of steel. - -I roared 'Man overboard!' and shouted to the fellow at the wheel to -put the helm hard down. In the same breath I caught a lifebuoy off its -pin and flung it at the body of the man who was then floating on the -top of a swelling fold within a pistol-shot astern, fast sliding off. -This buoy, like others in the ship--a device of the captain's--when -it struck the water freed a red staff with a length of red bunting -attached: the staff stood up on the buoy and the streamer like a tongue -of fire blowing out made a beacon for a swimmer as well as for a boat -in daylight. - -Meanwhile the second mate was yelling for all hands and bawling 'Man -overboard!' and shouting for seamen to lay aft and heave the vessel -to. The captain came running up on deck. I called the tragic news to -him, pointing aft, and then sprang for a jolly-boat as we termed the -thing, which hung in davits upon the starboard quarter. A number of -men came crowding around; the boat was swiftly cleared away, and I and -three sailors jumped into her. - -'Keep all fast till way is lost,' shouted the captain. 'Stand by to -unhook handsomely or she'll drown ye.' - -In a few minutes, which seemed as long as months, the boat sank to -the water's edge and was waterborne: a sea lifted her half-way to her -davits again; in that upward rush we unhooked, got oars over, and away -we went for the red streamer which I could see faintly glimmering -through a mist of spume. - -She was a fat lubberly boat, better for this work than our longer -whale-ended quarter-boats. She jumped like something alive and -distracted, sometimes sped end on, made with headlong plunges into the -valleys, sweeping up the acclivity with her nose to the sky, doing -her work dryly but so wildly that the men could scarcely plunge their -blades for a drag upon her. A couple of spare oars were lashed along -her bottom under the thwarts. I had nearly cut them adrift, meaning -to help the others, fisherman-fashion, with one, and I never cease to -thank my God I did nothing of the sort. - -I steered for the man, but he was not to be seen. I had never from the -moment of marking him fall doubted that he had plumbed the bottom like -a lead, weighted as he was with heavy sea boots, painted clothes, and a -coil of rigging round his neck; but it was not to be admitted: the man -was overboard, the ship was to be hove-to, and the poor fellow searched -for and saved if so willed. - -All in a breath, when we were within fifty strokes of the streaming red -flag, the boat was capsized on an apex of pyramidal sea, that poled -her sheerly bottom up at the instant that a blinding snow-squall came -seething along, whitening the water into hissing salt, and thickening -down the sea within a biscuit-toss. This I had been observing at the -very instant the boat was flung keel up, and I recollect that I carried -the memory of that scene of snow-squall under water, scarce realising -but that I was in a dream, happening as it did too swiftly to give the -mind time to catch a hold on reality. - -When I came to the surface I was bubbling and spitting in a smother of -froth hard against the side of the boat. There were two others. I got -my senses quickly and sputtering the brine out of my mouth roared, 'We -must right her. We can't hold on. We shall freeze off her dead men in -five minutes. Together now.' - -The three of us got a hold of the keel, and a sea helping us, we -righted her, swaying down upon the little fabric with the strength of -the madness that fights for life; but in righting she struck one of the -men under, and he went down like a shot whilst I and the other got into -the boat. - -A large copper baler attached to a lanyard lay at the bottom. I plunged -my hand down, groped for, and found it, and fell with fury to casting -out the water, the other baling with his sou'-wester with all his -might. The sea repeatedly broke over us, but we toiled with superhuman -effort for our lives. I believe the filled boat would have sunk under -our united weight but for a couple of empty breakers secured in the -bows and aft. We laboured with rage, flashing the water out of the -boat, and presently she was showing some little height of side. Then -to slenderly provide against a second surprise of capsizal which would -signify certain death to us, I lashed the two spare oars that were -under the thwarts to the painter and chucked them overboard; this -brought the boat head to sea, and we went on baling. - -The spite of the squall had gone out of the wind, but it was snowing -heavily, and strain my sight as I would I could see nothing of the -ship. In a flaw in the thick feathery fall I caught sight of the red -tongue of bunting; the buoy then was about a cable's length distant; it -was closed out quickly and all became a tumbling, gyrating blackness; -yet I had drawn some faint comfort from the sight of it. I guessed -the ship could not be far off and that she must spy us the instant it -cleared, which might happen at any minute. Meanwhile we baled for our -lives. - -My companion was an able seaman named Tom Friend. After he had been -throwing out the water for some while, when the boat was perhaps still -about a quarter full, I meanwhile baling with the same sort of fury -that possesses a drowning man when he clutches and catches and beats -in the air for life, he said to me: - -'Mr. Selby, if we aren't rescued soon I'm a dead man.' - -'No, no, keep up your spirits,' I shouted. 'They'll have us. Bale, man. -We must keep afloat to be picked up.' - -He went to work afresh with his sou'-wester, stooping and flinging; the -wind smote the brine into smoke as we hove it over the side. We did not -cease till but a little water was left in the bottom of the boat, and -we sat and gasped and stared about us. - -I know not how long this business had occupied. It seemed to me that -the shadow of the night was already in the air. It may have been no -more than the darkness of the thick black cloud out of which the snow -was tumbling in immense flakes. All the time I was expecting to see the -dye of the ship's fabric oozing out of the whiteness, plunging out of -the smother into her clear shape within easy earshot of us; but that -did not happen. - -After we had been in this situation about two hours Friend put his two -hands together, and began to waggle his body as he sat on the midship -thwart fronting me; his face was blue. He made shocking grimaces of -anguish and fell a-moaning most piteously, crying: 'Oh, the cold! Oh, -the cold! Oh, Jesus, support me! I can't stand it!' - -Though my own sufferings were inexpressible, I was still sensible of -a good stock of vitality; but I cannot tell why I should have better -resisted the cold than Friend, who was a lump of a man, broad-backed as -a table, though a little stout. I was soaked to the skin, and coat and -breeches were already frozen hard upon me; they cracked when I stirred -as glass might. The thwarts were glazed and ice half an inch thick -sheathed the timber. - -Friend let his sodden and frozen sou'-wester lie; and he looked wild -and dreadful with icicles pendent from his hair. In a sudden sharp leap -of the boat to the summit of an ugly sea, that broke and curled white -as milk on a line with our gunwales, he pitched towards me, slipped -over the thwart he struck, and lay motionless at my feet. He groaned -twice but spoke not. - -What could I do? Chafe his hands? As well the thwart he had been flung -over. I had not a drop of spirit for his throat, and myself felt dying. -I could not but let him lie, and I believe he gave up the ghost very -shortly after he had uttered his second groan. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -THE HULL - - -After Friend had lain at my feet for about an hour I stripped the -oilskins off the body and put them on; they diminished the sense of -deadly cold. I dragged the body into the bows, and after baling hard -sat down, sure that my death was at hand, but seeking consolation in -the thought that suffering ceases some while before you die of cold, -and that death from this cause is as easy as drowning after the first -agony. - -It never ceased to snow until the night fell, and then when it was -black the weather cleared--that is, I could see the flash of froth at a -distance; but stare as I might I beheld nothing of the ship, no smudge -nor deeper dye upon the darkness anywhere to indicate her presence. -I stood up and looked and looked, waiting for the toss of the sea to -strain my gaze; then, with an awful despair in my heart, and the full -rushing weight of my doom upon my spirits, I threw myself down into the -stern sheets to die. - -That I should have lived through that night is the miracle of my life. -There is no lack of suffering in the maritime records, but I vow that -mine in those hours of darkness which I passed in that open boat is -not to be topped, though it may be matched. Perhaps it was that all my -organs were sound, whilst Friend perished from the shock of immersion, -and from failure of some vital power--doubtless the heart. - -Be this as it may, I lived through that night and through the icy -darkness of the morning, till daylight came crawling in a sallow -green over the sky, low, broken and flying. It might be that Friend's -oilskins preserved my life by excluding the needle-like tide of -frost-black wind from my flesh. When it was fairly daylight I stood -up. My sight was clear; but I felt as though formed of stone. I could -poise my figure to the wild leaping of the boat, but I could not lift -my arms: each shoulder felt brittle as glass; it seemed to me that if -either limb should be grasped and pulled, it must break short off. - -The body of Friend lay ghastly in the bows. It was on its side, the -cheek on the floor of the boat, and every time the little craft dived, -the water in her boiled about the figure, which bristled with ice, and -the head seemed nailed to the bottom boards by long spikes of crystal. -I could not bear it, and made a step to cast it overboard, but, finding -my arms helpless, stood still and looked round for the ship. - -No wilder, drearier dawn ever broke over that cold, stormy, and -desolate ocean. I guessed the wind about north; a strong wind, with -a shriek as shrill as salt as it fled spray-charged past the ear, -flaying as though it were a naked edge of sharp steel. A large squall -was darkening the sea to leeward of the boat; when I was thrown up I -saw the dim whiteness of ice in several places. I gazed slowly around -in a broken way, for in every other breath there stood a wall of water -betwixt me and the horizon. - -All on a sudden when my eyes went astern I saw, not above a mile -distant, a dark object: it reared and sank, came and went; sometimes -froth leapt in a light of snow about it. I stared, scarcely daring -to hope as yet that it was more than an illusion of the vision, a -reappearing shape of green surge, a hard reforming moulding of brine, -looking like--looking like---- - -And then with a short choking cry of transport I recognised it. It was -the dismasted hull: that wreck of the 'Lady Emma' we had been in search -of. - -I watched her to make sure, dreading some cheat of delirious -imagination--but it was the wreck; I marked her rise with the sea, a -firm, defined, black shape against the root of the thick large squall -that was blowing to leeward of her. A dim sheen of the gloomy day was -in her wet side or sheathing as she soared, heeling not above a mile -off and dead to leeward. - -The sight gave life to my dead limbs, as it put spirit into my dying -heart. I got the use of my arms and hands with a sudden frenzy of -resolution, like to the effect of the panic terror that will compel a -bedridden man to rise, though till thus started he has lain helpless as -the mattress he springs from. I went into the bows, and getting hold -of the body of Friend turned it over the gunwale. The corpse as I have -said was that of a stout burly man, yet I found it light as a baby. -How was that? Unless it was that the strength of half a dozen had come -into me with the passion of life and hope the sight of the wreck had -inspired. - -I pulled in the pair of oars the boat had been riding to and took my -chance of the broadside send of sea; the fierce sweep and sharp angle -nearly flung me overboard, and thrice whilst I was clearing the oars -which were heavy and difficult with ice, the boat was almost capsized. -In a few minutes I got an oar over the stern and sculled the boat's -head round for the wreck. She shot forward, and I sat square that -my back might break any smaller sea which should foam tall and curl -faster than the boat could rise. For the rest--for the peril of a great -sea, for the swamping by seething waters uniting on either side the -gunwale--I was in God's hands. - -The wind and the sea swept me so swiftly onwards that the hull was -close ahead all on a sudden, a large black mass, rolling heavily with -violently quick recoveries; she lifted her channels foaming, and again -and again a sea shot up her side in a height of white brine, which -blew into the water on the other side of her in a cloud like steam. -There was nothing for it but to drive for her stem on and take my -chance. I tore off the oilskins for the freer use of my limbs, and -when I was close to the wreck, having headed the boat fair for the -main-chains, I sprang forward and seized the end of the painter; the -boat's nose smote the hull as she was roaring from me. I got a turn -with the painter round a chain plate; the boat swung in, but so swift -were the motions of the hull that she was rolling down upon me even in -that time, and, letting go the painter, I jumped in a single bound into -the chains and was stumbling over the rail, spiked with ice, as the -hulk swept her streaming side out again from the sea, with such a slant -of deck that if I had not flung myself into a squatting posture and -made the athwartship run of the hard frozen surface on my hams, I must -have broken my neck or fled sheer overboard through the openings where -the bulwarks had been smashed level. - -I was crazy with hunger and thirst and cold, and could think of nothing -but shelter and food and drink. I took a hurried look along the deck -hoping to see smoke from the galley or cabin chimney, for I reckoned -of course upon finding the three people the 'Planter' had searched -for alive in this hull. I saw no signs of life. I cautiously crawled -aft, and coming to the companion-way tried to open it; the doors -were thickly glazed, whence I judged they had been kept closed for -some time. I pulled out my clasp knife--all that I carried was in my -pocket as it had been before the boat capsized--and after scraping -and dislodging the ice in sheets like plate glass, I got one of the -companion-doors open and descended, pulling the door to behind me. - -After the long hours of exposure and the ceaseless crackling noises of -warring waters, the shelter, the comparative warmth and stillness down -here, were like the gift of a new life. It was dark, yet not so gloomy -but that I could see. The daylight lay upon the snow on the skylight, -and that large square of whiteness sifted a sort of dim illumination of -its own into the dusk. - -My first look was for those whom the boatswain Wall had told us the -crew left behind them when they abandoned the hull. Nobody was here. An -unlighted lamp swung violently over the table. I beheld a dull gleam -of looking-glasses upon the ship's side, and thought in the glance I -cast round that I could make out the equipment of a small, comfortable -state cabin. I quickly spied a rack half circling the trunk of the -mizzenmast; in it were some decanters; three were half full of red -and yellow wine. I put the mouth of one to my lips and drank heartily -of its contents, but whether it was claret or sherry I could not say; -excessive thirst seemed to have robbed my palate of the power of -tasting. I then went straight to the first cabin my eye rested upon, -intending to go the rounds for the pantry; but this cabin proved to -be the pantry, where, after a short hunt, I found cheese, biscuit, -preserved meat, and jams. I fell to wolfishly, breaking off only to -fetch another decanter of the wine from the cabin. - -And now having eaten with a dangerous heartiness, and drank as much as -would have brimmed two tumblers, I stepped into the cabin, refreshed -and warm, a new man, almost my old self again, needing little more -to perfectly comfort me than a shift of clothes, which might be -obtained by seeking. But first I stood still, holding by the table to -listen. I heard nothing but the sounds of the labouring of the hull. -Had the captain and the two women been taken off the wreck? I should -have believed so but for having found the companion-doors closed and -glazed; ice could not have collected to the thickness I had found it -had people been coming and going by the companion-way. And yet it is -true they might have been taken off, and before going some one of the -rescuing party had closed the companion-door with a kick or a thrust as -he stepped on deck. - -I saw no fire in the stove; the lamp was out; it did not seem as if -there were human life in the hull. I went to a door on the starboard -side, the next to or second door past the pantry, and entered a berth. -I could scarcely see. The porthole was submerged every other moment -and the sight blinded with a sudden plunge of foam-thick twilight. -After gazing awhile I made out that this berth had been occupied by the -captain and his wife. I observed a quantity of male and female apparel -hanging from a row of pegs running along the bulk-head; also I made out -two bunks, a table with certain navigating appliances upon it, a couple -of chronometer cases on a shelf, and sundry other matters not worth -cataloguing. I lifted a locker, and after groping came across some -flannel garments and under-linen. If the captain were aboard I guessed -that in any case he would give me leave to help myself, so, after -feeling over the clothes upon the bulk-head, I shifted to the frozen -flesh of me. - -Scarcely was I warmly and dryly clothed, when so heavy a drowsiness -came upon my eyelids that I could instantly have sunk upon the deck -in a sound sleep. But first I was resolved to ascertain the condition -of the hull; likewise whilst it was daylight to see if there were any -signs of the 'Planter,' and if the weather gave me any promise of her. -The idea of falling into a trance-like sleep which might run into -hours, from which, for all I could tell as things stood, I should be -awakened by finding myself strangling in a cabin full of water, and the -hull already fathoms under, put such a fear and horror into my spirits -as enabled me to thrust back into my brain the heavy, stupefying weight -of slumber, that was making my eyes ache as though the balls of vision -had been wrung and unseated. I shook my body as a dog does when fresh -from the water, and beat my arms upon my breast with all my strength; -then, with a wild yawn, strode into the stateroom and went up the steps. - -The first thing I saw was the boat I had gained the wreck in: she was -flinging and leaping upon the seas about a hundred fathoms off on the -port quarter; being light and released she had blown away quickly. -Every time a surge forked her on high the pouring blast smote and -swirled her further yet to leeward. This would go on till she filled. -I hardly took thought of her, abhorring her as I did as the theatre -of that drama of anguish and hopelessness I had been forced to act in -during the long black hours of the past night: and yet I very well -understood that she had been bound to go adrift, as I had taken but a -slippery turn with the painter round the chain plate at the instant -when the hull brought her main chains crushing down upon me for that -spring by which I had saved my life. - -I crossed to the port bulwarks to hold on by: t'other side was full of -ugly yawns and rents, a dangerous, ragged wreckage of bulwark through -which down the ice-hard slant a man would shoot, with a sudden roll, -to his death. The galley was standing: all the boats were gone: the -wheel and binnacle remained, and the apparatus of the helm looked -sound. The decks were littered with frozen gear. Nothing showed of the -main and mizzen masts but a barbed block, scarce a foot high above the -mast-coats. But the stump of the foremast rose to perhaps twelve feet. -The pumps were frozen: the sounding rod lay close to, but I could do -nothing with it. Yet, as an old hand, I could feel the life of a ship -in my feet, and I was sure, by the hull's buoyant jumps, her cork-like -recovery from the headlong dives, and the loneliness of her rolls that -there was nothing in the water she had drained in so far to make me -uneasy. - -Cheered by this conviction, I pushed forwards, clawing along by the -pins in the rail, by whatever else came to my hand, till I was abreast -of the galley, whose port sliding-door lay half open, and going to it -and looking in, there on the deck I saw lying on her back the body of -a woman. I peered close, the light being weak. The body was warmly but -plainly clothed; the colour of the face fresh as though she slept. -I should not have guessed her dead by her looks: it was her lying -there that made me know it. She seemed a woman of between forty and -forty-five, flat of face, treble-chinned, and she showed as a person -that had been fat and heavy in life. - -The sight startled me: I had not thought to find anything dead. Had she -been the wife of the captain? Where was _he_? And where the young lady -that had sailed as passenger with them? Were they both lying frozen in -other parts of the vessel? But there yet remained two or three cabins -below to look into. - -I came out of the galley shocked and low-spirited, and, still pushing -forward, came to the forecastle and called down the hatch. I got no -answer and descended. Here I found a number of hammocks, a few sea -chests, and some odds and ends of seamen's apparel scattered about the -deck. The forecastle lamp swung black under its grimy beam. I could -scarcely see. Water--though no depth of it--seethed over the planks as -the vessel pitched and rolled: this water I reckoned had tumbled down -the forecastle hatch, and when I returned on deck I drew the slide of -the scuttle over. - -I went to the stump of foremast that was ringed with some pins, and -holding on by one of them, looked round and round the sea, waiting for -every lofty heave to dart my glances; but there was nothing in sight -save ice, the peaks of bergs afar, coming and going past the rounds -of the swell, and the rush of the surge flickering into foam. It was -blowing half as strong again as it had been an hour before, and the -seas were racing with a weight and spite of headlong yeast which must -have drowned me out of hand in the jolly-boat. A low sky of thick black -cloud coiling, revolving, like sooty pourings from countless factory -chimneys, was sweeping southwards. I crawled aft for the shelter of -the cabin--the wind was marrow-freezing; and scarce was I within the -comparative warmth and stillness of the interior, when slumber again -oppressed me; and nature now giving out I stretched myself upon a -cushioned locker and was asleep in a minute. - -When I awoke I started instantly into an upright posture, beholding a -figure gazing at me; in some muddled fashion I seemed to realise my -situation, whilst I imagined that the cabin was half full of people -who had come to save me. Then, getting my wits fully, I made out that -the person who stood close was a young woman. Her figure was inclined -towards me, and so she stood despite the swaying of her with the -motions of the deck: it was a posture of fear, incredulity, amazement, -incommunicable in words. - -It was too dim in that cabin to note more of her than that incomparable -attitude of fright and astonishment. - -It had been past noon when I lay down to sleep: the strong feeling -of refreshment within me was assurance, true as the sun's evidence -could have been, that I had slept through more than the two remaining -hours of daylight. It was daylight now, consequently I understood that -whatever might be the hour, I had been sleeping since noon on the -previous day. - -I stared at the girl, for a young girl I now perceived her to be, and -exclaimed: - -'Are you Miss Otway?' - -'Oh!' she shrieked, 'have you come to save me?' and she dropped on her -knees and grasped my hand. 'Save me!' she cried, 'I am alone here. I -have been alone for days. I am in darkness. When did you come? Where -are your companions? Why were you sleeping here? And take me on deck. -Is your ship near? If the boat that brought you can live in this sea -she can carry me on board your vessel.' - -I cannot express the agony of heart in her voice. Her terror at seeing -me had been changed into another passion by my naming her. - -'Where's the captain?' said I, obliging her to rise, and seating her on -the locker beside me. - -'He is drowned,' she answered. - -'When?' - -'A long time ago. Seven or eight days ago. I have lost the day. I do -not know how long I have been alone. Why don't we go on deck? Is the -sea too rough for your boat to leave this wreck?' - -'Why, poor young lady,' said I, trying to catch a fair view of her -face; but it was too dim for that, and then again she was thickly -furred about the neck, and her hat, that seemed of velvet without a -brim, sat low. 'I would take you away from this rolling hulk at once -if I could. Under God I may yet save you. I am as much shipwrecked as -you are. But we needn't despair. This hull dances tightly; she has been -washing about now for some days, and I should doubt by the feel of her -jumps if there's two foot of water in her hold. Who's that dead woman -in the galley?' - -'The captain's wife,' she answered, staring at me. - -'How came she to perish there?' - -'She went with her husband to help him affix a lantern to the bowsprit. -He slipped overboard with the light and was drowned. I waited for them -here and went to find them, and saw Mrs. Burke lying on the deck. She -had fallen and broken her leg. I was too weak to carry or drag her into -this cabin and I pulled her into the galley for the shelter of it, and -there she lay, and I could not help her,' she cried, clasping her hands -with strange, piteous, involuntary motions of her head. 'I don't know -whether she died of grief, or from the injury of her fall, or whether -the cold killed her. It was black in the galley, and I could not see -her. I often called her name, but she never answered me. Oh, what an -awful time was that night! I stayed by her until long after I knew she -was dead, and then came down here, and have remained in this place ever -since--no, three times I have been on deck to look for a ship: it was -always snowing--it has been enough to drive me mad,' said she, passing -her hand with a wild gesture across her eyes. - -'Mad indeed!' said I to myself, all thought of my own situation -vanishing in the presence of the anguish of this poor gentle young -woman: she had a sweet soft voice: I supposed she had been alone in -this labouring hulk for hard upon a week. It was wonderful she should -have kept her mind. Indeed it put a sort of craziness even into _my_ -seasoned head when I paused in contemplation of her, and realised -how it might have been with _me_ had I been alone in this straining, -creaking, wallowing fabric with no one aboard beside myself but a dead -woman, an atmosphere of stinging cold, nigh twenty hours of blackness -every day. - -'But you've not been starving all this while?' said I. - -'When there was daylight,' she answered, 'I'd get some food and wine -from yonder;' she pointed to the pantry. 'I took a little stock to my -cabin. Where is your ship? Have you no companions? Take me on deck to -see your boat and the vessel,' and she extended her hand. - -I saw she had not understood me, and I told her how it had come to -pass that I was on board the hulk with her. She listened in silence, -saying nothing when I spoke of the men who had been lifted aboard -the 'Planter' out of the 'Lady Emma's' long-boat, frozen to death, -and nothing whilst I described what I myself had undergone in the -jolly-boat. She seemed slow to understand; but at last, when I was -done, after continuing to stare at me, for our faces were a sort of -glimmer one to the other in that gloom, she gave a shriek, and crying -'There is no hope for me, then! there is no hope for me, then!' buried -her face and shook and swayed in a passion of weeping. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -STILL ADRIFT - - -I could do nothing but let her cry; yet, knowing there is no better -medicine for such misery and fear as hers than action and the sight of -it, I got up and went to the pantry for materials to trim and light the -lamp. I found oil and bundles of wick, but no matches. I returned and -asked the poor weeping young lady to tell me if she knew where I might -find a box of matches; she went to a cabin which I supposed was hers, -one on the port side, almost aft. I was struck by her walk: not once -did she stumble or pause, wild as the play of the plank was. In a few -minutes she rejoined me with a box of wax lights, and, unhooking the -lamp, I filled and trimmed it and hung it up, and it swung burning -brightly. - -Now I could see Miss Otway, and as much of her face as showed was -remarkable for delicacy and refinement. She was very pale, her eyes -light, whether blue or grey I could not then tell; her hair was of a -soft, rather dark amber. She had perfectly even small white teeth, -but her lips were pale and marked a want of red blood. She was of -medium height, but of a shape not to be guessed at, heaped as her form -was with clothes. What she wore was very rich and fine, and a little -diamond sparkled in each ear. She seemed fragile, in delicate health, -just the sort of girl to whom the doctors, despairing of their physic, -would recommend the breezes of the world's oceans. - -Her eyes were red with weeping, and when I glanced at her after hanging -up the lamp I found her staring at me with looks of anxiety and -expectation piteous with passion. - -'This,' said I, casting up my gaze at the lamp, 'makes the cabin -cheerful. I hope there is plenty of oil aboard to keep us in light till -we are taken off.' - -'When will that be?' she cried. - -'Why, perhaps to-day and perhaps tomorrow,' said I. 'My ship can't be -far off; her captain is one of the humanest hearts afloat. He thinks -three of you are aboard here, and he'll cruise for you. If he don't -find us the reason will lie in the weather, not in his not hunting.' -Then, looking towards the stove, I exclaimed, 'You'll have been ice -cold down in this well. Let's build a fire, there's plenty of coal in -the hull: the boatswain Wall said so.' - -'Who were the dead?' she exclaimed. - -'Two seamen and the steward. A fourth--the doctor--lies fearfully -frostbitten. He stands to lose his feet and hands.' - -'They wanted to take me with them,' she cried. 'Captain Burke would not -let me go; Mrs. Burke was against it: had I gone I might now be safe -in your ship.' - -'Don't imagine that,' said I, deeply pitying as I looked at her. '_You_ -capable of enduring two nights of exposure in the seas in that open -boat! They proved sound friends who kept you here. _Here_ you're alive -and you shall be saved--you shall be saved!' I exclaimed heartily. - -A faint smile put a look of spirit into her pale face. I went to the -stove, and beside it, secured so they should not fetch away, were three -or four buckets of coal, but no wood. I was in no temper to rummage -the ship for a faggot, and, having noticed a chopper in the pantry, -I fetched a bunk-board from the captain's cabin and split it, and -presently had a roaring fire. - -'Did the crew cook their victuals here before leaving?' said I, -noticing a kettle, a frying-pan, and other galley furniture lying near -the stove. - -She answered that some cooking had been done for the crew in this cabin. - -'Pray sit you here,' said I, catching her gently by the wrist and -bringing her close to the stove, and seating her on a small cleated -sofa beside it. 'I believe a pannikin of hot drink--tea, coffee, or -cocoa--and something to eat, will do us both good. Keep you here and -thaw through and through whilst I get a kettleful of water.' - -She was watching me with some life: the cuddy fire threw a warm, -cheerful colour upon her face, and the flames shone in her eyes, -filling them as with a dance of courage. When I spoke of fetching some -fresh water, she cried out eagerly, extending her arms: - -'Oh! mind you do not slide overboard. The decks are deadly. I can't be -left alone again.' - -I smiled and bade her not fear for me, and picking up the kettle and -dropping the chopper into my coat pocket--it was an immensely thick -pilot-cloth coat I had found in the captain's cabin and put on--I went -on deck. - -This was a lead-coloured day with a confusion of ragged black cloud -thronging southward where the vapour was crowded and darkening into a -look of thunder. I saw no signs of the 'Planter,' nothing but the ice -afar. Secretly I had no hope that Captain Parry would persevere in his -quest. I made no doubt he would suppose all hands in the jolly-boat had -been drowned, which, God knows, was very near the truth; and this would -dispirit him, his forecastle working strength would be weakened also, -for, saving Wall, the 'Lady Emma's' men were of no use, and I reckoned -he would be glad to stick his ship north, clear of the perils of the -ice and the blinding snow-storms. - -But whether it was because I was a young fellow of a heart naturally -lively, or whether because I had escaped a dreadful death, so that -the being on board this hull was almost as a rescue, 'tis true I felt -no depression, no despondency in any marked degree when I looked round -on stepping on deck and saw the leaden, rolling, frosting ocean bare, -and viewed the tumbling, dismasted, mutilated hull, white fore and aft, -bright with a hundred figures in ice, a most forlorn and dismal object -as she bowed her naked bowsprit into the sallow trough, wearily leaning -off the slant, with cataracts of foam hissing from the channels and -scaling her sloping side. I could not but reflect that, though we were -far south, whalers in plenty were to be met with in these seas, and -that the hulk was stout and buoyant, and bade fair to last us our time -in her, which might not extend beyond the morrow. - -So, with a good heart and a vow besides to do my manhood's best to -cheer up my poor companion, to make her as comfortable as the means of -the hulk and my sailor's judgment would allow, and to help preserve her -life in God's own time, I looked along the deck, and then seeing how -it must be, went to a scuttlebutt lashed forwards of the port gangway, -and finding it half full, went to work on it with the chopper, knocked -the hoops off, and the staves tumbled to the deck, letting slip a mass -of fresh-water ice, shaped cask-wise. I struck off as much as would -fill a kettle, leaving the rest to lie, and returned to the cabin. - -'Now,' said I, knowing the tonic worth of work in a time like this, -'melt this for us, if you please. When the kettle boils we'll go to -breakfast.' - -'Is your ship in sight?' said she, getting up and taking the kettle and -ice. - -'No,' I answered, 'but something will be coming along soon. This is a -great whaling ocean, you know.' - -'What is your name?' she asked. - -'Ralph Selby,' I replied. - -'How did you know my name?' - -'Wall, the boatswain, was full of you and Captain Burke and his wife -when he was brought aboard out of the long-boat.' - -'Yes, yes, I understand,' said she. 'I should have guessed it.' - -'There are things to be done whilst you get the kettle to boil,' said -I. 'You move about very easily, I see.' - -'I am used to this dreadful monotonous rolling,' she answered. - -'Can you lay your hands upon what we may want in the pantry?' - -'Oh, yes. I know what's there. Shall I boil some coffee?' - -'If you please,' said I, smiling to find her talking with a show -of life. 'I am going to the captain's cabin to look to one or two -matters,' and with that I left her. - -I entered the berth I had shifted myself in, and which I knew had -been the captain's by its appointments, and first I looked at the -chronometers, and, finding them still going, carefully wound them -afresh, guessing by the revolutions of the key that they would have -stopped shortly. I then sought for and found the ship's papers, and -overhauled them to gather the character of the supplies aboard. The -cargo consisted of stout, brandy, and whiskey; samples of preserved -potatoes and articles of potted food, a quantity of theatrical scenery, -builders' stuff, such as doors and window frames; patent fuel, oil -cake, india rubber, and certain other commodities. I observed that -amongst the samples was a quantity of preserved milk: there was also a -consignment of one hundred iron cases, each containing two hundred and -fourteen biscuits, weighing one pound each, and specified as six inches -square by one and a half inches thick. - -In short the paper indicated half a shipload of food and liquor. But I -made nothing of this then. Such a plenty was not likely to seem of any -use to two people who looked to be taken off the wreck in a few days at -the outside, and for whom therefore a single cask of beef, a single -barrel of ship's bread, along with the little stock of delicacies I had -observed in the pantry, would be more than enough. - -I lingered to overhaul the nautical appliances, intending, should a -phantom of sun show, to get an observation. It was very gloomy here. -I found a small brass clock ticking stoutly, and this I wound up, the -plain silver watch in my pocket having stopped when the jolly-boat -capsized: the time by the little clock was a quarter after eleven. I -went out and set a clock under the skylight to this hour. I guessed -it would comfort the girl's eye to see the time. Nothing in such a -situation as ours could make one feel more outcast, more hopelessly -removed from human reach and sympathy, than a lifeless clock silently -telling the same hour always. It would be as though time itself had -abandoned one. - -The ice was melted and the kettle boiling, and Miss Otway was making a -potful of coffee. She had lifted the fiddles and spread a cloth, and -put some preserved meat, cheese, jam, biscuit, and the like upon the -table. The lamp and the flames in the grate made a light like noon, -and, now looking round, I beheld a very rosy interior, a quantity of -books, mirrors for decoration, comfortable armchairs and couches, and -sundry fal-lals; all designed, no doubt, to render the voyage of Miss -Otway cheerful and pleasant. - -Turning, she cried out: 'Oh, Mr. Selby, you cannot imagine what it is -to see someone--to have someone to speak to. Only God could say how -lonely I have felt. The dreadfully long nights; the endless hours of -darkness----' Her voice broke and her head drooped. - -'No need to tell me what you have undergone,' said I. 'Never in all -sea story did any girl suffer upon the ocean as you have. But you've a -brave look. You'll keep up your tears now. I'm a sailor and I give you -my word we are very well off. We need but patience, and faith in that -God who has watched over us both.' - -On this she raised her head and viewed me a little while steadily, as -one who stares critically to make sure of another. - -I took the pot of coffee from her and we seated ourselves. She -had suffered so long from what I may truly call a very anguish of -loneliness--and, indeed, one had need to be locked up in that same -rolling hull, in the blackness and the cold, with the seas roaring -outside, and within always the same soul-maddening noise of creaking -bulkheads and harshly strained fastenings, to realise what this poor, -gentle, delicate lady had endured--that I was sure she'd find a -wonderful ease in talking freely. I therefore questioned her whilst we -sat eating, and she told me who she was, where she lived, how the wife -of the master of the vessel had been her old nurse, with other matters -which she herself relates. - -She warmed up in talking. I think she found a sort of hope in merely -speaking of her father and her home and the gentleman, Mr. Archibald -Moore, to whom, but for her health, so she told me, she would have been -married some months before the date of her sailing. I so questioned -her that the early despair in her manner died out when she talked of -her father and sweetheart. I took care to converse as though they were -within reach, and the meeting a matter of a little waiting only. In -short, my resolution to cheer her mastered her fears and perhaps her -convictions; and even whilst we sat I beheld a new life stealing into -her, speaking in her raised, hopeful, more eager voice, and softening -the haggard, wild look in her eyes. - -Presently she put some question which I had to fence with. - -'My dread,' she said, 'all the while I was alone here, was ice; the -ship lies helpless; I never knew but that an iceberg was close to, -and that every next hurl of the sea would dash the wreck against some -frozen cliff. Is there any ice in sight?' - -'Yes,' I answered, 'but a good way off.' - -'Suppose we drift towards an iceberg, what shall we do?' - -'No good in _supposing_ at sea,' I said. 'Time enough to deal with a -difficulty when it's within hail.' - -'Does the hull remain in one place? Or are we being driven by the seas -and the wind?' - -'If the sun will put his nose out,' said I, with a glance at the -thickly snow-coated skylight, 'I'll find out where we are.' - -'Do you understand navigation?' - -I replied with a grave nod. - -'If we are moving at all, which way are we driving, do you think?' - -'The sextant will tell us,' said I. - -Thus she plied me, straining her poor eyes with consuming anxiety. I -answered warily but always on the side of hope. - -When I was going on deck she wanted to accompany me, but I bade her -stop where she was till I had stretched some lifelines along. When I -looked out I saw there was no chance of obtaining an observation. The -sky was near, and thick with rolling clouds: the windy dusk had shrunk -the sea-girdle, and the distant ice was out of sight: the leaden surge -broke in against the snow-soft gloom. No more desolate ocean-picture -had I ever viewed; its spirit sank into me in a depression that brought -me to an idle halt for some minutes whilst I wrestled with myself. I -started, and my very soul shrank within me when I asked myself: If we -are not fallen in with what is to become of us? Where are we drifting? -Then I plucked up with the reflection that we were in navigated seas; -any moment might give me the sight of a sail; and my immediate -business therefore was to render our distress a visible thing upon the -face of the rolling waters. - -I shut the companion doors that the girl might be warm below, and, that -I might move with security, went to work to stretch lines along the -deck. A great plenty of gear lay frozen all about; I got hold of an end -and worked a length into some sort of suppleness, and with much hard -labour succeeded in setting up life-lines in short scoops, so as to -bring them taut, for the winch and capstan were frozen motionless, and -I could do nothing with them. - -This business carried me abreast of the galley, where I saw with a -sudden recoil once again the body of the captain's wife. She seemed -asleep, so fresh, living and breathing she looked, with even a sort -of colour in her face, and the expression of her mouth easy and -placid. But since she was dead it was fit she should be buried, and -as her presence added to the ghastliness of this picture of wreck, -and weighed like an assurance of doom upon the spirits, I resolved to -turn her over the side without ado; so, with averted face--for I could -not bear to look upon her, she lay so life-like: it was like drowning -rather than burying her--I took the body under the arms, and with all -reverence gently dragged it to a great gap of smashed bulwark, when, -just whispering, 'May God receive you, poor woman, and may He have -mercy upon those who are left,' I slided her overboard, and instantly -quitted the side, not choosing to get a memory of her as she lay -floating ere the drenched clothes sucked her under. - -Constantly I cast my eyes into the north for a sight of the sun; but -he never showed himself. There stood about twelve foot of splintered -foremast. I meant to fly a flag by day and hoist a lighted lantern by -night; but how to shin up so as to secure a block at the head? - -I mused a bit, and then went in search of the carpenter's chest, which -I found in the forecastle. It was a huge chest, cleated and lashed down -against the bulk-head that divided the men's sea-parlour from the hold, -and it lay in such gloom that I could make nothing of it, so I returned -to the cabin for a lantern. I found a couple of bull's-eye lamps in the -pantry. Whilst I filled and trimmed one of them, Miss Otway came from -the stove to the door and stood looking in. - -'Can't I help you?' said she. - -'No,' said I. - -'What are you going to do?' - -'I am going to hoist a distress signal.' - -'Is there anything in sight?' she shrieked. - -I shook my head. - -'Why won't you let me help you?' said she. 'It's horrible to be left -alone down here. Make me of use. It will do me good to help you.' - -But I would not allow her to come on deck merely to look on and be -frozen to the marrow by the pouring wind; so, cheerily saying I'd find -her employment by-and-by, I carried the lighted bull's-eye on deck and -made my way to the forecastle, holding by the life-lines, so that I -moved as briskly as if the hull lay quiet. - -I quickly found what I immediately wanted, namely, a quantity of long -iron spikes. I took a handful of these and a hammer on deck and drove a -spike deep into the wood, a little above the other; and thus I made a -ladder of spikes, every projection of iron yielding me room for my foot -and for a grip of one hand. When I had driven in the spikes as high -as was needful, I came down, and after hunting over the gear upon the -deck found a small block through which I rove a line that looked like -a length of the fore-royal signal halliards. I climbed the mast again -with this block and line and, driving a spike into the head of the -stump, I secured the block to it and descended for good, this business -being finished. - -I had taken notice of a flag locker under a grating abaft the wheel; I -went to it and found a complete code of Marryatt's signals, a large and -small ensign, and a jack. There was too much bunting in the big ensign -for such weather as this, and for such winds as might burst upon us at -any moment: so I bent on the small ensign to my halliards and ran it, -jack downwards, to the head of the stump of foremast, where it flared -bravely, chattering like a thing of life. - -Yet I found it but a mocking signal after all, when I sent my glance -from it round the thick swollen and breaking seas, and noticed that -even already the dye of the early night seemed in the air, and that in -little more than an hour that streaming, flame-like appeal would, as a -call to the eye, be as useless as the stump it blew from. - -I was now extremely anxious to ascertain the depth of water in the -hold, and went to the pumps to see what was to be done with the ice -there. The sounding tube was perhaps solid with ice half-way to the -hold; I thought then I would try and draw one of the pumps, and having -the pantry chopper in my hand, let fly, bruising and splintering so as -to free the bucket. In the midst of my chopping Miss Otway called out. -I stopped and saw her head in the companion way. - -'Oh,' she cried, with a note in her voice that sounded almost like joy, -pointing with a gesture of rapture to the inverted ensign, 'that will -bring help to us! That will be seen for miles and miles. How clever! -How did you manage to climb that slippery mast?' And then, catching -sight of the spikes, she exclaimed, 'I see. I see. It's wonderfully -done.' - -'It's too cold for you on deck,' said I, scarcely keeping grave over -this girlish praise. 'Remain below in the warmth. No use taking a -voyage for your health only to lose your toes and fingers as your -doctor has.' - -But paying no heed to this, she stepped out of the companion way, and -putting her thickly-gloved hand upon one of the life-lines, came to -where I was letting fly at the pump and watched me. - -It was the best light I had yet viewed her in; and now indeed I -perceived that she was a very delicate, sweet-looking young lady, -about two-and-twenty years of age, pale, but of a transparency of -complexion that made a beauty of her pallor; nor were her eyes wanting -in expression, though they would be too light to faithfully reflect the -deeper and subtler passions and sensations of her spirit. - -I thought her the most refined-looking lady I had ever seen; which -perhaps is not saying much, seeing how many of my years had been passed -upon the ocean. I saw the quality and breeding of her in her face and -heard it in her voice, and I think anyone, no matter how inexperienced -in such things, but would, on looking at her, have said to himself, -this is an English lady. - -After chopping and hammering for some time, I freed the bucket and -drew the pump; and, the sounding-rod lying handily by, I dropped it, -and after several casts, so hard did I find it to get the level of the -water betwixt the swift abrupt rolls of the hull, I made a little more -than a foot and a half. I was astonished, but wonderfully heartened. -Here was a hull that had not been pumped out for eight or ten days: she -had been straining heavily in the hollow hour after hour: and yet there -was no more water in her than a single spell of a watch on deck at the -pumps might free her of! - -I refitted the pump and fell to work at the brake and brought up some -water. - -'Let me help you,' said Miss Otway. - -'It won't hurt you,' said I, and brought a coil of rope across the -deck for her to stand on, that her feet might be clear of the water as -it washed with the slant of the planks. We then went to work: the water -bubbled, the clank of the brake ran a noise of life through the hulk; -the exercise flushed the girl's face, and, in a pause for breath, I -told her it would do her more good than sitting by the fire. - -In that same pause whilst she breathed quickly she glanced with a -sudden look of pain and consternation in the direction of the galley, -and exclaimed: - -'The body of my poor old nurse lies there. I had forgotten her.' - -'I buried her,' said I. - -'Where?' - -I told her. She was shocked and her eyes filled, and she turned her -head to hide her face. - -'It was not a thing to keep,' said I. - -'Oh no,' she cried, looking round at me, eagerly and yet piteously. -'I don't mean that. You threw her into the sea as she lay--without a -prayer----' - -'No,' said I, shortly. - -She viewed me a little gratefully. I grasped the brake: she put her -hand upon it, and we fell to afresh. - -We worked in this fashion for above half an hour, and then Miss Otway, -glowing with the labour and in no wise distressed by it, saving that -her breathing was quick, went below. I fetched the telescope and -stayed to carefully search the horizon before it fell dark. But point -the tubes as I would they gave me nothing. The near sea-line tumbled -dimly in long ragged wings of dark vapour, which as they lifted with -the wind stretched overhead like lengths of smoke; and betwixt them -I spied a higher platform of cloud, mouse-coloured here and there as -though touched by some wild stormy light. I saw no ice, but the wind -blew as though ice were close aboard: the sting of it was insufferable -when you faced it standing. A noise of rattling sometimes came from -the forecastle as though the spray froze in leaping, and fell with the -weight of hail in the tropics, and already the pump we had been plying -was as thick and hard bound as the other. - -And still I lingered, not indeed with the hope of sighting a sail -before the blackness fell upon us, but with the idea of making some -sort of blind guess at the drift of the hull. The strong breeze blew -out of the north, and the tall coils of sea ran in wide flashings from -that quarter, but the large ocean swell was about north-west. I was -not very well acquainted with these waters and scarcely knew what to -recollect of the currents hereabouts. I was aware that the set of the -ice was to the northwards. But then the bergs struck deep root into -motions of the sea which had no influence atop; so that there might -be very well a surface-trend to the southward through wind and surge -and swell, when, some fathoms under, the body of the water was slowly -streaming in another direction. - -A dismal picture with the sadness of despair coming into me out of it, -when I looked at that square of bunting flaming in mute appeal from the -stump-head to the blind horizon! But we had life, and so there must be -hope, and rallying my spirits with a will, I strode the length of the -life-line to the halliards, hauled the flag down, and went to the cabin -to find and trim a lantern to hoist in its place. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -THE ICE IN THE SOUTH - - -I left a light burning brightly at the mast-head: the wild meteoric -dance of that gleam was a sort of hope: no ship sighting it but would -guess from the rapidity of its oscillations that it danced on an open -boat, or shone from some short height upon a dismasted hull. - -The wind was freshening with a long deep moan in the rush of it through -the flying dusk when I left the deck: but I gathered from a general -atmospheric hardening all round, a firmer line in the curl of the -surge, a distincter flash in the foam of it, that it was to be a clear -night, with perhaps a star or two by-and-by. The hull made good play: -she was like a live thing; and no helm and no fragment of canvas -vexing her, she took up her own position and wallowed dryly, save that -now and again in a sharp pitch she'd meet some lateral run of sea and -whiten in the air forward into the look of a snow-storm: but the froth -mostly blew clear, and the water when it came streaming aft quickly -froze into the snow. - -Miss Otway sat beside the stove: she had removed her hat, otherwise was -wrapped up to the throat in furs; her yellow hair was shot with amber -light when the swing of the lamp flashed the radiance upon it, but her -looks were white, and something wild with grief, anxiety and fear. She -asked me if there was any ice in sight. - -'None that I can see in the dusk,' I answered. - -'I'm all the while dreading the ice,' said she. 'I should not fear this -high sea and our lying dismasted in it, if it were not for the ice.' - -'There's none near to hurt us just now,' said I. - -'When I first came into this cabin,' she exclaimed, 'in the Thames, -a chill ran through me that was cold as ice itself. It was warm, and -yet I shivered as though freezing. Was it an omen? The memory has been -haunting me in my time of loneliness here. A little while before we -were dismasted we sighted a huge iceberg that was like a cathedral: it -had a beach of frozen foam, and the snow whirled in white dust on one -side of it against the dark clouds. Oh, Mr. Selby,' she cried, 'think -of this helpless hull striking against such a mountain of ice as that, -and our getting upon it and perishing with the cold--the awful cold!' - -'Why, Miss Otway,' said I with a bustle of voice and manner as I got up -to set the kettle on the stove. 'This sort of talk is good for neither -of us. Do you believe in omens? But don't be scared till danger's come, -and not then. There's plenty to eat and drink in this ship and I'm for -faring heartily for the sake of hoping heartily, and working heartily, -should work be wanted. Come, you shall fry some ham; it's my turn to -prepare the table.' - -Presently we were seated as before. I talked more reassuringly than I -had ventured on earlier, for now that her hat was off I saw her face -very clearly, how refined she was, how gentle, how well nurtured; -my very heart pitied her: I felt as though commanded by God Himself -to take charge of her, to watch over her, to keep her heart up; I -can't express indeed how she appealed to me out of her gentleness and -refinement, the horrible situation she was in, the unspeakably dreadful -time she had passed through alone. - -And often I would catch her in the intervals of our speech eyeing me -under drooping lids with an eager searching look of enquiry, as though -she would comfort her poor little self by finding out what sort of a -man was I who had come into this rolling hull where she was alone? I -wished her to find out quickly that she might be easy; but we both -needed time, I to act and she to discover. - -I cleared the table and went on deck. The lantern burned brightly. The -night lay black, but the atmosphere was hard as when I had gone into -the cabin, and you found a distance in the gloom. All was as well with -the hull as one could dare hope for, and, closing the companion doors, -I re-entered the cabin. - -It was about six o'clock then. I lighted a bull's-eye and went into the -captain's berth for the log-book which I had noticed upon the table, -and to overhaul a bag of charts. I brought the log-book and the chart I -wanted to the cabin table: Miss Otway seeing me at this, came opposite -and stood there looking on. I wished to see the last entry in the -log-book; which done, I opened the chart, and was startled to observe -that, supposing the drift of the vessel to have been continuously to -the southward, as somehow I imagined it was, that group of islands -called the South Orkneys, stretching some sixty-five miles east and -west, could not be farther than twenty-five or thirty leagues. - -'Are you finding out where we are?' said Miss Otway. - -'I shall know exactly when I get an observation,' said I, and carried -the log-book and chart back into the captain's cabin. - -But I confess my heart was sunk. To be sure, throughout I had vaguely -known our place--could have named it within fifty or eighty miles -perhaps--yet the business I had been about ever since I woke up -stopped me from realising till I looked on the chart, when of course I -understood that if our drift was south we stood to go to pieces upon -land that would be the most God-forsaken on the wide face of the oceans -of the globe, if it were not that, hard by them, covering a range of -eight or nine degrees of longitude, lay groups of rocks with a range -of mountainous continent stretching due south (magnetic) even more -desolate, naked and iron-sheathed. - -But we were not ashore yet: nor could I know certainly that our drift -was south; and then there was to-morrow's daylight with its hope of -succour. - -I sat beside the stove and talked with Miss Otway. She spoke of the -voyage and of the apparition which had haunted the memory and depressed -the spirits of Captain Burke down to the hour of his death. I sought -to amuse her by relating certain experiences of my own; and she forgot -her situation whilst listening to some of my yarns. The truth is I -had gone to sea at the age of thirteen and had followed the life -fourteen years, during which I had served in several capacities in many -kinds of vessels, though my experiences lay chiefly in the India and -China trade. I had plenty then to talk about: it amused me to yarn, -and she listened with more life and intelligence than I should have -expected in one with so fixed an expression of dismay, of hearkening -consternation and mourning. - -After satisfying myself with a look around on deck, I returned, and -going to the bookshelves, read the names of some of the volumes. It -was a good collection of books: the best of the poets and novelists -were there, with odds and ends of scrappy reading like Hone's and -D'Israeli's. Here I found dear old 'Peter Simple,' and carrying -the tale to the stove, I read bits aloud, and once or twice she -laughed. Then something suggesting the topic, I got telling her about -shipwrecks, my notion being to let her understand how much better off -were we than others who had suffered from disasters at sea. I talked -of the raft of the 'Medusa,' described that pathetic, lamentable scene -in the round-house of the 'Abergavenny'--the wax-lights, the captain -clasping his daughters to him--related the loss of the 'Amphitrite,' -as told to me by a man I had sailed with who had been one of the -survivors of that most tragic of shipwrecks, which littered the -Boulogne sands with scores of bodies of handsome, finely built young -women. - -'Are there instances of people,' she asked, 'who have been wrecked upon -icebergs and survived?' - -I spun her a few yarns of polar experiences in this way: of Russian -seamen found floating on ice: of a whaler half full of men stranded on -a berg and floating in her giant cradle down into open waters where she -was boarded and the people taken out of her. - -'How long had they been locked up?' - -'Several months.' - -'Were their sufferings great?' - -Not knowing, I had to invent, and to cheer her, said: 'Oh, no. -They kept up good fires, had plenty of beef and tobacco, heartened -themselves by singing songs, telling stories, playing at games of their -own invention, and fashioning ornaments out of whale ivory. It came -right with them. When things come right it's the same as if they never -were wrong. Nothing counts but the loss of time whilst you're waiting -for the settlement. How soon, when you get well, you forget that you -were ill! How quickly you forget the weather! Who's it says it's always -too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry, but that God so contrives it, -at the end of the year it's all the same? Keep up your heart, Miss -Otway, and reflect that when this is ended and you're safe ashore with -your people it'll be no more than an experience to talk about.' - -'Yes,' said she, with a faint smile, 'it will be all right when I _am_ -ashore; but who's that other person who says, philosophy triumphs over -past and future ills, but present ills triumph over philosophy?' - -This passed my plain understanding, and I let the subject go. - -I went on deck for more ice to melt and boil, and found it blowing -pretty strong. A high sea, ridged in lines of ebony against the light -of their own foam, and melted in roaring snowdrifts under the hull -that was topping them with a wonderful buoyancy. I looked for a star, -but all was sweeping blackness aloft, save the point of light at the -stump-head. - -Knowing this hard heave of sea must certainly give us a steady trend -southward, helped as the hull was by the blast every time she soared -into the icy howl of it, I fetched a bull's-eye, and observing by the -binnacle that the hulk's head pointed about east by north, I went to -the starboard rail and overlay it, staring with desperate searching -eyes into the hard gloom till I was almost frozen. But I could see -nothing that looked like ice, no faintness, no spectral sheen, all that -glared was foam running from the arched back of the surge; so I went -below, where I boiled some coffee, and, shortly after eight, Miss Otway -withdrew to her berth. - -I took the bull's-eye to find me more clothes in the captain's cabin, -and when I was wrapped up to the bigness of a Greenland's-man, I -returned to the stove, dimming the lamp to a light that was just enough -to see by, and lay down upon a couch. Presently I was startled out of -a reverie by seeing a great rat come close to the fire, as though for -the warmth. Very quietly putting my hand in my pocket, I pulled out my -clasp knife, which I opened; the blade was dagger-shaped. Then, quick -as lightning, I lanced the weapon at the beast and half severed its -head. This pleased me, for in the course of our talks Miss Otway had -said that in her time of loneliness, a huge rat had come into the cabin -and looked at her till she was motionless with disgust and fear. I -could not know, however, that this was the rat that had so served her; -though it made one less aboard, and I dropped it into a coal-bucket to -chuck over the side next day. - -The sight of the bleeding, lifeless beast set my thoughts running -on the hours the girl, whilst alone, had spent in this hull, and I -wondered when I looked at the rat and listened to the shrieking and -grinding noises, that she had not days before gone off her head. I -guessed that her mind had been cast in a heroic mould; never else could -she have come through such a term of loneliness with her wits all -right. Less had driven strong men overboard, gaping madmen. - -Whilst I sat following the wild and flying motions of the hull, -testing them by sensation to gather if the buoyancy diminished, I -was addressed. I looked round with a sudden surprise that was nearly -fright: it was Miss Otway, furred and clothed from head to foot as she -had left me. - -'Are you going to sit up all night?' she exclaimed. - -'I'm going to sit here,' I answered. 'I shall snooze at intervals.' - -'Let me watch whilst you sleep,' said she. - -'There's nothing to watch,' I answered, 'nothing to keep a look-out -for.' - -'A ship might see our lantern and come down to us.' - -'She could do nothing in this weather.' - -'But to think of being asleep whilst a vessel is coming down to see -what the light means! Think of her hailing, getting no answer and -passing on. It might be our only chance.' - -I told her that might happen even though we both kept watch all night -in the cabin. How, down here, should we hear a hail from the water? -We'd need to keep a look-out on deck, which would kill her quickly and -me soon after. - -'Pray go and rest,' said I, 'and trust me to see anything that may come -along and to hear anything that may hail.' - -She looked reluctant, very white, her eyes dim and large with tragic -expectancy as though she never knew but that in the next minute -something frightful would happen. - -I picked the rat up by the tail. 'Is this your friend?' said I. - -She shrieked, believing it alive; then, shuddering and shuddering, -staggered somewhat blindly in the direction of the cabin. - -I jumped up and supported her, encouraging her by every promise and -hope my brain could frame. - -'You have not slept for nights,' said I, pausing at her door. 'Best now -that I am here, if only that you may have strength enough to leave the -hull and health enough to carry you to your home.' - -She had removed her gloves: I grasped her ice-cold hand and returned to -my couch. - -The night crept away. I dozed at intervals, visiting the deck perhaps -half a dozen times. In the morning watch I slept soundly upon the couch -by the stove, and when I awoke it was nine by the clock under the -skylight, still black as thunder, and the hull rolling heavily. I was -cold to the heart, and before quitting the cabin kindled a fire to boil -some water for a hot drink, then went up the steps to take a look. - -It was still blowing fresh, but the wind had shifted north-west, -and the sky was a clear, sparkling heaven of stars from sea-line to -sea-line, the sea running in steady hills of ink to where you saw the -horizon throbbing close under the pale lights of the night low down, -so clear was the gale. The mast-head lamp burned dimly; but it would -be daybreak shortly. I stared around the sea, and saw nothing north -and west and east, but my sight going south was arrested by a low, -irregular, dim line: it rose with the heave of the hull, and it was -as far off as the horizon. It looked like the sheen of a long face of -coast covered with snow: it was a mere attenuated film of faintness -stretched where sky and water met, and I looked and looked, believing -it a bank of cloud that would dissolve whilst I watched; but it hung -steady, and still it was so elusive that sometimes I saw it, and when -the hull sprang from the trough again it was gone; and yet again, when -she roared to the height of a surge, it was there. - -Well, daylight was at hand to resolve it. For my part I had no doubt -it was ice; indeed it had astonished me to find these seas so open at -this time of the year; only, if that sheen out in the morning darkness -under the stars was ice, the drift had been ours to carry us to a sight -of it: which signified a slide of keel running into knots: for that -steamlike hovering down there had not been in sight two or three hours -earlier, when my eye, as now, followed the hard curls of sea working -into distance, though the sky was not starry. - -I went below, trimmed the lamp, and prepared the table for breakfast. -Whilst I was thus occupied, Miss Otway appeared. She came straight to -the stove and held her hands to the blaze, and asked me when it would -be daylight. I answered, 'Within an hour.' - -'This almost perpetual darkness,' she exclaimed, 'is one of the most -awful parts of this dreadful time.' - -'I hope you slept well?' - -'Yes, I slept soundly, and awoke only about a quarter of an hour ago. -What is the time?' I named the hour. 'You've seen no signs of a ship -during the night, I fear?' - -'Nothing. It has blown hard. It still blows a fresh breeze of wind. -This is the most seawardly vessel that was ever launched. It is lucky -for us her cargo is a light one. Think of her laden to her chain-plate -bolts with some dead weight of iron goods. She would have been under -water day and night, and by this time have ceased to be a hull.' - -'When were you last on deck, Mr. Selby?' - -'I'm just now from the deck.' - -'Is there anything in sight?' - -'I'm waiting for daybreak to make sure.' - -My answer caused her to make a step from the stove, and to advance her -white face whilst she stared at me. - -'Is there ice near us?' she asked. - -'I find an appearance in the southward that may prove ice,' said I. -'But what else are you to expect in these seas?' I added carelessly. -'Here we are somewhere down in sixty degrees, and, since I have been -aboard, the horizon has been almost clear. What shall we have for -breakfast? Will you boil some coffee whilst I search the pantry? -Suppose daylight should reveal ice--it may also show us a whaler -fishing in the thick of the bergs!' - -And assuming a cheerful, bustling manner I lighted a bull's-eye, -whistling some sea tune the while, and went into the pantry, where, -after a brief overhaul of the closet and shelves, I laid hands upon a -tin of herrings, sardines, and some kind of delicate sausage. - -'I am making free,' said I, putting the stuff upon the table. - -'These things were laid in for you. I'll take an inventory of what's -left by-and-by; I allow that everything for cabin use will be stowed -in the lazarette. When you're transhipped the delicacies must go along -with you. The whaleman's our chance, and his cupboard has no reputation -for dainties.' - -I waited for her to sit, attended upon her, then fell to myself. But -all the while we remained seated she was straining her eyes at the -porthole facing her, then turning to the porthole behind her as though -she thought through the gleaming ebony of the glass, white with the -foam it rose from, to behold the ice I had spoken about. - -Day broke before I had breakfasted; it lay white in the snow on the -skylight ere I rose, and the grey of it in the cabin windows was -growing blue when I went on deck accompanied by Miss Otway. And now I -looked at what, for the hour past, I had dreaded to see. The day had -dawned in cold splendour; the sun was flashing in rose, at this moment -perhaps two degrees above the horizon; a number of small clouds were -floating near his face and looked like bits of gilt scaling off the -rayless target-like luminary; otherwise the heavens sloped clear in a -sheer vault of deeply dark blue, under which ran the sea of the rich -hue of the sky, but full of gleams and the snow of melting crests, -and here and there spaces of an exquisite ice-like green snaking -currentwise over the heaving waters. - -It no longer blew hard, but it was still a fresh breeze, spray-clouded -in the frequent guns of it that shrieked in gusts over the bulwarks to -the loftier lifts of the hull. But what my sight went to and remained -fastened upon whilst, I own, my breath came and went quickly with -the surprise of the magnificent, but to us the terrible, sight, was -the scene of the southern quarter of the sea. There, stretching for -miles and miles, was ice in bergs which to the naked sight looked to -lie so close, the picture was that of a compacted coast of alabaster, -broken with pinnacles and acclivities of a thousand shapes, curving in -places as though in bays, the whole on either hand dying out in films -of white, whilst over the bows and over the stern, too, every time we -rose to the height of a sea I saw ice, plentiful as the breasts of the -canvas of a vast fleet; and through the southern sky low down ran a -long glinting line or gleam as though a continent of ice was reflected -in its face; it was like the pearly radiance that hovers just off the -edges of sails when lightly swelling in the tropics against a soft blue -sky. - -I glanced at Miss Otway: she was staring at the sight with large -nostrils and a gaze of terror under the little frown that the strain -of her gaze had knitted her brows into. - -'That is ice,' she cried. - -'Ay, miles of it' said I. 'But is there nothing good for us amidst that -prodigious huddle of sail-like stuff?' - -I took the telescope out of the companion and knelt with it to steady -the tubes, and slowly and carefully swept the whole of that wonderful -range, from film to film blue in the air. The sun's rosy light was full -upon it; only the brush of an artist could show you what I saw as the -surge ran me into a clear view of the horizon. It looked like a hundred -cities of marble and alabaster, all of them going to pieces. It was -no compact coast. There were many wide gaps, titanic streets fit for -the tread of such ocean giant-spirits as would inhabit those colossal -structures of crystal. The nearest point seemed about ten miles -distant. All was clear sea between, and northwards I saw no ice. - -Miss Otway stood beside me holding by a belaying pin in the rail. Again -and again she would say: - -'Do you see any signs of a ship? Is not that the canvas of a -ship--_there_, just where your telescope now points?' - -I saw no ship, but I looked with impassioned intentness till my eyeball -seemed to melt dim through the lens under the brass it was pressed -against, conceiving that in so vast an arm of ice some vessel might lie -embayed. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -THE AURORA AUSTRALIS - - -Whilst slowly sweeping the ice with the glass, I saw, or seemed to -see, when the lenses pointed a little to the eastward of south, a blue -shadow of land in the air. I took my eye away from the telescope and -then the shadow was gone: I looked again through the glass and there it -was, a dim, scarcely distinguishable liquid dye whitening as it climbed -till it melted in the azure. - -I very well knew that shadow must be land, probably one of the -mountainous rocks of the South Orkneys; unless indeed it was that group -which lies north-east of the South Shetlands--forming one of them, in -short: but I could not persuade myself that our drift to the westwards -had been so considerable. I said to Miss Otway: - -'Do you see a shadow in the air yonder?' - -She looked, preserving the frown of an intense stare, and replied: - -'No; I see no shadow.' - -I directed the glass; she put her eye to it and cried quickly, 'Yes; I -see it.' - -'It is land,' said I. - -She looked eagerly at me and said, 'Inhabited land?' - -'I'll not say so, but I believe they go sealing there. I've heard of -whalers heaving-to and sending ashore.' - -'For what?' - -'I don't know.' - -I put away the glass and said: - -'I've been afraid of that land; but when I think of it, best after all -for us, Miss Otway, it should be there. Only, how to come at it? What's -our drift and where are we? Shall we wash perhaps round yonder point of -film, clearing the whole blocking mass, to light, may be, upon some -spouter crawling northwards from ten degrees lower south? Or--or----' -But I broke off, for what was the good of conjecturing unless I could -say something to bring a little of the poor girl's heart into her eyes? - -On the chance of something lying hidden round a point of crystal I -went forward, lowered the lantern, and ran the red flag aloft, jack -down. This done, I fetched a sextant from the captain's cabin and stood -with Miss Otway in the shelter of the companion-way waiting for the -sun to cross his meridian, meanwhile searching the line of the ice, -beholding the phantasy of a ship's white sails over and over again, and -conversing with the girl. - -The sea came ridging steadily out of north-west, the vast westerly -swell of the mighty Southern Ocean pulsing through it in rounds so -majestically regular, you didn't notice the heave of it. I had never -beheld a more glorious breast of ocean. All was dark blue sparkling -billows, heads of froth tossing into silken veils upon the wind, a -roaring, flashing scene, deep blue above, looking in its silence down, -and the ice southward, like a coast cut in ivory white, motionless, -shining, coming and going as the hull sank and soared. - -I got an observation and eagerly went below to work it out. Miss -Otway followed me into the captain's cabin and watched me whilst I -calculated. I made the latitude sixty degrees ten minutes south, and -the longitude exactly forty-five degrees west. Then, looking at the -chart, I judged that that shadow of land which was showing miles past -the barrier of ice was some central mountain of Coronation Island, -towering high four thousand five hundred feet. I marked the hull's -place on the chart, and said: - -'This is where we are.' - -She peered, and after a pause exclaimed: 'It is all desolation down -here! Look how far we are off from Cape Horn. There is no nearer -civilisation than the Falkland Islands--how many hundreds of miles -distant! Oh!' she cried, lifting her head and clapping her hand to -her face, 'if we could but hoist even a little sail to save us from -drifting to the ice and certain death.' - -'No,' I exclaimed, 'death's not aboard yet, not even in sight. Sixty -degrees south! The whalers make nothing of that. The Great Circle -carries you lower;' but I would not add 'not here.' - -Then, my eye going to a bookshelf, I spied a volume which I pulled down -quickly. It was a directory to these seas. I searched the pages, and, -putting my finger upon a paragraph, said: - -'See here now, Miss Otway: men have visited this land, they have named -it, surveyed it, sounded round about it, described it. Where one has -been others may venture. Look at this,' and I read: '"At daylight on -the morning of the 12th January 1823, we saw some pigeons and at six -o'clock perceived the east end of the islands of South Orkneys bearing -W. by S. distant about eleven leagues. We carried all possible sail to -get under the land, but the wind soon became light and left us almost -at the mercy of a heavy swell in the midst of ice islands, which made -our navigation truly hazardous."' - -'Their ship had masts and sails,' she exclaimed, 'and was under -command.' - -I read on, eager to learn all the book could tell me. - -'"Being now close under the land I sent a boat from each vessel to -explore them. We continued to tack the vessels about in a bay. The -icebergs which form in the bays in winter and break away in the summer -now produced so much drift ice that we had frequently to tack ship to -avoid striking it."' - -'That's it!' she cried. 'Their ship was under command.' - -I proceeded: '"This coast is, if possible, more terrific in appearance -than the South Shetland. The tops of the islands for the most part -terminate in craggy towering peaks, and look not unlike the mountain -tops of a sunken island. The loftiest of these summits, towering up to -a point, I denominated Noble's Peak. This peak in a clear day may be -seen at the distance of fifteen leagues."' - -'Is that the shadow?' she asked. - -'Possibly.' - -'Oh! look at the book, Mr. Selby, and see if it says that the island's -inhabited.' - -'It's not inhabited,' I answered. - -Then I stood with my finger upon the page musing upon the brief -account. There was little to interest outside of what I had read aloud: -the rest told of bearings and distances, and what had been brought up -by the lead. - -'But,' said I, looking at the girl, 'we are not stranded yet. That -we've drifted south is sure; but how much westing has there been in -this tumbling drive? Here's all about the currents shown here,' and I -turned the leaves of the book and read: - -'"Ten miles south of Cape Horn the ocean stream flows east-north-east, -half to one mile in the hour." That should be good for us. Let this -wind shift south or west, and the swell and the run of the sea will -drive the hulk out of sight of the barrier.' - -But I had something more to do just then than talk, basing chat on -small hope and weak conjecture. I saw to the fire in the stove, then -went on deck to sound the well; the pump was hard frozen as before. I -freed it and got a cast, and found that no water had drained in since -I last sounded. I'll not swear to an inch or two, but the depth was -quite unimportant, and after readjusting the pump I took the glass for -another long look at the ice. - -It was land, sure enough, at the back of the barrier; the pearly blue -shadow stood a clear shape in the lens, and I seemed to see it now -with my bare sight when I looked a little away to right or left of it. -I carefully took its bearings, also the bearings of certain defined -features of what I call the barrier, though, as I have said, it was a -length of dislocated stuff full of yawns and wide winding openings, -with a menace of the revelation of many grotesque mighty shapes, -startling miracles of form beyond the reach of the dreams of fever, -should we be set close. There was a sort of salt sparkle upon the range -in some places; and now, whilst looking over the side, I saw, streaming -up the slant of a surge, a pistol-shot distant, a mass of the giant -kelp of these waters: but I observed no birds, nothing more than that -kelp to hint at the meaning of that distant shadow in the air. - -It was miserable that I could not get the least idea of our drift save -by waiting and watching, which presently became a sort of anguish. -I sought, but could nowhere find, the deep-sea lead, or certainly I -should have dropped it over the side, taking my chance of its finding -bottom, and lying there to show by the angle of the line into what -quarter of the sea we were drifting--whether we were making straight -for the heart of the range, as it looked, or laterally rolling towards -the south-western extremity of the ice. - -The weather continued of a clear cold splendour, the horizon -sharp-edged against the sky as the rim of a tumbler. The sea ran hard -in spiteful foaming slopes which kept on shouldering the hulk dead -to leeward, and within an hour the growth of the ice told me we were -closing it; in fact, by the bearings I had taken I saw that the drive -of the hull was as fair for the heart of the barrier as if she was -being steered for it! - -What was to be done? I had been cast in my time in many situations of -peril, yet had never known myself despairful even in the blackest hour -of my troubles: but I own my heart fell now, my spirits sank, hope -died when I looked at those leagues of horizon of ice and reflected -upon my helplessness. Could I have summoned the help of but another -pair of hands I might have made some desperate effort with capstan and -leading-blocks to cap the stump of the foremast with another height of -spar, and get a jib stretched that her head might pay off and bring -her under some sort of control to enable me to thread the waterways -betwixt the bergs. But, single-handed, I could do nothing. There was no -height of foremast for the setting of any sort of rag that would round -her head away and keep her before it--I mean, in a fashion to hold her -responsive to the helm. - -When I made the discovery that the hull was setting dead on to the -ice, Miss Otway was in the cabin boiling some cocoa for a scrambling -afternoon meal; she came up while I stood swaying on the heave of the -plank, my arms tightly folded, my eyes rooted to the ice; instantly it -was as clear to her as to me whither our drift was tending, and she -uttered a low cry as though she had been struck. - -The mere sight of her, however, did me good--it quickened perception of -my obligations as a man. Her face was white as the foam over the side; -her pale lips moved, but the shrill wind sheared with icy-edge through -her words as they came to her lips. She sent a blind, staggering glance -round the western and northern sea line, and, knitting her face into a -look of resolution, she said: - -'It is God's will. But, Mr. Selby, it is a dreadful death to die.' - -'I am pleased when you look so,' said I, 'but not when you speak so. -It is God's will, as you say. But what is that will? What's to be our -fate? Look how those blue shadows in the ice open and widen. The bergs -appear close together; hundreds of fathoms separate them in reality, -and if we are to drift into the huddle why shouldn't we scrape through?' - -'To where?' - -'To where?... There may be open water beyond, and a ship.' - -'No, no, land!' she cried, 'land! See the shadow of it. It was visible -in the telescope only a little while ago: now I see it like a forming -cloud. It will be all ice to the rocks, and some break will let us in -and we shall drift deep and be locked up and left--and left----' - -And now she could scarcely articulate for some spasm in her throat, and -her poor white face was all awork with the horrors of her imagination. - -It made me sullen to hear her, she reasoned so well, beyond any trick -that I had for cheering her. - -'We must wait and hope,' said I; 'we are not in the ice yet; there may -come a ship.' - -And setting my teeth I swung the glass out of its brackets fiery with -some passing mood of wrath born of hopelessness and helplessness; for -no sailor will stand at gaze and be deserted by his spirit as a man -whilst there is a chance for life, though it be dim as a corposant in a -burst of wet squall; but put him in my place--as I then was; aboard a -dismasted hull rolling to her waterways in a steady pouring sea, a doom -of ice filling the horizon to leeward: how should a sailor act as a man -_then_ save by a stony endurance that sounds gallantly if you call it -heroic fortitude? - -But the girl had boiled some cocoa: it waited: so I begged leave to -hand her below out of the ceaseless howl of the ice-charged wind. Yet -neither of us stayed long. She could not eat, and for my part 'twas as -much as I could do to gulp down the steaming cocoa, good as it was. - -I believe the sun set soon after two; the sky was everywhere of a -wild crimson, flashing gorgeously where the luminary was; the sea -came running in hard green lines, tall with passing heads, out of the -splendour; _then_ the ice was a wonderful scene indeed, delicately -tinctured as it was with the redness. The shadow of the land hung afar -in a dim, pink cloud, but though the barrier had been plain in view for -some while I could not swear that within the last hour we had sensibly -closed it. This gave me a little hope--though I didn't know any: I bade -Miss Otway note it and she agreed with me--she had a sailor's eye for -atmospheric distance--that the ice looked no nearer than it had within -the past hour. - -'Can we be in the grip of a westerly current?' thought I. Then, before -the blaze faded in the west, I hauled down the flag and hoisted the -burning lantern, for the delicate figures of the ice in the remote -recesses where the film of it died out were so cheating in their -likeness to ships lifting canvas and heading for us, that I could -not persuade myself but one _must_ prove a vessel--if not now, then -presently. - -I obliged Miss Otway to go below when the night fell. It was too cold -for her. She was like to freeze to death. The ice loomed as a range -of snow-covered cliff to leeward: it showed of a savage and deadly -paleness under the stars which sheeted down weakly to it, though here -and there one brighter than the rest glowed like a lighthouse lantern -on some faint point. It was a wonderfully brilliant night, however, -no moon that I remember, but overhead the larger stars had the rich -tremble you see in the tropics; I had never seen such a field of -brilliants--the stardust hovered like mist, and the height of the sky -that night was awful to my solitary gaze. - -At about eight o'clock we were, as I reckoned, about five miles distant -from the nearest elbow of the ice. But though a tall sea still ran, -giving the hull the lofty motions of a stately dancer, the wind was -sensibly taking off. A frightful time was this! for if the hull struck -on the hurl of such a surge as still roared under us, she would go to -pieces in the twinkling of an eye. I was constantly looking over the -side, reckoning to find us setting on to some detached mass of drift -stuff, flat, but not the less deadly for being awash, but saw none. -Suddenly I perceived a light upon the horizon right over the bows. I -fancied my vision deceived me, that the trend of the ice was not as I -imagined it to be in that darkness, that the light was some burning -mountain far past the barrier, and that a shift of wind or change of -stream or tide had altered the bearings: this I conceived and rushed -headlong for a bull's-eye, which I flashed upon the compass; but no! -the indications were as before. - -What, then, was that light ahead? Miss Otway had followed me when I -fled up the companion steps with a lighted bull's-eye. - -'What is it?' she cried. - -'What's that?' I exclaimed, pointing ahead in the starlight. - -But now, looking, I beheld a luminous arched cloud: it soared, always -arched, increasing in brightness till the brow of it stood about -twenty degrees above the horizon: the brightest of the stars shone -wanly through it: then, whilst we watched, flashes of fire, darting -like lightning, leapt from it; they changed into spiral columns of the -brilliance of sunlight, scores of them, and they went twisting and -streaming out of the cloud with the look of the rush of the Milky Way -to the Zenith, whirling and winding their strands of fire into a very -rope of flame, whose end seemed to search the furthest stardust. This -wonderful, beautiful, sublime scene of joyous dancing, inwreathing -lights, faded, but was quickly followed in the same quarter where the -fiery curved cloud had shone by rich, straw-coloured arches of flame, -linking and sinking and soaring, changing on a sudden with a vast -spread of light, exactly fan shaped, and jewelled with colours manifold -as the rainbow, as though it reflected some giant prism. - -'What is it?' said Miss Otway, standing close beside me and speaking in -a voice subdued by awe and astonishment. - -'The Aurora Australis,' I answered, knowing it must be that by -descriptions I remembered. - -We lost all sense of time in watching. In some of the sublimest -recesses of that show of fire it was as though the heaven of God were -opening: one held one's breath not knowing what the next revelation -would be, what spectacle of winged spirit shapes would glance upon -one's mortal vision out of those chasms of splendour which looked, -with the glory that burned in them, to have been cloven to the very -Throne. - -'Mark this!' I cried, and as I spoke--the vast fan of light then fading -and no more lightning-like fire leaping--the wind that had been a fresh -breeze dropped as if by magic: the sky over the bows darkened into its -night of stars: the sea fell into a sloppy tumble, and within a quarter -of an hour the hull was rolling quietly upon the long, wide swell of -these seas with so oil-like a calm upon the steady run of the folds -that, close to our port quarter, I watched the image of a bright star -lengthen and shrink as it rode, till, but for the intense, dread cold -of the atmosphere, you would have thought yourself becalmed near the -line. - -'We may drift north and go clear after all,' said I, taking the lighted -bull's-eve out of the companion and looking at the binnacle by it. - -'Do you hear the thunder?' said Miss Otway, following me. - -I listened: it was not thunder but the crackling of ice. There was -no roar of sea, no howl of gale now to kill that sound; it rolled -up through the night from the southward in bursts and shocks like -explosions of heavy artillery; it swept over the smooth swell which -looked liked smoking grease as the huge rounds noiselessly floated -eastward, and it sounded as though a thunderstorm were raging over the -ice. - -And still that brief peace that was in the night, spite of the distant -thundering of the ice, was a wonderful refreshment to the spirits after -the ceaseless flush of the surge to the side and the steady roar of the -gale on high, shrieking as it split upon the barbs of ice the length of -bulwarks bristled with. More: a change of weather might now happen to -drive us northward, to drift us clear of the bergs, at all events, and -so extend our chance of being fallen in with and rescued. - -I stayed on deck till after nine watching anxiously for any signs of -a change of weather. Miss Otway came and went: she was too restless -and fearful to linger below, but the frost in the night wind was too -stinging to allow her to remain long above. When I went into the cabin -I left the hull rolling slowly upon a swell of the sea polished as -ebony; nay, so glass-like was that swollen mirror that all about us the -water was sprinkled with the images of stars, with one ice-like wake -swinging like a pendulum as the silver of it seemed to sink. - -I mixed a tumbler of hot rum and sat down before the stove to smoke a -pipe, with the young lady's consent; there was a good stock of tobacco, -cigars, and a little collection of pipes in the cabin that had been -occupied by Captain and Mrs. Burke. Our talk was, you will suppose, all -about our situation. I assured her there was little to fear saving the -ice; and talked--the thing then coming into my head--of a sailor who -had gone sealing for three years with one Captain Smyley; this same -skipper having spent nearly half a century betwixt the River Plate and -the South Shetlands. - -'These waters are plentifully frequented,' said I. 'A century ago in -such a case as this we shouldn't have had much to hope for. What was -to come? In half a year a score of yellow, humpbacked, round bowed -waggons blowing away under bladder-like sails, with topmast struck -and nothing but the log to tell the longitude--that was about the -sum of the navigation. There was no Australia then; nothing but a -Western American coast yielding a month's saunter from Acapulco to the -Philippines--wonderful that they should have ever got a Spaniard to -face the ice down here.' - -'Did they?' - -'Why, yes; they sent treasure to Europe in galleons named after saints, -and when they saw a waterspout they held up their swords as crosses, -and bade the thing be off in Latin.' - -'Ships were as safe then as they are now,' said she, pulling off a -thick glove and toasting her hand, on which sparkled a diamond or two. -'Why should this vessel have been dismasted? What progress is there to -boast of when you think of this hull? Can't they plant masts which will -keep erect?' - -'Had that been, you and all others who were here when the squall struck -you would be deeper under water than the fangs of the biggest iceberg -afloat,' I answered, with a half smile at her eager gravity, as though -there were nothing to interest us now but shipbuilding! - -'If my life is preserved I'll never go to sea again,' she said. - -'You'll have had enough of it.' - -'I came for my health and it seems I have come to die.' - -'Has your health improved?' - -'Yes--perhaps; I don't feel whilst I talk as if the voyage had done me -much good.' - -'You'll write an account of these experiences when you return, and the -Queen will send for you that she may see and converse with as wonderful -a heroine as ever flourished in her reign.' - -'What have I done to be a heroine?' - -I knocked the ashes out of my pipe and turned to lift the tumbler -of grog that was yet half full; when my hand was arrested as though -paralysed by an extraordinary noise, smooth, fierce, seething. I -listened a moment, then sprang to the companion steps. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -THE THICK OF IT - - -My instant belief was we were foul of ice, scaling some side of crystal -mountain smooth as though chiselled. But when I opened the companion -door I was nearly flung to the bottom of the steps by a very volcanic -shock of gale, white as a cloud with snow and hail. I sprang again -and gained the deck, and, shutting the door, got to leeward of the -companion. - -A furious Cape Horn squall was blowing over the ocean in smoke--from -what quarter I had then to find out. The still scene of starlight night -and sluggish rolling ocean was vanished. Already, with the magical -swiftness of the weather of these regions, a sea was got up and -beginning to race and foam. There was nothing to see. The night was -blind with howling storm. When I had left the deck there was not so -much as a rag of cloud to be seen in the sky; and now it was blowing a -whole gale, which looked to boil with the snow that fled with it, and -everywhere it was of a midnight blackness. - -The rush of the wind was over the port quarter; but then the hull would -be slewing for the trough, and how her head was when I had gone below I -could not have told. Keeping this bearing of the wind in mind, I rushed -to the cabin, picked up the burning bull's-eye, and, springing to the -captain's berth, darted the flame on to the tell-tale, and saw that -this squall or gale was out of about south-south-west. - -When I took my eyes from the compass I saw Miss Otway standing, white -as milk, in the doorway. - -'What is it?' she asked. - -'A heavy squall--perhaps the first of a gale: but that,' said I, with -a flourish of the bull's-eye to the compass, 'gives us good news; we -shall blow clear of the ice. The wind is sou'-sou'-west. What do you -say to that?' and, forcing the noise of a jolly laugh, I came out of -the berth and hooked up the bull's-eye ready to my hand. - -We had seen the ocean all day long, clear of ice north and east; -icebergs we knew were there, but their summits had settled--our drift -had put leagues betwixt them and us; therefore I was not immediately -fearful--on the score of ice, I mean. But if it was going to blow as -hard as I had just now felt it, what was to become of the hull? Such -fury and weight of wind must speedily raise the seas into cliffs, and -then God knows how it would fare with the sheer hulk with not a rag, -nor the means of stretching a rag, to enable her to look up to it, -to shoulder it off with her bow, to lie hove to, in short, as a ship -should. - -In an hour, the dance was wild even to madness; my own brain reeled to -it; sick I was _not_ in the sense of nausea. Was it sickness of soul -then? But I recollect that many times when the hull fell off the top -of a sea into the valley, sliding as though she was shooting off some -Niagara-like edge, a horrible feeling of faintness and prostration -attended the descent. Never before had I suffered so at sea; but then, -never before had I been tossed in a dismasted hull in a gale of wind -sixty degrees south latitude. - -Miss Otway lay almost lifeless. I shored her up on a couch by backs -of chairs which I lashed; I heaped clothes from her bed on her, and -got hot brandy for her, and encouraged her as best I could. There was -nothing to be done on deck. The sea was flying in white sheets over -the waist and forecastle; the glare of the brine breaking close aboard -showed you the snow; but looking around was like staring into a well. - -It was a strange sort of snow, too, that fell. Once in the cabin I took -notice of it on my coat: it was in small grains, round as shot, of a -size from mustard seed to buckshot; a dry, pure white: not hail. - -But two hours after the gale began, the snow ceased and the wind -lessened; I watched from the companion-way, and observed but little -water flying athwart. With such observations I was forced to be -satisfied, and spent the hours in the cabin, keeping an eye on the -stove, boiling a hot drink now and again for the life and support of -it, tending Miss Otway, from time to time peering through the hatch -where the iron sweep of the wind seemed to unflesh the face, wondering, -for ever wondering, whether the next hurl would be followed by a crash -of the side, and how long we should be in perishing when the hull split. - -I should have in agined myself too anxious--nay, to put it plainly, too -alarmed to sleep, and it seemed that I went up many times to take a -look around; and still I must have slept, for I started from my chair -in a sudden terror of dream or noise, and with a lurch of the hull fell -upon my knees, but was up instantly. - -The motion of the craft had changed; the moment I had my wits I felt -that the sea was pyramidal, which told me there had been a quite -recent shift of wind. I cannot imagine anything more dislocating, -more unnerving, more brain sickening, than the leaps and rolls of the -hull upon the sea that, by the movement, I knew was darting in almost -perpendicular thrusts, spear shaped billows lifting in ebon darts and -daggers, and putting a frightful wildness into the flings of the fabric. - -Miss Otway lay with her eyes shut, and seemed asleep; a small fire -glowed in the stove, and the lighted lantern swung in the centre of the -cabin as though some invisible hand grasped it, seeking to jerk it off -its hook. I took the bull's-eye and went on deck, and found the wind a -dry gale, but observed a thickness as of fog in it, but it was too dark -to make sure. I staggered to the binnacle and saw the wind was blowing -out of north again: a cruel shift! I stared and smelt for ice, but saw -no loom, and tasted no more than the freezing coldness of the blast. - -What was the hour? I went below and found it half-past eight o'clock. -Oh! what an interminable darkness was that! Where was the ice? It could -not be far off. What and whither was our drift? I felt like a madman -then. - -Miss Otway slept on. I believe it might have been an hour and a half -after I had awakened that, not knowing but that the poor young heart in -her had been stopped by terror, or the delicate blood in her frozen, -I stooped to view her face, the lamp burning dimly; she showed like -a piece of exquisitely chiselled marble: I can't tell why, but her -whiteness seemed to my mood to exactly fit the bitterness of this -time, the frost, the snow, the ice, the wild gale and foaming waters; -was I as mad then as I had felt some time before, to bend over her and -get a fancy of her into my head as a spirit of these wild and desolate -parts? Put yourself in my place and you'll not wonder to find your brow -hot with fancies more desperately and tragically strange than such a -crazy notion as this. - -She opened her eyes whilst I looked, and I stood erect with a sigh of -relief, half turning to fling my cap down whilst I ran the length of my -sleeve along my forehead for the refreshment of the wet of the snow. -She sat up and watched me, whilst I saw in her face she was heeding the -extravagant tumbling of the hull. - -'It seems to be blowing a gale,' she said. - -'Ay,' said I, 'but we're still alive. Feel these jumps: no empty cask -could better them.' - -'Will you remove these chairs that I may sit up?' - -I did so. Whilst I knelt beside her to cast the lashings adrift she -eyed me intently, as though she would read my very brain; she then -sighed, but said nothing, and the road being clear she drew her feet -out of the covering and sought to rise, but, after a short struggle -with the furious deck, sat again. - -I stood before the stove waiting for daybreak, my eye glancing from one -frothing cabin window to another and thence to the skylight. At last -she said: - -'You've a brave heart, Mr. Selby, but it can hold out no longer; I read -despair in your face. If the end is to come, may it come quickly. You -have behaved to me with a noble kindness. I can but thank you--I can -but thank you,' and she held out her hand with her eyes full of tears. - -I bowed my head over her hand; it was an excuse to fetch a breath or -two, I would not just then trust myself to speak. Then said I: - -'I'll not disguise the truth: our situation is perilous, as God, who, -let us believe, is watching over us, knows. But I should be no true man -to feel the despair you tell me you read in my face. Daylight may find -us a sight to hearten us.' - -She shook her head. - -'Well, but don't let your spirits die. If a wish could help us I'd be -above, if _your_ safety was to be got at so small a cost. But see, now, -I'll run up on deck and let you know if there's anything like the loom -of ice about. It _may_ prove all right with us--it _may_ end in our -lives being preserved.' - -But all the same, with a heart as heavy as ever hers could be, I clawed -my way to the companion steps for yet another stare into the blackness. - -It was not yet daybreak; but when some while after the faint, grey -light sifted through the blowing, swelling, roaring gloom, the sight -struck to my very heart and I was sure we were doomed. The sea was -running in hills of liquid lead; many clouds of mist were in the wind -and they blew athwart the hull like bursts of steam; snow in places was -rushing in horizontal lines out of dark low clouds flying southwards. -Ice was all about us. The first object that dawn revealed, whilst I -stood in the companion-way watching, was a mountain of ice on the bow; -as features of it stole out a snow-squall looked to have fouled a whole -stack of pinnacles on the left of the berg; it was dark as smoke there, -with snow whirling in a very maelstrom of froth-like whiteness; the -seas slipped their foam up its side to a height of fifty feet, and the -brine flashed in clouds of crystals against the dull, marble-like face, -which showed smooth as a wall through the haze and the whirl of flying -vapour that shrieked athwart our decks to it. - -_It_ was but one. I counted twenty coming and going amid the shadows -of the squalls and flying masses of fog. You would have supposed that -a fleet somewhere hidden were firing great guns, so thunderous was the -splintering of those bergs majestically rocking their mighty masses. -The nearest--that on the starboard bow--was about a mile off. Others -showed to port and astern: one heap, like an island, darkened the haze -on the port bow. The gale had apparently broken up the barrier and we -were in the thick of the floating bodies. - -Miss Otway came to the foot of the companion steps and waited for me to -make way for her. I stepped out and she ascended the steps and looked -round the sea, but in silence. Her face was hardened into stone by -despair. Hours of suspense and grief, hours spent in the most awful -kind of loneliness the imagination can figure, with the darkness of the -spirit of death for ever upon her heart, had done their work with the -poor young lady: sensation was dumb. - -And now there was nothing to do but await the end, come what might. I -let her stand a little, looking, then taking her by the arm, gently but -firmly, conducted her below and seated her where she had lain during -the night. I was resolved that my own despair should not be visible -to her, and partly to cover myself, so to speak, and partly for the -good of the thing, I boiled some coffee, and put food on the deck near -the stove; but one looked at such a repast with the emotions of a -malefactor to whom breakfast is served whilst the hangman waits. - -Whilst I was at this work she addressed me calmly: - -'There is no doubt, I suppose, that we shall strike the ice?' - -'It's most inevitable,' I answered. - -'If it happens, shall we be better off down here than on deck?' - -'Let it happen,' said I. - -'If we are to strike the ice,' she said, 'I should wish to be drowned -quickly. I would rather die at once than be thrown soaked on the ice to -lie a little and freeze--it would take time--I fear the sufferings. I -am not afraid of death, I wish it to be quick.' - -'There's no ice nearer to us than a mile, that I can make out,' I said, -then handed her a pannikin of coffee. 'Pray drink this.' - -She took it and raised it to her lips. - -'If the hull strikes, will it go to pieces instantly?' she asked. - -'Who can tell? She might beach herself and find us a home till the berg -floated north, where the smoke of our fire will be seen.' - -She sank into silence with her eyes fastened upon the deck. When I -offered her food she shook her head. My breakfast consisted of half a -cup of coffee. - -Within a quarter of an hour I was on deck again, but the scene was the -same as before, saving that the ice mountain that had been upon our -starboard bow was now right ahead, whilst on our starboard quarter, -within perhaps half a mile, was a small island of ice, about sixty feet -high, not before visible. The compass gave me the wind blowing steadily -from one quarter. But then I could make nothing of bearings within -three or four points on board a helpless hull, swinging in a high sea, -with a send of her head when she was rushed out of a hollow that made -me sometimes think she was going to give her stern to the weather. - -At one o'clock it was a savage and tremendous scene of warring -waters and flying sky of soot, and giant forms of ice vanishing and -reappearing amid headlong flights of wool-white vapour, and through -all, in deep notes, ran the thunder of the surge-smitten, frozen -heights, with frequent rending and crashing noises of dislocation. I -was now very sure that our drift was not less than three miles an -hour, and perhaps four. This I gathered by observing a vast shape of -ice that suddenly showed off the starboard bow. It was nearly a mile -long, and I should think two hundred feet high. It was a grand, truly -sublime ocean piece, with its numerous lofty arches and caverns, out of -which the sea, in recoil, flashed in immense bursts of foam. I spied -the white wings of birds glancing upon it, but I had it not often -very clear in sight, for the steam-like smother drove down at quick -intervals, leaving some pale eminence gleaming on high against the -whirl of the clouds, to vanish in some swift outfly of snow, so that -the whole thing would be as completely gone to the eye as if it had -sunk. - -But by staying and watching it as often as it emerged in whole or -in part, I got at the rate of our drift. It was quickly on our port -bow with others coming out of the thickness to leeward, all wild and -terrific in that dull light of storm, with the glare of the leaping -foam at their base and their own ghastly stare through the rent -curtains of cloud flying under the dark sky. - -Soon after two, when it was almost dark, I thought we were lost, for -I saw the loom of an iceberg right abeam to leeward; but whether it -was God's guidance of the devoted hull, or that the set of the long -rolling sea ran a sort of sweep of tide round these floating islands, -when we were within a musket shot of the mass, with an occasional -shock of loose ice sounding through the hulk, our drift made a little -departure. I vow it was for all the world as though the fabric was -alive and, dreading her fate, avoided it, or as though she were under -command, with a cool hand and a critical eye for sea measurement at the -helm. Certain it is we drove past clear; it might be that we owed our -preservation to the rebound of the sea. - -It was almost black with the night when that berg was on our lee -quarter, but I knew by a sudden enormous roar of water, and by an -indescribably hissing sound lasting for a few minutes, as though a -thousand locomotives were blowing off steam, that an immense mass of -the island had fallen, not very many ships' lengths distant, which I -have no genius to do justice to, nor even to communicate, though I need -but close my eyes to behold the terrible picture, with its uproar of -trampling seas, and howling wind, and cracking masses. A little after -four in the morning, whilst I sat in the cabin with Miss Otway, every -instant expecting the hull to strike, her motions grew suddenly quiet. -I felt her rise and fall upon a long swell, and knew instinctively by -the feel of her that she was under the lee of something. - -I sprang to my feet and ran on deck. It was pitch dark, with a strange -phantasmal glimmer on either hand, so vague, so indeterminable I could -not see it when I looked at it. The roar of the gale, the hiss and -beat of the driven seas, came as from a distance. Thrice as high as the -masthead of a ship sounded the low, continuous thunder of the wind, as -though it blew over mountain tops; but down where we were it was calm. -Icy gusts came in moans from half a dozen quarters. The long, invisible -heave was as rhythmic as the ocean pulse of swell. I understood we were -embayed and foresaw certainly now that our being stranded, or being -hammered to pieces against the ice, was only a question of minutes. - -I went into the cabin with a loathing of life coming into me out of -the sheer despair that was as frost on my heart, caring not a curse -how it went, so sick I was of it all after the unendurable hours of -watching and expectation I had passed through; and then again I felt -that, whatever was to happen, it was right I should be by the poor -girl's side: not that it was in my power to comfort her--not, indeed, -if the hull went to pieces, that I could be of the least use to her or -myself, but I was company for her, and out of me she'd get some solace -of companionship in what I reckoned these dying minutes of ours. - -'Has the wind fallen? Where are we?' she shrieked as I approached her. - -'We are embayed,' I answered. 'We are got under the lee of something.' - -Just as I spoke those words a harsh, grating roar ran through the hull; -the vessel trembled as though in the first throe of bursting; another -like roar succeeded; I felt the thrill of the scraping of the bilge and -keel as the fabric was rushed by some ponderous heave of swell. Again, -another huge thrust of the sea, another long roar of scraping keel and -bilge, another quiver and thrill throughout the hulk as though every -timber was straining ere flying to the shock of an explosion. She lay -right over to starboard. The lamp swung and lay hard against the upper -deck. Whatever was movable fetched away. So acute was the angle that -Miss Otway, unable to maintain her seat upon the couch, shot from it to -me; but I was firmly planted, saw her coming, and received her so that -she was not hurt, and with a vigorous swing I cleared and placed her -breathless and moaning in a cleated armchair that stood close to where -I sat. - -The blind, soft, thunderous thrusts of the sea continued. I heard the -water in tons washing over the decks, but every time this happened a -roar of grinding and scaling shook the hull as she was driven by the -wash of the swell higher and yet higher. The companion was closed and -no water descended. I knew by the noise of the sea that the hull lay -broadside to the swing of the swell. I got out of my chair, but was -heavily thrown, and could scarcely regain my feet, so extreme was the -slant, and so completely did it pin me against the cabin wall. - -As regular as the rush of the floating folds was the thrust of them, -and now I grew sensible that the heave was like to strand us high and -dry, the job of it being a different labour than rocks or the grit of -the beach of earth would have made, so greasy was the ice. The water -poured over the decks every time the swell struck the hull, but in a -little while I found each volume to be weakening in weight, and after -the fabric had been driven in this grinding way in a sort of pulsing of -blows, deafening with the bursts of the brine against the side and over -the decks, each onward slide grew shorter and shorter, until presently -she lay without motion, with an occasional shudder running through her -from the beat of the sea, but at intervals so varying as to persuade -me she was fairly high and dry, and within the wash of the foam of the -larger rollers only. - -But the list or angle was horrible. I was unable to move without going -on all fours. I crawled in this wise to Miss Otway, and told her to -remain where she was, not to attempt to stir lest she should break her -neck, whilst I crept on deck to take a look at our situation if it was -visible. - -'What has happened do you think?' she cried. - -'We are stranded upon some beach of an ice island I expect,' I replied. - -'Hark to that!' she shrieked, as a sudden sea smote the bilge and -roared in foaming recoil. 'If you go on deck you'll be washed away.' - -'I'll see to it. That blow was weak. We have been thrust high. Feel -what a desperate slope it is. I pray God no sudden shock of sea may -launch us afresh.' - -With that I crawled to the companion steps, every bone aching like -rheumatism with the contortions of my figure in my efforts to move. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -IMPRISONED - - -I might have guessed there would be no more to see now than when I had -first looked. I stood in the companion with my head just out, holding -the door as close shut as it would lie with my body in the way; and -hardly had I put my head through when a whole green sheet of water -tumbled over the port bulwarks and roared in a cataractal deluge down -the steep, boiling white, through the wreckage of smashed bulwarks. I -ducked, but not in time to stop a rush into the cabin. - -I guessed, by the uncommon blackness, that we were in a hollow betwixt -high cliffs; I beheld an illusive paleness, the vague, spectral -faintness of rocks of ice or snow-covered acclivities on either hand, -but no features of them were in the least degree discernible. I durst -not let go of the companion to look over the side, but I judged by the -deep, hollow noise overhead that a strong gale still blew, and from a -distance came the strong, coarse seething of a high sea. - -Still, the beat of the swell against the hull was not often now, which -made me suspect it was no iceberg we had stranded on but land, one of -the New Orkneys or South Shetlands group, because the bating of the -swell told that a tide ran, and I had read in that book about the South -Atlantic in the cabin that the rise and fall of the tide down here was -very considerable, that gales of wind often swelled the water high -above its natural level, as was shown by the many skeletons of whales -found lying twenty or thirty feet above high-water mark. - -But until the dawn broke nothing could be imagined; I closed the -companion door and crawled back to where Miss Otway sat. - -She was so postured by the angle of the deck that she could not get out -of her chair; she begged me to help her; I drew her out and held her -until she had sunk upon the floor, and then I sat down beside her on -the hard plank, the carpet having been rolled up and stowed away when -the cabin was flooded in the outfly that had dismasted the 'Lady Emma.' -Not so much water as I supposed had tumbled down; it lay the length of -the cabin wall and was fast draining off. - -'Have you been able to see where we are?' she exclaimed. - -'No. But though there's no doubt we've beached on ice, I believe the -land's close aboard.' - -'What land?' - -'Coronation Island, if any. That was the island in the way of our -drift; we've been making a straight course for it.' - -We paused to hearken to a heavy flooding of water overhead, but the -blow that had sheeted the brine over the hull was as weak as a summer -ripple is to an angry surge compared with the thumps which had driven -us to where we now lay. - -'The sea will have made a clean sweep of the decks,' said she. - -'There was little to go. What but the galley? The companion has -weathered it out, happily for us.' - -'Oh, Mr. Selby, what can we now do? What is to become of us?' she cried -with sudden hysteric passion of grief and terror. - -'We must find out where we are. Better here, anyway, than knocking -about among the ice outside, with the prospect every next minute of -being squashed into pulp. Oh, _that_ was too terrible to have gone -on bearing! The perpetual apprehension was like to have driven us -overboard, mad. Why, this is peace, this is rest.' - -'What a time it has been! What a time it is!' she cried. 'When will the -day break? If we are upon an iceberg----' - -She was arrested by a second thunder-shock of water overhead, yet weak -as a blow of the sea, though the hull trembled fore and aft. - -The lamp glowed and shed a good light, the body of it lying hard -against the upper deck, so sharp was the angle; it was strange to see -it stirless there, strange to feel the stillness of the hull, save when -a blow of swell made her quiver. The fire was out; but even had not all -the fuel fetched away into the wash of the wet, I had not dared kindle -a fresh one, lest in the trembling fit then upon me, and on such a -roof-like slope as that, I should stumble, or by some helpless flourish -set the ship in flames. - -I crawled on my knees to the couch, and pulled the clothes from it and -covered Miss Otway with them, swathing her head and so wrapping her -that nothing showed but a little piece of the face. The poor girl's -teeth chattered, and she shivered ceaselessly. By carefully crawling I -got upon the table and managed to get hold of a glass and a decanter -of wine. She drank a little and I took a good pull of the wine myself. -Indeed it was an extraordinary situation--the hull on her beam ends, -the cabin alight, we two crouched on the deck, the stillness after the -fury we had come through, the stillness, I say, saving a low roar of -distant sea, with an occasional beat of the swell upon the hulk, and -the scaling and rushing of water overhead. An amazing situation indeed; -there is nothing like it, nothing stranger in the maritime records, -that I can recollect. - -At last the starboard cabin windows, high in the broadside, showed of a -pale steel grey; I went on my hands and feet to the steps and reached -the deck. I stood a little while in the companion-way thunderstruck; I -was confounded and could not credit my sight. The hull lay stranded -in a very well of ice. Ahead and astern rose masses of cliffs to an -altitude of four or five hundred feet. The vessel lay on a frozen -beach; 'twas a sloping sweep of the stuff, apparently linking the -iceberg astern to the ice over the bows. The bight or bay we had -drifted into was ramparted by the iceberg which sank from a vast -terrace to a point in an arm of natural breakwater like marble; but the -ice ahead was fixed to the face of the land. After looking a little I -spied the iron frown of dusky rocks perpendicular and smooth as though -planed, showing amidst the snow. - -Past the hinder ice and beyond the giant limb of marble-like breakwater -was the rolling ocean. It still blew hard, the seas raced angrily. -Whatever of ice they smote they flashed upon; over the lower parts -of the ice terrace the surge was bursting in lofty clouds, bright as -light. The heave came round the point in a wide swell, which did not -break in foam upon the beach where we lay, but swept silent, in a -glass-green volume, along the slope, just as the foamless lift of the -sea washes past the side of a ship; it broke only where it met with -anything rugged, and quickly lost its weight in the curve, soundlessly -recoiling from the base of the iceberg astern, though mightily -troubling the surface of the water by conflict with the succeeding -heave. - -The sky between the cliffs was wild with flying scud and rusty brown -masses of vapour rushing southwards. The vessel lay close in to the -land; she rested on her side at an angle of hard upon fifty degrees. -On either hand was open sky, the picture of it to port showing as -at the extremity of an immense ravine. Save but for sudden, quick -shootings of little short-lived draughts and blasts, the calm and even -the repose down here was as though we were in a well. The swell never -swept nearer to us than twenty feet. I crept to the side and lay over, -watching anxiously, and thus made sure of this after following the -quiet sweep of at least twenty successive heaves of brine. - -The desolation was awful! The picture savage, forbidding, terrifying -beyond imagination to one immured with its clouded crystal heights over -the bows, and the rugged slopes of ice over the stern forking into -fifty shapes of pinnacle, turret, spire, column, tower, as though on -the flat of the summit were the ruins of a city of marble. - -The decks were swept of everything save the companion. Wheel, binnacle, -capstans, galley, all were gone. I watched the ocean rolling past the -arm of ice astern, it was but a bit of it. The great berg that formed -the bay blocked the view of the deep; there was nothing to see but the -abrupt white walls ahead and astern, and the flying soot overhead and -away down to port, and, on the right, tall cliffs of ice and snow -glazing the land, with here and there a space of staring, black rock. - -Our isolation was shocking. My heart seemed to stop whilst I looked -around, realising the terrors and hopelessness of this new imprisonment -by the granite-hued light that was gaining a little in power. Though a -whaler stood within half a mile of the coast, how should she see us? It -would be hard enough to discern the speck of wreck we made had the bay -of ice in which we rested gaped naked to the sea, but we were as much -hidden here as if we had gone to the bottom. We were worse off, indeed, -than had we stranded upon a floating berg, because in _that_ case we -might have fallen in with the ice which might have split and freed us; -but now we were aground upon ice hardening into the face of an island -and stationary; months might pass before the body we were upon broke -away and became a water-borne bulk, and then, in the throes of the -liberation of the frozen cliffs, what of splintering, of volcanic-like -upheaval and disruption might happen to crush the little toy of hull -lying after many months as she lay now? - -I don't doubt I stared about me with something of a madman's wildness, -glancing up at the inaccessible heights, then at the sea rolling in -white lines beyond the limb of ice, then into the desolation of the -whirling sky on the left, till, recollecting that I had a companion -who looked to me for heart and encouragement, whom, by God's mercy, -wonderful as it would afterwards appear, I might yet be the means of -delivering from this hideous situation, I pulled my wits together and -returned to the cabin. - -The poor young lady was on the deck before the black stove as I had -left her. She could not have stood upon that angle of plank without -danger and distress. She began to question me in a voice that shuddered -with the cold. I answered I would talk with her when I had lighted a -fire, for I had now some spirit and saw things a little clearly, and -was no longer afraid of setting the hull in flames. - -I split up a bunk board, and picked a bucket full of capsized coal out -of the wash to leeward, as I may call it, and made a fire; but I moved -with pain and difficulty; the decks were wet, and as slippery as though -coated with ice, and the slope was that of a ship bulwarks under. - -When the fire was blazing I helped the young lady to sit close beside -it, and went on deck for some life-lines for this cabin. I moved with -less trouble above, for the life-lines I had before set up were still -stretched along. Every rope that I handled was like bar iron, but with -infinite trouble I succeeded in getting a length below and stretching -it here and there, which done I was able to use my legs with some -freedom. - -The stove was violently aslant, but it was possible to boil a kettle, -and whilst I waited for a hot drink I crouched beside the girl, -grateful for the comforting heat of the flames. I told her plainly that -we were stranded and ice-locked; that we must resolve to exert our -patience and make the best of our deplorable situation. She cleared -her head of the cover I had wrapped about her, and stared at me dumbly -for a minute or two with a face as white as though moonlit, and her -fair hair full of sparkles with the light of the lamp that still glowed -hard-slanted against the upper deck. - -'Do I understand,' she exclaimed in a low voice, painful to hear with -the tremulous gasps that shook it, 'that we are to remain in this -condition until--until----' She stopped, then added, 'but until _when_? -We are stranded and hidden and must perish.' - -'Listen to me,' said I, 'for this is our chance as I see it is as a -sailor: suppose us beached for months as we now are--though who's to -predict _that_?--for within twenty-four hours may come a gale out of -another quarter that shall free us and drive us amongst the ice to our -destruction--take it we are to be stranded here: I have read the ship's -papers, know the contents of the hold, and promise you, though no -chance of rescue should happen for a twelvemonth, nay, for a couple of -years, help, when it comes, shall find us alive so far as life may be -kept in us by food and drink and warmth.' - -She buried her face: I think it nearly killed her to hear me talk of -a twelvemonth or two years. Then, flashing upon me as it were with a -sudden dropping of her hands and the stare of her desperate grief and -horror, she cried: - -'Is there no hope beyond the waiting for the deliverance which may -never happen?' and without stopping for an answer she went on: 'How are -we to live even for a week in a hull we cannot move about on?' - -'That's the very least of our troubles,' said I. 'Come, you have -spirit--the heart of an Englishwoman beats in you. You must put some -face of courage and faith upon this business. We are alive. Keep on -thinking of _that_. Consider what we have come through. We might have -been thrown upon the ice without this shelter.' - -'We have stranded on an island, you say?' - -'I think so.' - -'What island?' - -I answered her. - -'Is there no harbour in it, no place where ships touch, no place where -men are? If they came fishing down here for whales and seals there -should be a port.' - -I put my hand upon a life-line and walked to the captain's cabin. It -was as dark as night there, for the heel of the hulk depressed the -cabin windows to within arms' reach of the beach, as it looked. I -lighted a bull's-eye, and, finding the chart I required, returned with -it. - -It was a chart of the discoveries made in these waters between 1819 and -1843. It outlined Graham Land down to sixty-eight degrees south, and -a little more than sixty-eight degrees west, and submitted a shaded -tracing of the South Shetlands; but I was very certain that our island -was none of _them_. I put the chart on Miss Otway's knee and threw the -lamplight upon it, and said, pointing to Coronation Island and then to -Laurie Island: - -'Which of them this is I can't tell you, but I should guess by our -drift that it's the bigger of the two, and that our lodgment's here,' -and I put my finger upon a bight named Palmer's Bay. 'Here's a mountain -at back of it, you see,' said I, 'towering to a height of nigh four -thousand five hundred feet; it was the blue shadow we saw in the air, -and our drift was nigh hard straight for that.' - -She put her face close to the chart, listening, meanwhile, greedily to -me. - -'But here are many English names,' said she--'Cape Dundas--Despair -Rock--Saddle Island.' She read thus a little; then went on: 'Surely an -island that has been named in this fashion is inhabited?' - -'Well, it may be. I hope it is,' said I. - -'Here are big islands,' she cried, pointing to the South Shetlands. -'Aren't there people upon _them_? And if so, couldn't we manage to get -to the place where they're settled? It's not far,' she added, looking -up at me. - -'It's a long way,' said I, 'for all it looks but the span of a hand on -this paper, and we have no boat.' - -'People must have been in some such another dreadful situation as this -before now,' she exclaimed. 'How did they manage?' - -'We'll manage, depend on't', said I, with all the hearty cheerfulness -I could summon. 'We'll write letters to the sea, telling our distress, -and send them adrift in bottles. I'll fashion rafts out of some of the -theatre stuff in the hold and send them afloat with the story of our -condition mastheaded on them in cans. It's not for us to be hopeless. -Wouldn't you rather be here than knocking about amongst the ice?' - -'Oh yes,' she cried; 'but if we are locked up--hidden away?' - -She started as if she would rise, and asked me to take her on deck that -she might see where we were, but I thought proper to keep her below in -the warmth and encourage her, and rouse her spirits by representations -of our prospects of deliverance, before letting her view the situation -of the hull; in truth I could not look at her and observe how delicate -and fragile she was, and reflect on the depressing, heart-subduing -influence of the terrors and experiences she had passed through, -without fearing the effect of a sudden shock, such as might prove the -sight of the savage wildness of the frowning, frozen cradle in which -the hull lay as in a tomb. - -I went about to get some breakfast. When I got on deck with a chopper -to fill the kettle, I found that the mould of fresh-water ice I had -split out of the scuttlebutt was gone. I had no mind to enter the -hold; indeed, I had not strength enough then to break open the frozen -hatch-covers; and water being wanted for a cup of hot coffee, I chipped -at a spear of ice on the bulwark and found it sweet, and perhaps -sweeter than the water we had been drinking. Why? Because nearly all -those frozen heads and devices of barbs and spikes were frozen snow and -mist. But never could we lack fresh water in this part of the world; -the cliffs ahead and astern were fresh; we were beached in fresh-water -ice. Even in that early time of my distress, whilst I sucked a little -piece of ice off the bulwarks to learn its quality, I found myself -lifting up my eyes with amazement at those giant heights, formed, as I -knew, of the vapour of the air and the sleet of the cloud and the gale. -It was like thinking of some vast, soft fog clinging to the face of -the land and freezing there into precipitous iron-hard rocks. - -Whilst making my way to the hatch with the ice, I heard a sudden great -roar astern; a sharp tremble ran through the hull as though a mine had -been sprung close alongside; the noise was exactly that of a broadside -from a liner, every great gun discharged at once. Yet I saw no movement -in the ice, nor heard any sound as of a fall. This put it into my head -to fancy it might not be long before the great berg that was linked -astern of us was sundered and on its way to join the rest of the mighty -fleet, every one of which had had a like berth and such a despatch as -awaited this. - -I clawed my way to the side and looked over. The beach that held the -berg to the main was perhaps a quarter of a mile long; I could not -be sure; it went out of sight in a slope on the port hand. But, in -comparison with the mighty bulk it yoked to the island, it was a -slender tie indeed, to be snapped in any moment of storm as you'd break -a clay pipe-stem. I peered down, wondering if the severance happened -whether we should go with the berg or be left a-dry under the cliff as -we now lay; but it was a hopeless and therefore a silly speculation; -though all the same I prayed heartily whilst I stood staring about me -that the berg would go, and speedily, whether it took us or left us, -since, whilst we lay hidden by it, there was not the remotest chance, -that I could imagine, of our being rescued. - -I remember thinking, as I turned from the rail and made with the ice -in my hand towards the companion, that one of the hardest parts of -this terrible experience for the poor girl below, though she would -have to be dumb on the subject, was the prospect of being locked up -with me--alone with a young man, a sailor, who was a stranger without -existence to her a few days ago; to be locked up, I say, it might -be for months, with a threat even of years in the run of time, with -a person whose character and history she knew nothing about, whose -calling sunk him far below her socially. This ran in my head with the -swiftness of thought whilst I was going below, and after I was in the -cabin going about the business of boiling coffee for a meal. - -How could I make her mind easy, on the score, I mean, of our -association, so that something at least of the weight of our -distressful tragic situation should be lifted off her poor young heart? -But the answer my good sense gave me was the answer it had before -returned, namely, she could only find me out by time, though to be sure -I might shorten the period of her fear of me by a behaviour that could -leave her in no doubt of my resolution to act as a man. - -I can't express how deeply I pitied her, how my very soul was moved -to its depths by the sight of her as she sat in her loneliness and -helplessness, a trueborn lady, gentle and fair, watching me, with her -white face turning after me, as I moved; sitting upon that desperate -slope of deck with the red glow of the fire upon her, herself a -shapeless bulk of furs and coverings in the lamplight that was growing -dim. - -When I drew to the stove she questioned me afresh upon our situation, -and begged me to conduct her on deck. I answered presently, when she -had broken her fast. She said: - -'Only think how it would be with me if I were alone.' - -I stopped in what I was about, and looking at her a little steadily, -but with a smile, I said: - -'I'm glad my presence is welcome to you. It will be owing to no fault -of mine if it's not always so whilst we're together.' - -A grateful look freshened her face with an expression of life that was -like colour and a smile. - -'Think of me alone here!' she said in a low voice. 'I should have gone -mad days ago. It never could have come to my knowing that this hull -had stranded amongst the ice. I should have destroyed myself in my -craziness.' - -'You have gone through too much,' said I, 'to miss of being rescued. -You'll be saved and so shall I, and for no other reason, I dare say, -than because I'm with you. I have some hope that this hulk will take a -more comfortable posture. Did you hear a roar like an explosion just -now astern?' - -'Yes. Was it the ice?' - -'Ay. But should it trim us, I hope it will not send us afloat.' - -She listened whilst I told her of the huge berg that lay linked to the -island by the beach of ice on which the hull rested. Then I talked -as cheerfully as I could of making this interior a tight, dry, warm -room for her whilst we lay waiting for that help which was bound in -some shape of whaler or sealer to come along. She shuddered and looked -around her with a face of sudden imploring grief; but I went on, -speaking as heartily as I could. - -'We'll make this cabin dry and warm,' said I. 'I'll get that water to -leeward there baled out. I'll rout the carpet up on deck and see what -the breeze will do for the brine in it. They've managed very well over -and over again up in the Arctic latitudes for months and months with -meaner accommodation and a poorer hold. I'll stock this cabin that -things may be handy. There's plenty of oil aboard I hope. There'll be -coal to last us in the forepeak; we shall be helped out of this before -it's all used up.' - -'How long,' she asked, 'are we likely to remain here?' - -'It was a saying of Nelson that at sea everything is possible and -nothing improbable. It's certain these islands are visited. My -intention is, Miss Otway, since we're here, so to provide for ourselves -that we may be alive when help comes. Do you see that?' - -'Oh yes.' - -'Don't be scared, then, because I talk of provisioning and securing -ourselves as though we were to be locked up for years.' - -Whilst I talked I was at work getting breakfast. The angle of the -deck was an abomination and a terrible hindrance, but I made no -further trouble of it than my laboured motions expressed. Yet beyond -the boiling of the kettle there was nothing to be done in the way of -cooking owing to the slant of the stove. The discomfort was incredible. -It was like being in a ship poised on her beam ends on the edge of a -sea, magically arrested in her downward rush, and hanging fixed, as -though capsizing. - -All was as hushed in the interior as though we were in harbour. The -seethe coming from the flashes of silent swell, whenever the dark green -folds, blindly sweeping, tore themselves against some edge of ice, -was too faint to invade us: the noise of the sea was shut out by the -heights of ice astern, and no echo of the booming of the gale sweeping -over the frozen summits penetrated. But for the insufferable posture -of the hull my heart might have beaten with some sort of restfulness -and even gratitude; for, dreadful as our situation was, it lacked the -terrors of the past days and nights; we were at least safe for the -time being, whilst in any hour gone by we might have been crushed to -pieces; we had a right to look forward with some hope, because we were -plentifully supplied with food; the hull was a stout shelter, and I -could not conceive, unless there happened some convulsion of ice, that -the swell of the bay, however enraged by storm, could hurt us; it might -thump and thrust us high, further out of its reach--that was all--and -trim the vessel by so doing into a habitable structure. - -These were my thoughts as I put some breakfast on the deck for my -companion. It was impossible for her to help herself. I had to place -the fiddles on the deck to save the food from slipping from her hand. -I talked with so much confidence that, when she had made a light meal, -I heard something like a note of her spirit in her voice, and saw a -little light of kindling hope in her eyes. Presently she begged me to -take her on deck, on which I helped her to stand, and, catching hold of -her arm, conducted her to the companion steps. - -She ascended painfully. I stepped out on deck and brought her to my -side; and then, emerging, she looked around. Never can I forget that -poor young lady's face as she gazed at the savage, desolate, frozen -scene, realising the significance of it slowly. She shrank, she -cowered in the companion way; she shuddered violently, whilst her hand, -with a wandering gesture, came to my arm. I see her now in memory -turning her white face towards the towering mass astern, then looking -at the dumb blankness of the ice cliffs ahead, with the bows of the -beam-ended hulk rising to them as though upon a lift of sea. - -'Is this it? Is this it?' she whispered. - -She stared straight up at the flying gloom, blacking off the ghastly -white edge of the iceberg in shadows of a ragged, smoke-like stuff; -she strained her eyes at the little space of sea showing in angry, -dark, flashing ridges past the huge ice projection that made the bay, -shutting out from our sight all the rest of the ocean too. Then, -turning to me, she tried to speak, swayed, with an effort to cover her -face, and fainted. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - -MR. MOORE CONTINUES THE STORY - - -No news of Marie reached us after we received a letter by a brig called -the 'Queen of the Night' which had spoken the 'Lady Emma' in the North -Atlantic. She had sent us a sort of diary or journal: it was meant for -her father and me: she wrote in spirits which, the entries showed, -were gaining in brightness, and there was no doubt that her health had -greatly improved. Some of her descriptions were very fine: she seemed -to have thrown herself into the very life of the voyage and wrote of -the sails, rigging, discipline and manÅ“uvres of the vessel with the -easy familiarity of an old sailor. - -We gathered that she was perfectly happy with Captain and Mrs. Burke, -and of Mr. Owen she spoke with gratitude for his attention and sympathy. - -I was told, however, by one or two seagoing acquaintances not to wonder -if we did not hear again from Marie until the ship arrived at her first -port, Valparaiso. A vessel might be ninety days upon the ocean and yet -not 'speak' another. A friend spoke of an Indiaman that, in the whole -voyage from Bombay to the Thames--not allowing, of course, for the -ships seen on touching at Capetown--had sighted nothing but the topmast -canvas of a vessel whose hull was sunk out of sight below the horizon. - -I was living in rooms out of Bond Street. One morning in 1860, it was -October 2, and Marie had then been absent from England six months, -during which, after the arrival of the Liverpool brig, we had received -no news whatever either of her or the 'Lady Emma.' I say, on October 2, -whilst at breakfast, I picked up a morning newspaper and began to turn -it about. After reading for some time my eye lighted upon a paragraph -headed, 'Loss of the ship "Lady Emma."' I trembled and felt sick; I -wanted courage to read the paragraph, though the paper was shuddering -in my hands, and my eyes were upon the news, yet before reading I -caught myself reasoning; it is another 'Lady Emma'--it cannot be -Marie's ship--there may be ten or twenty 'Lady Emmas' afloat--and then -I read. - -The paragraph--I have not preserved it--was to this effect: - -The barque 'Planter,' being to the eastwards of Cape Horn, fell in with -a ship's long-boat full of men. The captain took the unfortunate people -on board, but some were found to be lifeless, having been frozen to -death during the night. Their story was, they were the boatswain (Wall) -and survivors of the ship 'Lady Emma,' Burke, master, that sailed -from the Thames bound to Valparaiso on April 2. She had been driven -to the southward and eastward by heavy weather, and when she was in -about fifty-nine degrees south latitude, she was totally dismasted by -a sudden hurricane. After fruitless efforts to erect a jury-mast, the -crew abandoned her in the long-boat. With them went the ship's doctor -(Owen). The master refused to quit the ship, and remained aboard with -his wife and a young lady passenger. Very shortly after the long-boat -had been met with, one of the crew of the 'Planter' fell overboard. -A boat was lowered in charge of the chief mate, Mr. Ralph Selby, but -before she could reach the man a sea capsized her, and the mate and the -three men who were in her were drowned. Within a week of picking up the -survivors of the 'Lady Emma's' crew, the 'Planter' transferred them -to a vessel bound to Monte Video, where they were forwarded by H.B.M. -Consul by steamer to this country, arriving yesterday at the West India -Docks. Mr. Owen died before the arrival of the vessel at Monte Video, -and was buried at sea. It is supposed that the 'Lady Emma' foundered -prior to the rescue of her crew, as Captain Parry of the 'Planter,' -which is a barque of four hundred and sixty tons, cruised at great risk -amongst the ice in the neighbourhood of the spot where the hull was -supposed to be lying without seeing anything of her. - -I sat as one paralysed, read the account through again, scarcely even -then believing that the ship was the same that my betrothed had sailed -in. Next, thrusting the newspaper into my pocket, I jumped up, ran into -the street, and, jumping into a cab, bade the man drive me to Messrs. -Butcher and Hobbs, at such and such a number in the Minories. It was -about a quarter to ten o'clock. - -Butcher and Hobbs were the owners of the 'Lady Emma'--of her and a -little fleet of smaller vessels. I had been introduced by Captain -Burke to Mr. Hobbs, and now it came to me as I was driven fast, -with my brain in a whirl, half mad with consternation, grief, the -hundred emotions which must needs throng upon so abrupt a disclosure -of dreadful news as this I had just read--it came to me, I say, that -Mr. Hobbs in my presence had very earnestly advised Captain Burke to -insure some goods he was taking out as a speculation of his own; and I -recollected the captain replying, with an arch, laughing air, full of -strong confidence, that insurance would only render him indifferent: -he had no fear as to the safety of the ship. If he insured and she was -lost, it would be said he sank or stranded her. - -On my arrival in the Minories I entered an old-fashioned, grimy office, -in which sat a tall, stoutly-built seaman with immense whiskers, both -hands on his knees; he stared idly, as though waiting. I went to a -desk, and asked for Mr. Butcher or Mr. Hobbs. The clerk may have -recollected me; he instantly rose, entered an inner office, and -returning, begged me to step in. - -Mr. Hobbs was alone: a large fat man, yellow-haired and bearded, -with staring, watery eyes. As I entered he stood up, with an air of -deep dejection, and extending his hand, bowed over it, looking down, -exclaiming: - -'I know the business that has brought you here, sir. It is terrible--it -is shocking! But----' He then stood erect, and shrugged his shoulders, -with a roll of his eyes upwards. - -'The report in the paper is true, then?' said I. - -'I grieve to say it is,' he replied. - -I so trembled with grief I could scarcely speak to the man. - -'Are we to entertain no hope whatever?' I said, leaning upon the table -for support. He placed a chair; I sank into it and proceeded: 'Surely -we need not certainly conclude the dismasted ship sunk after the -long-boat left her merely because----' and here, forgetting the names, -I brought out the newspaper to refer to--' the "Planter" failed to find -her after a few hours' search in, perhaps, thick weather, and amongst -the ice, which may have been numerous?' - -'Oh, of course,' he exclaimed, 'we must not abandon hope. As you justly -put it, the "Planter's" search counts for little, considering how -brief it was, and the state of the weather. I'll not pretend I have -much hope myself, but the sea provides many chances. Again and again -you hear of rates rising, till no further risk is taken; then the ship -is posted, her end made sure of, and one fine morning she's signalled -off some Channel station, blowing leisurely along with the loss of her -foretop-mast and her bottom beach-like with weed. I don't despair, sir; -yet I must honestly own my hope is not strong.' He paused, then said, -'I believe one of the crew of the "Lady Emma's" in the front office.' -He walked to the door and looked out. 'Would you like to see him? He -was the boatswain of the ship. His name is Wall.' - -I eagerly begged him to bring him in. He called, and the big sailor -I had noticed entered. I immediately recollected that Marie, in the -fragment of journal she had sent us, had described and praised him for -his civility and his qualities as a seaman. He stood before us, cap in -hand, his back slightly arched by years of stooping and hauling and -curling of his body over yards and booms; his weather-coloured face -was hard as leather, and rugged and knotted with muscle; one of those -seafaring faces, impenetrable to the chisel of ocean experience which -fifty tragedies of the deep would no more mark than the human anguish -in shipwreck alters the face of the rock which stares through the salt -smoke down upon the scene. - -'This gentleman,' said Mr. Hobbs, 'is Mr. Archibald Moore. The young -lady passenger aboard the "Lady Emma" was----' he dropped his head and -was silent. - -I gazed at the seaman with consuming interest; he had been among the -last--he might have been the last--who had seen, who had spoken to -Marie. - -'You'll not tell me,' said I, in a broken voice, 'there's no hope for -the three you left behind you?' - -'No, sir, I'll not tell you that,' answered the man in deep tones, -which trembled upon the ear with the power of their volume. 'I've said -all along that if the ice only lets the hull keep afloat, there was -nothen to prevent her being fallen in with. She wasn't so far south,' -continued he, looking at Mr. Hobbs, 'as to be out of the way of half a -dozen chances a week if the weather opened out the sea, and gave a view -of her as she lay flat, with but twelve foot of foremast standing.' - -'Why were they left behind?' I cried. 'Why were they left to wash -about in a dismasted hulk amongst ice, to perish horribly after days of -suffering perhaps?' and I beat the table with my fist. - -'Mr. Moore, the capt'n refused to quit,' said the seaman, speaking -calmly in his deep voice, and viewing me with an air of respectful -pity. 'My mates'll tell you I entreated of him and the ladies to enter -the boat, likewise did Mr. Owen, the doctor. We wasn't listened to. The -captain was all for waiting for something to come alongside, and take -the hulk in tow. He was for jury-rigging her--on a twelve-foot stump of -foremast!' said he, slowly regarding Mr. Hobbs. 'The consarn blew over -the bows. What in that way was going to stand down there?' - -'You should have used force,' I said. - -'With the capt'n?' he exclaimed, with a slow, astonished shake of his -head. - -'Had you got the captain into the boat, the ladies would have -followed.' - -'Neither 'ud have been alive next morning. The young one would have -froze to death in a few hours. You should have heard the strongest -amongst us groaning with the cold when we lost sight of the craft we -were making for, and when the night drawed down, and we were for the -hull, all hands of us mad for the shelter of her and the warmth of -our blankets and the hot drinks to be got. I tell ye, sir,' he added, -calmly and respectfully, 'that the captain knew more about it than we -did, and was right to keep the ladies aboard; for if they was to die, -better comfortably in a warm cabin than in an open boat with spray -sheeting over them at every plunge.' - -'What was the situation of the hull when the crew abandoned her?' I -asked. - -Mr. Hobbs pulled open a drawer, and read aloud a copy of an entry in -the log-book of the 'Planter' in which the meeting with the long-boat -was minuted. The situation as there stated was Latitude 58° 45' S., -Longitude 45° 10' W. This copy of the logbook entry had been handed by -Captain Parry of the 'Planter' to the master of the ship to whom the -crew had been transferred. - -A yellow glazed map of the world hung in the office over the -mantelpiece. My eye went to it, and I made a step, saying to the -boatswain Wall: - -'Show me to the place. What land lies nearest to it? What is the usual -track of ships passing Cape Horn?' - -He hung back, evidently ignorant of maps and of latitude and longitude. -Mr. Hobbs, picking up a ruler, approached the mantelpiece, and, peering -close at the dingy map, presently put the end of the ruler upon a part -of it and said: - -'This, as nearly as possible, will be the place where the crew -abandoned the hull.' - -'Is that land there?' - -Mr. Hobbs slanted his head to read, and exclaimed; 'Ay; in this little -group we have--my sight is not what it was--ah! the South Orkneys. -These to the left--' with straining sight and some difficulty he spelt -out 'South Shetlands.' - -'What sort of islands are they?' I asked. - -'About the most desolate, froze-up, oninhabited rocks on that side of -the world,' answered Wall. 'There's nothen to be thought of along o' -them.' - -'Why?' I asked. - -'Because going ashore there would be like hittin' ice. In the swell -that's always a-running, the hull 'ud go to pieces with the first blow, -like a loosed faggot. Their one chance,' he added, in a voice of deep -conviction, 'lies in their being fallen in with and taken off. That may -have happened. If so, it'll be a question of waiting.' - -'If so,' cried Mr. Hobbs, with a raised manner of cheerfulness that -was scarcely sincere I thought, 'Captain Burke will bear in mind the -suspense and anxiety you and the young lady's father are suffering, and -exert his experience as an old seaman to promptly communicate, so that, -let us trust, if there be good news in store, we'll get it quickly.' - -'Suppose the hull should have been thrown upon an iceberg,' I -exclaimed, addressing Wall, 'must she inevitably go to pieces?' - -'That 'ud depend upon how she took the ice,' he answered. - -'If she stranded and lay dry--such things have happened--could the -three live in her?' - -'Yes, sights more comfortably than if she was afloat.' - -'For how long?' - -'She was freighted,' said Mr. Hobbs, 'with an abundance of the -necessaries of life.' - -'How long could a vessel remain on the ice in a habitable state?' - -'Years,' answered Wall, 'if she's let alone. Give her a snug berth -clear of the wash of the sea and tumbling blocks, and what's to hurt -her?' - -Mr. Hobbs was staring at me earnestly. 'I could wish to persuade you,' -he exclaimed, with a melancholy inclination of his head, 'to discard -the notion of the hull finding a berth in an iceberg. Our hope must -take a practical form. Let us, then, believe that the wreck has been -encountered by one of the many whalers and other vessels which frequent -those seas, and that Captain Burke and his companions are at this -present moment safe.' - -I turned to Wall and plied him with questions. What was the condition -of the hull? What had been the state of Miss Otway's health? Did he -believe, by recalling her looks when he last saw her, that she had -the strength to outlive the horrors, trials, suspense, suffering, of -even one week of a dismasted hull, rolling about amidst the ice in -dangerous, desolate seas?--the wildest in the world and in their -mid-winter? Was Captain Burke, singlehanded, aboard the wreck, as a -man, capable of doing anything to help them into safety? If not, why -had he stuck to the ship? What madman's nightmare of imagination could -have induced him to remain with two women aboard a vessel he could do -nothing with? - -I almost raved my questions at the man, so wild grew my heart with -grief whilst I listened to his plain answers, full of an old practical -seaman's good sense, though several times he repeated that the captain -was right to keep his wife and Miss Otway aboard, as they never could -have survived the first night in the long-boat. - -He increased my distress by hinting somewhat doubtfully that Captain -Burke had fallen a little weak in his mind during the voyage; he spoke -of an apparition that had been seen to walk on the ship's forecastle; -it had been clothed in the likeness of the captain, and ever after he -had ceased to be quite the same man. - -'Can you imagine,' I cried, rounding upon Mr. Hobbs, 'that the loss of -the ship is owing to Captain Burke having gone mad?' - -'You wouldn't say so?' he answered, looking at Wall. - -'No, sir,' answered the seaman, 'there was no madness in that job of -dismasting, if it wasn't in the weather.' - -'But,' I exclaimed, picking up the ruler Mr. Hobbs had used, and laying -the end of it upon the map, 'what was the captain's motive in carrying -this vessel so far south? See where the Horn is? What, in God's name, -was he doing so high?' - -'He was blowed there,' answered the man. - -'I understand,' said Mr. Hobbs, 'that a succession of hard northerly -gales settled the vessel to the southward and eastward, considerably -out of the usual course.' - -'The "Planter" was also blowed south,' said Wall. - -I continued to question with impassioned anxiety, eagerness, and -grief, till I found I was likely to become an intruder in the office, -on which, asking the boatswain Wall for his address, and ascertaining -that he did not mean to look about him for another berth at present, I -shook hands with Mr. Hobbs, and walked to my place of business in the -City--a private bank near Gracechurch Street. - -Sir Mortimer Otway was at this time at Paris on a visit to some -friends. I had heard from him two days before, and understood that he -would return on the fourth or fifth. His health was not good. Of late -he had become very anxious about his daughter. He thought it was time, -after six months, that he should receive news of her, or that the 'Lady -Emma' should be reported. This being so, I resolved not to write, but -to wait until his return, when I would tell him of the wreck of the -ship, if, indeed, the account of it did not reach him through other -hands, or the newspapers in Paris. - -For my own part I was so shocked, so stunned, there was something so -terrible to my imagination in the character of this wreck, in every -circumstance of it, having regard to the loneliness of the three, the -wild and stormy breast of waters where the hull had been left plunging -helpless by her crew, that I could not hold up my head. I could not -speak. I sat in a sort of stupor. My father reasoned with me; he -pointed out that the hull was afloat, a stout, seaworthy vessel when -the crew left her; that being dismasted she was less likely to beat -against the ice than were she moving through the water under sail; that -a vessel had been seen and pursued by the crew; that where one was -there must be others; and so on, and so on. - -I heard him and that was all. - -I cannot tell how great was my love for Marie. I felt that I had acted -as a wretch, betrayed the darling of my heart to her destruction, -in sanctioning her father's scheme of sending her away alone--and -she must be alone if she was without me--on a long voyage in a -comparatively small sailing ship. The fancy of her in that rolling, -dismasted hull was a dreadful oppression to my imagination and worked -in me like madness itself. I had seen the ship, and so the figure of -her as she tumbled dismasted amidst the heavy seas far south of Cape -Horn was easy to paint. To think of my Marie, that delicate, fragile, -timid girl, imprisoned in such a hulk, enduring hours and perhaps days -of anguish in poignant suspense and heartbreaking expectation of death, -all alone as she was, countless leagues away from me, from her father, -with no other companion than her old nurse, who, let her devotion be -what it might, must surely fail her at such a time. - -My mind felt crazed. I could not lift my head nor speak. - - -END OF THE SECOND VOLUME - - -PRINTED BY -SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE -LONDON - - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEART OF OAK, VOL. 2 OF 3 *** - -***** This file should be named 62378-0.txt or 62378-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - https://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/3/7/62378/ - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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Clark Russell</title> -<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> -<style type="text/css"> - - p { margin-top: .75em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .75em; - } - - p.bold {text-align: center; font-weight: bold;} - p.bold2 {text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: 150%;} - - h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; - } - h1 span, h2 span { display: block; text-align: center; } - #id1 { font-size: smaller } - - - hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; - } - - body{margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; - } - - table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 5px; border-collapse: collapse; border: none; text-align: right;} - - .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ - /* visibility: hidden; */ - position: absolute; - left: 92%; - font-size: smaller; - text-align: right; - text-indent: 0px; - } /* page numbers */ - - .center {text-align: center;} - .smaller {font-size: smaller;} - .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - .mynote { background-color: #DDE; color: black; padding: .5em; margin-left: 20%; - margin-right: 20%; } /* colored box for notes at beginning of file */ - .space-above {margin-top: 3em;} - .left {text-align: left;} - - </style> - </head> -<body> - -<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold;'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Heart of Oak, vol. 2 of 3, by William Clark Russell</div> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Heart of Oak, vol. 2 of 3<br /> -A Three-Stranded Yarn</div> -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: William Clark Russell</div> -<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Release Date: June 12, 2020 [eBook #62378]<br /> -[Most recently updated: April 16, 2021]</div> -<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> -<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team</div> -<div style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEART OF OAK, VOL. 2 OF 3 ***</div> - -<div class ="mynote"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:<br /><br /> -Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.<br /></p></div> - -<hr /> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/title.jpg" alt="Title page" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/newbooks.jpg" alt="New books" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p class="bold2">HEART OF OAK</p> - -<p class="bold">VOL. II.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="center">PRINTED BY<br />SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE<br />LONDON</p> - -<hr /> - -<h1>HEART OF OAK</h1> - -<p class="bold">A THREE-STRANDED YARN</p> - -<p class="bold space-above">BY</p> - -<p class="bold2">W. CLARK RUSSELL</p> - -<p class="bold">AUTHOR OF<br />'THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR' 'THE PHANTOM DEATH'<br /> -'THE CONVICT SHIP' ETC.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/dec1.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<p class="bold space-above">IN THREE VOLUMES—VOL. II.</p> - -<p class="bold space-above">LONDON<br />CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY<br />1895</p> - -<hr /> - -<h2>CONTENTS</h2> - -<p class="bold">OF</p> - -<p class="bold2">THE SECOND VOLUME</p> - -<table summary="CONTENTS"> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="left"><span class="smaller">CHAPTER</span></td> - <td><span class="smaller">PAGE</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XI. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">The Crew Leave</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XII. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Mr. Selby takes up the Story</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XIII. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">The Hull</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XIV. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Still Adrift</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XV. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">The Ice in the South</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XVI. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">The Aurora Australis</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_145">145</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XVII. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">The Thick of it</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XVIII. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Imprisoned</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_192">192</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XIX. </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Mr. Moore continues the Story</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_221">221</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold2">HEART OF OAK</p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XI</span> <span class="smaller">THE CREW LEAVE</span></h2> - -<p>The sail shone like a peak of ice against a belly of soft snow-cloud -right ahead—that is, ahead as the hull's bows lay. I should have -supposed it ice, but for the captain, who stood close beside the -companion holding the ship's glass: he said, 'There she is, miss.'</p> - -<p>'Is she coming this way?' cried I, shivering with cold and passion.</p> - -<p>'I can't tell as yet. She's only just been sighted. Bear a hand with -the first empty tar barrel you can get hold of,' he bawled, moving -forwards, and he continued to shout,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> but I could not gather the -instructions he delivered.</p> - -<p>Presently Mrs. Burke joined me, and then Mr. Owen swathed to the -nostrils.</p> - -<p>'It's almost too good to credit,' he exclaimed! 'Can they be mistaken? -Is it ice? If it should prove a ship!'</p> - -<p>He went sliding and staggering towards some men in the waist, and stood -questioning them, heedless of the captain.</p> - -<p>With the promptitude of seamen the crew collected a lot of stuff for -making a smoke; they stacked a large heap of material near the gangway -and set fire to it, and in about ten minutes a thick body of blue smoke -was rolling over the rail, and clouding upwards with many a sparkling -ruddy gleam shooting up tongue-shaped or arrow-like into the throat of -the sooty pouring.</p> - -<p>It was wide daylight and the antarctic day young, but the clouds rimmed -the horizon with the shadow of night, and the crimson<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> light of the -flare promised as swift an intelligence of our forlorn condition as -the smoke. The seamen continued to feed the fire; and all the while -Captain Burke was stretching his telescope at the distant gleam; the -men again and again turning their eyes from it to him with looks -growing dark with impatience and consuming anxiety. Mr. Owen had -fetched his binocular glass and strained his eyes through them without -intermission. Mrs. Burke and I standing in the companion, which was -the one sheltered part of that long stretch of frozen deck and smashed -bulwarks, gazed without speech.</p> - -<p>Suddenly a sailor, one who had been most active in feeding the fire, -sprang on to the rail: he grasped a spear-shaped projection of ice, -which broke short off and he fell on his back; he sprang again with an -oath, and after looking, turned to others who were standing near the -fire and roared: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Mates, she's leaving us, by God!'</p> - -<p>'She takes us for a whaler trying out. There's no good in smoke as a -signal down here,' said a sailor.</p> - -<p>'It's our chance,' bawled the fellow who had sprung and fallen, now -throwing himself back on to the deck. 'There mayn't come another for -weeks. What's to happen then? Are we to drive about in this fired ocean -till we ends as froze-up corpses? I'm for following her.'</p> - -<p>'Take her bearings, bo'sun, while she's in sight,' shouted a seaman, -and the huge sailor, as obedient as though the captain had given the -command, rolled aft and put the sharp of his hand upon the compass bowl.</p> - -<p>'Captain Burke,' exclaimed one of the seamen, in a voice startling with -its sudden savage note of revolt, 'we've had enough of this. There's -nothen that's a-going to be of any use to us in them booms.' He pointed -behind him with his thumb. 'There's our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> chance. We'll run ourselves -into her sight and she'll pick us up.'</p> - -<p>'Hold your jaw, you Johnson!' said Captain Burke, who was as white -as the deck in the face, though his eyes showed dangerously, like a -madman's who watches his chance to leap upon you.</p> - -<p>'Hold <i>my</i> jaw?' growled the seaman, a hairy scowling man in a yellow -sou'-wester, dropping his head into an insolent butting posture. -'Why, so I will arter I've told yer that when them masts went we was -quit of your blistered articles, and here's one as ain't for stopping -one bloomin' minute longer to mess and muck about with jury-masts, -pennorths of parasol to be blowed over the bows as soon as they're up. -Mates,' he yelled, 'I'm after that ship whilst there's time. Who's for -coming?'</p> - -<p>As though there had been something quickening and thrilling as -magnetism in the sailor's shout, the whole of the men made a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> jump for -the boat, one of the first being the boatswain who was coming aft from -the compass when the seaman bawled the invitation.</p> - -<p>The smoke of the flare had flittered down into a curl of pale blue -vapour, which blew over the rail feather-shaped to the sea. The captain -stood this side of it, watching the men in a staring idle way whilst -they went to work at the boat with gleaming knives, hacking and cutting -at her fastenings—he seemed as though deprived of his reason—then he -roared out:</p> - -<p>'Leave that boat alone. Don't touch that boat. She belongs to the ship. -She's my property. Overboard and swim for that vessel there if she's -your chance, you dogs! But leave that boat alone.'</p> - -<p>A few turned their heads to look at him and then went on passing their -knives through the lashings, clearing away the booms and so forth.</p> - -<p>'Stop him!' shrieked Mrs. Burke. 'Help,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> Mr. Owen! What can he do? -What's the use of it? They'll kill him!' and I too screamed when I saw -the captain rush upon the nearest of the men regardless of their naked -knives; he struck out right and left, flooring two, but a third—none -of them I observed offering to hit him back—crooked his leg at the -poor man's heels, and he fell, fetching the iron-hard snow-coated plank -a thump that left him motionless.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Burke rushed to his side. The boatswain cried out:</p> - -<p>'He's no right to stop us, mum. It's our lives we're working for and -thinking of. You and him and the lady'll come along too. Now, mates, -whilst there's daylight, for God's sake!'</p> - -<p>Mr. Owen crossed to the captain's side and assisted Mrs. Burke to drag -him aft. His figure slipped over the frozen snow as though he was -lifeless, but they had not dragged him a dozen paces in the direction -of the companion-hatch when he cried out and struggled. Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> Owen let -go; with the help of his wife he got on his feet.</p> - -<p>'Get me some brandy,' said he.</p> - -<p>I heard him and made with what speed I might for the cabin, my face -bloodless and my heart beating as fast as a watch ticks. That brief -scene of conflict, like to one of those terrible mutinies I had read -of in sea tales, had been shocking to witness, on top as it was of our -helpless and awful situation, and all the anguish of expectation and -fear which had filled the past few days. I was sick and nearly fainted. -I sat down to catch my breath and press my temples. Before I found -strength to rise, Mrs. Burke descended, followed by her husband.</p> - -<p>He seated himself at the table, upon which he lay his right arm and -buried his face in it. She coaxed him after a little into taking some -brandy, and then observing my state she got me to take a sip.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile overhead I heard the crew busy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> with the long-boat; her keel -thundered as they ran her to the side for launching. Their movements -were full of feverish bustle; in truth they were working for life or -death; they meant to catch the ship and there remained but a very few -hours of daylight.</p> - -<p>'Does your head pain you, Edward?'</p> - -<p>'No,' he answered, and strained his hearing to catch what was passing -above.</p> - -<p>'Will they let us know when they're ready to take us?' I cried.</p> - -<p>'Take us!' the captain exclaimed, with a sudden anger in his whole -manner as he turned towards me. 'They may take you, but I stop here.'</p> - -<p>'No, no, Miss Marie,' cried my poor old nurse, 'they must not take you -without me, and my place is by my husband's side wherever he is. Think -if they should miss the ship, which is more than likely: they'll be in -an open boat in this frozen ocean! Fancy being in an open boat in such -weather as that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> of the night before last! You would not live to see -to-morrow's dawn. And how should their going concern us? If they fall -in with the ship they'll report we are here and the vessel may return. -If they miss her they are in an exposed open boat, and we are in a dry, -comfortable hull, with a good warm cabin to sit in, and no worse off -than if all the crew were aboard. For what can they do? If the ship -comes, she'll come whether the crew are on board or not.'</p> - -<p>'But are the three of us to be left alone?' I exclaimed.</p> - -<p>'The dogs could have helped me,' muttered the captain. 'We blew -northwards yesterday and to-day we sighted a sail. They are villains to -steal my boat, the only remaining boat. But I am too few for them—I am -too few for them.' He clasped his hands upon the back of his head as -though he was in pain there.</p> - -<p>Just then four or five seamen came <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>tumbling down the companion-ladder: -one held a lighted lantern. This man exclaimed:</p> - -<p>'Capt'n, the boat's alongside, and all's ready.'</p> - -<p>'What are you doing down here?' thundered the captain.</p> - -<p>'The victuals we want are in the lazarette,' answered the man. 'No good -lifting the main-hatch and overhauling the cargo when all we need's -handy here.'</p> - -<p>Even whilst he spoke the rest had pulled up a little square hatch -cover with an iron ring in it; it fitted a large manhole a few paces -abaft the companion-ladder; this hatch conducted to a part of the -after-hold called the lazarette, a sort of store-room in which the -cabin provisions and wines with other commodities were stowed.</p> - -<p>Captain Burke jumped from his seat; his wife fell upon him shrieking, -and with her arms about his neck forced him to sit, beseeching him to -have patience, to let the men have their way, to attempt no violence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> -or they would kill him. He trembled with rage and weakness and grief, -but he understood his powerlessness—which was merciful, for there was -an angry stubbornness in the hurry and motions of the men which was as -good as advising their captain, with a curse and a threat wrapped up in -the hint, not to meddle with them, not to offer to hinder them if he -valued his life.</p> - -<p>Very promptly the lot emerged from the lazarette, bearing cases and -sacks, hams, cheeses, and so forth. They no doubt guessed they'd come -to want plenty of provisions should they miss the ship they were -after. They ran headlong up the ladder, none heeding us, but not above -two minutes afterwards the boatswain's burly figure showed in the -companion-way, and he bawled down:</p> - -<p>'Capt'n Burke, we're all ready, and there isn't a second to lose. Ain't -you going to join us along with the ladies?'</p> - -<p>He received no reply. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> - -<p>He repeated the question, roaring it out in a bull-like bellowing, and -then came a step or two down the ladder to stretch his neck that he -might see us. I cried out:</p> - -<p>'Are we to be left alone?' for I cannot express the horror that chilled -me when I thought of the sailors leaving us to save themselves, -insomuch that they might be on board another ship sailing towards the -sun ere the Southern Cross was trembling in the south that night, -whilst the three of us who stayed—two of them women—might go on -rolling about in a wrecked and crusted hull till she grew sodden and -sank, or split against an iceberg.</p> - -<p>'Come you along with us, miss, if the captain and his wife won't leave -the vessel!' cried the boatswain.</p> - -<p>'No!' shrieked Mrs. Burke. 'Would you expose a delicate young lady in -these seas in an open boat? Fools are you yourselves to go. You'll be -heard of no more.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> - -<p>The boatswain without another word withdrew his great developed bulk -from the hatch, but he was instantly replaced by another figure, and -Mr. Owen's voice, shrill with excitement and hurry, cried down:</p> - -<p>'Mrs. Burke, Miss Otway, aren't you coming? They'll be putting off -without you if you pause.'</p> - -<p>'He does not ask my husband to join them,' screamed Mrs. Burke, 'the -wretch! does he think I would leave my husband?'</p> - -<p>Mr. Owen came swiftly down into the cabin and talked like a man in -delirium.</p> - -<p>'You have no right to keep this young lady with you. Captain Burke -sticks to his hull from sordid motives. That's his look-out. Life's -more precious than cargo. Miss Otway was entrusted to my care. I insist -upon her being permitted to accompany us. Her father looks to me for -her well-being. She is eager to go with us and you will not suffer it.' -Thus he raved on. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Leave this cabin,' cried the captain, springing up. His face was full -of blood, his blue eyes blazed; he had already been worked up into -madness, and I was certain by his insane manner of starting from his -chair, if the doctor did not go instantly the captain would destroy him.</p> - -<p>But it was at that moment that the boatswain bawled on deck. 'Come -up!' were the words I caught, sounding through the companion-hatch in -a muffled note of thunder. 'Up with them who's going.' More was said -which I did not hear.</p> - -<p>'By keeping her, you are murdering her, and her blood is on your head!' -cried Mr. Owen like a woman in a frenzy of passion, and rushed up the -ladder.</p> - -<p>'Don't believe him,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke, grasping my hand, with a -wild, short, passionate laugh that had the note of an hysteric sob. -'You shall see the boat presently. You shall see it out upon the -water.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> You will judge then who would kill you. Oh, not I, not I, my -flower; not I, your poor old nurse!'</p> - -<p>I clasped her round the neck and sobbed. When I looked up Captain Burke -had left the cabin.</p> - -<p>We were apparelled for the deck, and finding the captain gone, we -followed, and though scarcely five minutes had elapsed since the -boatswain bawled, already the long-boat was some ship's lengths -distant, bowed almost to the line of her lee rail by a great square of -white canvas, shaded here and there where the moisture had not dried -out of it. She looked full of people as she rose to the head of the -folds, ripping through it with the icy breeze fresh off her bow, till -the lift of the foam sparkled in a fountain-like arch right athwart her -forward, and her speed raised two humps of froth on either quarter, -and shot a long milk-white glance of wake, bright as a meteor's line -of light, far astern of her, lifting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> and falling on the swell, and -defined to its extremity even amidst the smoke and snap of the running -seas.</p> - -<p>Captain Burke with one hand grasping the edge of the companion stood -watching her. When we came up his first words were, after a brief pause:</p> - -<p>'They'll overhaul the ship if they can only get a sight of her. Look -how she sails, and how finely she is handled.'</p> - -<p>'She may be the means of saving us,' cried Mrs. Burke. 'What use were -they on board of us? But they're useful there. They'll be sighted and -rescued, and we shall be hunted after.'</p> - -<p>But I did not want her nor her husband after I had watched the boat -a little to tell me that, unless they quickly encountered succour, -their situation, crowded together in a small exposed space, would be -terrible. Also, since Mrs. Burke would not have left her husband, I -should have been the only woman in her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> I cannot say how the mere -sight of her as she swept onwards, dwindling as you gazed into a mere -toy, regularly sinking out of sight till nothing showed but a gleaming -curve of her topmast cloths, wan and slender as a distant sea-fowl's -pinion, then taking the slope till she leaned, poised and foaming for -a breathless instant, upon the flying summit: I cannot tell you, I -say, how solemnly and awfully that mere toy, full of human beings, -emphasised to my perception the vastness and the loneliness of this -cold, green, heaving breast of ocean.</p> - -<p>Captain Burke took the telescope out of the companion and swept the sea -for some little distance on either hand the boat's bows, pausing on the -lee side of the fabric where, my sight being good, I spied a point like -a light tipping the sea-line against some dark clouds there whenever -the hull soared.</p> - -<p>'That's the ship,' said he, pointing. 'They may catch her! Why, had I -thought of it—but <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>who's going to make proposals to mutineers?—the -scoundrels have stolen my only boat. How do they know in leaving us -what's to become of us without a boat?'</p> - -<p>'Had you thought of what?' said his wife.</p> - -<p>'I'd have given them a handful of rockets.'</p> - -<p>We stood watching the boat till the white spot she became was one with -the breaking seas. The hull looked indescribably forlorn. The sense of -all life, saving us three, having gone out of her, brought a deeper -spirit of desolation into her labouring shape. Oh, the heart-sickness -that came into you out of her dismal regular rolling in the trough! -The swell lifted her, the seas burst upon her weather side as against -a rock, broke into smoke, and smote the hollow they sprang from with -the loud hissing of a hail squall. There was a constant dreary gleam of -ice as the fabric swayed, pallid glares along her side, blue glancings -from the long barbs at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> catheads; the frozen snow the whole length -of the deck had a shrewd keen sparkle. In places along the working line -of the sea hung motionless the faint marble of bergs; but long before -the boat was lost to view the feather-tip of sail she was pursuing had -vanished.</p> - -<p>Captain Burke carefully and closely swept the horizon, then replaced -the telescope.</p> - -<p>'A few hours often make a mighty difference at sea,' said he. 'By this -time tomorrow we may be towing northwards.'</p> - -<p>'Have the men gone away without a compass?' said Mrs. Burke.</p> - -<p>'The bo'sun owned a compass that was a curiosity of casting and -graving: I remember he showed it to the mate. They'll have taken that -with them. And now,' said he, speaking with more cheerfulness than I -had observed in him for some days, 'let us go below and get something -to eat. There's fuel enough to keep the stove going for a long spell. -The hull's as staunch as she was on the day we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> sailed. Any moment -you may see something that will look like ice climbing the sea into a -whaler's breast of topsail and stump topgallant masts. So call things -at their worst, miss,' said he, 'for then we may believe that their -mending's at hand.'</p> - -<p>Mrs. Burke and I went below; the captain remained on deck. Between -us we dressed the dinner table. She did not want me to help her. She -said it was her duty and joy to wait upon me. 'To think of Miss Marie -Otway,' she exclaimed, 'laying a table-cloth and putting knives and -forks upon the table that a plain merchant-skipper and his wife may -dine.'</p> - -<p>I kissed and went on helping her; any sort of occupation was welcome: -for, argue as the captain and Mrs. Burke might, the abandonment of -the wreck by the whole of the sailors had raised a horror in me, and -filled my heart with deep secret distress and dread; so that, whenever -I thought of our situation,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> it was with a shudder at the emptiness of -the rolling broken hull.</p> - -<p>I believe the hour was not far from two o'clock. Already the gloom -of the early antarctic night was in the cabin, but the lamp swung in -flashes through the shadow, and you could only have told that the gloom -was gathering when you looked at the portholes. We sat beside the stove -waiting for Captain Burke; by-and-bye his wife grew uneasy, and went on -deck to seek him and call him down to dinner.</p> - -<p>I was then alone, and sat very cold and wretched. I had been alone in -this cabin before—that is, since the masts had gone; but then there -had been the tread of feet overhead, the knowledge of a plentiful, -hearty life in the ship. Now all was as hushed as the tomb in that way.</p> - -<p>After I had been waiting four or five minutes, I saw two small points -of light in the gloom where a locker ended, and where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> some few feet -of ship's wall ran clear. I stared, suspecting an illusion, and then -believed it was phosphorus or something jewelled with light by decay as -rotten timber is. But on a sudden the two shining spots came stealing -out into the whiskers and ribbed shape of a huge lean, grey rat. I -jumped up with a shriek and the thing vanished.</p> - -<p>My nerves gave way, and, marvelling at Captain and Mrs. Burke's -absence, I went on deck to look for them, trembling with disgust and -terror.</p> - -<p>The daylight was small, but the snow along the decks made a whiteness -in the air, so that perhaps even in the darkest hour you would be able -to detect anything in motion betwixt the rails. Here and there about -the leaden rolling ocean broke sudden glares of froth. The shadow had -blended the sea-circle with sky, and nothing was visible save a smoky -thickness of vapour breaking up to windward where it soared, and ashy -in places with rain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> or snow. I stood in the hatch and looked along the -deck and saw nobody. This so frightened me that I shrieked out Mrs. -Burke's name. Nothing answered. I trembled with dread and the bitter -cold of the wind, and crossing the deck that I might have something -to hold by, went forward, occasionally screaming out the name of Mrs. -Burke, but never getting an answer.</p> - -<p>The galley door was open: nobody was in it. I was half fainting with -terror; I could not imagine what had become of my companions. Was -I alone in the ship? Oh, never could I make you understand what my -feelings were whilst I stood running my eyes first forward and then -aft, straining along the ghostly slanting glimmer of the decks for a -sight of one or another of my friends, hearing nothing but a strange -moaning noise of wind in the sky, and the long rolling thunder of -moving mountains of water, the early night darkening fast down all -round, the closing in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> upon the ghastly, weary, tumbling hull, lifting -its bowsprit and splintered stumps of masts in postures of agony -defined as existence itself could make them!</p> - -<p>I had just sucked in my breath to send forth another scream, when I saw -a figure in the little hatch called the forescuttle, which led into the -forecastle.</p> - -<p>'Who is that?' I cried.</p> - -<p>'Is that you, Miss Marie?' called the voice of Mrs. Burke, and she rose -through the hatch.</p> - -<p>'I thought you were lost. I thought I was alone,' I cried, beginning to -sob with a sudden passion of hysteric relief.</p> - -<p>'My husband went down into the forepeak to get some coal,' said she, -not perceiving that I cried. 'He asked me to help him by pulling up -some buckets as he filled them. We are not quite done, but do not stay -on deck, my dear. We shall be with you in a very few minutes now.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> - -<p>On this I returned to the cabin, but much shaken, and so low-spirited, -I had never before felt more miserable.</p> - -<p>I entered the cabin with eyes a-search for the rat, and could not sit -still beside the stove for thinking of the beast, for at every moment -I was coining the lights of its eyes, the gaunt crouched shape of it, -out of some shadow here or there; and if I saw it not in imagination, -I figured it as under my chair. However, soon after I had returned, -the captain and Mrs. Burke entered the cabin, the captain bearing two -buckets and his wife one, full of coals.</p> - -<p>'Now,' he exclaimed, 'for a little wash after that job!' and he took -a kettle of water off the stove and carried it to his cabin. His wife -followed him.</p> - -<p>They came back soon and we sat down at the table. Whilst we ate Mrs. -Burke explained how her husband had attached a block to a beam in the -forecastle and rove a rope<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> through it with a hook at one end, and how, -standing in the forecastle, she had hauled up the buckets as he filled -them deep down in the forepeak.</p> - -<p>I told them of the horrible rat I had seen.</p> - -<p>'Don't let it scare you, miss,' said the captain. 'Rats at sea haven't -the viciousness of the beasts ashore. They'll drown themselves in a -man's savings of molasses. They'll creep into his bunk and nibble his -toe-nails. That's about the worst that I can recollect. They may be -destructive to ships and cargo, but they've got their instincts, and -know when on the ocean they're dependent on sailors.'</p> - -<p>He doubtless said this to hearten me. Mrs. Burke changed the subject by -speaking of the melancholy appearance of the forecastle. The hammocks -swung, she said, as though every one held a man; the sailors' chests -were scattered about, there was a smell of tobacco in the place as -though the sailors had scarcely extinguished their pipes. The captain -had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> put out the forecastle lamp. It was alight when they entered. -Not that it would have set fire to the ship. It was sputtering and -smelling, with a thick coil of slush rank smoke spreading in a little -cloud under the deck out of a small greasy flame.</p> - -<p>'The silence is shocking,' she said to her husband. 'I looked to see -the heads of men peering at me over the edges of the hammocks.'</p> - -<p>'There may be heads of men nearer than we think,' said he. 'I'll -give ourselves a chance this night.' He looked up at the clock under -the skylight and seemed to calculate, and then said, 'The boat went -swiftly. She may have run into the ken of the ship—some box-ended -waggon of a south seaman, no doubt, slow as a baulk of timber working -to windward on a two-knot tide.'</p> - -<p>'What will you do?' said his wife.</p> - -<p>'I'll send up a rocket occasionally. If she picks up our people she -might stand down to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> look for us—she might. I'll do more,' he added -after a pause. 'I'll give them a flare or anything else that may be a -bright light to see us by—a lantern on the stump of the foremast, or, -better still, under the bowsprit where it'll dance.'</p> - -<p>'Can a hull like this remain long afloat?' said I.</p> - -<p>'Ay, miss.'</p> - -<p>'I thought when a vessel was dismasted she became a wreck, and went -quickly to pieces.'</p> - -<p>'Over and over,' said he, 'you may have heard, you must have read, of -derelicts, whose log-books showed they'd been washing about for months, -sliding north and south, east and west through the summers and winters -of the ocean. A well-built ship is so hard to knock to pieces that -when she's abandoned she's as dangerous to navigation as an uncharted -rock. Again and again they talk of sending gunboats to blow derelicts -to pieces and clear the road.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> They're hard to extinguish, even with -gunpowder, as hard to expel as a madman's fancies. This craft is safe, -believe me, and will provide us with a secure sea-home until we're -fallen in with, which may be tomorrow.'</p> - -<p>This sort of talk did me a world of good, and I began to cheer up and -feel something like my old self. I was now used to the motion of the -hulk, at least in such a sea as then ran, though a landsman coming on -board for the first time would have been instantly thrown, so swift, -abrupt, and shooting were the rolls. This afternoon we did not notice -any particular weight in the race and lift of the swell and sea; there -had been a dumbness in the looks of the weather throughout the day, -though a fresh wind blew with a flaying, razor-like edge of frost in -it. Captain Burke said he expected a quiet night; that is, no more wind -than had blown through the day. He built up a good fire for us, and got -his wife to boil some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> coffee, whilst he fetched a number of rockets to -carry on deck.</p> - -<p>With the wish to amuse me he asked if I would like to see a rocket -fired, and whilst Mrs. Burke made some coffee I followed him above. -Night was upon the sea, and its shadow was as a wall for the ice spears -along our rails to brandish their gleams upon. The captain fitted a -candle-shaped thing into a rocket in the bulwarks near the wheel and -fired it, and the rocket sprang high in a line of sparkles, leaving a -red ball of flame floating close against the clouds, which reflected -the radiance as though to a touch of sunset. I watched the red ball -float down the wind and expire.</p> - -<p>'We'll send up a second for luck,' said the captain.</p> - -<p>This was a white light and the dazzle of the flash was lightning-like: -a thin long wake of the brilliance dimly glanced, serpentine, off the -peaks and slants of the heaving waters<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> and the sky opened as to a -star. But the night was the darker for that light when it went.</p> - -<p>'Now, who's to tell,' said Captain Burke, 'what eye has seen those -rockets? Never give up heart at sea, miss. We'll go below for a cup of -hot coffee, and then the brightest burning lantern aboard shall be made -fast in some place where it can be seen.'</p> - -<p>I returned to the cabin with a little spirit of elation working in -me, a strange possession in the presence of that reeling shadow of -frosted hull and the blackness winding round about, pallid here and -there with the wild dim light of froth. It was occasioned, no doubt, -by the sending up of the rockets, by some faint hope or fancy of their -being seen, with a half-formed vision of the ship the crew that day had -pursued staggering down towards us then, a pale shaft aslant, gaunt -with lean canvas breasting slowly, with many eyes on the look-out. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> - -<p>The three of us sat drinking coffee, and our talk ran in the way of our -deliverance. The captain named our chances.</p> - -<p>'Yes,' cried I, 'but if a ship should refuse to tow you, you will not -surely remain on board this hull and keep us with you! Sooner——'</p> - -<p>I broke off.</p> - -<p>'Sooner what, miss?' said he, rounding his face upon me, crimson on one -side of it with the fire.</p> - -<p>'Sooner than that we should remain here in the hope of saving the -property you possess in the hull, I would give you under my hand an -undertaking that my father will make good the amount of your loss.'</p> - -<p>'We'll see you safe; we'll see you safe,' he exclaimed with a slow -smile. 'Anyhow, you're better here than in the long-boat where you'd be -if Mr. Owen could have had his way.'</p> - -<p>'Ay, if they're not aboard a ship they are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> cold now, I warrant, those -poor men in that open boat,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke. 'And if the breeze -should come on to freshen so as to fling spray over them, that must be -the freezing part. Not to be able to get up and walk, and to feel the -brine raining upon your back and hardening into a mask of ice about -your neck!'</p> - -<p>The captain got up, but as I did not watch him, I know not whether he -went on deck or to a cabin. When he returned he held a large ship's -lantern, a globe of white glass framed with metal. He fetched some oil -from the pantry, carefully trimmed and then lighted the lantern.</p> - -<p>'This will handsomely jewel the bowsprit,' said he. 'She'll make a -starry dance of it there, toss it as proudly as though it were a gem on -her brow, and she was still clothed in her last week's beauty of white -wings. Heigh-ho! 'Tis no time for fine fancies. Sit ye here, miss; -I'll not have you again expose yourself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> above; but, wife, you can rig -yourself up so as to give me a ten minutes' hand on deck. I may want to -seize a block to the bowsprit and run this light out.'</p> - -<p>She clothed herself for the bitter cold, and bidding me not be afraid -though a hundred rats should come and stare, she went up the steps -after her husband in the almost noontide light of the lantern that -swung in his hand.</p> - -<p>The emotion of light-heartedness was ended; it had been but as the -gleam of a star in black water on a cloudy night—the sky was folded -up, my heart was dark again, I found no light nor life of hope in -it. They say that hope springs eternal; I vow to God then I felt as -hopeless as if my end was at hand whilst I sat alone when they had gone -to show a light on the hull. I closed my eyes that I might not see the -rat should it come, and so, sitting with the glow of the fire upon my -face, I beheld a vision of my house: it rose upon my darkened gaze; I -saw the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> wintry scene of Channel waters, the glance of foam through the -flying clouds of snow; I saw myself walking with my sweetheart upon the -stretch of sands, pausing to gaze at the beauty of the forming breaker -and to hearken to the cries of the skyful of blown gulls. I saw my -father; but what I chiefly remembered was the sensation of bitter cold -which had sunk chill to heart and marrow, when I entered for the first -time the cabin I was now occupying.</p> - -<p>I shivered and buried my face and rocked myself, my eyes still sealed. -I may have lost thought of time in musing; I started, looked round, -and found by the hour that they had been on deck nigh twenty minutes. -I thought this was a long time for Captain Burke to keep his wife -exposed, and still I concluded that the job of securing a lantern to -the bowsprit might run into time aboard a dancing, jumping, slippery -hulk; so I continued to wait, all the while straining my ears, till -hearing was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> made an anguish of by the constant cheats of sound.</p> - -<p>I could bear it no longer. They had been absent half an hour and five -minutes. I did not expect to hear their footfalls through the frozen -snow on the planks; nor would their voices reach me if they remained -forward; but why did not they come? I waited another ten minutes, then -went on deck.</p> - -<p>I looked, and was almost paralysed with terror; had I been an instant -sooner, an instant later, it could not have been; but my eye went -to it as I rose through the hatch at the breathless moment of its -happening—and this was it: low over the sea in some quarter I could -not name hung the moon, red as the sun in fog; she had just broken -out through a mass of heavy black vapour; a ragged edge as of scud -was floating off her upper limb like a last lingering shadow of -eclipse, as I looked; and right athwart the orb, centering it, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> -the body of a bird, doubtless an albatross; and the instant picture -was that of some wondrous, gigantic, glowing shield hanging over the -sea, and approaching the hull on the back of a huge seafowl. But in a -heart's beat the deception went: the bird whose distance created that -marvellous illusive perspective curved in its flight and winged out of -the illuminated circle and was gone, and in the next breath a lift of -black stuff like the dingy smouldering of a candle-wick overspread the -moon and hid her.</p> - -<p>I looked along the deck, and as before, so now, I beheld nothing -moving. I tried to reason with my terrors by supposing that the captain -had again gone below to shovel up more coal, and that his wife waited -in the forecastle to help him. But whilst I looked and strained my ears -I heard a moan; again and yet again it came; I could not be mistaken. -I went forward and heard the moaning whilst I advanced, and when I was -close<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> to the galley I saw a figure on the forecastle and heard the -moaning again.</p> - -<p>I stepped close, my heart almost stopped, my blood almost frozen. The -white of the deck made a light of its own, as I have told you, and -I saw Mrs. Burke lying on her side. She lay close to the fluke of -an anchor that was stowed upon the forecastle on the starboard, or -right-hand side. She moaned and continued to moan; I dropped on my -knees, and grasping her hand cried, with my face close to hers to see -if her eyes were open, for her moaning was that of a dying person: 'It -is I. What has happened? Are you ill? Where's your husband?'</p> - -<p>She answered feebly, moaning at every other word:</p> - -<p>'He has fallen overboard. He went on to the bowsprit with a lantern and -slipped. Oh, God, my heart breaks, my heart breaks! I ran and fell and -I cannot rise. I have lost him—oh, my heart!' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> - -<p>I cried in a passion of horror and terror, 'Captain Burke drowned!' and -then, figuring him battling for life alongside, I sprang to my feet -and went to the rail and looked over. But there was nothing to be seen -save an inky cloudiness of moving waters, shaping and dissolving, and a -dim light of foam when the ship's bows pitched, and there was no other -sound but that of the washing of brine pouring along the side, and a -noise of wind overhead.</p> - -<p>I went back to Mrs. Burke and knelt by her again, and cried:</p> - -<p>'Cannot you rise that I may help you to get to the cabin?'</p> - -<p>She moaned, but did not speak.</p> - -<p>Then my heart gave way wholly, and as I knelt by her side I clasped my -hands, and looked up into the darkness, and cried out of my loneliness: -'What shall I do? What shall I do?'</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XII</span> <span class="smaller">MR. SELBY TAKES UP THE STORY</span></h2> - -<p>Having been blown considerably to the southward of our course by a -succession of hard northerly gales, the barque 'Planter,' from London -to Adelaide, on a dark, bitter, raw morning of July 1860, was breaking -the seas close hauled, looking up for as much northing as the seating -of the wind would allow.</p> - -<p>Our long topgallant masts were down on deck, and we showed nothing -above the topmast cross-trees. Under single-reefed topsails and reefed -foresail we rolled sluggishly onwards, making small way; the swell was -wide and strong, but the wind blew without spite, save for its edge, -and the seas ran small. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> - -<p>My name is Ralph Selby. I was chief mate of that barque, a vessel of -four hundred and sixty tons, Walter Parry, master, John Newman, second -mate. I had charge of the forenoon watch, and it was now about nine -o'clock, but dark as at any hour of the night. All my sight had been -going for ice whilst it remained black; throughout this had been so -with the rest of us, since seven o'clock of the preceding evening we -had nearly fallen foul of ice mountains three times. At midnight, -indeed, the air being then like fog with snow, a loud and fearful cry -from the forecastle had preserved us by the dark of our nails, we were -in time by a few heart beats only; the whole mass looked aboard us as -we surged past with our helm hard up, floating off on a heave of black -fold that carried us clear, though it nearly thumped the channels off -our sides with the lumps of loose ice it slided us into. The paleness -of that mountain went up into the sky high above our mast-heads; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> -roar of the sea bursting at its base was louder than any surf I ever -heard ashore; rock-blasting shocks in thunder echoes came out of the -heap, which perhaps sank two leagues backwards into the blackness.</p> - -<p>We drove clear and lost it, but for the rest of the night those who had -the watch kept staring with all their eyes.</p> - -<p>Whilst I leaned over the side searching the darkness off the bow, there -broke over the starboard quarter the cold pale day of that desolate -part of the world. The dim light seemed to sift to the zenith through -the clouds like steam under the rolling sky. In twenty minutes it was -daylight all round, the ocean a dirty freckled green, swollen in folds, -and flashful with the short running seas of the then light breeze. The -horizon opened into a hard green distance, working like a revolved -corkscrew against the stooping soot past it, though overhead it was -middling fine weather, streaks of dim green sky veining,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> into a look -of marble, a surface of compacted yellow stuff; down which the brown -scud was sailing south-west.</p> - -<p>Crossing the deck to peer to leeward, I instantly caught sight of a -sail, a white square of canvas which, coming and going this side the -horizon, puzzled me during the moments I kept my naked eye upon it. I -fetched the glass and on pointing it resolved the object into a ship's -long-boat, full of people. She was heading to close us, but did not -look as though she lay nearer than we; I observed no distress signal. I -thought I could count eight or nine heads. The gleam of oilskins came -off the men as the boat lifted. With the sheet flattened right aft the -little fabric shredded through it nobly, flinging the water away in -smoke, and rising with the dance and skill of the galley-punt of the -Downs to the head of every hurdling sea.</p> - -<p>The sight of her put a full spirit of civilisation into the desolate -scene; and yet I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> guessed that exquisite distress lay dumb for distance -only in that open leaping boat, gone now behind a hill of brine, now -straining her square of cloths aslant on a rolling peak.</p> - -<p>I sang out to the fellow at the wheel to let her go off by a point, and -was going to make my report to the captain when he appeared. His eye -caught the boat in a moment, and exclaiming, 'What have we here?' he -levelled the glass and said:</p> - -<p>'Pretty nigh a whole ship's company adrift.'</p> - -<p>We closed her rapidly and were presently within hail.</p> - -<p>'Take us aboard for God's sake, sir! Half of us are dead with the -cold,' cried a lamentable voice, no man, whoever he was that spoke, -rising nevertheless.</p> - -<p>We manÅ“uvred that she might sheer alongside; we then backed our -topsail yard and her sail dropped with a run. But the men seemed -scarcely to have life enough to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> catch hold of the coil of rope that -was flung to them, and then when she lay hard by you saw by the rise of -her to the height of our topgallant sail, then by the fall of her into -a hollow twenty feet deep, that if those men were to be rescued they -must be whipped aboard.</p> - -<p>So a tackle was secured to the main yard-arm, and the rope slackened -away to let the boat soar and sink fair under the whip; the captain -then sang out for the strongest to send the weakest, themselves -following. A huge, fine fellow with red whiskers answered with a -paralytic flourish of his hand, and without delay the whip end was -secured to one of the people and quickly as might be he was swayed -aboard.</p> - -<p>I was too busy with superintending these proceedings to do more than -glance at the first of them as they hauled him over the side; and just -took notice that he was a short man, cloaked and thickly wrapped, -with bushy hair, not a sailor, and he looked frozen to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> death. He was -carried into the cabin and another man was got aboard; he too seemed -lifeless. There were nine or ten, I am not sure. One by one we swayed -them over the rail, the last man to come being the big fellow with the -red whiskers.</p> - -<p>Those who seemed dead—of these there were four—were carried into -the cabin; the others who were able to crawl were helped into the -forecastle.</p> - -<p>'What's to be done with the boat, sir?' said I to the captain.</p> - -<p>'Oh, what can be done with her?' said he, with a shrug and an askant -look of longing at the fine little craft. 'We should drown her if we -towed her, and we can do nothing with her now. Let her go.'</p> - -<p>I went forward by the captain's orders and saw to the men who had been -sent into the forecastle. Hot grog and food were given to them; they -were partially unclothed and chafed and wrapped in blankets. The only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> -one who did not seem to need this care was the burly, red-whiskered -seaman. He had stripped himself of his waterproofs, and after -swallowing a couple of steaming glasses of grog, and eating pretty -heartily of cold beef and biscuit, he asked for some warm water to wash -the frost out of his face; which done, he fell to clapping his arms -upon his breast, and shooting them out to right and left, kicking his -legs about likewise; then turning upon me who stood watching, he said -he was ready to step aft and spin his yarn to the captain.</p> - -<p>We were a barque with a short poop; I took him into the cuddy, and -there left him in order to look after the ship, so that I did not -learn the story of this crew until a little while after he had related -it to the captain. When I regained the poop the boat was showing and -vanishing some distance astern. It made me shudder to think of exposure -in her in these seas, and under the wild sky that was stormily sipping -the sea-line with its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> black lips of vapour, though on high, over our -staggering mast-heads, the heavens continued to lie a little open.</p> - -<p>I saw them coming and going with steaming stuff from the galley, and -guessed they were ministering to the poor frozen wretches in the cuddy. -By-and-by the red-whiskered man went forward, and a little later up -came Captain Parry. He approached me, and with a shocked look on his -honest sailorly face said:</p> - -<p>'I'm afraid three of the four are dead. We can't put any life into -them. The fourth man stirred after some chafing, and when some hot grog -had been spooned down his throat, and he's now got his mind. But I -don't like to think how it's going to prove with him; his fingers and -thumbs look to be mortified, and if his boots are pulled off his toes -'ll come away.'</p> - -<p>'Which man is that, sir?'</p> - -<p>'The first man we got aboard, a man with bushy hair. He was doctor in -the ship.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> - -<p>'And the others are dead?'</p> - -<p>'I never saw a frozen to death body. Newman says they're dead. He's -been groping after any hint of life and finds none.'</p> - -<p>John Newman, as I have said, was our second mate. He had been bred to -medicine, changed his mind, and gone to sea at two-and-twenty, and was -now, at the age of thirty, with a master's certificate of competency in -his desk, earning five pounds a month as third in charge of a little -barque. We all looked up to Newman as a medical authority; he had -during the passage doctored some of us very skilfully; in pronouncing -the man dead he knew what he was talking about.</p> - -<p>'This is their yarn,' said the captain, and now I repeat in brief what -he related.</p> - -<p>Their ship was the 'Lady Emma.' She sailed from the Thames April 2. A -few days before this time—namely, on July 2—she was thrown on to her -beam ends by a terrific squall;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> they cut away to right the ship and -all three masts went smack-smooth saving the foremast, of which there -remained a jagged stump of some twelve foot. To this next day they -secured an arrangement of boom and square-sail, which blew over the -bows on the wind suddenly freshening.</p> - -<p>The captain was a little broken in his spirits and weakened in his -intellect by this calamity; also it was said forward that it weighed -upon him to remember that a strange man wearing his face and aspect -had walked on the forecastle one night. His hope was to blow north and -fall in with something that would give him a tow to a port, he (it was -understood) having a considerable uninsured venture in the vessel. -The crew sickened of his notion, seeing no good nor hope in it; and -on catching sight of the topmost canvas of a ship they launched a -long-boat, hastily provisioned her, and went away in pursuit, leaving -behind the master,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> his wife and a young lady passenger: but through no -fault of the men, as the captain and the others declined to accompany -them.</p> - -<p>They lost the ship and wore for the hull afresh, missed her, and -stood north-east by a compass which did not appear to have been very -trustworthy. They were exposed for two nights and very nearly two days, -and another night must have killed them all. The dead men were the -steward, a Dutch seaman who had been ill for weeks with rheumatism, and -another.</p> - -<p>'How should the wreck bear now, do you think?' said Captain Parry.</p> - -<p>I reflected, and after recalling the weather, and estimating the -boat's sailing powers and the like, I answered if she was to be -sought she might be found about one hundred and fifty miles distant -west-south-west.</p> - -<p>'I make her further than that,' said the captain.</p> - -<p>'Perhaps so, sir.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> - -<p>'But your bearings about tally with mine. I think it's our duty to give -those people a chance for their lives. Three of them! and two of the -three, women, Mr. Selby! And the passenger, I understand from Wall the -bo'sun, is the daughter of an English baronet—the skipper's wife was -her old nurse—she was sent out for her health.'</p> - -<p>He looked thoughtfully round the sea, then told me to get the yards -braced in, and going to the wheel, shifted the course, making a fair -wind of the breeze, and the ship drove along.</p> - -<p>The main difficulty lay in the shortness of the time of daylight. We -were not going to hunt for a large becalmed craft, clothed like a -pyramid to the trucks, and courting the eye like an iceberg, but for -a low dismasted hull, which might slide past us within musket-shot in -some hour of blackness, and no man dream it was near. But the captain -was resolved to give the poor people a chance: there could be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> no -question that the master of the ship, his wife, and a young lady were -alive, locked up, helpless and hopeless, aboard a hull which at any -hour might float away in staves from the side of an icehill; and it -was right, it was our duty, it was a service that God would expect of -us, that humanity required of us, to search, even at some peril to -ourselves—loss of time counting for nothing when the errand is one -of mercy—seeing that the hull lay, perhaps, within two hundred miles -off, and her inmates in a situation to continue alive for a long while, -the boatswain Wall having told Captain Parry that she was plentifully -stocked with coal, provisions, and liquor.</p> - -<p>All that day, till night blackened out the scene, we kept an eager -watch upon the sea. It held fairly clear, a slender promise overhead -in greenish streaks of an opening heaven, though the horizon scowled -with snow-clouds. We sighted several icebergs, but saw nothing of the -wreck. When it fell dark that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>afternoon, we shortened sail to two -close-reefed topsails, furling the foresail, and rolled onwards slowly. -The swell was high and ran strong from the westward, but the sea curled -lightly. A few wan stars blinked in the rifts. The cold was intense. -The rigging seemed to take a new thickness of ice when the night came, -and the running gear was as stiff as bar-iron in the shears.</p> - -<p>I guessed that Captain Burke (as I was told his name was) would show a -light every night: he had lanterns and oil and an altitude that, with -his freeboard, might give him twenty feet above the water in his stump -of foremast. But we searched in vain for a sparkle. For my part, I -took but a halfhearted view of the quest; yet it was a thing not to be -omitted by an English seaman: no man of the slenderest mercy of heart -would have foregone it.</p> - -<p>I had charge of the middle watch, and being a man of some imagination, -I cast my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> mind into the misery of the poor people who were somewhere -out upon those black, swollen waters in a flat wallowing hull, and -I shuddered and grieved when I thought of them. The life of a lofty -superstructure of masts and spars, with canvas to spread or reduce -at will, was in our ship; I felt the buoyant rise of her on hills -of ink rolling invisible; I'd step aft to search the gloom astern -and on either quarter, and mark the dim snow of the wake sheeting to -the taffrail with the droop of her stern, and hear the grind of the -wheel-chains, and see the illuminated disc of card trembling the course -at the lubber's mark betwixt faithful oscillations, as though it were -the spirit of the ship, naked and shining, and revealed in all its -sublime guiding and informing motions; and then my mind would go again -to that dismantled hull somewhere out in the freezing blackness here or -there, a coffin of a ship with three live people locked up in it!</p> - -<p>It came on to blow in hissing snow-squalls a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> little before daybreak. I -got two hours' sleep after eight o'clock and turned out for a mouthful -of breakfast: when that meal was ended, the dull day had whitened -through the snow upon the skylight glass, and in a cabin window I saw -the sea, lifting close with the ship's lurches, rolling astern and -quickly out of sight into the blowing flakes.</p> - -<p>The captain came below: he shook the snow off him by the stove and said:</p> - -<p>'No signs of the hull. Nothing can be done if the weather don't clear. -It's as thick as smoke all round, and if we go on making southing in -this fashion we shall be running down the South Shetlands.'</p> - -<p>'To pick up a wreck like this, sir,' said I, 'you may need to cross and -re-cross your track a hundred times over.'</p> - -<p>'I should never be able to sail away with a good conscience either,' -said he. 'To leave three people to wash about down here, to perish -certainly after a horrible time of it!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> Though it should cost a week of -cruising to rescue them—'twould be like murder.'</p> - -<p>He stepped into his cabin with unsettled looks and a face of agitation.</p> - -<p>He was one of the humanest men I ever met whether at sea or ashore. He -was not what would be called a gentleman by birth, but he was a man of -God's best moulding, a simple, generous, just person, beloved of his -crew, his officers' friend and companion, and their kindly counsellor -as well as commander. I never heard a coarse word escape him nor a -harsh one to even the most provoking of his people. He was an honour to -the flag of his Service.</p> - -<p>When I went on deck the weather had somewhat cleared round the ship, -but the snow was whirling grayly against the soft dark thickness to -leeward, whilst the windward sky was black with cloud of a true Horn -pattern, low-flying, shredding off its edges, and swollen with burdens -of hail and sleet. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> - -<p>I went to the starboard rail to take a long, careful look round, never -knowing but that all on a sudden, in a flying way, the hull might leap -into sight out of some green trough dim with salt breeze. Mr. Newman, -heavily clad in sea boots and yellow oilskins, was standing for shelter -under a square of canvas seized in the mizzen rigging. For my part I -never wore an oilskin in my life. I was to-day clothed as I always went -in bitter weather, north or south: in a thick pilot coat, thick pilot -cloth trousers, a warm fur cap with ear-covers, thick mittens, and a -shawl round my neck.</p> - -<p>I was straining my sight into the whirling gray thickness over the bow, -the ship then being under two close-reefed topsails and stern main -trysail, and surging over the high swell and through the broken rugged -seas at about five knots; when a man who was descending the starboard -fore-shrouds with a coil of rigging round his neck missed a ratline -with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> his foot and slapped at another with his hand: it parted at the -seizing and he fell overboard backwards.</p> - -<p>In the swift glance I had shot, my sight being already bent that way, I -saw the ratline he had clapped hold of stand out from the shroud like a -bar of steel.</p> - -<p>I roared 'Man overboard!' and shouted to the fellow at the wheel to -put the helm hard down. In the same breath I caught a lifebuoy off its -pin and flung it at the body of the man who was then floating on the -top of a swelling fold within a pistol-shot astern, fast sliding off. -This buoy, like others in the ship—a device of the captain's—when -it struck the water freed a red staff with a length of red bunting -attached: the staff stood up on the buoy and the streamer like a tongue -of fire blowing out made a beacon for a swimmer as well as for a boat -in daylight.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the second mate was yelling for all hands and bawling 'Man -overboard!'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> and shouting for seamen to lay aft and heave the vessel -to. The captain came running up on deck. I called the tragic news to -him, pointing aft, and then sprang for a jolly-boat as we termed the -thing, which hung in davits upon the starboard quarter. A number of -men came crowding around; the boat was swiftly cleared away, and I and -three sailors jumped into her.</p> - -<p>'Keep all fast till way is lost,' shouted the captain. 'Stand by to -unhook handsomely or she'll drown ye.'</p> - -<p>In a few minutes, which seemed as long as months, the boat sank to -the water's edge and was waterborne: a sea lifted her half-way to her -davits again; in that upward rush we unhooked, got oars over, and away -we went for the red streamer which I could see faintly glimmering -through a mist of spume.</p> - -<p>She was a fat lubberly boat, better for this work than our longer -whale-ended quarter-boats. She jumped like something alive and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> -distracted, sometimes sped end on, made with headlong plunges into the -valleys, sweeping up the acclivity with her nose to the sky, doing -her work dryly but so wildly that the men could scarcely plunge their -blades for a drag upon her. A couple of spare oars were lashed along -her bottom under the thwarts. I had nearly cut them adrift, meaning -to help the others, fisherman-fashion, with one, and I never cease to -thank my God I did nothing of the sort.</p> - -<p>I steered for the man, but he was not to be seen. I had never from the -moment of marking him fall doubted that he had plumbed the bottom like -a lead, weighted as he was with heavy sea boots, painted clothes, and a -coil of rigging round his neck; but it was not to be admitted: the man -was overboard, the ship was to be hove-to, and the poor fellow searched -for and saved if so willed.</p> - -<p>All in a breath, when we were within fifty strokes of the streaming red -flag, the boat was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> capsized on an apex of pyramidal sea, that poled -her sheerly bottom up at the instant that a blinding snow-squall came -seething along, whitening the water into hissing salt, and thickening -down the sea within a biscuit-toss. This I had been observing at the -very instant the boat was flung keel up, and I recollect that I carried -the memory of that scene of snow-squall under water, scarce realising -but that I was in a dream, happening as it did too swiftly to give the -mind time to catch a hold on reality.</p> - -<p>When I came to the surface I was bubbling and spitting in a smother of -froth hard against the side of the boat. There were two others. I got -my senses quickly and sputtering the brine out of my mouth roared, 'We -must right her. We can't hold on. We shall freeze off her dead men in -five minutes. Together now.'</p> - -<p>The three of us got a hold of the keel, and a sea helping us, we -righted her, swaying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> down upon the little fabric with the strength of -the madness that fights for life; but in righting she struck one of the -men under, and he went down like a shot whilst I and the other got into -the boat.</p> - -<p>A large copper baler attached to a lanyard lay at the bottom. I plunged -my hand down, groped for, and found it, and fell with fury to casting -out the water, the other baling with his sou'-wester with all his -might. The sea repeatedly broke over us, but we toiled with superhuman -effort for our lives. I believe the filled boat would have sunk under -our united weight but for a couple of empty breakers secured in the -bows and aft. We laboured with rage, flashing the water out of the -boat, and presently she was showing some little height of side. Then -to slenderly provide against a second surprise of capsizal which would -signify certain death to us, I lashed the two spare oars that were -under the thwarts to the painter and chucked them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> overboard; this -brought the boat head to sea, and we went on baling.</p> - -<p>The spite of the squall had gone out of the wind, but it was snowing -heavily, and strain my sight as I would I could see nothing of the -ship. In a flaw in the thick feathery fall I caught sight of the red -tongue of bunting; the buoy then was about a cable's length distant; it -was closed out quickly and all became a tumbling, gyrating blackness; -yet I had drawn some faint comfort from the sight of it. I guessed -the ship could not be far off and that she must spy us the instant it -cleared, which might happen at any minute. Meanwhile we baled for our -lives.</p> - -<p>My companion was an able seaman named Tom Friend. After he had been -throwing out the water for some while, when the boat was perhaps still -about a quarter full, I meanwhile baling with the same sort of fury -that possesses a drowning man when he clutches<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> and catches and beats -in the air for life, he said to me:</p> - -<p>'Mr. Selby, if we aren't rescued soon I'm a dead man.'</p> - -<p>'No, no, keep up your spirits,' I shouted. 'They'll have us. Bale, man. -We must keep afloat to be picked up.'</p> - -<p>He went to work afresh with his sou'-wester, stooping and flinging; the -wind smote the brine into smoke as we hove it over the side. We did not -cease till but a little water was left in the bottom of the boat, and -we sat and gasped and stared about us.</p> - -<p>I know not how long this business had occupied. It seemed to me that -the shadow of the night was already in the air. It may have been no -more than the darkness of the thick black cloud out of which the snow -was tumbling in immense flakes. All the time I was expecting to see the -dye of the ship's fabric oozing out of the whiteness, plunging out of -the smother into her clear shape <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>within easy earshot of us; but that -did not happen.</p> - -<p>After we had been in this situation about two hours Friend put his two -hands together, and began to waggle his body as he sat on the midship -thwart fronting me; his face was blue. He made shocking grimaces of -anguish and fell a-moaning most piteously, crying: 'Oh, the cold! Oh, -the cold! Oh, Jesus, support me! I can't stand it!'</p> - -<p>Though my own sufferings were inexpressible, I was still sensible of -a good stock of vitality; but I cannot tell why I should have better -resisted the cold than Friend, who was a lump of a man, broad-backed as -a table, though a little stout. I was soaked to the skin, and coat and -breeches were already frozen hard upon me; they cracked when I stirred -as glass might. The thwarts were glazed and ice half an inch thick -sheathed the timber.</p> - -<p>Friend let his sodden and frozen sou'-wester <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>lie; and he looked wild -and dreadful with icicles pendent from his hair. In a sudden sharp leap -of the boat to the summit of an ugly sea, that broke and curled white -as milk on a line with our gunwales, he pitched towards me, slipped -over the thwart he struck, and lay motionless at my feet. He groaned -twice but spoke not.</p> - -<p>What could I do? Chafe his hands? As well the thwart he had been flung -over. I had not a drop of spirit for his throat, and myself felt dying. -I could not but let him lie, and I believe he gave up the ghost very -shortly after he had uttered his second groan.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XIII</span> <span class="smaller">THE HULL</span></h2> - -<p>After Friend had lain at my feet for about an hour I stripped the -oilskins off the body and put them on; they diminished the sense of -deadly cold. I dragged the body into the bows, and after baling hard -sat down, sure that my death was at hand, but seeking consolation in -the thought that suffering ceases some while before you die of cold, -and that death from this cause is as easy as drowning after the first -agony.</p> - -<p>It never ceased to snow until the night fell, and then when it was -black the weather cleared—that is, I could see the flash of froth at a -distance; but stare as I might I beheld nothing of the ship, no smudge -nor deeper dye<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> upon the darkness anywhere to indicate her presence. -I stood up and looked and looked, waiting for the toss of the sea to -strain my gaze; then, with an awful despair in my heart, and the full -rushing weight of my doom upon my spirits, I threw myself down into the -stern sheets to die.</p> - -<p>That I should have lived through that night is the miracle of my life. -There is no lack of suffering in the maritime records, but I vow that -mine in those hours of darkness which I passed in that open boat is -not to be topped, though it may be matched. Perhaps it was that all my -organs were sound, whilst Friend perished from the shock of immersion, -and from failure of some vital power—doubtless the heart.</p> - -<p>Be this as it may, I lived through that night and through the icy -darkness of the morning, till daylight came crawling in a sallow -green over the sky, low, broken and flying. It might be that Friend's -oilskins preserved my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> life by excluding the needle-like tide of -frost-black wind from my flesh. When it was fairly daylight I stood -up. My sight was clear; but I felt as though formed of stone. I could -poise my figure to the wild leaping of the boat, but I could not lift -my arms: each shoulder felt brittle as glass; it seemed to me that if -either limb should be grasped and pulled, it must break short off.</p> - -<p>The body of Friend lay ghastly in the bows. It was on its side, the -cheek on the floor of the boat, and every time the little craft dived, -the water in her boiled about the figure, which bristled with ice, and -the head seemed nailed to the bottom boards by long spikes of crystal. -I could not bear it, and made a step to cast it overboard, but, finding -my arms helpless, stood still and looked round for the ship.</p> - -<p>No wilder, drearier dawn ever broke over that cold, stormy, and -desolate ocean. I guessed the wind about north; a strong wind,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> with -a shriek as shrill as salt as it fled spray-charged past the ear, -flaying as though it were a naked edge of sharp steel. A large squall -was darkening the sea to leeward of the boat; when I was thrown up I -saw the dim whiteness of ice in several places. I gazed slowly around -in a broken way, for in every other breath there stood a wall of water -betwixt me and the horizon.</p> - -<p>All on a sudden when my eyes went astern I saw, not above a mile -distant, a dark object: it reared and sank, came and went; sometimes -froth leapt in a light of snow about it. I stared, scarcely daring -to hope as yet that it was more than an illusion of the vision, a -reappearing shape of green surge, a hard reforming moulding of brine, -looking like—looking like——</p> - -<p>And then with a short choking cry of transport I recognised it. It was -the dismasted hull: that wreck of the 'Lady Emma' we had been in search -of. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> - -<p>I watched her to make sure, dreading some cheat of delirious -imagination—but it was the wreck; I marked her rise with the sea, a -firm, defined, black shape against the root of the thick large squall -that was blowing to leeward of her. A dim sheen of the gloomy day was -in her wet side or sheathing as she soared, heeling not above a mile -off and dead to leeward.</p> - -<p>The sight gave life to my dead limbs, as it put spirit into my dying -heart. I got the use of my arms and hands with a sudden frenzy of -resolution, like to the effect of the panic terror that will compel a -bedridden man to rise, though till thus started he has lain helpless as -the mattress he springs from. I went into the bows, and getting hold -of the body of Friend turned it over the gunwale. The corpse as I have -said was that of a stout burly man, yet I found it light as a baby. -How was that? Unless it was that the strength of half a dozen had come -into me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> with the passion of life and hope the sight of the wreck had -inspired.</p> - -<p>I pulled in the pair of oars the boat had been riding to and took my -chance of the broadside send of sea; the fierce sweep and sharp angle -nearly flung me overboard, and thrice whilst I was clearing the oars -which were heavy and difficult with ice, the boat was almost capsized. -In a few minutes I got an oar over the stern and sculled the boat's -head round for the wreck. She shot forward, and I sat square that -my back might break any smaller sea which should foam tall and curl -faster than the boat could rise. For the rest—for the peril of a great -sea, for the swamping by seething waters uniting on either side the -gunwale—I was in God's hands.</p> - -<p>The wind and the sea swept me so swiftly onwards that the hull was -close ahead all on a sudden, a large black mass, rolling heavily with -violently quick recoveries; she lifted her channels foaming, and again -and again a sea<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> shot up her side in a height of white brine, which -blew into the water on the other side of her in a cloud like steam. -There was nothing for it but to drive for her stem on and take my -chance. I tore off the oilskins for the freer use of my limbs, and -when I was close to the wreck, having headed the boat fair for the -main-chains, I sprang forward and seized the end of the painter; the -boat's nose smote the hull as she was roaring from me. I got a turn -with the painter round a chain plate; the boat swung in, but so swift -were the motions of the hull that she was rolling down upon me even in -that time, and, letting go the painter, I jumped in a single bound into -the chains and was stumbling over the rail, spiked with ice, as the -hulk swept her streaming side out again from the sea, with such a slant -of deck that if I had not flung myself into a squatting posture and -made the athwartship run of the hard frozen surface on my hams, I must -have broken my neck or fled sheer <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>overboard through the openings where -the bulwarks had been smashed level.</p> - -<p>I was crazy with hunger and thirst and cold, and could think of nothing -but shelter and food and drink. I took a hurried look along the deck -hoping to see smoke from the galley or cabin chimney, for I reckoned -of course upon finding the three people the 'Planter' had searched -for alive in this hull. I saw no signs of life. I cautiously crawled -aft, and coming to the companion-way tried to open it; the doors -were thickly glazed, whence I judged they had been kept closed for -some time. I pulled out my clasp knife—all that I carried was in my -pocket as it had been before the boat capsized—and after scraping -and dislodging the ice in sheets like plate glass, I got one of the -companion-doors open and descended, pulling the door to behind me.</p> - -<p>After the long hours of exposure and the ceaseless crackling noises of -warring waters,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> the shelter, the comparative warmth and stillness down -here, were like the gift of a new life. It was dark, yet not so gloomy -but that I could see. The daylight lay upon the snow on the skylight, -and that large square of whiteness sifted a sort of dim illumination of -its own into the dusk.</p> - -<p>My first look was for those whom the boatswain Wall had told us the -crew left behind them when they abandoned the hull. Nobody was here. An -unlighted lamp swung violently over the table. I beheld a dull gleam -of looking-glasses upon the ship's side, and thought in the glance I -cast round that I could make out the equipment of a small, comfortable -state cabin. I quickly spied a rack half circling the trunk of the -mizzenmast; in it were some decanters; three were half full of red -and yellow wine. I put the mouth of one to my lips and drank heartily -of its contents, but whether it was claret or sherry I could not say; -excessive thirst<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> seemed to have robbed my palate of the power of -tasting. I then went straight to the first cabin my eye rested upon, -intending to go the rounds for the pantry; but this cabin proved to -be the pantry, where, after a short hunt, I found cheese, biscuit, -preserved meat, and jams. I fell to wolfishly, breaking off only to -fetch another decanter of the wine from the cabin.</p> - -<p>And now having eaten with a dangerous heartiness, and drank as much as -would have brimmed two tumblers, I stepped into the cabin, refreshed -and warm, a new man, almost my old self again, needing little more -to perfectly comfort me than a shift of clothes, which might be -obtained by seeking. But first I stood still, holding by the table to -listen. I heard nothing but the sounds of the labouring of the hull. -Had the captain and the two women been taken off the wreck? I should -have believed so but for having found the companion-doors closed and -glazed; ice could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> not have collected to the thickness I had found it -had people been coming and going by the companion-way. And yet it is -true they might have been taken off, and before going some one of the -rescuing party had closed the companion-door with a kick or a thrust as -he stepped on deck.</p> - -<p>I saw no fire in the stove; the lamp was out; it did not seem as if -there were human life in the hull. I went to a door on the starboard -side, the next to or second door past the pantry, and entered a berth. -I could scarcely see. The porthole was submerged every other moment -and the sight blinded with a sudden plunge of foam-thick twilight. -After gazing awhile I made out that this berth had been occupied by the -captain and his wife. I observed a quantity of male and female apparel -hanging from a row of pegs running along the bulk-head; also I made out -two bunks, a table with certain navigating appliances upon it, a couple -of chronometer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> cases on a shelf, and sundry other matters not worth -cataloguing. I lifted a locker, and after groping came across some -flannel garments and under-linen. If the captain were aboard I guessed -that in any case he would give me leave to help myself, so, after -feeling over the clothes upon the bulk-head, I shifted to the frozen -flesh of me.</p> - -<p>Scarcely was I warmly and dryly clothed, when so heavy a drowsiness -came upon my eyelids that I could instantly have sunk upon the deck -in a sound sleep. But first I was resolved to ascertain the condition -of the hull; likewise whilst it was daylight to see if there were any -signs of the 'Planter,' and if the weather gave me any promise of her. -The idea of falling into a trance-like sleep which might run into -hours, from which, for all I could tell as things stood, I should be -awakened by finding myself strangling in a cabin full of water, and the -hull already fathoms under, put such a fear and horror<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> into my spirits -as enabled me to thrust back into my brain the heavy, stupefying weight -of slumber, that was making my eyes ache as though the balls of vision -had been wrung and unseated. I shook my body as a dog does when fresh -from the water, and beat my arms upon my breast with all my strength; -then, with a wild yawn, strode into the stateroom and went up the steps.</p> - -<p>The first thing I saw was the boat I had gained the wreck in: she was -flinging and leaping upon the seas about a hundred fathoms off on the -port quarter; being light and released she had blown away quickly. -Every time a surge forked her on high the pouring blast smote and -swirled her further yet to leeward. This would go on till she filled. -I hardly took thought of her, abhorring her as I did as the theatre -of that drama of anguish and hopelessness I had been forced to act in -during the long black hours of the past night: and yet I very well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> -understood that she had been bound to go adrift, as I had taken but a -slippery turn with the painter round the chain plate at the instant -when the hull brought her main chains crushing down upon me for that -spring by which I had saved my life.</p> - -<p>I crossed to the port bulwarks to hold on by: t'other side was full of -ugly yawns and rents, a dangerous, ragged wreckage of bulwark through -which down the ice-hard slant a man would shoot, with a sudden roll, -to his death. The galley was standing: all the boats were gone: the -wheel and binnacle remained, and the apparatus of the helm looked -sound. The decks were littered with frozen gear. Nothing showed of the -main and mizzen masts but a barbed block, scarce a foot high above the -mast-coats. But the stump of the foremast rose to perhaps twelve feet. -The pumps were frozen: the sounding rod lay close to, but I could do -nothing with it. Yet, as an old hand, I could feel the life<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> of a ship -in my feet, and I was sure, by the hull's buoyant jumps, her cork-like -recovery from the headlong dives, and the loneliness of her rolls that -there was nothing in the water she had drained in so far to make me -uneasy.</p> - -<p>Cheered by this conviction, I pushed forwards, clawing along by the -pins in the rail, by whatever else came to my hand, till I was abreast -of the galley, whose port sliding-door lay half open, and going to it -and looking in, there on the deck I saw lying on her back the body of -a woman. I peered close, the light being weak. The body was warmly but -plainly clothed; the colour of the face fresh as though she slept. -I should not have guessed her dead by her looks: it was her lying -there that made me know it. She seemed a woman of between forty and -forty-five, flat of face, treble-chinned, and she showed as a person -that had been fat and heavy in life. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> - -<p>The sight startled me: I had not thought to find anything dead. Had she -been the wife of the captain? Where was <i>he</i>? And where the young lady -that had sailed as passenger with them? Were they both lying frozen in -other parts of the vessel? But there yet remained two or three cabins -below to look into.</p> - -<p>I came out of the galley shocked and low-spirited, and, still pushing -forward, came to the forecastle and called down the hatch. I got no -answer and descended. Here I found a number of hammocks, a few sea -chests, and some odds and ends of seamen's apparel scattered about the -deck. The forecastle lamp swung black under its grimy beam. I could -scarcely see. Water—though no depth of it—seethed over the planks as -the vessel pitched and rolled: this water I reckoned had tumbled down -the forecastle hatch, and when I returned on deck I drew the slide of -the scuttle over. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> - -<p>I went to the stump of foremast that was ringed with some pins, and -holding on by one of them, looked round and round the sea, waiting for -every lofty heave to dart my glances; but there was nothing in sight -save ice, the peaks of bergs afar, coming and going past the rounds -of the swell, and the rush of the surge flickering into foam. It was -blowing half as strong again as it had been an hour before, and the -seas were racing with a weight and spite of headlong yeast which must -have drowned me out of hand in the jolly-boat. A low sky of thick black -cloud coiling, revolving, like sooty pourings from countless factory -chimneys, was sweeping southwards. I crawled aft for the shelter of -the cabin—the wind was marrow-freezing; and scarce was I within the -comparative warmth and stillness of the interior, when slumber again -oppressed me; and nature now giving out I stretched myself upon a -cushioned locker and was asleep in a minute. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> - -<p>When I awoke I started instantly into an upright posture, beholding a -figure gazing at me; in some muddled fashion I seemed to realise my -situation, whilst I imagined that the cabin was half full of people -who had come to save me. Then, getting my wits fully, I made out that -the person who stood close was a young woman. Her figure was inclined -towards me, and so she stood despite the swaying of her with the -motions of the deck: it was a posture of fear, incredulity, amazement, -incommunicable in words.</p> - -<p>It was too dim in that cabin to note more of her than that incomparable -attitude of fright and astonishment.</p> - -<p>It had been past noon when I lay down to sleep: the strong feeling -of refreshment within me was assurance, true as the sun's evidence -could have been, that I had slept through more than the two remaining -hours of daylight. It was daylight now, consequently I understood that -whatever might be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> the hour, I had been sleeping since noon on the -previous day.</p> - -<p>I stared at the girl, for a young girl I now perceived her to be, and -exclaimed:</p> - -<p>'Are you Miss Otway?'</p> - -<p>'Oh!' she shrieked, 'have you come to save me?' and she dropped on her -knees and grasped my hand. 'Save me!' she cried, 'I am alone here. I -have been alone for days. I am in darkness. When did you come? Where -are your companions? Why were you sleeping here? And take me on deck. -Is your ship near? If the boat that brought you can live in this sea -she can carry me on board your vessel.'</p> - -<p>I cannot express the agony of heart in her voice. Her terror at seeing -me had been changed into another passion by my naming her.</p> - -<p>'Where's the captain?' said I, obliging her to rise, and seating her on -the locker beside me. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> - -<p>'He is drowned,' she answered.</p> - -<p>'When?'</p> - -<p>'A long time ago. Seven or eight days ago. I have lost the day. I do -not know how long I have been alone. Why don't we go on deck? Is the -sea too rough for your boat to leave this wreck?'</p> - -<p>'Why, poor young lady,' said I, trying to catch a fair view of her -face; but it was too dim for that, and then again she was thickly -furred about the neck, and her hat, that seemed of velvet without a -brim, sat low. 'I would take you away from this rolling hulk at once -if I could. Under God I may yet save you. I am as much shipwrecked as -you are. But we needn't despair. This hull dances tightly; she has been -washing about now for some days, and I should doubt by the feel of her -jumps if there's two foot of water in her hold. Who's that dead woman -in the galley?'</p> - -<p>'The captain's wife,' she answered, staring at me. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> - -<p>'How came she to perish there?'</p> - -<p>'She went with her husband to help him affix a lantern to the bowsprit. -He slipped overboard with the light and was drowned. I waited for them -here and went to find them, and saw Mrs. Burke lying on the deck. She -had fallen and broken her leg. I was too weak to carry or drag her into -this cabin and I pulled her into the galley for the shelter of it, and -there she lay, and I could not help her,' she cried, clasping her hands -with strange, piteous, involuntary motions of her head. 'I don't know -whether she died of grief, or from the injury of her fall, or whether -the cold killed her. It was black in the galley, and I could not see -her. I often called her name, but she never answered me. Oh, what an -awful time was that night! I stayed by her until long after I knew she -was dead, and then came down here, and have remained in this place ever -since—no, three times I have been on deck to look for a ship: it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> -always snowing—it has been enough to drive me mad,' said she, passing -her hand with a wild gesture across her eyes.</p> - -<p>'Mad indeed!' said I to myself, all thought of my own situation -vanishing in the presence of the anguish of this poor gentle young -woman: she had a sweet soft voice: I supposed she had been alone in -this labouring hulk for hard upon a week. It was wonderful she should -have kept her mind. Indeed it put a sort of craziness even into <i>my</i> -seasoned head when I paused in contemplation of her, and realised -how it might have been with <i>me</i> had I been alone in this straining, -creaking, wallowing fabric with no one aboard beside myself but a dead -woman, an atmosphere of stinging cold, nigh twenty hours of blackness -every day.</p> - -<p>'But you've not been starving all this while?' said I.</p> - -<p>'When there was daylight,' she answered, 'I'd get some food and wine -from yonder;'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> she pointed to the pantry. 'I took a little stock to my -cabin. Where is your ship? Have you no companions? Take me on deck to -see your boat and the vessel,' and she extended her hand.</p> - -<p>I saw she had not understood me, and I told her how it had come to -pass that I was on board the hulk with her. She listened in silence, -saying nothing when I spoke of the men who had been lifted aboard -the 'Planter' out of the 'Lady Emma's' long-boat, frozen to death, -and nothing whilst I described what I myself had undergone in the -jolly-boat. She seemed slow to understand; but at last, when I was -done, after continuing to stare at me, for our faces were a sort of -glimmer one to the other in that gloom, she gave a shriek, and crying -'There is no hope for me, then! there is no hope for me, then!' buried -her face and shook and swayed in a passion of weeping.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XIV</span> <span class="smaller">STILL ADRIFT</span></h2> - -<p>I could do nothing but let her cry; yet, knowing there is no better -medicine for such misery and fear as hers than action and the sight of -it, I got up and went to the pantry for materials to trim and light the -lamp. I found oil and bundles of wick, but no matches. I returned and -asked the poor weeping young lady to tell me if she knew where I might -find a box of matches; she went to a cabin which I supposed was hers, -one on the port side, almost aft. I was struck by her walk: not once -did she stumble or pause, wild as the play of the plank was. In a few -minutes she rejoined me with a box of wax lights, and, unhooking the -lamp, I filled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> and trimmed it and hung it up, and it swung burning -brightly.</p> - -<p>Now I could see Miss Otway, and as much of her face as showed was -remarkable for delicacy and refinement. She was very pale, her eyes -light, whether blue or grey I could not then tell; her hair was of a -soft, rather dark amber. She had perfectly even small white teeth, -but her lips were pale and marked a want of red blood. She was of -medium height, but of a shape not to be guessed at, heaped as her form -was with clothes. What she wore was very rich and fine, and a little -diamond sparkled in each ear. She seemed fragile, in delicate health, -just the sort of girl to whom the doctors, despairing of their physic, -would recommend the breezes of the world's oceans.</p> - -<p>Her eyes were red with weeping, and when I glanced at her after hanging -up the lamp I found her staring at me with looks of anxiety and -expectation piteous with passion. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> - -<p>'This,' said I, casting up my gaze at the lamp, 'makes the cabin -cheerful. I hope there is plenty of oil aboard to keep us in light till -we are taken off.'</p> - -<p>'When will that be?' she cried.</p> - -<p>'Why, perhaps to-day and perhaps tomorrow,' said I. 'My ship can't be -far off; her captain is one of the humanest hearts afloat. He thinks -three of you are aboard here, and he'll cruise for you. If he don't -find us the reason will lie in the weather, not in his not hunting.' -Then, looking towards the stove, I exclaimed, 'You'll have been ice -cold down in this well. Let's build a fire, there's plenty of coal in -the hull: the boatswain Wall said so.'</p> - -<p>'Who were the dead?' she exclaimed.</p> - -<p>'Two seamen and the steward. A fourth—the doctor—lies fearfully -frostbitten. He stands to lose his feet and hands.'</p> - -<p>'They wanted to take me with them,' she cried. 'Captain Burke would not -let me go;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> Mrs. Burke was against it: had I gone I might now be safe -in your ship.'</p> - -<p>'Don't imagine that,' said I, deeply pitying as I looked at her. '<i>You</i> -capable of enduring two nights of exposure in the seas in that open -boat! They proved sound friends who kept you here. <i>Here</i> you're alive -and you shall be saved—you shall be saved!' I exclaimed heartily.</p> - -<p>A faint smile put a look of spirit into her pale face. I went to the -stove, and beside it, secured so they should not fetch away, were three -or four buckets of coal, but no wood. I was in no temper to rummage -the ship for a faggot, and, having noticed a chopper in the pantry, -I fetched a bunk-board from the captain's cabin and split it, and -presently had a roaring fire.</p> - -<p>'Did the crew cook their victuals here before leaving?' said I, -noticing a kettle, a frying-pan, and other galley furniture lying near -the stove. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> - -<p>She answered that some cooking had been done for the crew in this cabin.</p> - -<p>'Pray sit you here,' said I, catching her gently by the wrist and -bringing her close to the stove, and seating her on a small cleated -sofa beside it. 'I believe a pannikin of hot drink—tea, coffee, or -cocoa—and something to eat, will do us both good. Keep you here and -thaw through and through whilst I get a kettleful of water.'</p> - -<p>She was watching me with some life: the cuddy fire threw a warm, -cheerful colour upon her face, and the flames shone in her eyes, -filling them as with a dance of courage. When I spoke of fetching some -fresh water, she cried out eagerly, extending her arms:</p> - -<p>'Oh! mind you do not slide overboard. The decks are deadly. I can't be -left alone again.'</p> - -<p>I smiled and bade her not fear for me, and picking up the kettle and -dropping the chopper into my coat pocket—it was an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> immensely thick -pilot-cloth coat I had found in the captain's cabin and put on—I went -on deck.</p> - -<p>This was a lead-coloured day with a confusion of ragged black cloud -thronging southward where the vapour was crowded and darkening into a -look of thunder. I saw no signs of the 'Planter,' nothing but the ice -afar. Secretly I had no hope that Captain Parry would persevere in his -quest. I made no doubt he would suppose all hands in the jolly-boat had -been drowned, which, God knows, was very near the truth; and this would -dispirit him, his forecastle working strength would be weakened also, -for, saving Wall, the 'Lady Emma's' men were of no use, and I reckoned -he would be glad to stick his ship north, clear of the perils of the -ice and the blinding snow-storms.</p> - -<p>But whether it was because I was a young fellow of a heart naturally -lively, or whether because I had escaped a dreadful death, so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> that -the being on board this hull was almost as a rescue, 'tis true I felt -no depression, no despondency in any marked degree when I looked round -on stepping on deck and saw the leaden, rolling, frosting ocean bare, -and viewed the tumbling, dismasted, mutilated hull, white fore and aft, -bright with a hundred figures in ice, a most forlorn and dismal object -as she bowed her naked bowsprit into the sallow trough, wearily leaning -off the slant, with cataracts of foam hissing from the channels and -scaling her sloping side. I could not but reflect that, though we were -far south, whalers in plenty were to be met with in these seas, and -that the hulk was stout and buoyant, and bade fair to last us our time -in her, which might not extend beyond the morrow.</p> - -<p>So, with a good heart and a vow besides to do my manhood's best to -cheer up my poor companion, to make her as comfortable as the means of -the hulk and my sailor's judgment would allow, and to help preserve her -life in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> God's own time, I looked along the deck, and then seeing how -it must be, went to a scuttlebutt lashed forwards of the port gangway, -and finding it half full, went to work on it with the chopper, knocked -the hoops off, and the staves tumbled to the deck, letting slip a mass -of fresh-water ice, shaped cask-wise. I struck off as much as would -fill a kettle, leaving the rest to lie, and returned to the cabin.</p> - -<p>'Now,' said I, knowing the tonic worth of work in a time like this, -'melt this for us, if you please. When the kettle boils we'll go to -breakfast.'</p> - -<p>'Is your ship in sight?' said she, getting up and taking the kettle and -ice.</p> - -<p>'No,' I answered, 'but something will be coming along soon. This is a -great whaling ocean, you know.'</p> - -<p>'What is your name?' she asked.</p> - -<p>'Ralph Selby,' I replied.</p> - -<p>'How did you know my name?' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Wall, the boatswain, was full of you and Captain Burke and his wife -when he was brought aboard out of the long-boat.'</p> - -<p>'Yes, yes, I understand,' said she. 'I should have guessed it.'</p> - -<p>'There are things to be done whilst you get the kettle to boil,' said -I. 'You move about very easily, I see.'</p> - -<p>'I am used to this dreadful monotonous rolling,' she answered.</p> - -<p>'Can you lay your hands upon what we may want in the pantry?'</p> - -<p>'Oh, yes. I know what's there. Shall I boil some coffee?'</p> - -<p>'If you please,' said I, smiling to find her talking with a show -of life. 'I am going to the captain's cabin to look to one or two -matters,' and with that I left her.</p> - -<p>I entered the berth I had shifted myself in, and which I knew had -been the captain's by its appointments, and first I looked at the -chronometers, and, finding them still going,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> carefully wound them -afresh, guessing by the revolutions of the key that they would have -stopped shortly. I then sought for and found the ship's papers, and -overhauled them to gather the character of the supplies aboard. The -cargo consisted of stout, brandy, and whiskey; samples of preserved -potatoes and articles of potted food, a quantity of theatrical scenery, -builders' stuff, such as doors and window frames; patent fuel, oil -cake, india rubber, and certain other commodities. I observed that -amongst the samples was a quantity of preserved milk: there was also a -consignment of one hundred iron cases, each containing two hundred and -fourteen biscuits, weighing one pound each, and specified as six inches -square by one and a half inches thick.</p> - -<p>In short the paper indicated half a shipload of food and liquor. But I -made nothing of this then. Such a plenty was not likely to seem of any -use to two people who looked to be taken off the wreck in a few days at -the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> outside, and for whom therefore a single cask of beef, a single -barrel of ship's bread, along with the little stock of delicacies I had -observed in the pantry, would be more than enough.</p> - -<p>I lingered to overhaul the nautical appliances, intending, should a -phantom of sun show, to get an observation. It was very gloomy here. -I found a small brass clock ticking stoutly, and this I wound up, the -plain silver watch in my pocket having stopped when the jolly-boat -capsized: the time by the little clock was a quarter after eleven. I -went out and set a clock under the skylight to this hour. I guessed -it would comfort the girl's eye to see the time. Nothing in such a -situation as ours could make one feel more outcast, more hopelessly -removed from human reach and sympathy, than a lifeless clock silently -telling the same hour always. It would be as though time itself had -abandoned one. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> - -<p>The ice was melted and the kettle boiling, and Miss Otway was making a -potful of coffee. She had lifted the fiddles and spread a cloth, and -put some preserved meat, cheese, jam, biscuit, and the like upon the -table. The lamp and the flames in the grate made a light like noon, -and, now looking round, I beheld a very rosy interior, a quantity of -books, mirrors for decoration, comfortable armchairs and couches, and -sundry fal-lals; all designed, no doubt, to render the voyage of Miss -Otway cheerful and pleasant.</p> - -<p>Turning, she cried out: 'Oh, Mr. Selby, you cannot imagine what it is -to see someone—to have someone to speak to. Only God could say how -lonely I have felt. The dreadfully long nights; the endless hours of -darkness——' Her voice broke and her head drooped.</p> - -<p>'No need to tell me what you have undergone,' said I. 'Never in all -sea story did any girl suffer upon the ocean as you have. But you've a -brave look. You'll <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>keep up your tears now. I'm a sailor and I give you -my word we are very well off. We need but patience, and faith in that -God who has watched over us both.'</p> - -<p>On this she raised her head and viewed me a little while steadily, as -one who stares critically to make sure of another.</p> - -<p>I took the pot of coffee from her and we seated ourselves. She -had suffered so long from what I may truly call a very anguish of -loneliness—and, indeed, one had need to be locked up in that same -rolling hull, in the blackness and the cold, with the seas roaring -outside, and within always the same soul-maddening noise of creaking -bulkheads and harshly strained fastenings, to realise what this poor, -gentle, delicate lady had endured—that I was sure she'd find a -wonderful ease in talking freely. I therefore questioned her whilst we -sat eating, and she told me who she was, where she lived, how the wife -of the master of the vessel had been her old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> nurse, with other matters -which she herself relates.</p> - -<p>She warmed up in talking. I think she found a sort of hope in merely -speaking of her father and her home and the gentleman, Mr. Archibald -Moore, to whom, but for her health, so she told me, she would have been -married some months before the date of her sailing. I so questioned -her that the early despair in her manner died out when she talked of -her father and sweetheart. I took care to converse as though they were -within reach, and the meeting a matter of a little waiting only. In -short, my resolution to cheer her mastered her fears and perhaps her -convictions; and even whilst we sat I beheld a new life stealing into -her, speaking in her raised, hopeful, more eager voice, and softening -the haggard, wild look in her eyes.</p> - -<p>Presently she put some question which I had to fence with.</p> - -<p>'My dread,' she said, 'all the while I was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> alone here, was ice; the -ship lies helpless; I never knew but that an iceberg was close to, -and that every next hurl of the sea would dash the wreck against some -frozen cliff. Is there any ice in sight?'</p> - -<p>'Yes,' I answered, 'but a good way off.'</p> - -<p>'Suppose we drift towards an iceberg, what shall we do?'</p> - -<p>'No good in <i>supposing</i> at sea,' I said. 'Time enough to deal with a -difficulty when it's within hail.'</p> - -<p>'Does the hull remain in one place? Or are we being driven by the seas -and the wind?'</p> - -<p>'If the sun will put his nose out,' said I, with a glance at the -thickly snow-coated skylight, 'I'll find out where we are.'</p> - -<p>'Do you understand navigation?'</p> - -<p>I replied with a grave nod.</p> - -<p>'If we are moving at all, which way are we driving, do you think?'</p> - -<p>'The sextant will tell us,' said I. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> - -<p>Thus she plied me, straining her poor eyes with consuming anxiety. I -answered warily but always on the side of hope.</p> - -<p>When I was going on deck she wanted to accompany me, but I bade her -stop where she was till I had stretched some lifelines along. When I -looked out I saw there was no chance of obtaining an observation. The -sky was near, and thick with rolling clouds: the windy dusk had shrunk -the sea-girdle, and the distant ice was out of sight: the leaden surge -broke in against the snow-soft gloom. No more desolate ocean-picture -had I ever viewed; its spirit sank into me in a depression that brought -me to an idle halt for some minutes whilst I wrestled with myself. I -started, and my very soul shrank within me when I asked myself: If we -are not fallen in with what is to become of us? Where are we drifting? -Then I plucked up with the reflection that we were in navigated seas; -any moment might give me the sight of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> sail; and my immediate -business therefore was to render our distress a visible thing upon the -face of the rolling waters.</p> - -<p>I shut the companion doors that the girl might be warm below, and, that -I might move with security, went to work to stretch lines along the -deck. A great plenty of gear lay frozen all about; I got hold of an end -and worked a length into some sort of suppleness, and with much hard -labour succeeded in setting up life-lines in short scoops, so as to -bring them taut, for the winch and capstan were frozen motionless, and -I could do nothing with them.</p> - -<p>This business carried me abreast of the galley, where I saw with a -sudden recoil once again the body of the captain's wife. She seemed -asleep, so fresh, living and breathing she looked, with even a sort -of colour in her face, and the expression of her mouth easy and -placid. But since she was dead it was fit she should be buried, and -as her presence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> added to the ghastliness of this picture of wreck, -and weighed like an assurance of doom upon the spirits, I resolved to -turn her over the side without ado; so, with averted face—for I could -not bear to look upon her, she lay so life-like: it was like drowning -rather than burying her—I took the body under the arms, and with all -reverence gently dragged it to a great gap of smashed bulwark, when, -just whispering, 'May God receive you, poor woman, and may He have -mercy upon those who are left,' I slided her overboard, and instantly -quitted the side, not choosing to get a memory of her as she lay -floating ere the drenched clothes sucked her under.</p> - -<p>Constantly I cast my eyes into the north for a sight of the sun; but -he never showed himself. There stood about twelve foot of splintered -foremast. I meant to fly a flag by day and hoist a lighted lantern by -night; but how to shin up so as to secure a block at the head? </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> - -<p>I mused a bit, and then went in search of the carpenter's chest, which -I found in the forecastle. It was a huge chest, cleated and lashed down -against the bulk-head that divided the men's sea-parlour from the hold, -and it lay in such gloom that I could make nothing of it, so I returned -to the cabin for a lantern. I found a couple of bull's-eye lamps in the -pantry. Whilst I filled and trimmed one of them, Miss Otway came from -the stove to the door and stood looking in.</p> - -<p>'Can't I help you?' said she.</p> - -<p>'No,' said I.</p> - -<p>'What are you going to do?'</p> - -<p>'I am going to hoist a distress signal.'</p> - -<p>'Is there anything in sight?' she shrieked.</p> - -<p>I shook my head.</p> - -<p>'Why won't you let me help you?' said she. 'It's horrible to be left -alone down here. Make me of use. It will do me good to help you.'</p> - -<p>But I would not allow her to come on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> deck merely to look on and be -frozen to the marrow by the pouring wind; so, cheerily saying I'd find -her employment by-and-by, I carried the lighted bull's-eye on deck and -made my way to the forecastle, holding by the life-lines, so that I -moved as briskly as if the hull lay quiet.</p> - -<p>I quickly found what I immediately wanted, namely, a quantity of long -iron spikes. I took a handful of these and a hammer on deck and drove a -spike deep into the wood, a little above the other; and thus I made a -ladder of spikes, every projection of iron yielding me room for my foot -and for a grip of one hand. When I had driven in the spikes as high -as was needful, I came down, and after hunting over the gear upon the -deck found a small block through which I rove a line that looked like -a length of the fore-royal signal halliards. I climbed the mast again -with this block and line and, driving a spike into the head of the -stump, I secured the block<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> to it and descended for good, this business -being finished.</p> - -<p>I had taken notice of a flag locker under a grating abaft the wheel; I -went to it and found a complete code of Marryatt's signals, a large and -small ensign, and a jack. There was too much bunting in the big ensign -for such weather as this, and for such winds as might burst upon us at -any moment: so I bent on the small ensign to my halliards and ran it, -jack downwards, to the head of the stump of foremast, where it flared -bravely, chattering like a thing of life.</p> - -<p>Yet I found it but a mocking signal after all, when I sent my glance -from it round the thick swollen and breaking seas, and noticed that -even already the dye of the early night seemed in the air, and that in -little more than an hour that streaming, flame-like appeal would, as a -call to the eye, be as useless as the stump it blew from.</p> - -<p>I was now extremely anxious to ascertain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> the depth of water in the -hold, and went to the pumps to see what was to be done with the ice -there. The sounding tube was perhaps solid with ice half-way to the -hold; I thought then I would try and draw one of the pumps, and having -the pantry chopper in my hand, let fly, bruising and splintering so as -to free the bucket. In the midst of my chopping Miss Otway called out. -I stopped and saw her head in the companion way.</p> - -<p>'Oh,' she cried, with a note in her voice that sounded almost like joy, -pointing with a gesture of rapture to the inverted ensign, 'that will -bring help to us! That will be seen for miles and miles. How clever! -How did you manage to climb that slippery mast?' And then, catching -sight of the spikes, she exclaimed, 'I see. I see. It's wonderfully -done.'</p> - -<p>'It's too cold for you on deck,' said I, scarcely keeping grave over -this girlish praise. 'Remain below in the warmth. No use taking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> a -voyage for your health only to lose your toes and fingers as your -doctor has.'</p> - -<p>But paying no heed to this, she stepped out of the companion way, and -putting her thickly-gloved hand upon one of the life-lines, came to -where I was letting fly at the pump and watched me.</p> - -<p>It was the best light I had yet viewed her in; and now indeed I -perceived that she was a very delicate, sweet-looking young lady, -about two-and-twenty years of age, pale, but of a transparency of -complexion that made a beauty of her pallor; nor were her eyes wanting -in expression, though they would be too light to faithfully reflect the -deeper and subtler passions and sensations of her spirit.</p> - -<p>I thought her the most refined-looking lady I had ever seen; which -perhaps is not saying much, seeing how many of my years had been passed -upon the ocean. I saw the quality and breeding of her in her face and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> -heard it in her voice, and I think anyone, no matter how inexperienced -in such things, but would, on looking at her, have said to himself, -this is an English lady.</p> - -<p>After chopping and hammering for some time, I freed the bucket and -drew the pump; and, the sounding-rod lying handily by, I dropped it, -and after several casts, so hard did I find it to get the level of the -water betwixt the swift abrupt rolls of the hull, I made a little more -than a foot and a half. I was astonished, but wonderfully heartened. -Here was a hull that had not been pumped out for eight or ten days: she -had been straining heavily in the hollow hour after hour: and yet there -was no more water in her than a single spell of a watch on deck at the -pumps might free her of!</p> - -<p>I refitted the pump and fell to work at the brake and brought up some -water.</p> - -<p>'Let me help you,' said Miss Otway.</p> - -<p>'It won't hurt you,' said I, and brought a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> coil of rope across the -deck for her to stand on, that her feet might be clear of the water as -it washed with the slant of the planks. We then went to work: the water -bubbled, the clank of the brake ran a noise of life through the hulk; -the exercise flushed the girl's face, and, in a pause for breath, I -told her it would do her more good than sitting by the fire.</p> - -<p>In that same pause whilst she breathed quickly she glanced with a -sudden look of pain and consternation in the direction of the galley, -and exclaimed:</p> - -<p>'The body of my poor old nurse lies there. I had forgotten her.'</p> - -<p>'I buried her,' said I.</p> - -<p>'Where?'</p> - -<p>I told her. She was shocked and her eyes filled, and she turned her -head to hide her face.</p> - -<p>'It was not a thing to keep,' said I.</p> - -<p>'Oh no,' she cried, looking round at me,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> eagerly and yet piteously. -'I don't mean that. You threw her into the sea as she lay—without a -prayer——'</p> - -<p>'No,' said I, shortly.</p> - -<p>She viewed me a little gratefully. I grasped the brake: she put her -hand upon it, and we fell to afresh.</p> - -<p>We worked in this fashion for above half an hour, and then Miss Otway, -glowing with the labour and in no wise distressed by it, saving that -her breathing was quick, went below. I fetched the telescope and -stayed to carefully search the horizon before it fell dark. But point -the tubes as I would they gave me nothing. The near sea-line tumbled -dimly in long ragged wings of dark vapour, which as they lifted with -the wind stretched overhead like lengths of smoke; and betwixt them -I spied a higher platform of cloud, mouse-coloured here and there as -though touched by some wild stormy light. I saw no ice, but the wind -blew as though ice were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> close aboard: the sting of it was insufferable -when you faced it standing. A noise of rattling sometimes came from -the forecastle as though the spray froze in leaping, and fell with the -weight of hail in the tropics, and already the pump we had been plying -was as thick and hard bound as the other.</p> - -<p>And still I lingered, not indeed with the hope of sighting a sail -before the blackness fell upon us, but with the idea of making some -sort of blind guess at the drift of the hull. The strong breeze blew -out of the north, and the tall coils of sea ran in wide flashings from -that quarter, but the large ocean swell was about north-west. I was -not very well acquainted with these waters and scarcely knew what to -recollect of the currents hereabouts. I was aware that the set of the -ice was to the northwards. But then the bergs struck deep root into -motions of the sea which had no influence atop; so that there might -be very well a surface-trend to the southward through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> wind and surge -and swell, when, some fathoms under, the body of the water was slowly -streaming in another direction.</p> - -<p>A dismal picture with the sadness of despair coming into me out of it, -when I looked at that square of bunting flaming in mute appeal from the -stump-head to the blind horizon! But we had life, and so there must be -hope, and rallying my spirits with a will, I strode the length of the -life-line to the halliards, hauled the flag down, and went to the cabin -to find and trim a lantern to hoist in its place.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XV</span> <span class="smaller">THE ICE IN THE SOUTH</span></h2> - -<p>I left a light burning brightly at the mast-head: the wild meteoric -dance of that gleam was a sort of hope: no ship sighting it but would -guess from the rapidity of its oscillations that it danced on an open -boat, or shone from some short height upon a dismasted hull.</p> - -<p>The wind was freshening with a long deep moan in the rush of it through -the flying dusk when I left the deck: but I gathered from a general -atmospheric hardening all round, a firmer line in the curl of the -surge, a distincter flash in the foam of it, that it was to be a clear -night, with perhaps a star or two by-and-by. The hull made good play: -she was like a live thing; and no helm and no fragment of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> canvas -vexing her, she took up her own position and wallowed dryly, save that -now and again in a sharp pitch she'd meet some lateral run of sea and -whiten in the air forward into the look of a snow-storm: but the froth -mostly blew clear, and the water when it came streaming aft quickly -froze into the snow.</p> - -<p>Miss Otway sat beside the stove: she had removed her hat, otherwise was -wrapped up to the throat in furs; her yellow hair was shot with amber -light when the swing of the lamp flashed the radiance upon it, but her -looks were white, and something wild with grief, anxiety and fear. She -asked me if there was any ice in sight.</p> - -<p>'None that I can see in the dusk,' I answered.</p> - -<p>'I'm all the while dreading the ice,' said she. 'I should not fear this -high sea and our lying dismasted in it, if it were not for the ice.'</p> - -<p>'There's none near to hurt us just now,' said I. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p> - -<p>'When I first came into this cabin,' she exclaimed, 'in the Thames, -a chill ran through me that was cold as ice itself. It was warm, and -yet I shivered as though freezing. Was it an omen? The memory has been -haunting me in my time of loneliness here. A little while before we -were dismasted we sighted a huge iceberg that was like a cathedral: it -had a beach of frozen foam, and the snow whirled in white dust on one -side of it against the dark clouds. Oh, Mr. Selby,' she cried, 'think -of this helpless hull striking against such a mountain of ice as that, -and our getting upon it and perishing with the cold—the awful cold!'</p> - -<p>'Why, Miss Otway,' said I with a bustle of voice and manner as I got up -to set the kettle on the stove. 'This sort of talk is good for neither -of us. Do you believe in omens? But don't be scared till danger's come, -and not then. There's plenty to eat and drink in this ship and I'm for -faring heartily for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> sake of hoping heartily, and working heartily, -should work be wanted. Come, you shall fry some ham; it's my turn to -prepare the table.'</p> - -<p>Presently we were seated as before. I talked more reassuringly than I -had ventured on earlier, for now that her hat was off I saw her face -very clearly, how refined she was, how gentle, how well nurtured; -my very heart pitied her: I felt as though commanded by God Himself -to take charge of her, to watch over her, to keep her heart up; I -can't express indeed how she appealed to me out of her gentleness and -refinement, the horrible situation she was in, the unspeakably dreadful -time she had passed through alone.</p> - -<p>And often I would catch her in the intervals of our speech eyeing me -under drooping lids with an eager searching look of enquiry, as though -she would comfort her poor little self by finding out what sort of a -man was I who had come into this rolling hull where she was alone? I -wished her to find<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> out quickly that she might be easy; but we both -needed time, I to act and she to discover.</p> - -<p>I cleared the table and went on deck. The lantern burned brightly. The -night lay black, but the atmosphere was hard as when I had gone into -the cabin, and you found a distance in the gloom. All was as well with -the hull as one could dare hope for, and, closing the companion doors, -I re-entered the cabin.</p> - -<p>It was about six o'clock then. I lighted a bull's-eye and went into the -captain's berth for the log-book which I had noticed upon the table, -and to overhaul a bag of charts. I brought the log-book and the chart I -wanted to the cabin table: Miss Otway seeing me at this, came opposite -and stood there looking on. I wished to see the last entry in the -log-book; which done, I opened the chart, and was startled to observe -that, supposing the drift of the vessel to have been continuously to -the southward, as somehow I imagined it was, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> group of islands -called the South Orkneys, stretching some sixty-five miles east and -west, could not be farther than twenty-five or thirty leagues.</p> - -<p>'Are you finding out where we are?' said Miss Otway.</p> - -<p>'I shall know exactly when I get an observation,' said I, and carried -the log-book and chart back into the captain's cabin.</p> - -<p>But I confess my heart was sunk. To be sure, throughout I had vaguely -known our place—could have named it within fifty or eighty miles -perhaps—yet the business I had been about ever since I woke up -stopped me from realising till I looked on the chart, when of course I -understood that if our drift was south we stood to go to pieces upon -land that would be the most God-forsaken on the wide face of the oceans -of the globe, if it were not that, hard by them, covering a range of -eight or nine degrees of longitude, lay groups of rocks with a range -of mountainous continent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> stretching due south (magnetic) even more -desolate, naked and iron-sheathed.</p> - -<p>But we were not ashore yet: nor could I know certainly that our drift -was south; and then there was to-morrow's daylight with its hope of -succour.</p> - -<p>I sat beside the stove and talked with Miss Otway. She spoke of the -voyage and of the apparition which had haunted the memory and depressed -the spirits of Captain Burke down to the hour of his death. I sought -to amuse her by relating certain experiences of my own; and she forgot -her situation whilst listening to some of my yarns. The truth is I -had gone to sea at the age of thirteen and had followed the life -fourteen years, during which I had served in several capacities in many -kinds of vessels, though my experiences lay chiefly in the India and -China trade. I had plenty then to talk about: it amused me to yarn, -and she listened with more life and intelligence than I should have -expected in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> one with so fixed an expression of dismay, of hearkening -consternation and mourning.</p> - -<p>After satisfying myself with a look around on deck, I returned, and -going to the bookshelves, read the names of some of the volumes. It -was a good collection of books: the best of the poets and novelists -were there, with odds and ends of scrappy reading like Hone's and -D'Israeli's. Here I found dear old 'Peter Simple,' and carrying -the tale to the stove, I read bits aloud, and once or twice she -laughed. Then something suggesting the topic, I got telling her about -shipwrecks, my notion being to let her understand how much better off -were we than others who had suffered from disasters at sea. I talked -of the raft of the 'Medusa,' described that pathetic, lamentable scene -in the round-house of the 'Abergavenny'—the wax-lights, the captain -clasping his daughters to him—related the loss of the 'Amphitrite,' -as told to me by a man I had sailed with who had been one of the -survivors<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> of that most tragic of shipwrecks, which littered the -Boulogne sands with scores of bodies of handsome, finely built young -women.</p> - -<p>'Are there instances of people,' she asked, 'who have been wrecked upon -icebergs and survived?'</p> - -<p>I spun her a few yarns of polar experiences in this way: of Russian -seamen found floating on ice: of a whaler half full of men stranded on -a berg and floating in her giant cradle down into open waters where she -was boarded and the people taken out of her.</p> - -<p>'How long had they been locked up?'</p> - -<p>'Several months.'</p> - -<p>'Were their sufferings great?'</p> - -<p>Not knowing, I had to invent, and to cheer her, said: 'Oh, no. -They kept up good fires, had plenty of beef and tobacco, heartened -themselves by singing songs, telling stories, playing at games of their -own invention, and fashioning ornaments out of whale ivory. It came -right with them. When<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> things come right it's the same as if they never -were wrong. Nothing counts but the loss of time whilst you're waiting -for the settlement. How soon, when you get well, you forget that you -were ill! How quickly you forget the weather! Who's it says it's always -too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry, but that God so contrives it, -at the end of the year it's all the same? Keep up your heart, Miss -Otway, and reflect that when this is ended and you're safe ashore with -your people it'll be no more than an experience to talk about.'</p> - -<p>'Yes,' said she, with a faint smile, 'it will be all right when I <i>am</i> -ashore; but who's that other person who says, philosophy triumphs over -past and future ills, but present ills triumph over philosophy?'</p> - -<p>This passed my plain understanding, and I let the subject go.</p> - -<p>I went on deck for more ice to melt and boil, and found it blowing -pretty strong. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> high sea, ridged in lines of ebony against the light -of their own foam, and melted in roaring snowdrifts under the hull -that was topping them with a wonderful buoyancy. I looked for a star, -but all was sweeping blackness aloft, save the point of light at the -stump-head.</p> - -<p>Knowing this hard heave of sea must certainly give us a steady trend -southward, helped as the hull was by the blast every time she soared -into the icy howl of it, I fetched a bull's-eye, and observing by the -binnacle that the hulk's head pointed about east by north, I went to -the starboard rail and overlay it, staring with desperate searching -eyes into the hard gloom till I was almost frozen. But I could see -nothing that looked like ice, no faintness, no spectral sheen, all that -glared was foam running from the arched back of the surge; so I went -below, where I boiled some coffee, and, shortly after eight, Miss Otway -withdrew to her berth. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> - -<p>I took the bull's-eye to find me more clothes in the captain's cabin, -and when I was wrapped up to the bigness of a Greenland's-man, I -returned to the stove, dimming the lamp to a light that was just enough -to see by, and lay down upon a couch. Presently I was startled out of -a reverie by seeing a great rat come close to the fire, as though for -the warmth. Very quietly putting my hand in my pocket, I pulled out my -clasp knife, which I opened; the blade was dagger-shaped. Then, quick -as lightning, I lanced the weapon at the beast and half severed its -head. This pleased me, for in the course of our talks Miss Otway had -said that in her time of loneliness, a huge rat had come into the cabin -and looked at her till she was motionless with disgust and fear. I -could not know, however, that this was the rat that had so served her; -though it made one less aboard, and I dropped it into a coal-bucket to -chuck over the side next day. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> - -<p>The sight of the bleeding, lifeless beast set my thoughts running -on the hours the girl, whilst alone, had spent in this hull, and I -wondered when I looked at the rat and listened to the shrieking and -grinding noises, that she had not days before gone off her head. I -guessed that her mind had been cast in a heroic mould; never else could -she have come through such a term of loneliness with her wits all -right. Less had driven strong men overboard, gaping madmen.</p> - -<p>Whilst I sat following the wild and flying motions of the hull, -testing them by sensation to gather if the buoyancy diminished, I -was addressed. I looked round with a sudden surprise that was nearly -fright: it was Miss Otway, furred and clothed from head to foot as she -had left me.</p> - -<p>'Are you going to sit up all night?' she exclaimed.</p> - -<p>'I'm going to sit here,' I answered. 'I shall snooze at intervals.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Let me watch whilst you sleep,' said she.</p> - -<p>'There's nothing to watch,' I answered, 'nothing to keep a look-out -for.'</p> - -<p>'A ship might see our lantern and come down to us.'</p> - -<p>'She could do nothing in this weather.'</p> - -<p>'But to think of being asleep whilst a vessel is coming down to see -what the light means! Think of her hailing, getting no answer and -passing on. It might be our only chance.'</p> - -<p>I told her that might happen even though we both kept watch all night -in the cabin. How, down here, should we hear a hail from the water? -We'd need to keep a look-out on deck, which would kill her quickly and -me soon after.</p> - -<p>'Pray go and rest,' said I, 'and trust me to see anything that may come -along and to hear anything that may hail.'</p> - -<p>She looked reluctant, very white, her eyes dim and large with tragic -expectancy as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> though she never knew but that in the next minute -something frightful would happen.</p> - -<p>I picked the rat up by the tail. 'Is this your friend?' said I.</p> - -<p>She shrieked, believing it alive; then, shuddering and shuddering, -staggered somewhat blindly in the direction of the cabin.</p> - -<p>I jumped up and supported her, encouraging her by every promise and -hope my brain could frame.</p> - -<p>'You have not slept for nights,' said I, pausing at her door. 'Best now -that I am here, if only that you may have strength enough to leave the -hull and health enough to carry you to your home.'</p> - -<p>She had removed her gloves: I grasped her ice-cold hand and returned to -my couch.</p> - -<p>The night crept away. I dozed at intervals, visiting the deck perhaps -half a dozen times. In the morning watch I slept soundly upon the couch -by the stove, and when I awoke it was nine by the clock under the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>skylight, still black as thunder, and the hull rolling heavily. I was -cold to the heart, and before quitting the cabin kindled a fire to boil -some water for a hot drink, then went up the steps to take a look.</p> - -<p>It was still blowing fresh, but the wind had shifted north-west, -and the sky was a clear, sparkling heaven of stars from sea-line to -sea-line, the sea running in steady hills of ink to where you saw the -horizon throbbing close under the pale lights of the night low down, -so clear was the gale. The mast-head lamp burned dimly; but it would -be daybreak shortly. I stared around the sea, and saw nothing north -and west and east, but my sight going south was arrested by a low, -irregular, dim line: it rose with the heave of the hull, and it was -as far off as the horizon. It looked like the sheen of a long face of -coast covered with snow: it was a mere attenuated film of faintness -stretched where sky and water met, and I looked and looked, believing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> -it a bank of cloud that would dissolve whilst I watched; but it hung -steady, and still it was so elusive that sometimes I saw it, and when -the hull sprang from the trough again it was gone; and yet again, when -she roared to the height of a surge, it was there.</p> - -<p>Well, daylight was at hand to resolve it. For my part I had no doubt -it was ice; indeed it had astonished me to find these seas so open at -this time of the year; only, if that sheen out in the morning darkness -under the stars was ice, the drift had been ours to carry us to a sight -of it: which signified a slide of keel running into knots: for that -steamlike hovering down there had not been in sight two or three hours -earlier, when my eye, as now, followed the hard curls of sea working -into distance, though the sky was not starry.</p> - -<p>I went below, trimmed the lamp, and prepared the table for breakfast. -Whilst I was thus occupied, Miss Otway appeared.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> She came straight to -the stove and held her hands to the blaze, and asked me when it would -be daylight. I answered, 'Within an hour.'</p> - -<p>'This almost perpetual darkness,' she exclaimed, 'is one of the most -awful parts of this dreadful time.'</p> - -<p>'I hope you slept well?'</p> - -<p>'Yes, I slept soundly, and awoke only about a quarter of an hour ago. -What is the time?' I named the hour. 'You've seen no signs of a ship -during the night, I fear?'</p> - -<p>'Nothing. It has blown hard. It still blows a fresh breeze of wind. -This is the most seawardly vessel that was ever launched. It is lucky -for us her cargo is a light one. Think of her laden to her chain-plate -bolts with some dead weight of iron goods. She would have been under -water day and night, and by this time have ceased to be a hull.'</p> - -<p>'When were you last on deck, Mr. Selby?' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p> - -<p>'I'm just now from the deck.'</p> - -<p>'Is there anything in sight?'</p> - -<p>'I'm waiting for daybreak to make sure.'</p> - -<p>My answer caused her to make a step from the stove, and to advance her -white face whilst she stared at me.</p> - -<p>'Is there ice near us?' she asked.</p> - -<p>'I find an appearance in the southward that may prove ice,' said I. -'But what else are you to expect in these seas?' I added carelessly. -'Here we are somewhere down in sixty degrees, and, since I have been -aboard, the horizon has been almost clear. What shall we have for -breakfast? Will you boil some coffee whilst I search the pantry? -Suppose daylight should reveal ice—it may also show us a whaler -fishing in the thick of the bergs!'</p> - -<p>And assuming a cheerful, bustling manner I lighted a bull's-eye, -whistling some sea tune the while, and went into the pantry, where, -after a brief overhaul of the closet and shelves,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> I laid hands upon a -tin of herrings, sardines, and some kind of delicate sausage.</p> - -<p>'I am making free,' said I, putting the stuff upon the table.</p> - -<p>'These things were laid in for you. I'll take an inventory of what's -left by-and-by; I allow that everything for cabin use will be stowed -in the lazarette. When you're transhipped the delicacies must go along -with you. The whaleman's our chance, and his cupboard has no reputation -for dainties.'</p> - -<p>I waited for her to sit, attended upon her, then fell to myself. But -all the while we remained seated she was straining her eyes at the -porthole facing her, then turning to the porthole behind her as though -she thought through the gleaming ebony of the glass, white with the -foam it rose from, to behold the ice I had spoken about.</p> - -<p>Day broke before I had breakfasted; it lay white in the snow on the -skylight ere I rose, and the grey of it in the cabin windows<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> was -growing blue when I went on deck accompanied by Miss Otway. And now I -looked at what, for the hour past, I had dreaded to see. The day had -dawned in cold splendour; the sun was flashing in rose, at this moment -perhaps two degrees above the horizon; a number of small clouds were -floating near his face and looked like bits of gilt scaling off the -rayless target-like luminary; otherwise the heavens sloped clear in a -sheer vault of deeply dark blue, under which ran the sea of the rich -hue of the sky, but full of gleams and the snow of melting crests, -and here and there spaces of an exquisite ice-like green snaking -currentwise over the heaving waters.</p> - -<p>It no longer blew hard, but it was still a fresh breeze, spray-clouded -in the frequent guns of it that shrieked in gusts over the bulwarks to -the loftier lifts of the hull. But what my sight went to and remained -fastened upon whilst, I own, my breath came and went<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> quickly with -the surprise of the magnificent, but to us the terrible, sight, was -the scene of the southern quarter of the sea. There, stretching for -miles and miles, was ice in bergs which to the naked sight looked to -lie so close, the picture was that of a compacted coast of alabaster, -broken with pinnacles and acclivities of a thousand shapes, curving in -places as though in bays, the whole on either hand dying out in films -of white, whilst over the bows and over the stern, too, every time we -rose to the height of a sea I saw ice, plentiful as the breasts of the -canvas of a vast fleet; and through the southern sky low down ran a -long glinting line or gleam as though a continent of ice was reflected -in its face; it was like the pearly radiance that hovers just off the -edges of sails when lightly swelling in the tropics against a soft blue -sky.</p> - -<p>I glanced at Miss Otway: she was staring at the sight with large -nostrils and a gaze of terror under the little frown that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> strain -of her gaze had knitted her brows into.</p> - -<p>'That is ice,' she cried.</p> - -<p>'Ay, miles of it' said I. 'But is there nothing good for us amidst that -prodigious huddle of sail-like stuff?'</p> - -<p>I took the telescope out of the companion and knelt with it to steady -the tubes, and slowly and carefully swept the whole of that wonderful -range, from film to film blue in the air. The sun's rosy light was full -upon it; only the brush of an artist could show you what I saw as the -surge ran me into a clear view of the horizon. It looked like a hundred -cities of marble and alabaster, all of them going to pieces. It was -no compact coast. There were many wide gaps, titanic streets fit for -the tread of such ocean giant-spirits as would inhabit those colossal -structures of crystal. The nearest point seemed about ten miles -distant. All was clear sea between, and northwards I saw no ice. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> - -<p>Miss Otway stood beside me holding by a belaying pin in the rail. Again -and again she would say:</p> - -<p>'Do you see any signs of a ship? Is not that the canvas of a -ship—<i>there</i>, just where your telescope now points?'</p> - -<p>I saw no ship, but I looked with impassioned intentness till my eyeball -seemed to melt dim through the lens under the brass it was pressed -against, conceiving that in so vast an arm of ice some vessel might lie -embayed.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XVI</span> <span class="smaller">THE AURORA AUSTRALIS</span></h2> - -<p>Whilst slowly sweeping the ice with the glass, I saw, or seemed to -see, when the lenses pointed a little to the eastward of south, a blue -shadow of land in the air. I took my eye away from the telescope and -then the shadow was gone: I looked again through the glass and there it -was, a dim, scarcely distinguishable liquid dye whitening as it climbed -till it melted in the azure.</p> - -<p>I very well knew that shadow must be land, probably one of the -mountainous rocks of the South Orkneys; unless indeed it was that group -which lies north-east of the South Shetlands—forming one of them, in -short: but I could not persuade myself that our drift to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> the westwards -had been so considerable. I said to Miss Otway:</p> - -<p>'Do you see a shadow in the air yonder?'</p> - -<p>She looked, preserving the frown of an intense stare, and replied:</p> - -<p>'No; I see no shadow.'</p> - -<p>I directed the glass; she put her eye to it and cried quickly, 'Yes; I -see it.'</p> - -<p>'It is land,' said I.</p> - -<p>She looked eagerly at me and said, 'Inhabited land?'</p> - -<p>'I'll not say so, but I believe they go sealing there. I've heard of -whalers heaving-to and sending ashore.'</p> - -<p>'For what?'</p> - -<p>'I don't know.'</p> - -<p>I put away the glass and said:</p> - -<p>'I've been afraid of that land; but when I think of it, best after all -for us, Miss Otway, it should be there. Only, how to come at it? What's -our drift and where are we? Shall we wash perhaps round yonder point of -film,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> clearing the whole blocking mass, to light, may be, upon some -spouter crawling northwards from ten degrees lower south? Or—or——' -But I broke off, for what was the good of conjecturing unless I could -say something to bring a little of the poor girl's heart into her eyes?</p> - -<p>On the chance of something lying hidden round a point of crystal I -went forward, lowered the lantern, and ran the red flag aloft, jack -down. This done, I fetched a sextant from the captain's cabin and stood -with Miss Otway in the shelter of the companion-way waiting for the -sun to cross his meridian, meanwhile searching the line of the ice, -beholding the phantasy of a ship's white sails over and over again, and -conversing with the girl.</p> - -<p>The sea came ridging steadily out of north-west, the vast westerly -swell of the mighty Southern Ocean pulsing through it in rounds so -majestically regular, you didn't notice the heave of it. I had never -beheld a more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> glorious breast of ocean. All was dark blue sparkling -billows, heads of froth tossing into silken veils upon the wind, a -roaring, flashing scene, deep blue above, looking in its silence down, -and the ice southward, like a coast cut in ivory white, motionless, -shining, coming and going as the hull sank and soared.</p> - -<p>I got an observation and eagerly went below to work it out. Miss -Otway followed me into the captain's cabin and watched me whilst I -calculated. I made the latitude sixty degrees ten minutes south, and -the longitude exactly forty-five degrees west. Then, looking at the -chart, I judged that that shadow of land which was showing miles past -the barrier of ice was some central mountain of Coronation Island, -towering high four thousand five hundred feet. I marked the hull's -place on the chart, and said:</p> - -<p>'This is where we are.'</p> - -<p>She peered, and after a pause exclaimed: 'It is all desolation down -here! Look how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> far we are off from Cape Horn. There is no nearer -civilisation than the Falkland Islands—how many hundreds of miles -distant! Oh!' she cried, lifting her head and clapping her hand to -her face, 'if we could but hoist even a little sail to save us from -drifting to the ice and certain death.'</p> - -<p>'No,' I exclaimed, 'death's not aboard yet, not even in sight. Sixty -degrees south! The whalers make nothing of that. The Great Circle -carries you lower;' but I would not add 'not here.'</p> - -<p>Then, my eye going to a bookshelf, I spied a volume which I pulled down -quickly. It was a directory to these seas. I searched the pages, and, -putting my finger upon a paragraph, said:</p> - -<p>'See here now, Miss Otway: men have visited this land, they have named -it, surveyed it, sounded round about it, described it. Where one has -been others may venture. Look at this,' and I read: '"At daylight on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> -the morning of the 12th January 1823, we saw some pigeons and at six -o'clock perceived the east end of the islands of South Orkneys bearing -W. by S. distant about eleven leagues. We carried all possible sail to -get under the land, but the wind soon became light and left us almost -at the mercy of a heavy swell in the midst of ice islands, which made -our navigation truly hazardous."'</p> - -<p>'Their ship had masts and sails,' she exclaimed, 'and was under -command.'</p> - -<p>I read on, eager to learn all the book could tell me.</p> - -<p>'"Being now close under the land I sent a boat from each vessel to -explore them. We continued to tack the vessels about in a bay. The -icebergs which form in the bays in winter and break away in the summer -now produced so much drift ice that we had frequently to tack ship to -avoid striking it."'</p> - -<p>'That's it!' she cried. 'Their ship was under command.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p> - -<p>I proceeded: '"This coast is, if possible, more terrific in appearance -than the South Shetland. The tops of the islands for the most part -terminate in craggy towering peaks, and look not unlike the mountain -tops of a sunken island. The loftiest of these summits, towering up to -a point, I denominated Noble's Peak. This peak in a clear day may be -seen at the distance of fifteen leagues."'</p> - -<p>'Is that the shadow?' she asked.</p> - -<p>'Possibly.'</p> - -<p>'Oh! look at the book, Mr. Selby, and see if it says that the island's -inhabited.'</p> - -<p>'It's not inhabited,' I answered.</p> - -<p>Then I stood with my finger upon the page musing upon the brief -account. There was little to interest outside of what I had read aloud: -the rest told of bearings and distances, and what had been brought up -by the lead.</p> - -<p>'But,' said I, looking at the girl, 'we are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> not stranded yet. That -we've drifted south is sure; but how much westing has there been in -this tumbling drive? Here's all about the currents shown here,' and I -turned the leaves of the book and read:</p> - -<p>'"Ten miles south of Cape Horn the ocean stream flows east-north-east, -half to one mile in the hour." That should be good for us. Let this -wind shift south or west, and the swell and the run of the sea will -drive the hulk out of sight of the barrier.'</p> - -<p>But I had something more to do just then than talk, basing chat on -small hope and weak conjecture. I saw to the fire in the stove, then -went on deck to sound the well; the pump was hard frozen as before. I -freed it and got a cast, and found that no water had drained in since -I last sounded. I'll not swear to an inch or two, but the depth was -quite unimportant, and after readjusting the pump I took the glass for -another long look at the ice. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> - -<p>It was land, sure enough, at the back of the barrier; the pearly blue -shadow stood a clear shape in the lens, and I seemed to see it now -with my bare sight when I looked a little away to right or left of it. -I carefully took its bearings, also the bearings of certain defined -features of what I call the barrier, though, as I have said, it was a -length of dislocated stuff full of yawns and wide winding openings, -with a menace of the revelation of many grotesque mighty shapes, -startling miracles of form beyond the reach of the dreams of fever, -should we be set close. There was a sort of salt sparkle upon the range -in some places; and now, whilst looking over the side, I saw, streaming -up the slant of a surge, a pistol-shot distant, a mass of the giant -kelp of these waters: but I observed no birds, nothing more than that -kelp to hint at the meaning of that distant shadow in the air.</p> - -<p>It was miserable that I could not get the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> least idea of our drift save -by waiting and watching, which presently became a sort of anguish. -I sought, but could nowhere find, the deep-sea lead, or certainly I -should have dropped it over the side, taking my chance of its finding -bottom, and lying there to show by the angle of the line into what -quarter of the sea we were drifting—whether we were making straight -for the heart of the range, as it looked, or laterally rolling towards -the south-western extremity of the ice.</p> - -<p>The weather continued of a clear cold splendour, the horizon -sharp-edged against the sky as the rim of a tumbler. The sea ran hard -in spiteful foaming slopes which kept on shouldering the hulk dead -to leeward, and within an hour the growth of the ice told me we were -closing it; in fact, by the bearings I had taken I saw that the drive -of the hull was as fair for the heart of the barrier as if she was -being steered for it! </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> - -<p>What was to be done? I had been cast in my time in many situations of -peril, yet had never known myself despairful even in the blackest hour -of my troubles: but I own my heart fell now, my spirits sank, hope -died when I looked at those leagues of horizon of ice and reflected -upon my helplessness. Could I have summoned the help of but another -pair of hands I might have made some desperate effort with capstan and -leading-blocks to cap the stump of the foremast with another height of -spar, and get a jib stretched that her head might pay off and bring -her under some sort of control to enable me to thread the waterways -betwixt the bergs. But, single-handed, I could do nothing. There was no -height of foremast for the setting of any sort of rag that would round -her head away and keep her before it—I mean, in a fashion to hold her -responsive to the helm.</p> - -<p>When I made the discovery that the hull<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> was setting dead on to the -ice, Miss Otway was in the cabin boiling some cocoa for a scrambling -afternoon meal; she came up while I stood swaying on the heave of the -plank, my arms tightly folded, my eyes rooted to the ice; instantly it -was as clear to her as to me whither our drift was tending, and she -uttered a low cry as though she had been struck.</p> - -<p>The mere sight of her, however, did me good—it quickened perception of -my obligations as a man. Her face was white as the foam over the side; -her pale lips moved, but the shrill wind sheared with icy-edge through -her words as they came to her lips. She sent a blind, staggering glance -round the western and northern sea line, and, knitting her face into a -look of resolution, she said:</p> - -<p>'It is God's will. But, Mr. Selby, it is a dreadful death to die.'</p> - -<p>'I am pleased when you look so,' said I, 'but not when you speak so. -It is God's will,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> as you say. But what is that will? What's to be our -fate? Look how those blue shadows in the ice open and widen. The bergs -appear close together; hundreds of fathoms separate them in reality, -and if we are to drift into the huddle why shouldn't we scrape through?'</p> - -<p>'To where?'</p> - -<p>'To where?... There may be open water beyond, and a ship.'</p> - -<p>'No, no, land!' she cried, 'land! See the shadow of it. It was visible -in the telescope only a little while ago: now I see it like a forming -cloud. It will be all ice to the rocks, and some break will let us in -and we shall drift deep and be locked up and left—and left——'</p> - -<p>And now she could scarcely articulate for some spasm in her throat, and -her poor white face was all awork with the horrors of her imagination.</p> - -<p>It made me sullen to hear her, she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> reasoned so well, beyond any trick -that I had for cheering her.</p> - -<p>'We must wait and hope,' said I; 'we are not in the ice yet; there may -come a ship.'</p> - -<p>And setting my teeth I swung the glass out of its brackets fiery with -some passing mood of wrath born of hopelessness and helplessness; for -no sailor will stand at gaze and be deserted by his spirit as a man -whilst there is a chance for life, though it be dim as a corposant in a -burst of wet squall; but put him in my place—as I then was; aboard a -dismasted hull rolling to her waterways in a steady pouring sea, a doom -of ice filling the horizon to leeward: how should a sailor act as a man -<i>then</i> save by a stony endurance that sounds gallantly if you call it -heroic fortitude?</p> - -<p>But the girl had boiled some cocoa: it waited: so I begged leave to -hand her below out of the ceaseless howl of the ice-charged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> wind. Yet -neither of us stayed long. She could not eat, and for my part 'twas as -much as I could do to gulp down the steaming cocoa, good as it was.</p> - -<p>I believe the sun set soon after two; the sky was everywhere of a -wild crimson, flashing gorgeously where the luminary was; the sea -came running in hard green lines, tall with passing heads, out of the -splendour; <i>then</i> the ice was a wonderful scene indeed, delicately -tinctured as it was with the redness. The shadow of the land hung afar -in a dim, pink cloud, but though the barrier had been plain in view for -some while I could not swear that within the last hour we had sensibly -closed it. This gave me a little hope—though I didn't know any: I bade -Miss Otway note it and she agreed with me—she had a sailor's eye for -atmospheric distance—that the ice looked no nearer than it had within -the past hour.</p> - -<p>'Can we be in the grip of a westerly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> current?' thought I. Then, before -the blaze faded in the west, I hauled down the flag and hoisted the -burning lantern, for the delicate figures of the ice in the remote -recesses where the film of it died out were so cheating in their -likeness to ships lifting canvas and heading for us, that I could -not persuade myself but one <i>must</i> prove a vessel—if not now, then -presently.</p> - -<p>I obliged Miss Otway to go below when the night fell. It was too cold -for her. She was like to freeze to death. The ice loomed as a range -of snow-covered cliff to leeward: it showed of a savage and deadly -paleness under the stars which sheeted down weakly to it, though here -and there one brighter than the rest glowed like a lighthouse lantern -on some faint point. It was a wonderfully brilliant night, however, -no moon that I remember, but overhead the larger stars had the rich -tremble you see in the tropics; I had never seen such a field of -brilliants—the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>stardust hovered like mist, and the height of the sky -that night was awful to my solitary gaze.</p> - -<p>At about eight o'clock we were, as I reckoned, about five miles distant -from the nearest elbow of the ice. But though a tall sea still ran, -giving the hull the lofty motions of a stately dancer, the wind was -sensibly taking off. A frightful time was this! for if the hull struck -on the hurl of such a surge as still roared under us, she would go to -pieces in the twinkling of an eye. I was constantly looking over the -side, reckoning to find us setting on to some detached mass of drift -stuff, flat, but not the less deadly for being awash, but saw none. -Suddenly I perceived a light upon the horizon right over the bows. I -fancied my vision deceived me, that the trend of the ice was not as I -imagined it to be in that darkness, that the light was some burning -mountain far past the barrier, and that a shift of wind or change of -stream or tide had altered the bearings: this I conceived and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> rushed -headlong for a bull's-eye, which I flashed upon the compass; but no! -the indications were as before.</p> - -<p>What, then, was that light ahead? Miss Otway had followed me when I -fled up the companion steps with a lighted bull's-eye.</p> - -<p>'What is it?' she cried.</p> - -<p>'What's that?' I exclaimed, pointing ahead in the starlight.</p> - -<p>But now, looking, I beheld a luminous arched cloud: it soared, always -arched, increasing in brightness till the brow of it stood about -twenty degrees above the horizon: the brightest of the stars shone -wanly through it: then, whilst we watched, flashes of fire, darting -like lightning, leapt from it; they changed into spiral columns of the -brilliance of sunlight, scores of them, and they went twisting and -streaming out of the cloud with the look of the rush of the Milky Way -to the Zenith, whirling and winding their strands of fire into a very -rope of flame, whose end seemed to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> search the furthest stardust. This -wonderful, beautiful, sublime scene of joyous dancing, inwreathing -lights, faded, but was quickly followed in the same quarter where the -fiery curved cloud had shone by rich, straw-coloured arches of flame, -linking and sinking and soaring, changing on a sudden with a vast -spread of light, exactly fan shaped, and jewelled with colours manifold -as the rainbow, as though it reflected some giant prism.</p> - -<p>'What is it?' said Miss Otway, standing close beside me and speaking in -a voice subdued by awe and astonishment.</p> - -<p>'The Aurora Australis,' I answered, knowing it must be that by -descriptions I remembered.</p> - -<p>We lost all sense of time in watching. In some of the sublimest -recesses of that show of fire it was as though the heaven of God were -opening: one held one's breath not knowing what the next revelation -would be, what spectacle of winged spirit shapes would glance upon -one's mortal vision out of those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> chasms of splendour which looked, -with the glory that burned in them, to have been cloven to the very -Throne.</p> - -<p>'Mark this!' I cried, and as I spoke—the vast fan of light then fading -and no more lightning-like fire leaping—the wind that had been a fresh -breeze dropped as if by magic: the sky over the bows darkened into its -night of stars: the sea fell into a sloppy tumble, and within a quarter -of an hour the hull was rolling quietly upon the long, wide swell of -these seas with so oil-like a calm upon the steady run of the folds -that, close to our port quarter, I watched the image of a bright star -lengthen and shrink as it rode, till, but for the intense, dread cold -of the atmosphere, you would have thought yourself becalmed near the -line.</p> - -<p>'We may drift north and go clear after all,' said I, taking the lighted -bull's-eve out of the companion and looking at the binnacle by it.</p> - -<p>'Do you hear the thunder?' said Miss Otway, following me. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p> - -<p>I listened: it was not thunder but the crackling of ice. There was -no roar of sea, no howl of gale now to kill that sound; it rolled -up through the night from the southward in bursts and shocks like -explosions of heavy artillery; it swept over the smooth swell which -looked liked smoking grease as the huge rounds noiselessly floated -eastward, and it sounded as though a thunderstorm were raging over the -ice.</p> - -<p>And still that brief peace that was in the night, spite of the distant -thundering of the ice, was a wonderful refreshment to the spirits after -the ceaseless flush of the surge to the side and the steady roar of the -gale on high, shrieking as it split upon the barbs of ice the length of -bulwarks bristled with. More: a change of weather might now happen to -drive us northward, to drift us clear of the bergs, at all events, and -so extend our chance of being fallen in with and rescued.</p> - -<p>I stayed on deck till after nine watching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> anxiously for any signs of -a change of weather. Miss Otway came and went: she was too restless -and fearful to linger below, but the frost in the night wind was too -stinging to allow her to remain long above. When I went into the cabin -I left the hull rolling slowly upon a swell of the sea polished as -ebony; nay, so glass-like was that swollen mirror that all about us the -water was sprinkled with the images of stars, with one ice-like wake -swinging like a pendulum as the silver of it seemed to sink.</p> - -<p>I mixed a tumbler of hot rum and sat down before the stove to smoke a -pipe, with the young lady's consent; there was a good stock of tobacco, -cigars, and a little collection of pipes in the cabin that had been -occupied by Captain and Mrs. Burke. Our talk was, you will suppose, all -about our situation. I assured her there was little to fear saving the -ice; and talked—the thing then coming into my head—of a sailor who -had gone sealing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> for three years with one Captain Smyley; this same -skipper having spent nearly half a century betwixt the River Plate and -the South Shetlands.</p> - -<p>'These waters are plentifully frequented,' said I. 'A century ago in -such a case as this we shouldn't have had much to hope for. What was -to come? In half a year a score of yellow, humpbacked, round bowed -waggons blowing away under bladder-like sails, with topmast struck -and nothing but the log to tell the longitude—that was about the -sum of the navigation. There was no Australia then; nothing but a -Western American coast yielding a month's saunter from Acapulco to the -Philippines—wonderful that they should have ever got a Spaniard to -face the ice down here.'</p> - -<p>'Did they?'</p> - -<p>'Why, yes; they sent treasure to Europe in galleons named after saints, -and when they saw a waterspout they held up their swords<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> as crosses, -and bade the thing be off in Latin.'</p> - -<p>'Ships were as safe then as they are now,' said she, pulling off a -thick glove and toasting her hand, on which sparkled a diamond or two. -'Why should this vessel have been dismasted? What progress is there to -boast of when you think of this hull? Can't they plant masts which will -keep erect?'</p> - -<p>'Had that been, you and all others who were here when the squall struck -you would be deeper under water than the fangs of the biggest iceberg -afloat,' I answered, with a half smile at her eager gravity, as though -there were nothing to interest us now but shipbuilding!</p> - -<p>'If my life is preserved I'll never go to sea again,' she said.</p> - -<p>'You'll have had enough of it.'</p> - -<p>'I came for my health and it seems I have come to die.'</p> - -<p>'Has your health improved?' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Yes—perhaps; I don't feel whilst I talk as if the voyage had done me -much good.'</p> - -<p>'You'll write an account of these experiences when you return, and the -Queen will send for you that she may see and converse with as wonderful -a heroine as ever flourished in her reign.'</p> - -<p>'What have I done to be a heroine?'</p> - -<p>I knocked the ashes out of my pipe and turned to lift the tumbler -of grog that was yet half full; when my hand was arrested as though -paralysed by an extraordinary noise, smooth, fierce, seething. I -listened a moment, then sprang to the companion steps.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XVII</span> <span class="smaller">THE THICK OF IT</span></h2> - -<p>My instant belief was we were foul of ice, scaling some side of crystal -mountain smooth as though chiselled. But when I opened the companion -door I was nearly flung to the bottom of the steps by a very volcanic -shock of gale, white as a cloud with snow and hail. I sprang again -and gained the deck, and, shutting the door, got to leeward of the -companion.</p> - -<p>A furious Cape Horn squall was blowing over the ocean in smoke—from -what quarter I had then to find out. The still scene of starlight night -and sluggish rolling ocean was vanished. Already, with the magical -swiftness of the weather of these regions, a sea was got<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> up and -beginning to race and foam. There was nothing to see. The night was -blind with howling storm. When I had left the deck there was not so -much as a rag of cloud to be seen in the sky; and now it was blowing a -whole gale, which looked to boil with the snow that fled with it, and -everywhere it was of a midnight blackness.</p> - -<p>The rush of the wind was over the port quarter; but then the hull would -be slewing for the trough, and how her head was when I had gone below I -could not have told. Keeping this bearing of the wind in mind, I rushed -to the cabin, picked up the burning bull's-eye, and, springing to the -captain's berth, darted the flame on to the tell-tale, and saw that -this squall or gale was out of about south-south-west.</p> - -<p>When I took my eyes from the compass I saw Miss Otway standing, white -as milk, in the doorway.</p> - -<p>'What is it?' she asked. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p> - -<p>'A heavy squall—perhaps the first of a gale: but that,' said I, with -a flourish of the bull's-eye to the compass, 'gives us good news; we -shall blow clear of the ice. The wind is sou'-sou'-west. What do you -say to that?' and, forcing the noise of a jolly laugh, I came out of -the berth and hooked up the bull's-eye ready to my hand.</p> - -<p>We had seen the ocean all day long, clear of ice north and east; -icebergs we knew were there, but their summits had settled—our drift -had put leagues betwixt them and us; therefore I was not immediately -fearful—on the score of ice, I mean. But if it was going to blow as -hard as I had just now felt it, what was to become of the hull? Such -fury and weight of wind must speedily raise the seas into cliffs, and -then God knows how it would fare with the sheer hulk with not a rag, -nor the means of stretching a rag, to enable her to look up to it, -to shoulder it off with her bow, to lie hove to, in short, as a ship -should. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> - -<p>In an hour, the dance was wild even to madness; my own brain reeled to -it; sick I was <i>not</i> in the sense of nausea. Was it sickness of soul -then? But I recollect that many times when the hull fell off the top -of a sea into the valley, sliding as though she was shooting off some -Niagara-like edge, a horrible feeling of faintness and prostration -attended the descent. Never before had I suffered so at sea; but then, -never before had I been tossed in a dismasted hull in a gale of wind -sixty degrees south latitude.</p> - -<p>Miss Otway lay almost lifeless. I shored her up on a couch by backs -of chairs which I lashed; I heaped clothes from her bed on her, and -got hot brandy for her, and encouraged her as best I could. There was -nothing to be done on deck. The sea was flying in white sheets over -the waist and forecastle; the glare of the brine breaking close aboard -showed you the snow; but looking around was like staring into a well. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p> - -<p>It was a strange sort of snow, too, that fell. Once in the cabin I took -notice of it on my coat: it was in small grains, round as shot, of a -size from mustard seed to buckshot; a dry, pure white: not hail.</p> - -<p>But two hours after the gale began, the snow ceased and the wind -lessened; I watched from the companion-way, and observed but little -water flying athwart. With such observations I was forced to be -satisfied, and spent the hours in the cabin, keeping an eye on the -stove, boiling a hot drink now and again for the life and support of -it, tending Miss Otway, from time to time peering through the hatch -where the iron sweep of the wind seemed to unflesh the face, wondering, -for ever wondering, whether the next hurl would be followed by a crash -of the side, and how long we should be in perishing when the hull split.</p> - -<p>I should have in agined myself too anxious—nay, to put it plainly, too -alarmed to sleep, and it seemed that I went up many times to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> take a -look around; and still I must have slept, for I started from my chair -in a sudden terror of dream or noise, and with a lurch of the hull fell -upon my knees, but was up instantly.</p> - -<p>The motion of the craft had changed; the moment I had my wits I felt -that the sea was pyramidal, which told me there had been a quite -recent shift of wind. I cannot imagine anything more dislocating, -more unnerving, more brain sickening, than the leaps and rolls of the -hull upon the sea that, by the movement, I knew was darting in almost -perpendicular thrusts, spear shaped billows lifting in ebon darts and -daggers, and putting a frightful wildness into the flings of the fabric.</p> - -<p>Miss Otway lay with her eyes shut, and seemed asleep; a small fire -glowed in the stove, and the lighted lantern swung in the centre of the -cabin as though some invisible hand grasped it, seeking to jerk it off -its hook. I took the bull's-eye and went on deck, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> found the wind a -dry gale, but observed a thickness as of fog in it, but it was too dark -to make sure. I staggered to the binnacle and saw the wind was blowing -out of north again: a cruel shift! I stared and smelt for ice, but saw -no loom, and tasted no more than the freezing coldness of the blast.</p> - -<p>What was the hour? I went below and found it half-past eight o'clock. -Oh! what an interminable darkness was that! Where was the ice? It could -not be far off. What and whither was our drift? I felt like a madman -then.</p> - -<p>Miss Otway slept on. I believe it might have been an hour and a half -after I had awakened that, not knowing but that the poor young heart in -her had been stopped by terror, or the delicate blood in her frozen, -I stooped to view her face, the lamp burning dimly; she showed like -a piece of exquisitely chiselled marble: I can't tell why, but her -whiteness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> seemed to my mood to exactly fit the bitterness of this -time, the frost, the snow, the ice, the wild gale and foaming waters; -was I as mad then as I had felt some time before, to bend over her and -get a fancy of her into my head as a spirit of these wild and desolate -parts? Put yourself in my place and you'll not wonder to find your brow -hot with fancies more desperately and tragically strange than such a -crazy notion as this.</p> - -<p>She opened her eyes whilst I looked, and I stood erect with a sigh of -relief, half turning to fling my cap down whilst I ran the length of my -sleeve along my forehead for the refreshment of the wet of the snow. -She sat up and watched me, whilst I saw in her face she was heeding the -extravagant tumbling of the hull.</p> - -<p>'It seems to be blowing a gale,' she said.</p> - -<p>'Ay,' said I, 'but we're still alive. Feel these jumps: no empty cask -could better them.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Will you remove these chairs that I may sit up?'</p> - -<p>I did so. Whilst I knelt beside her to cast the lashings adrift she -eyed me intently, as though she would read my very brain; she then -sighed, but said nothing, and the road being clear she drew her feet -out of the covering and sought to rise, but, after a short struggle -with the furious deck, sat again.</p> - -<p>I stood before the stove waiting for daybreak, my eye glancing from one -frothing cabin window to another and thence to the skylight. At last -she said:</p> - -<p>'You've a brave heart, Mr. Selby, but it can hold out no longer; I read -despair in your face. If the end is to come, may it come quickly. You -have behaved to me with a noble kindness. I can but thank you—I can -but thank you,' and she held out her hand with her eyes full of tears.</p> - -<p>I bowed my head over her hand; it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> an excuse to fetch a breath or -two, I would not just then trust myself to speak. Then said I:</p> - -<p>'I'll not disguise the truth: our situation is perilous, as God, who, -let us believe, is watching over us, knows. But I should be no true man -to feel the despair you tell me you read in my face. Daylight may find -us a sight to hearten us.'</p> - -<p>She shook her head.</p> - -<p>'Well, but don't let your spirits die. If a wish could help us I'd be -above, if <i>your</i> safety was to be got at so small a cost. But see, now, -I'll run up on deck and let you know if there's anything like the loom -of ice about. It <i>may</i> prove all right with us—it <i>may</i> end in our -lives being preserved.'</p> - -<p>But all the same, with a heart as heavy as ever hers could be, I clawed -my way to the companion steps for yet another stare into the blackness.</p> - -<p>It was not yet daybreak; but when some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> while after the faint, grey -light sifted through the blowing, swelling, roaring gloom, the sight -struck to my very heart and I was sure we were doomed. The sea was -running in hills of liquid lead; many clouds of mist were in the wind -and they blew athwart the hull like bursts of steam; snow in places was -rushing in horizontal lines out of dark low clouds flying southwards. -Ice was all about us. The first object that dawn revealed, whilst I -stood in the companion-way watching, was a mountain of ice on the bow; -as features of it stole out a snow-squall looked to have fouled a whole -stack of pinnacles on the left of the berg; it was dark as smoke there, -with snow whirling in a very maelström of froth-like whiteness; the -seas slipped their foam up its side to a height of fifty feet, and the -brine flashed in clouds of crystals against the dull, marble-like face, -which showed smooth as a wall through the haze and the whirl of flying -vapour that shrieked athwart our decks to it. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p> - -<p><i>It</i> was but one. I counted twenty coming and going amid the shadows -of the squalls and flying masses of fog. You would have supposed that -a fleet somewhere hidden were firing great guns, so thunderous was the -splintering of those bergs majestically rocking their mighty masses. -The nearest—that on the starboard bow—was about a mile off. Others -showed to port and astern: one heap, like an island, darkened the haze -on the port bow. The gale had apparently broken up the barrier and we -were in the thick of the floating bodies.</p> - -<p>Miss Otway came to the foot of the companion steps and waited for me to -make way for her. I stepped out and she ascended the steps and looked -round the sea, but in silence. Her face was hardened into stone by -despair. Hours of suspense and grief, hours spent in the most awful -kind of loneliness the imagination can figure, with the darkness of the -spirit of death for ever upon her heart, had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> done their work with the -poor young lady: sensation was dumb.</p> - -<p>And now there was nothing to do but await the end, come what might. I -let her stand a little, looking, then taking her by the arm, gently but -firmly, conducted her below and seated her where she had lain during -the night. I was resolved that my own despair should not be visible -to her, and partly to cover myself, so to speak, and partly for the -good of the thing, I boiled some coffee, and put food on the deck near -the stove; but one looked at such a repast with the emotions of a -malefactor to whom breakfast is served whilst the hangman waits.</p> - -<p>Whilst I was at this work she addressed me calmly:</p> - -<p>'There is no doubt, I suppose, that we shall strike the ice?'</p> - -<p>'It's most inevitable,' I answered.</p> - -<p>'If it happens, shall we be better off down here than on deck?' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Let it happen,' said I.</p> - -<p>'If we are to strike the ice,' she said, 'I should wish to be drowned -quickly. I would rather die at once than be thrown soaked on the ice to -lie a little and freeze—it would take time—I fear the sufferings. I -am not afraid of death, I wish it to be quick.'</p> - -<p>'There's no ice nearer to us than a mile, that I can make out,' I said, -then handed her a pannikin of coffee. 'Pray drink this.'</p> - -<p>She took it and raised it to her lips.</p> - -<p>'If the hull strikes, will it go to pieces instantly?' she asked.</p> - -<p>'Who can tell? She might beach herself and find us a home till the berg -floated north, where the smoke of our fire will be seen.'</p> - -<p>She sank into silence with her eyes fastened upon the deck. When I -offered her food she shook her head. My breakfast consisted of half a -cup of coffee.</p> - -<p>Within a quarter of an hour I was on deck<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> again, but the scene was the -same as before, saving that the ice mountain that had been upon our -starboard bow was now right ahead, whilst on our starboard quarter, -within perhaps half a mile, was a small island of ice, about sixty feet -high, not before visible. The compass gave me the wind blowing steadily -from one quarter. But then I could make nothing of bearings within -three or four points on board a helpless hull, swinging in a high sea, -with a send of her head when she was rushed out of a hollow that made -me sometimes think she was going to give her stern to the weather.</p> - -<p>At one o'clock it was a savage and tremendous scene of warring -waters and flying sky of soot, and giant forms of ice vanishing and -reappearing amid headlong flights of wool-white vapour, and through -all, in deep notes, ran the thunder of the surge-smitten, frozen -heights, with frequent rending and crashing noises of dislocation. I -was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> now very sure that our drift was not less than three miles an -hour, and perhaps four. This I gathered by observing a vast shape of -ice that suddenly showed off the starboard bow. It was nearly a mile -long, and I should think two hundred feet high. It was a grand, truly -sublime ocean piece, with its numerous lofty arches and caverns, out of -which the sea, in recoil, flashed in immense bursts of foam. I spied -the white wings of birds glancing upon it, but I had it not often -very clear in sight, for the steam-like smother drove down at quick -intervals, leaving some pale eminence gleaming on high against the -whirl of the clouds, to vanish in some swift outfly of snow, so that -the whole thing would be as completely gone to the eye as if it had -sunk.</p> - -<p>But by staying and watching it as often as it emerged in whole or -in part, I got at the rate of our drift. It was quickly on our port -bow with others coming out of the thickness to leeward, all wild and -terrific in that dull<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> light of storm, with the glare of the leaping -foam at their base and their own ghastly stare through the rent -curtains of cloud flying under the dark sky.</p> - -<p>Soon after two, when it was almost dark, I thought we were lost, for -I saw the loom of an iceberg right abeam to leeward; but whether it -was God's guidance of the devoted hull, or that the set of the long -rolling sea ran a sort of sweep of tide round these floating islands, -when we were within a musket shot of the mass, with an occasional -shock of loose ice sounding through the hulk, our drift made a little -departure. I vow it was for all the world as though the fabric was -alive and, dreading her fate, avoided it, or as though she were under -command, with a cool hand and a critical eye for sea measurement at the -helm. Certain it is we drove past clear; it might be that we owed our -preservation to the rebound of the sea.</p> - -<p>It was almost black with the night when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> that berg was on our lee -quarter, but I knew by a sudden enormous roar of water, and by an -indescribably hissing sound lasting for a few minutes, as though a -thousand locomotives were blowing off steam, that an immense mass of -the island had fallen, not very many ships' lengths distant, which I -have no genius to do justice to, nor even to communicate, though I need -but close my eyes to behold the terrible picture, with its uproar of -trampling seas, and howling wind, and cracking masses. A little after -four in the morning, whilst I sat in the cabin with Miss Otway, every -instant expecting the hull to strike, her motions grew suddenly quiet. -I felt her rise and fall upon a long swell, and knew instinctively by -the feel of her that she was under the lee of something.</p> - -<p>I sprang to my feet and ran on deck. It was pitch dark, with a strange -phantasmal glimmer on either hand, so vague, so indeterminable I could -not see it when I looked at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> it. The roar of the gale, the hiss and -beat of the driven seas, came as from a distance. Thrice as high as the -masthead of a ship sounded the low, continuous thunder of the wind, as -though it blew over mountain tops; but down where we were it was calm. -Icy gusts came in moans from half a dozen quarters. The long, invisible -heave was as rhythmic as the ocean pulse of swell. I understood we were -embayed and foresaw certainly now that our being stranded, or being -hammered to pieces against the ice, was only a question of minutes.</p> - -<p>I went into the cabin with a loathing of life coming into me out of -the sheer despair that was as frost on my heart, caring not a curse -how it went, so sick I was of it all after the unendurable hours of -watching and expectation I had passed through; and then again I felt -that, whatever was to happen, it was right I should be by the poor -girl's side: not that it was in my power to comfort her—not, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>indeed, -if the hull went to pieces, that I could be of the least use to her or -myself, but I was company for her, and out of me she'd get some solace -of companionship in what I reckoned these dying minutes of ours.</p> - -<p>'Has the wind fallen? Where are we?' she shrieked as I approached her.</p> - -<p>'We are embayed,' I answered. 'We are got under the lee of something.'</p> - -<p>Just as I spoke those words a harsh, grating roar ran through the hull; -the vessel trembled as though in the first throe of bursting; another -like roar succeeded; I felt the thrill of the scraping of the bilge and -keel as the fabric was rushed by some ponderous heave of swell. Again, -another huge thrust of the sea, another long roar of scraping keel and -bilge, another quiver and thrill throughout the hulk as though every -timber was straining ere flying to the shock of an explosion. She lay -right over to starboard. The lamp swung and lay hard against the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> upper -deck. Whatever was movable fetched away. So acute was the angle that -Miss Otway, unable to maintain her seat upon the couch, shot from it to -me; but I was firmly planted, saw her coming, and received her so that -she was not hurt, and with a vigorous swing I cleared and placed her -breathless and moaning in a cleated armchair that stood close to where -I sat.</p> - -<p>The blind, soft, thunderous thrusts of the sea continued. I heard the -water in tons washing over the decks, but every time this happened a -roar of grinding and scaling shook the hull as she was driven by the -wash of the swell higher and yet higher. The companion was closed and -no water descended. I knew by the noise of the sea that the hull lay -broadside to the swing of the swell. I got out of my chair, but was -heavily thrown, and could scarcely regain my feet, so extreme was the -slant, and so completely did it pin me against the cabin wall. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p> - -<p>As regular as the rush of the floating folds was the thrust of them, -and now I grew sensible that the heave was like to strand us high and -dry, the job of it being a different labour than rocks or the grit of -the beach of earth would have made, so greasy was the ice. The water -poured over the decks every time the swell struck the hull, but in a -little while I found each volume to be weakening in weight, and after -the fabric had been driven in this grinding way in a sort of pulsing of -blows, deafening with the bursts of the brine against the side and over -the decks, each onward slide grew shorter and shorter, until presently -she lay without motion, with an occasional shudder running through her -from the beat of the sea, but at intervals so varying as to persuade -me she was fairly high and dry, and within the wash of the foam of the -larger rollers only.</p> - -<p>But the list or angle was horrible. I was unable to move without going -on all fours. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> crawled in this wise to Miss Otway, and told her to -remain where she was, not to attempt to stir lest she should break her -neck, whilst I crept on deck to take a look at our situation if it was -visible.</p> - -<p>'What has happened do you think?' she cried.</p> - -<p>'We are stranded upon some beach of an ice island I expect,' I replied.</p> - -<p>'Hark to that!' she shrieked, as a sudden sea smote the bilge and -roared in foaming recoil. 'If you go on deck you'll be washed away.'</p> - -<p>'I'll see to it. That blow was weak. We have been thrust high. Feel -what a desperate slope it is. I pray God no sudden shock of sea may -launch us afresh.'</p> - -<p>With that I crawled to the companion steps, every bone aching like -rheumatism with the contortions of my figure in my efforts to move.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XVIII</span> <span class="smaller">IMPRISONED</span></h2> - -<p>I might have guessed there would be no more to see now than when I had -first looked. I stood in the companion with my head just out, holding -the door as close shut as it would lie with my body in the way; and -hardly had I put my head through when a whole green sheet of water -tumbled over the port bulwarks and roared in a cataractal deluge down -the steep, boiling white, through the wreckage of smashed bulwarks. I -ducked, but not in time to stop a rush into the cabin.</p> - -<p>I guessed, by the uncommon blackness, that we were in a hollow betwixt -high cliffs; I beheld an illusive paleness, the vague, spectral -faintness of rocks of ice or snow-covered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> acclivities on either hand, -but no features of them were in the least degree discernible. I durst -not let go of the companion to look over the side, but I judged by the -deep, hollow noise overhead that a strong gale still blew, and from a -distance came the strong, coarse seething of a high sea.</p> - -<p>Still, the beat of the swell against the hull was not often now, which -made me suspect it was no iceberg we had stranded on but land, one of -the New Orkneys or South Shetlands group, because the bating of the -swell told that a tide ran, and I had read in that book about the South -Atlantic in the cabin that the rise and fall of the tide down here was -very considerable, that gales of wind often swelled the water high -above its natural level, as was shown by the many skeletons of whales -found lying twenty or thirty feet above high-water mark.</p> - -<p>But until the dawn broke nothing could be imagined; I closed the -companion door<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> and crawled back to where Miss Otway sat.</p> - -<p>She was so postured by the angle of the deck that she could not get out -of her chair; she begged me to help her; I drew her out and held her -until she had sunk upon the floor, and then I sat down beside her on -the hard plank, the carpet having been rolled up and stowed away when -the cabin was flooded in the outfly that had dismasted the 'Lady Emma.' -Not so much water as I supposed had tumbled down; it lay the length of -the cabin wall and was fast draining off.</p> - -<p>'Have you been able to see where we are?' she exclaimed.</p> - -<p>'No. But though there's no doubt we've beached on ice, I believe the -land's close aboard.'</p> - -<p>'What land?'</p> - -<p>'Coronation Island, if any. That was the island in the way of our -drift; we've been making a straight course for it.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p> - -<p>We paused to hearken to a heavy flooding of water overhead, but the -blow that had sheeted the brine over the hull was as weak as a summer -ripple is to an angry surge compared with the thumps which had driven -us to where we now lay.</p> - -<p>'The sea will have made a clean sweep of the decks,' said she.</p> - -<p>'There was little to go. What but the galley? The companion has -weathered it out, happily for us.'</p> - -<p>'Oh, Mr. Selby, what can we now do? What is to become of us?' she cried -with sudden hysteric passion of grief and terror.</p> - -<p>'We must find out where we are. Better here, anyway, than knocking -about among the ice outside, with the prospect every next minute of -being squashed into pulp. Oh, <i>that</i> was too terrible to have gone -on bearing! The perpetual apprehension was like to have driven us -overboard, mad. Why, this is peace, this is rest.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> - -<p>'What a time it has been! What a time it is!' she cried. 'When will the -day break? If we are upon an iceberg——'</p> - -<p>She was arrested by a second thunder-shock of water overhead, yet weak -as a blow of the sea, though the hull trembled fore and aft.</p> - -<p>The lamp glowed and shed a good light, the body of it lying hard -against the upper deck, so sharp was the angle; it was strange to see -it stirless there, strange to feel the stillness of the hull, save when -a blow of swell made her quiver. The fire was out; but even had not all -the fuel fetched away into the wash of the wet, I had not dared kindle -a fresh one, lest in the trembling fit then upon me, and on such a -roof-like slope as that, I should stumble, or by some helpless flourish -set the ship in flames.</p> - -<p>I crawled on my knees to the couch, and pulled the clothes from it and -covered Miss Otway with them, swathing her head and so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> wrapping her -that nothing showed but a little piece of the face. The poor girl's -teeth chattered, and she shivered ceaselessly. By carefully crawling I -got upon the table and managed to get hold of a glass and a decanter -of wine. She drank a little and I took a good pull of the wine myself. -Indeed it was an extraordinary situation—the hull on her beam ends, -the cabin alight, we two crouched on the deck, the stillness after the -fury we had come through, the stillness, I say, saving a low roar of -distant sea, with an occasional beat of the swell upon the hulk, and -the scaling and rushing of water overhead. An amazing situation indeed; -there is nothing like it, nothing stranger in the maritime records, -that I can recollect.</p> - -<p>At last the starboard cabin windows, high in the broadside, showed of a -pale steel grey; I went on my hands and feet to the steps and reached -the deck. I stood a little while in the companion-way thunderstruck; I -was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>confounded and could not credit my sight. The hull lay stranded -in a very well of ice. Ahead and astern rose masses of cliffs to an -altitude of four or five hundred feet. The vessel lay on a frozen -beach; 'twas a sloping sweep of the stuff, apparently linking the -iceberg astern to the ice over the bows. The bight or bay we had -drifted into was ramparted by the iceberg which sank from a vast -terrace to a point in an arm of natural breakwater like marble; but the -ice ahead was fixed to the face of the land. After looking a little I -spied the iron frown of dusky rocks perpendicular and smooth as though -planed, showing amidst the snow.</p> - -<p>Past the hinder ice and beyond the giant limb of marble-like breakwater -was the rolling ocean. It still blew hard, the seas raced angrily. -Whatever of ice they smote they flashed upon; over the lower parts -of the ice terrace the surge was bursting in lofty clouds, bright as -light. The heave came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> round the point in a wide swell, which did not -break in foam upon the beach where we lay, but swept silent, in a -glass-green volume, along the slope, just as the foamless lift of the -sea washes past the side of a ship; it broke only where it met with -anything rugged, and quickly lost its weight in the curve, soundlessly -recoiling from the base of the iceberg astern, though mightily -troubling the surface of the water by conflict with the succeeding -heave.</p> - -<p>The sky between the cliffs was wild with flying scud and rusty brown -masses of vapour rushing southwards. The vessel lay close in to the -land; she rested on her side at an angle of hard upon fifty degrees. -On either hand was open sky, the picture of it to port showing as -at the extremity of an immense ravine. Save but for sudden, quick -shootings of little short-lived draughts and blasts, the calm and even -the repose down here was as though we were in a well. The swell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> never -swept nearer to us than twenty feet. I crept to the side and lay over, -watching anxiously, and thus made sure of this after following the -quiet sweep of at least twenty successive heaves of brine.</p> - -<p>The desolation was awful! The picture savage, forbidding, terrifying -beyond imagination to one immured with its clouded crystal heights over -the bows, and the rugged slopes of ice over the stern forking into -fifty shapes of pinnacle, turret, spire, column, tower, as though on -the flat of the summit were the ruins of a city of marble.</p> - -<p>The decks were swept of everything save the companion. Wheel, binnacle, -capstans, galley, all were gone. I watched the ocean rolling past the -arm of ice astern, it was but a bit of it. The great berg that formed -the bay blocked the view of the deep; there was nothing to see but the -abrupt white walls ahead and astern, and the flying soot overhead and -away down to port, and, on the right,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> tall cliffs of ice and snow -glazing the land, with here and there a space of staring, black rock.</p> - -<p>Our isolation was shocking. My heart seemed to stop whilst I looked -around, realising the terrors and hopelessness of this new imprisonment -by the granite-hued light that was gaining a little in power. Though a -whaler stood within half a mile of the coast, how should she see us? It -would be hard enough to discern the speck of wreck we made had the bay -of ice in which we rested gaped naked to the sea, but we were as much -hidden here as if we had gone to the bottom. We were worse off, indeed, -than had we stranded upon a floating berg, because in <i>that</i> case we -might have fallen in with the ice which might have split and freed us; -but now we were aground upon ice hardening into the face of an island -and stationary; months might pass before the body we were upon broke -away and became<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> a water-borne bulk, and then, in the throes of the -liberation of the frozen cliffs, what of splintering, of volcanic-like -upheaval and disruption might happen to crush the little toy of hull -lying after many months as she lay now?</p> - -<p>I don't doubt I stared about me with something of a madman's wildness, -glancing up at the inaccessible heights, then at the sea rolling in -white lines beyond the limb of ice, then into the desolation of the -whirling sky on the left, till, recollecting that I had a companion -who looked to me for heart and encouragement, whom, by God's mercy, -wonderful as it would afterwards appear, I might yet be the means of -delivering from this hideous situation, I pulled my wits together and -returned to the cabin.</p> - -<p>The poor young lady was on the deck before the black stove as I had -left her. She could not have stood upon that angle of plank without -danger and distress. She began to question me in a voice that shuddered -with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> the cold. I answered I would talk with her when I had lighted a -fire, for I had now some spirit and saw things a little clearly, and -was no longer afraid of setting the hull in flames.</p> - -<p>I split up a bunk board, and picked a bucket full of capsized coal out -of the wash to leeward, as I may call it, and made a fire; but I moved -with pain and difficulty; the decks were wet, and as slippery as though -coated with ice, and the slope was that of a ship bulwarks under.</p> - -<p>When the fire was blazing I helped the young lady to sit close beside -it, and went on deck for some life-lines for this cabin. I moved with -less trouble above, for the life-lines I had before set up were still -stretched along. Every rope that I handled was like bar iron, but with -infinite trouble I succeeded in getting a length below and stretching -it here and there, which done I was able to use my legs with some -freedom.</p> - -<p>The stove was violently aslant, but it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> possible to boil a kettle, -and whilst I waited for a hot drink I crouched beside the girl, -grateful for the comforting heat of the flames. I told her plainly that -we were stranded and ice-locked; that we must resolve to exert our -patience and make the best of our deplorable situation. She cleared -her head of the cover I had wrapped about her, and stared at me dumbly -for a minute or two with a face as white as though moonlit, and her -fair hair full of sparkles with the light of the lamp that still glowed -hard-slanted against the upper deck.</p> - -<p>'Do I understand,' she exclaimed in a low voice, painful to hear with -the tremulous gasps that shook it, 'that we are to remain in this -condition until—until——' She stopped, then added, 'but until <i>when</i>? -We are stranded and hidden and must perish.'</p> - -<p>'Listen to me,' said I, 'for this is our chance as I see it is as a -sailor: suppose us beached for months as we now are—though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> who's to -predict <i>that</i>?—for within twenty-four hours may come a gale out of -another quarter that shall free us and drive us amongst the ice to our -destruction—take it we are to be stranded here: I have read the ship's -papers, know the contents of the hold, and promise you, though no -chance of rescue should happen for a twelvemonth, nay, for a couple of -years, help, when it comes, shall find us alive so far as life may be -kept in us by food and drink and warmth.'</p> - -<p>She buried her face: I think it nearly killed her to hear me talk of -a twelvemonth or two years. Then, flashing upon me as it were with a -sudden dropping of her hands and the stare of her desperate grief and -horror, she cried:</p> - -<p>'Is there no hope beyond the waiting for the deliverance which may -never happen?' and without stopping for an answer she went on: 'How are -we to live even for a week in a hull we cannot move about on?' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p> - -<p>'That's the very least of our troubles,' said I. 'Come, you have -spirit—the heart of an Englishwoman beats in you. You must put some -face of courage and faith upon this business. We are alive. Keep on -thinking of <i>that</i>. Consider what we have come through. We might have -been thrown upon the ice without this shelter.'</p> - -<p>'We have stranded on an island, you say?'</p> - -<p>'I think so.'</p> - -<p>'What island?'</p> - -<p>I answered her.</p> - -<p>'Is there no harbour in it, no place where ships touch, no place where -men are? If they came fishing down here for whales and seals there -should be a port.'</p> - -<p>I put my hand upon a life-line and walked to the captain's cabin. It -was as dark as night there, for the heel of the hulk depressed the -cabin windows to within arms' reach of the beach, as it looked. I -lighted a bull's-eye, and, finding the chart I required, returned with -it. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> - -<p>It was a chart of the discoveries made in these waters between 1819 and -1843. It outlined Graham Land down to sixty-eight degrees south, and -a little more than sixty-eight degrees west, and submitted a shaded -tracing of the South Shetlands; but I was very certain that our island -was none of <i>them</i>. I put the chart on Miss Otway's knee and threw the -lamplight upon it, and said, pointing to Coronation Island and then to -Laurie Island:</p> - -<p>'Which of them this is I can't tell you, but I should guess by our -drift that it's the bigger of the two, and that our lodgment's here,' -and I put my finger upon a bight named Palmer's Bay. 'Here's a mountain -at back of it, you see,' said I, 'towering to a height of nigh four -thousand five hundred feet; it was the blue shadow we saw in the air, -and our drift was nigh hard straight for that.'</p> - -<p>She put her face close to the chart, listening, meanwhile, greedily to -me.</p> - -<p>'But here are many English names,' said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> she—'Cape Dundas—Despair -Rock—Saddle Island.' She read thus a little; then went on: 'Surely an -island that has been named in this fashion is inhabited?'</p> - -<p>'Well, it may be. I hope it is,' said I.</p> - -<p>'Here are big islands,' she cried, pointing to the South Shetlands. -'Aren't there people upon <i>them</i>? And if so, couldn't we manage to get -to the place where they're settled? It's not far,' she added, looking -up at me.</p> - -<p>'It's a long way,' said I, 'for all it looks but the span of a hand on -this paper, and we have no boat.'</p> - -<p>'People must have been in some such another dreadful situation as this -before now,' she exclaimed. 'How did they manage?'</p> - -<p>'We'll manage, depend on't', said I, with all the hearty cheerfulness -I could summon. 'We'll write letters to the sea, telling our distress, -and send them adrift in bottles. I'll fashion rafts out of some of the -theatre stuff in the hold and send them afloat with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> story of our -condition mastheaded on them in cans. It's not for us to be hopeless. -Wouldn't you rather be here than knocking about amongst the ice?'</p> - -<p>'Oh yes,' she cried; 'but if we are locked up—hidden away?'</p> - -<p>She started as if she would rise, and asked me to take her on deck that -she might see where we were, but I thought proper to keep her below in -the warmth and encourage her, and rouse her spirits by representations -of our prospects of deliverance, before letting her view the situation -of the hull; in truth I could not look at her and observe how delicate -and fragile she was, and reflect on the depressing, heart-subduing -influence of the terrors and experiences she had passed through, -without fearing the effect of a sudden shock, such as might prove the -sight of the savage wildness of the frowning, frozen cradle in which -the hull lay as in a tomb.</p> - -<p>I went about to get some breakfast.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> When I got on deck with a chopper -to fill the kettle, I found that the mould of fresh-water ice I had -split out of the scuttlebutt was gone. I had no mind to enter the -hold; indeed, I had not strength enough then to break open the frozen -hatch-covers; and water being wanted for a cup of hot coffee, I chipped -at a spear of ice on the bulwark and found it sweet, and perhaps -sweeter than the water we had been drinking. Why? Because nearly all -those frozen heads and devices of barbs and spikes were frozen snow and -mist. But never could we lack fresh water in this part of the world; -the cliffs ahead and astern were fresh; we were beached in fresh-water -ice. Even in that early time of my distress, whilst I sucked a little -piece of ice off the bulwarks to learn its quality, I found myself -lifting up my eyes with amazement at those giant heights, formed, as I -knew, of the vapour of the air and the sleet of the cloud and the gale. -It was like thinking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> of some vast, soft fog clinging to the face of -the land and freezing there into precipitous iron-hard rocks.</p> - -<p>Whilst making my way to the hatch with the ice, I heard a sudden great -roar astern; a sharp tremble ran through the hull as though a mine had -been sprung close alongside; the noise was exactly that of a broadside -from a liner, every great gun discharged at once. Yet I saw no movement -in the ice, nor heard any sound as of a fall. This put it into my head -to fancy it might not be long before the great berg that was linked -astern of us was sundered and on its way to join the rest of the mighty -fleet, every one of which had had a like berth and such a despatch as -awaited this.</p> - -<p>I clawed my way to the side and looked over. The beach that held the -berg to the main was perhaps a quarter of a mile long; I could not -be sure; it went out of sight in a slope on the port hand. But, in -comparison<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> with the mighty bulk it yoked to the island, it was a -slender tie indeed, to be snapped in any moment of storm as you'd break -a clay pipe-stem. I peered down, wondering if the severance happened -whether we should go with the berg or be left a-dry under the cliff as -we now lay; but it was a hopeless and therefore a silly speculation; -though all the same I prayed heartily whilst I stood staring about me -that the berg would go, and speedily, whether it took us or left us, -since, whilst we lay hidden by it, there was not the remotest chance, -that I could imagine, of our being rescued.</p> - -<p>I remember thinking, as I turned from the rail and made with the ice -in my hand towards the companion, that one of the hardest parts of -this terrible experience for the poor girl below, though she would -have to be dumb on the subject, was the prospect of being locked up -with me—alone with a young man, a sailor, who was a stranger<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> without -existence to her a few days ago; to be locked up, I say, it might -be for months, with a threat even of years in the run of time, with -a person whose character and history she knew nothing about, whose -calling sunk him far below her socially. This ran in my head with the -swiftness of thought whilst I was going below, and after I was in the -cabin going about the business of boiling coffee for a meal.</p> - -<p>How could I make her mind easy, on the score, I mean, of our -association, so that something at least of the weight of our -distressful tragic situation should be lifted off her poor young heart? -But the answer my good sense gave me was the answer it had before -returned, namely, she could only find me out by time, though to be sure -I might shorten the period of her fear of me by a behaviour that could -leave her in no doubt of my resolution to act as a man.</p> - -<p>I can't express how deeply I pitied her,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> how my very soul was moved -to its depths by the sight of her as she sat in her loneliness and -helplessness, a trueborn lady, gentle and fair, watching me, with her -white face turning after me, as I moved; sitting upon that desperate -slope of deck with the red glow of the fire upon her, herself a -shapeless bulk of furs and coverings in the lamplight that was growing -dim.</p> - -<p>When I drew to the stove she questioned me afresh upon our situation, -and begged me to conduct her on deck. I answered presently, when she -had broken her fast. She said:</p> - -<p>'Only think how it would be with me if I were alone.'</p> - -<p>I stopped in what I was about, and looking at her a little steadily, -but with a smile, I said:</p> - -<p>'I'm glad my presence is welcome to you. It will be owing to no fault -of mine if it's not always so whilst we're together.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p> - -<p>A grateful look freshened her face with an expression of life that was -like colour and a smile.</p> - -<p>'Think of me alone here!' she said in a low voice. 'I should have gone -mad days ago. It never could have come to my knowing that this hull -had stranded amongst the ice. I should have destroyed myself in my -craziness.'</p> - -<p>'You have gone through too much,' said I, 'to miss of being rescued. -You'll be saved and so shall I, and for no other reason, I dare say, -than because I'm with you. I have some hope that this hulk will take a -more comfortable posture. Did you hear a roar like an explosion just -now astern?'</p> - -<p>'Yes. Was it the ice?'</p> - -<p>'Ay. But should it trim us, I hope it will not send us afloat.'</p> - -<p>She listened whilst I told her of the huge berg that lay linked to the -island by the beach of ice on which the hull rested. Then I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> talked -as cheerfully as I could of making this interior a tight, dry, warm -room for her whilst we lay waiting for that help which was bound in -some shape of whaler or sealer to come along. She shuddered and looked -around her with a face of sudden imploring grief; but I went on, -speaking as heartily as I could.</p> - -<p>'We'll make this cabin dry and warm,' said I. 'I'll get that water to -leeward there baled out. I'll rout the carpet up on deck and see what -the breeze will do for the brine in it. They've managed very well over -and over again up in the Arctic latitudes for months and months with -meaner accommodation and a poorer hold. I'll stock this cabin that -things may be handy. There's plenty of oil aboard I hope. There'll be -coal to last us in the forepeak; we shall be helped out of this before -it's all used up.'</p> - -<p>'How long,' she asked, 'are we likely to remain here?' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p> - -<p>'It was a saying of Nelson that at sea everything is possible and -nothing improbable. It's certain these islands are visited. My -intention is, Miss Otway, since we're here, so to provide for ourselves -that we may be alive when help comes. Do you see that?'</p> - -<p>'Oh yes.'</p> - -<p>'Don't be scared, then, because I talk of provisioning and securing -ourselves as though we were to be locked up for years.'</p> - -<p>Whilst I talked I was at work getting breakfast. The angle of the -deck was an abomination and a terrible hindrance, but I made no -further trouble of it than my laboured motions expressed. Yet beyond -the boiling of the kettle there was nothing to be done in the way of -cooking owing to the slant of the stove. The discomfort was incredible. -It was like being in a ship poised on her beam ends on the edge of a -sea, magically arrested in her downward rush, and hanging fixed, as -though capsizing. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p> - -<p>All was as hushed in the interior as though we were in harbour. The -seethe coming from the flashes of silent swell, whenever the dark green -folds, blindly sweeping, tore themselves against some edge of ice, -was too faint to invade us: the noise of the sea was shut out by the -heights of ice astern, and no echo of the booming of the gale sweeping -over the frozen summits penetrated. But for the insufferable posture -of the hull my heart might have beaten with some sort of restfulness -and even gratitude; for, dreadful as our situation was, it lacked the -terrors of the past days and nights; we were at least safe for the -time being, whilst in any hour gone by we might have been crushed to -pieces; we had a right to look forward with some hope, because we were -plentifully supplied with food; the hull was a stout shelter, and I -could not conceive, unless there happened some convulsion of ice, that -the swell of the bay, however enraged by storm, could hurt us; it might -thump and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> thrust us high, further out of its reach—that was all—and -trim the vessel by so doing into a habitable structure.</p> - -<p>These were my thoughts as I put some breakfast on the deck for my -companion. It was impossible for her to help herself. I had to place -the fiddles on the deck to save the food from slipping from her hand. -I talked with so much confidence that, when she had made a light meal, -I heard something like a note of her spirit in her voice, and saw a -little light of kindling hope in her eyes. Presently she begged me to -take her on deck, on which I helped her to stand, and, catching hold of -her arm, conducted her to the companion steps.</p> - -<p>She ascended painfully. I stepped out on deck and brought her to my -side; and then, emerging, she looked around. Never can I forget that -poor young lady's face as she gazed at the savage, desolate, frozen -scene, realising the significance of it slowly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> She shrank, she -cowered in the companion way; she shuddered violently, whilst her hand, -with a wandering gesture, came to my arm. I see her now in memory -turning her white face towards the towering mass astern, then looking -at the dumb blankness of the ice cliffs ahead, with the bows of the -beam-ended hulk rising to them as though upon a lift of sea.</p> - -<p>'Is this it? Is this it?' she whispered.</p> - -<p>She stared straight up at the flying gloom, blacking off the ghastly -white edge of the iceberg in shadows of a ragged, smoke-like stuff; -she strained her eyes at the little space of sea showing in angry, -dark, flashing ridges past the huge ice projection that made the bay, -shutting out from our sight all the rest of the ocean too. Then, -turning to me, she tried to speak, swayed, with an effort to cover her -face, and fainted.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XIX</span> <span class="smaller">MR. MOORE CONTINUES THE STORY</span></h2> - -<p>No news of Marie reached us after we received a letter by a brig called -the 'Queen of the Night' which had spoken the 'Lady Emma' in the North -Atlantic. She had sent us a sort of diary or journal: it was meant for -her father and me: she wrote in spirits which, the entries showed, -were gaining in brightness, and there was no doubt that her health had -greatly improved. Some of her descriptions were very fine: she seemed -to have thrown herself into the very life of the voyage and wrote of -the sails, rigging, discipline and manÅ“uvres of the vessel with the -easy familiarity of an old sailor.</p> - -<p>We gathered that she was perfectly happy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> with Captain and Mrs. Burke, -and of Mr. Owen she spoke with gratitude for his attention and sympathy.</p> - -<p>I was told, however, by one or two seagoing acquaintances not to wonder -if we did not hear again from Marie until the ship arrived at her first -port, Valparaiso. A vessel might be ninety days upon the ocean and yet -not 'speak' another. A friend spoke of an Indiaman that, in the whole -voyage from Bombay to the Thames—not allowing, of course, for the -ships seen on touching at Capetown—had sighted nothing but the topmast -canvas of a vessel whose hull was sunk out of sight below the horizon.</p> - -<p>I was living in rooms out of Bond Street. One morning in 1860, it was -October 2, and Marie had then been absent from England six months, -during which, after the arrival of the Liverpool brig, we had received -no news whatever either of her or the 'Lady Emma.' I say, on October 2, -whilst at breakfast, I picked up a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> morning newspaper and began to turn -it about. After reading for some time my eye lighted upon a paragraph -headed, 'Loss of the ship "Lady Emma."' I trembled and felt sick; I -wanted courage to read the paragraph, though the paper was shuddering -in my hands, and my eyes were upon the news, yet before reading I -caught myself reasoning; it is another 'Lady Emma'—it cannot be -Marie's ship—there may be ten or twenty 'Lady Emmas' afloat—and then -I read.</p> - -<p>The paragraph—I have not preserved it—was to this effect:</p> - -<p>The barque 'Planter,' being to the eastwards of Cape Horn, fell in with -a ship's long-boat full of men. The captain took the unfortunate people -on board, but some were found to be lifeless, having been frozen to -death during the night. Their story was, they were the boatswain (Wall) -and survivors of the ship 'Lady Emma,' Burke, master, that sailed -from the Thames bound to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>Valparaiso on April 2. She had been driven -to the southward and eastward by heavy weather, and when she was in -about fifty-nine degrees south latitude, she was totally dismasted by -a sudden hurricane. After fruitless efforts to erect a jury-mast, the -crew abandoned her in the long-boat. With them went the ship's doctor -(Owen). The master refused to quit the ship, and remained aboard with -his wife and a young lady passenger. Very shortly after the long-boat -had been met with, one of the crew of the 'Planter' fell overboard. -A boat was lowered in charge of the chief mate, Mr. Ralph Selby, but -before she could reach the man a sea capsized her, and the mate and the -three men who were in her were drowned. Within a week of picking up the -survivors of the 'Lady Emma's' crew, the 'Planter' transferred them -to a vessel bound to Monte Video, where they were forwarded by H.B.M. -Consul by steamer to this country, arriving yesterday at the West India -Docks. Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> Owen died before the arrival of the vessel at Monte Video, -and was buried at sea. It is supposed that the 'Lady Emma' foundered -prior to the rescue of her crew, as Captain Parry of the 'Planter,' -which is a barque of four hundred and sixty tons, cruised at great risk -amongst the ice in the neighbourhood of the spot where the hull was -supposed to be lying without seeing anything of her.</p> - -<p>I sat as one paralysed, read the account through again, scarcely even -then believing that the ship was the same that my betrothed had sailed -in. Next, thrusting the newspaper into my pocket, I jumped up, ran into -the street, and, jumping into a cab, bade the man drive me to Messrs. -Butcher and Hobbs, at such and such a number in the Minories. It was -about a quarter to ten o'clock.</p> - -<p>Butcher and Hobbs were the owners of the 'Lady Emma'—of her and a -little fleet of smaller vessels. I had been introduced by Captain -Burke to Mr. Hobbs, and now it came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> to me as I was driven fast, -with my brain in a whirl, half mad with consternation, grief, the -hundred emotions which must needs throng upon so abrupt a disclosure -of dreadful news as this I had just read—it came to me, I say, that -Mr. Hobbs in my presence had very earnestly advised Captain Burke to -insure some goods he was taking out as a speculation of his own; and I -recollected the captain replying, with an arch, laughing air, full of -strong confidence, that insurance would only render him indifferent: -he had no fear as to the safety of the ship. If he insured and she was -lost, it would be said he sank or stranded her.</p> - -<p>On my arrival in the Minories I entered an old-fashioned, grimy office, -in which sat a tall, stoutly-built seaman with immense whiskers, both -hands on his knees; he stared idly, as though waiting. I went to a -desk, and asked for Mr. Butcher or Mr. Hobbs. The clerk may have -recollected me; he instantly rose,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> entered an inner office, and -returning, begged me to step in.</p> - -<p>Mr. Hobbs was alone: a large fat man, yellow-haired and bearded, -with staring, watery eyes. As I entered he stood up, with an air of -deep dejection, and extending his hand, bowed over it, looking down, -exclaiming:</p> - -<p>'I know the business that has brought you here, sir. It is terrible—it -is shocking! But——' He then stood erect, and shrugged his shoulders, -with a roll of his eyes upwards.</p> - -<p>'The report in the paper is true, then?' said I.</p> - -<p>'I grieve to say it is,' he replied.</p> - -<p>I so trembled with grief I could scarcely speak to the man.</p> - -<p>'Are we to entertain no hope whatever?' I said, leaning upon the table -for support. He placed a chair; I sank into it and proceeded: 'Surely -we need not certainly <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>conclude the dismasted ship sunk after the -long-boat left her merely because——' and here, forgetting the names, -I brought out the newspaper to refer to—' the "Planter" failed to find -her after a few hours' search in, perhaps, thick weather, and amongst -the ice, which may have been numerous?'</p> - -<p>'Oh, of course,' he exclaimed, 'we must not abandon hope. As you justly -put it, the "Planter's" search counts for little, considering how -brief it was, and the state of the weather. I'll not pretend I have -much hope myself, but the sea provides many chances. Again and again -you hear of rates rising, till no further risk is taken; then the ship -is posted, her end made sure of, and one fine morning she's signalled -off some Channel station, blowing leisurely along with the loss of her -foretop-mast and her bottom beach-like with weed. I don't despair, sir; -yet I must honestly own my hope is not strong.' He paused, then said, -'I believe one of the crew of the "Lady<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> Emma's" in the front office.' -He walked to the door and looked out. 'Would you like to see him? He -was the boatswain of the ship. His name is Wall.'</p> - -<p>I eagerly begged him to bring him in. He called, and the big sailor -I had noticed entered. I immediately recollected that Marie, in the -fragment of journal she had sent us, had described and praised him for -his civility and his qualities as a seaman. He stood before us, cap in -hand, his back slightly arched by years of stooping and hauling and -curling of his body over yards and booms; his weather-coloured face -was hard as leather, and rugged and knotted with muscle; one of those -seafaring faces, impenetrable to the chisel of ocean experience which -fifty tragedies of the deep would no more mark than the human anguish -in shipwreck alters the face of the rock which stares through the salt -smoke down upon the scene.</p> - -<p>'This gentleman,' said Mr. Hobbs, 'is Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> Archibald Moore. The young -lady passenger aboard the "Lady Emma" was——' he dropped his head and -was silent.</p> - -<p>I gazed at the seaman with consuming interest; he had been among the -last—he might have been the last—who had seen, who had spoken to -Marie.</p> - -<p>'You'll not tell me,' said I, in a broken voice, 'there's no hope for -the three you left behind you?'</p> - -<p>'No, sir, I'll not tell you that,' answered the man in deep tones, -which trembled upon the ear with the power of their volume. 'I've said -all along that if the ice only lets the hull keep afloat, there was -nothen to prevent her being fallen in with. She wasn't so far south,' -continued he, looking at Mr. Hobbs, 'as to be out of the way of half a -dozen chances a week if the weather opened out the sea, and gave a view -of her as she lay flat, with but twelve foot of foremast standing.'</p> - -<p>'Why were they left behind?' I cried.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> 'Why were they left to wash -about in a dismasted hulk amongst ice, to perish horribly after days of -suffering perhaps?' and I beat the table with my fist.</p> - -<p>'Mr. Moore, the capt'n refused to quit,' said the seaman, speaking -calmly in his deep voice, and viewing me with an air of respectful -pity. 'My mates'll tell you I entreated of him and the ladies to enter -the boat, likewise did Mr. Owen, the doctor. We wasn't listened to. The -captain was all for waiting for something to come alongside, and take -the hulk in tow. He was for jury-rigging her—on a twelve-foot stump of -foremast!' said he, slowly regarding Mr. Hobbs. 'The consarn blew over -the bows. What in that way was going to stand down there?'</p> - -<p>'You should have used force,' I said.</p> - -<p>'With the capt'n?' he exclaimed, with a slow, astonished shake of his -head.</p> - -<p>'Had you got the captain into the boat, the ladies would have -followed.' </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Neither 'ud have been alive next morning. The young one would have -froze to death in a few hours. You should have heard the strongest -amongst us groaning with the cold when we lost sight of the craft we -were making for, and when the night drawed down, and we were for the -hull, all hands of us mad for the shelter of her and the warmth of -our blankets and the hot drinks to be got. I tell ye, sir,' he added, -calmly and respectfully, 'that the captain knew more about it than we -did, and was right to keep the ladies aboard; for if they was to die, -better comfortably in a warm cabin than in an open boat with spray -sheeting over them at every plunge.'</p> - -<p>'What was the situation of the hull when the crew abandoned her?' I -asked.</p> - -<p>Mr. Hobbs pulled open a drawer, and read aloud a copy of an entry in -the log-book of the 'Planter' in which the meeting with the long-boat -was minuted. The situation as there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> stated was Latitude 58° 45´ S., -Longitude 45° 10´ W. This copy of the logbook entry had been handed by -Captain Parry of the 'Planter' to the master of the ship to whom the -crew had been transferred.</p> - -<p>A yellow glazed map of the world hung in the office over the -mantelpiece. My eye went to it, and I made a step, saying to the -boatswain Wall:</p> - -<p>'Show me to the place. What land lies nearest to it? What is the usual -track of ships passing Cape Horn?'</p> - -<p>He hung back, evidently ignorant of maps and of latitude and longitude. -Mr. Hobbs, picking up a ruler, approached the mantelpiece, and, peering -close at the dingy map, presently put the end of the ruler upon a part -of it and said:</p> - -<p>'This, as nearly as possible, will be the place where the crew -abandoned the hull.'</p> - -<p>'Is that land there?'</p> - -<p>Mr. Hobbs slanted his head to read, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> exclaimed; 'Ay; in this little -group we have—my sight is not what it was—ah! the South Orkneys. -These to the left—' with straining sight and some difficulty he spelt -out 'South Shetlands.'</p> - -<p>'What sort of islands are they?' I asked.</p> - -<p>'About the most desolate, froze-up, oninhabited rocks on that side of -the world,' answered Wall. 'There's nothen to be thought of along o' -them.'</p> - -<p>'Why?' I asked.</p> - -<p>'Because going ashore there would be like hittin' ice. In the swell -that's always a-running, the hull 'ud go to pieces with the first blow, -like a loosed faggot. Their one chance,' he added, in a voice of deep -conviction, 'lies in their being fallen in with and taken off. That may -have happened. If so, it'll be a question of waiting.'</p> - -<p>'If so,' cried Mr. Hobbs, with a raised manner of cheerfulness that -was scarcely sincere I thought, 'Captain Burke will bear in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> mind the -suspense and anxiety you and the young lady's father are suffering, and -exert his experience as an old seaman to promptly communicate, so that, -let us trust, if there be good news in store, we'll get it quickly.'</p> - -<p>'Suppose the hull should have been thrown upon an iceberg,' I -exclaimed, addressing Wall, 'must she inevitably go to pieces?'</p> - -<p>'That 'ud depend upon how she took the ice,' he answered.</p> - -<p>'If she stranded and lay dry—such things have happened—could the -three live in her?'</p> - -<p>'Yes, sights more comfortably than if she was afloat.'</p> - -<p>'For how long?'</p> - -<p>'She was freighted,' said Mr. Hobbs, 'with an abundance of the -necessaries of life.'</p> - -<p>'How long could a vessel remain on the ice in a habitable state?'</p> - -<p>'Years,' answered Wall, 'if she's let alone. Give her a snug berth -clear of the wash of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> sea and tumbling blocks, and what's to hurt -her?'</p> - -<p>Mr. Hobbs was staring at me earnestly. 'I could wish to persuade you,' -he exclaimed, with a melancholy inclination of his head, 'to discard -the notion of the hull finding a berth in an iceberg. Our hope must -take a practical form. Let us, then, believe that the wreck has been -encountered by one of the many whalers and other vessels which frequent -those seas, and that Captain Burke and his companions are at this -present moment safe.'</p> - -<p>I turned to Wall and plied him with questions. What was the condition -of the hull? What had been the state of Miss Otway's health? Did he -believe, by recalling her looks when he last saw her, that she had -the strength to outlive the horrors, trials, suspense, suffering, of -even one week of a dismasted hull, rolling about amidst the ice in -dangerous, desolate seas?—the wildest in the world and in their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> -mid-winter? Was Captain Burke, singlehanded, aboard the wreck, as a -man, capable of doing anything to help them into safety? If not, why -had he stuck to the ship? What madman's nightmare of imagination could -have induced him to remain with two women aboard a vessel he could do -nothing with?</p> - -<p>I almost raved my questions at the man, so wild grew my heart with -grief whilst I listened to his plain answers, full of an old practical -seaman's good sense, though several times he repeated that the captain -was right to keep his wife and Miss Otway aboard, as they never could -have survived the first night in the long-boat.</p> - -<p>He increased my distress by hinting somewhat doubtfully that Captain -Burke had fallen a little weak in his mind during the voyage; he spoke -of an apparition that had been seen to walk on the ship's forecastle; -it had been clothed in the likeness of the captain, and ever after he -had ceased to be quite the same man. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p> - -<p>'Can you imagine,' I cried, rounding upon Mr. Hobbs, 'that the loss of -the ship is owing to Captain Burke having gone mad?'</p> - -<p>'You wouldn't say so?' he answered, looking at Wall.</p> - -<p>'No, sir,' answered the seaman, 'there was no madness in that job of -dismasting, if it wasn't in the weather.'</p> - -<p>'But,' I exclaimed, picking up the ruler Mr. Hobbs had used, and laying -the end of it upon the map, 'what was the captain's motive in carrying -this vessel so far south? See where the Horn is? What, in God's name, -was he doing so high?'</p> - -<p>'He was blowed there,' answered the man.</p> - -<p>'I understand,' said Mr. Hobbs, 'that a succession of hard northerly -gales settled the vessel to the southward and eastward, considerably -out of the usual course.'</p> - -<p>'The "Planter" was also blowed south,' said Wall.</p> - -<p>I continued to question with impassioned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> anxiety, eagerness, and -grief, till I found I was likely to become an intruder in the office, -on which, asking the boatswain Wall for his address, and ascertaining -that he did not mean to look about him for another berth at present, I -shook hands with Mr. Hobbs, and walked to my place of business in the -City—a private bank near Gracechurch Street.</p> - -<p>Sir Mortimer Otway was at this time at Paris on a visit to some -friends. I had heard from him two days before, and understood that he -would return on the fourth or fifth. His health was not good. Of late -he had become very anxious about his daughter. He thought it was time, -after six months, that he should receive news of her, or that the 'Lady -Emma' should be reported. This being so, I resolved not to write, but -to wait until his return, when I would tell him of the wreck of the -ship, if, indeed, the account of it did not reach him through other -hands, or the newspapers in Paris. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p> - -<p>For my own part I was so shocked, so stunned, there was something so -terrible to my imagination in the character of this wreck, in every -circumstance of it, having regard to the loneliness of the three, the -wild and stormy breast of waters where the hull had been left plunging -helpless by her crew, that I could not hold up my head. I could not -speak. I sat in a sort of stupor. My father reasoned with me; he -pointed out that the hull was afloat, a stout, seaworthy vessel when -the crew left her; that being dismasted she was less likely to beat -against the ice than were she moving through the water under sail; that -a vessel had been seen and pursued by the crew; that where one was -there must be others; and so on, and so on.</p> - -<p>I heard him and that was all.</p> - -<p>I cannot tell how great was my love for Marie. I felt that I had acted -as a wretch, betrayed the darling of my heart to her destruction, -in sanctioning her father's scheme<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> of sending her away alone—and -she must be alone if she was without me—on a long voyage in a -comparatively small sailing ship. The fancy of her in that rolling, -dismasted hull was a dreadful oppression to my imagination and worked -in me like madness itself. I had seen the ship, and so the figure of -her as she tumbled dismasted amidst the heavy seas far south of Cape -Horn was easy to paint. To think of my Marie, that delicate, fragile, -timid girl, imprisoned in such a hulk, enduring hours and perhaps days -of anguish in poignant suspense and heartbreaking expectation of death, -all alone as she was, countless leagues away from me, from her father, -with no other companion than her old nurse, who, let her devotion be -what it might, must surely fail her at such a time.</p> - -<p>My mind felt crazed. I could not lift my head nor speak.</p> - -<p class="center space-above">END OF THE SECOND VOLUME </p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p> - -<p class="center space-above">PRINTED BY<br />SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE<br />LONDON</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/dec2.jpg" alt="Decoration" /></div> - -<div style='display:block;margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEART OF OAK, VOL. 2 OF 3 ***</div> -<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This file should be named 62378-h.htm or 62378-h.zip</div> -<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in https://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/3/7/62378/</div> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: Heart of Oak, vol. 2 of 3 - A Three-Stranded Yarn - -Author: William Clark Russell - -Release Date: June 12, 2020 [EBook #62378] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEART OF OAK, VOL. 2 OF 3 *** - - - - -Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - -+-------------------------------------------------+ -|Transcriber's note: | -| | -|Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | -| | -+-------------------------------------------------+ - - -NEW BOOKS AT EVERY LIBRARY. - - -SONS OF BELIAL. By WILLIAM WESTALL. 2 vols. -LILITH. By GEORGE MACDONALD. 1 vol. -THE PROFESSOR'S EXPERIMENT. By MRS. HUNGERFORD. 3 vols. -THE IMPRESSIONS OF AUREOLE. 1 vol. -DAGONET ABROAD. By GEORGE R. SIMS. 1 vol. -CLARENCE. By BRET HARTE. 1 vol. -OTHELLO'S OCCUPATION. By MARY ANDERSON. 1 vol. -HONOUR OF THIEVES. By C. J. CUTCLIFFE HYNE. 1 vol. -THE MACDONALD LASS. By SARAH TYTLER. 1 vol. -THE PRINCE OF BALKISTAN. By ALLEN UPWARD. 1 vol. -THE KING IN YELLOW. By ROBERT W. CHAMBERS. 1 vol. - - -LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY. - - - - -HEART OF OAK - -VOL. II. - - - - -PRINTED BY -SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE -LONDON - - - - -HEART OF OAK - -A THREE-STRANDED YARN - - -BY - -W. CLARK RUSSELL - -AUTHOR OF -'THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR' 'THE PHANTOM DEATH' -'THE CONVICT SHIP' ETC. - - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - -IN THREE VOLUMES--VOL. II. - - -LONDON -CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY -1895 - - - - -CONTENTS - -OF - -THE SECOND VOLUME - -CHAPTER PAGE - XI. THE CREW LEAVE 1 - - XII. MR. SELBY TAKES UP THE STORY 41 - - XIII. THE HULL 69 - - XIV. STILL ADRIFT 92 - - XV. THE ICE IN THE SOUTH 120 - - XVI. THE AURORA AUSTRALIS 145 - - XVII. THE THICK OF IT 169 - -XVIII. IMPRISONED 192 - - XIX. MR. MOORE CONTINUES THE STORY 221 - - - - -HEART OF OAK - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE CREW LEAVE - - -The sail shone like a peak of ice against a belly of soft snow-cloud -right ahead--that is, ahead as the hull's bows lay. I should have -supposed it ice, but for the captain, who stood close beside the -companion holding the ship's glass: he said, 'There she is, miss.' - -'Is she coming this way?' cried I, shivering with cold and passion. - -'I can't tell as yet. She's only just been sighted. Bear a hand with -the first empty tar barrel you can get hold of,' he bawled, moving -forwards, and he continued to shout, but I could not gather the -instructions he delivered. - -Presently Mrs. Burke joined me, and then Mr. Owen swathed to the -nostrils. - -'It's almost too good to credit,' he exclaimed! 'Can they be mistaken? -Is it ice? If it should prove a ship!' - -He went sliding and staggering towards some men in the waist, and stood -questioning them, heedless of the captain. - -With the promptitude of seamen the crew collected a lot of stuff for -making a smoke; they stacked a large heap of material near the gangway -and set fire to it, and in about ten minutes a thick body of blue smoke -was rolling over the rail, and clouding upwards with many a sparkling -ruddy gleam shooting up tongue-shaped or arrow-like into the throat of -the sooty pouring. - -It was wide daylight and the antarctic day young, but the clouds rimmed -the horizon with the shadow of night, and the crimson light of the -flare promised as swift an intelligence of our forlorn condition as -the smoke. The seamen continued to feed the fire; and all the while -Captain Burke was stretching his telescope at the distant gleam; the -men again and again turning their eyes from it to him with looks -growing dark with impatience and consuming anxiety. Mr. Owen had -fetched his binocular glass and strained his eyes through them without -intermission. Mrs. Burke and I standing in the companion, which was -the one sheltered part of that long stretch of frozen deck and smashed -bulwarks, gazed without speech. - -Suddenly a sailor, one who had been most active in feeding the fire, -sprang on to the rail: he grasped a spear-shaped projection of ice, -which broke short off and he fell on his back; he sprang again with an -oath, and after looking, turned to others who were standing near the -fire and roared: - -'Mates, she's leaving us, by God!' - -'She takes us for a whaler trying out. There's no good in smoke as a -signal down here,' said a sailor. - -'It's our chance,' bawled the fellow who had sprung and fallen, now -throwing himself back on to the deck. 'There mayn't come another for -weeks. What's to happen then? Are we to drive about in this fired ocean -till we ends as froze-up corpses? I'm for following her.' - -'Take her bearings, bo'sun, while she's in sight,' shouted a seaman, -and the huge sailor, as obedient as though the captain had given the -command, rolled aft and put the sharp of his hand upon the compass bowl. - -'Captain Burke,' exclaimed one of the seamen, in a voice startling with -its sudden savage note of revolt, 'we've had enough of this. There's -nothen that's a-going to be of any use to us in them booms.' He pointed -behind him with his thumb. 'There's our chance. We'll run ourselves -into her sight and she'll pick us up.' - -'Hold your jaw, you Johnson!' said Captain Burke, who was as white -as the deck in the face, though his eyes showed dangerously, like a -madman's who watches his chance to leap upon you. - -'Hold _my_ jaw?' growled the seaman, a hairy scowling man in a yellow -sou'-wester, dropping his head into an insolent butting posture. -'Why, so I will arter I've told yer that when them masts went we was -quit of your blistered articles, and here's one as ain't for stopping -one bloomin' minute longer to mess and muck about with jury-masts, -pennorths of parasol to be blowed over the bows as soon as they're up. -Mates,' he yelled, 'I'm after that ship whilst there's time. Who's for -coming?' - -As though there had been something quickening and thrilling as -magnetism in the sailor's shout, the whole of the men made a jump for -the boat, one of the first being the boatswain who was coming aft from -the compass when the seaman bawled the invitation. - -The smoke of the flare had flittered down into a curl of pale blue -vapour, which blew over the rail feather-shaped to the sea. The captain -stood this side of it, watching the men in a staring idle way whilst -they went to work at the boat with gleaming knives, hacking and cutting -at her fastenings--he seemed as though deprived of his reason--then he -roared out: - -'Leave that boat alone. Don't touch that boat. She belongs to the ship. -She's my property. Overboard and swim for that vessel there if she's -your chance, you dogs! But leave that boat alone.' - -A few turned their heads to look at him and then went on passing their -knives through the lashings, clearing away the booms and so forth. - -'Stop him!' shrieked Mrs. Burke. 'Help, Mr. Owen! What can he do? -What's the use of it? They'll kill him!' and I too screamed when I saw -the captain rush upon the nearest of the men regardless of their naked -knives; he struck out right and left, flooring two, but a third--none -of them I observed offering to hit him back--crooked his leg at the -poor man's heels, and he fell, fetching the iron-hard snow-coated plank -a thump that left him motionless. - -Mrs. Burke rushed to his side. The boatswain cried out: - -'He's no right to stop us, mum. It's our lives we're working for and -thinking of. You and him and the lady'll come along too. Now, mates, -whilst there's daylight, for God's sake!' - -Mr. Owen crossed to the captain's side and assisted Mrs. Burke to drag -him aft. His figure slipped over the frozen snow as though he was -lifeless, but they had not dragged him a dozen paces in the direction -of the companion-hatch when he cried out and struggled. Mr. Owen let -go; with the help of his wife he got on his feet. - -'Get me some brandy,' said he. - -I heard him and made with what speed I might for the cabin, my face -bloodless and my heart beating as fast as a watch ticks. That brief -scene of conflict, like to one of those terrible mutinies I had read -of in sea tales, had been shocking to witness, on top as it was of our -helpless and awful situation, and all the anguish of expectation and -fear which had filled the past few days. I was sick and nearly fainted. -I sat down to catch my breath and press my temples. Before I found -strength to rise, Mrs. Burke descended, followed by her husband. - -He seated himself at the table, upon which he lay his right arm and -buried his face in it. She coaxed him after a little into taking some -brandy, and then observing my state she got me to take a sip. - -Meanwhile overhead I heard the crew busy with the long-boat; her keel -thundered as they ran her to the side for launching. Their movements -were full of feverish bustle; in truth they were working for life or -death; they meant to catch the ship and there remained but a very few -hours of daylight. - -'Does your head pain you, Edward?' - -'No,' he answered, and strained his hearing to catch what was passing -above. - -'Will they let us know when they're ready to take us?' I cried. - -'Take us!' the captain exclaimed, with a sudden anger in his whole -manner as he turned towards me. 'They may take you, but I stop here.' - -'No, no, Miss Marie,' cried my poor old nurse, 'they must not take you -without me, and my place is by my husband's side wherever he is. Think -if they should miss the ship, which is more than likely: they'll be in -an open boat in this frozen ocean! Fancy being in an open boat in such -weather as that of the night before last! You would not live to see -to-morrow's dawn. And how should their going concern us? If they fall -in with the ship they'll report we are here and the vessel may return. -If they miss her they are in an exposed open boat, and we are in a dry, -comfortable hull, with a good warm cabin to sit in, and no worse off -than if all the crew were aboard. For what can they do? If the ship -comes, she'll come whether the crew are on board or not.' - -'But are the three of us to be left alone?' I exclaimed. - -'The dogs could have helped me,' muttered the captain. 'We blew -northwards yesterday and to-day we sighted a sail. They are villains to -steal my boat, the only remaining boat. But I am too few for them--I am -too few for them.' He clasped his hands upon the back of his head as -though he was in pain there. - -Just then four or five seamen came tumbling down the companion-ladder: -one held a lighted lantern. This man exclaimed: - -'Capt'n, the boat's alongside, and all's ready.' - -'What are you doing down here?' thundered the captain. - -'The victuals we want are in the lazarette,' answered the man. 'No good -lifting the main-hatch and overhauling the cargo when all we need's -handy here.' - -Even whilst he spoke the rest had pulled up a little square hatch -cover with an iron ring in it; it fitted a large manhole a few paces -abaft the companion-ladder; this hatch conducted to a part of the -after-hold called the lazarette, a sort of store-room in which the -cabin provisions and wines with other commodities were stowed. - -Captain Burke jumped from his seat; his wife fell upon him shrieking, -and with her arms about his neck forced him to sit, beseeching him to -have patience, to let the men have their way, to attempt no violence -or they would kill him. He trembled with rage and weakness and grief, -but he understood his powerlessness--which was merciful, for there was -an angry stubbornness in the hurry and motions of the men which was as -good as advising their captain, with a curse and a threat wrapped up in -the hint, not to meddle with them, not to offer to hinder them if he -valued his life. - -Very promptly the lot emerged from the lazarette, bearing cases and -sacks, hams, cheeses, and so forth. They no doubt guessed they'd come -to want plenty of provisions should they miss the ship they were -after. They ran headlong up the ladder, none heeding us, but not above -two minutes afterwards the boatswain's burly figure showed in the -companion-way, and he bawled down: - -'Capt'n Burke, we're all ready, and there isn't a second to lose. Ain't -you going to join us along with the ladies?' - -He received no reply. - -He repeated the question, roaring it out in a bull-like bellowing, and -then came a step or two down the ladder to stretch his neck that he -might see us. I cried out: - -'Are we to be left alone?' for I cannot express the horror that chilled -me when I thought of the sailors leaving us to save themselves, -insomuch that they might be on board another ship sailing towards the -sun ere the Southern Cross was trembling in the south that night, -whilst the three of us who stayed--two of them women--might go on -rolling about in a wrecked and crusted hull till she grew sodden and -sank, or split against an iceberg. - -'Come you along with us, miss, if the captain and his wife won't leave -the vessel!' cried the boatswain. - -'No!' shrieked Mrs. Burke. 'Would you expose a delicate young lady in -these seas in an open boat? Fools are you yourselves to go. You'll be -heard of no more.' - -The boatswain without another word withdrew his great developed bulk -from the hatch, but he was instantly replaced by another figure, and -Mr. Owen's voice, shrill with excitement and hurry, cried down: - -'Mrs. Burke, Miss Otway, aren't you coming? They'll be putting off -without you if you pause.' - -'He does not ask my husband to join them,' screamed Mrs. Burke, 'the -wretch! does he think I would leave my husband?' - -Mr. Owen came swiftly down into the cabin and talked like a man in -delirium. - -'You have no right to keep this young lady with you. Captain Burke -sticks to his hull from sordid motives. That's his look-out. Life's -more precious than cargo. Miss Otway was entrusted to my care. I insist -upon her being permitted to accompany us. Her father looks to me for -her well-being. She is eager to go with us and you will not suffer it.' -Thus he raved on. - -'Leave this cabin,' cried the captain, springing up. His face was full -of blood, his blue eyes blazed; he had already been worked up into -madness, and I was certain by his insane manner of starting from his -chair, if the doctor did not go instantly the captain would destroy him. - -But it was at that moment that the boatswain bawled on deck. 'Come -up!' were the words I caught, sounding through the companion-hatch in -a muffled note of thunder. 'Up with them who's going.' More was said -which I did not hear. - -'By keeping her, you are murdering her, and her blood is on your head!' -cried Mr. Owen like a woman in a frenzy of passion, and rushed up the -ladder. - -'Don't believe him,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke, grasping my hand, with a -wild, short, passionate laugh that had the note of an hysteric sob. -'You shall see the boat presently. You shall see it out upon the -water. You will judge then who would kill you. Oh, not I, not I, my -flower; not I, your poor old nurse!' - -I clasped her round the neck and sobbed. When I looked up Captain Burke -had left the cabin. - -We were apparelled for the deck, and finding the captain gone, we -followed, and though scarcely five minutes had elapsed since the -boatswain bawled, already the long-boat was some ship's lengths -distant, bowed almost to the line of her lee rail by a great square of -white canvas, shaded here and there where the moisture had not dried -out of it. She looked full of people as she rose to the head of the -folds, ripping through it with the icy breeze fresh off her bow, till -the lift of the foam sparkled in a fountain-like arch right athwart her -forward, and her speed raised two humps of froth on either quarter, -and shot a long milk-white glance of wake, bright as a meteor's line -of light, far astern of her, lifting and falling on the swell, and -defined to its extremity even amidst the smoke and snap of the running -seas. - -Captain Burke with one hand grasping the edge of the companion stood -watching her. When we came up his first words were, after a brief pause: - -'They'll overhaul the ship if they can only get a sight of her. Look -how she sails, and how finely she is handled.' - -'She may be the means of saving us,' cried Mrs. Burke. 'What use were -they on board of us? But they're useful there. They'll be sighted and -rescued, and we shall be hunted after.' - -But I did not want her nor her husband after I had watched the boat -a little to tell me that, unless they quickly encountered succour, -their situation, crowded together in a small exposed space, would be -terrible. Also, since Mrs. Burke would not have left her husband, I -should have been the only woman in her. I cannot say how the mere -sight of her as she swept onwards, dwindling as you gazed into a mere -toy, regularly sinking out of sight till nothing showed but a gleaming -curve of her topmast cloths, wan and slender as a distant sea-fowl's -pinion, then taking the slope till she leaned, poised and foaming for -a breathless instant, upon the flying summit: I cannot tell you, I -say, how solemnly and awfully that mere toy, full of human beings, -emphasised to my perception the vastness and the loneliness of this -cold, green, heaving breast of ocean. - -Captain Burke took the telescope out of the companion and swept the sea -for some little distance on either hand the boat's bows, pausing on the -lee side of the fabric where, my sight being good, I spied a point like -a light tipping the sea-line against some dark clouds there whenever -the hull soared. - -'That's the ship,' said he, pointing. 'They may catch her! Why, had I -thought of it--but who's going to make proposals to mutineers?--the -scoundrels have stolen my only boat. How do they know in leaving us -what's to become of us without a boat?' - -'Had you thought of what?' said his wife. - -'I'd have given them a handful of rockets.' - -We stood watching the boat till the white spot she became was one with -the breaking seas. The hull looked indescribably forlorn. The sense of -all life, saving us three, having gone out of her, brought a deeper -spirit of desolation into her labouring shape. Oh, the heart-sickness -that came into you out of her dismal regular rolling in the trough! -The swell lifted her, the seas burst upon her weather side as against -a rock, broke into smoke, and smote the hollow they sprang from with -the loud hissing of a hail squall. There was a constant dreary gleam of -ice as the fabric swayed, pallid glares along her side, blue glancings -from the long barbs at the catheads; the frozen snow the whole length -of the deck had a shrewd keen sparkle. In places along the working line -of the sea hung motionless the faint marble of bergs; but long before -the boat was lost to view the feather-tip of sail she was pursuing had -vanished. - -Captain Burke carefully and closely swept the horizon, then replaced -the telescope. - -'A few hours often make a mighty difference at sea,' said he. 'By this -time tomorrow we may be towing northwards.' - -'Have the men gone away without a compass?' said Mrs. Burke. - -'The bo'sun owned a compass that was a curiosity of casting and -graving: I remember he showed it to the mate. They'll have taken that -with them. And now,' said he, speaking with more cheerfulness than I -had observed in him for some days, 'let us go below and get something -to eat. There's fuel enough to keep the stove going for a long spell. -The hull's as staunch as she was on the day we sailed. Any moment -you may see something that will look like ice climbing the sea into a -whaler's breast of topsail and stump topgallant masts. So call things -at their worst, miss,' said he, 'for then we may believe that their -mending's at hand.' - -Mrs. Burke and I went below; the captain remained on deck. Between -us we dressed the dinner table. She did not want me to help her. She -said it was her duty and joy to wait upon me. 'To think of Miss Marie -Otway,' she exclaimed, 'laying a table-cloth and putting knives and -forks upon the table that a plain merchant-skipper and his wife may -dine.' - -I kissed and went on helping her; any sort of occupation was welcome: -for, argue as the captain and Mrs. Burke might, the abandonment of -the wreck by the whole of the sailors had raised a horror in me, and -filled my heart with deep secret distress and dread; so that, whenever -I thought of our situation, it was with a shudder at the emptiness of -the rolling broken hull. - -I believe the hour was not far from two o'clock. Already the gloom -of the early antarctic night was in the cabin, but the lamp swung in -flashes through the shadow, and you could only have told that the gloom -was gathering when you looked at the portholes. We sat beside the stove -waiting for Captain Burke; by-and-bye his wife grew uneasy, and went on -deck to seek him and call him down to dinner. - -I was then alone, and sat very cold and wretched. I had been alone in -this cabin before--that is, since the masts had gone; but then there -had been the tread of feet overhead, the knowledge of a plentiful, -hearty life in the ship. Now all was as hushed as the tomb in that way. - -After I had been waiting four or five minutes, I saw two small points -of light in the gloom where a locker ended, and where some few feet -of ship's wall ran clear. I stared, suspecting an illusion, and then -believed it was phosphorus or something jewelled with light by decay as -rotten timber is. But on a sudden the two shining spots came stealing -out into the whiskers and ribbed shape of a huge lean, grey rat. I -jumped up with a shriek and the thing vanished. - -My nerves gave way, and, marvelling at Captain and Mrs. Burke's -absence, I went on deck to look for them, trembling with disgust and -terror. - -The daylight was small, but the snow along the decks made a whiteness -in the air, so that perhaps even in the darkest hour you would be able -to detect anything in motion betwixt the rails. Here and there about -the leaden rolling ocean broke sudden glares of froth. The shadow had -blended the sea-circle with sky, and nothing was visible save a smoky -thickness of vapour breaking up to windward where it soared, and ashy -in places with rain or snow. I stood in the hatch and looked along the -deck and saw nobody. This so frightened me that I shrieked out Mrs. -Burke's name. Nothing answered. I trembled with dread and the bitter -cold of the wind, and crossing the deck that I might have something -to hold by, went forward, occasionally screaming out the name of Mrs. -Burke, but never getting an answer. - -The galley door was open: nobody was in it. I was half fainting with -terror; I could not imagine what had become of my companions. Was -I alone in the ship? Oh, never could I make you understand what my -feelings were whilst I stood running my eyes first forward and then -aft, straining along the ghostly slanting glimmer of the decks for a -sight of one or another of my friends, hearing nothing but a strange -moaning noise of wind in the sky, and the long rolling thunder of -moving mountains of water, the early night darkening fast down all -round, the closing in upon the ghastly, weary, tumbling hull, lifting -its bowsprit and splintered stumps of masts in postures of agony -defined as existence itself could make them! - -I had just sucked in my breath to send forth another scream, when I saw -a figure in the little hatch called the forescuttle, which led into the -forecastle. - -'Who is that?' I cried. - -'Is that you, Miss Marie?' called the voice of Mrs. Burke, and she rose -through the hatch. - -'I thought you were lost. I thought I was alone,' I cried, beginning to -sob with a sudden passion of hysteric relief. - -'My husband went down into the forepeak to get some coal,' said she, -not perceiving that I cried. 'He asked me to help him by pulling up -some buckets as he filled them. We are not quite done, but do not stay -on deck, my dear. We shall be with you in a very few minutes now.' - -On this I returned to the cabin, but much shaken, and so low-spirited, -I had never before felt more miserable. - -I entered the cabin with eyes a-search for the rat, and could not sit -still beside the stove for thinking of the beast, for at every moment -I was coining the lights of its eyes, the gaunt crouched shape of it, -out of some shadow here or there; and if I saw it not in imagination, -I figured it as under my chair. However, soon after I had returned, -the captain and Mrs. Burke entered the cabin, the captain bearing two -buckets and his wife one, full of coals. - -'Now,' he exclaimed, 'for a little wash after that job!' and he took -a kettle of water off the stove and carried it to his cabin. His wife -followed him. - -They came back soon and we sat down at the table. Whilst we ate Mrs. -Burke explained how her husband had attached a block to a beam in the -forecastle and rove a rope through it with a hook at one end, and how, -standing in the forecastle, she had hauled up the buckets as he filled -them deep down in the forepeak. - -I told them of the horrible rat I had seen. - -'Don't let it scare you, miss,' said the captain. 'Rats at sea haven't -the viciousness of the beasts ashore. They'll drown themselves in a -man's savings of molasses. They'll creep into his bunk and nibble his -toe-nails. That's about the worst that I can recollect. They may be -destructive to ships and cargo, but they've got their instincts, and -know when on the ocean they're dependent on sailors.' - -He doubtless said this to hearten me. Mrs. Burke changed the subject by -speaking of the melancholy appearance of the forecastle. The hammocks -swung, she said, as though every one held a man; the sailors' chests -were scattered about, there was a smell of tobacco in the place as -though the sailors had scarcely extinguished their pipes. The captain -had put out the forecastle lamp. It was alight when they entered. -Not that it would have set fire to the ship. It was sputtering and -smelling, with a thick coil of slush rank smoke spreading in a little -cloud under the deck out of a small greasy flame. - -'The silence is shocking,' she said to her husband. 'I looked to see -the heads of men peering at me over the edges of the hammocks.' - -'There may be heads of men nearer than we think,' said he. 'I'll -give ourselves a chance this night.' He looked up at the clock under -the skylight and seemed to calculate, and then said, 'The boat went -swiftly. She may have run into the ken of the ship--some box-ended -waggon of a south seaman, no doubt, slow as a baulk of timber working -to windward on a two-knot tide.' - -'What will you do?' said his wife. - -'I'll send up a rocket occasionally. If she picks up our people she -might stand down to look for us--she might. I'll do more,' he added -after a pause. 'I'll give them a flare or anything else that may be a -bright light to see us by--a lantern on the stump of the foremast, or, -better still, under the bowsprit where it'll dance.' - -'Can a hull like this remain long afloat?' said I. - -'Ay, miss.' - -'I thought when a vessel was dismasted she became a wreck, and went -quickly to pieces.' - -'Over and over,' said he, 'you may have heard, you must have read, of -derelicts, whose log-books showed they'd been washing about for months, -sliding north and south, east and west through the summers and winters -of the ocean. A well-built ship is so hard to knock to pieces that -when she's abandoned she's as dangerous to navigation as an uncharted -rock. Again and again they talk of sending gunboats to blow derelicts -to pieces and clear the road. They're hard to extinguish, even with -gunpowder, as hard to expel as a madman's fancies. This craft is safe, -believe me, and will provide us with a secure sea-home until we're -fallen in with, which may be tomorrow.' - -This sort of talk did me a world of good, and I began to cheer up and -feel something like my old self. I was now used to the motion of the -hulk, at least in such a sea as then ran, though a landsman coming on -board for the first time would have been instantly thrown, so swift, -abrupt, and shooting were the rolls. This afternoon we did not notice -any particular weight in the race and lift of the swell and sea; there -had been a dumbness in the looks of the weather throughout the day, -though a fresh wind blew with a flaying, razor-like edge of frost in -it. Captain Burke said he expected a quiet night; that is, no more wind -than had blown through the day. He built up a good fire for us, and got -his wife to boil some coffee, whilst he fetched a number of rockets to -carry on deck. - -With the wish to amuse me he asked if I would like to see a rocket -fired, and whilst Mrs. Burke made some coffee I followed him above. -Night was upon the sea, and its shadow was as a wall for the ice spears -along our rails to brandish their gleams upon. The captain fitted a -candle-shaped thing into a rocket in the bulwarks near the wheel and -fired it, and the rocket sprang high in a line of sparkles, leaving a -red ball of flame floating close against the clouds, which reflected -the radiance as though to a touch of sunset. I watched the red ball -float down the wind and expire. - -'We'll send up a second for luck,' said the captain. - -This was a white light and the dazzle of the flash was lightning-like: -a thin long wake of the brilliance dimly glanced, serpentine, off the -peaks and slants of the heaving waters and the sky opened as to a -star. But the night was the darker for that light when it went. - -'Now, who's to tell,' said Captain Burke, 'what eye has seen those -rockets? Never give up heart at sea, miss. We'll go below for a cup of -hot coffee, and then the brightest burning lantern aboard shall be made -fast in some place where it can be seen.' - -I returned to the cabin with a little spirit of elation working in -me, a strange possession in the presence of that reeling shadow of -frosted hull and the blackness winding round about, pallid here and -there with the wild dim light of froth. It was occasioned, no doubt, -by the sending up of the rockets, by some faint hope or fancy of their -being seen, with a half-formed vision of the ship the crew that day had -pursued staggering down towards us then, a pale shaft aslant, gaunt -with lean canvas breasting slowly, with many eyes on the look-out. - -The three of us sat drinking coffee, and our talk ran in the way of our -deliverance. The captain named our chances. - -'Yes,' cried I, 'but if a ship should refuse to tow you, you will not -surely remain on board this hull and keep us with you! Sooner----' - -I broke off. - -'Sooner what, miss?' said he, rounding his face upon me, crimson on one -side of it with the fire. - -'Sooner than that we should remain here in the hope of saving the -property you possess in the hull, I would give you under my hand an -undertaking that my father will make good the amount of your loss.' - -'We'll see you safe; we'll see you safe,' he exclaimed with a slow -smile. 'Anyhow, you're better here than in the long-boat where you'd be -if Mr. Owen could have had his way.' - -'Ay, if they're not aboard a ship they are cold now, I warrant, those -poor men in that open boat,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke. 'And if the breeze -should come on to freshen so as to fling spray over them, that must be -the freezing part. Not to be able to get up and walk, and to feel the -brine raining upon your back and hardening into a mask of ice about -your neck!' - -The captain got up, but as I did not watch him, I know not whether he -went on deck or to a cabin. When he returned he held a large ship's -lantern, a globe of white glass framed with metal. He fetched some oil -from the pantry, carefully trimmed and then lighted the lantern. - -'This will handsomely jewel the bowsprit,' said he. 'She'll make a -starry dance of it there, toss it as proudly as though it were a gem on -her brow, and she was still clothed in her last week's beauty of white -wings. Heigh-ho! 'Tis no time for fine fancies. Sit ye here, miss; -I'll not have you again expose yourself above; but, wife, you can rig -yourself up so as to give me a ten minutes' hand on deck. I may want to -seize a block to the bowsprit and run this light out.' - -She clothed herself for the bitter cold, and bidding me not be afraid -though a hundred rats should come and stare, she went up the steps -after her husband in the almost noontide light of the lantern that -swung in his hand. - -The emotion of light-heartedness was ended; it had been but as the -gleam of a star in black water on a cloudy night--the sky was folded -up, my heart was dark again, I found no light nor life of hope in -it. They say that hope springs eternal; I vow to God then I felt as -hopeless as if my end was at hand whilst I sat alone when they had gone -to show a light on the hull. I closed my eyes that I might not see the -rat should it come, and so, sitting with the glow of the lire upon my -face, I beheld a vision of my house: it rose upon my darkened gaze; I -saw the wintry scene of Channel waters, the glance of foam through the -flying clouds of snow; I saw myself walking with my sweetheart upon the -stretch of sands, pausing to gaze at the beauty of the forming breaker -and to hearken to the cries of the skyful of blown gulls. I saw my -father; but what I chiefly remembered was the sensation of bitter cold -which had sunk chill to heart and marrow, when I entered for the first -time the cabin I was now occupying. - -I shivered and buried my face and rocked myself, my eyes still sealed. -I may have lost thought of time in musing; I started, looked round, -and found by the hour that they had been on deck nigh twenty minutes. -I thought this was a long time for Captain Burke to keep his wife -exposed, and still I concluded that the job of securing a lantern to -the bowsprit might run into time aboard a dancing, jumping, slippery -hulk; so I continued to wait, all the while straining my ears, till -hearing was made an anguish of by the constant cheats of sound. - -I could bear it no longer. They had been absent half an hour and five -minutes. I did not expect to hear their footfalls through the frozen -snow on the planks; nor would their voices reach me if they remained -forward; but why did not they come? I waited another ten minutes, then -went on deck. - -I looked, and was almost paralysed with terror; had I been an instant -sooner, an instant later, it could not have been; but my eye went -to it as I rose through the hatch at the breathless moment of its -happening--and this was it: low over the sea in some quarter I could -not name hung the moon, red as the sun in fog; she had just broken -out through a mass of heavy black vapour; a ragged edge as of scud -was floating off her upper limb like a last lingering shadow of -eclipse, as I looked; and right athwart the orb, centering it, was -the body of a bird, doubtless an albatross; and the instant picture -was that of some wondrous, gigantic, glowing shield hanging over the -sea, and approaching the hull on the back of a huge seafowl. But in a -heart's beat the deception went: the bird whose distance created that -marvellous illusive perspective curved in its flight and winged out of -the illuminated circle and was gone, and in the next breath a lift of -black stuff like the dingy smouldering of a candle-wick overspread the -moon and hid her. - -I looked along the deck, and as before, so now, I beheld nothing -moving. I tried to reason with my terrors by supposing that the captain -had again gone below to shovel up more coal, and that his wife waited -in the forecastle to help him. But whilst I looked and strained my ears -I heard a moan; again and yet again it came; I could not be mistaken. -I went forward and heard the moaning whilst I advanced, and when I was -close to the galley I saw a figure on the forecastle and heard the -moaning again. - -I stepped close, my heart almost stopped, my blood almost frozen. The -white of the deck made a light of its own, as I have told you, and -I saw Mrs. Burke lying on her side. She lay close to the fluke of -an anchor that was stowed upon the forecastle on the starboard, or -right-hand side. She moaned and continued to moan; I dropped on my -knees, and grasping her hand cried, with my face close to hers to see -if her eyes were open, for her moaning was that of a dying person: 'It -is I. What has happened? Are you ill? Where's your husband?' - -She answered feebly, moaning at every other word: - -'He has fallen overboard. He went on to the bowsprit with a lantern and -slipped. Oh, God, my heart breaks, my heart breaks! I ran and fell and -I cannot rise. I have lost him--oh, my heart!' - -I cried in a passion of horror and terror, 'Captain Burke drowned!' and -then, figuring him battling for life alongside, I sprang to my feet -and went to the rail and looked over. But there was nothing to be seen -save an inky cloudiness of moving waters, shaping and dissolving, and a -dim light of foam when the ship's bows pitched, and there was no other -sound but that of the washing of brine pouring along the side, and a -noise of wind overhead. - -I went back to Mrs. Burke and knelt by her again, and cried: - -'Cannot you rise that I may help you to get to the cabin?' - -She moaned, but did not speak. - -Then my heart gave way wholly, and as I knelt by her side I clasped my -hands, and looked up into the darkness, and cried out of my loneliness: -'What shall I do? What shall I do?' - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -MR. SELBY TAKES UP THE STORY. - - -Having been blown considerably to the southward of our course by a -succession of hard northerly gales, the barque 'Planter,' from London -to Adelaide, on a dark, bitter, raw morning of July 1860, was breaking -the seas close hauled, looking up for as much northing as the seating -of the wind would allow. - -Our long topgallant masts were down on deck, and we showed nothing -above the topmast cross-trees. Under single-reefed topsails and reefed -foresail we rolled sluggishly onwards, making small way; the swell was -wide and strong, but the wind blew without spite, save for its edge, -and the seas ran small. - -My name is Ralph Selby. I was chief mate of that barque, a vessel of -four hundred and sixty tons, Walter Parry, master, John Newman, second -mate. I had charge of the forenoon watch, and it was now about nine -o'clock, but dark as at any hour of the night. All my sight had been -going for ice whilst it remained black; throughout this had been so -with the rest of us, since seven o'clock of the preceding evening we -had nearly fallen foul of ice mountains three times. At midnight, -indeed, the air being then like fog with snow, a loud and fearful cry -from the forecastle had preserved us by the dark of our nails, we were -in time by a few heart beats only; the whole mass looked aboard us as -we surged past with our helm hard up, floating off on a heave of black -fold that carried us clear, though it nearly thumped the channels off -our sides with the lumps of loose ice it slided us into. The paleness -of that mountain went up into the sky high above our mast-heads; the -roar of the sea bursting at its base was louder than any surf I ever -heard ashore; rock-blasting shocks in thunder echoes came out of the -heap, which perhaps sank two leagues backwards into the blackness. - -We drove clear and lost it, but for the rest of the night those who had -the watch kept staring with all their eyes. - -Whilst I leaned over the side searching the darkness off the bow, there -broke over the starboard quarter the cold pale day of that desolate -part of the world. The dim light seemed to sift to the zenith through -the clouds like steam under the rolling sky. In twenty minutes it was -daylight all round, the ocean a dirty freckled green, swollen in folds, -and flashful with the short running seas of the then light breeze. The -horizon opened into a hard green distance, working like a revolved -corkscrew against the stooping soot past it, though overhead it was -middling fine weather, streaks of dim green sky veining, into a look -of marble, a surface of compacted yellow stuff; down which the brown -scud was sailing south-west. - -Crossing the deck to peer to leeward, I instantly caught sight of a -sail, a white square of canvas which, coming and going this side the -horizon, puzzled me during the moments I kept my naked eye upon it. I -fetched the glass and on pointing it resolved the object into a ship's -long-boat, full of people. She was heading to close us, but did not -look as though she lay nearer than we; I observed no distress signal. I -thought I could count eight or nine heads. The gleam of oilskins came -off the men as the boat lifted. With the sheet flattened right aft the -little fabric shredded through it nobly, flinging the water away in -smoke, and rising with the dance and skill of the galley-punt of the -Downs to the head of every hurdling sea. - -The sight of her put a full spirit of civilisation into the desolate -scene; and yet I guessed that exquisite distress lay dumb for distance -only in that open leaping boat, gone now behind a hill of brine, now -straining her square of cloths aslant on a rolling peak. - -I sang out to the fellow at the wheel to let her go off by a point, and -was going to make my report to the captain when he appeared. His eye -caught the boat in a moment, and exclaiming, 'What have we here?' he -levelled the glass and said: - -'Pretty nigh a whole ship's company adrift.' - -We closed her rapidly and were presently within hail. - -'Take us aboard for God's sake, sir! Half of us are dead with the -cold,' cried a lamentable voice, no man, whoever he was that spoke, -rising nevertheless. - -We manoeuvred that she might sheer alongside; we then backed our -topsail yard and her sail dropped with a run. But the men seemed -scarcely to have life enough to catch hold of the coil of rope that -was flung to them, and then when she lay hard by you saw by the rise of -her to the height of our topgallant sail, then by the fall of her into -a hollow twenty feet deep, that if those men were to be rescued they -must be whipped aboard. - -So a tackle was secured to the main yard-arm, and the rope slackened -away to let the boat soar and sink fair under the whip; the captain -then sang out for the strongest to send the weakest, themselves -following. A huge, fine fellow with red whiskers answered with a -paralytic flourish of his hand, and without delay the whip end was -secured to one of the people and quickly as might be he was swayed -aboard. - -I was too busy with superintending these proceedings to do more than -glance at the first of them as they hauled him over the side; and just -took notice that he was a short man, cloaked and thickly wrapped, -with bushy hair, not a sailor, and he looked frozen to death. He was -carried into the cabin and another man was got aboard; he too seemed -lifeless. There were nine or ten, I am not sure. One by one we swayed -them over the rail, the last man to come being the big fellow with the -red whiskers. - -Those who seemed dead--of these there were four--were carried into -the cabin; the others who were able to crawl were helped into the -forecastle. - -'What's to be done with the boat, sir?' said I to the captain. - -'Oh, what can be done with her?' said he, with a shrug and an askant -look of longing at the fine little craft. 'We should drown her if we -towed her, and we can do nothing with her now. Let her go.' - -I went forward by the captain's orders and saw to the men who had been -sent into the forecastle. Hot grog and food were given to them; they -were partially unclothed and chafed and wrapped in blankets. The only -one who did not seem to need this care was the burly, red-whiskered -seaman. He had stripped himself of his waterproofs, and after -swallowing a couple of steaming glasses of grog, and eating pretty -heartily of cold beef and biscuit, he asked for some warm water to wash -the frost out of his face; which done, he fell to clapping his arms -upon his breast, and shooting them out to right and left, kicking his -legs about likewise; then turning upon me who stood watching, he said -he was ready to step aft and spin his yarn to the captain. - -We were a barque with a short poop; I took him into the cuddy, and -there left him in order to look after the ship, so that I did not -learn the story of this crew until a little while after he had related -it to the captain. When I regained the poop the boat was showing and -vanishing some distance astern. It made me shudder to think of exposure -in her in these seas, and under the wild sky that was stormily sipping -the sea-line with its black lips of vapour, though on high, over our -staggering mast-heads, the heavens continued to lie a little open. - -I saw them coming and going with steaming stuff from the galley, and -guessed they were ministering to the poor frozen wretches in the cuddy. -By-and-by the red-whiskered man went forward, and a little later up -came Captain Parry. He approached me, and with a shocked look on his -honest sailorly face said: - -'I'm afraid three of the four are dead. We can't put any life into -them. The fourth man stirred after some chafing, and when some hot grog -had been spooned down his throat, and he's now got his mind. But I -don't like to think how it's going to prove with him; his fingers and -thumbs look to be mortified, and if his boots are pulled off his toes -'ll come away.' - -'Which man is that, sir?' - -'The first man we got aboard, a man with bushy hair. He was doctor in -the ship.' - -'And the others are dead?' - -'I never saw a frozen to death body. Newman says they're dead. He's -been groping after any hint of life and finds none.' - -John Newman, as I have said, was our second mate. He had been bred to -medicine, changed his mind, and gone to sea at two-and-twenty, and was -now, at the age of thirty, with a master's certificate of competency in -his desk, earning five pounds a month as third in charge of a little -barque. We all looked up to Newman as a medical authority; he had -during the passage doctored some of us very skilfully; in pronouncing -the man dead he knew what he was talking about. - -'This is their yarn,' said the captain, and now I repeat in brief what -he related. - -Their ship was the 'Lady Emma.' She sailed from the Thames April 2. A -few days before this time--namely, on July 2--she was thrown on to her -beam ends by a terrific squall; they cut away to right the ship and -all three masts went smack-smooth saving the foremast, of which there -remained a jagged stump of some twelve foot. To this next day they -secured an arrangement of boom and square-sail, which blew over the -bows on the wind suddenly freshening. - -The captain was a little broken in his spirits and weakened in his -intellect by this calamity; also it was said forward that it weighed -upon him to remember that a strange man wearing his face and aspect -had walked on the forecastle one night. His hope was to blow north and -fall in with something that would give him a tow to a port, he (it was -understood) having a considerable uninsured venture in the vessel. -The crew sickened of his notion, seeing no good nor hope in it; and -on catching sight of the topmost canvas of a ship they launched a -long-boat, hastily provisioned her, and went away in pursuit, leaving -behind the master, his wife and a young lady passenger: but through no -fault of the men, as the captain and the others declined to accompany -them. - -They lost the ship and wore for the hull afresh, missed her, and -stood north-east by a compass which did not appear to have been very -trustworthy. They were exposed for two nights and very nearly two days, -and another night must have killed them all. The dead men were the -steward, a Dutch seaman who had been ill for weeks with rheumatism, and -another. - -'How should the wreck bear now, do you think?' said Captain Parry. - -I reflected, and after recalling the weather, and estimating the -boat's sailing powers and the like, I answered if she was to be -sought she might be found about one hundred and fifty miles distant -west-south-west. - -'I make her further than that,' said the captain. - -'Perhaps so, sir.' - -'But your bearings about tally with mine. I think it's our duty to give -those people a chance for their lives. Three of them! and two of the -three, women, Mr. Selby! And the passenger, I understand from Wall the -bo'sun, is the daughter of an English baronet--the skipper's wife was -her old nurse--she was sent out for her health.' - -He looked thoughtfully round the sea, then told me to get the yards -braced in, and going to the wheel, shifted the course, making a fair -wind of the breeze, and the ship drove along. - -The main difficulty lay in the shortness of the time of daylight. We -were not going to hunt for a large becalmed craft, clothed like a -pyramid to the trucks, and courting the eye like an iceberg, but for -a low dismasted hull, which might slide past us within musket-shot in -some hour of blackness, and no man dream it was near. But the captain -was resolved to give the poor people a chance: there could be no -question that the master of the ship, his wife, and a young lady were -alive, locked up, helpless and hopeless, aboard a hull which at any -hour might float away in staves from the side of an icehill; and it -was right, it was our duty, it was a service that God would expect of -us, that humanity required of us, to search, even at some peril to -ourselves--loss of time counting for nothing when the errand is one -of mercy--seeing that the hull lay, perhaps, within two hundred miles -off, and her inmates in a situation to continue alive for a long while, -the boatswain Wall having told Captain Parry that she was plentifully -stocked with coal, provisions, and liquor. - -All that day, till night blackened out the scene, we kept an eager -watch upon the sea. It held fairly clear, a slender promise overhead -in greenish streaks of an opening heaven, though the horizon scowled -with snow-clouds. We sighted several icebergs, but saw nothing of the -wreck. When it fell dark that afternoon, we shortened sail to two -close-reefed topsails, furling the foresail, and rolled onwards slowly. -The swell was high and ran strong from the westward, but the sea curled -lightly. A few wan stars blinked in the rifts. The cold was intense. -The rigging seemed to take a new thickness of ice when the night came, -and the running gear was as stiff as bar-iron in the shears. - -I guessed that Captain Burke (as I was told his name was) would show a -light every night: he had lanterns and oil and an altitude that, with -his freeboard, might give him twenty feet above the water in his stump -of foremast. But we searched in vain for a sparkle. For my part, I -took but a halfhearted view of the quest; yet it was a thing not to be -omitted by an English seaman: no man of the slenderest mercy of heart -would have foregone it. - -I had charge of the middle watch, and being a man of some imagination, -I cast my mind into the misery of the poor people who were somewhere -out upon those black, swollen waters in a flat wallowing hull, and -I shuddered and grieved when I thought of them. The life of a lofty -superstructure of masts and spars, with canvas to spread or reduce -at will, was in our ship; I felt the buoyant rise of her on hills -of ink rolling invisible; I'd step aft to search the gloom astern -and on either quarter, and mark the dim snow of the wake sheeting to -the taffrail with the droop of her stern, and hear the grind of the -wheel-chains, and see the illuminated disc of card trembling the course -at the lubber's mark betwixt faithful oscillations, as though it were -the spirit of the ship, naked and shining, and revealed in all its -sublime guiding and informing motions; and then my mind would go again -to that dismantled hull somewhere out in the freezing blackness here or -there, a coffin of a ship with three live people locked up in it! - -It came on to blow in hissing snow-squalls a little before daybreak. I -got two hours' sleep after eight o'clock and turned out for a mouthful -of breakfast: when that meal was ended, the dull day had whitened -through the snow upon the skylight glass, and in a cabin window I saw -the sea, lifting close with the ship's lurches, rolling astern and -quickly out of sight into the blowing flakes. - -The captain came below: he shook the snow off him by the stove and said: - -'No signs of the hull. Nothing can be done if the weather don't clear. -It's as thick as smoke all round, and if we go on making southing in -this fashion we shall be running down the South Shetlands.' - -'To pick up a wreck like this, sir,' said I, 'you may need to cross and -re-cross your track a hundred times over.' - -'I should never be able to sail away with a good conscience either,' -said he. 'To leave three people to wash about down here, to perish -certainly after a horrible time of it! Though it should cost a week of -cruising to rescue them--'twould be like murder.' - -He stepped into his cabin with unsettled looks and a face of agitation. - -He was one of the humanest men I ever met whether at sea or ashore. He -was not what would be called a gentleman by birth, but he was a man of -God's best moulding, a simple, generous, just person, beloved of his -crew, his officers' friend and companion, and their kindly counsellor -as well as commander. I never heard a coarse word escape him nor a -harsh one to even the most provoking of his people. He was an honour to -the flag of his Service. - -When I went on deck the weather had somewhat cleared round the ship, -but the snow was whirling grayly against the soft dark thickness to -leeward, whilst the windward sky was black with cloud of a true Horn -pattern, low-flying, shredding off its edges, and swollen with burdens -of hail and sleet. - -I went to the starboard rail to take a long, careful look round, never -knowing but that all on a sudden, in a flying way, the hull might leap -into sight out of some green trough dim with salt breeze. Mr. Newman, -heavily clad in sea boots and yellow oilskins, was standing for shelter -under a square of canvas seized in the mizzen rigging. For my part I -never wore an oilskin in my life. I was to-day clothed as I always went -in bitter weather, north or south: in a thick pilot coat, thick pilot -cloth trousers, a warm fur cap with ear-covers, thick mittens, and a -shawl round my neck. - -I was straining my sight into the whirling gray thickness over the bow, -the ship then being under two close-reefed topsails and stern main -trysail, and surging over the high swell and through the broken rugged -seas at about five knots; when a man who was descending the starboard -fore-shrouds with a coil of rigging round his neck missed a ratline -with his foot and slapped at another with his hand: it parted at the -seizing and he fell overboard backwards. - -In the swift glance I had shot, my sight being already bent that way, I -saw the ratline he had clapped hold of stand out from the shroud like a -bar of steel. - -I roared 'Man overboard!' and shouted to the fellow at the wheel to -put the helm hard down. In the same breath I caught a lifebuoy off its -pin and flung it at the body of the man who was then floating on the -top of a swelling fold within a pistol-shot astern, fast sliding off. -This buoy, like others in the ship--a device of the captain's--when -it struck the water freed a red staff with a length of red bunting -attached: the staff stood up on the buoy and the streamer like a tongue -of fire blowing out made a beacon for a swimmer as well as for a boat -in daylight. - -Meanwhile the second mate was yelling for all hands and bawling 'Man -overboard!' and shouting for seamen to lay aft and heave the vessel -to. The captain came running up on deck. I called the tragic news to -him, pointing aft, and then sprang for a jolly-boat as we termed the -thing, which hung in davits upon the starboard quarter. A number of -men came crowding around; the boat was swiftly cleared away, and I and -three sailors jumped into her. - -'Keep all fast till way is lost,' shouted the captain. 'Stand by to -unhook handsomely or she'll drown ye.' - -In a few minutes, which seemed as long as months, the boat sank to -the water's edge and was waterborne: a sea lifted her half-way to her -davits again; in that upward rush we unhooked, got oars over, and away -we went for the red streamer which I could see faintly glimmering -through a mist of spume. - -She was a fat lubberly boat, better for this work than our longer -whale-ended quarter-boats. She jumped like something alive and -distracted, sometimes sped end on, made with headlong plunges into the -valleys, sweeping up the acclivity with her nose to the sky, doing -her work dryly but so wildly that the men could scarcely plunge their -blades for a drag upon her. A couple of spare oars were lashed along -her bottom under the thwarts. I had nearly cut them adrift, meaning -to help the others, fisherman-fashion, with one, and I never cease to -thank my God I did nothing of the sort. - -I steered for the man, but he was not to be seen. I had never from the -moment of marking him fall doubted that he had plumbed the bottom like -a lead, weighted as he was with heavy sea boots, painted clothes, and a -coil of rigging round his neck; but it was not to be admitted: the man -was overboard, the ship was to be hove-to, and the poor fellow searched -for and saved if so willed. - -All in a breath, when we were within fifty strokes of the streaming red -flag, the boat was capsized on an apex of pyramidal sea, that poled -her sheerly bottom up at the instant that a blinding snow-squall came -seething along, whitening the water into hissing salt, and thickening -down the sea within a biscuit-toss. This I had been observing at the -very instant the boat was flung keel up, and I recollect that I carried -the memory of that scene of snow-squall under water, scarce realising -but that I was in a dream, happening as it did too swiftly to give the -mind time to catch a hold on reality. - -When I came to the surface I was bubbling and spitting in a smother of -froth hard against the side of the boat. There were two others. I got -my senses quickly and sputtering the brine out of my mouth roared, 'We -must right her. We can't hold on. We shall freeze off her dead men in -five minutes. Together now.' - -The three of us got a hold of the keel, and a sea helping us, we -righted her, swaying down upon the little fabric with the strength of -the madness that fights for life; but in righting she struck one of the -men under, and he went down like a shot whilst I and the other got into -the boat. - -A large copper baler attached to a lanyard lay at the bottom. I plunged -my hand down, groped for, and found it, and fell with fury to casting -out the water, the other baling with his sou'-wester with all his -might. The sea repeatedly broke over us, but we toiled with superhuman -effort for our lives. I believe the filled boat would have sunk under -our united weight but for a couple of empty breakers secured in the -bows and aft. We laboured with rage, flashing the water out of the -boat, and presently she was showing some little height of side. Then -to slenderly provide against a second surprise of capsizal which would -signify certain death to us, I lashed the two spare oars that were -under the thwarts to the painter and chucked them overboard; this -brought the boat head to sea, and we went on baling. - -The spite of the squall had gone out of the wind, but it was snowing -heavily, and strain my sight as I would I could see nothing of the -ship. In a flaw in the thick feathery fall I caught sight of the red -tongue of bunting; the buoy then was about a cable's length distant; it -was closed out quickly and all became a tumbling, gyrating blackness; -yet I had drawn some faint comfort from the sight of it. I guessed -the ship could not be far off and that she must spy us the instant it -cleared, which might happen at any minute. Meanwhile we baled for our -lives. - -My companion was an able seaman named Tom Friend. After he had been -throwing out the water for some while, when the boat was perhaps still -about a quarter full, I meanwhile baling with the same sort of fury -that possesses a drowning man when he clutches and catches and beats -in the air for life, he said to me: - -'Mr. Selby, if we aren't rescued soon I'm a dead man.' - -'No, no, keep up your spirits,' I shouted. 'They'll have us. Bale, man. -We must keep afloat to be picked up.' - -He went to work afresh with his sou'-wester, stooping and flinging; the -wind smote the brine into smoke as we hove it over the side. We did not -cease till but a little water was left in the bottom of the boat, and -we sat and gasped and stared about us. - -I know not how long this business had occupied. It seemed to me that -the shadow of the night was already in the air. It may have been no -more than the darkness of the thick black cloud out of which the snow -was tumbling in immense flakes. All the time I was expecting to see the -dye of the ship's fabric oozing out of the whiteness, plunging out of -the smother into her clear shape within easy earshot of us; but that -did not happen. - -After we had been in this situation about two hours Friend put his two -hands together, and began to waggle his body as he sat on the midship -thwart fronting me; his face was blue. He made shocking grimaces of -anguish and fell a-moaning most piteously, crying: 'Oh, the cold! Oh, -the cold! Oh, Jesus, support me! I can't stand it!' - -Though my own sufferings were inexpressible, I was still sensible of -a good stock of vitality; but I cannot tell why I should have better -resisted the cold than Friend, who was a lump of a man, broad-backed as -a table, though a little stout. I was soaked to the skin, and coat and -breeches were already frozen hard upon me; they cracked when I stirred -as glass might. The thwarts were glazed and ice half an inch thick -sheathed the timber. - -Friend let his sodden and frozen sou'-wester lie; and he looked wild -and dreadful with icicles pendent from his hair. In a sudden sharp leap -of the boat to the summit of an ugly sea, that broke and curled white -as milk on a line with our gunwales, he pitched towards me, slipped -over the thwart he struck, and lay motionless at my feet. He groaned -twice but spoke not. - -What could I do? Chafe his hands? As well the thwart he had been flung -over. I had not a drop of spirit for his throat, and myself felt dying. -I could not but let him lie, and I believe he gave up the ghost very -shortly after he had uttered his second groan. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -THE HULL - - -After Friend had lain at my feet for about an hour I stripped the -oilskins off the body and put them on; they diminished the sense of -deadly cold. I dragged the body into the bows, and after baling hard -sat down, sure that my death was at hand, but seeking consolation in -the thought that suffering ceases some while before you die of cold, -and that death from this cause is as easy as drowning after the first -agony. - -It never ceased to snow until the night fell, and then when it was -black the weather cleared--that is, I could see the flash of froth at a -distance; but stare as I might I beheld nothing of the ship, no smudge -nor deeper dye upon the darkness anywhere to indicate her presence. -I stood up and looked and looked, waiting for the toss of the sea to -strain my gaze; then, with an awful despair in my heart, and the full -rushing weight of my doom upon my spirits, I threw myself down into the -stern sheets to die. - -That I should have lived through that night is the miracle of my life. -There is no lack of suffering in the maritime records, but I vow that -mine in those hours of darkness which I passed in that open boat is -not to be topped, though it may be matched. Perhaps it was that all my -organs were sound, whilst Friend perished from the shock of immersion, -and from failure of some vital power--doubtless the heart. - -Be this as it may, I lived through that night and through the icy -darkness of the morning, till daylight came crawling in a sallow -green over the sky, low, broken and flying. It might be that Friend's -oilskins preserved my life by excluding the needle-like tide of -frost-black wind from my flesh. When it was fairly daylight I stood -up. My sight was clear; but I felt as though formed of stone. I could -poise my figure to the wild leaping of the boat, but I could not lift -my arms: each shoulder felt brittle as glass; it seemed to me that if -either limb should be grasped and pulled, it must break short off. - -The body of Friend lay ghastly in the bows. It was on its side, the -cheek on the floor of the boat, and every time the little craft dived, -the water in her boiled about the figure, which bristled with ice, and -the head seemed nailed to the bottom boards by long spikes of crystal. -I could not bear it, and made a step to cast it overboard, but, finding -my arms helpless, stood still and looked round for the ship. - -No wilder, drearier dawn ever broke over that cold, stormy, and -desolate ocean. I guessed the wind about north; a strong wind, with -a shriek as shrill as salt as it fled spray-charged past the ear, -flaying as though it were a naked edge of sharp steel. A large squall -was darkening the sea to leeward of the boat; when I was thrown up I -saw the dim whiteness of ice in several places. I gazed slowly around -in a broken way, for in every other breath there stood a wall of water -betwixt me and the horizon. - -All on a sudden when my eyes went astern I saw, not above a mile -distant, a dark object: it reared and sank, came and went; sometimes -froth leapt in a light of snow about it. I stared, scarcely daring -to hope as yet that it was more than an illusion of the vision, a -reappearing shape of green surge, a hard reforming moulding of brine, -looking like--looking like---- - -And then with a short choking cry of transport I recognised it. It was -the dismasted hull: that wreck of the 'Lady Emma' we had been in search -of. - -I watched her to make sure, dreading some cheat of delirious -imagination--but it was the wreck; I marked her rise with the sea, a -firm, defined, black shape against the root of the thick large squall -that was blowing to leeward of her. A dim sheen of the gloomy day was -in her wet side or sheathing as she soared, heeling not above a mile -off and dead to leeward. - -The sight gave life to my dead limbs, as it put spirit into my dying -heart. I got the use of my arms and hands with a sudden frenzy of -resolution, like to the effect of the panic terror that will compel a -bedridden man to rise, though till thus started he has lain helpless as -the mattress he springs from. I went into the bows, and getting hold -of the body of Friend turned it over the gunwale. The corpse as I have -said was that of a stout burly man, yet I found it light as a baby. -How was that? Unless it was that the strength of half a dozen had come -into me with the passion of life and hope the sight of the wreck had -inspired. - -I pulled in the pair of oars the boat had been riding to and took my -chance of the broadside send of sea; the fierce sweep and sharp angle -nearly flung me overboard, and thrice whilst I was clearing the oars -which were heavy and difficult with ice, the boat was almost capsized. -In a few minutes I got an oar over the stern and sculled the boat's -head round for the wreck. She shot forward, and I sat square that -my back might break any smaller sea which should foam tall and curl -faster than the boat could rise. For the rest--for the peril of a great -sea, for the swamping by seething waters uniting on either side the -gunwale--I was in God's hands. - -The wind and the sea swept me so swiftly onwards that the hull was -close ahead all on a sudden, a large black mass, rolling heavily with -violently quick recoveries; she lifted her channels foaming, and again -and again a sea shot up her side in a height of white brine, which -blew into the water on the other side of her in a cloud like steam. -There was nothing for it but to drive for her stem on and take my -chance. I tore off the oilskins for the freer use of my limbs, and -when I was close to the wreck, having headed the boat fair for the -main-chains, I sprang forward and seized the end of the painter; the -boat's nose smote the hull as she was roaring from me. I got a turn -with the painter round a chain plate; the boat swung in, but so swift -were the motions of the hull that she was rolling down upon me even in -that time, and, letting go the painter, I jumped in a single bound into -the chains and was stumbling over the rail, spiked with ice, as the -hulk swept her streaming side out again from the sea, with such a slant -of deck that if I had not flung myself into a squatting posture and -made the athwartship run of the hard frozen surface on my hams, I must -have broken my neck or fled sheer overboard through the openings where -the bulwarks had been smashed level. - -I was crazy with hunger and thirst and cold, and could think of nothing -but shelter and food and drink. I took a hurried look along the deck -hoping to see smoke from the galley or cabin chimney, for I reckoned -of course upon finding the three people the 'Planter' had searched -for alive in this hull. I saw no signs of life. I cautiously crawled -aft, and coming to the companion-way tried to open it; the doors -were thickly glazed, whence I judged they had been kept closed for -some time. I pulled out my clasp knife--all that I carried was in my -pocket as it had been before the boat capsized--and after scraping -and dislodging the ice in sheets like plate glass, I got one of the -companion-doors open and descended, pulling the door to behind me. - -After the long hours of exposure and the ceaseless crackling noises of -warring waters, the shelter, the comparative warmth and stillness down -here, were like the gift of a new life. It was dark, yet not so gloomy -but that I could see. The daylight lay upon the snow on the skylight, -and that large square of whiteness sifted a sort of dim illumination of -its own into the dusk. - -My first look was for those whom the boatswain Wall had told us the -crew left behind them when they abandoned the hull. Nobody was here. An -unlighted lamp swung violently over the table. I beheld a dull gleam -of looking-glasses upon the ship's side, and thought in the glance I -cast round that I could make out the equipment of a small, comfortable -state cabin. I quickly spied a rack half circling the trunk of the -mizzenmast; in it were some decanters; three were half full of red -and yellow wine. I put the mouth of one to my lips and drank heartily -of its contents, but whether it was claret or sherry I could not say; -excessive thirst seemed to have robbed my palate of the power of -tasting. I then went straight to the first cabin my eye rested upon, -intending to go the rounds for the pantry; but this cabin proved to -be the pantry, where, after a short hunt, I found cheese, biscuit, -preserved meat, and jams. I fell to wolfishly, breaking off only to -fetch another decanter of the wine from the cabin. - -And now having eaten with a dangerous heartiness, and drank as much as -would have brimmed two tumblers, I stepped into the cabin, refreshed -and warm, a new man, almost my old self again, needing little more -to perfectly comfort me than a shift of clothes, which might be -obtained by seeking. But first I stood still, holding by the table to -listen. I heard nothing but the sounds of the labouring of the hull. -Had the captain and the two women been taken off the wreck? I should -have believed so but for having found the companion-doors closed and -glazed; ice could not have collected to the thickness I had found it -had people been coming and going by the companion-way. And yet it is -true they might have been taken off, and before going some one of the -rescuing party had closed the companion-door with a kick or a thrust as -he stepped on deck. - -I saw no fire in the stove; the lamp was out; it did not seem as if -there were human life in the hull. I went to a door on the starboard -side, the next to or second door past the pantry, and entered a berth. -I could scarcely see. The porthole was submerged every other moment -and the sight blinded with a sudden plunge of foam-thick twilight. -After gazing awhile I made out that this berth had been occupied by the -captain and his wife. I observed a quantity of male and female apparel -hanging from a row of pegs running along the bulk-head; also I made out -two bunks, a table with certain navigating appliances upon it, a couple -of chronometer cases on a shelf, and sundry other matters not worth -cataloguing. I lifted a locker, and after groping came across some -flannel garments and under-linen. If the captain were aboard I guessed -that in any case he would give me leave to help myself, so, after -feeling over the clothes upon the bulk-head, I shifted to the frozen -flesh of me. - -Scarcely was I warmly and dryly clothed, when so heavy a drowsiness -came upon my eyelids that I could instantly have sunk upon the deck -in a sound sleep. But first I was resolved to ascertain the condition -of the hull; likewise whilst it was daylight to see if there were any -signs of the 'Planter,' and if the weather gave me any promise of her. -The idea of falling into a trance-like sleep which might run into -hours, from which, for all I could tell as things stood, I should be -awakened by finding myself strangling in a cabin full of water, and the -hull already fathoms under, put such a fear and horror into my spirits -as enabled me to thrust back into my brain the heavy, stupefying weight -of slumber, that was making my eyes ache as though the balls of vision -had been wrung and unseated. I shook my body as a dog does when fresh -from the water, and beat my arms upon my breast with all my strength; -then, with a wild yawn, strode into the stateroom and went up the steps. - -The first thing I saw was the boat I had gained the wreck in: she was -flinging and leaping upon the seas about a hundred fathoms off on the -port quarter; being light and released she had blown away quickly. -Every time a surge forked her on high the pouring blast smote and -swirled her further yet to leeward. This would go on till she filled. -I hardly took thought of her, abhorring her as I did as the theatre -of that drama of anguish and hopelessness I had been forced to act in -during the long black hours of the past night: and yet I very well -understood that she had been bound to go adrift, as I had taken but a -slippery turn with the painter round the chain plate at the instant -when the hull brought her main chains crushing down upon me for that -spring by which I had saved my life. - -I crossed to the port bulwarks to hold on by: t'other side was full of -ugly yawns and rents, a dangerous, ragged wreckage of bulwark through -which down the ice-hard slant a man would shoot, with a sudden roll, -to his death. The galley was standing: all the boats were gone: the -wheel and binnacle remained, and the apparatus of the helm looked -sound. The decks were littered with frozen gear. Nothing showed of the -main and mizzen masts but a barbed block, scarce a foot high above the -mast-coats. But the stump of the foremast rose to perhaps twelve feet. -The pumps were frozen: the sounding rod lay close to, but I could do -nothing with it. Yet, as an old hand, I could feel the life of a ship -in my feet, and I was sure, by the hull's buoyant jumps, her cork-like -recovery from the headlong dives, and the loneliness of her rolls that -there was nothing in the water she had drained in so far to make me -uneasy. - -Cheered by this conviction, I pushed forwards, clawing along by the -pins in the rail, by whatever else came to my hand, till I was abreast -of the galley, whose port sliding-door lay half open, and going to it -and looking in, there on the deck I saw lying on her back the body of -a woman. I peered close, the light being weak. The body was warmly but -plainly clothed; the colour of the face fresh as though she slept. -I should not have guessed her dead by her looks: it was her lying -there that made me know it. She seemed a woman of between forty and -forty-five, flat of face, treble-chinned, and she showed as a person -that had been fat and heavy in life. - -The sight startled me: I had not thought to find anything dead. Had she -been the wife of the captain? Where was _he_? And where the young lady -that had sailed as passenger with them? Were they both lying frozen in -other parts of the vessel? But there yet remained two or three cabins -below to look into. - -I came out of the galley shocked and low-spirited, and, still pushing -forward, came to the forecastle and called down the hatch. I got no -answer and descended. Here I found a number of hammocks, a few sea -chests, and some odds and ends of seamen's apparel scattered about the -deck. The forecastle lamp swung black under its grimy beam. I could -scarcely see. Water--though no depth of it--seethed over the planks as -the vessel pitched and rolled: this water I reckoned had tumbled down -the forecastle hatch, and when I returned on deck I drew the slide of -the scuttle over. - -I went to the stump of foremast that was ringed with some pins, and -holding on by one of them, looked round and round the sea, waiting for -every lofty heave to dart my glances; but there was nothing in sight -save ice, the peaks of bergs afar, coming and going past the rounds -of the swell, and the rush of the surge flickering into foam. It was -blowing half as strong again as it had been an hour before, and the -seas were racing with a weight and spite of headlong yeast which must -have drowned me out of hand in the jolly-boat. A low sky of thick black -cloud coiling, revolving, like sooty pourings from countless factory -chimneys, was sweeping southwards. I crawled aft for the shelter of -the cabin--the wind was marrow-freezing; and scarce was I within the -comparative warmth and stillness of the interior, when slumber again -oppressed me; and nature now giving out I stretched myself upon a -cushioned locker and was asleep in a minute. - -When I awoke I started instantly into an upright posture, beholding a -figure gazing at me; in some muddled fashion I seemed to realise my -situation, whilst I imagined that the cabin was half full of people -who had come to save me. Then, getting my wits fully, I made out that -the person who stood close was a young woman. Her figure was inclined -towards me, and so she stood despite the swaying of her with the -motions of the deck: it was a posture of fear, incredulity, amazement, -incommunicable in words. - -It was too dim in that cabin to note more of her than that incomparable -attitude of fright and astonishment. - -It had been past noon when I lay down to sleep: the strong feeling -of refreshment within me was assurance, true as the sun's evidence -could have been, that I had slept through more than the two remaining -hours of daylight. It was daylight now, consequently I understood that -whatever might be the hour, I had been sleeping since noon on the -previous day. - -I stared at the girl, for a young girl I now perceived her to be, and -exclaimed: - -'Are you Miss Otway?' - -'Oh!' she shrieked, 'have you come to save me?' and she dropped on her -knees and grasped my hand. 'Save me!' she cried, 'I am alone here. I -have been alone for days. I am in darkness. When did you come? Where -are your companions? Why were you sleeping here? And take me on deck. -Is your ship near? If the boat that brought you can live in this sea -she can carry me on board your vessel.' - -I cannot express the agony of heart in her voice. Her terror at seeing -me had been changed into another passion by my naming her. - -'Where's the captain?' said I, obliging her to rise, and seating her on -the locker beside me. - -'He is drowned,' she answered. - -'When?' - -'A long time ago. Seven or eight days ago. I have lost the day. I do -not know how long I have been alone. Why don't we go on deck? Is the -sea too rough for your boat to leave this wreck?' - -'Why, poor young lady,' said I, trying to catch a fair view of her -face; but it was too dim for that, and then again she was thickly -furred about the neck, and her hat, that seemed of velvet without a -brim, sat low. 'I would take you away from this rolling hulk at once -if I could. Under God I may yet save you. I am as much shipwrecked as -you are. But we needn't despair. This hull dances tightly; she has been -washing about now for some days, and I should doubt by the feel of her -jumps if there's two foot of water in her hold. Who's that dead woman -in the galley?' - -'The captain's wife,' she answered, staring at me. - -'How came she to perish there?' - -'She went with her husband to help him affix a lantern to the bowsprit. -He slipped overboard with the light and was drowned. I waited for them -here and went to find them, and saw Mrs. Burke lying on the deck. She -had fallen and broken her leg. I was too weak to carry or drag her into -this cabin and I pulled her into the galley for the shelter of it, and -there she lay, and I could not help her,' she cried, clasping her hands -with strange, piteous, involuntary motions of her head. 'I don't know -whether she died of grief, or from the injury of her fall, or whether -the cold killed her. It was black in the galley, and I could not see -her. I often called her name, but she never answered me. Oh, what an -awful time was that night! I stayed by her until long after I knew she -was dead, and then came down here, and have remained in this place ever -since--no, three times I have been on deck to look for a ship: it was -always snowing--it has been enough to drive me mad,' said she, passing -her hand with a wild gesture across her eyes. - -'Mad indeed!' said I to myself, all thought of my own situation -vanishing in the presence of the anguish of this poor gentle young -woman: she had a sweet soft voice: I supposed she had been alone in -this labouring hulk for hard upon a week. It was wonderful she should -have kept her mind. Indeed it put a sort of craziness even into _my_ -seasoned head when I paused in contemplation of her, and realised -how it might have been with _me_ had I been alone in this straining, -creaking, wallowing fabric with no one aboard beside myself but a dead -woman, an atmosphere of stinging cold, nigh twenty hours of blackness -every day. - -'But you've not been starving all this while?' said I. - -'When there was daylight,' she answered, 'I'd get some food and wine -from yonder;' she pointed to the pantry. 'I took a little stock to my -cabin. Where is your ship? Have you no companions? Take me on deck to -see your boat and the vessel,' and she extended her hand. - -I saw she had not understood me, and I told her how it had come to -pass that I was on board the hulk with her. She listened in silence, -saying nothing when I spoke of the men who had been lifted aboard -the 'Planter' out of the 'Lady Emma's' long-boat, frozen to death, -and nothing whilst I described what I myself had undergone in the -jolly-boat. She seemed slow to understand; but at last, when I was -done, after continuing to stare at me, for our faces were a sort of -glimmer one to the other in that gloom, she gave a shriek, and crying -'There is no hope for me, then! there is no hope for me, then!' buried -her face and shook and swayed in a passion of weeping. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -STILL ADRIFT - - -I could do nothing but let her cry; yet, knowing there is no better -medicine for such misery and fear as hers than action and the sight of -it, I got up and went to the pantry for materials to trim and light the -lamp. I found oil and bundles of wick, but no matches. I returned and -asked the poor weeping young lady to tell me if she knew where I might -find a box of matches; she went to a cabin which I supposed was hers, -one on the port side, almost aft. I was struck by her walk: not once -did she stumble or pause, wild as the play of the plank was. In a few -minutes she rejoined me with a box of wax lights, and, unhooking the -lamp, I filled and trimmed it and hung it up, and it swung burning -brightly. - -Now I could see Miss Otway, and as much of her face as showed was -remarkable for delicacy and refinement. She was very pale, her eyes -light, whether blue or grey I could not then tell; her hair was of a -soft, rather dark amber. She had perfectly even small white teeth, -but her lips were pale and marked a want of red blood. She was of -medium height, but of a shape not to be guessed at, heaped as her form -was with clothes. What she wore was very rich and fine, and a little -diamond sparkled in each ear. She seemed fragile, in delicate health, -just the sort of girl to whom the doctors, despairing of their physic, -would recommend the breezes of the world's oceans. - -Her eyes were red with weeping, and when I glanced at her after hanging -up the lamp I found her staring at me with looks of anxiety and -expectation piteous with passion. - -'This,' said I, casting up my gaze at the lamp, 'makes the cabin -cheerful. I hope there is plenty of oil aboard to keep us in light till -we are taken off.' - -'When will that be?' she cried. - -'Why, perhaps to-day and perhaps tomorrow,' said I. 'My ship can't be -far off; her captain is one of the humanest hearts afloat. He thinks -three of you are aboard here, and he'll cruise for you. If he don't -find us the reason will lie in the weather, not in his not hunting.' -Then, looking towards the stove, I exclaimed, 'You'll have been ice -cold down in this well. Let's build a fire, there's plenty of coal in -the hull: the boatswain Wall said so.' - -'Who were the dead?' she exclaimed. - -'Two seamen and the steward. A fourth--the doctor--lies fearfully -frostbitten. He stands to lose his feet and hands.' - -'They wanted to take me with them,' she cried. 'Captain Burke would not -let me go; Mrs. Burke was against it: had I gone I might now be safe -in your ship.' - -'Don't imagine that,' said I, deeply pitying as I looked at her. '_You_ -capable of enduring two nights of exposure in the seas in that open -boat! They proved sound friends who kept you here. _Here_ you're alive -and you shall be saved--you shall be saved!' I exclaimed heartily. - -A faint smile put a look of spirit into her pale face. I went to the -stove, and beside it, secured so they should not fetch away, were three -or four buckets of coal, but no wood. I was in no temper to rummage -the ship for a faggot, and, having noticed a chopper in the pantry, -I fetched a bunk-board from the captain's cabin and split it, and -presently had a roaring fire. - -'Did the crew cook their victuals here before leaving?' said I, -noticing a kettle, a frying-pan, and other galley furniture lying near -the stove. - -She answered that some cooking had been done for the crew in this cabin. - -'Pray sit you here,' said I, catching her gently by the wrist and -bringing her close to the stove, and seating her on a small cleated -sofa beside it. 'I believe a pannikin of hot drink--tea, coffee, or -cocoa--and something to eat, will do us both good. Keep you here and -thaw through and through whilst I get a kettleful of water.' - -She was watching me with some life: the cuddy fire threw a warm, -cheerful colour upon her face, and the flames shone in her eyes, -filling them as with a dance of courage. When I spoke of fetching some -fresh water, she cried out eagerly, extending her arms: - -'Oh! mind you do not slide overboard. The decks are deadly. I can't be -left alone again.' - -I smiled and bade her not fear for me, and picking up the kettle and -dropping the chopper into my coat pocket--it was an immensely thick -pilot-cloth coat I had found in the captain's cabin and put on--I went -on deck. - -This was a lead-coloured day with a confusion of ragged black cloud -thronging southward where the vapour was crowded and darkening into a -look of thunder. I saw no signs of the 'Planter,' nothing but the ice -afar. Secretly I had no hope that Captain Parry would persevere in his -quest. I made no doubt he would suppose all hands in the jolly-boat had -been drowned, which, God knows, was very near the truth; and this would -dispirit him, his forecastle working strength would be weakened also, -for, saving Wall, the 'Lady Emma's' men were of no use, and I reckoned -he would be glad to stick his ship north, clear of the perils of the -ice and the blinding snow-storms. - -But whether it was because I was a young fellow of a heart naturally -lively, or whether because I had escaped a dreadful death, so that -the being on board this hull was almost as a rescue, 'tis true I felt -no depression, no despondency in any marked degree when I looked round -on stepping on deck and saw the leaden, rolling, frosting ocean bare, -and viewed the tumbling, dismasted, mutilated hull, white fore and aft, -bright with a hundred figures in ice, a most forlorn and dismal object -as she bowed her naked bowsprit into the sallow trough, wearily leaning -off the slant, with cataracts of foam hissing from the channels and -scaling her sloping side. I could not but reflect that, though we were -far south, whalers in plenty were to be met with in these seas, and -that the hulk was stout and buoyant, and bade fair to last us our time -in her, which might not extend beyond the morrow. - -So, with a good heart and a vow besides to do my manhood's best to -cheer up my poor companion, to make her as comfortable as the means of -the hulk and my sailor's judgment would allow, and to help preserve her -life in God's own time, I looked along the deck, and then seeing how -it must be, went to a scuttlebutt lashed forwards of the port gangway, -and finding it half full, went to work on it with the chopper, knocked -the hoops off, and the staves tumbled to the deck, letting slip a mass -of fresh-water ice, shaped cask-wise. I struck off as much as would -fill a kettle, leaving the rest to lie, and returned to the cabin. - -'Now,' said I, knowing the tonic worth of work in a time like this, -'melt this for us, if you please. When the kettle boils we'll go to -breakfast.' - -'Is your ship in sight?' said she, getting up and taking the kettle and -ice. - -'No,' I answered, 'but something will be coming along soon. This is a -great whaling ocean, you know.' - -'What is your name?' she asked. - -'Ralph Selby,' I replied. - -'How did you know my name?' - -'Wall, the boatswain, was full of you and Captain Burke and his wife -when he was brought aboard out of the long-boat.' - -'Yes, yes, I understand,' said she. 'I should have guessed it.' - -'There are things to be done whilst you get the kettle to boil,' said -I. 'You move about very easily, I see.' - -'I am used to this dreadful monotonous rolling,' she answered. - -'Can you lay your hands upon what we may want in the pantry?' - -'Oh, yes. I know what's there. Shall I boil some coffee?' - -'If you please,' said I, smiling to find her talking with a show -of life. 'I am going to the captain's cabin to look to one or two -matters,' and with that I left her. - -I entered the berth I had shifted myself in, and which I knew had -been the captain's by its appointments, and first I looked at the -chronometers, and, finding them still going, carefully wound them -afresh, guessing by the revolutions of the key that they would have -stopped shortly. I then sought for and found the ship's papers, and -overhauled them to gather the character of the supplies aboard. The -cargo consisted of stout, brandy, and whiskey; samples of preserved -potatoes and articles of potted food, a quantity of theatrical scenery, -builders' stuff, such as doors and window frames; patent fuel, oil -cake, india rubber, and certain other commodities. I observed that -amongst the samples was a quantity of preserved milk: there was also a -consignment of one hundred iron cases, each containing two hundred and -fourteen biscuits, weighing one pound each, and specified as six inches -square by one and a half inches thick. - -In short the paper indicated half a shipload of food and liquor. But I -made nothing of this then. Such a plenty was not likely to seem of any -use to two people who looked to be taken off the wreck in a few days at -the outside, and for whom therefore a single cask of beef, a single -barrel of ship's bread, along with the little stock of delicacies I had -observed in the pantry, would be more than enough. - -I lingered to overhaul the nautical appliances, intending, should a -phantom of sun show, to get an observation. It was very gloomy here. -I found a small brass clock ticking stoutly, and this I wound up, the -plain silver watch in my pocket having stopped when the jolly-boat -capsized: the time by the little clock was a quarter after eleven. I -went out and set a clock under the skylight to this hour. I guessed -it would comfort the girl's eye to see the time. Nothing in such a -situation as ours could make one feel more outcast, more hopelessly -removed from human reach and sympathy, than a lifeless clock silently -telling the same hour always. It would be as though time itself had -abandoned one. - -The ice was melted and the kettle boiling, and Miss Otway was making a -potful of coffee. She had lifted the fiddles and spread a cloth, and -put some preserved meat, cheese, jam, biscuit, and the like upon the -table. The lamp and the flames in the grate made a light like noon, -and, now looking round, I beheld a very rosy interior, a quantity of -books, mirrors for decoration, comfortable armchairs and couches, and -sundry fal-lals; all designed, no doubt, to render the voyage of Miss -Otway cheerful and pleasant. - -Turning, she cried out: 'Oh, Mr. Selby, you cannot imagine what it is -to see someone--to have someone to speak to. Only God could say how -lonely I have felt. The dreadfully long nights; the endless hours of -darkness----' Her voice broke and her head drooped. - -'No need to tell me what you have undergone,' said I. 'Never in all -sea story did any girl suffer upon the ocean as you have. But you've a -brave look. You'll keep up your tears now. I'm a sailor and I give you -my word we are very well off. We need but patience, and faith in that -God who has watched over us both.' - -On this she raised her head and viewed me a little while steadily, as -one who stares critically to make sure of another. - -I took the pot of coffee from her and we seated ourselves. She -had suffered so long from what I may truly call a very anguish of -loneliness--and, indeed, one had need to be locked up in that same -rolling hull, in the blackness and the cold, with the seas roaring -outside, and within always the same soul-maddening noise of creaking -bulkheads and harshly strained fastenings, to realise what this poor, -gentle, delicate lady had endured--that I was sure she'd find a -wonderful ease in talking freely. I therefore questioned her whilst we -sat eating, and she told me who she was, where she lived, how the wife -of the master of the vessel had been her old nurse, with other matters -which she herself relates. - -She warmed up in talking. I think she found a sort of hope in merely -speaking of her father and her home and the gentleman, Mr. Archibald -Moore, to whom, but for her health, so she told me, she would have been -married some months before the date of her sailing. I so questioned -her that the early despair in her manner died out when she talked of -her father and sweetheart. I took care to converse as though they were -within reach, and the meeting a matter of a little waiting only. In -short, my resolution to cheer her mastered her fears and perhaps her -convictions; and even whilst we sat I beheld a new life stealing into -her, speaking in her raised, hopeful, more eager voice, and softening -the haggard, wild look in her eyes. - -Presently she put some question which I had to fence with. - -'My dread,' she said, 'all the while I was alone here, was ice; the -ship lies helpless; I never knew but that an iceberg was close to, -and that every next hurl of the sea would dash the wreck against some -frozen cliff. Is there any ice in sight?' - -'Yes,' I answered, 'but a good way off.' - -'Suppose we drift towards an iceberg, what shall we do?' - -'No good in _supposing_ at sea,' I said. 'Time enough to deal with a -difficulty when it's within hail.' - -'Does the hull remain in one place? Or are we being driven by the seas -and the wind?' - -'If the sun will put his nose out,' said I, with a glance at the -thickly snow-coated skylight, 'I'll find out where we are.' - -'Do you understand navigation?' - -I replied with a grave nod. - -'If we are moving at all, which way are we driving, do you think?' - -'The sextant will tell us,' said I. - -Thus she plied me, straining her poor eyes with consuming anxiety. I -answered warily but always on the side of hope. - -When I was going on deck she wanted to accompany me, but I bade her -stop where she was till I had stretched some lifelines along. When I -looked out I saw there was no chance of obtaining an observation. The -sky was near, and thick with rolling clouds: the windy dusk had shrunk -the sea-girdle, and the distant ice was out of sight: the leaden surge -broke in against the snow-soft gloom. No more desolate ocean-picture -had I ever viewed; its spirit sank into me in a depression that brought -me to an idle halt for some minutes whilst I wrestled with myself. I -started, and my very soul shrank within me when I asked myself: If we -are not fallen in with what is to become of us? Where are we drifting? -Then I plucked up with the reflection that we were in navigated seas; -any moment might give me the sight of a sail; and my immediate -business therefore was to render our distress a visible thing upon the -face of the rolling waters. - -I shut the companion doors that the girl might be warm below, and, that -I might move with security, went to work to stretch lines along the -deck. A great plenty of gear lay frozen all about; I got hold of an end -and worked a length into some sort of suppleness, and with much hard -labour succeeded in setting up life-lines in short scoops, so as to -bring them taut, for the winch and capstan were frozen motionless, and -I could do nothing with them. - -This business carried me abreast of the galley, where I saw with a -sudden recoil once again the body of the captain's wife. She seemed -asleep, so fresh, living and breathing she looked, with even a sort -of colour in her face, and the expression of her mouth easy and -placid. But since she was dead it was fit she should be buried, and -as her presence added to the ghastliness of this picture of wreck, -and weighed like an assurance of doom upon the spirits, I resolved to -turn her over the side without ado; so, with averted face--for I could -not bear to look upon her, she lay so life-like: it was like drowning -rather than burying her--I took the body under the arms, and with all -reverence gently dragged it to a great gap of smashed bulwark, when, -just whispering, 'May God receive you, poor woman, and may He have -mercy upon those who are left,' I slided her overboard, and instantly -quitted the side, not choosing to get a memory of her as she lay -floating ere the drenched clothes sucked her under. - -Constantly I cast my eyes into the north for a sight of the sun; but -he never showed himself. There stood about twelve foot of splintered -foremast. I meant to fly a flag by day and hoist a lighted lantern by -night; but how to shin up so as to secure a block at the head? - -I mused a bit, and then went in search of the carpenter's chest, which -I found in the forecastle. It was a huge chest, cleated and lashed down -against the bulk-head that divided the men's sea-parlour from the hold, -and it lay in such gloom that I could make nothing of it, so I returned -to the cabin for a lantern. I found a couple of bull's-eye lamps in the -pantry. Whilst I filled and trimmed one of them, Miss Otway came from -the stove to the door and stood looking in. - -'Can't I help you?' said she. - -'No,' said I. - -'What are you going to do?' - -'I am going to hoist a distress signal.' - -'Is there anything in sight?' she shrieked. - -I shook my head. - -'Why won't you let me help you?' said she. 'It's horrible to be left -alone down here. Make me of use. It will do me good to help you.' - -But I would not allow her to come on deck merely to look on and be -frozen to the marrow by the pouring wind; so, cheerily saying I'd find -her employment by-and-by, I carried the lighted bull's-eye on deck and -made my way to the forecastle, holding by the life-lines, so that I -moved as briskly as if the hull lay quiet. - -I quickly found what I immediately wanted, namely, a quantity of long -iron spikes. I took a handful of these and a hammer on deck and drove a -spike deep into the wood, a little above the other; and thus I made a -ladder of spikes, every projection of iron yielding me room for my foot -and for a grip of one hand. When I had driven in the spikes as high -as was needful, I came down, and after hunting over the gear upon the -deck found a small block through which I rove a line that looked like -a length of the fore-royal signal halliards. I climbed the mast again -with this block and line and, driving a spike into the head of the -stump, I secured the block to it and descended for good, this business -being finished. - -I had taken notice of a flag locker under a grating abaft the wheel; I -went to it and found a complete code of Marryatt's signals, a large and -small ensign, and a jack. There was too much bunting in the big ensign -for such weather as this, and for such winds as might burst upon us at -any moment: so I bent on the small ensign to my halliards and ran it, -jack downwards, to the head of the stump of foremast, where it flared -bravely, chattering like a thing of life. - -Yet I found it but a mocking signal after all, when I sent my glance -from it round the thick swollen and breaking seas, and noticed that -even already the dye of the early night seemed in the air, and that in -little more than an hour that streaming, flame-like appeal would, as a -call to the eye, be as useless as the stump it blew from. - -I was now extremely anxious to ascertain the depth of water in the -hold, and went to the pumps to see what was to be done with the ice -there. The sounding tube was perhaps solid with ice half-way to the -hold; I thought then I would try and draw one of the pumps, and having -the pantry chopper in my hand, let fly, bruising and splintering so as -to free the bucket. In the midst of my chopping Miss Otway called out. -I stopped and saw her head in the companion way. - -'Oh,' she cried, with a note in her voice that sounded almost like joy, -pointing with a gesture of rapture to the inverted ensign, 'that will -bring help to us! That will be seen for miles and miles. How clever! -How did you manage to climb that slippery mast?' And then, catching -sight of the spikes, she exclaimed, 'I see. I see. It's wonderfully -done.' - -'It's too cold for you on deck,' said I, scarcely keeping grave over -this girlish praise. 'Remain below in the warmth. No use taking a -voyage for your health only to lose your toes and fingers as your -doctor has.' - -But paying no heed to this, she stepped out of the companion way, and -putting her thickly-gloved hand upon one of the life-lines, came to -where I was letting fly at the pump and watched me. - -It was the best light I had yet viewed her in; and now indeed I -perceived that she was a very delicate, sweet-looking young lady, -about two-and-twenty years of age, pale, but of a transparency of -complexion that made a beauty of her pallor; nor were her eyes wanting -in expression, though they would be too light to faithfully reflect the -deeper and subtler passions and sensations of her spirit. - -I thought her the most refined-looking lady I had ever seen; which -perhaps is not saying much, seeing how many of my years had been passed -upon the ocean. I saw the quality and breeding of her in her face and -heard it in her voice, and I think anyone, no matter how inexperienced -in such things, but would, on looking at her, have said to himself, -this is an English lady. - -After chopping and hammering for some time, I freed the bucket and -drew the pump; and, the sounding-rod lying handily by, I dropped it, -and after several casts, so hard did I find it to get the level of the -water betwixt the swift abrupt rolls of the hull, I made a little more -than a foot and a half. I was astonished, but wonderfully heartened. -Here was a hull that had not been pumped out for eight or ten days: she -had been straining heavily in the hollow hour after hour: and yet there -was no more water in her than a single spell of a watch on deck at the -pumps might free her of! - -I refitted the pump and fell to work at the brake and brought up some -water. - -'Let me help you,' said Miss Otway. - -'It won't hurt you,' said I, and brought a coil of rope across the -deck for her to stand on, that her feet might be clear of the water as -it washed with the slant of the planks. We then went to work: the water -bubbled, the clank of the brake ran a noise of life through the hulk; -the exercise flushed the girl's face, and, in a pause for breath, I -told her it would do her more good than sitting by the fire. - -In that same pause whilst she breathed quickly she glanced with a -sudden look of pain and consternation in the direction of the galley, -and exclaimed: - -'The body of my poor old nurse lies there. I had forgotten her.' - -'I buried her,' said I. - -'Where?' - -I told her. She was shocked and her eyes filled, and she turned her -head to hide her face. - -'It was not a thing to keep,' said I. - -'Oh no,' she cried, looking round at me, eagerly and yet piteously. -'I don't mean that. You threw her into the sea as she lay--without a -prayer----' - -'No,' said I, shortly. - -She viewed me a little gratefully. I grasped the brake: she put her -hand upon it, and we fell to afresh. - -We worked in this fashion for above half an hour, and then Miss Otway, -glowing with the labour and in no wise distressed by it, saving that -her breathing was quick, went below. I fetched the telescope and -stayed to carefully search the horizon before it fell dark. But point -the tubes as I would they gave me nothing. The near sea-line tumbled -dimly in long ragged wings of dark vapour, which as they lifted with -the wind stretched overhead like lengths of smoke; and betwixt them -I spied a higher platform of cloud, mouse-coloured here and there as -though touched by some wild stormy light. I saw no ice, but the wind -blew as though ice were close aboard: the sting of it was insufferable -when you faced it standing. A noise of rattling sometimes came from -the forecastle as though the spray froze in leaping, and fell with the -weight of hail in the tropics, and already the pump we had been plying -was as thick and hard bound as the other. - -And still I lingered, not indeed with the hope of sighting a sail -before the blackness fell upon us, but with the idea of making some -sort of blind guess at the drift of the hull. The strong breeze blew -out of the north, and the tall coils of sea ran in wide flashings from -that quarter, but the large ocean swell was about north-west. I was -not very well acquainted with these waters and scarcely knew what to -recollect of the currents hereabouts. I was aware that the set of the -ice was to the northwards. But then the bergs struck deep root into -motions of the sea which had no influence atop; so that there might -be very well a surface-trend to the southward through wind and surge -and swell, when, some fathoms under, the body of the water was slowly -streaming in another direction. - -A dismal picture with the sadness of despair coming into me out of it, -when I looked at that square of bunting flaming in mute appeal from the -stump-head to the blind horizon! But we had life, and so there must be -hope, and rallying my spirits with a will, I strode the length of the -life-line to the halliards, hauled the flag down, and went to the cabin -to find and trim a lantern to hoist in its place. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -THE ICE IN THE SOUTH - - -I left a light burning brightly at the mast-head: the wild meteoric -dance of that gleam was a sort of hope: no ship sighting it but would -guess from the rapidity of its oscillations that it danced on an open -boat, or shone from some short height upon a dismasted hull. - -The wind was freshening with a long deep moan in the rush of it through -the flying dusk when I left the deck: but I gathered from a general -atmospheric hardening all round, a firmer line in the curl of the -surge, a distincter flash in the foam of it, that it was to be a clear -night, with perhaps a star or two by-and-by. The hull made good play: -she was like a live thing; and no helm and no fragment of canvas -vexing her, she took up her own position and wallowed dryly, save that -now and again in a sharp pitch she'd meet some lateral run of sea and -whiten in the air forward into the look of a snow-storm: but the froth -mostly blew clear, and the water when it came streaming aft quickly -froze into the snow. - -Miss Otway sat beside the stove: she had removed her hat, otherwise was -wrapped up to the throat in furs; her yellow hair was shot with amber -light when the swing of the lamp flashed the radiance upon it, but her -looks were white, and something wild with grief, anxiety and fear. She -asked me if there was any ice in sight. - -'None that I can see in the dusk,' I answered. - -'I'm all the while dreading the ice,' said she. 'I should not fear this -high sea and our lying dismasted in it, if it were not for the ice.' - -'There's none near to hurt us just now,' said I. - -'When I first came into this cabin,' she exclaimed, 'in the Thames, -a chill ran through me that was cold as ice itself. It was warm, and -yet I shivered as though freezing. Was it an omen? The memory has been -haunting me in my time of loneliness here. A little while before we -were dismasted we sighted a huge iceberg that was like a cathedral: it -had a beach of frozen foam, and the snow whirled in white dust on one -side of it against the dark clouds. Oh, Mr. Selby,' she cried, 'think -of this helpless hull striking against such a mountain of ice as that, -and our getting upon it and perishing with the cold--the awful cold!' - -'Why, Miss Otway,' said I with a bustle of voice and manner as I got up -to set the kettle on the stove. 'This sort of talk is good for neither -of us. Do you believe in omens? But don't be scared till danger's come, -and not then. There's plenty to eat and drink in this ship and I'm for -faring heartily for the sake of hoping heartily, and working heartily, -should work be wanted. Come, you shall fry some ham; it's my turn to -prepare the table.' - -Presently we were seated as before. I talked more reassuringly than I -had ventured on earlier, for now that her hat was off I saw her face -very clearly, how refined she was, how gentle, how well nurtured; -my very heart pitied her: I felt as though commanded by God Himself -to take charge of her, to watch over her, to keep her heart up; I -can't express indeed how she appealed to me out of her gentleness and -refinement, the horrible situation she was in, the unspeakably dreadful -time she had passed through alone. - -And often I would catch her in the intervals of our speech eyeing me -under drooping lids with an eager searching look of enquiry, as though -she would comfort her poor little self by finding out what sort of a -man was I who had come into this rolling hull where she was alone? I -wished her to find out quickly that she might be easy; but we both -needed time, I to act and she to discover. - -I cleared the table and went on deck. The lantern burned brightly. The -night lay black, but the atmosphere was hard as when I had gone into -the cabin, and you found a distance in the gloom. All was as well with -the hull as one could dare hope for, and, closing the companion doors, -I re-entered the cabin. - -It was about six o'clock then. I lighted a bull's-eye and went into the -captain's berth for the log-book which I had noticed upon the table, -and to overhaul a bag of charts. I brought the log-book and the chart I -wanted to the cabin table: Miss Otway seeing me at this, came opposite -and stood there looking on. I wished to see the last entry in the -log-book; which done, I opened the chart, and was startled to observe -that, supposing the drift of the vessel to have been continuously to -the southward, as somehow I imagined it was, that group of islands -called the South Orkneys, stretching some sixty-five miles east and -west, could not be farther than twenty-five or thirty leagues. - -'Are you finding out where we are?' said Miss Otway. - -'I shall know exactly when I get an observation,' said I, and carried -the log-book and chart back into the captain's cabin. - -But I confess my heart was sunk. To be sure, throughout I had vaguely -known our place--could have named it within fifty or eighty miles -perhaps--yet the business I had been about ever since I woke up -stopped me from realising till I looked on the chart, when of course I -understood that if our drift was south we stood to go to pieces upon -land that would be the most God-forsaken on the wide face of the oceans -of the globe, if it were not that, hard by them, covering a range of -eight or nine degrees of longitude, lay groups of rocks with a range -of mountainous continent stretching due south (magnetic) even more -desolate, naked and iron-sheathed. - -But we were not ashore yet: nor could I know certainly that our drift -was south; and then there was to-morrow's daylight with its hope of -succour. - -I sat beside the stove and talked with Miss Otway. She spoke of the -voyage and of the apparition which had haunted the memory and depressed -the spirits of Captain Burke down to the hour of his death. I sought -to amuse her by relating certain experiences of my own; and she forgot -her situation whilst listening to some of my yarns. The truth is I -had gone to sea at the age of thirteen and had followed the life -fourteen years, during which I had served in several capacities in many -kinds of vessels, though my experiences lay chiefly in the India and -China trade. I had plenty then to talk about: it amused me to yarn, -and she listened with more life and intelligence than I should have -expected in one with so fixed an expression of dismay, of hearkening -consternation and mourning. - -After satisfying myself with a look around on deck, I returned, and -going to the bookshelves, read the names of some of the volumes. It -was a good collection of books: the best of the poets and novelists -were there, with odds and ends of scrappy reading like Hone's and -D'Israeli's. Here I found dear old 'Peter Simple,' and carrying -the tale to the stove, I read bits aloud, and once or twice she -laughed. Then something suggesting the topic, I got telling her about -shipwrecks, my notion being to let her understand how much better off -were we than others who had suffered from disasters at sea. I talked -of the raft of the 'Medusa,' described that pathetic, lamentable scene -in the round-house of the 'Abergavenny'--the wax-lights, the captain -clasping his daughters to him--related the loss of the 'Amphitrite,' -as told to me by a man I had sailed with who had been one of the -survivors of that most tragic of shipwrecks, which littered the -Boulogne sands with scores of bodies of handsome, finely built young -women. - -'Are there instances of people,' she asked, 'who have been wrecked upon -icebergs and survived?' - -I spun her a few yarns of polar experiences in this way: of Russian -seamen found floating on ice: of a whaler half full of men stranded on -a berg and floating in her giant cradle down into open waters where she -was boarded and the people taken out of her. - -'How long had they been locked up?' - -'Several months.' - -'Were their sufferings great?' - -Not knowing, I had to invent, and to cheer her, said: 'Oh, no. -They kept up good fires, had plenty of beef and tobacco, heartened -themselves by singing songs, telling stories, playing at games of their -own invention, and fashioning ornaments out of whale ivory. It came -right with them. When things come right it's the same as if they never -were wrong. Nothing counts but the loss of time whilst you're waiting -for the settlement. How soon, when you get well, you forget that you -were ill! How quickly you forget the weather! Who's it says it's always -too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry, but that God so contrives it, -at the end of the year it's all the same? Keep up your heart, Miss -Otway, and reflect that when this is ended and you're safe ashore with -your people it'll be no more than an experience to talk about.' - -'Yes,' said she, with a faint smile, 'it will be all right when I _am_ -ashore; but who's that other person who says, philosophy triumphs over -past and future ills, but present ills triumph over philosophy?' - -This passed my plain understanding, and I let the subject go. - -I went on deck for more ice to melt and boil, and found it blowing -pretty strong. A high sea, ridged in lines of ebony against the light -of their own foam, and melted in roaring snowdrifts under the hull -that was topping them with a wonderful buoyancy. I looked for a star, -but all was sweeping blackness aloft, save the point of light at the -stump-head. - -Knowing this hard heave of sea must certainly give us a steady trend -southward, helped as the hull was by the blast every time she soared -into the icy howl of it, I fetched a bull's-eye, and observing by the -binnacle that the hulk's head pointed about east by north, I went to -the starboard rail and overlay it, staring with desperate searching -eyes into the hard gloom till I was almost frozen. But I could see -nothing that looked like ice, no faintness, no spectral sheen, all that -glared was foam running from the arched back of the surge; so I went -below, where I boiled some coffee, and, shortly after eight, Miss Otway -withdrew to her berth. - -I took the bull's-eye to find me more clothes in the captain's cabin, -and when I was wrapped up to the bigness of a Greenland's-man, I -returned to the stove, dimming the lamp to a light that was just enough -to see by, and lay down upon a couch. Presently I was startled out of -a reverie by seeing a great rat come close to the fire, as though for -the warmth. Very quietly putting my hand in my pocket, I pulled out my -clasp knife, which I opened; the blade was dagger-shaped. Then, quick -as lightning, I lanced the weapon at the beast and half severed its -head. This pleased me, for in the course of our talks Miss Otway had -said that in her time of loneliness, a huge rat had come into the cabin -and looked at her till she was motionless with disgust and fear. I -could not know, however, that this was the rat that had so served her; -though it made one less aboard, and I dropped it into a coal-bucket to -chuck over the side next day. - -The sight of the bleeding, lifeless beast set my thoughts running -on the hours the girl, whilst alone, had spent in this hull, and I -wondered when I looked at the rat and listened to the shrieking and -grinding noises, that she had not days before gone off her head. I -guessed that her mind had been cast in a heroic mould; never else could -she have come through such a term of loneliness with her wits all -right. Less had driven strong men overboard, gaping madmen. - -Whilst I sat following the wild and flying motions of the hull, -testing them by sensation to gather if the buoyancy diminished, I -was addressed. I looked round with a sudden surprise that was nearly -fright: it was Miss Otway, furred and clothed from head to foot as she -had left me. - -'Are you going to sit up all night?' she exclaimed. - -'I'm going to sit here,' I answered. 'I shall snooze at intervals.' - -'Let me watch whilst you sleep,' said she. - -'There's nothing to watch,' I answered, 'nothing to keep a look-out -for.' - -'A ship might see our lantern and come down to us.' - -'She could do nothing in this weather.' - -'But to think of being asleep whilst a vessel is coming down to see -what the light means! Think of her hailing, getting no answer and -passing on. It might be our only chance.' - -I told her that might happen even though we both kept watch all night -in the cabin. How, down here, should we hear a hail from the water? -We'd need to keep a look-out on deck, which would kill her quickly and -me soon after. - -'Pray go and rest,' said I, 'and trust me to see anything that may come -along and to hear anything that may hail.' - -She looked reluctant, very white, her eyes dim and large with tragic -expectancy as though she never knew but that in the next minute -something frightful would happen. - -I picked the rat up by the tail. 'Is this your friend?' said I. - -She shrieked, believing it alive; then, shuddering and shuddering, -staggered somewhat blindly in the direction of the cabin. - -I jumped up and supported her, encouraging her by every promise and -hope my brain could frame. - -'You have not slept for nights,' said I, pausing at her door. 'Best now -that I am here, if only that you may have strength enough to leave the -hull and health enough to carry you to your home.' - -She had removed her gloves: I grasped her ice-cold hand and returned to -my couch. - -The night crept away. I dozed at intervals, visiting the deck perhaps -half a dozen times. In the morning watch I slept soundly upon the couch -by the stove, and when I awoke it was nine by the clock under the -skylight, still black as thunder, and the hull rolling heavily. I was -cold to the heart, and before quitting the cabin kindled a fire to boil -some water for a hot drink, then went up the steps to take a look. - -It was still blowing fresh, but the wind had shifted north-west, -and the sky was a clear, sparkling heaven of stars from sea-line to -sea-line, the sea running in steady hills of ink to where you saw the -horizon throbbing close under the pale lights of the night low down, -so clear was the gale. The mast-head lamp burned dimly; but it would -be daybreak shortly. I stared around the sea, and saw nothing north -and west and east, but my sight going south was arrested by a low, -irregular, dim line: it rose with the heave of the hull, and it was -as far off as the horizon. It looked like the sheen of a long face of -coast covered with snow: it was a mere attenuated film of faintness -stretched where sky and water met, and I looked and looked, believing -it a bank of cloud that would dissolve whilst I watched; but it hung -steady, and still it was so elusive that sometimes I saw it, and when -the hull sprang from the trough again it was gone; and yet again, when -she roared to the height of a surge, it was there. - -Well, daylight was at hand to resolve it. For my part I had no doubt -it was ice; indeed it had astonished me to find these seas so open at -this time of the year; only, if that sheen out in the morning darkness -under the stars was ice, the drift had been ours to carry us to a sight -of it: which signified a slide of keel running into knots: for that -steamlike hovering down there had not been in sight two or three hours -earlier, when my eye, as now, followed the hard curls of sea working -into distance, though the sky was not starry. - -I went below, trimmed the lamp, and prepared the table for breakfast. -Whilst I was thus occupied, Miss Otway appeared. She came straight to -the stove and held her hands to the blaze, and asked me when it would -be daylight. I answered, 'Within an hour.' - -'This almost perpetual darkness,' she exclaimed, 'is one of the most -awful parts of this dreadful time.' - -'I hope you slept well?' - -'Yes, I slept soundly, and awoke only about a quarter of an hour ago. -What is the time?' I named the hour. 'You've seen no signs of a ship -during the night, I fear?' - -'Nothing. It has blown hard. It still blows a fresh breeze of wind. -This is the most seawardly vessel that was ever launched. It is lucky -for us her cargo is a light one. Think of her laden to her chain-plate -bolts with some dead weight of iron goods. She would have been under -water day and night, and by this time have ceased to be a hull.' - -'When were you last on deck, Mr. Selby?' - -'I'm just now from the deck.' - -'Is there anything in sight?' - -'I'm waiting for daybreak to make sure.' - -My answer caused her to make a step from the stove, and to advance her -white face whilst she stared at me. - -'Is there ice near us?' she asked. - -'I find an appearance in the southward that may prove ice,' said I. -'But what else are you to expect in these seas?' I added carelessly. -'Here we are somewhere down in sixty degrees, and, since I have been -aboard, the horizon has been almost clear. What shall we have for -breakfast? Will you boil some coffee whilst I search the pantry? -Suppose daylight should reveal ice--it may also show us a whaler -fishing in the thick of the bergs!' - -And assuming a cheerful, bustling manner I lighted a bull's-eye, -whistling some sea tune the while, and went into the pantry, where, -after a brief overhaul of the closet and shelves, I laid hands upon a -tin of herrings, sardines, and some kind of delicate sausage. - -'I am making free,' said I, putting the stuff upon the table. - -'These things were laid in for you. I'll take an inventory of what's -left by-and-by; I allow that everything for cabin use will be stowed -in the lazarette. When you're transhipped the delicacies must go along -with you. The whaleman's our chance, and his cupboard has no reputation -for dainties.' - -I waited for her to sit, attended upon her, then fell to myself. But -all the while we remained seated she was straining her eyes at the -porthole facing her, then turning to the porthole behind her as though -she thought through the gleaming ebony of the glass, white with the -foam it rose from, to behold the ice I had spoken about. - -Day broke before I had breakfasted; it lay white in the snow on the -skylight ere I rose, and the grey of it in the cabin windows was -growing blue when I went on deck accompanied by Miss Otway. And now I -looked at what, for the hour past, I had dreaded to see. The day had -dawned in cold splendour; the sun was flashing in rose, at this moment -perhaps two degrees above the horizon; a number of small clouds were -floating near his face and looked like bits of gilt scaling off the -rayless target-like luminary; otherwise the heavens sloped clear in a -sheer vault of deeply dark blue, under which ran the sea of the rich -hue of the sky, but full of gleams and the snow of melting crests, -and here and there spaces of an exquisite ice-like green snaking -currentwise over the heaving waters. - -It no longer blew hard, but it was still a fresh breeze, spray-clouded -in the frequent guns of it that shrieked in gusts over the bulwarks to -the loftier lifts of the hull. But what my sight went to and remained -fastened upon whilst, I own, my breath came and went quickly with -the surprise of the magnificent, but to us the terrible, sight, was -the scene of the southern quarter of the sea. There, stretching for -miles and miles, was ice in bergs which to the naked sight looked to -lie so close, the picture was that of a compacted coast of alabaster, -broken with pinnacles and acclivities of a thousand shapes, curving in -places as though in bays, the whole on either hand dying out in films -of white, whilst over the bows and over the stern, too, every time we -rose to the height of a sea I saw ice, plentiful as the breasts of the -canvas of a vast fleet; and through the southern sky low down ran a -long glinting line or gleam as though a continent of ice was reflected -in its face; it was like the pearly radiance that hovers just off the -edges of sails when lightly swelling in the tropics against a soft blue -sky. - -I glanced at Miss Otway: she was staring at the sight with large -nostrils and a gaze of terror under the little frown that the strain -of her gaze had knitted her brows into. - -'That is ice,' she cried. - -'Ay, miles of it' said I. 'But is there nothing good for us amidst that -prodigious huddle of sail-like stuff?' - -I took the telescope out of the companion and knelt with it to steady -the tubes, and slowly and carefully swept the whole of that wonderful -range, from film to film blue in the air. The sun's rosy light was full -upon it; only the brush of an artist could show you what I saw as the -surge ran me into a clear view of the horizon. It looked like a hundred -cities of marble and alabaster, all of them going to pieces. It was -no compact coast. There were many wide gaps, titanic streets fit for -the tread of such ocean giant-spirits as would inhabit those colossal -structures of crystal. The nearest point seemed about ten miles -distant. All was clear sea between, and northwards I saw no ice. - -Miss Otway stood beside me holding by a belaying pin in the rail. Again -and again she would say: - -'Do you see any signs of a ship? Is not that the canvas of a -ship--_there_, just where your telescope now points?' - -I saw no ship, but I looked with impassioned intentness till my eyeball -seemed to melt dim through the lens under the brass it was pressed -against, conceiving that in so vast an arm of ice some vessel might lie -embayed. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -THE AURORA AUSTRALIS - - -Whilst slowly sweeping the ice with the glass, I saw, or seemed to -see, when the lenses pointed a little to the eastward of south, a blue -shadow of land in the air. I took my eye away from the telescope and -then the shadow was gone: I looked again through the glass and there it -was, a dim, scarcely distinguishable liquid dye whitening as it climbed -till it melted in the azure. - -I very well knew that shadow must be land, probably one of the -mountainous rocks of the South Orkneys; unless indeed it was that group -which lies north-east of the South Shetlands--forming one of them, in -short: but I could not persuade myself that our drift to the westwards -had been so considerable. I said to Miss Otway: - -'Do you see a shadow in the air yonder?' - -She looked, preserving the frown of an intense stare, and replied: - -'No; I see no shadow.' - -I directed the glass; she put her eye to it and cried quickly, 'Yes; I -see it.' - -'It is land,' said I. - -She looked eagerly at me and said, 'Inhabited land?' - -'I'll not say so, but I believe they go sealing there. I've heard of -whalers heaving-to and sending ashore.' - -'For what?' - -'I don't know.' - -I put away the glass and said: - -'I've been afraid of that land; but when I think of it, best after all -for us, Miss Otway, it should be there. Only, how to come at it? What's -our drift and where are we? Shall we wash perhaps round yonder point of -film, clearing the whole blocking mass, to light, may be, upon some -spouter crawling northwards from ten degrees lower south? Or--or----' -But I broke off, for what was the good of conjecturing unless I could -say something to bring a little of the poor girl's heart into her eyes? - -On the chance of something lying hidden round a point of crystal I -went forward, lowered the lantern, and ran the red flag aloft, jack -down. This done, I fetched a sextant from the captain's cabin and stood -with Miss Otway in the shelter of the companion-way waiting for the -sun to cross his meridian, meanwhile searching the line of the ice, -beholding the phantasy of a ship's white sails over and over again, and -conversing with the girl. - -The sea came ridging steadily out of north-west, the vast westerly -swell of the mighty Southern Ocean pulsing through it in rounds so -majestically regular, you didn't notice the heave of it. I had never -beheld a more glorious breast of ocean. All was dark blue sparkling -billows, heads of froth tossing into silken veils upon the wind, a -roaring, flashing scene, deep blue above, looking in its silence down, -and the ice southward, like a coast cut in ivory white, motionless, -shining, coming and going as the hull sank and soared. - -I got an observation and eagerly went below to work it out. Miss -Otway followed me into the captain's cabin and watched me whilst I -calculated. I made the latitude sixty degrees ten minutes south, and -the longitude exactly forty-five degrees west. Then, looking at the -chart, I judged that that shadow of land which was showing miles past -the barrier of ice was some central mountain of Coronation Island, -towering high four thousand five hundred feet. I marked the hull's -place on the chart, and said: - -'This is where we are.' - -She peered, and after a pause exclaimed: 'It is all desolation down -here! Look how far we are off from Cape Horn. There is no nearer -civilisation than the Falkland Islands--how many hundreds of miles -distant! Oh!' she cried, lifting her head and clapping her hand to -her face, 'if we could but hoist even a little sail to save us from -drifting to the ice and certain death.' - -'No,' I exclaimed, 'death's not aboard yet, not even in sight. Sixty -degrees south! The whalers make nothing of that. The Great Circle -carries you lower;' but I would not add 'not here.' - -Then, my eye going to a bookshelf, I spied a volume which I pulled down -quickly. It was a directory to these seas. I searched the pages, and, -putting my finger upon a paragraph, said: - -'See here now, Miss Otway: men have visited this land, they have named -it, surveyed it, sounded round about it, described it. Where one has -been others may venture. Look at this,' and I read: '"At daylight on -the morning of the 12th January 1823, we saw some pigeons and at six -o'clock perceived the east end of the islands of South Orkneys bearing -W. by S. distant about eleven leagues. We carried all possible sail to -get under the land, but the wind soon became light and left us almost -at the mercy of a heavy swell in the midst of ice islands, which made -our navigation truly hazardous."' - -'Their ship had masts and sails,' she exclaimed, 'and was under -command.' - -I read on, eager to learn all the book could tell me. - -'"Being now close under the land I sent a boat from each vessel to -explore them. We continued to tack the vessels about in a bay. The -icebergs which form in the bays in winter and break away in the summer -now produced so much drift ice that we had frequently to tack ship to -avoid striking it."' - -'That's it!' she cried. 'Their ship was under command.' - -I proceeded: '"This coast is, if possible, more terrific in appearance -than the South Shetland. The tops of the islands for the most part -terminate in craggy towering peaks, and look not unlike the mountain -tops of a sunken island. The loftiest of these summits, towering up to -a point, I denominated Noble's Peak. This peak in a clear day may be -seen at the distance of fifteen leagues."' - -'Is that the shadow?' she asked. - -'Possibly.' - -'Oh! look at the book, Mr. Selby, and see if it says that the island's -inhabited.' - -'It's not inhabited,' I answered. - -Then I stood with my finger upon the page musing upon the brief -account. There was little to interest outside of what I had read aloud: -the rest told of bearings and distances, and what had been brought up -by the lead. - -'But,' said I, looking at the girl, 'we are not stranded yet. That -we've drifted south is sure; but how much westing has there been in -this tumbling drive? Here's all about the currents shown here,' and I -turned the leaves of the book and read: - -'"Ten miles south of Cape Horn the ocean stream flows east-north-east, -half to one mile in the hour." That should be good for us. Let this -wind shift south or west, and the swell and the run of the sea will -drive the hulk out of sight of the barrier.' - -But I had something more to do just then than talk, basing chat on -small hope and weak conjecture. I saw to the fire in the stove, then -went on deck to sound the well; the pump was hard frozen as before. I -freed it and got a cast, and found that no water had drained in since -I last sounded. I'll not swear to an inch or two, but the depth was -quite unimportant, and after readjusting the pump I took the glass for -another long look at the ice. - -It was land, sure enough, at the back of the barrier; the pearly blue -shadow stood a clear shape in the lens, and I seemed to see it now -with my bare sight when I looked a little away to right or left of it. -I carefully took its bearings, also the bearings of certain defined -features of what I call the barrier, though, as I have said, it was a -length of dislocated stuff full of yawns and wide winding openings, -with a menace of the revelation of many grotesque mighty shapes, -startling miracles of form beyond the reach of the dreams of fever, -should we be set close. There was a sort of salt sparkle upon the range -in some places; and now, whilst looking over the side, I saw, streaming -up the slant of a surge, a pistol-shot distant, a mass of the giant -kelp of these waters: but I observed no birds, nothing more than that -kelp to hint at the meaning of that distant shadow in the air. - -It was miserable that I could not get the least idea of our drift save -by waiting and watching, which presently became a sort of anguish. -I sought, but could nowhere find, the deep-sea lead, or certainly I -should have dropped it over the side, taking my chance of its finding -bottom, and lying there to show by the angle of the line into what -quarter of the sea we were drifting--whether we were making straight -for the heart of the range, as it looked, or laterally rolling towards -the south-western extremity of the ice. - -The weather continued of a clear cold splendour, the horizon -sharp-edged against the sky as the rim of a tumbler. The sea ran hard -in spiteful foaming slopes which kept on shouldering the hulk dead -to leeward, and within an hour the growth of the ice told me we were -closing it; in fact, by the bearings I had taken I saw that the drive -of the hull was as fair for the heart of the barrier as if she was -being steered for it! - -What was to be done? I had been cast in my time in many situations of -peril, yet had never known myself despairful even in the blackest hour -of my troubles: but I own my heart fell now, my spirits sank, hope -died when I looked at those leagues of horizon of ice and reflected -upon my helplessness. Could I have summoned the help of but another -pair of hands I might have made some desperate effort with capstan and -leading-blocks to cap the stump of the foremast with another height of -spar, and get a jib stretched that her head might pay off and bring -her under some sort of control to enable me to thread the waterways -betwixt the bergs. But, single-handed, I could do nothing. There was no -height of foremast for the setting of any sort of rag that would round -her head away and keep her before it--I mean, in a fashion to hold her -responsive to the helm. - -When I made the discovery that the hull was setting dead on to the -ice, Miss Otway was in the cabin boiling some cocoa for a scrambling -afternoon meal; she came up while I stood swaying on the heave of the -plank, my arms tightly folded, my eyes rooted to the ice; instantly it -was as clear to her as to me whither our drift was tending, and she -uttered a low cry as though she had been struck. - -The mere sight of her, however, did me good--it quickened perception of -my obligations as a man. Her face was white as the foam over the side; -her pale lips moved, but the shrill wind sheared with icy-edge through -her words as they came to her lips. She sent a blind, staggering glance -round the western and northern sea line, and, knitting her face into a -look of resolution, she said: - -'It is God's will. But, Mr. Selby, it is a dreadful death to die.' - -'I am pleased when you look so,' said I, 'but not when you speak so. -It is God's will, as you say. But what is that will? What's to be our -fate? Look how those blue shadows in the ice open and widen. The bergs -appear close together; hundreds of fathoms separate them in reality, -and if we are to drift into the huddle why shouldn't we scrape through?' - -'To where?' - -'To where?... There may be open water beyond, and a ship.' - -'No, no, land!' she cried, 'land! See the shadow of it. It was visible -in the telescope only a little while ago: now I see it like a forming -cloud. It will be all ice to the rocks, and some break will let us in -and we shall drift deep and be locked up and left--and left----' - -And now she could scarcely articulate for some spasm in her throat, and -her poor white face was all awork with the horrors of her imagination. - -It made me sullen to hear her, she reasoned so well, beyond any trick -that I had for cheering her. - -'We must wait and hope,' said I; 'we are not in the ice yet; there may -come a ship.' - -And setting my teeth I swung the glass out of its brackets fiery with -some passing mood of wrath born of hopelessness and helplessness; for -no sailor will stand at gaze and be deserted by his spirit as a man -whilst there is a chance for life, though it be dim as a corposant in a -burst of wet squall; but put him in my place--as I then was; aboard a -dismasted hull rolling to her waterways in a steady pouring sea, a doom -of ice filling the horizon to leeward: how should a sailor act as a man -_then_ save by a stony endurance that sounds gallantly if you call it -heroic fortitude? - -But the girl had boiled some cocoa: it waited: so I begged leave to -hand her below out of the ceaseless howl of the ice-charged wind. Yet -neither of us stayed long. She could not eat, and for my part 'twas as -much as I could do to gulp down the steaming cocoa, good as it was. - -I believe the sun set soon after two; the sky was everywhere of a -wild crimson, flashing gorgeously where the luminary was; the sea -came running in hard green lines, tall with passing heads, out of the -splendour; _then_ the ice was a wonderful scene indeed, delicately -tinctured as it was with the redness. The shadow of the land hung afar -in a dim, pink cloud, but though the barrier had been plain in view for -some while I could not swear that within the last hour we had sensibly -closed it. This gave me a little hope--though I didn't know any: I bade -Miss Otway note it and she agreed with me--she had a sailor's eye for -atmospheric distance--that the ice looked no nearer than it had within -the past hour. - -'Can we be in the grip of a westerly current?' thought I. Then, before -the blaze faded in the west, I hauled down the flag and hoisted the -burning lantern, for the delicate figures of the ice in the remote -recesses where the film of it died out were so cheating in their -likeness to ships lifting canvas and heading for us, that I could -not persuade myself but one _must_ prove a vessel--if not now, then -presently. - -I obliged Miss Otway to go below when the night fell. It was too cold -for her. She was like to freeze to death. The ice loomed as a range -of snow-covered cliff to leeward: it showed of a savage and deadly -paleness under the stars which sheeted down weakly to it, though here -and there one brighter than the rest glowed like a lighthouse lantern -on some faint point. It was a wonderfully brilliant night, however, -no moon that I remember, but overhead the larger stars had the rich -tremble you see in the tropics; I had never seen such a field of -brilliants--the stardust hovered like mist, and the height of the sky -that night was awful to my solitary gaze. - -At about eight o'clock we were, as I reckoned, about five miles distant -from the nearest elbow of the ice. But though a tall sea still ran, -giving the hull the lofty motions of a stately dancer, the wind was -sensibly taking off. A frightful time was this! for if the hull struck -on the hurl of such a surge as still roared under us, she would go to -pieces in the twinkling of an eye. I was constantly looking over the -side, reckoning to find us setting on to some detached mass of drift -stuff, flat, but not the less deadly for being awash, but saw none. -Suddenly I perceived a light upon the horizon right over the bows. I -fancied my vision deceived me, that the trend of the ice was not as I -imagined it to be in that darkness, that the light was some burning -mountain far past the barrier, and that a shift of wind or change of -stream or tide had altered the bearings: this I conceived and rushed -headlong for a bull's-eye, which I flashed upon the compass; but no! -the indications were as before. - -What, then, was that light ahead? Miss Otway had followed me when I -fled up the companion steps with a lighted bull's-eye. - -'What is it?' she cried. - -'What's that?' I exclaimed, pointing ahead in the starlight. - -But now, looking, I beheld a luminous arched cloud: it soared, always -arched, increasing in brightness till the brow of it stood about -twenty degrees above the horizon: the brightest of the stars shone -wanly through it: then, whilst we watched, flashes of fire, darting -like lightning, leapt from it; they changed into spiral columns of the -brilliance of sunlight, scores of them, and they went twisting and -streaming out of the cloud with the look of the rush of the Milky Way -to the Zenith, whirling and winding their strands of fire into a very -rope of flame, whose end seemed to search the furthest stardust. This -wonderful, beautiful, sublime scene of joyous dancing, inwreathing -lights, faded, but was quickly followed in the same quarter where the -fiery curved cloud had shone by rich, straw-coloured arches of flame, -linking and sinking and soaring, changing on a sudden with a vast -spread of light, exactly fan shaped, and jewelled with colours manifold -as the rainbow, as though it reflected some giant prism. - -'What is it?' said Miss Otway, standing close beside me and speaking in -a voice subdued by awe and astonishment. - -'The Aurora Australis,' I answered, knowing it must be that by -descriptions I remembered. - -We lost all sense of time in watching. In some of the sublimest -recesses of that show of fire it was as though the heaven of God were -opening: one held one's breath not knowing what the next revelation -would be, what spectacle of winged spirit shapes would glance upon -one's mortal vision out of those chasms of splendour which looked, -with the glory that burned in them, to have been cloven to the very -Throne. - -'Mark this!' I cried, and as I spoke--the vast fan of light then fading -and no more lightning-like fire leaping--the wind that had been a fresh -breeze dropped as if by magic: the sky over the bows darkened into its -night of stars: the sea fell into a sloppy tumble, and within a quarter -of an hour the hull was rolling quietly upon the long, wide swell of -these seas with so oil-like a calm upon the steady run of the folds -that, close to our port quarter, I watched the image of a bright star -lengthen and shrink as it rode, till, but for the intense, dread cold -of the atmosphere, you would have thought yourself becalmed near the -line. - -'We may drift north and go clear after all,' said I, taking the lighted -bull's-eve out of the companion and looking at the binnacle by it. - -'Do you hear the thunder?' said Miss Otway, following me. - -I listened: it was not thunder but the crackling of ice. There was -no roar of sea, no howl of gale now to kill that sound; it rolled -up through the night from the southward in bursts and shocks like -explosions of heavy artillery; it swept over the smooth swell which -looked liked smoking grease as the huge rounds noiselessly floated -eastward, and it sounded as though a thunderstorm were raging over the -ice. - -And still that brief peace that was in the night, spite of the distant -thundering of the ice, was a wonderful refreshment to the spirits after -the ceaseless flush of the surge to the side and the steady roar of the -gale on high, shrieking as it split upon the barbs of ice the length of -bulwarks bristled with. More: a change of weather might now happen to -drive us northward, to drift us clear of the bergs, at all events, and -so extend our chance of being fallen in with and rescued. - -I stayed on deck till after nine watching anxiously for any signs of -a change of weather. Miss Otway came and went: she was too restless -and fearful to linger below, but the frost in the night wind was too -stinging to allow her to remain long above. When I went into the cabin -I left the hull rolling slowly upon a swell of the sea polished as -ebony; nay, so glass-like was that swollen mirror that all about us the -water was sprinkled with the images of stars, with one ice-like wake -swinging like a pendulum as the silver of it seemed to sink. - -I mixed a tumbler of hot rum and sat down before the stove to smoke a -pipe, with the young lady's consent; there was a good stock of tobacco, -cigars, and a little collection of pipes in the cabin that had been -occupied by Captain and Mrs. Burke. Our talk was, you will suppose, all -about our situation. I assured her there was little to fear saving the -ice; and talked--the thing then coming into my head--of a sailor who -had gone sealing for three years with one Captain Smyley; this same -skipper having spent nearly half a century betwixt the River Plate and -the South Shetlands. - -'These waters are plentifully frequented,' said I. 'A century ago in -such a case as this we shouldn't have had much to hope for. What was -to come? In half a year a score of yellow, humpbacked, round bowed -waggons blowing away under bladder-like sails, with topmast struck -and nothing but the log to tell the longitude--that was about the -sum of the navigation. There was no Australia then; nothing but a -Western American coast yielding a month's saunter from Acapulco to the -Philippines--wonderful that they should have ever got a Spaniard to -face the ice down here.' - -'Did they?' - -'Why, yes; they sent treasure to Europe in galleons named after saints, -and when they saw a waterspout they held up their swords as crosses, -and bade the thing be off in Latin.' - -'Ships were as safe then as they are now,' said she, pulling off a -thick glove and toasting her hand, on which sparkled a diamond or two. -'Why should this vessel have been dismasted? What progress is there to -boast of when you think of this hull? Can't they plant masts which will -keep erect?' - -'Had that been, you and all others who were here when the squall struck -you would be deeper under water than the fangs of the biggest iceberg -afloat,' I answered, with a half smile at her eager gravity, as though -there were nothing to interest us now but shipbuilding! - -'If my life is preserved I'll never go to sea again,' she said. - -'You'll have had enough of it.' - -'I came for my health and it seems I have come to die.' - -'Has your health improved?' - -'Yes--perhaps; I don't feel whilst I talk as if the voyage had done me -much good.' - -'You'll write an account of these experiences when you return, and the -Queen will send for you that she may see and converse with as wonderful -a heroine as ever flourished in her reign.' - -'What have I done to be a heroine?' - -I knocked the ashes out of my pipe and turned to lift the tumbler -of grog that was yet half full; when my hand was arrested as though -paralysed by an extraordinary noise, smooth, fierce, seething. I -listened a moment, then sprang to the companion steps. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -THE THICK OF IT - - -My instant belief was we were foul of ice, scaling some side of crystal -mountain smooth as though chiselled. But when I opened the companion -door I was nearly flung to the bottom of the steps by a very volcanic -shock of gale, white as a cloud with snow and hail. I sprang again -and gained the deck, and, shutting the door, got to leeward of the -companion. - -A furious Cape Horn squall was blowing over the ocean in smoke--from -what quarter I had then to find out. The still scene of starlight night -and sluggish rolling ocean was vanished. Already, with the magical -swiftness of the weather of these regions, a sea was got up and -beginning to race and foam. There was nothing to see. The night was -blind with howling storm. When I had left the deck there was not so -much as a rag of cloud to be seen in the sky; and now it was blowing a -whole gale, which looked to boil with the snow that fled with it, and -everywhere it was of a midnight blackness. - -The rush of the wind was over the port quarter; but then the hull would -be slewing for the trough, and how her head was when I had gone below I -could not have told. Keeping this bearing of the wind in mind, I rushed -to the cabin, picked up the burning bull's-eye, and, springing to the -captain's berth, darted the flame on to the tell-tale, and saw that -this squall or gale was out of about south-south-west. - -When I took my eyes from the compass I saw Miss Otway standing, white -as milk, in the doorway. - -'What is it?' she asked. - -'A heavy squall--perhaps the first of a gale: but that,' said I, with -a flourish of the bull's-eye to the compass, 'gives us good news; we -shall blow clear of the ice. The wind is sou'-sou'-west. What do you -say to that?' and, forcing the noise of a jolly laugh, I came out of -the berth and hooked up the bull's-eye ready to my hand. - -We had seen the ocean all day long, clear of ice north and east; -icebergs we knew were there, but their summits had settled--our drift -had put leagues betwixt them and us; therefore I was not immediately -fearful--on the score of ice, I mean. But if it was going to blow as -hard as I had just now felt it, what was to become of the hull? Such -fury and weight of wind must speedily raise the seas into cliffs, and -then God knows how it would fare with the sheer hulk with not a rag, -nor the means of stretching a rag, to enable her to look up to it, -to shoulder it off with her bow, to lie hove to, in short, as a ship -should. - -In an hour, the dance was wild even to madness; my own brain reeled to -it; sick I was _not_ in the sense of nausea. Was it sickness of soul -then? But I recollect that many times when the hull fell off the top -of a sea into the valley, sliding as though she was shooting off some -Niagara-like edge, a horrible feeling of faintness and prostration -attended the descent. Never before had I suffered so at sea; but then, -never before had I been tossed in a dismasted hull in a gale of wind -sixty degrees south latitude. - -Miss Otway lay almost lifeless. I shored her up on a couch by backs -of chairs which I lashed; I heaped clothes from her bed on her, and -got hot brandy for her, and encouraged her as best I could. There was -nothing to be done on deck. The sea was flying in white sheets over -the waist and forecastle; the glare of the brine breaking close aboard -showed you the snow; but looking around was like staring into a well. - -It was a strange sort of snow, too, that fell. Once in the cabin I took -notice of it on my coat: it was in small grains, round as shot, of a -size from mustard seed to buckshot; a dry, pure white: not hail. - -But two hours after the gale began, the snow ceased and the wind -lessened; I watched from the companion-way, and observed but little -water flying athwart. With such observations I was forced to be -satisfied, and spent the hours in the cabin, keeping an eye on the -stove, boiling a hot drink now and again for the life and support of -it, tending Miss Otway, from time to time peering through the hatch -where the iron sweep of the wind seemed to unflesh the face, wondering, -for ever wondering, whether the next hurl would be followed by a crash -of the side, and how long we should be in perishing when the hull split. - -I should have in agined myself too anxious--nay, to put it plainly, too -alarmed to sleep, and it seemed that I went up many times to take a -look around; and still I must have slept, for I started from my chair -in a sudden terror of dream or noise, and with a lurch of the hull fell -upon my knees, but was up instantly. - -The motion of the craft had changed; the moment I had my wits I felt -that the sea was pyramidal, which told me there had been a quite -recent shift of wind. I cannot imagine anything more dislocating, -more unnerving, more brain sickening, than the leaps and rolls of the -hull upon the sea that, by the movement, I knew was darting in almost -perpendicular thrusts, spear shaped billows lifting in ebon darts and -daggers, and putting a frightful wildness into the flings of the fabric. - -Miss Otway lay with her eyes shut, and seemed asleep; a small fire -glowed in the stove, and the lighted lantern swung in the centre of the -cabin as though some invisible hand grasped it, seeking to jerk it off -its hook. I took the bull's-eye and went on deck, and found the wind a -dry gale, but observed a thickness as of fog in it, but it was too dark -to make sure. I staggered to the binnacle and saw the wind was blowing -out of north again: a cruel shift! I stared and smelt for ice, but saw -no loom, and tasted no more than the freezing coldness of the blast. - -What was the hour? I went below and found it half-past eight o'clock. -Oh! what an interminable darkness was that! Where was the ice? It could -not be far off. What and whither was our drift? I felt like a madman -then. - -Miss Otway slept on. I believe it might have been an hour and a half -after I had awakened that, not knowing but that the poor young heart in -her had been stopped by terror, or the delicate blood in her frozen, -I stooped to view her face, the lamp burning dimly; she showed like -a piece of exquisitely chiselled marble: I can't tell why, but her -whiteness seemed to my mood to exactly fit the bitterness of this -time, the frost, the snow, the ice, the wild gale and foaming waters; -was I as mad then as I had felt some time before, to bend over her and -get a fancy of her into my head as a spirit of these wild and desolate -parts? Put yourself in my place and you'll not wonder to find your brow -hot with fancies more desperately and tragically strange than such a -crazy notion as this. - -She opened her eyes whilst I looked, and I stood erect with a sigh of -relief, half turning to fling my cap down whilst I ran the length of my -sleeve along my forehead for the refreshment of the wet of the snow. -She sat up and watched me, whilst I saw in her face she was heeding the -extravagant tumbling of the hull. - -'It seems to be blowing a gale,' she said. - -'Ay,' said I, 'but we're still alive. Feel these jumps: no empty cask -could better them.' - -'Will you remove these chairs that I may sit up?' - -I did so. Whilst I knelt beside her to cast the lashings adrift she -eyed me intently, as though she would read my very brain; she then -sighed, but said nothing, and the road being clear she drew her feet -out of the covering and sought to rise, but, after a short struggle -with the furious deck, sat again. - -I stood before the stove waiting for daybreak, my eye glancing from one -frothing cabin window to another and thence to the skylight. At last -she said: - -'You've a brave heart, Mr. Selby, but it can hold out no longer; I read -despair in your face. If the end is to come, may it come quickly. You -have behaved to me with a noble kindness. I can but thank you--I can -but thank you,' and she held out her hand with her eyes full of tears. - -I bowed my head over her hand; it was an excuse to fetch a breath or -two, I would not just then trust myself to speak. Then said I: - -'I'll not disguise the truth: our situation is perilous, as God, who, -let us believe, is watching over us, knows. But I should be no true man -to feel the despair you tell me you read in my face. Daylight may find -us a sight to hearten us.' - -She shook her head. - -'Well, but don't let your spirits die. If a wish could help us I'd be -above, if _your_ safety was to be got at so small a cost. But see, now, -I'll run up on deck and let you know if there's anything like the loom -of ice about. It _may_ prove all right with us--it _may_ end in our -lives being preserved.' - -But all the same, with a heart as heavy as ever hers could be, I clawed -my way to the companion steps for yet another stare into the blackness. - -It was not yet daybreak; but when some while after the faint, grey -light sifted through the blowing, swelling, roaring gloom, the sight -struck to my very heart and I was sure we were doomed. The sea was -running in hills of liquid lead; many clouds of mist were in the wind -and they blew athwart the hull like bursts of steam; snow in places was -rushing in horizontal lines out of dark low clouds flying southwards. -Ice was all about us. The first object that dawn revealed, whilst I -stood in the companion-way watching, was a mountain of ice on the bow; -as features of it stole out a snow-squall looked to have fouled a whole -stack of pinnacles on the left of the berg; it was dark as smoke there, -with snow whirling in a very maelstrom of froth-like whiteness; the -seas slipped their foam up its side to a height of fifty feet, and the -brine flashed in clouds of crystals against the dull, marble-like face, -which showed smooth as a wall through the haze and the whirl of flying -vapour that shrieked athwart our decks to it. - -_It_ was but one. I counted twenty coming and going amid the shadows -of the squalls and flying masses of fog. You would have supposed that -a fleet somewhere hidden were firing great guns, so thunderous was the -splintering of those bergs majestically rocking their mighty masses. -The nearest--that on the starboard bow--was about a mile off. Others -showed to port and astern: one heap, like an island, darkened the haze -on the port bow. The gale had apparently broken up the barrier and we -were in the thick of the floating bodies. - -Miss Otway came to the foot of the companion steps and waited for me to -make way for her. I stepped out and she ascended the steps and looked -round the sea, but in silence. Her face was hardened into stone by -despair. Hours of suspense and grief, hours spent in the most awful -kind of loneliness the imagination can figure, with the darkness of the -spirit of death for ever upon her heart, had done their work with the -poor young lady: sensation was dumb. - -And now there was nothing to do but await the end, come what might. I -let her stand a little, looking, then taking her by the arm, gently but -firmly, conducted her below and seated her where she had lain during -the night. I was resolved that my own despair should not be visible -to her, and partly to cover myself, so to speak, and partly for the -good of the thing, I boiled some coffee, and put food on the deck near -the stove; but one looked at such a repast with the emotions of a -malefactor to whom breakfast is served whilst the hangman waits. - -Whilst I was at this work she addressed me calmly: - -'There is no doubt, I suppose, that we shall strike the ice?' - -'It's most inevitable,' I answered. - -'If it happens, shall we be better off down here than on deck?' - -'Let it happen,' said I. - -'If we are to strike the ice,' she said, 'I should wish to be drowned -quickly. I would rather die at once than be thrown soaked on the ice to -lie a little and freeze--it would take time--I fear the sufferings. I -am not afraid of death, I wish it to be quick.' - -'There's no ice nearer to us than a mile, that I can make out,' I said, -then handed her a pannikin of coffee. 'Pray drink this.' - -She took it and raised it to her lips. - -'If the hull strikes, will it go to pieces instantly?' she asked. - -'Who can tell? She might beach herself and find us a home till the berg -floated north, where the smoke of our fire will be seen.' - -She sank into silence with her eyes fastened upon the deck. When I -offered her food she shook her head. My breakfast consisted of half a -cup of coffee. - -Within a quarter of an hour I was on deck again, but the scene was the -same as before, saving that the ice mountain that had been upon our -starboard bow was now right ahead, whilst on our starboard quarter, -within perhaps half a mile, was a small island of ice, about sixty feet -high, not before visible. The compass gave me the wind blowing steadily -from one quarter. But then I could make nothing of bearings within -three or four points on board a helpless hull, swinging in a high sea, -with a send of her head when she was rushed out of a hollow that made -me sometimes think she was going to give her stern to the weather. - -At one o'clock it was a savage and tremendous scene of warring -waters and flying sky of soot, and giant forms of ice vanishing and -reappearing amid headlong flights of wool-white vapour, and through -all, in deep notes, ran the thunder of the surge-smitten, frozen -heights, with frequent rending and crashing noises of dislocation. I -was now very sure that our drift was not less than three miles an -hour, and perhaps four. This I gathered by observing a vast shape of -ice that suddenly showed off the starboard bow. It was nearly a mile -long, and I should think two hundred feet high. It was a grand, truly -sublime ocean piece, with its numerous lofty arches and caverns, out of -which the sea, in recoil, flashed in immense bursts of foam. I spied -the white wings of birds glancing upon it, but I had it not often -very clear in sight, for the steam-like smother drove down at quick -intervals, leaving some pale eminence gleaming on high against the -whirl of the clouds, to vanish in some swift outfly of snow, so that -the whole thing would be as completely gone to the eye as if it had -sunk. - -But by staying and watching it as often as it emerged in whole or -in part, I got at the rate of our drift. It was quickly on our port -bow with others coming out of the thickness to leeward, all wild and -terrific in that dull light of storm, with the glare of the leaping -foam at their base and their own ghastly stare through the rent -curtains of cloud flying under the dark sky. - -Soon after two, when it was almost dark, I thought we were lost, for -I saw the loom of an iceberg right abeam to leeward; but whether it -was God's guidance of the devoted hull, or that the set of the long -rolling sea ran a sort of sweep of tide round these floating islands, -when we were within a musket shot of the mass, with an occasional -shock of loose ice sounding through the hulk, our drift made a little -departure. I vow it was for all the world as though the fabric was -alive and, dreading her fate, avoided it, or as though she were under -command, with a cool hand and a critical eye for sea measurement at the -helm. Certain it is we drove past clear; it might be that we owed our -preservation to the rebound of the sea. - -It was almost black with the night when that berg was on our lee -quarter, but I knew by a sudden enormous roar of water, and by an -indescribably hissing sound lasting for a few minutes, as though a -thousand locomotives were blowing off steam, that an immense mass of -the island had fallen, not very many ships' lengths distant, which I -have no genius to do justice to, nor even to communicate, though I need -but close my eyes to behold the terrible picture, with its uproar of -trampling seas, and howling wind, and cracking masses. A little after -four in the morning, whilst I sat in the cabin with Miss Otway, every -instant expecting the hull to strike, her motions grew suddenly quiet. -I felt her rise and fall upon a long swell, and knew instinctively by -the feel of her that she was under the lee of something. - -I sprang to my feet and ran on deck. It was pitch dark, with a strange -phantasmal glimmer on either hand, so vague, so indeterminable I could -not see it when I looked at it. The roar of the gale, the hiss and -beat of the driven seas, came as from a distance. Thrice as high as the -masthead of a ship sounded the low, continuous thunder of the wind, as -though it blew over mountain tops; but down where we were it was calm. -Icy gusts came in moans from half a dozen quarters. The long, invisible -heave was as rhythmic as the ocean pulse of swell. I understood we were -embayed and foresaw certainly now that our being stranded, or being -hammered to pieces against the ice, was only a question of minutes. - -I went into the cabin with a loathing of life coming into me out of -the sheer despair that was as frost on my heart, caring not a curse -how it went, so sick I was of it all after the unendurable hours of -watching and expectation I had passed through; and then again I felt -that, whatever was to happen, it was right I should be by the poor -girl's side: not that it was in my power to comfort her--not, indeed, -if the hull went to pieces, that I could be of the least use to her or -myself, but I was company for her, and out of me she'd get some solace -of companionship in what I reckoned these dying minutes of ours. - -'Has the wind fallen? Where are we?' she shrieked as I approached her. - -'We are embayed,' I answered. 'We are got under the lee of something.' - -Just as I spoke those words a harsh, grating roar ran through the hull; -the vessel trembled as though in the first throe of bursting; another -like roar succeeded; I felt the thrill of the scraping of the bilge and -keel as the fabric was rushed by some ponderous heave of swell. Again, -another huge thrust of the sea, another long roar of scraping keel and -bilge, another quiver and thrill throughout the hulk as though every -timber was straining ere flying to the shock of an explosion. She lay -right over to starboard. The lamp swung and lay hard against the upper -deck. Whatever was movable fetched away. So acute was the angle that -Miss Otway, unable to maintain her seat upon the couch, shot from it to -me; but I was firmly planted, saw her coming, and received her so that -she was not hurt, and with a vigorous swing I cleared and placed her -breathless and moaning in a cleated armchair that stood close to where -I sat. - -The blind, soft, thunderous thrusts of the sea continued. I heard the -water in tons washing over the decks, but every time this happened a -roar of grinding and scaling shook the hull as she was driven by the -wash of the swell higher and yet higher. The companion was closed and -no water descended. I knew by the noise of the sea that the hull lay -broadside to the swing of the swell. I got out of my chair, but was -heavily thrown, and could scarcely regain my feet, so extreme was the -slant, and so completely did it pin me against the cabin wall. - -As regular as the rush of the floating folds was the thrust of them, -and now I grew sensible that the heave was like to strand us high and -dry, the job of it being a different labour than rocks or the grit of -the beach of earth would have made, so greasy was the ice. The water -poured over the decks every time the swell struck the hull, but in a -little while I found each volume to be weakening in weight, and after -the fabric had been driven in this grinding way in a sort of pulsing of -blows, deafening with the bursts of the brine against the side and over -the decks, each onward slide grew shorter and shorter, until presently -she lay without motion, with an occasional shudder running through her -from the beat of the sea, but at intervals so varying as to persuade -me she was fairly high and dry, and within the wash of the foam of the -larger rollers only. - -But the list or angle was horrible. I was unable to move without going -on all fours. I crawled in this wise to Miss Otway, and told her to -remain where she was, not to attempt to stir lest she should break her -neck, whilst I crept on deck to take a look at our situation if it was -visible. - -'What has happened do you think?' she cried. - -'We are stranded upon some beach of an ice island I expect,' I replied. - -'Hark to that!' she shrieked, as a sudden sea smote the bilge and -roared in foaming recoil. 'If you go on deck you'll be washed away.' - -'I'll see to it. That blow was weak. We have been thrust high. Feel -what a desperate slope it is. I pray God no sudden shock of sea may -launch us afresh.' - -With that I crawled to the companion steps, every bone aching like -rheumatism with the contortions of my figure in my efforts to move. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -IMPRISONED - - -I might have guessed there would be no more to see now than when I had -first looked. I stood in the companion with my head just out, holding -the door as close shut as it would lie with my body in the way; and -hardly had I put my head through when a whole green sheet of water -tumbled over the port bulwarks and roared in a cataractal deluge down -the steep, boiling white, through the wreckage of smashed bulwarks. I -ducked, but not in time to stop a rush into the cabin. - -I guessed, by the uncommon blackness, that we were in a hollow betwixt -high cliffs; I beheld an illusive paleness, the vague, spectral -faintness of rocks of ice or snow-covered acclivities on either hand, -but no features of them were in the least degree discernible. I durst -not let go of the companion to look over the side, but I judged by the -deep, hollow noise overhead that a strong gale still blew, and from a -distance came the strong, coarse seething of a high sea. - -Still, the beat of the swell against the hull was not often now, which -made me suspect it was no iceberg we had stranded on but land, one of -the New Orkneys or South Shetlands group, because the bating of the -swell told that a tide ran, and I had read in that book about the South -Atlantic in the cabin that the rise and fall of the tide down here was -very considerable, that gales of wind often swelled the water high -above its natural level, as was shown by the many skeletons of whales -found lying twenty or thirty feet above high-water mark. - -But until the dawn broke nothing could be imagined; I closed the -companion door and crawled back to where Miss Otway sat. - -She was so postured by the angle of the deck that she could not get out -of her chair; she begged me to help her; I drew her out and held her -until she had sunk upon the floor, and then I sat down beside her on -the hard plank, the carpet having been rolled up and stowed away when -the cabin was flooded in the outfly that had dismasted the 'Lady Emma.' -Not so much water as I supposed had tumbled down; it lay the length of -the cabin wall and was fast draining off. - -'Have you been able to see where we are?' she exclaimed. - -'No. But though there's no doubt we've beached on ice, I believe the -land's close aboard.' - -'What land?' - -'Coronation Island, if any. That was the island in the way of our -drift; we've been making a straight course for it.' - -We paused to hearken to a heavy flooding of water overhead, but the -blow that had sheeted the brine over the hull was as weak as a summer -ripple is to an angry surge compared with the thumps which had driven -us to where we now lay. - -'The sea will have made a clean sweep of the decks,' said she. - -'There was little to go. What but the galley? The companion has -weathered it out, happily for us.' - -'Oh, Mr. Selby, what can we now do? What is to become of us?' she cried -with sudden hysteric passion of grief and terror. - -'We must find out where we are. Better here, anyway, than knocking -about among the ice outside, with the prospect every next minute of -being squashed into pulp. Oh, _that_ was too terrible to have gone -on bearing! The perpetual apprehension was like to have driven us -overboard, mad. Why, this is peace, this is rest.' - -'What a time it has been! What a time it is!' she cried. 'When will the -day break? If we are upon an iceberg----' - -She was arrested by a second thunder-shock of water overhead, yet weak -as a blow of the sea, though the hull trembled fore and aft. - -The lamp glowed and shed a good light, the body of it lying hard -against the upper deck, so sharp was the angle; it was strange to see -it stirless there, strange to feel the stillness of the hull, save when -a blow of swell made her quiver. The fire was out; but even had not all -the fuel fetched away into the wash of the wet, I had not dared kindle -a fresh one, lest in the trembling fit then upon me, and on such a -roof-like slope as that, I should stumble, or by some helpless flourish -set the ship in flames. - -I crawled on my knees to the couch, and pulled the clothes from it and -covered Miss Otway with them, swathing her head and so wrapping her -that nothing showed but a little piece of the face. The poor girl's -teeth chattered, and she shivered ceaselessly. By carefully crawling I -got upon the table and managed to get hold of a glass and a decanter -of wine. She drank a little and I took a good pull of the wine myself. -Indeed it was an extraordinary situation--the hull on her beam ends, -the cabin alight, we two crouched on the deck, the stillness after the -fury we had come through, the stillness, I say, saving a low roar of -distant sea, with an occasional beat of the swell upon the hulk, and -the scaling and rushing of water overhead. An amazing situation indeed; -there is nothing like it, nothing stranger in the maritime records, -that I can recollect. - -At last the starboard cabin windows, high in the broadside, showed of a -pale steel grey; I went on my hands and feet to the steps and reached -the deck. I stood a little while in the companion-way thunderstruck; I -was confounded and could not credit my sight. The hull lay stranded -in a very well of ice. Ahead and astern rose masses of cliffs to an -altitude of four or five hundred feet. The vessel lay on a frozen -beach; 'twas a sloping sweep of the stuff, apparently linking the -iceberg astern to the ice over the bows. The bight or bay we had -drifted into was ramparted by the iceberg which sank from a vast -terrace to a point in an arm of natural breakwater like marble; but the -ice ahead was fixed to the face of the land. After looking a little I -spied the iron frown of dusky rocks perpendicular and smooth as though -planed, showing amidst the snow. - -Past the hinder ice and beyond the giant limb of marble-like breakwater -was the rolling ocean. It still blew hard, the seas raced angrily. -Whatever of ice they smote they flashed upon; over the lower parts -of the ice terrace the surge was bursting in lofty clouds, bright as -light. The heave came round the point in a wide swell, which did not -break in foam upon the beach where we lay, but swept silent, in a -glass-green volume, along the slope, just as the foamless lift of the -sea washes past the side of a ship; it broke only where it met with -anything rugged, and quickly lost its weight in the curve, soundlessly -recoiling from the base of the iceberg astern, though mightily -troubling the surface of the water by conflict with the succeeding -heave. - -The sky between the cliffs was wild with flying scud and rusty brown -masses of vapour rushing southwards. The vessel lay close in to the -land; she rested on her side at an angle of hard upon fifty degrees. -On either hand was open sky, the picture of it to port showing as -at the extremity of an immense ravine. Save but for sudden, quick -shootings of little short-lived draughts and blasts, the calm and even -the repose down here was as though we were in a well. The swell never -swept nearer to us than twenty feet. I crept to the side and lay over, -watching anxiously, and thus made sure of this after following the -quiet sweep of at least twenty successive heaves of brine. - -The desolation was awful! The picture savage, forbidding, terrifying -beyond imagination to one immured with its clouded crystal heights over -the bows, and the rugged slopes of ice over the stern forking into -fifty shapes of pinnacle, turret, spire, column, tower, as though on -the flat of the summit were the ruins of a city of marble. - -The decks were swept of everything save the companion. Wheel, binnacle, -capstans, galley, all were gone. I watched the ocean rolling past the -arm of ice astern, it was but a bit of it. The great berg that formed -the bay blocked the view of the deep; there was nothing to see but the -abrupt white walls ahead and astern, and the flying soot overhead and -away down to port, and, on the right, tall cliffs of ice and snow -glazing the land, with here and there a space of staring, black rock. - -Our isolation was shocking. My heart seemed to stop whilst I looked -around, realising the terrors and hopelessness of this new imprisonment -by the granite-hued light that was gaining a little in power. Though a -whaler stood within half a mile of the coast, how should she see us? It -would be hard enough to discern the speck of wreck we made had the bay -of ice in which we rested gaped naked to the sea, but we were as much -hidden here as if we had gone to the bottom. We were worse off, indeed, -than had we stranded upon a floating berg, because in _that_ case we -might have fallen in with the ice which might have split and freed us; -but now we were aground upon ice hardening into the face of an island -and stationary; months might pass before the body we were upon broke -away and became a water-borne bulk, and then, in the throes of the -liberation of the frozen cliffs, what of splintering, of volcanic-like -upheaval and disruption might happen to crush the little toy of hull -lying after many months as she lay now? - -I don't doubt I stared about me with something of a madman's wildness, -glancing up at the inaccessible heights, then at the sea rolling in -white lines beyond the limb of ice, then into the desolation of the -whirling sky on the left, till, recollecting that I had a companion -who looked to me for heart and encouragement, whom, by God's mercy, -wonderful as it would afterwards appear, I might yet be the means of -delivering from this hideous situation, I pulled my wits together and -returned to the cabin. - -The poor young lady was on the deck before the black stove as I had -left her. She could not have stood upon that angle of plank without -danger and distress. She began to question me in a voice that shuddered -with the cold. I answered I would talk with her when I had lighted a -fire, for I had now some spirit and saw things a little clearly, and -was no longer afraid of setting the hull in flames. - -I split up a bunk board, and picked a bucket full of capsized coal out -of the wash to leeward, as I may call it, and made a fire; but I moved -with pain and difficulty; the decks were wet, and as slippery as though -coated with ice, and the slope was that of a ship bulwarks under. - -When the fire was blazing I helped the young lady to sit close beside -it, and went on deck for some life-lines for this cabin. I moved with -less trouble above, for the life-lines I had before set up were still -stretched along. Every rope that I handled was like bar iron, but with -infinite trouble I succeeded in getting a length below and stretching -it here and there, which done I was able to use my legs with some -freedom. - -The stove was violently aslant, but it was possible to boil a kettle, -and whilst I waited for a hot drink I crouched beside the girl, -grateful for the comforting heat of the flames. I told her plainly that -we were stranded and ice-locked; that we must resolve to exert our -patience and make the best of our deplorable situation. She cleared -her head of the cover I had wrapped about her, and stared at me dumbly -for a minute or two with a face as white as though moonlit, and her -fair hair full of sparkles with the light of the lamp that still glowed -hard-slanted against the upper deck. - -'Do I understand,' she exclaimed in a low voice, painful to hear with -the tremulous gasps that shook it, 'that we are to remain in this -condition until--until----' She stopped, then added, 'but until _when_? -We are stranded and hidden and must perish.' - -'Listen to me,' said I, 'for this is our chance as I see it is as a -sailor: suppose us beached for months as we now are--though who's to -predict _that_?--for within twenty-four hours may come a gale out of -another quarter that shall free us and drive us amongst the ice to our -destruction--take it we are to be stranded here: I have read the ship's -papers, know the contents of the hold, and promise you, though no -chance of rescue should happen for a twelvemonth, nay, for a couple of -years, help, when it comes, shall find us alive so far as life may be -kept in us by food and drink and warmth.' - -She buried her face: I think it nearly killed her to hear me talk of -a twelvemonth or two years. Then, flashing upon me as it were with a -sudden dropping of her hands and the stare of her desperate grief and -horror, she cried: - -'Is there no hope beyond the waiting for the deliverance which may -never happen?' and without stopping for an answer she went on: 'How are -we to live even for a week in a hull we cannot move about on?' - -'That's the very least of our troubles,' said I. 'Come, you have -spirit--the heart of an Englishwoman beats in you. You must put some -face of courage and faith upon this business. We are alive. Keep on -thinking of _that_. Consider what we have come through. We might have -been thrown upon the ice without this shelter.' - -'We have stranded on an island, you say?' - -'I think so.' - -'What island?' - -I answered her. - -'Is there no harbour in it, no place where ships touch, no place where -men are? If they came fishing down here for whales and seals there -should be a port.' - -I put my hand upon a life-line and walked to the captain's cabin. It -was as dark as night there, for the heel of the hulk depressed the -cabin windows to within arms' reach of the beach, as it looked. I -lighted a bull's-eye, and, finding the chart I required, returned with -it. - -It was a chart of the discoveries made in these waters between 1819 and -1843. It outlined Graham Land down to sixty-eight degrees south, and -a little more than sixty-eight degrees west, and submitted a shaded -tracing of the South Shetlands; but I was very certain that our island -was none of _them_. I put the chart on Miss Otway's knee and threw the -lamplight upon it, and said, pointing to Coronation Island and then to -Laurie Island: - -'Which of them this is I can't tell you, but I should guess by our -drift that it's the bigger of the two, and that our lodgment's here,' -and I put my finger upon a bight named Palmer's Bay. 'Here's a mountain -at back of it, you see,' said I, 'towering to a height of nigh four -thousand five hundred feet; it was the blue shadow we saw in the air, -and our drift was nigh hard straight for that.' - -She put her face close to the chart, listening, meanwhile, greedily to -me. - -'But here are many English names,' said she--'Cape Dundas--Despair -Rock--Saddle Island.' She read thus a little; then went on: 'Surely an -island that has been named in this fashion is inhabited?' - -'Well, it may be. I hope it is,' said I. - -'Here are big islands,' she cried, pointing to the South Shetlands. -'Aren't there people upon _them_? And if so, couldn't we manage to get -to the place where they're settled? It's not far,' she added, looking -up at me. - -'It's a long way,' said I, 'for all it looks but the span of a hand on -this paper, and we have no boat.' - -'People must have been in some such another dreadful situation as this -before now,' she exclaimed. 'How did they manage?' - -'We'll manage, depend on't', said I, with all the hearty cheerfulness -I could summon. 'We'll write letters to the sea, telling our distress, -and send them adrift in bottles. I'll fashion rafts out of some of the -theatre stuff in the hold and send them afloat with the story of our -condition mastheaded on them in cans. It's not for us to be hopeless. -Wouldn't you rather be here than knocking about amongst the ice?' - -'Oh yes,' she cried; 'but if we are locked up--hidden away?' - -She started as if she would rise, and asked me to take her on deck that -she might see where we were, but I thought proper to keep her below in -the warmth and encourage her, and rouse her spirits by representations -of our prospects of deliverance, before letting her view the situation -of the hull; in truth I could not look at her and observe how delicate -and fragile she was, and reflect on the depressing, heart-subduing -influence of the terrors and experiences she had passed through, -without fearing the effect of a sudden shock, such as might prove the -sight of the savage wildness of the frowning, frozen cradle in which -the hull lay as in a tomb. - -I went about to get some breakfast. When I got on deck with a chopper -to fill the kettle, I found that the mould of fresh-water ice I had -split out of the scuttlebutt was gone. I had no mind to enter the -hold; indeed, I had not strength enough then to break open the frozen -hatch-covers; and water being wanted for a cup of hot coffee, I chipped -at a spear of ice on the bulwark and found it sweet, and perhaps -sweeter than the water we had been drinking. Why? Because nearly all -those frozen heads and devices of barbs and spikes were frozen snow and -mist. But never could we lack fresh water in this part of the world; -the cliffs ahead and astern were fresh; we were beached in fresh-water -ice. Even in that early time of my distress, whilst I sucked a little -piece of ice off the bulwarks to learn its quality, I found myself -lifting up my eyes with amazement at those giant heights, formed, as I -knew, of the vapour of the air and the sleet of the cloud and the gale. -It was like thinking of some vast, soft fog clinging to the face of -the land and freezing there into precipitous iron-hard rocks. - -Whilst making my way to the hatch with the ice, I heard a sudden great -roar astern; a sharp tremble ran through the hull as though a mine had -been sprung close alongside; the noise was exactly that of a broadside -from a liner, every great gun discharged at once. Yet I saw no movement -in the ice, nor heard any sound as of a fall. This put it into my head -to fancy it might not be long before the great berg that was linked -astern of us was sundered and on its way to join the rest of the mighty -fleet, every one of which had had a like berth and such a despatch as -awaited this. - -I clawed my way to the side and looked over. The beach that held the -berg to the main was perhaps a quarter of a mile long; I could not -be sure; it went out of sight in a slope on the port hand. But, in -comparison with the mighty bulk it yoked to the island, it was a -slender tie indeed, to be snapped in any moment of storm as you'd break -a clay pipe-stem. I peered down, wondering if the severance happened -whether we should go with the berg or be left a-dry under the cliff as -we now lay; but it was a hopeless and therefore a silly speculation; -though all the same I prayed heartily whilst I stood staring about me -that the berg would go, and speedily, whether it took us or left us, -since, whilst we lay hidden by it, there was not the remotest chance, -that I could imagine, of our being rescued. - -I remember thinking, as I turned from the rail and made with the ice -in my hand towards the companion, that one of the hardest parts of -this terrible experience for the poor girl below, though she would -have to be dumb on the subject, was the prospect of being locked up -with me--alone with a young man, a sailor, who was a stranger without -existence to her a few days ago; to be locked up, I say, it might -be for months, with a threat even of years in the run of time, with -a person whose character and history she knew nothing about, whose -calling sunk him far below her socially. This ran in my head with the -swiftness of thought whilst I was going below, and after I was in the -cabin going about the business of boiling coffee for a meal. - -How could I make her mind easy, on the score, I mean, of our -association, so that something at least of the weight of our -distressful tragic situation should be lifted off her poor young heart? -But the answer my good sense gave me was the answer it had before -returned, namely, she could only find me out by time, though to be sure -I might shorten the period of her fear of me by a behaviour that could -leave her in no doubt of my resolution to act as a man. - -I can't express how deeply I pitied her, how my very soul was moved -to its depths by the sight of her as she sat in her loneliness and -helplessness, a trueborn lady, gentle and fair, watching me, with her -white face turning after me, as I moved; sitting upon that desperate -slope of deck with the red glow of the fire upon her, herself a -shapeless bulk of furs and coverings in the lamplight that was growing -dim. - -When I drew to the stove she questioned me afresh upon our situation, -and begged me to conduct her on deck. I answered presently, when she -had broken her fast. She said: - -'Only think how it would be with me if I were alone.' - -I stopped in what I was about, and looking at her a little steadily, -but with a smile, I said: - -'I'm glad my presence is welcome to you. It will be owing to no fault -of mine if it's not always so whilst we're together.' - -A grateful look freshened her face with an expression of life that was -like colour and a smile. - -'Think of me alone here!' she said in a low voice. 'I should have gone -mad days ago. It never could have come to my knowing that this hull -had stranded amongst the ice. I should have destroyed myself in my -craziness.' - -'You have gone through too much,' said I, 'to miss of being rescued. -You'll be saved and so shall I, and for no other reason, I dare say, -than because I'm with you. I have some hope that this hulk will take a -more comfortable posture. Did you hear a roar like an explosion just -now astern?' - -'Yes. Was it the ice?' - -'Ay. But should it trim us, I hope it will not send us afloat.' - -She listened whilst I told her of the huge berg that lay linked to the -island by the beach of ice on which the hull rested. Then I talked -as cheerfully as I could of making this interior a tight, dry, warm -room for her whilst we lay waiting for that help which was bound in -some shape of whaler or sealer to come along. She shuddered and looked -around her with a face of sudden imploring grief; but I went on, -speaking as heartily as I could. - -'We'll make this cabin dry and warm,' said I. 'I'll get that water to -leeward there baled out. I'll rout the carpet up on deck and see what -the breeze will do for the brine in it. They've managed very well over -and over again up in the Arctic latitudes for months and months with -meaner accommodation and a poorer hold. I'll stock this cabin that -things may be handy. There's plenty of oil aboard I hope. There'll be -coal to last us in the forepeak; we shall be helped out of this before -it's all used up.' - -'How long,' she asked, 'are we likely to remain here?' - -'It was a saying of Nelson that at sea everything is possible and -nothing improbable. It's certain these islands are visited. My -intention is, Miss Otway, since we're here, so to provide for ourselves -that we may be alive when help comes. Do you see that?' - -'Oh yes.' - -'Don't be scared, then, because I talk of provisioning and securing -ourselves as though we were to be locked up for years.' - -Whilst I talked I was at work getting breakfast. The angle of the -deck was an abomination and a terrible hindrance, but I made no -further trouble of it than my laboured motions expressed. Yet beyond -the boiling of the kettle there was nothing to be done in the way of -cooking owing to the slant of the stove. The discomfort was incredible. -It was like being in a ship poised on her beam ends on the edge of a -sea, magically arrested in her downward rush, and hanging fixed, as -though capsizing. - -All was as hushed in the interior as though we were in harbour. The -seethe coming from the flashes of silent swell, whenever the dark green -folds, blindly sweeping, tore themselves against some edge of ice, -was too faint to invade us: the noise of the sea was shut out by the -heights of ice astern, and no echo of the booming of the gale sweeping -over the frozen summits penetrated. But for the insufferable posture -of the hull my heart might have beaten with some sort of restfulness -and even gratitude; for, dreadful as our situation was, it lacked the -terrors of the past days and nights; we were at least safe for the -time being, whilst in any hour gone by we might have been crushed to -pieces; we had a right to look forward with some hope, because we were -plentifully supplied with food; the hull was a stout shelter, and I -could not conceive, unless there happened some convulsion of ice, that -the swell of the bay, however enraged by storm, could hurt us; it might -thump and thrust us high, further out of its reach--that was all--and -trim the vessel by so doing into a habitable structure. - -These were my thoughts as I put some breakfast on the deck for my -companion. It was impossible for her to help herself. I had to place -the fiddles on the deck to save the food from slipping from her hand. -I talked with so much confidence that, when she had made a light meal, -I heard something like a note of her spirit in her voice, and saw a -little light of kindling hope in her eyes. Presently she begged me to -take her on deck, on which I helped her to stand, and, catching hold of -her arm, conducted her to the companion steps. - -She ascended painfully. I stepped out on deck and brought her to my -side; and then, emerging, she looked around. Never can I forget that -poor young lady's face as she gazed at the savage, desolate, frozen -scene, realising the significance of it slowly. She shrank, she -cowered in the companion way; she shuddered violently, whilst her hand, -with a wandering gesture, came to my arm. I see her now in memory -turning her white face towards the towering mass astern, then looking -at the dumb blankness of the ice cliffs ahead, with the bows of the -beam-ended hulk rising to them as though upon a lift of sea. - -'Is this it? Is this it?' she whispered. - -She stared straight up at the flying gloom, blacking off the ghastly -white edge of the iceberg in shadows of a ragged, smoke-like stuff; -she strained her eyes at the little space of sea showing in angry, -dark, flashing ridges past the huge ice projection that made the bay, -shutting out from our sight all the rest of the ocean too. Then, -turning to me, she tried to speak, swayed, with an effort to cover her -face, and fainted. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - -MR. MOORE CONTINUES THE STORY - - -No news of Marie reached us after we received a letter by a brig called -the 'Queen of the Night' which had spoken the 'Lady Emma' in the North -Atlantic. She had sent us a sort of diary or journal: it was meant for -her father and me: she wrote in spirits which, the entries showed, -were gaining in brightness, and there was no doubt that her health had -greatly improved. Some of her descriptions were very fine: she seemed -to have thrown herself into the very life of the voyage and wrote of -the sails, rigging, discipline and manoeuvres of the vessel with the -easy familiarity of an old sailor. - -We gathered that she was perfectly happy with Captain and Mrs. Burke, -and of Mr. Owen she spoke with gratitude for his attention and sympathy. - -I was told, however, by one or two seagoing acquaintances not to wonder -if we did not hear again from Marie until the ship arrived at her first -port, Valparaiso. A vessel might be ninety days upon the ocean and yet -not 'speak' another. A friend spoke of an Indiaman that, in the whole -voyage from Bombay to the Thames--not allowing, of course, for the -ships seen on touching at Capetown--had sighted nothing but the topmast -canvas of a vessel whose hull was sunk out of sight below the horizon. - -I was living in rooms out of Bond Street. One morning in 1860, it was -October 2, and Marie had then been absent from England six months, -during which, after the arrival of the Liverpool brig, we had received -no news whatever either of her or the 'Lady Emma.' I say, on October 2, -whilst at breakfast, I picked up a morning newspaper and began to turn -it about. After reading for some time my eye lighted upon a paragraph -headed, 'Loss of the ship "Lady Emma."' I trembled and felt sick; I -wanted courage to read the paragraph, though the paper was shuddering -in my hands, and my eyes were upon the news, yet before reading I -caught myself reasoning; it is another 'Lady Emma'--it cannot be -Marie's ship--there may be ten or twenty 'Lady Emmas' afloat--and then -I read. - -The paragraph--I have not preserved it--was to this effect: - -The barque 'Planter,' being to the eastwards of Cape Horn, fell in with -a ship's long-boat full of men. The captain took the unfortunate people -on board, but some were found to be lifeless, having been frozen to -death during the night. Their story was, they were the boatswain (Wall) -and survivors of the ship 'Lady Emma,' Burke, master, that sailed -from the Thames bound to Valparaiso on April 2. She had been driven -to the southward and eastward by heavy weather, and when she was in -about fifty-nine degrees south latitude, she was totally dismasted by -a sudden hurricane. After fruitless efforts to erect a jury-mast, the -crew abandoned her in the long-boat. With them went the ship's doctor -(Owen). The master refused to quit the ship, and remained aboard with -his wife and a young lady passenger. Very shortly after the long-boat -had been met with, one of the crew of the 'Planter' fell overboard. -A boat was lowered in charge of the chief mate, Mr. Ralph Selby, but -before she could reach the man a sea capsized her, and the mate and the -three men who were in her were drowned. Within a week of picking up the -survivors of the 'Lady Emma's' crew, the 'Planter' transferred them -to a vessel bound to Monte Video, where they were forwarded by H.B.M. -Consul by steamer to this country, arriving yesterday at the West India -Docks. Mr. Owen died before the arrival of the vessel at Monte Video, -and was buried at sea. It is supposed that the 'Lady Emma' foundered -prior to the rescue of her crew, as Captain Parry of the 'Planter,' -which is a barque of four hundred and sixty tons, cruised at great risk -amongst the ice in the neighbourhood of the spot where the hull was -supposed to be lying without seeing anything of her. - -I sat as one paralysed, read the account through again, scarcely even -then believing that the ship was the same that my betrothed had sailed -in. Next, thrusting the newspaper into my pocket, I jumped up, ran into -the street, and, jumping into a cab, bade the man drive me to Messrs. -Butcher and Hobbs, at such and such a number in the Minories. It was -about a quarter to ten o'clock. - -Butcher and Hobbs were the owners of the 'Lady Emma'--of her and a -little fleet of smaller vessels. I had been introduced by Captain -Burke to Mr. Hobbs, and now it came to me as I was driven fast, -with my brain in a whirl, half mad with consternation, grief, the -hundred emotions which must needs throng upon so abrupt a disclosure -of dreadful news as this I had just read--it came to me, I say, that -Mr. Hobbs in my presence had very earnestly advised Captain Burke to -insure some goods he was taking out as a speculation of his own; and I -recollected the captain replying, with an arch, laughing air, full of -strong confidence, that insurance would only render him indifferent: -he had no fear as to the safety of the ship. If he insured and she was -lost, it would be said he sank or stranded her. - -On my arrival in the Minories I entered an old-fashioned, grimy office, -in which sat a tall, stoutly-built seaman with immense whiskers, both -hands on his knees; he stared idly, as though waiting. I went to a -desk, and asked for Mr. Butcher or Mr. Hobbs. The clerk may have -recollected me; he instantly rose, entered an inner office, and -returning, begged me to step in. - -Mr. Hobbs was alone: a large fat man, yellow-haired and bearded, -with staring, watery eyes. As I entered he stood up, with an air of -deep dejection, and extending his hand, bowed over it, looking down, -exclaiming: - -'I know the business that has brought you here, sir. It is terrible--it -is shocking! But----' He then stood erect, and shrugged his shoulders, -with a roll of his eyes upwards. - -'The report in the paper is true, then?' said I. - -'I grieve to say it is,' he replied. - -I so trembled with grief I could scarcely speak to the man. - -'Are we to entertain no hope whatever?' I said, leaning upon the table -for support. He placed a chair; I sank into it and proceeded: 'Surely -we need not certainly conclude the dismasted ship sunk after the -long-boat left her merely because----' and here, forgetting the names, -I brought out the newspaper to refer to--' the "Planter" failed to find -her after a few hours' search in, perhaps, thick weather, and amongst -the ice, which may have been numerous?' - -'Oh, of course,' he exclaimed, 'we must not abandon hope. As you justly -put it, the "Planter's" search counts for little, considering how -brief it was, and the state of the weather. I'll not pretend I have -much hope myself, but the sea provides many chances. Again and again -you hear of rates rising, till no further risk is taken; then the ship -is posted, her end made sure of, and one fine morning she's signalled -off some Channel station, blowing leisurely along with the loss of her -foretop-mast and her bottom beach-like with weed. I don't despair, sir; -yet I must honestly own my hope is not strong.' He paused, then said, -'I believe one of the crew of the "Lady Emma's" in the front office.' -He walked to the door and looked out. 'Would you like to see him? He -was the boatswain of the ship. His name is Wall.' - -I eagerly begged him to bring him in. He called, and the big sailor -I had noticed entered. I immediately recollected that Marie, in the -fragment of journal she had sent us, had described and praised him for -his civility and his qualities as a seaman. He stood before us, cap in -hand, his back slightly arched by years of stooping and hauling and -curling of his body over yards and booms; his weather-coloured face -was hard as leather, and rugged and knotted with muscle; one of those -seafaring faces, impenetrable to the chisel of ocean experience which -fifty tragedies of the deep would no more mark than the human anguish -in shipwreck alters the face of the rock which stares through the salt -smoke down upon the scene. - -'This gentleman,' said Mr. Hobbs, 'is Mr. Archibald Moore. The young -lady passenger aboard the "Lady Emma" was----' he dropped his head and -was silent. - -I gazed at the seaman with consuming interest; he had been among the -last--he might have been the last--who had seen, who had spoken to -Marie. - -'You'll not tell me,' said I, in a broken voice, 'there's no hope for -the three you left behind you?' - -'No, sir, I'll not tell you that,' answered the man in deep tones, -which trembled upon the ear with the power of their volume. 'I've said -all along that if the ice only lets the hull keep afloat, there was -nothen to prevent her being fallen in with. She wasn't so far south,' -continued he, looking at Mr. Hobbs, 'as to be out of the way of half a -dozen chances a week if the weather opened out the sea, and gave a view -of her as she lay flat, with but twelve foot of foremast standing.' - -'Why were they left behind?' I cried. 'Why were they left to wash -about in a dismasted hulk amongst ice, to perish horribly after days of -suffering perhaps?' and I beat the table with my fist. - -'Mr. Moore, the capt'n refused to quit,' said the seaman, speaking -calmly in his deep voice, and viewing me with an air of respectful -pity. 'My mates'll tell you I entreated of him and the ladies to enter -the boat, likewise did Mr. Owen, the doctor. We wasn't listened to. The -captain was all for waiting for something to come alongside, and take -the hulk in tow. He was for jury-rigging her--on a twelve-foot stump of -foremast!' said he, slowly regarding Mr. Hobbs. 'The consarn blew over -the bows. What in that way was going to stand down there?' - -'You should have used force,' I said. - -'With the capt'n?' he exclaimed, with a slow, astonished shake of his -head. - -'Had you got the captain into the boat, the ladies would have -followed.' - -'Neither 'ud have been alive next morning. The young one would have -froze to death in a few hours. You should have heard the strongest -amongst us groaning with the cold when we lost sight of the craft we -were making for, and when the night drawed down, and we were for the -hull, all hands of us mad for the shelter of her and the warmth of -our blankets and the hot drinks to be got. I tell ye, sir,' he added, -calmly and respectfully, 'that the captain knew more about it than we -did, and was right to keep the ladies aboard; for if they was to die, -better comfortably in a warm cabin than in an open boat with spray -sheeting over them at every plunge.' - -'What was the situation of the hull when the crew abandoned her?' I -asked. - -Mr. Hobbs pulled open a drawer, and read aloud a copy of an entry in -the log-book of the 'Planter' in which the meeting with the long-boat -was minuted. The situation as there stated was Latitude 58° 45' S., -Longitude 45° 10' W. This copy of the logbook entry had been handed by -Captain Parry of the 'Planter' to the master of the ship to whom the -crew had been transferred. - -A yellow glazed map of the world hung in the office over the -mantelpiece. My eye went to it, and I made a step, saying to the -boatswain Wall: - -'Show me to the place. What land lies nearest to it? What is the usual -track of ships passing Cape Horn?' - -He hung back, evidently ignorant of maps and of latitude and longitude. -Mr. Hobbs, picking up a ruler, approached the mantelpiece, and, peering -close at the dingy map, presently put the end of the ruler upon a part -of it and said: - -'This, as nearly as possible, will be the place where the crew -abandoned the hull.' - -'Is that land there?' - -Mr. Hobbs slanted his head to read, and exclaimed; 'Ay; in this little -group we have--my sight is not what it was--ah! the South Orkneys. -These to the left--' with straining sight and some difficulty he spelt -out 'South Shetlands.' - -'What sort of islands are they?' I asked. - -'About the most desolate, froze-up, oninhabited rocks on that side of -the world,' answered Wall. 'There's nothen to be thought of along o' -them.' - -'Why?' I asked. - -'Because going ashore there would be like hittin' ice. In the swell -that's always a-running, the hull 'ud go to pieces with the first blow, -like a loosed faggot. Their one chance,' he added, in a voice of deep -conviction, 'lies in their being fallen in with and taken off. That may -have happened. If so, it'll be a question of waiting.' - -'If so,' cried Mr. Hobbs, with a raised manner of cheerfulness that -was scarcely sincere I thought, 'Captain Burke will bear in mind the -suspense and anxiety you and the young lady's father are suffering, and -exert his experience as an old seaman to promptly communicate, so that, -let us trust, if there be good news in store, we'll get it quickly.' - -'Suppose the hull should have been thrown upon an iceberg,' I -exclaimed, addressing Wall, 'must she inevitably go to pieces?' - -'That 'ud depend upon how she took the ice,' he answered. - -'If she stranded and lay dry--such things have happened--could the -three live in her?' - -'Yes, sights more comfortably than if she was afloat.' - -'For how long?' - -'She was freighted,' said Mr. Hobbs, 'with an abundance of the -necessaries of life.' - -'How long could a vessel remain on the ice in a habitable state?' - -'Years,' answered Wall, 'if she's let alone. Give her a snug berth -clear of the wash of the sea and tumbling blocks, and what's to hurt -her?' - -Mr. Hobbs was staring at me earnestly. 'I could wish to persuade you,' -he exclaimed, with a melancholy inclination of his head, 'to discard -the notion of the hull finding a berth in an iceberg. Our hope must -take a practical form. Let us, then, believe that the wreck has been -encountered by one of the many whalers and other vessels which frequent -those seas, and that Captain Burke and his companions are at this -present moment safe.' - -I turned to Wall and plied him with questions. What was the condition -of the hull? What had been the state of Miss Otway's health? Did he -believe, by recalling her looks when he last saw her, that she had -the strength to outlive the horrors, trials, suspense, suffering, of -even one week of a dismasted hull, rolling about amidst the ice in -dangerous, desolate seas?--the wildest in the world and in their -mid-winter? Was Captain Burke, singlehanded, aboard the wreck, as a -man, capable of doing anything to help them into safety? If not, why -had he stuck to the ship? What madman's nightmare of imagination could -have induced him to remain with two women aboard a vessel he could do -nothing with? - -I almost raved my questions at the man, so wild grew my heart with -grief whilst I listened to his plain answers, full of an old practical -seaman's good sense, though several times he repeated that the captain -was right to keep his wife and Miss Otway aboard, as they never could -have survived the first night in the long-boat. - -He increased my distress by hinting somewhat doubtfully that Captain -Burke had fallen a little weak in his mind during the voyage; he spoke -of an apparition that had been seen to walk on the ship's forecastle; -it had been clothed in the likeness of the captain, and ever after he -had ceased to be quite the same man. - -'Can you imagine,' I cried, rounding upon Mr. Hobbs, 'that the loss of -the ship is owing to Captain Burke having gone mad?' - -'You wouldn't say so?' he answered, looking at Wall. - -'No, sir,' answered the seaman, 'there was no madness in that job of -dismasting, if it wasn't in the weather.' - -'But,' I exclaimed, picking up the ruler Mr. Hobbs had used, and laying -the end of it upon the map, 'what was the captain's motive in carrying -this vessel so far south? See where the Horn is? What, in God's name, -was he doing so high?' - -'He was blowed there,' answered the man. - -'I understand,' said Mr. Hobbs, 'that a succession of hard northerly -gales settled the vessel to the southward and eastward, considerably -out of the usual course.' - -'The "Planter" was also blowed south,' said Wall. - -I continued to question with impassioned anxiety, eagerness, and -grief, till I found I was likely to become an intruder in the office, -on which, asking the boatswain Wall for his address, and ascertaining -that he did not mean to look about him for another berth at present, I -shook hands with Mr. Hobbs, and walked to my place of business in the -City--a private bank near Gracechurch Street. - -Sir Mortimer Otway was at this time at Paris on a visit to some -friends. I had heard from him two days before, and understood that he -would return on the fourth or fifth. His health was not good. Of late -he had become very anxious about his daughter. He thought it was time, -after six months, that he should receive news of her, or that the 'Lady -Emma' should be reported. This being so, I resolved not to write, but -to wait until his return, when I would tell him of the wreck of the -ship, if, indeed, the account of it did not reach him through other -hands, or the newspapers in Paris. - -For my own part I was so shocked, so stunned, there was something so -terrible to my imagination in the character of this wreck, in every -circumstance of it, having regard to the loneliness of the three, the -wild and stormy breast of waters where the hull had been left plunging -helpless by her crew, that I could not hold up my head. I could not -speak. I sat in a sort of stupor. My father reasoned with me; he -pointed out that the hull was afloat, a stout, seaworthy vessel when -the crew left her; that being dismasted she was less likely to beat -against the ice than were she moving through the water under sail; that -a vessel had been seen and pursued by the crew; that where one was -there must be others; and so on, and so on. - -I heard him and that was all. - -I cannot tell how great was my love for Marie. I felt that I had acted -as a wretch, betrayed the darling of my heart to her destruction, -in sanctioning her father's scheme of sending her away alone--and -she must be alone if she was without me--on a long voyage in a -comparatively small sailing ship. The fancy of her in that rolling, -dismasted hull was a dreadful oppression to my imagination and worked -in me like madness itself. I had seen the ship, and so the figure of -her as she tumbled dismasted amidst the heavy seas far south of Cape -Horn was easy to paint. To think of my Marie, that delicate, fragile, -timid girl, imprisoned in such a hulk, enduring hours and perhaps days -of anguish in poignant suspense and heartbreaking expectation of death, -all alone as she was, countless leagues away from me, from her father, -with no other companion than her old nurse, who, let her devotion be -what it might, must surely fail her at such a time. - -My mind felt crazed. I could not lift my head nor speak. - - -END OF THE SECOND VOLUME - - -PRINTED BY -SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE -LONDON - - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Heart of Oak, vol. 2 of 3, by William Clark Russell - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEART OF OAK, VOL. 2 OF 3 *** - -***** This file should be named 62378-0.txt or 62378-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/3/7/62378/ - -Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: Heart of Oak, vol. 2 of 3 - A Three-Stranded Yarn - -Author: William Clark Russell - -Release Date: June 12, 2020 [EBook #62378] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEART OF OAK, VOL. 2 OF 3 *** - - - - -Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - -+-------------------------------------------------+ -|Transcriber's note: | -| | -|Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | -| | -+-------------------------------------------------+ - - -NEW BOOKS AT EVERY LIBRARY. - - -SONS OF BELIAL. By WILLIAM WESTALL. 2 vols. -LILITH. By GEORGE MACDONALD. 1 vol. -THE PROFESSOR'S EXPERIMENT. By MRS. HUNGERFORD. 3 vols. -THE IMPRESSIONS OF AUREOLE. 1 vol. -DAGONET ABROAD. By GEORGE R. SIMS. 1 vol. -CLARENCE. By BRET HARTE. 1 vol. -OTHELLO'S OCCUPATION. By MARY ANDERSON. 1 vol. -HONOUR OF THIEVES. By C. J. CUTCLIFFE HYNE. 1 vol. -THE MACDONALD LASS. By SARAH TYTLER. 1 vol. -THE PRINCE OF BALKISTAN. By ALLEN UPWARD. 1 vol. -THE KING IN YELLOW. By ROBERT W. CHAMBERS. 1 vol. - - -LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY. - - - - -HEART OF OAK - -VOL. II. - - - - -PRINTED BY -SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE -LONDON - - - - -HEART OF OAK - -A THREE-STRANDED YARN - - -BY - -W. CLARK RUSSELL - -AUTHOR OF -'THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR' 'THE PHANTOM DEATH' -'THE CONVICT SHIP' ETC. - - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - -IN THREE VOLUMES--VOL. II. - - -LONDON -CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY -1895 - - - - -CONTENTS - -OF - -THE SECOND VOLUME - -CHAPTER PAGE - XI. THE CREW LEAVE 1 - - XII. MR. SELBY TAKES UP THE STORY 41 - - XIII. THE HULL 69 - - XIV. STILL ADRIFT 92 - - XV. THE ICE IN THE SOUTH 120 - - XVI. THE AURORA AUSTRALIS 145 - - XVII. THE THICK OF IT 169 - -XVIII. IMPRISONED 192 - - XIX. MR. MOORE CONTINUES THE STORY 221 - - - - -HEART OF OAK - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE CREW LEAVE - - -The sail shone like a peak of ice against a belly of soft snow-cloud -right ahead--that is, ahead as the hull's bows lay. I should have -supposed it ice, but for the captain, who stood close beside the -companion holding the ship's glass: he said, 'There she is, miss.' - -'Is she coming this way?' cried I, shivering with cold and passion. - -'I can't tell as yet. She's only just been sighted. Bear a hand with -the first empty tar barrel you can get hold of,' he bawled, moving -forwards, and he continued to shout, but I could not gather the -instructions he delivered. - -Presently Mrs. Burke joined me, and then Mr. Owen swathed to the -nostrils. - -'It's almost too good to credit,' he exclaimed! 'Can they be mistaken? -Is it ice? If it should prove a ship!' - -He went sliding and staggering towards some men in the waist, and stood -questioning them, heedless of the captain. - -With the promptitude of seamen the crew collected a lot of stuff for -making a smoke; they stacked a large heap of material near the gangway -and set fire to it, and in about ten minutes a thick body of blue smoke -was rolling over the rail, and clouding upwards with many a sparkling -ruddy gleam shooting up tongue-shaped or arrow-like into the throat of -the sooty pouring. - -It was wide daylight and the antarctic day young, but the clouds rimmed -the horizon with the shadow of night, and the crimson light of the -flare promised as swift an intelligence of our forlorn condition as -the smoke. The seamen continued to feed the fire; and all the while -Captain Burke was stretching his telescope at the distant gleam; the -men again and again turning their eyes from it to him with looks -growing dark with impatience and consuming anxiety. Mr. Owen had -fetched his binocular glass and strained his eyes through them without -intermission. Mrs. Burke and I standing in the companion, which was -the one sheltered part of that long stretch of frozen deck and smashed -bulwarks, gazed without speech. - -Suddenly a sailor, one who had been most active in feeding the fire, -sprang on to the rail: he grasped a spear-shaped projection of ice, -which broke short off and he fell on his back; he sprang again with an -oath, and after looking, turned to others who were standing near the -fire and roared: - -'Mates, she's leaving us, by God!' - -'She takes us for a whaler trying out. There's no good in smoke as a -signal down here,' said a sailor. - -'It's our chance,' bawled the fellow who had sprung and fallen, now -throwing himself back on to the deck. 'There mayn't come another for -weeks. What's to happen then? Are we to drive about in this fired ocean -till we ends as froze-up corpses? I'm for following her.' - -'Take her bearings, bo'sun, while she's in sight,' shouted a seaman, -and the huge sailor, as obedient as though the captain had given the -command, rolled aft and put the sharp of his hand upon the compass bowl. - -'Captain Burke,' exclaimed one of the seamen, in a voice startling with -its sudden savage note of revolt, 'we've had enough of this. There's -nothen that's a-going to be of any use to us in them booms.' He pointed -behind him with his thumb. 'There's our chance. We'll run ourselves -into her sight and she'll pick us up.' - -'Hold your jaw, you Johnson!' said Captain Burke, who was as white -as the deck in the face, though his eyes showed dangerously, like a -madman's who watches his chance to leap upon you. - -'Hold _my_ jaw?' growled the seaman, a hairy scowling man in a yellow -sou'-wester, dropping his head into an insolent butting posture. -'Why, so I will arter I've told yer that when them masts went we was -quit of your blistered articles, and here's one as ain't for stopping -one bloomin' minute longer to mess and muck about with jury-masts, -pennorths of parasol to be blowed over the bows as soon as they're up. -Mates,' he yelled, 'I'm after that ship whilst there's time. Who's for -coming?' - -As though there had been something quickening and thrilling as -magnetism in the sailor's shout, the whole of the men made a jump for -the boat, one of the first being the boatswain who was coming aft from -the compass when the seaman bawled the invitation. - -The smoke of the flare had flittered down into a curl of pale blue -vapour, which blew over the rail feather-shaped to the sea. The captain -stood this side of it, watching the men in a staring idle way whilst -they went to work at the boat with gleaming knives, hacking and cutting -at her fastenings--he seemed as though deprived of his reason--then he -roared out: - -'Leave that boat alone. Don't touch that boat. She belongs to the ship. -She's my property. Overboard and swim for that vessel there if she's -your chance, you dogs! But leave that boat alone.' - -A few turned their heads to look at him and then went on passing their -knives through the lashings, clearing away the booms and so forth. - -'Stop him!' shrieked Mrs. Burke. 'Help, Mr. Owen! What can he do? -What's the use of it? They'll kill him!' and I too screamed when I saw -the captain rush upon the nearest of the men regardless of their naked -knives; he struck out right and left, flooring two, but a third--none -of them I observed offering to hit him back--crooked his leg at the -poor man's heels, and he fell, fetching the iron-hard snow-coated plank -a thump that left him motionless. - -Mrs. Burke rushed to his side. The boatswain cried out: - -'He's no right to stop us, mum. It's our lives we're working for and -thinking of. You and him and the lady'll come along too. Now, mates, -whilst there's daylight, for God's sake!' - -Mr. Owen crossed to the captain's side and assisted Mrs. Burke to drag -him aft. His figure slipped over the frozen snow as though he was -lifeless, but they had not dragged him a dozen paces in the direction -of the companion-hatch when he cried out and struggled. Mr. Owen let -go; with the help of his wife he got on his feet. - -'Get me some brandy,' said he. - -I heard him and made with what speed I might for the cabin, my face -bloodless and my heart beating as fast as a watch ticks. That brief -scene of conflict, like to one of those terrible mutinies I had read -of in sea tales, had been shocking to witness, on top as it was of our -helpless and awful situation, and all the anguish of expectation and -fear which had filled the past few days. I was sick and nearly fainted. -I sat down to catch my breath and press my temples. Before I found -strength to rise, Mrs. Burke descended, followed by her husband. - -He seated himself at the table, upon which he lay his right arm and -buried his face in it. She coaxed him after a little into taking some -brandy, and then observing my state she got me to take a sip. - -Meanwhile overhead I heard the crew busy with the long-boat; her keel -thundered as they ran her to the side for launching. Their movements -were full of feverish bustle; in truth they were working for life or -death; they meant to catch the ship and there remained but a very few -hours of daylight. - -'Does your head pain you, Edward?' - -'No,' he answered, and strained his hearing to catch what was passing -above. - -'Will they let us know when they're ready to take us?' I cried. - -'Take us!' the captain exclaimed, with a sudden anger in his whole -manner as he turned towards me. 'They may take you, but I stop here.' - -'No, no, Miss Marie,' cried my poor old nurse, 'they must not take you -without me, and my place is by my husband's side wherever he is. Think -if they should miss the ship, which is more than likely: they'll be in -an open boat in this frozen ocean! Fancy being in an open boat in such -weather as that of the night before last! You would not live to see -to-morrow's dawn. And how should their going concern us? If they fall -in with the ship they'll report we are here and the vessel may return. -If they miss her they are in an exposed open boat, and we are in a dry, -comfortable hull, with a good warm cabin to sit in, and no worse off -than if all the crew were aboard. For what can they do? If the ship -comes, she'll come whether the crew are on board or not.' - -'But are the three of us to be left alone?' I exclaimed. - -'The dogs could have helped me,' muttered the captain. 'We blew -northwards yesterday and to-day we sighted a sail. They are villains to -steal my boat, the only remaining boat. But I am too few for them--I am -too few for them.' He clasped his hands upon the back of his head as -though he was in pain there. - -Just then four or five seamen came tumbling down the companion-ladder: -one held a lighted lantern. This man exclaimed: - -'Capt'n, the boat's alongside, and all's ready.' - -'What are you doing down here?' thundered the captain. - -'The victuals we want are in the lazarette,' answered the man. 'No good -lifting the main-hatch and overhauling the cargo when all we need's -handy here.' - -Even whilst he spoke the rest had pulled up a little square hatch -cover with an iron ring in it; it fitted a large manhole a few paces -abaft the companion-ladder; this hatch conducted to a part of the -after-hold called the lazarette, a sort of store-room in which the -cabin provisions and wines with other commodities were stowed. - -Captain Burke jumped from his seat; his wife fell upon him shrieking, -and with her arms about his neck forced him to sit, beseeching him to -have patience, to let the men have their way, to attempt no violence -or they would kill him. He trembled with rage and weakness and grief, -but he understood his powerlessness--which was merciful, for there was -an angry stubbornness in the hurry and motions of the men which was as -good as advising their captain, with a curse and a threat wrapped up in -the hint, not to meddle with them, not to offer to hinder them if he -valued his life. - -Very promptly the lot emerged from the lazarette, bearing cases and -sacks, hams, cheeses, and so forth. They no doubt guessed they'd come -to want plenty of provisions should they miss the ship they were -after. They ran headlong up the ladder, none heeding us, but not above -two minutes afterwards the boatswain's burly figure showed in the -companion-way, and he bawled down: - -'Capt'n Burke, we're all ready, and there isn't a second to lose. Ain't -you going to join us along with the ladies?' - -He received no reply. - -He repeated the question, roaring it out in a bull-like bellowing, and -then came a step or two down the ladder to stretch his neck that he -might see us. I cried out: - -'Are we to be left alone?' for I cannot express the horror that chilled -me when I thought of the sailors leaving us to save themselves, -insomuch that they might be on board another ship sailing towards the -sun ere the Southern Cross was trembling in the south that night, -whilst the three of us who stayed--two of them women--might go on -rolling about in a wrecked and crusted hull till she grew sodden and -sank, or split against an iceberg. - -'Come you along with us, miss, if the captain and his wife won't leave -the vessel!' cried the boatswain. - -'No!' shrieked Mrs. Burke. 'Would you expose a delicate young lady in -these seas in an open boat? Fools are you yourselves to go. You'll be -heard of no more.' - -The boatswain without another word withdrew his great developed bulk -from the hatch, but he was instantly replaced by another figure, and -Mr. Owen's voice, shrill with excitement and hurry, cried down: - -'Mrs. Burke, Miss Otway, aren't you coming? They'll be putting off -without you if you pause.' - -'He does not ask my husband to join them,' screamed Mrs. Burke, 'the -wretch! does he think I would leave my husband?' - -Mr. Owen came swiftly down into the cabin and talked like a man in -delirium. - -'You have no right to keep this young lady with you. Captain Burke -sticks to his hull from sordid motives. That's his look-out. Life's -more precious than cargo. Miss Otway was entrusted to my care. I insist -upon her being permitted to accompany us. Her father looks to me for -her well-being. She is eager to go with us and you will not suffer it.' -Thus he raved on. - -'Leave this cabin,' cried the captain, springing up. His face was full -of blood, his blue eyes blazed; he had already been worked up into -madness, and I was certain by his insane manner of starting from his -chair, if the doctor did not go instantly the captain would destroy him. - -But it was at that moment that the boatswain bawled on deck. 'Come -up!' were the words I caught, sounding through the companion-hatch in -a muffled note of thunder. 'Up with them who's going.' More was said -which I did not hear. - -'By keeping her, you are murdering her, and her blood is on your head!' -cried Mr. Owen like a woman in a frenzy of passion, and rushed up the -ladder. - -'Don't believe him,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke, grasping my hand, with a -wild, short, passionate laugh that had the note of an hysteric sob. -'You shall see the boat presently. You shall see it out upon the -water. You will judge then who would kill you. Oh, not I, not I, my -flower; not I, your poor old nurse!' - -I clasped her round the neck and sobbed. When I looked up Captain Burke -had left the cabin. - -We were apparelled for the deck, and finding the captain gone, we -followed, and though scarcely five minutes had elapsed since the -boatswain bawled, already the long-boat was some ship's lengths -distant, bowed almost to the line of her lee rail by a great square of -white canvas, shaded here and there where the moisture had not dried -out of it. She looked full of people as she rose to the head of the -folds, ripping through it with the icy breeze fresh off her bow, till -the lift of the foam sparkled in a fountain-like arch right athwart her -forward, and her speed raised two humps of froth on either quarter, -and shot a long milk-white glance of wake, bright as a meteor's line -of light, far astern of her, lifting and falling on the swell, and -defined to its extremity even amidst the smoke and snap of the running -seas. - -Captain Burke with one hand grasping the edge of the companion stood -watching her. When we came up his first words were, after a brief pause: - -'They'll overhaul the ship if they can only get a sight of her. Look -how she sails, and how finely she is handled.' - -'She may be the means of saving us,' cried Mrs. Burke. 'What use were -they on board of us? But they're useful there. They'll be sighted and -rescued, and we shall be hunted after.' - -But I did not want her nor her husband after I had watched the boat -a little to tell me that, unless they quickly encountered succour, -their situation, crowded together in a small exposed space, would be -terrible. Also, since Mrs. Burke would not have left her husband, I -should have been the only woman in her. I cannot say how the mere -sight of her as she swept onwards, dwindling as you gazed into a mere -toy, regularly sinking out of sight till nothing showed but a gleaming -curve of her topmast cloths, wan and slender as a distant sea-fowl's -pinion, then taking the slope till she leaned, poised and foaming for -a breathless instant, upon the flying summit: I cannot tell you, I -say, how solemnly and awfully that mere toy, full of human beings, -emphasised to my perception the vastness and the loneliness of this -cold, green, heaving breast of ocean. - -Captain Burke took the telescope out of the companion and swept the sea -for some little distance on either hand the boat's bows, pausing on the -lee side of the fabric where, my sight being good, I spied a point like -a light tipping the sea-line against some dark clouds there whenever -the hull soared. - -'That's the ship,' said he, pointing. 'They may catch her! Why, had I -thought of it--but who's going to make proposals to mutineers?--the -scoundrels have stolen my only boat. How do they know in leaving us -what's to become of us without a boat?' - -'Had you thought of what?' said his wife. - -'I'd have given them a handful of rockets.' - -We stood watching the boat till the white spot she became was one with -the breaking seas. The hull looked indescribably forlorn. The sense of -all life, saving us three, having gone out of her, brought a deeper -spirit of desolation into her labouring shape. Oh, the heart-sickness -that came into you out of her dismal regular rolling in the trough! -The swell lifted her, the seas burst upon her weather side as against -a rock, broke into smoke, and smote the hollow they sprang from with -the loud hissing of a hail squall. There was a constant dreary gleam of -ice as the fabric swayed, pallid glares along her side, blue glancings -from the long barbs at the catheads; the frozen snow the whole length -of the deck had a shrewd keen sparkle. In places along the working line -of the sea hung motionless the faint marble of bergs; but long before -the boat was lost to view the feather-tip of sail she was pursuing had -vanished. - -Captain Burke carefully and closely swept the horizon, then replaced -the telescope. - -'A few hours often make a mighty difference at sea,' said he. 'By this -time tomorrow we may be towing northwards.' - -'Have the men gone away without a compass?' said Mrs. Burke. - -'The bo'sun owned a compass that was a curiosity of casting and -graving: I remember he showed it to the mate. They'll have taken that -with them. And now,' said he, speaking with more cheerfulness than I -had observed in him for some days, 'let us go below and get something -to eat. There's fuel enough to keep the stove going for a long spell. -The hull's as staunch as she was on the day we sailed. Any moment -you may see something that will look like ice climbing the sea into a -whaler's breast of topsail and stump topgallant masts. So call things -at their worst, miss,' said he, 'for then we may believe that their -mending's at hand.' - -Mrs. Burke and I went below; the captain remained on deck. Between -us we dressed the dinner table. She did not want me to help her. She -said it was her duty and joy to wait upon me. 'To think of Miss Marie -Otway,' she exclaimed, 'laying a table-cloth and putting knives and -forks upon the table that a plain merchant-skipper and his wife may -dine.' - -I kissed and went on helping her; any sort of occupation was welcome: -for, argue as the captain and Mrs. Burke might, the abandonment of -the wreck by the whole of the sailors had raised a horror in me, and -filled my heart with deep secret distress and dread; so that, whenever -I thought of our situation, it was with a shudder at the emptiness of -the rolling broken hull. - -I believe the hour was not far from two o'clock. Already the gloom -of the early antarctic night was in the cabin, but the lamp swung in -flashes through the shadow, and you could only have told that the gloom -was gathering when you looked at the portholes. We sat beside the stove -waiting for Captain Burke; by-and-bye his wife grew uneasy, and went on -deck to seek him and call him down to dinner. - -I was then alone, and sat very cold and wretched. I had been alone in -this cabin before--that is, since the masts had gone; but then there -had been the tread of feet overhead, the knowledge of a plentiful, -hearty life in the ship. Now all was as hushed as the tomb in that way. - -After I had been waiting four or five minutes, I saw two small points -of light in the gloom where a locker ended, and where some few feet -of ship's wall ran clear. I stared, suspecting an illusion, and then -believed it was phosphorus or something jewelled with light by decay as -rotten timber is. But on a sudden the two shining spots came stealing -out into the whiskers and ribbed shape of a huge lean, grey rat. I -jumped up with a shriek and the thing vanished. - -My nerves gave way, and, marvelling at Captain and Mrs. Burke's -absence, I went on deck to look for them, trembling with disgust and -terror. - -The daylight was small, but the snow along the decks made a whiteness -in the air, so that perhaps even in the darkest hour you would be able -to detect anything in motion betwixt the rails. Here and there about -the leaden rolling ocean broke sudden glares of froth. The shadow had -blended the sea-circle with sky, and nothing was visible save a smoky -thickness of vapour breaking up to windward where it soared, and ashy -in places with rain or snow. I stood in the hatch and looked along the -deck and saw nobody. This so frightened me that I shrieked out Mrs. -Burke's name. Nothing answered. I trembled with dread and the bitter -cold of the wind, and crossing the deck that I might have something -to hold by, went forward, occasionally screaming out the name of Mrs. -Burke, but never getting an answer. - -The galley door was open: nobody was in it. I was half fainting with -terror; I could not imagine what had become of my companions. Was -I alone in the ship? Oh, never could I make you understand what my -feelings were whilst I stood running my eyes first forward and then -aft, straining along the ghostly slanting glimmer of the decks for a -sight of one or another of my friends, hearing nothing but a strange -moaning noise of wind in the sky, and the long rolling thunder of -moving mountains of water, the early night darkening fast down all -round, the closing in upon the ghastly, weary, tumbling hull, lifting -its bowsprit and splintered stumps of masts in postures of agony -defined as existence itself could make them! - -I had just sucked in my breath to send forth another scream, when I saw -a figure in the little hatch called the forescuttle, which led into the -forecastle. - -'Who is that?' I cried. - -'Is that you, Miss Marie?' called the voice of Mrs. Burke, and she rose -through the hatch. - -'I thought you were lost. I thought I was alone,' I cried, beginning to -sob with a sudden passion of hysteric relief. - -'My husband went down into the forepeak to get some coal,' said she, -not perceiving that I cried. 'He asked me to help him by pulling up -some buckets as he filled them. We are not quite done, but do not stay -on deck, my dear. We shall be with you in a very few minutes now.' - -On this I returned to the cabin, but much shaken, and so low-spirited, -I had never before felt more miserable. - -I entered the cabin with eyes a-search for the rat, and could not sit -still beside the stove for thinking of the beast, for at every moment -I was coining the lights of its eyes, the gaunt crouched shape of it, -out of some shadow here or there; and if I saw it not in imagination, -I figured it as under my chair. However, soon after I had returned, -the captain and Mrs. Burke entered the cabin, the captain bearing two -buckets and his wife one, full of coals. - -'Now,' he exclaimed, 'for a little wash after that job!' and he took -a kettle of water off the stove and carried it to his cabin. His wife -followed him. - -They came back soon and we sat down at the table. Whilst we ate Mrs. -Burke explained how her husband had attached a block to a beam in the -forecastle and rove a rope through it with a hook at one end, and how, -standing in the forecastle, she had hauled up the buckets as he filled -them deep down in the forepeak. - -I told them of the horrible rat I had seen. - -'Don't let it scare you, miss,' said the captain. 'Rats at sea haven't -the viciousness of the beasts ashore. They'll drown themselves in a -man's savings of molasses. They'll creep into his bunk and nibble his -toe-nails. That's about the worst that I can recollect. They may be -destructive to ships and cargo, but they've got their instincts, and -know when on the ocean they're dependent on sailors.' - -He doubtless said this to hearten me. Mrs. Burke changed the subject by -speaking of the melancholy appearance of the forecastle. The hammocks -swung, she said, as though every one held a man; the sailors' chests -were scattered about, there was a smell of tobacco in the place as -though the sailors had scarcely extinguished their pipes. The captain -had put out the forecastle lamp. It was alight when they entered. -Not that it would have set fire to the ship. It was sputtering and -smelling, with a thick coil of slush rank smoke spreading in a little -cloud under the deck out of a small greasy flame. - -'The silence is shocking,' she said to her husband. 'I looked to see -the heads of men peering at me over the edges of the hammocks.' - -'There may be heads of men nearer than we think,' said he. 'I'll -give ourselves a chance this night.' He looked up at the clock under -the skylight and seemed to calculate, and then said, 'The boat went -swiftly. She may have run into the ken of the ship--some box-ended -waggon of a south seaman, no doubt, slow as a baulk of timber working -to windward on a two-knot tide.' - -'What will you do?' said his wife. - -'I'll send up a rocket occasionally. If she picks up our people she -might stand down to look for us--she might. I'll do more,' he added -after a pause. 'I'll give them a flare or anything else that may be a -bright light to see us by--a lantern on the stump of the foremast, or, -better still, under the bowsprit where it'll dance.' - -'Can a hull like this remain long afloat?' said I. - -'Ay, miss.' - -'I thought when a vessel was dismasted she became a wreck, and went -quickly to pieces.' - -'Over and over,' said he, 'you may have heard, you must have read, of -derelicts, whose log-books showed they'd been washing about for months, -sliding north and south, east and west through the summers and winters -of the ocean. A well-built ship is so hard to knock to pieces that -when she's abandoned she's as dangerous to navigation as an uncharted -rock. Again and again they talk of sending gunboats to blow derelicts -to pieces and clear the road. They're hard to extinguish, even with -gunpowder, as hard to expel as a madman's fancies. This craft is safe, -believe me, and will provide us with a secure sea-home until we're -fallen in with, which may be tomorrow.' - -This sort of talk did me a world of good, and I began to cheer up and -feel something like my old self. I was now used to the motion of the -hulk, at least in such a sea as then ran, though a landsman coming on -board for the first time would have been instantly thrown, so swift, -abrupt, and shooting were the rolls. This afternoon we did not notice -any particular weight in the race and lift of the swell and sea; there -had been a dumbness in the looks of the weather throughout the day, -though a fresh wind blew with a flaying, razor-like edge of frost in -it. Captain Burke said he expected a quiet night; that is, no more wind -than had blown through the day. He built up a good fire for us, and got -his wife to boil some coffee, whilst he fetched a number of rockets to -carry on deck. - -With the wish to amuse me he asked if I would like to see a rocket -fired, and whilst Mrs. Burke made some coffee I followed him above. -Night was upon the sea, and its shadow was as a wall for the ice spears -along our rails to brandish their gleams upon. The captain fitted a -candle-shaped thing into a rocket in the bulwarks near the wheel and -fired it, and the rocket sprang high in a line of sparkles, leaving a -red ball of flame floating close against the clouds, which reflected -the radiance as though to a touch of sunset. I watched the red ball -float down the wind and expire. - -'We'll send up a second for luck,' said the captain. - -This was a white light and the dazzle of the flash was lightning-like: -a thin long wake of the brilliance dimly glanced, serpentine, off the -peaks and slants of the heaving waters and the sky opened as to a -star. But the night was the darker for that light when it went. - -'Now, who's to tell,' said Captain Burke, 'what eye has seen those -rockets? Never give up heart at sea, miss. We'll go below for a cup of -hot coffee, and then the brightest burning lantern aboard shall be made -fast in some place where it can be seen.' - -I returned to the cabin with a little spirit of elation working in -me, a strange possession in the presence of that reeling shadow of -frosted hull and the blackness winding round about, pallid here and -there with the wild dim light of froth. It was occasioned, no doubt, -by the sending up of the rockets, by some faint hope or fancy of their -being seen, with a half-formed vision of the ship the crew that day had -pursued staggering down towards us then, a pale shaft aslant, gaunt -with lean canvas breasting slowly, with many eyes on the look-out. - -The three of us sat drinking coffee, and our talk ran in the way of our -deliverance. The captain named our chances. - -'Yes,' cried I, 'but if a ship should refuse to tow you, you will not -surely remain on board this hull and keep us with you! Sooner----' - -I broke off. - -'Sooner what, miss?' said he, rounding his face upon me, crimson on one -side of it with the fire. - -'Sooner than that we should remain here in the hope of saving the -property you possess in the hull, I would give you under my hand an -undertaking that my father will make good the amount of your loss.' - -'We'll see you safe; we'll see you safe,' he exclaimed with a slow -smile. 'Anyhow, you're better here than in the long-boat where you'd be -if Mr. Owen could have had his way.' - -'Ay, if they're not aboard a ship they are cold now, I warrant, those -poor men in that open boat,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke. 'And if the breeze -should come on to freshen so as to fling spray over them, that must be -the freezing part. Not to be able to get up and walk, and to feel the -brine raining upon your back and hardening into a mask of ice about -your neck!' - -The captain got up, but as I did not watch him, I know not whether he -went on deck or to a cabin. When he returned he held a large ship's -lantern, a globe of white glass framed with metal. He fetched some oil -from the pantry, carefully trimmed and then lighted the lantern. - -'This will handsomely jewel the bowsprit,' said he. 'She'll make a -starry dance of it there, toss it as proudly as though it were a gem on -her brow, and she was still clothed in her last week's beauty of white -wings. Heigh-ho! 'Tis no time for fine fancies. Sit ye here, miss; -I'll not have you again expose yourself above; but, wife, you can rig -yourself up so as to give me a ten minutes' hand on deck. I may want to -seize a block to the bowsprit and run this light out.' - -She clothed herself for the bitter cold, and bidding me not be afraid -though a hundred rats should come and stare, she went up the steps -after her husband in the almost noontide light of the lantern that -swung in his hand. - -The emotion of light-heartedness was ended; it had been but as the -gleam of a star in black water on a cloudy night--the sky was folded -up, my heart was dark again, I found no light nor life of hope in -it. They say that hope springs eternal; I vow to God then I felt as -hopeless as if my end was at hand whilst I sat alone when they had gone -to show a light on the hull. I closed my eyes that I might not see the -rat should it come, and so, sitting with the glow of the lire upon my -face, I beheld a vision of my house: it rose upon my darkened gaze; I -saw the wintry scene of Channel waters, the glance of foam through the -flying clouds of snow; I saw myself walking with my sweetheart upon the -stretch of sands, pausing to gaze at the beauty of the forming breaker -and to hearken to the cries of the skyful of blown gulls. I saw my -father; but what I chiefly remembered was the sensation of bitter cold -which had sunk chill to heart and marrow, when I entered for the first -time the cabin I was now occupying. - -I shivered and buried my face and rocked myself, my eyes still sealed. -I may have lost thought of time in musing; I started, looked round, -and found by the hour that they had been on deck nigh twenty minutes. -I thought this was a long time for Captain Burke to keep his wife -exposed, and still I concluded that the job of securing a lantern to -the bowsprit might run into time aboard a dancing, jumping, slippery -hulk; so I continued to wait, all the while straining my ears, till -hearing was made an anguish of by the constant cheats of sound. - -I could bear it no longer. They had been absent half an hour and five -minutes. I did not expect to hear their footfalls through the frozen -snow on the planks; nor would their voices reach me if they remained -forward; but why did not they come? I waited another ten minutes, then -went on deck. - -I looked, and was almost paralysed with terror; had I been an instant -sooner, an instant later, it could not have been; but my eye went -to it as I rose through the hatch at the breathless moment of its -happening--and this was it: low over the sea in some quarter I could -not name hung the moon, red as the sun in fog; she had just broken -out through a mass of heavy black vapour; a ragged edge as of scud -was floating off her upper limb like a last lingering shadow of -eclipse, as I looked; and right athwart the orb, centering it, was -the body of a bird, doubtless an albatross; and the instant picture -was that of some wondrous, gigantic, glowing shield hanging over the -sea, and approaching the hull on the back of a huge seafowl. But in a -heart's beat the deception went: the bird whose distance created that -marvellous illusive perspective curved in its flight and winged out of -the illuminated circle and was gone, and in the next breath a lift of -black stuff like the dingy smouldering of a candle-wick overspread the -moon and hid her. - -I looked along the deck, and as before, so now, I beheld nothing -moving. I tried to reason with my terrors by supposing that the captain -had again gone below to shovel up more coal, and that his wife waited -in the forecastle to help him. But whilst I looked and strained my ears -I heard a moan; again and yet again it came; I could not be mistaken. -I went forward and heard the moaning whilst I advanced, and when I was -close to the galley I saw a figure on the forecastle and heard the -moaning again. - -I stepped close, my heart almost stopped, my blood almost frozen. The -white of the deck made a light of its own, as I have told you, and -I saw Mrs. Burke lying on her side. She lay close to the fluke of -an anchor that was stowed upon the forecastle on the starboard, or -right-hand side. She moaned and continued to moan; I dropped on my -knees, and grasping her hand cried, with my face close to hers to see -if her eyes were open, for her moaning was that of a dying person: 'It -is I. What has happened? Are you ill? Where's your husband?' - -She answered feebly, moaning at every other word: - -'He has fallen overboard. He went on to the bowsprit with a lantern and -slipped. Oh, God, my heart breaks, my heart breaks! I ran and fell and -I cannot rise. I have lost him--oh, my heart!' - -I cried in a passion of horror and terror, 'Captain Burke drowned!' and -then, figuring him battling for life alongside, I sprang to my feet -and went to the rail and looked over. But there was nothing to be seen -save an inky cloudiness of moving waters, shaping and dissolving, and a -dim light of foam when the ship's bows pitched, and there was no other -sound but that of the washing of brine pouring along the side, and a -noise of wind overhead. - -I went back to Mrs. Burke and knelt by her again, and cried: - -'Cannot you rise that I may help you to get to the cabin?' - -She moaned, but did not speak. - -Then my heart gave way wholly, and as I knelt by her side I clasped my -hands, and looked up into the darkness, and cried out of my loneliness: -'What shall I do? What shall I do?' - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -MR. SELBY TAKES UP THE STORY. - - -Having been blown considerably to the southward of our course by a -succession of hard northerly gales, the barque 'Planter,' from London -to Adelaide, on a dark, bitter, raw morning of July 1860, was breaking -the seas close hauled, looking up for as much northing as the seating -of the wind would allow. - -Our long topgallant masts were down on deck, and we showed nothing -above the topmast cross-trees. Under single-reefed topsails and reefed -foresail we rolled sluggishly onwards, making small way; the swell was -wide and strong, but the wind blew without spite, save for its edge, -and the seas ran small. - -My name is Ralph Selby. I was chief mate of that barque, a vessel of -four hundred and sixty tons, Walter Parry, master, John Newman, second -mate. I had charge of the forenoon watch, and it was now about nine -o'clock, but dark as at any hour of the night. All my sight had been -going for ice whilst it remained black; throughout this had been so -with the rest of us, since seven o'clock of the preceding evening we -had nearly fallen foul of ice mountains three times. At midnight, -indeed, the air being then like fog with snow, a loud and fearful cry -from the forecastle had preserved us by the dark of our nails, we were -in time by a few heart beats only; the whole mass looked aboard us as -we surged past with our helm hard up, floating off on a heave of black -fold that carried us clear, though it nearly thumped the channels off -our sides with the lumps of loose ice it slided us into. The paleness -of that mountain went up into the sky high above our mast-heads; the -roar of the sea bursting at its base was louder than any surf I ever -heard ashore; rock-blasting shocks in thunder echoes came out of the -heap, which perhaps sank two leagues backwards into the blackness. - -We drove clear and lost it, but for the rest of the night those who had -the watch kept staring with all their eyes. - -Whilst I leaned over the side searching the darkness off the bow, there -broke over the starboard quarter the cold pale day of that desolate -part of the world. The dim light seemed to sift to the zenith through -the clouds like steam under the rolling sky. In twenty minutes it was -daylight all round, the ocean a dirty freckled green, swollen in folds, -and flashful with the short running seas of the then light breeze. The -horizon opened into a hard green distance, working like a revolved -corkscrew against the stooping soot past it, though overhead it was -middling fine weather, streaks of dim green sky veining, into a look -of marble, a surface of compacted yellow stuff; down which the brown -scud was sailing south-west. - -Crossing the deck to peer to leeward, I instantly caught sight of a -sail, a white square of canvas which, coming and going this side the -horizon, puzzled me during the moments I kept my naked eye upon it. I -fetched the glass and on pointing it resolved the object into a ship's -long-boat, full of people. She was heading to close us, but did not -look as though she lay nearer than we; I observed no distress signal. I -thought I could count eight or nine heads. The gleam of oilskins came -off the men as the boat lifted. With the sheet flattened right aft the -little fabric shredded through it nobly, flinging the water away in -smoke, and rising with the dance and skill of the galley-punt of the -Downs to the head of every hurdling sea. - -The sight of her put a full spirit of civilisation into the desolate -scene; and yet I guessed that exquisite distress lay dumb for distance -only in that open leaping boat, gone now behind a hill of brine, now -straining her square of cloths aslant on a rolling peak. - -I sang out to the fellow at the wheel to let her go off by a point, and -was going to make my report to the captain when he appeared. His eye -caught the boat in a moment, and exclaiming, 'What have we here?' he -levelled the glass and said: - -'Pretty nigh a whole ship's company adrift.' - -We closed her rapidly and were presently within hail. - -'Take us aboard for God's sake, sir! Half of us are dead with the -cold,' cried a lamentable voice, no man, whoever he was that spoke, -rising nevertheless. - -We manoeuvred that she might sheer alongside; we then backed our -topsail yard and her sail dropped with a run. But the men seemed -scarcely to have life enough to catch hold of the coil of rope that -was flung to them, and then when she lay hard by you saw by the rise of -her to the height of our topgallant sail, then by the fall of her into -a hollow twenty feet deep, that if those men were to be rescued they -must be whipped aboard. - -So a tackle was secured to the main yard-arm, and the rope slackened -away to let the boat soar and sink fair under the whip; the captain -then sang out for the strongest to send the weakest, themselves -following. A huge, fine fellow with red whiskers answered with a -paralytic flourish of his hand, and without delay the whip end was -secured to one of the people and quickly as might be he was swayed -aboard. - -I was too busy with superintending these proceedings to do more than -glance at the first of them as they hauled him over the side; and just -took notice that he was a short man, cloaked and thickly wrapped, -with bushy hair, not a sailor, and he looked frozen to death. He was -carried into the cabin and another man was got aboard; he too seemed -lifeless. There were nine or ten, I am not sure. One by one we swayed -them over the rail, the last man to come being the big fellow with the -red whiskers. - -Those who seemed dead--of these there were four--were carried into -the cabin; the others who were able to crawl were helped into the -forecastle. - -'What's to be done with the boat, sir?' said I to the captain. - -'Oh, what can be done with her?' said he, with a shrug and an askant -look of longing at the fine little craft. 'We should drown her if we -towed her, and we can do nothing with her now. Let her go.' - -I went forward by the captain's orders and saw to the men who had been -sent into the forecastle. Hot grog and food were given to them; they -were partially unclothed and chafed and wrapped in blankets. The only -one who did not seem to need this care was the burly, red-whiskered -seaman. He had stripped himself of his waterproofs, and after -swallowing a couple of steaming glasses of grog, and eating pretty -heartily of cold beef and biscuit, he asked for some warm water to wash -the frost out of his face; which done, he fell to clapping his arms -upon his breast, and shooting them out to right and left, kicking his -legs about likewise; then turning upon me who stood watching, he said -he was ready to step aft and spin his yarn to the captain. - -We were a barque with a short poop; I took him into the cuddy, and -there left him in order to look after the ship, so that I did not -learn the story of this crew until a little while after he had related -it to the captain. When I regained the poop the boat was showing and -vanishing some distance astern. It made me shudder to think of exposure -in her in these seas, and under the wild sky that was stormily sipping -the sea-line with its black lips of vapour, though on high, over our -staggering mast-heads, the heavens continued to lie a little open. - -I saw them coming and going with steaming stuff from the galley, and -guessed they were ministering to the poor frozen wretches in the cuddy. -By-and-by the red-whiskered man went forward, and a little later up -came Captain Parry. He approached me, and with a shocked look on his -honest sailorly face said: - -'I'm afraid three of the four are dead. We can't put any life into -them. The fourth man stirred after some chafing, and when some hot grog -had been spooned down his throat, and he's now got his mind. But I -don't like to think how it's going to prove with him; his fingers and -thumbs look to be mortified, and if his boots are pulled off his toes -'ll come away.' - -'Which man is that, sir?' - -'The first man we got aboard, a man with bushy hair. He was doctor in -the ship.' - -'And the others are dead?' - -'I never saw a frozen to death body. Newman says they're dead. He's -been groping after any hint of life and finds none.' - -John Newman, as I have said, was our second mate. He had been bred to -medicine, changed his mind, and gone to sea at two-and-twenty, and was -now, at the age of thirty, with a master's certificate of competency in -his desk, earning five pounds a month as third in charge of a little -barque. We all looked up to Newman as a medical authority; he had -during the passage doctored some of us very skilfully; in pronouncing -the man dead he knew what he was talking about. - -'This is their yarn,' said the captain, and now I repeat in brief what -he related. - -Their ship was the 'Lady Emma.' She sailed from the Thames April 2. A -few days before this time--namely, on July 2--she was thrown on to her -beam ends by a terrific squall; they cut away to right the ship and -all three masts went smack-smooth saving the foremast, of which there -remained a jagged stump of some twelve foot. To this next day they -secured an arrangement of boom and square-sail, which blew over the -bows on the wind suddenly freshening. - -The captain was a little broken in his spirits and weakened in his -intellect by this calamity; also it was said forward that it weighed -upon him to remember that a strange man wearing his face and aspect -had walked on the forecastle one night. His hope was to blow north and -fall in with something that would give him a tow to a port, he (it was -understood) having a considerable uninsured venture in the vessel. -The crew sickened of his notion, seeing no good nor hope in it; and -on catching sight of the topmost canvas of a ship they launched a -long-boat, hastily provisioned her, and went away in pursuit, leaving -behind the master, his wife and a young lady passenger: but through no -fault of the men, as the captain and the others declined to accompany -them. - -They lost the ship and wore for the hull afresh, missed her, and -stood north-east by a compass which did not appear to have been very -trustworthy. They were exposed for two nights and very nearly two days, -and another night must have killed them all. The dead men were the -steward, a Dutch seaman who had been ill for weeks with rheumatism, and -another. - -'How should the wreck bear now, do you think?' said Captain Parry. - -I reflected, and after recalling the weather, and estimating the -boat's sailing powers and the like, I answered if she was to be -sought she might be found about one hundred and fifty miles distant -west-south-west. - -'I make her further than that,' said the captain. - -'Perhaps so, sir.' - -'But your bearings about tally with mine. I think it's our duty to give -those people a chance for their lives. Three of them! and two of the -three, women, Mr. Selby! And the passenger, I understand from Wall the -bo'sun, is the daughter of an English baronet--the skipper's wife was -her old nurse--she was sent out for her health.' - -He looked thoughtfully round the sea, then told me to get the yards -braced in, and going to the wheel, shifted the course, making a fair -wind of the breeze, and the ship drove along. - -The main difficulty lay in the shortness of the time of daylight. We -were not going to hunt for a large becalmed craft, clothed like a -pyramid to the trucks, and courting the eye like an iceberg, but for -a low dismasted hull, which might slide past us within musket-shot in -some hour of blackness, and no man dream it was near. But the captain -was resolved to give the poor people a chance: there could be no -question that the master of the ship, his wife, and a young lady were -alive, locked up, helpless and hopeless, aboard a hull which at any -hour might float away in staves from the side of an icehill; and it -was right, it was our duty, it was a service that God would expect of -us, that humanity required of us, to search, even at some peril to -ourselves--loss of time counting for nothing when the errand is one -of mercy--seeing that the hull lay, perhaps, within two hundred miles -off, and her inmates in a situation to continue alive for a long while, -the boatswain Wall having told Captain Parry that she was plentifully -stocked with coal, provisions, and liquor. - -All that day, till night blackened out the scene, we kept an eager -watch upon the sea. It held fairly clear, a slender promise overhead -in greenish streaks of an opening heaven, though the horizon scowled -with snow-clouds. We sighted several icebergs, but saw nothing of the -wreck. When it fell dark that afternoon, we shortened sail to two -close-reefed topsails, furling the foresail, and rolled onwards slowly. -The swell was high and ran strong from the westward, but the sea curled -lightly. A few wan stars blinked in the rifts. The cold was intense. -The rigging seemed to take a new thickness of ice when the night came, -and the running gear was as stiff as bar-iron in the shears. - -I guessed that Captain Burke (as I was told his name was) would show a -light every night: he had lanterns and oil and an altitude that, with -his freeboard, might give him twenty feet above the water in his stump -of foremast. But we searched in vain for a sparkle. For my part, I -took but a halfhearted view of the quest; yet it was a thing not to be -omitted by an English seaman: no man of the slenderest mercy of heart -would have foregone it. - -I had charge of the middle watch, and being a man of some imagination, -I cast my mind into the misery of the poor people who were somewhere -out upon those black, swollen waters in a flat wallowing hull, and -I shuddered and grieved when I thought of them. The life of a lofty -superstructure of masts and spars, with canvas to spread or reduce -at will, was in our ship; I felt the buoyant rise of her on hills -of ink rolling invisible; I'd step aft to search the gloom astern -and on either quarter, and mark the dim snow of the wake sheeting to -the taffrail with the droop of her stern, and hear the grind of the -wheel-chains, and see the illuminated disc of card trembling the course -at the lubber's mark betwixt faithful oscillations, as though it were -the spirit of the ship, naked and shining, and revealed in all its -sublime guiding and informing motions; and then my mind would go again -to that dismantled hull somewhere out in the freezing blackness here or -there, a coffin of a ship with three live people locked up in it! - -It came on to blow in hissing snow-squalls a little before daybreak. I -got two hours' sleep after eight o'clock and turned out for a mouthful -of breakfast: when that meal was ended, the dull day had whitened -through the snow upon the skylight glass, and in a cabin window I saw -the sea, lifting close with the ship's lurches, rolling astern and -quickly out of sight into the blowing flakes. - -The captain came below: he shook the snow off him by the stove and said: - -'No signs of the hull. Nothing can be done if the weather don't clear. -It's as thick as smoke all round, and if we go on making southing in -this fashion we shall be running down the South Shetlands.' - -'To pick up a wreck like this, sir,' said I, 'you may need to cross and -re-cross your track a hundred times over.' - -'I should never be able to sail away with a good conscience either,' -said he. 'To leave three people to wash about down here, to perish -certainly after a horrible time of it! Though it should cost a week of -cruising to rescue them--'twould be like murder.' - -He stepped into his cabin with unsettled looks and a face of agitation. - -He was one of the humanest men I ever met whether at sea or ashore. He -was not what would be called a gentleman by birth, but he was a man of -God's best moulding, a simple, generous, just person, beloved of his -crew, his officers' friend and companion, and their kindly counsellor -as well as commander. I never heard a coarse word escape him nor a -harsh one to even the most provoking of his people. He was an honour to -the flag of his Service. - -When I went on deck the weather had somewhat cleared round the ship, -but the snow was whirling grayly against the soft dark thickness to -leeward, whilst the windward sky was black with cloud of a true Horn -pattern, low-flying, shredding off its edges, and swollen with burdens -of hail and sleet. - -I went to the starboard rail to take a long, careful look round, never -knowing but that all on a sudden, in a flying way, the hull might leap -into sight out of some green trough dim with salt breeze. Mr. Newman, -heavily clad in sea boots and yellow oilskins, was standing for shelter -under a square of canvas seized in the mizzen rigging. For my part I -never wore an oilskin in my life. I was to-day clothed as I always went -in bitter weather, north or south: in a thick pilot coat, thick pilot -cloth trousers, a warm fur cap with ear-covers, thick mittens, and a -shawl round my neck. - -I was straining my sight into the whirling gray thickness over the bow, -the ship then being under two close-reefed topsails and stern main -trysail, and surging over the high swell and through the broken rugged -seas at about five knots; when a man who was descending the starboard -fore-shrouds with a coil of rigging round his neck missed a ratline -with his foot and slapped at another with his hand: it parted at the -seizing and he fell overboard backwards. - -In the swift glance I had shot, my sight being already bent that way, I -saw the ratline he had clapped hold of stand out from the shroud like a -bar of steel. - -I roared 'Man overboard!' and shouted to the fellow at the wheel to -put the helm hard down. In the same breath I caught a lifebuoy off its -pin and flung it at the body of the man who was then floating on the -top of a swelling fold within a pistol-shot astern, fast sliding off. -This buoy, like others in the ship--a device of the captain's--when -it struck the water freed a red staff with a length of red bunting -attached: the staff stood up on the buoy and the streamer like a tongue -of fire blowing out made a beacon for a swimmer as well as for a boat -in daylight. - -Meanwhile the second mate was yelling for all hands and bawling 'Man -overboard!' and shouting for seamen to lay aft and heave the vessel -to. The captain came running up on deck. I called the tragic news to -him, pointing aft, and then sprang for a jolly-boat as we termed the -thing, which hung in davits upon the starboard quarter. A number of -men came crowding around; the boat was swiftly cleared away, and I and -three sailors jumped into her. - -'Keep all fast till way is lost,' shouted the captain. 'Stand by to -unhook handsomely or she'll drown ye.' - -In a few minutes, which seemed as long as months, the boat sank to -the water's edge and was waterborne: a sea lifted her half-way to her -davits again; in that upward rush we unhooked, got oars over, and away -we went for the red streamer which I could see faintly glimmering -through a mist of spume. - -She was a fat lubberly boat, better for this work than our longer -whale-ended quarter-boats. She jumped like something alive and -distracted, sometimes sped end on, made with headlong plunges into the -valleys, sweeping up the acclivity with her nose to the sky, doing -her work dryly but so wildly that the men could scarcely plunge their -blades for a drag upon her. A couple of spare oars were lashed along -her bottom under the thwarts. I had nearly cut them adrift, meaning -to help the others, fisherman-fashion, with one, and I never cease to -thank my God I did nothing of the sort. - -I steered for the man, but he was not to be seen. I had never from the -moment of marking him fall doubted that he had plumbed the bottom like -a lead, weighted as he was with heavy sea boots, painted clothes, and a -coil of rigging round his neck; but it was not to be admitted: the man -was overboard, the ship was to be hove-to, and the poor fellow searched -for and saved if so willed. - -All in a breath, when we were within fifty strokes of the streaming red -flag, the boat was capsized on an apex of pyramidal sea, that poled -her sheerly bottom up at the instant that a blinding snow-squall came -seething along, whitening the water into hissing salt, and thickening -down the sea within a biscuit-toss. This I had been observing at the -very instant the boat was flung keel up, and I recollect that I carried -the memory of that scene of snow-squall under water, scarce realising -but that I was in a dream, happening as it did too swiftly to give the -mind time to catch a hold on reality. - -When I came to the surface I was bubbling and spitting in a smother of -froth hard against the side of the boat. There were two others. I got -my senses quickly and sputtering the brine out of my mouth roared, 'We -must right her. We can't hold on. We shall freeze off her dead men in -five minutes. Together now.' - -The three of us got a hold of the keel, and a sea helping us, we -righted her, swaying down upon the little fabric with the strength of -the madness that fights for life; but in righting she struck one of the -men under, and he went down like a shot whilst I and the other got into -the boat. - -A large copper baler attached to a lanyard lay at the bottom. I plunged -my hand down, groped for, and found it, and fell with fury to casting -out the water, the other baling with his sou'-wester with all his -might. The sea repeatedly broke over us, but we toiled with superhuman -effort for our lives. I believe the filled boat would have sunk under -our united weight but for a couple of empty breakers secured in the -bows and aft. We laboured with rage, flashing the water out of the -boat, and presently she was showing some little height of side. Then -to slenderly provide against a second surprise of capsizal which would -signify certain death to us, I lashed the two spare oars that were -under the thwarts to the painter and chucked them overboard; this -brought the boat head to sea, and we went on baling. - -The spite of the squall had gone out of the wind, but it was snowing -heavily, and strain my sight as I would I could see nothing of the -ship. In a flaw in the thick feathery fall I caught sight of the red -tongue of bunting; the buoy then was about a cable's length distant; it -was closed out quickly and all became a tumbling, gyrating blackness; -yet I had drawn some faint comfort from the sight of it. I guessed -the ship could not be far off and that she must spy us the instant it -cleared, which might happen at any minute. Meanwhile we baled for our -lives. - -My companion was an able seaman named Tom Friend. After he had been -throwing out the water for some while, when the boat was perhaps still -about a quarter full, I meanwhile baling with the same sort of fury -that possesses a drowning man when he clutches and catches and beats -in the air for life, he said to me: - -'Mr. Selby, if we aren't rescued soon I'm a dead man.' - -'No, no, keep up your spirits,' I shouted. 'They'll have us. Bale, man. -We must keep afloat to be picked up.' - -He went to work afresh with his sou'-wester, stooping and flinging; the -wind smote the brine into smoke as we hove it over the side. We did not -cease till but a little water was left in the bottom of the boat, and -we sat and gasped and stared about us. - -I know not how long this business had occupied. It seemed to me that -the shadow of the night was already in the air. It may have been no -more than the darkness of the thick black cloud out of which the snow -was tumbling in immense flakes. All the time I was expecting to see the -dye of the ship's fabric oozing out of the whiteness, plunging out of -the smother into her clear shape within easy earshot of us; but that -did not happen. - -After we had been in this situation about two hours Friend put his two -hands together, and began to waggle his body as he sat on the midship -thwart fronting me; his face was blue. He made shocking grimaces of -anguish and fell a-moaning most piteously, crying: 'Oh, the cold! Oh, -the cold! Oh, Jesus, support me! I can't stand it!' - -Though my own sufferings were inexpressible, I was still sensible of -a good stock of vitality; but I cannot tell why I should have better -resisted the cold than Friend, who was a lump of a man, broad-backed as -a table, though a little stout. I was soaked to the skin, and coat and -breeches were already frozen hard upon me; they cracked when I stirred -as glass might. The thwarts were glazed and ice half an inch thick -sheathed the timber. - -Friend let his sodden and frozen sou'-wester lie; and he looked wild -and dreadful with icicles pendent from his hair. In a sudden sharp leap -of the boat to the summit of an ugly sea, that broke and curled white -as milk on a line with our gunwales, he pitched towards me, slipped -over the thwart he struck, and lay motionless at my feet. He groaned -twice but spoke not. - -What could I do? Chafe his hands? As well the thwart he had been flung -over. I had not a drop of spirit for his throat, and myself felt dying. -I could not but let him lie, and I believe he gave up the ghost very -shortly after he had uttered his second groan. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -THE HULL - - -After Friend had lain at my feet for about an hour I stripped the -oilskins off the body and put them on; they diminished the sense of -deadly cold. I dragged the body into the bows, and after baling hard -sat down, sure that my death was at hand, but seeking consolation in -the thought that suffering ceases some while before you die of cold, -and that death from this cause is as easy as drowning after the first -agony. - -It never ceased to snow until the night fell, and then when it was -black the weather cleared--that is, I could see the flash of froth at a -distance; but stare as I might I beheld nothing of the ship, no smudge -nor deeper dye upon the darkness anywhere to indicate her presence. -I stood up and looked and looked, waiting for the toss of the sea to -strain my gaze; then, with an awful despair in my heart, and the full -rushing weight of my doom upon my spirits, I threw myself down into the -stern sheets to die. - -That I should have lived through that night is the miracle of my life. -There is no lack of suffering in the maritime records, but I vow that -mine in those hours of darkness which I passed in that open boat is -not to be topped, though it may be matched. Perhaps it was that all my -organs were sound, whilst Friend perished from the shock of immersion, -and from failure of some vital power--doubtless the heart. - -Be this as it may, I lived through that night and through the icy -darkness of the morning, till daylight came crawling in a sallow -green over the sky, low, broken and flying. It might be that Friend's -oilskins preserved my life by excluding the needle-like tide of -frost-black wind from my flesh. When it was fairly daylight I stood -up. My sight was clear; but I felt as though formed of stone. I could -poise my figure to the wild leaping of the boat, but I could not lift -my arms: each shoulder felt brittle as glass; it seemed to me that if -either limb should be grasped and pulled, it must break short off. - -The body of Friend lay ghastly in the bows. It was on its side, the -cheek on the floor of the boat, and every time the little craft dived, -the water in her boiled about the figure, which bristled with ice, and -the head seemed nailed to the bottom boards by long spikes of crystal. -I could not bear it, and made a step to cast it overboard, but, finding -my arms helpless, stood still and looked round for the ship. - -No wilder, drearier dawn ever broke over that cold, stormy, and -desolate ocean. I guessed the wind about north; a strong wind, with -a shriek as shrill as salt as it fled spray-charged past the ear, -flaying as though it were a naked edge of sharp steel. A large squall -was darkening the sea to leeward of the boat; when I was thrown up I -saw the dim whiteness of ice in several places. I gazed slowly around -in a broken way, for in every other breath there stood a wall of water -betwixt me and the horizon. - -All on a sudden when my eyes went astern I saw, not above a mile -distant, a dark object: it reared and sank, came and went; sometimes -froth leapt in a light of snow about it. I stared, scarcely daring -to hope as yet that it was more than an illusion of the vision, a -reappearing shape of green surge, a hard reforming moulding of brine, -looking like--looking like---- - -And then with a short choking cry of transport I recognised it. It was -the dismasted hull: that wreck of the 'Lady Emma' we had been in search -of. - -I watched her to make sure, dreading some cheat of delirious -imagination--but it was the wreck; I marked her rise with the sea, a -firm, defined, black shape against the root of the thick large squall -that was blowing to leeward of her. A dim sheen of the gloomy day was -in her wet side or sheathing as she soared, heeling not above a mile -off and dead to leeward. - -The sight gave life to my dead limbs, as it put spirit into my dying -heart. I got the use of my arms and hands with a sudden frenzy of -resolution, like to the effect of the panic terror that will compel a -bedridden man to rise, though till thus started he has lain helpless as -the mattress he springs from. I went into the bows, and getting hold -of the body of Friend turned it over the gunwale. The corpse as I have -said was that of a stout burly man, yet I found it light as a baby. -How was that? Unless it was that the strength of half a dozen had come -into me with the passion of life and hope the sight of the wreck had -inspired. - -I pulled in the pair of oars the boat had been riding to and took my -chance of the broadside send of sea; the fierce sweep and sharp angle -nearly flung me overboard, and thrice whilst I was clearing the oars -which were heavy and difficult with ice, the boat was almost capsized. -In a few minutes I got an oar over the stern and sculled the boat's -head round for the wreck. She shot forward, and I sat square that -my back might break any smaller sea which should foam tall and curl -faster than the boat could rise. For the rest--for the peril of a great -sea, for the swamping by seething waters uniting on either side the -gunwale--I was in God's hands. - -The wind and the sea swept me so swiftly onwards that the hull was -close ahead all on a sudden, a large black mass, rolling heavily with -violently quick recoveries; she lifted her channels foaming, and again -and again a sea shot up her side in a height of white brine, which -blew into the water on the other side of her in a cloud like steam. -There was nothing for it but to drive for her stem on and take my -chance. I tore off the oilskins for the freer use of my limbs, and -when I was close to the wreck, having headed the boat fair for the -main-chains, I sprang forward and seized the end of the painter; the -boat's nose smote the hull as she was roaring from me. I got a turn -with the painter round a chain plate; the boat swung in, but so swift -were the motions of the hull that she was rolling down upon me even in -that time, and, letting go the painter, I jumped in a single bound into -the chains and was stumbling over the rail, spiked with ice, as the -hulk swept her streaming side out again from the sea, with such a slant -of deck that if I had not flung myself into a squatting posture and -made the athwartship run of the hard frozen surface on my hams, I must -have broken my neck or fled sheer overboard through the openings where -the bulwarks had been smashed level. - -I was crazy with hunger and thirst and cold, and could think of nothing -but shelter and food and drink. I took a hurried look along the deck -hoping to see smoke from the galley or cabin chimney, for I reckoned -of course upon finding the three people the 'Planter' had searched -for alive in this hull. I saw no signs of life. I cautiously crawled -aft, and coming to the companion-way tried to open it; the doors -were thickly glazed, whence I judged they had been kept closed for -some time. I pulled out my clasp knife--all that I carried was in my -pocket as it had been before the boat capsized--and after scraping -and dislodging the ice in sheets like plate glass, I got one of the -companion-doors open and descended, pulling the door to behind me. - -After the long hours of exposure and the ceaseless crackling noises of -warring waters, the shelter, the comparative warmth and stillness down -here, were like the gift of a new life. It was dark, yet not so gloomy -but that I could see. The daylight lay upon the snow on the skylight, -and that large square of whiteness sifted a sort of dim illumination of -its own into the dusk. - -My first look was for those whom the boatswain Wall had told us the -crew left behind them when they abandoned the hull. Nobody was here. An -unlighted lamp swung violently over the table. I beheld a dull gleam -of looking-glasses upon the ship's side, and thought in the glance I -cast round that I could make out the equipment of a small, comfortable -state cabin. I quickly spied a rack half circling the trunk of the -mizzenmast; in it were some decanters; three were half full of red -and yellow wine. I put the mouth of one to my lips and drank heartily -of its contents, but whether it was claret or sherry I could not say; -excessive thirst seemed to have robbed my palate of the power of -tasting. I then went straight to the first cabin my eye rested upon, -intending to go the rounds for the pantry; but this cabin proved to -be the pantry, where, after a short hunt, I found cheese, biscuit, -preserved meat, and jams. I fell to wolfishly, breaking off only to -fetch another decanter of the wine from the cabin. - -And now having eaten with a dangerous heartiness, and drank as much as -would have brimmed two tumblers, I stepped into the cabin, refreshed -and warm, a new man, almost my old self again, needing little more -to perfectly comfort me than a shift of clothes, which might be -obtained by seeking. But first I stood still, holding by the table to -listen. I heard nothing but the sounds of the labouring of the hull. -Had the captain and the two women been taken off the wreck? I should -have believed so but for having found the companion-doors closed and -glazed; ice could not have collected to the thickness I had found it -had people been coming and going by the companion-way. And yet it is -true they might have been taken off, and before going some one of the -rescuing party had closed the companion-door with a kick or a thrust as -he stepped on deck. - -I saw no fire in the stove; the lamp was out; it did not seem as if -there were human life in the hull. I went to a door on the starboard -side, the next to or second door past the pantry, and entered a berth. -I could scarcely see. The porthole was submerged every other moment -and the sight blinded with a sudden plunge of foam-thick twilight. -After gazing awhile I made out that this berth had been occupied by the -captain and his wife. I observed a quantity of male and female apparel -hanging from a row of pegs running along the bulk-head; also I made out -two bunks, a table with certain navigating appliances upon it, a couple -of chronometer cases on a shelf, and sundry other matters not worth -cataloguing. I lifted a locker, and after groping came across some -flannel garments and under-linen. If the captain were aboard I guessed -that in any case he would give me leave to help myself, so, after -feeling over the clothes upon the bulk-head, I shifted to the frozen -flesh of me. - -Scarcely was I warmly and dryly clothed, when so heavy a drowsiness -came upon my eyelids that I could instantly have sunk upon the deck -in a sound sleep. But first I was resolved to ascertain the condition -of the hull; likewise whilst it was daylight to see if there were any -signs of the 'Planter,' and if the weather gave me any promise of her. -The idea of falling into a trance-like sleep which might run into -hours, from which, for all I could tell as things stood, I should be -awakened by finding myself strangling in a cabin full of water, and the -hull already fathoms under, put such a fear and horror into my spirits -as enabled me to thrust back into my brain the heavy, stupefying weight -of slumber, that was making my eyes ache as though the balls of vision -had been wrung and unseated. I shook my body as a dog does when fresh -from the water, and beat my arms upon my breast with all my strength; -then, with a wild yawn, strode into the stateroom and went up the steps. - -The first thing I saw was the boat I had gained the wreck in: she was -flinging and leaping upon the seas about a hundred fathoms off on the -port quarter; being light and released she had blown away quickly. -Every time a surge forked her on high the pouring blast smote and -swirled her further yet to leeward. This would go on till she filled. -I hardly took thought of her, abhorring her as I did as the theatre -of that drama of anguish and hopelessness I had been forced to act in -during the long black hours of the past night: and yet I very well -understood that she had been bound to go adrift, as I had taken but a -slippery turn with the painter round the chain plate at the instant -when the hull brought her main chains crushing down upon me for that -spring by which I had saved my life. - -I crossed to the port bulwarks to hold on by: t'other side was full of -ugly yawns and rents, a dangerous, ragged wreckage of bulwark through -which down the ice-hard slant a man would shoot, with a sudden roll, -to his death. The galley was standing: all the boats were gone: the -wheel and binnacle remained, and the apparatus of the helm looked -sound. The decks were littered with frozen gear. Nothing showed of the -main and mizzen masts but a barbed block, scarce a foot high above the -mast-coats. But the stump of the foremast rose to perhaps twelve feet. -The pumps were frozen: the sounding rod lay close to, but I could do -nothing with it. Yet, as an old hand, I could feel the life of a ship -in my feet, and I was sure, by the hull's buoyant jumps, her cork-like -recovery from the headlong dives, and the loneliness of her rolls that -there was nothing in the water she had drained in so far to make me -uneasy. - -Cheered by this conviction, I pushed forwards, clawing along by the -pins in the rail, by whatever else came to my hand, till I was abreast -of the galley, whose port sliding-door lay half open, and going to it -and looking in, there on the deck I saw lying on her back the body of -a woman. I peered close, the light being weak. The body was warmly but -plainly clothed; the colour of the face fresh as though she slept. -I should not have guessed her dead by her looks: it was her lying -there that made me know it. She seemed a woman of between forty and -forty-five, flat of face, treble-chinned, and she showed as a person -that had been fat and heavy in life. - -The sight startled me: I had not thought to find anything dead. Had she -been the wife of the captain? Where was _he_? And where the young lady -that had sailed as passenger with them? Were they both lying frozen in -other parts of the vessel? But there yet remained two or three cabins -below to look into. - -I came out of the galley shocked and low-spirited, and, still pushing -forward, came to the forecastle and called down the hatch. I got no -answer and descended. Here I found a number of hammocks, a few sea -chests, and some odds and ends of seamen's apparel scattered about the -deck. The forecastle lamp swung black under its grimy beam. I could -scarcely see. Water--though no depth of it--seethed over the planks as -the vessel pitched and rolled: this water I reckoned had tumbled down -the forecastle hatch, and when I returned on deck I drew the slide of -the scuttle over. - -I went to the stump of foremast that was ringed with some pins, and -holding on by one of them, looked round and round the sea, waiting for -every lofty heave to dart my glances; but there was nothing in sight -save ice, the peaks of bergs afar, coming and going past the rounds -of the swell, and the rush of the surge flickering into foam. It was -blowing half as strong again as it had been an hour before, and the -seas were racing with a weight and spite of headlong yeast which must -have drowned me out of hand in the jolly-boat. A low sky of thick black -cloud coiling, revolving, like sooty pourings from countless factory -chimneys, was sweeping southwards. I crawled aft for the shelter of -the cabin--the wind was marrow-freezing; and scarce was I within the -comparative warmth and stillness of the interior, when slumber again -oppressed me; and nature now giving out I stretched myself upon a -cushioned locker and was asleep in a minute. - -When I awoke I started instantly into an upright posture, beholding a -figure gazing at me; in some muddled fashion I seemed to realise my -situation, whilst I imagined that the cabin was half full of people -who had come to save me. Then, getting my wits fully, I made out that -the person who stood close was a young woman. Her figure was inclined -towards me, and so she stood despite the swaying of her with the -motions of the deck: it was a posture of fear, incredulity, amazement, -incommunicable in words. - -It was too dim in that cabin to note more of her than that incomparable -attitude of fright and astonishment. - -It had been past noon when I lay down to sleep: the strong feeling -of refreshment within me was assurance, true as the sun's evidence -could have been, that I had slept through more than the two remaining -hours of daylight. It was daylight now, consequently I understood that -whatever might be the hour, I had been sleeping since noon on the -previous day. - -I stared at the girl, for a young girl I now perceived her to be, and -exclaimed: - -'Are you Miss Otway?' - -'Oh!' she shrieked, 'have you come to save me?' and she dropped on her -knees and grasped my hand. 'Save me!' she cried, 'I am alone here. I -have been alone for days. I am in darkness. When did you come? Where -are your companions? Why were you sleeping here? And take me on deck. -Is your ship near? If the boat that brought you can live in this sea -she can carry me on board your vessel.' - -I cannot express the agony of heart in her voice. Her terror at seeing -me had been changed into another passion by my naming her. - -'Where's the captain?' said I, obliging her to rise, and seating her on -the locker beside me. - -'He is drowned,' she answered. - -'When?' - -'A long time ago. Seven or eight days ago. I have lost the day. I do -not know how long I have been alone. Why don't we go on deck? Is the -sea too rough for your boat to leave this wreck?' - -'Why, poor young lady,' said I, trying to catch a fair view of her -face; but it was too dim for that, and then again she was thickly -furred about the neck, and her hat, that seemed of velvet without a -brim, sat low. 'I would take you away from this rolling hulk at once -if I could. Under God I may yet save you. I am as much shipwrecked as -you are. But we needn't despair. This hull dances tightly; she has been -washing about now for some days, and I should doubt by the feel of her -jumps if there's two foot of water in her hold. Who's that dead woman -in the galley?' - -'The captain's wife,' she answered, staring at me. - -'How came she to perish there?' - -'She went with her husband to help him affix a lantern to the bowsprit. -He slipped overboard with the light and was drowned. I waited for them -here and went to find them, and saw Mrs. Burke lying on the deck. She -had fallen and broken her leg. I was too weak to carry or drag her into -this cabin and I pulled her into the galley for the shelter of it, and -there she lay, and I could not help her,' she cried, clasping her hands -with strange, piteous, involuntary motions of her head. 'I don't know -whether she died of grief, or from the injury of her fall, or whether -the cold killed her. It was black in the galley, and I could not see -her. I often called her name, but she never answered me. Oh, what an -awful time was that night! I stayed by her until long after I knew she -was dead, and then came down here, and have remained in this place ever -since--no, three times I have been on deck to look for a ship: it was -always snowing--it has been enough to drive me mad,' said she, passing -her hand with a wild gesture across her eyes. - -'Mad indeed!' said I to myself, all thought of my own situation -vanishing in the presence of the anguish of this poor gentle young -woman: she had a sweet soft voice: I supposed she had been alone in -this labouring hulk for hard upon a week. It was wonderful she should -have kept her mind. Indeed it put a sort of craziness even into _my_ -seasoned head when I paused in contemplation of her, and realised -how it might have been with _me_ had I been alone in this straining, -creaking, wallowing fabric with no one aboard beside myself but a dead -woman, an atmosphere of stinging cold, nigh twenty hours of blackness -every day. - -'But you've not been starving all this while?' said I. - -'When there was daylight,' she answered, 'I'd get some food and wine -from yonder;' she pointed to the pantry. 'I took a little stock to my -cabin. Where is your ship? Have you no companions? Take me on deck to -see your boat and the vessel,' and she extended her hand. - -I saw she had not understood me, and I told her how it had come to -pass that I was on board the hulk with her. She listened in silence, -saying nothing when I spoke of the men who had been lifted aboard -the 'Planter' out of the 'Lady Emma's' long-boat, frozen to death, -and nothing whilst I described what I myself had undergone in the -jolly-boat. She seemed slow to understand; but at last, when I was -done, after continuing to stare at me, for our faces were a sort of -glimmer one to the other in that gloom, she gave a shriek, and crying -'There is no hope for me, then! there is no hope for me, then!' buried -her face and shook and swayed in a passion of weeping. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -STILL ADRIFT - - -I could do nothing but let her cry; yet, knowing there is no better -medicine for such misery and fear as hers than action and the sight of -it, I got up and went to the pantry for materials to trim and light the -lamp. I found oil and bundles of wick, but no matches. I returned and -asked the poor weeping young lady to tell me if she knew where I might -find a box of matches; she went to a cabin which I supposed was hers, -one on the port side, almost aft. I was struck by her walk: not once -did she stumble or pause, wild as the play of the plank was. In a few -minutes she rejoined me with a box of wax lights, and, unhooking the -lamp, I filled and trimmed it and hung it up, and it swung burning -brightly. - -Now I could see Miss Otway, and as much of her face as showed was -remarkable for delicacy and refinement. She was very pale, her eyes -light, whether blue or grey I could not then tell; her hair was of a -soft, rather dark amber. She had perfectly even small white teeth, -but her lips were pale and marked a want of red blood. She was of -medium height, but of a shape not to be guessed at, heaped as her form -was with clothes. What she wore was very rich and fine, and a little -diamond sparkled in each ear. She seemed fragile, in delicate health, -just the sort of girl to whom the doctors, despairing of their physic, -would recommend the breezes of the world's oceans. - -Her eyes were red with weeping, and when I glanced at her after hanging -up the lamp I found her staring at me with looks of anxiety and -expectation piteous with passion. - -'This,' said I, casting up my gaze at the lamp, 'makes the cabin -cheerful. I hope there is plenty of oil aboard to keep us in light till -we are taken off.' - -'When will that be?' she cried. - -'Why, perhaps to-day and perhaps tomorrow,' said I. 'My ship can't be -far off; her captain is one of the humanest hearts afloat. He thinks -three of you are aboard here, and he'll cruise for you. If he don't -find us the reason will lie in the weather, not in his not hunting.' -Then, looking towards the stove, I exclaimed, 'You'll have been ice -cold down in this well. Let's build a fire, there's plenty of coal in -the hull: the boatswain Wall said so.' - -'Who were the dead?' she exclaimed. - -'Two seamen and the steward. A fourth--the doctor--lies fearfully -frostbitten. He stands to lose his feet and hands.' - -'They wanted to take me with them,' she cried. 'Captain Burke would not -let me go; Mrs. Burke was against it: had I gone I might now be safe -in your ship.' - -'Don't imagine that,' said I, deeply pitying as I looked at her. '_You_ -capable of enduring two nights of exposure in the seas in that open -boat! They proved sound friends who kept you here. _Here_ you're alive -and you shall be saved--you shall be saved!' I exclaimed heartily. - -A faint smile put a look of spirit into her pale face. I went to the -stove, and beside it, secured so they should not fetch away, were three -or four buckets of coal, but no wood. I was in no temper to rummage -the ship for a faggot, and, having noticed a chopper in the pantry, -I fetched a bunk-board from the captain's cabin and split it, and -presently had a roaring fire. - -'Did the crew cook their victuals here before leaving?' said I, -noticing a kettle, a frying-pan, and other galley furniture lying near -the stove. - -She answered that some cooking had been done for the crew in this cabin. - -'Pray sit you here,' said I, catching her gently by the wrist and -bringing her close to the stove, and seating her on a small cleated -sofa beside it. 'I believe a pannikin of hot drink--tea, coffee, or -cocoa--and something to eat, will do us both good. Keep you here and -thaw through and through whilst I get a kettleful of water.' - -She was watching me with some life: the cuddy fire threw a warm, -cheerful colour upon her face, and the flames shone in her eyes, -filling them as with a dance of courage. When I spoke of fetching some -fresh water, she cried out eagerly, extending her arms: - -'Oh! mind you do not slide overboard. The decks are deadly. I can't be -left alone again.' - -I smiled and bade her not fear for me, and picking up the kettle and -dropping the chopper into my coat pocket--it was an immensely thick -pilot-cloth coat I had found in the captain's cabin and put on--I went -on deck. - -This was a lead-coloured day with a confusion of ragged black cloud -thronging southward where the vapour was crowded and darkening into a -look of thunder. I saw no signs of the 'Planter,' nothing but the ice -afar. Secretly I had no hope that Captain Parry would persevere in his -quest. I made no doubt he would suppose all hands in the jolly-boat had -been drowned, which, God knows, was very near the truth; and this would -dispirit him, his forecastle working strength would be weakened also, -for, saving Wall, the 'Lady Emma's' men were of no use, and I reckoned -he would be glad to stick his ship north, clear of the perils of the -ice and the blinding snow-storms. - -But whether it was because I was a young fellow of a heart naturally -lively, or whether because I had escaped a dreadful death, so that -the being on board this hull was almost as a rescue, 'tis true I felt -no depression, no despondency in any marked degree when I looked round -on stepping on deck and saw the leaden, rolling, frosting ocean bare, -and viewed the tumbling, dismasted, mutilated hull, white fore and aft, -bright with a hundred figures in ice, a most forlorn and dismal object -as she bowed her naked bowsprit into the sallow trough, wearily leaning -off the slant, with cataracts of foam hissing from the channels and -scaling her sloping side. I could not but reflect that, though we were -far south, whalers in plenty were to be met with in these seas, and -that the hulk was stout and buoyant, and bade fair to last us our time -in her, which might not extend beyond the morrow. - -So, with a good heart and a vow besides to do my manhood's best to -cheer up my poor companion, to make her as comfortable as the means of -the hulk and my sailor's judgment would allow, and to help preserve her -life in God's own time, I looked along the deck, and then seeing how -it must be, went to a scuttlebutt lashed forwards of the port gangway, -and finding it half full, went to work on it with the chopper, knocked -the hoops off, and the staves tumbled to the deck, letting slip a mass -of fresh-water ice, shaped cask-wise. I struck off as much as would -fill a kettle, leaving the rest to lie, and returned to the cabin. - -'Now,' said I, knowing the tonic worth of work in a time like this, -'melt this for us, if you please. When the kettle boils we'll go to -breakfast.' - -'Is your ship in sight?' said she, getting up and taking the kettle and -ice. - -'No,' I answered, 'but something will be coming along soon. This is a -great whaling ocean, you know.' - -'What is your name?' she asked. - -'Ralph Selby,' I replied. - -'How did you know my name?' - -'Wall, the boatswain, was full of you and Captain Burke and his wife -when he was brought aboard out of the long-boat.' - -'Yes, yes, I understand,' said she. 'I should have guessed it.' - -'There are things to be done whilst you get the kettle to boil,' said -I. 'You move about very easily, I see.' - -'I am used to this dreadful monotonous rolling,' she answered. - -'Can you lay your hands upon what we may want in the pantry?' - -'Oh, yes. I know what's there. Shall I boil some coffee?' - -'If you please,' said I, smiling to find her talking with a show -of life. 'I am going to the captain's cabin to look to one or two -matters,' and with that I left her. - -I entered the berth I had shifted myself in, and which I knew had -been the captain's by its appointments, and first I looked at the -chronometers, and, finding them still going, carefully wound them -afresh, guessing by the revolutions of the key that they would have -stopped shortly. I then sought for and found the ship's papers, and -overhauled them to gather the character of the supplies aboard. The -cargo consisted of stout, brandy, and whiskey; samples of preserved -potatoes and articles of potted food, a quantity of theatrical scenery, -builders' stuff, such as doors and window frames; patent fuel, oil -cake, india rubber, and certain other commodities. I observed that -amongst the samples was a quantity of preserved milk: there was also a -consignment of one hundred iron cases, each containing two hundred and -fourteen biscuits, weighing one pound each, and specified as six inches -square by one and a half inches thick. - -In short the paper indicated half a shipload of food and liquor. But I -made nothing of this then. Such a plenty was not likely to seem of any -use to two people who looked to be taken off the wreck in a few days at -the outside, and for whom therefore a single cask of beef, a single -barrel of ship's bread, along with the little stock of delicacies I had -observed in the pantry, would be more than enough. - -I lingered to overhaul the nautical appliances, intending, should a -phantom of sun show, to get an observation. It was very gloomy here. -I found a small brass clock ticking stoutly, and this I wound up, the -plain silver watch in my pocket having stopped when the jolly-boat -capsized: the time by the little clock was a quarter after eleven. I -went out and set a clock under the skylight to this hour. I guessed -it would comfort the girl's eye to see the time. Nothing in such a -situation as ours could make one feel more outcast, more hopelessly -removed from human reach and sympathy, than a lifeless clock silently -telling the same hour always. It would be as though time itself had -abandoned one. - -The ice was melted and the kettle boiling, and Miss Otway was making a -potful of coffee. She had lifted the fiddles and spread a cloth, and -put some preserved meat, cheese, jam, biscuit, and the like upon the -table. The lamp and the flames in the grate made a light like noon, -and, now looking round, I beheld a very rosy interior, a quantity of -books, mirrors for decoration, comfortable armchairs and couches, and -sundry fal-lals; all designed, no doubt, to render the voyage of Miss -Otway cheerful and pleasant. - -Turning, she cried out: 'Oh, Mr. Selby, you cannot imagine what it is -to see someone--to have someone to speak to. Only God could say how -lonely I have felt. The dreadfully long nights; the endless hours of -darkness----' Her voice broke and her head drooped. - -'No need to tell me what you have undergone,' said I. 'Never in all -sea story did any girl suffer upon the ocean as you have. But you've a -brave look. You'll keep up your tears now. I'm a sailor and I give you -my word we are very well off. We need but patience, and faith in that -God who has watched over us both.' - -On this she raised her head and viewed me a little while steadily, as -one who stares critically to make sure of another. - -I took the pot of coffee from her and we seated ourselves. She -had suffered so long from what I may truly call a very anguish of -loneliness--and, indeed, one had need to be locked up in that same -rolling hull, in the blackness and the cold, with the seas roaring -outside, and within always the same soul-maddening noise of creaking -bulkheads and harshly strained fastenings, to realise what this poor, -gentle, delicate lady had endured--that I was sure she'd find a -wonderful ease in talking freely. I therefore questioned her whilst we -sat eating, and she told me who she was, where she lived, how the wife -of the master of the vessel had been her old nurse, with other matters -which she herself relates. - -She warmed up in talking. I think she found a sort of hope in merely -speaking of her father and her home and the gentleman, Mr. Archibald -Moore, to whom, but for her health, so she told me, she would have been -married some months before the date of her sailing. I so questioned -her that the early despair in her manner died out when she talked of -her father and sweetheart. I took care to converse as though they were -within reach, and the meeting a matter of a little waiting only. In -short, my resolution to cheer her mastered her fears and perhaps her -convictions; and even whilst we sat I beheld a new life stealing into -her, speaking in her raised, hopeful, more eager voice, and softening -the haggard, wild look in her eyes. - -Presently she put some question which I had to fence with. - -'My dread,' she said, 'all the while I was alone here, was ice; the -ship lies helpless; I never knew but that an iceberg was close to, -and that every next hurl of the sea would dash the wreck against some -frozen cliff. Is there any ice in sight?' - -'Yes,' I answered, 'but a good way off.' - -'Suppose we drift towards an iceberg, what shall we do?' - -'No good in _supposing_ at sea,' I said. 'Time enough to deal with a -difficulty when it's within hail.' - -'Does the hull remain in one place? Or are we being driven by the seas -and the wind?' - -'If the sun will put his nose out,' said I, with a glance at the -thickly snow-coated skylight, 'I'll find out where we are.' - -'Do you understand navigation?' - -I replied with a grave nod. - -'If we are moving at all, which way are we driving, do you think?' - -'The sextant will tell us,' said I. - -Thus she plied me, straining her poor eyes with consuming anxiety. I -answered warily but always on the side of hope. - -When I was going on deck she wanted to accompany me, but I bade her -stop where she was till I had stretched some lifelines along. When I -looked out I saw there was no chance of obtaining an observation. The -sky was near, and thick with rolling clouds: the windy dusk had shrunk -the sea-girdle, and the distant ice was out of sight: the leaden surge -broke in against the snow-soft gloom. No more desolate ocean-picture -had I ever viewed; its spirit sank into me in a depression that brought -me to an idle halt for some minutes whilst I wrestled with myself. I -started, and my very soul shrank within me when I asked myself: If we -are not fallen in with what is to become of us? Where are we drifting? -Then I plucked up with the reflection that we were in navigated seas; -any moment might give me the sight of a sail; and my immediate -business therefore was to render our distress a visible thing upon the -face of the rolling waters. - -I shut the companion doors that the girl might be warm below, and, that -I might move with security, went to work to stretch lines along the -deck. A great plenty of gear lay frozen all about; I got hold of an end -and worked a length into some sort of suppleness, and with much hard -labour succeeded in setting up life-lines in short scoops, so as to -bring them taut, for the winch and capstan were frozen motionless, and -I could do nothing with them. - -This business carried me abreast of the galley, where I saw with a -sudden recoil once again the body of the captain's wife. She seemed -asleep, so fresh, living and breathing she looked, with even a sort -of colour in her face, and the expression of her mouth easy and -placid. But since she was dead it was fit she should be buried, and -as her presence added to the ghastliness of this picture of wreck, -and weighed like an assurance of doom upon the spirits, I resolved to -turn her over the side without ado; so, with averted face--for I could -not bear to look upon her, she lay so life-like: it was like drowning -rather than burying her--I took the body under the arms, and with all -reverence gently dragged it to a great gap of smashed bulwark, when, -just whispering, 'May God receive you, poor woman, and may He have -mercy upon those who are left,' I slided her overboard, and instantly -quitted the side, not choosing to get a memory of her as she lay -floating ere the drenched clothes sucked her under. - -Constantly I cast my eyes into the north for a sight of the sun; but -he never showed himself. There stood about twelve foot of splintered -foremast. I meant to fly a flag by day and hoist a lighted lantern by -night; but how to shin up so as to secure a block at the head? - -I mused a bit, and then went in search of the carpenter's chest, which -I found in the forecastle. It was a huge chest, cleated and lashed down -against the bulk-head that divided the men's sea-parlour from the hold, -and it lay in such gloom that I could make nothing of it, so I returned -to the cabin for a lantern. I found a couple of bull's-eye lamps in the -pantry. Whilst I filled and trimmed one of them, Miss Otway came from -the stove to the door and stood looking in. - -'Can't I help you?' said she. - -'No,' said I. - -'What are you going to do?' - -'I am going to hoist a distress signal.' - -'Is there anything in sight?' she shrieked. - -I shook my head. - -'Why won't you let me help you?' said she. 'It's horrible to be left -alone down here. Make me of use. It will do me good to help you.' - -But I would not allow her to come on deck merely to look on and be -frozen to the marrow by the pouring wind; so, cheerily saying I'd find -her employment by-and-by, I carried the lighted bull's-eye on deck and -made my way to the forecastle, holding by the life-lines, so that I -moved as briskly as if the hull lay quiet. - -I quickly found what I immediately wanted, namely, a quantity of long -iron spikes. I took a handful of these and a hammer on deck and drove a -spike deep into the wood, a little above the other; and thus I made a -ladder of spikes, every projection of iron yielding me room for my foot -and for a grip of one hand. When I had driven in the spikes as high -as was needful, I came down, and after hunting over the gear upon the -deck found a small block through which I rove a line that looked like -a length of the fore-royal signal halliards. I climbed the mast again -with this block and line and, driving a spike into the head of the -stump, I secured the block to it and descended for good, this business -being finished. - -I had taken notice of a flag locker under a grating abaft the wheel; I -went to it and found a complete code of Marryatt's signals, a large and -small ensign, and a jack. There was too much bunting in the big ensign -for such weather as this, and for such winds as might burst upon us at -any moment: so I bent on the small ensign to my halliards and ran it, -jack downwards, to the head of the stump of foremast, where it flared -bravely, chattering like a thing of life. - -Yet I found it but a mocking signal after all, when I sent my glance -from it round the thick swollen and breaking seas, and noticed that -even already the dye of the early night seemed in the air, and that in -little more than an hour that streaming, flame-like appeal would, as a -call to the eye, be as useless as the stump it blew from. - -I was now extremely anxious to ascertain the depth of water in the -hold, and went to the pumps to see what was to be done with the ice -there. The sounding tube was perhaps solid with ice half-way to the -hold; I thought then I would try and draw one of the pumps, and having -the pantry chopper in my hand, let fly, bruising and splintering so as -to free the bucket. In the midst of my chopping Miss Otway called out. -I stopped and saw her head in the companion way. - -'Oh,' she cried, with a note in her voice that sounded almost like joy, -pointing with a gesture of rapture to the inverted ensign, 'that will -bring help to us! That will be seen for miles and miles. How clever! -How did you manage to climb that slippery mast?' And then, catching -sight of the spikes, she exclaimed, 'I see. I see. It's wonderfully -done.' - -'It's too cold for you on deck,' said I, scarcely keeping grave over -this girlish praise. 'Remain below in the warmth. No use taking a -voyage for your health only to lose your toes and fingers as your -doctor has.' - -But paying no heed to this, she stepped out of the companion way, and -putting her thickly-gloved hand upon one of the life-lines, came to -where I was letting fly at the pump and watched me. - -It was the best light I had yet viewed her in; and now indeed I -perceived that she was a very delicate, sweet-looking young lady, -about two-and-twenty years of age, pale, but of a transparency of -complexion that made a beauty of her pallor; nor were her eyes wanting -in expression, though they would be too light to faithfully reflect the -deeper and subtler passions and sensations of her spirit. - -I thought her the most refined-looking lady I had ever seen; which -perhaps is not saying much, seeing how many of my years had been passed -upon the ocean. I saw the quality and breeding of her in her face and -heard it in her voice, and I think anyone, no matter how inexperienced -in such things, but would, on looking at her, have said to himself, -this is an English lady. - -After chopping and hammering for some time, I freed the bucket and -drew the pump; and, the sounding-rod lying handily by, I dropped it, -and after several casts, so hard did I find it to get the level of the -water betwixt the swift abrupt rolls of the hull, I made a little more -than a foot and a half. I was astonished, but wonderfully heartened. -Here was a hull that had not been pumped out for eight or ten days: she -had been straining heavily in the hollow hour after hour: and yet there -was no more water in her than a single spell of a watch on deck at the -pumps might free her of! - -I refitted the pump and fell to work at the brake and brought up some -water. - -'Let me help you,' said Miss Otway. - -'It won't hurt you,' said I, and brought a coil of rope across the -deck for her to stand on, that her feet might be clear of the water as -it washed with the slant of the planks. We then went to work: the water -bubbled, the clank of the brake ran a noise of life through the hulk; -the exercise flushed the girl's face, and, in a pause for breath, I -told her it would do her more good than sitting by the fire. - -In that same pause whilst she breathed quickly she glanced with a -sudden look of pain and consternation in the direction of the galley, -and exclaimed: - -'The body of my poor old nurse lies there. I had forgotten her.' - -'I buried her,' said I. - -'Where?' - -I told her. She was shocked and her eyes filled, and she turned her -head to hide her face. - -'It was not a thing to keep,' said I. - -'Oh no,' she cried, looking round at me, eagerly and yet piteously. -'I don't mean that. You threw her into the sea as she lay--without a -prayer----' - -'No,' said I, shortly. - -She viewed me a little gratefully. I grasped the brake: she put her -hand upon it, and we fell to afresh. - -We worked in this fashion for above half an hour, and then Miss Otway, -glowing with the labour and in no wise distressed by it, saving that -her breathing was quick, went below. I fetched the telescope and -stayed to carefully search the horizon before it fell dark. But point -the tubes as I would they gave me nothing. The near sea-line tumbled -dimly in long ragged wings of dark vapour, which as they lifted with -the wind stretched overhead like lengths of smoke; and betwixt them -I spied a higher platform of cloud, mouse-coloured here and there as -though touched by some wild stormy light. I saw no ice, but the wind -blew as though ice were close aboard: the sting of it was insufferable -when you faced it standing. A noise of rattling sometimes came from -the forecastle as though the spray froze in leaping, and fell with the -weight of hail in the tropics, and already the pump we had been plying -was as thick and hard bound as the other. - -And still I lingered, not indeed with the hope of sighting a sail -before the blackness fell upon us, but with the idea of making some -sort of blind guess at the drift of the hull. The strong breeze blew -out of the north, and the tall coils of sea ran in wide flashings from -that quarter, but the large ocean swell was about north-west. I was -not very well acquainted with these waters and scarcely knew what to -recollect of the currents hereabouts. I was aware that the set of the -ice was to the northwards. But then the bergs struck deep root into -motions of the sea which had no influence atop; so that there might -be very well a surface-trend to the southward through wind and surge -and swell, when, some fathoms under, the body of the water was slowly -streaming in another direction. - -A dismal picture with the sadness of despair coming into me out of it, -when I looked at that square of bunting flaming in mute appeal from the -stump-head to the blind horizon! But we had life, and so there must be -hope, and rallying my spirits with a will, I strode the length of the -life-line to the halliards, hauled the flag down, and went to the cabin -to find and trim a lantern to hoist in its place. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -THE ICE IN THE SOUTH - - -I left a light burning brightly at the mast-head: the wild meteoric -dance of that gleam was a sort of hope: no ship sighting it but would -guess from the rapidity of its oscillations that it danced on an open -boat, or shone from some short height upon a dismasted hull. - -The wind was freshening with a long deep moan in the rush of it through -the flying dusk when I left the deck: but I gathered from a general -atmospheric hardening all round, a firmer line in the curl of the -surge, a distincter flash in the foam of it, that it was to be a clear -night, with perhaps a star or two by-and-by. The hull made good play: -she was like a live thing; and no helm and no fragment of canvas -vexing her, she took up her own position and wallowed dryly, save that -now and again in a sharp pitch she'd meet some lateral run of sea and -whiten in the air forward into the look of a snow-storm: but the froth -mostly blew clear, and the water when it came streaming aft quickly -froze into the snow. - -Miss Otway sat beside the stove: she had removed her hat, otherwise was -wrapped up to the throat in furs; her yellow hair was shot with amber -light when the swing of the lamp flashed the radiance upon it, but her -looks were white, and something wild with grief, anxiety and fear. She -asked me if there was any ice in sight. - -'None that I can see in the dusk,' I answered. - -'I'm all the while dreading the ice,' said she. 'I should not fear this -high sea and our lying dismasted in it, if it were not for the ice.' - -'There's none near to hurt us just now,' said I. - -'When I first came into this cabin,' she exclaimed, 'in the Thames, -a chill ran through me that was cold as ice itself. It was warm, and -yet I shivered as though freezing. Was it an omen? The memory has been -haunting me in my time of loneliness here. A little while before we -were dismasted we sighted a huge iceberg that was like a cathedral: it -had a beach of frozen foam, and the snow whirled in white dust on one -side of it against the dark clouds. Oh, Mr. Selby,' she cried, 'think -of this helpless hull striking against such a mountain of ice as that, -and our getting upon it and perishing with the cold--the awful cold!' - -'Why, Miss Otway,' said I with a bustle of voice and manner as I got up -to set the kettle on the stove. 'This sort of talk is good for neither -of us. Do you believe in omens? But don't be scared till danger's come, -and not then. There's plenty to eat and drink in this ship and I'm for -faring heartily for the sake of hoping heartily, and working heartily, -should work be wanted. Come, you shall fry some ham; it's my turn to -prepare the table.' - -Presently we were seated as before. I talked more reassuringly than I -had ventured on earlier, for now that her hat was off I saw her face -very clearly, how refined she was, how gentle, how well nurtured; -my very heart pitied her: I felt as though commanded by God Himself -to take charge of her, to watch over her, to keep her heart up; I -can't express indeed how she appealed to me out of her gentleness and -refinement, the horrible situation she was in, the unspeakably dreadful -time she had passed through alone. - -And often I would catch her in the intervals of our speech eyeing me -under drooping lids with an eager searching look of enquiry, as though -she would comfort her poor little self by finding out what sort of a -man was I who had come into this rolling hull where she was alone? I -wished her to find out quickly that she might be easy; but we both -needed time, I to act and she to discover. - -I cleared the table and went on deck. The lantern burned brightly. The -night lay black, but the atmosphere was hard as when I had gone into -the cabin, and you found a distance in the gloom. All was as well with -the hull as one could dare hope for, and, closing the companion doors, -I re-entered the cabin. - -It was about six o'clock then. I lighted a bull's-eye and went into the -captain's berth for the log-book which I had noticed upon the table, -and to overhaul a bag of charts. I brought the log-book and the chart I -wanted to the cabin table: Miss Otway seeing me at this, came opposite -and stood there looking on. I wished to see the last entry in the -log-book; which done, I opened the chart, and was startled to observe -that, supposing the drift of the vessel to have been continuously to -the southward, as somehow I imagined it was, that group of islands -called the South Orkneys, stretching some sixty-five miles east and -west, could not be farther than twenty-five or thirty leagues. - -'Are you finding out where we are?' said Miss Otway. - -'I shall know exactly when I get an observation,' said I, and carried -the log-book and chart back into the captain's cabin. - -But I confess my heart was sunk. To be sure, throughout I had vaguely -known our place--could have named it within fifty or eighty miles -perhaps--yet the business I had been about ever since I woke up -stopped me from realising till I looked on the chart, when of course I -understood that if our drift was south we stood to go to pieces upon -land that would be the most God-forsaken on the wide face of the oceans -of the globe, if it were not that, hard by them, covering a range of -eight or nine degrees of longitude, lay groups of rocks with a range -of mountainous continent stretching due south (magnetic) even more -desolate, naked and iron-sheathed. - -But we were not ashore yet: nor could I know certainly that our drift -was south; and then there was to-morrow's daylight with its hope of -succour. - -I sat beside the stove and talked with Miss Otway. She spoke of the -voyage and of the apparition which had haunted the memory and depressed -the spirits of Captain Burke down to the hour of his death. I sought -to amuse her by relating certain experiences of my own; and she forgot -her situation whilst listening to some of my yarns. The truth is I -had gone to sea at the age of thirteen and had followed the life -fourteen years, during which I had served in several capacities in many -kinds of vessels, though my experiences lay chiefly in the India and -China trade. I had plenty then to talk about: it amused me to yarn, -and she listened with more life and intelligence than I should have -expected in one with so fixed an expression of dismay, of hearkening -consternation and mourning. - -After satisfying myself with a look around on deck, I returned, and -going to the bookshelves, read the names of some of the volumes. It -was a good collection of books: the best of the poets and novelists -were there, with odds and ends of scrappy reading like Hone's and -D'Israeli's. Here I found dear old 'Peter Simple,' and carrying -the tale to the stove, I read bits aloud, and once or twice she -laughed. Then something suggesting the topic, I got telling her about -shipwrecks, my notion being to let her understand how much better off -were we than others who had suffered from disasters at sea. I talked -of the raft of the 'Medusa,' described that pathetic, lamentable scene -in the round-house of the 'Abergavenny'--the wax-lights, the captain -clasping his daughters to him--related the loss of the 'Amphitrite,' -as told to me by a man I had sailed with who had been one of the -survivors of that most tragic of shipwrecks, which littered the -Boulogne sands with scores of bodies of handsome, finely built young -women. - -'Are there instances of people,' she asked, 'who have been wrecked upon -icebergs and survived?' - -I spun her a few yarns of polar experiences in this way: of Russian -seamen found floating on ice: of a whaler half full of men stranded on -a berg and floating in her giant cradle down into open waters where she -was boarded and the people taken out of her. - -'How long had they been locked up?' - -'Several months.' - -'Were their sufferings great?' - -Not knowing, I had to invent, and to cheer her, said: 'Oh, no. -They kept up good fires, had plenty of beef and tobacco, heartened -themselves by singing songs, telling stories, playing at games of their -own invention, and fashioning ornaments out of whale ivory. It came -right with them. When things come right it's the same as if they never -were wrong. Nothing counts but the loss of time whilst you're waiting -for the settlement. How soon, when you get well, you forget that you -were ill! How quickly you forget the weather! Who's it says it's always -too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry, but that God so contrives it, -at the end of the year it's all the same? Keep up your heart, Miss -Otway, and reflect that when this is ended and you're safe ashore with -your people it'll be no more than an experience to talk about.' - -'Yes,' said she, with a faint smile, 'it will be all right when I _am_ -ashore; but who's that other person who says, philosophy triumphs over -past and future ills, but present ills triumph over philosophy?' - -This passed my plain understanding, and I let the subject go. - -I went on deck for more ice to melt and boil, and found it blowing -pretty strong. A high sea, ridged in lines of ebony against the light -of their own foam, and melted in roaring snowdrifts under the hull -that was topping them with a wonderful buoyancy. I looked for a star, -but all was sweeping blackness aloft, save the point of light at the -stump-head. - -Knowing this hard heave of sea must certainly give us a steady trend -southward, helped as the hull was by the blast every time she soared -into the icy howl of it, I fetched a bull's-eye, and observing by the -binnacle that the hulk's head pointed about east by north, I went to -the starboard rail and overlay it, staring with desperate searching -eyes into the hard gloom till I was almost frozen. But I could see -nothing that looked like ice, no faintness, no spectral sheen, all that -glared was foam running from the arched back of the surge; so I went -below, where I boiled some coffee, and, shortly after eight, Miss Otway -withdrew to her berth. - -I took the bull's-eye to find me more clothes in the captain's cabin, -and when I was wrapped up to the bigness of a Greenland's-man, I -returned to the stove, dimming the lamp to a light that was just enough -to see by, and lay down upon a couch. Presently I was startled out of -a reverie by seeing a great rat come close to the fire, as though for -the warmth. Very quietly putting my hand in my pocket, I pulled out my -clasp knife, which I opened; the blade was dagger-shaped. Then, quick -as lightning, I lanced the weapon at the beast and half severed its -head. This pleased me, for in the course of our talks Miss Otway had -said that in her time of loneliness, a huge rat had come into the cabin -and looked at her till she was motionless with disgust and fear. I -could not know, however, that this was the rat that had so served her; -though it made one less aboard, and I dropped it into a coal-bucket to -chuck over the side next day. - -The sight of the bleeding, lifeless beast set my thoughts running -on the hours the girl, whilst alone, had spent in this hull, and I -wondered when I looked at the rat and listened to the shrieking and -grinding noises, that she had not days before gone off her head. I -guessed that her mind had been cast in a heroic mould; never else could -she have come through such a term of loneliness with her wits all -right. Less had driven strong men overboard, gaping madmen. - -Whilst I sat following the wild and flying motions of the hull, -testing them by sensation to gather if the buoyancy diminished, I -was addressed. I looked round with a sudden surprise that was nearly -fright: it was Miss Otway, furred and clothed from head to foot as she -had left me. - -'Are you going to sit up all night?' she exclaimed. - -'I'm going to sit here,' I answered. 'I shall snooze at intervals.' - -'Let me watch whilst you sleep,' said she. - -'There's nothing to watch,' I answered, 'nothing to keep a look-out -for.' - -'A ship might see our lantern and come down to us.' - -'She could do nothing in this weather.' - -'But to think of being asleep whilst a vessel is coming down to see -what the light means! Think of her hailing, getting no answer and -passing on. It might be our only chance.' - -I told her that might happen even though we both kept watch all night -in the cabin. How, down here, should we hear a hail from the water? -We'd need to keep a look-out on deck, which would kill her quickly and -me soon after. - -'Pray go and rest,' said I, 'and trust me to see anything that may come -along and to hear anything that may hail.' - -She looked reluctant, very white, her eyes dim and large with tragic -expectancy as though she never knew but that in the next minute -something frightful would happen. - -I picked the rat up by the tail. 'Is this your friend?' said I. - -She shrieked, believing it alive; then, shuddering and shuddering, -staggered somewhat blindly in the direction of the cabin. - -I jumped up and supported her, encouraging her by every promise and -hope my brain could frame. - -'You have not slept for nights,' said I, pausing at her door. 'Best now -that I am here, if only that you may have strength enough to leave the -hull and health enough to carry you to your home.' - -She had removed her gloves: I grasped her ice-cold hand and returned to -my couch. - -The night crept away. I dozed at intervals, visiting the deck perhaps -half a dozen times. In the morning watch I slept soundly upon the couch -by the stove, and when I awoke it was nine by the clock under the -skylight, still black as thunder, and the hull rolling heavily. I was -cold to the heart, and before quitting the cabin kindled a fire to boil -some water for a hot drink, then went up the steps to take a look. - -It was still blowing fresh, but the wind had shifted north-west, -and the sky was a clear, sparkling heaven of stars from sea-line to -sea-line, the sea running in steady hills of ink to where you saw the -horizon throbbing close under the pale lights of the night low down, -so clear was the gale. The mast-head lamp burned dimly; but it would -be daybreak shortly. I stared around the sea, and saw nothing north -and west and east, but my sight going south was arrested by a low, -irregular, dim line: it rose with the heave of the hull, and it was -as far off as the horizon. It looked like the sheen of a long face of -coast covered with snow: it was a mere attenuated film of faintness -stretched where sky and water met, and I looked and looked, believing -it a bank of cloud that would dissolve whilst I watched; but it hung -steady, and still it was so elusive that sometimes I saw it, and when -the hull sprang from the trough again it was gone; and yet again, when -she roared to the height of a surge, it was there. - -Well, daylight was at hand to resolve it. For my part I had no doubt -it was ice; indeed it had astonished me to find these seas so open at -this time of the year; only, if that sheen out in the morning darkness -under the stars was ice, the drift had been ours to carry us to a sight -of it: which signified a slide of keel running into knots: for that -steamlike hovering down there had not been in sight two or three hours -earlier, when my eye, as now, followed the hard curls of sea working -into distance, though the sky was not starry. - -I went below, trimmed the lamp, and prepared the table for breakfast. -Whilst I was thus occupied, Miss Otway appeared. She came straight to -the stove and held her hands to the blaze, and asked me when it would -be daylight. I answered, 'Within an hour.' - -'This almost perpetual darkness,' she exclaimed, 'is one of the most -awful parts of this dreadful time.' - -'I hope you slept well?' - -'Yes, I slept soundly, and awoke only about a quarter of an hour ago. -What is the time?' I named the hour. 'You've seen no signs of a ship -during the night, I fear?' - -'Nothing. It has blown hard. It still blows a fresh breeze of wind. -This is the most seawardly vessel that was ever launched. It is lucky -for us her cargo is a light one. Think of her laden to her chain-plate -bolts with some dead weight of iron goods. She would have been under -water day and night, and by this time have ceased to be a hull.' - -'When were you last on deck, Mr. Selby?' - -'I'm just now from the deck.' - -'Is there anything in sight?' - -'I'm waiting for daybreak to make sure.' - -My answer caused her to make a step from the stove, and to advance her -white face whilst she stared at me. - -'Is there ice near us?' she asked. - -'I find an appearance in the southward that may prove ice,' said I. -'But what else are you to expect in these seas?' I added carelessly. -'Here we are somewhere down in sixty degrees, and, since I have been -aboard, the horizon has been almost clear. What shall we have for -breakfast? Will you boil some coffee whilst I search the pantry? -Suppose daylight should reveal ice--it may also show us a whaler -fishing in the thick of the bergs!' - -And assuming a cheerful, bustling manner I lighted a bull's-eye, -whistling some sea tune the while, and went into the pantry, where, -after a brief overhaul of the closet and shelves, I laid hands upon a -tin of herrings, sardines, and some kind of delicate sausage. - -'I am making free,' said I, putting the stuff upon the table. - -'These things were laid in for you. I'll take an inventory of what's -left by-and-by; I allow that everything for cabin use will be stowed -in the lazarette. When you're transhipped the delicacies must go along -with you. The whaleman's our chance, and his cupboard has no reputation -for dainties.' - -I waited for her to sit, attended upon her, then fell to myself. But -all the while we remained seated she was straining her eyes at the -porthole facing her, then turning to the porthole behind her as though -she thought through the gleaming ebony of the glass, white with the -foam it rose from, to behold the ice I had spoken about. - -Day broke before I had breakfasted; it lay white in the snow on the -skylight ere I rose, and the grey of it in the cabin windows was -growing blue when I went on deck accompanied by Miss Otway. And now I -looked at what, for the hour past, I had dreaded to see. The day had -dawned in cold splendour; the sun was flashing in rose, at this moment -perhaps two degrees above the horizon; a number of small clouds were -floating near his face and looked like bits of gilt scaling off the -rayless target-like luminary; otherwise the heavens sloped clear in a -sheer vault of deeply dark blue, under which ran the sea of the rich -hue of the sky, but full of gleams and the snow of melting crests, -and here and there spaces of an exquisite ice-like green snaking -currentwise over the heaving waters. - -It no longer blew hard, but it was still a fresh breeze, spray-clouded -in the frequent guns of it that shrieked in gusts over the bulwarks to -the loftier lifts of the hull. But what my sight went to and remained -fastened upon whilst, I own, my breath came and went quickly with -the surprise of the magnificent, but to us the terrible, sight, was -the scene of the southern quarter of the sea. There, stretching for -miles and miles, was ice in bergs which to the naked sight looked to -lie so close, the picture was that of a compacted coast of alabaster, -broken with pinnacles and acclivities of a thousand shapes, curving in -places as though in bays, the whole on either hand dying out in films -of white, whilst over the bows and over the stern, too, every time we -rose to the height of a sea I saw ice, plentiful as the breasts of the -canvas of a vast fleet; and through the southern sky low down ran a -long glinting line or gleam as though a continent of ice was reflected -in its face; it was like the pearly radiance that hovers just off the -edges of sails when lightly swelling in the tropics against a soft blue -sky. - -I glanced at Miss Otway: she was staring at the sight with large -nostrils and a gaze of terror under the little frown that the strain -of her gaze had knitted her brows into. - -'That is ice,' she cried. - -'Ay, miles of it' said I. 'But is there nothing good for us amidst that -prodigious huddle of sail-like stuff?' - -I took the telescope out of the companion and knelt with it to steady -the tubes, and slowly and carefully swept the whole of that wonderful -range, from film to film blue in the air. The sun's rosy light was full -upon it; only the brush of an artist could show you what I saw as the -surge ran me into a clear view of the horizon. It looked like a hundred -cities of marble and alabaster, all of them going to pieces. It was -no compact coast. There were many wide gaps, titanic streets fit for -the tread of such ocean giant-spirits as would inhabit those colossal -structures of crystal. The nearest point seemed about ten miles -distant. All was clear sea between, and northwards I saw no ice. - -Miss Otway stood beside me holding by a belaying pin in the rail. Again -and again she would say: - -'Do you see any signs of a ship? Is not that the canvas of a -ship--_there_, just where your telescope now points?' - -I saw no ship, but I looked with impassioned intentness till my eyeball -seemed to melt dim through the lens under the brass it was pressed -against, conceiving that in so vast an arm of ice some vessel might lie -embayed. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -THE AURORA AUSTRALIS - - -Whilst slowly sweeping the ice with the glass, I saw, or seemed to -see, when the lenses pointed a little to the eastward of south, a blue -shadow of land in the air. I took my eye away from the telescope and -then the shadow was gone: I looked again through the glass and there it -was, a dim, scarcely distinguishable liquid dye whitening as it climbed -till it melted in the azure. - -I very well knew that shadow must be land, probably one of the -mountainous rocks of the South Orkneys; unless indeed it was that group -which lies north-east of the South Shetlands--forming one of them, in -short: but I could not persuade myself that our drift to the westwards -had been so considerable. I said to Miss Otway: - -'Do you see a shadow in the air yonder?' - -She looked, preserving the frown of an intense stare, and replied: - -'No; I see no shadow.' - -I directed the glass; she put her eye to it and cried quickly, 'Yes; I -see it.' - -'It is land,' said I. - -She looked eagerly at me and said, 'Inhabited land?' - -'I'll not say so, but I believe they go sealing there. I've heard of -whalers heaving-to and sending ashore.' - -'For what?' - -'I don't know.' - -I put away the glass and said: - -'I've been afraid of that land; but when I think of it, best after all -for us, Miss Otway, it should be there. Only, how to come at it? What's -our drift and where are we? Shall we wash perhaps round yonder point of -film, clearing the whole blocking mass, to light, may be, upon some -spouter crawling northwards from ten degrees lower south? Or--or----' -But I broke off, for what was the good of conjecturing unless I could -say something to bring a little of the poor girl's heart into her eyes? - -On the chance of something lying hidden round a point of crystal I -went forward, lowered the lantern, and ran the red flag aloft, jack -down. This done, I fetched a sextant from the captain's cabin and stood -with Miss Otway in the shelter of the companion-way waiting for the -sun to cross his meridian, meanwhile searching the line of the ice, -beholding the phantasy of a ship's white sails over and over again, and -conversing with the girl. - -The sea came ridging steadily out of north-west, the vast westerly -swell of the mighty Southern Ocean pulsing through it in rounds so -majestically regular, you didn't notice the heave of it. I had never -beheld a more glorious breast of ocean. All was dark blue sparkling -billows, heads of froth tossing into silken veils upon the wind, a -roaring, flashing scene, deep blue above, looking in its silence down, -and the ice southward, like a coast cut in ivory white, motionless, -shining, coming and going as the hull sank and soared. - -I got an observation and eagerly went below to work it out. Miss -Otway followed me into the captain's cabin and watched me whilst I -calculated. I made the latitude sixty degrees ten minutes south, and -the longitude exactly forty-five degrees west. Then, looking at the -chart, I judged that that shadow of land which was showing miles past -the barrier of ice was some central mountain of Coronation Island, -towering high four thousand five hundred feet. I marked the hull's -place on the chart, and said: - -'This is where we are.' - -She peered, and after a pause exclaimed: 'It is all desolation down -here! Look how far we are off from Cape Horn. There is no nearer -civilisation than the Falkland Islands--how many hundreds of miles -distant! Oh!' she cried, lifting her head and clapping her hand to -her face, 'if we could but hoist even a little sail to save us from -drifting to the ice and certain death.' - -'No,' I exclaimed, 'death's not aboard yet, not even in sight. Sixty -degrees south! The whalers make nothing of that. The Great Circle -carries you lower;' but I would not add 'not here.' - -Then, my eye going to a bookshelf, I spied a volume which I pulled down -quickly. It was a directory to these seas. I searched the pages, and, -putting my finger upon a paragraph, said: - -'See here now, Miss Otway: men have visited this land, they have named -it, surveyed it, sounded round about it, described it. Where one has -been others may venture. Look at this,' and I read: '"At daylight on -the morning of the 12th January 1823, we saw some pigeons and at six -o'clock perceived the east end of the islands of South Orkneys bearing -W. by S. distant about eleven leagues. We carried all possible sail to -get under the land, but the wind soon became light and left us almost -at the mercy of a heavy swell in the midst of ice islands, which made -our navigation truly hazardous."' - -'Their ship had masts and sails,' she exclaimed, 'and was under -command.' - -I read on, eager to learn all the book could tell me. - -'"Being now close under the land I sent a boat from each vessel to -explore them. We continued to tack the vessels about in a bay. The -icebergs which form in the bays in winter and break away in the summer -now produced so much drift ice that we had frequently to tack ship to -avoid striking it."' - -'That's it!' she cried. 'Their ship was under command.' - -I proceeded: '"This coast is, if possible, more terrific in appearance -than the South Shetland. The tops of the islands for the most part -terminate in craggy towering peaks, and look not unlike the mountain -tops of a sunken island. The loftiest of these summits, towering up to -a point, I denominated Noble's Peak. This peak in a clear day may be -seen at the distance of fifteen leagues."' - -'Is that the shadow?' she asked. - -'Possibly.' - -'Oh! look at the book, Mr. Selby, and see if it says that the island's -inhabited.' - -'It's not inhabited,' I answered. - -Then I stood with my finger upon the page musing upon the brief -account. There was little to interest outside of what I had read aloud: -the rest told of bearings and distances, and what had been brought up -by the lead. - -'But,' said I, looking at the girl, 'we are not stranded yet. That -we've drifted south is sure; but how much westing has there been in -this tumbling drive? Here's all about the currents shown here,' and I -turned the leaves of the book and read: - -'"Ten miles south of Cape Horn the ocean stream flows east-north-east, -half to one mile in the hour." That should be good for us. Let this -wind shift south or west, and the swell and the run of the sea will -drive the hulk out of sight of the barrier.' - -But I had something more to do just then than talk, basing chat on -small hope and weak conjecture. I saw to the fire in the stove, then -went on deck to sound the well; the pump was hard frozen as before. I -freed it and got a cast, and found that no water had drained in since -I last sounded. I'll not swear to an inch or two, but the depth was -quite unimportant, and after readjusting the pump I took the glass for -another long look at the ice. - -It was land, sure enough, at the back of the barrier; the pearly blue -shadow stood a clear shape in the lens, and I seemed to see it now -with my bare sight when I looked a little away to right or left of it. -I carefully took its bearings, also the bearings of certain defined -features of what I call the barrier, though, as I have said, it was a -length of dislocated stuff full of yawns and wide winding openings, -with a menace of the revelation of many grotesque mighty shapes, -startling miracles of form beyond the reach of the dreams of fever, -should we be set close. There was a sort of salt sparkle upon the range -in some places; and now, whilst looking over the side, I saw, streaming -up the slant of a surge, a pistol-shot distant, a mass of the giant -kelp of these waters: but I observed no birds, nothing more than that -kelp to hint at the meaning of that distant shadow in the air. - -It was miserable that I could not get the least idea of our drift save -by waiting and watching, which presently became a sort of anguish. -I sought, but could nowhere find, the deep-sea lead, or certainly I -should have dropped it over the side, taking my chance of its finding -bottom, and lying there to show by the angle of the line into what -quarter of the sea we were drifting--whether we were making straight -for the heart of the range, as it looked, or laterally rolling towards -the south-western extremity of the ice. - -The weather continued of a clear cold splendour, the horizon -sharp-edged against the sky as the rim of a tumbler. The sea ran hard -in spiteful foaming slopes which kept on shouldering the hulk dead -to leeward, and within an hour the growth of the ice told me we were -closing it; in fact, by the bearings I had taken I saw that the drive -of the hull was as fair for the heart of the barrier as if she was -being steered for it! - -What was to be done? I had been cast in my time in many situations of -peril, yet had never known myself despairful even in the blackest hour -of my troubles: but I own my heart fell now, my spirits sank, hope -died when I looked at those leagues of horizon of ice and reflected -upon my helplessness. Could I have summoned the help of but another -pair of hands I might have made some desperate effort with capstan and -leading-blocks to cap the stump of the foremast with another height of -spar, and get a jib stretched that her head might pay off and bring -her under some sort of control to enable me to thread the waterways -betwixt the bergs. But, single-handed, I could do nothing. There was no -height of foremast for the setting of any sort of rag that would round -her head away and keep her before it--I mean, in a fashion to hold her -responsive to the helm. - -When I made the discovery that the hull was setting dead on to the -ice, Miss Otway was in the cabin boiling some cocoa for a scrambling -afternoon meal; she came up while I stood swaying on the heave of the -plank, my arms tightly folded, my eyes rooted to the ice; instantly it -was as clear to her as to me whither our drift was tending, and she -uttered a low cry as though she had been struck. - -The mere sight of her, however, did me good--it quickened perception of -my obligations as a man. Her face was white as the foam over the side; -her pale lips moved, but the shrill wind sheared with icy-edge through -her words as they came to her lips. She sent a blind, staggering glance -round the western and northern sea line, and, knitting her face into a -look of resolution, she said: - -'It is God's will. But, Mr. Selby, it is a dreadful death to die.' - -'I am pleased when you look so,' said I, 'but not when you speak so. -It is God's will, as you say. But what is that will? What's to be our -fate? Look how those blue shadows in the ice open and widen. The bergs -appear close together; hundreds of fathoms separate them in reality, -and if we are to drift into the huddle why shouldn't we scrape through?' - -'To where?' - -'To where?... There may be open water beyond, and a ship.' - -'No, no, land!' she cried, 'land! See the shadow of it. It was visible -in the telescope only a little while ago: now I see it like a forming -cloud. It will be all ice to the rocks, and some break will let us in -and we shall drift deep and be locked up and left--and left----' - -And now she could scarcely articulate for some spasm in her throat, and -her poor white face was all awork with the horrors of her imagination. - -It made me sullen to hear her, she reasoned so well, beyond any trick -that I had for cheering her. - -'We must wait and hope,' said I; 'we are not in the ice yet; there may -come a ship.' - -And setting my teeth I swung the glass out of its brackets fiery with -some passing mood of wrath born of hopelessness and helplessness; for -no sailor will stand at gaze and be deserted by his spirit as a man -whilst there is a chance for life, though it be dim as a corposant in a -burst of wet squall; but put him in my place--as I then was; aboard a -dismasted hull rolling to her waterways in a steady pouring sea, a doom -of ice filling the horizon to leeward: how should a sailor act as a man -_then_ save by a stony endurance that sounds gallantly if you call it -heroic fortitude? - -But the girl had boiled some cocoa: it waited: so I begged leave to -hand her below out of the ceaseless howl of the ice-charged wind. Yet -neither of us stayed long. She could not eat, and for my part 'twas as -much as I could do to gulp down the steaming cocoa, good as it was. - -I believe the sun set soon after two; the sky was everywhere of a -wild crimson, flashing gorgeously where the luminary was; the sea -came running in hard green lines, tall with passing heads, out of the -splendour; _then_ the ice was a wonderful scene indeed, delicately -tinctured as it was with the redness. The shadow of the land hung afar -in a dim, pink cloud, but though the barrier had been plain in view for -some while I could not swear that within the last hour we had sensibly -closed it. This gave me a little hope--though I didn't know any: I bade -Miss Otway note it and she agreed with me--she had a sailor's eye for -atmospheric distance--that the ice looked no nearer than it had within -the past hour. - -'Can we be in the grip of a westerly current?' thought I. Then, before -the blaze faded in the west, I hauled down the flag and hoisted the -burning lantern, for the delicate figures of the ice in the remote -recesses where the film of it died out were so cheating in their -likeness to ships lifting canvas and heading for us, that I could -not persuade myself but one _must_ prove a vessel--if not now, then -presently. - -I obliged Miss Otway to go below when the night fell. It was too cold -for her. She was like to freeze to death. The ice loomed as a range -of snow-covered cliff to leeward: it showed of a savage and deadly -paleness under the stars which sheeted down weakly to it, though here -and there one brighter than the rest glowed like a lighthouse lantern -on some faint point. It was a wonderfully brilliant night, however, -no moon that I remember, but overhead the larger stars had the rich -tremble you see in the tropics; I had never seen such a field of -brilliants--the stardust hovered like mist, and the height of the sky -that night was awful to my solitary gaze. - -At about eight o'clock we were, as I reckoned, about five miles distant -from the nearest elbow of the ice. But though a tall sea still ran, -giving the hull the lofty motions of a stately dancer, the wind was -sensibly taking off. A frightful time was this! for if the hull struck -on the hurl of such a surge as still roared under us, she would go to -pieces in the twinkling of an eye. I was constantly looking over the -side, reckoning to find us setting on to some detached mass of drift -stuff, flat, but not the less deadly for being awash, but saw none. -Suddenly I perceived a light upon the horizon right over the bows. I -fancied my vision deceived me, that the trend of the ice was not as I -imagined it to be in that darkness, that the light was some burning -mountain far past the barrier, and that a shift of wind or change of -stream or tide had altered the bearings: this I conceived and rushed -headlong for a bull's-eye, which I flashed upon the compass; but no! -the indications were as before. - -What, then, was that light ahead? Miss Otway had followed me when I -fled up the companion steps with a lighted bull's-eye. - -'What is it?' she cried. - -'What's that?' I exclaimed, pointing ahead in the starlight. - -But now, looking, I beheld a luminous arched cloud: it soared, always -arched, increasing in brightness till the brow of it stood about -twenty degrees above the horizon: the brightest of the stars shone -wanly through it: then, whilst we watched, flashes of fire, darting -like lightning, leapt from it; they changed into spiral columns of the -brilliance of sunlight, scores of them, and they went twisting and -streaming out of the cloud with the look of the rush of the Milky Way -to the Zenith, whirling and winding their strands of fire into a very -rope of flame, whose end seemed to search the furthest stardust. This -wonderful, beautiful, sublime scene of joyous dancing, inwreathing -lights, faded, but was quickly followed in the same quarter where the -fiery curved cloud had shone by rich, straw-coloured arches of flame, -linking and sinking and soaring, changing on a sudden with a vast -spread of light, exactly fan shaped, and jewelled with colours manifold -as the rainbow, as though it reflected some giant prism. - -'What is it?' said Miss Otway, standing close beside me and speaking in -a voice subdued by awe and astonishment. - -'The Aurora Australis,' I answered, knowing it must be that by -descriptions I remembered. - -We lost all sense of time in watching. In some of the sublimest -recesses of that show of fire it was as though the heaven of God were -opening: one held one's breath not knowing what the next revelation -would be, what spectacle of winged spirit shapes would glance upon -one's mortal vision out of those chasms of splendour which looked, -with the glory that burned in them, to have been cloven to the very -Throne. - -'Mark this!' I cried, and as I spoke--the vast fan of light then fading -and no more lightning-like fire leaping--the wind that had been a fresh -breeze dropped as if by magic: the sky over the bows darkened into its -night of stars: the sea fell into a sloppy tumble, and within a quarter -of an hour the hull was rolling quietly upon the long, wide swell of -these seas with so oil-like a calm upon the steady run of the folds -that, close to our port quarter, I watched the image of a bright star -lengthen and shrink as it rode, till, but for the intense, dread cold -of the atmosphere, you would have thought yourself becalmed near the -line. - -'We may drift north and go clear after all,' said I, taking the lighted -bull's-eve out of the companion and looking at the binnacle by it. - -'Do you hear the thunder?' said Miss Otway, following me. - -I listened: it was not thunder but the crackling of ice. There was -no roar of sea, no howl of gale now to kill that sound; it rolled -up through the night from the southward in bursts and shocks like -explosions of heavy artillery; it swept over the smooth swell which -looked liked smoking grease as the huge rounds noiselessly floated -eastward, and it sounded as though a thunderstorm were raging over the -ice. - -And still that brief peace that was in the night, spite of the distant -thundering of the ice, was a wonderful refreshment to the spirits after -the ceaseless flush of the surge to the side and the steady roar of the -gale on high, shrieking as it split upon the barbs of ice the length of -bulwarks bristled with. More: a change of weather might now happen to -drive us northward, to drift us clear of the bergs, at all events, and -so extend our chance of being fallen in with and rescued. - -I stayed on deck till after nine watching anxiously for any signs of -a change of weather. Miss Otway came and went: she was too restless -and fearful to linger below, but the frost in the night wind was too -stinging to allow her to remain long above. When I went into the cabin -I left the hull rolling slowly upon a swell of the sea polished as -ebony; nay, so glass-like was that swollen mirror that all about us the -water was sprinkled with the images of stars, with one ice-like wake -swinging like a pendulum as the silver of it seemed to sink. - -I mixed a tumbler of hot rum and sat down before the stove to smoke a -pipe, with the young lady's consent; there was a good stock of tobacco, -cigars, and a little collection of pipes in the cabin that had been -occupied by Captain and Mrs. Burke. Our talk was, you will suppose, all -about our situation. I assured her there was little to fear saving the -ice; and talked--the thing then coming into my head--of a sailor who -had gone sealing for three years with one Captain Smyley; this same -skipper having spent nearly half a century betwixt the River Plate and -the South Shetlands. - -'These waters are plentifully frequented,' said I. 'A century ago in -such a case as this we shouldn't have had much to hope for. What was -to come? In half a year a score of yellow, humpbacked, round bowed -waggons blowing away under bladder-like sails, with topmast struck -and nothing but the log to tell the longitude--that was about the -sum of the navigation. There was no Australia then; nothing but a -Western American coast yielding a month's saunter from Acapulco to the -Philippines--wonderful that they should have ever got a Spaniard to -face the ice down here.' - -'Did they?' - -'Why, yes; they sent treasure to Europe in galleons named after saints, -and when they saw a waterspout they held up their swords as crosses, -and bade the thing be off in Latin.' - -'Ships were as safe then as they are now,' said she, pulling off a -thick glove and toasting her hand, on which sparkled a diamond or two. -'Why should this vessel have been dismasted? What progress is there to -boast of when you think of this hull? Can't they plant masts which will -keep erect?' - -'Had that been, you and all others who were here when the squall struck -you would be deeper under water than the fangs of the biggest iceberg -afloat,' I answered, with a half smile at her eager gravity, as though -there were nothing to interest us now but shipbuilding! - -'If my life is preserved I'll never go to sea again,' she said. - -'You'll have had enough of it.' - -'I came for my health and it seems I have come to die.' - -'Has your health improved?' - -'Yes--perhaps; I don't feel whilst I talk as if the voyage had done me -much good.' - -'You'll write an account of these experiences when you return, and the -Queen will send for you that she may see and converse with as wonderful -a heroine as ever flourished in her reign.' - -'What have I done to be a heroine?' - -I knocked the ashes out of my pipe and turned to lift the tumbler -of grog that was yet half full; when my hand was arrested as though -paralysed by an extraordinary noise, smooth, fierce, seething. I -listened a moment, then sprang to the companion steps. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -THE THICK OF IT - - -My instant belief was we were foul of ice, scaling some side of crystal -mountain smooth as though chiselled. But when I opened the companion -door I was nearly flung to the bottom of the steps by a very volcanic -shock of gale, white as a cloud with snow and hail. I sprang again -and gained the deck, and, shutting the door, got to leeward of the -companion. - -A furious Cape Horn squall was blowing over the ocean in smoke--from -what quarter I had then to find out. The still scene of starlight night -and sluggish rolling ocean was vanished. Already, with the magical -swiftness of the weather of these regions, a sea was got up and -beginning to race and foam. There was nothing to see. The night was -blind with howling storm. When I had left the deck there was not so -much as a rag of cloud to be seen in the sky; and now it was blowing a -whole gale, which looked to boil with the snow that fled with it, and -everywhere it was of a midnight blackness. - -The rush of the wind was over the port quarter; but then the hull would -be slewing for the trough, and how her head was when I had gone below I -could not have told. Keeping this bearing of the wind in mind, I rushed -to the cabin, picked up the burning bull's-eye, and, springing to the -captain's berth, darted the flame on to the tell-tale, and saw that -this squall or gale was out of about south-south-west. - -When I took my eyes from the compass I saw Miss Otway standing, white -as milk, in the doorway. - -'What is it?' she asked. - -'A heavy squall--perhaps the first of a gale: but that,' said I, with -a flourish of the bull's-eye to the compass, 'gives us good news; we -shall blow clear of the ice. The wind is sou'-sou'-west. What do you -say to that?' and, forcing the noise of a jolly laugh, I came out of -the berth and hooked up the bull's-eye ready to my hand. - -We had seen the ocean all day long, clear of ice north and east; -icebergs we knew were there, but their summits had settled--our drift -had put leagues betwixt them and us; therefore I was not immediately -fearful--on the score of ice, I mean. But if it was going to blow as -hard as I had just now felt it, what was to become of the hull? Such -fury and weight of wind must speedily raise the seas into cliffs, and -then God knows how it would fare with the sheer hulk with not a rag, -nor the means of stretching a rag, to enable her to look up to it, -to shoulder it off with her bow, to lie hove to, in short, as a ship -should. - -In an hour, the dance was wild even to madness; my own brain reeled to -it; sick I was _not_ in the sense of nausea. Was it sickness of soul -then? But I recollect that many times when the hull fell off the top -of a sea into the valley, sliding as though she was shooting off some -Niagara-like edge, a horrible feeling of faintness and prostration -attended the descent. Never before had I suffered so at sea; but then, -never before had I been tossed in a dismasted hull in a gale of wind -sixty degrees south latitude. - -Miss Otway lay almost lifeless. I shored her up on a couch by backs -of chairs which I lashed; I heaped clothes from her bed on her, and -got hot brandy for her, and encouraged her as best I could. There was -nothing to be done on deck. The sea was flying in white sheets over -the waist and forecastle; the glare of the brine breaking close aboard -showed you the snow; but looking around was like staring into a well. - -It was a strange sort of snow, too, that fell. Once in the cabin I took -notice of it on my coat: it was in small grains, round as shot, of a -size from mustard seed to buckshot; a dry, pure white: not hail. - -But two hours after the gale began, the snow ceased and the wind -lessened; I watched from the companion-way, and observed but little -water flying athwart. With such observations I was forced to be -satisfied, and spent the hours in the cabin, keeping an eye on the -stove, boiling a hot drink now and again for the life and support of -it, tending Miss Otway, from time to time peering through the hatch -where the iron sweep of the wind seemed to unflesh the face, wondering, -for ever wondering, whether the next hurl would be followed by a crash -of the side, and how long we should be in perishing when the hull split. - -I should have in agined myself too anxious--nay, to put it plainly, too -alarmed to sleep, and it seemed that I went up many times to take a -look around; and still I must have slept, for I started from my chair -in a sudden terror of dream or noise, and with a lurch of the hull fell -upon my knees, but was up instantly. - -The motion of the craft had changed; the moment I had my wits I felt -that the sea was pyramidal, which told me there had been a quite -recent shift of wind. I cannot imagine anything more dislocating, -more unnerving, more brain sickening, than the leaps and rolls of the -hull upon the sea that, by the movement, I knew was darting in almost -perpendicular thrusts, spear shaped billows lifting in ebon darts and -daggers, and putting a frightful wildness into the flings of the fabric. - -Miss Otway lay with her eyes shut, and seemed asleep; a small fire -glowed in the stove, and the lighted lantern swung in the centre of the -cabin as though some invisible hand grasped it, seeking to jerk it off -its hook. I took the bull's-eye and went on deck, and found the wind a -dry gale, but observed a thickness as of fog in it, but it was too dark -to make sure. I staggered to the binnacle and saw the wind was blowing -out of north again: a cruel shift! I stared and smelt for ice, but saw -no loom, and tasted no more than the freezing coldness of the blast. - -What was the hour? I went below and found it half-past eight o'clock. -Oh! what an interminable darkness was that! Where was the ice? It could -not be far off. What and whither was our drift? I felt like a madman -then. - -Miss Otway slept on. I believe it might have been an hour and a half -after I had awakened that, not knowing but that the poor young heart in -her had been stopped by terror, or the delicate blood in her frozen, -I stooped to view her face, the lamp burning dimly; she showed like -a piece of exquisitely chiselled marble: I can't tell why, but her -whiteness seemed to my mood to exactly fit the bitterness of this -time, the frost, the snow, the ice, the wild gale and foaming waters; -was I as mad then as I had felt some time before, to bend over her and -get a fancy of her into my head as a spirit of these wild and desolate -parts? Put yourself in my place and you'll not wonder to find your brow -hot with fancies more desperately and tragically strange than such a -crazy notion as this. - -She opened her eyes whilst I looked, and I stood erect with a sigh of -relief, half turning to fling my cap down whilst I ran the length of my -sleeve along my forehead for the refreshment of the wet of the snow. -She sat up and watched me, whilst I saw in her face she was heeding the -extravagant tumbling of the hull. - -'It seems to be blowing a gale,' she said. - -'Ay,' said I, 'but we're still alive. Feel these jumps: no empty cask -could better them.' - -'Will you remove these chairs that I may sit up?' - -I did so. Whilst I knelt beside her to cast the lashings adrift she -eyed me intently, as though she would read my very brain; she then -sighed, but said nothing, and the road being clear she drew her feet -out of the covering and sought to rise, but, after a short struggle -with the furious deck, sat again. - -I stood before the stove waiting for daybreak, my eye glancing from one -frothing cabin window to another and thence to the skylight. At last -she said: - -'You've a brave heart, Mr. Selby, but it can hold out no longer; I read -despair in your face. If the end is to come, may it come quickly. You -have behaved to me with a noble kindness. I can but thank you--I can -but thank you,' and she held out her hand with her eyes full of tears. - -I bowed my head over her hand; it was an excuse to fetch a breath or -two, I would not just then trust myself to speak. Then said I: - -'I'll not disguise the truth: our situation is perilous, as God, who, -let us believe, is watching over us, knows. But I should be no true man -to feel the despair you tell me you read in my face. Daylight may find -us a sight to hearten us.' - -She shook her head. - -'Well, but don't let your spirits die. If a wish could help us I'd be -above, if _your_ safety was to be got at so small a cost. But see, now, -I'll run up on deck and let you know if there's anything like the loom -of ice about. It _may_ prove all right with us--it _may_ end in our -lives being preserved.' - -But all the same, with a heart as heavy as ever hers could be, I clawed -my way to the companion steps for yet another stare into the blackness. - -It was not yet daybreak; but when some while after the faint, grey -light sifted through the blowing, swelling, roaring gloom, the sight -struck to my very heart and I was sure we were doomed. The sea was -running in hills of liquid lead; many clouds of mist were in the wind -and they blew athwart the hull like bursts of steam; snow in places was -rushing in horizontal lines out of dark low clouds flying southwards. -Ice was all about us. The first object that dawn revealed, whilst I -stood in the companion-way watching, was a mountain of ice on the bow; -as features of it stole out a snow-squall looked to have fouled a whole -stack of pinnacles on the left of the berg; it was dark as smoke there, -with snow whirling in a very maelstrom of froth-like whiteness; the -seas slipped their foam up its side to a height of fifty feet, and the -brine flashed in clouds of crystals against the dull, marble-like face, -which showed smooth as a wall through the haze and the whirl of flying -vapour that shrieked athwart our decks to it. - -_It_ was but one. I counted twenty coming and going amid the shadows -of the squalls and flying masses of fog. You would have supposed that -a fleet somewhere hidden were firing great guns, so thunderous was the -splintering of those bergs majestically rocking their mighty masses. -The nearest--that on the starboard bow--was about a mile off. Others -showed to port and astern: one heap, like an island, darkened the haze -on the port bow. The gale had apparently broken up the barrier and we -were in the thick of the floating bodies. - -Miss Otway came to the foot of the companion steps and waited for me to -make way for her. I stepped out and she ascended the steps and looked -round the sea, but in silence. Her face was hardened into stone by -despair. Hours of suspense and grief, hours spent in the most awful -kind of loneliness the imagination can figure, with the darkness of the -spirit of death for ever upon her heart, had done their work with the -poor young lady: sensation was dumb. - -And now there was nothing to do but await the end, come what might. I -let her stand a little, looking, then taking her by the arm, gently but -firmly, conducted her below and seated her where she had lain during -the night. I was resolved that my own despair should not be visible -to her, and partly to cover myself, so to speak, and partly for the -good of the thing, I boiled some coffee, and put food on the deck near -the stove; but one looked at such a repast with the emotions of a -malefactor to whom breakfast is served whilst the hangman waits. - -Whilst I was at this work she addressed me calmly: - -'There is no doubt, I suppose, that we shall strike the ice?' - -'It's most inevitable,' I answered. - -'If it happens, shall we be better off down here than on deck?' - -'Let it happen,' said I. - -'If we are to strike the ice,' she said, 'I should wish to be drowned -quickly. I would rather die at once than be thrown soaked on the ice to -lie a little and freeze--it would take time--I fear the sufferings. I -am not afraid of death, I wish it to be quick.' - -'There's no ice nearer to us than a mile, that I can make out,' I said, -then handed her a pannikin of coffee. 'Pray drink this.' - -She took it and raised it to her lips. - -'If the hull strikes, will it go to pieces instantly?' she asked. - -'Who can tell? She might beach herself and find us a home till the berg -floated north, where the smoke of our fire will be seen.' - -She sank into silence with her eyes fastened upon the deck. When I -offered her food she shook her head. My breakfast consisted of half a -cup of coffee. - -Within a quarter of an hour I was on deck again, but the scene was the -same as before, saving that the ice mountain that had been upon our -starboard bow was now right ahead, whilst on our starboard quarter, -within perhaps half a mile, was a small island of ice, about sixty feet -high, not before visible. The compass gave me the wind blowing steadily -from one quarter. But then I could make nothing of bearings within -three or four points on board a helpless hull, swinging in a high sea, -with a send of her head when she was rushed out of a hollow that made -me sometimes think she was going to give her stern to the weather. - -At one o'clock it was a savage and tremendous scene of warring -waters and flying sky of soot, and giant forms of ice vanishing and -reappearing amid headlong flights of wool-white vapour, and through -all, in deep notes, ran the thunder of the surge-smitten, frozen -heights, with frequent rending and crashing noises of dislocation. I -was now very sure that our drift was not less than three miles an -hour, and perhaps four. This I gathered by observing a vast shape of -ice that suddenly showed off the starboard bow. It was nearly a mile -long, and I should think two hundred feet high. It was a grand, truly -sublime ocean piece, with its numerous lofty arches and caverns, out of -which the sea, in recoil, flashed in immense bursts of foam. I spied -the white wings of birds glancing upon it, but I had it not often -very clear in sight, for the steam-like smother drove down at quick -intervals, leaving some pale eminence gleaming on high against the -whirl of the clouds, to vanish in some swift outfly of snow, so that -the whole thing would be as completely gone to the eye as if it had -sunk. - -But by staying and watching it as often as it emerged in whole or -in part, I got at the rate of our drift. It was quickly on our port -bow with others coming out of the thickness to leeward, all wild and -terrific in that dull light of storm, with the glare of the leaping -foam at their base and their own ghastly stare through the rent -curtains of cloud flying under the dark sky. - -Soon after two, when it was almost dark, I thought we were lost, for -I saw the loom of an iceberg right abeam to leeward; but whether it -was God's guidance of the devoted hull, or that the set of the long -rolling sea ran a sort of sweep of tide round these floating islands, -when we were within a musket shot of the mass, with an occasional -shock of loose ice sounding through the hulk, our drift made a little -departure. I vow it was for all the world as though the fabric was -alive and, dreading her fate, avoided it, or as though she were under -command, with a cool hand and a critical eye for sea measurement at the -helm. Certain it is we drove past clear; it might be that we owed our -preservation to the rebound of the sea. - -It was almost black with the night when that berg was on our lee -quarter, but I knew by a sudden enormous roar of water, and by an -indescribably hissing sound lasting for a few minutes, as though a -thousand locomotives were blowing off steam, that an immense mass of -the island had fallen, not very many ships' lengths distant, which I -have no genius to do justice to, nor even to communicate, though I need -but close my eyes to behold the terrible picture, with its uproar of -trampling seas, and howling wind, and cracking masses. A little after -four in the morning, whilst I sat in the cabin with Miss Otway, every -instant expecting the hull to strike, her motions grew suddenly quiet. -I felt her rise and fall upon a long swell, and knew instinctively by -the feel of her that she was under the lee of something. - -I sprang to my feet and ran on deck. It was pitch dark, with a strange -phantasmal glimmer on either hand, so vague, so indeterminable I could -not see it when I looked at it. The roar of the gale, the hiss and -beat of the driven seas, came as from a distance. Thrice as high as the -masthead of a ship sounded the low, continuous thunder of the wind, as -though it blew over mountain tops; but down where we were it was calm. -Icy gusts came in moans from half a dozen quarters. The long, invisible -heave was as rhythmic as the ocean pulse of swell. I understood we were -embayed and foresaw certainly now that our being stranded, or being -hammered to pieces against the ice, was only a question of minutes. - -I went into the cabin with a loathing of life coming into me out of -the sheer despair that was as frost on my heart, caring not a curse -how it went, so sick I was of it all after the unendurable hours of -watching and expectation I had passed through; and then again I felt -that, whatever was to happen, it was right I should be by the poor -girl's side: not that it was in my power to comfort her--not, indeed, -if the hull went to pieces, that I could be of the least use to her or -myself, but I was company for her, and out of me she'd get some solace -of companionship in what I reckoned these dying minutes of ours. - -'Has the wind fallen? Where are we?' she shrieked as I approached her. - -'We are embayed,' I answered. 'We are got under the lee of something.' - -Just as I spoke those words a harsh, grating roar ran through the hull; -the vessel trembled as though in the first throe of bursting; another -like roar succeeded; I felt the thrill of the scraping of the bilge and -keel as the fabric was rushed by some ponderous heave of swell. Again, -another huge thrust of the sea, another long roar of scraping keel and -bilge, another quiver and thrill throughout the hulk as though every -timber was straining ere flying to the shock of an explosion. She lay -right over to starboard. The lamp swung and lay hard against the upper -deck. Whatever was movable fetched away. So acute was the angle that -Miss Otway, unable to maintain her seat upon the couch, shot from it to -me; but I was firmly planted, saw her coming, and received her so that -she was not hurt, and with a vigorous swing I cleared and placed her -breathless and moaning in a cleated armchair that stood close to where -I sat. - -The blind, soft, thunderous thrusts of the sea continued. I heard the -water in tons washing over the decks, but every time this happened a -roar of grinding and scaling shook the hull as she was driven by the -wash of the swell higher and yet higher. The companion was closed and -no water descended. I knew by the noise of the sea that the hull lay -broadside to the swing of the swell. I got out of my chair, but was -heavily thrown, and could scarcely regain my feet, so extreme was the -slant, and so completely did it pin me against the cabin wall. - -As regular as the rush of the floating folds was the thrust of them, -and now I grew sensible that the heave was like to strand us high and -dry, the job of it being a different labour than rocks or the grit of -the beach of earth would have made, so greasy was the ice. The water -poured over the decks every time the swell struck the hull, but in a -little while I found each volume to be weakening in weight, and after -the fabric had been driven in this grinding way in a sort of pulsing of -blows, deafening with the bursts of the brine against the side and over -the decks, each onward slide grew shorter and shorter, until presently -she lay without motion, with an occasional shudder running through her -from the beat of the sea, but at intervals so varying as to persuade -me she was fairly high and dry, and within the wash of the foam of the -larger rollers only. - -But the list or angle was horrible. I was unable to move without going -on all fours. I crawled in this wise to Miss Otway, and told her to -remain where she was, not to attempt to stir lest she should break her -neck, whilst I crept on deck to take a look at our situation if it was -visible. - -'What has happened do you think?' she cried. - -'We are stranded upon some beach of an ice island I expect,' I replied. - -'Hark to that!' she shrieked, as a sudden sea smote the bilge and -roared in foaming recoil. 'If you go on deck you'll be washed away.' - -'I'll see to it. That blow was weak. We have been thrust high. Feel -what a desperate slope it is. I pray God no sudden shock of sea may -launch us afresh.' - -With that I crawled to the companion steps, every bone aching like -rheumatism with the contortions of my figure in my efforts to move. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -IMPRISONED - - -I might have guessed there would be no more to see now than when I had -first looked. I stood in the companion with my head just out, holding -the door as close shut as it would lie with my body in the way; and -hardly had I put my head through when a whole green sheet of water -tumbled over the port bulwarks and roared in a cataractal deluge down -the steep, boiling white, through the wreckage of smashed bulwarks. I -ducked, but not in time to stop a rush into the cabin. - -I guessed, by the uncommon blackness, that we were in a hollow betwixt -high cliffs; I beheld an illusive paleness, the vague, spectral -faintness of rocks of ice or snow-covered acclivities on either hand, -but no features of them were in the least degree discernible. I durst -not let go of the companion to look over the side, but I judged by the -deep, hollow noise overhead that a strong gale still blew, and from a -distance came the strong, coarse seething of a high sea. - -Still, the beat of the swell against the hull was not often now, which -made me suspect it was no iceberg we had stranded on but land, one of -the New Orkneys or South Shetlands group, because the bating of the -swell told that a tide ran, and I had read in that book about the South -Atlantic in the cabin that the rise and fall of the tide down here was -very considerable, that gales of wind often swelled the water high -above its natural level, as was shown by the many skeletons of whales -found lying twenty or thirty feet above high-water mark. - -But until the dawn broke nothing could be imagined; I closed the -companion door and crawled back to where Miss Otway sat. - -She was so postured by the angle of the deck that she could not get out -of her chair; she begged me to help her; I drew her out and held her -until she had sunk upon the floor, and then I sat down beside her on -the hard plank, the carpet having been rolled up and stowed away when -the cabin was flooded in the outfly that had dismasted the 'Lady Emma.' -Not so much water as I supposed had tumbled down; it lay the length of -the cabin wall and was fast draining off. - -'Have you been able to see where we are?' she exclaimed. - -'No. But though there's no doubt we've beached on ice, I believe the -land's close aboard.' - -'What land?' - -'Coronation Island, if any. That was the island in the way of our -drift; we've been making a straight course for it.' - -We paused to hearken to a heavy flooding of water overhead, but the -blow that had sheeted the brine over the hull was as weak as a summer -ripple is to an angry surge compared with the thumps which had driven -us to where we now lay. - -'The sea will have made a clean sweep of the decks,' said she. - -'There was little to go. What but the galley? The companion has -weathered it out, happily for us.' - -'Oh, Mr. Selby, what can we now do? What is to become of us?' she cried -with sudden hysteric passion of grief and terror. - -'We must find out where we are. Better here, anyway, than knocking -about among the ice outside, with the prospect every next minute of -being squashed into pulp. Oh, _that_ was too terrible to have gone -on bearing! The perpetual apprehension was like to have driven us -overboard, mad. Why, this is peace, this is rest.' - -'What a time it has been! What a time it is!' she cried. 'When will the -day break? If we are upon an iceberg----' - -She was arrested by a second thunder-shock of water overhead, yet weak -as a blow of the sea, though the hull trembled fore and aft. - -The lamp glowed and shed a good light, the body of it lying hard -against the upper deck, so sharp was the angle; it was strange to see -it stirless there, strange to feel the stillness of the hull, save when -a blow of swell made her quiver. The fire was out; but even had not all -the fuel fetched away into the wash of the wet, I had not dared kindle -a fresh one, lest in the trembling fit then upon me, and on such a -roof-like slope as that, I should stumble, or by some helpless flourish -set the ship in flames. - -I crawled on my knees to the couch, and pulled the clothes from it and -covered Miss Otway with them, swathing her head and so wrapping her -that nothing showed but a little piece of the face. The poor girl's -teeth chattered, and she shivered ceaselessly. By carefully crawling I -got upon the table and managed to get hold of a glass and a decanter -of wine. She drank a little and I took a good pull of the wine myself. -Indeed it was an extraordinary situation--the hull on her beam ends, -the cabin alight, we two crouched on the deck, the stillness after the -fury we had come through, the stillness, I say, saving a low roar of -distant sea, with an occasional beat of the swell upon the hulk, and -the scaling and rushing of water overhead. An amazing situation indeed; -there is nothing like it, nothing stranger in the maritime records, -that I can recollect. - -At last the starboard cabin windows, high in the broadside, showed of a -pale steel grey; I went on my hands and feet to the steps and reached -the deck. I stood a little while in the companion-way thunderstruck; I -was confounded and could not credit my sight. The hull lay stranded -in a very well of ice. Ahead and astern rose masses of cliffs to an -altitude of four or five hundred feet. The vessel lay on a frozen -beach; 'twas a sloping sweep of the stuff, apparently linking the -iceberg astern to the ice over the bows. The bight or bay we had -drifted into was ramparted by the iceberg which sank from a vast -terrace to a point in an arm of natural breakwater like marble; but the -ice ahead was fixed to the face of the land. After looking a little I -spied the iron frown of dusky rocks perpendicular and smooth as though -planed, showing amidst the snow. - -Past the hinder ice and beyond the giant limb of marble-like breakwater -was the rolling ocean. It still blew hard, the seas raced angrily. -Whatever of ice they smote they flashed upon; over the lower parts -of the ice terrace the surge was bursting in lofty clouds, bright as -light. The heave came round the point in a wide swell, which did not -break in foam upon the beach where we lay, but swept silent, in a -glass-green volume, along the slope, just as the foamless lift of the -sea washes past the side of a ship; it broke only where it met with -anything rugged, and quickly lost its weight in the curve, soundlessly -recoiling from the base of the iceberg astern, though mightily -troubling the surface of the water by conflict with the succeeding -heave. - -The sky between the cliffs was wild with flying scud and rusty brown -masses of vapour rushing southwards. The vessel lay close in to the -land; she rested on her side at an angle of hard upon fifty degrees. -On either hand was open sky, the picture of it to port showing as -at the extremity of an immense ravine. Save but for sudden, quick -shootings of little short-lived draughts and blasts, the calm and even -the repose down here was as though we were in a well. The swell never -swept nearer to us than twenty feet. I crept to the side and lay over, -watching anxiously, and thus made sure of this after following the -quiet sweep of at least twenty successive heaves of brine. - -The desolation was awful! The picture savage, forbidding, terrifying -beyond imagination to one immured with its clouded crystal heights over -the bows, and the rugged slopes of ice over the stern forking into -fifty shapes of pinnacle, turret, spire, column, tower, as though on -the flat of the summit were the ruins of a city of marble. - -The decks were swept of everything save the companion. Wheel, binnacle, -capstans, galley, all were gone. I watched the ocean rolling past the -arm of ice astern, it was but a bit of it. The great berg that formed -the bay blocked the view of the deep; there was nothing to see but the -abrupt white walls ahead and astern, and the flying soot overhead and -away down to port, and, on the right, tall cliffs of ice and snow -glazing the land, with here and there a space of staring, black rock. - -Our isolation was shocking. My heart seemed to stop whilst I looked -around, realising the terrors and hopelessness of this new imprisonment -by the granite-hued light that was gaining a little in power. Though a -whaler stood within half a mile of the coast, how should she see us? It -would be hard enough to discern the speck of wreck we made had the bay -of ice in which we rested gaped naked to the sea, but we were as much -hidden here as if we had gone to the bottom. We were worse off, indeed, -than had we stranded upon a floating berg, because in _that_ case we -might have fallen in with the ice which might have split and freed us; -but now we were aground upon ice hardening into the face of an island -and stationary; months might pass before the body we were upon broke -away and became a water-borne bulk, and then, in the throes of the -liberation of the frozen cliffs, what of splintering, of volcanic-like -upheaval and disruption might happen to crush the little toy of hull -lying after many months as she lay now? - -I don't doubt I stared about me with something of a madman's wildness, -glancing up at the inaccessible heights, then at the sea rolling in -white lines beyond the limb of ice, then into the desolation of the -whirling sky on the left, till, recollecting that I had a companion -who looked to me for heart and encouragement, whom, by God's mercy, -wonderful as it would afterwards appear, I might yet be the means of -delivering from this hideous situation, I pulled my wits together and -returned to the cabin. - -The poor young lady was on the deck before the black stove as I had -left her. She could not have stood upon that angle of plank without -danger and distress. She began to question me in a voice that shuddered -with the cold. I answered I would talk with her when I had lighted a -fire, for I had now some spirit and saw things a little clearly, and -was no longer afraid of setting the hull in flames. - -I split up a bunk board, and picked a bucket full of capsized coal out -of the wash to leeward, as I may call it, and made a fire; but I moved -with pain and difficulty; the decks were wet, and as slippery as though -coated with ice, and the slope was that of a ship bulwarks under. - -When the fire was blazing I helped the young lady to sit close beside -it, and went on deck for some life-lines for this cabin. I moved with -less trouble above, for the life-lines I had before set up were still -stretched along. Every rope that I handled was like bar iron, but with -infinite trouble I succeeded in getting a length below and stretching -it here and there, which done I was able to use my legs with some -freedom. - -The stove was violently aslant, but it was possible to boil a kettle, -and whilst I waited for a hot drink I crouched beside the girl, -grateful for the comforting heat of the flames. I told her plainly that -we were stranded and ice-locked; that we must resolve to exert our -patience and make the best of our deplorable situation. She cleared -her head of the cover I had wrapped about her, and stared at me dumbly -for a minute or two with a face as white as though moonlit, and her -fair hair full of sparkles with the light of the lamp that still glowed -hard-slanted against the upper deck. - -'Do I understand,' she exclaimed in a low voice, painful to hear with -the tremulous gasps that shook it, 'that we are to remain in this -condition until--until----' She stopped, then added, 'but until _when_? -We are stranded and hidden and must perish.' - -'Listen to me,' said I, 'for this is our chance as I see it is as a -sailor: suppose us beached for months as we now are--though who's to -predict _that_?--for within twenty-four hours may come a gale out of -another quarter that shall free us and drive us amongst the ice to our -destruction--take it we are to be stranded here: I have read the ship's -papers, know the contents of the hold, and promise you, though no -chance of rescue should happen for a twelvemonth, nay, for a couple of -years, help, when it comes, shall find us alive so far as life may be -kept in us by food and drink and warmth.' - -She buried her face: I think it nearly killed her to hear me talk of -a twelvemonth or two years. Then, flashing upon me as it were with a -sudden dropping of her hands and the stare of her desperate grief and -horror, she cried: - -'Is there no hope beyond the waiting for the deliverance which may -never happen?' and without stopping for an answer she went on: 'How are -we to live even for a week in a hull we cannot move about on?' - -'That's the very least of our troubles,' said I. 'Come, you have -spirit--the heart of an Englishwoman beats in you. You must put some -face of courage and faith upon this business. We are alive. Keep on -thinking of _that_. Consider what we have come through. We might have -been thrown upon the ice without this shelter.' - -'We have stranded on an island, you say?' - -'I think so.' - -'What island?' - -I answered her. - -'Is there no harbour in it, no place where ships touch, no place where -men are? If they came fishing down here for whales and seals there -should be a port.' - -I put my hand upon a life-line and walked to the captain's cabin. It -was as dark as night there, for the heel of the hulk depressed the -cabin windows to within arms' reach of the beach, as it looked. I -lighted a bull's-eye, and, finding the chart I required, returned with -it. - -It was a chart of the discoveries made in these waters between 1819 and -1843. It outlined Graham Land down to sixty-eight degrees south, and -a little more than sixty-eight degrees west, and submitted a shaded -tracing of the South Shetlands; but I was very certain that our island -was none of _them_. I put the chart on Miss Otway's knee and threw the -lamplight upon it, and said, pointing to Coronation Island and then to -Laurie Island: - -'Which of them this is I can't tell you, but I should guess by our -drift that it's the bigger of the two, and that our lodgment's here,' -and I put my finger upon a bight named Palmer's Bay. 'Here's a mountain -at back of it, you see,' said I, 'towering to a height of nigh four -thousand five hundred feet; it was the blue shadow we saw in the air, -and our drift was nigh hard straight for that.' - -She put her face close to the chart, listening, meanwhile, greedily to -me. - -'But here are many English names,' said she--'Cape Dundas--Despair -Rock--Saddle Island.' She read thus a little; then went on: 'Surely an -island that has been named in this fashion is inhabited?' - -'Well, it may be. I hope it is,' said I. - -'Here are big islands,' she cried, pointing to the South Shetlands. -'Aren't there people upon _them_? And if so, couldn't we manage to get -to the place where they're settled? It's not far,' she added, looking -up at me. - -'It's a long way,' said I, 'for all it looks but the span of a hand on -this paper, and we have no boat.' - -'People must have been in some such another dreadful situation as this -before now,' she exclaimed. 'How did they manage?' - -'We'll manage, depend on't', said I, with all the hearty cheerfulness -I could summon. 'We'll write letters to the sea, telling our distress, -and send them adrift in bottles. I'll fashion rafts out of some of the -theatre stuff in the hold and send them afloat with the story of our -condition mastheaded on them in cans. It's not for us to be hopeless. -Wouldn't you rather be here than knocking about amongst the ice?' - -'Oh yes,' she cried; 'but if we are locked up--hidden away?' - -She started as if she would rise, and asked me to take her on deck that -she might see where we were, but I thought proper to keep her below in -the warmth and encourage her, and rouse her spirits by representations -of our prospects of deliverance, before letting her view the situation -of the hull; in truth I could not look at her and observe how delicate -and fragile she was, and reflect on the depressing, heart-subduing -influence of the terrors and experiences she had passed through, -without fearing the effect of a sudden shock, such as might prove the -sight of the savage wildness of the frowning, frozen cradle in which -the hull lay as in a tomb. - -I went about to get some breakfast. When I got on deck with a chopper -to fill the kettle, I found that the mould of fresh-water ice I had -split out of the scuttlebutt was gone. I had no mind to enter the -hold; indeed, I had not strength enough then to break open the frozen -hatch-covers; and water being wanted for a cup of hot coffee, I chipped -at a spear of ice on the bulwark and found it sweet, and perhaps -sweeter than the water we had been drinking. Why? Because nearly all -those frozen heads and devices of barbs and spikes were frozen snow and -mist. But never could we lack fresh water in this part of the world; -the cliffs ahead and astern were fresh; we were beached in fresh-water -ice. Even in that early time of my distress, whilst I sucked a little -piece of ice off the bulwarks to learn its quality, I found myself -lifting up my eyes with amazement at those giant heights, formed, as I -knew, of the vapour of the air and the sleet of the cloud and the gale. -It was like thinking of some vast, soft fog clinging to the face of -the land and freezing there into precipitous iron-hard rocks. - -Whilst making my way to the hatch with the ice, I heard a sudden great -roar astern; a sharp tremble ran through the hull as though a mine had -been sprung close alongside; the noise was exactly that of a broadside -from a liner, every great gun discharged at once. Yet I saw no movement -in the ice, nor heard any sound as of a fall. This put it into my head -to fancy it might not be long before the great berg that was linked -astern of us was sundered and on its way to join the rest of the mighty -fleet, every one of which had had a like berth and such a despatch as -awaited this. - -I clawed my way to the side and looked over. The beach that held the -berg to the main was perhaps a quarter of a mile long; I could not -be sure; it went out of sight in a slope on the port hand. But, in -comparison with the mighty bulk it yoked to the island, it was a -slender tie indeed, to be snapped in any moment of storm as you'd break -a clay pipe-stem. I peered down, wondering if the severance happened -whether we should go with the berg or be left a-dry under the cliff as -we now lay; but it was a hopeless and therefore a silly speculation; -though all the same I prayed heartily whilst I stood staring about me -that the berg would go, and speedily, whether it took us or left us, -since, whilst we lay hidden by it, there was not the remotest chance, -that I could imagine, of our being rescued. - -I remember thinking, as I turned from the rail and made with the ice -in my hand towards the companion, that one of the hardest parts of -this terrible experience for the poor girl below, though she would -have to be dumb on the subject, was the prospect of being locked up -with me--alone with a young man, a sailor, who was a stranger without -existence to her a few days ago; to be locked up, I say, it might -be for months, with a threat even of years in the run of time, with -a person whose character and history she knew nothing about, whose -calling sunk him far below her socially. This ran in my head with the -swiftness of thought whilst I was going below, and after I was in the -cabin going about the business of boiling coffee for a meal. - -How could I make her mind easy, on the score, I mean, of our -association, so that something at least of the weight of our -distressful tragic situation should be lifted off her poor young heart? -But the answer my good sense gave me was the answer it had before -returned, namely, she could only find me out by time, though to be sure -I might shorten the period of her fear of me by a behaviour that could -leave her in no doubt of my resolution to act as a man. - -I can't express how deeply I pitied her, how my very soul was moved -to its depths by the sight of her as she sat in her loneliness and -helplessness, a trueborn lady, gentle and fair, watching me, with her -white face turning after me, as I moved; sitting upon that desperate -slope of deck with the red glow of the fire upon her, herself a -shapeless bulk of furs and coverings in the lamplight that was growing -dim. - -When I drew to the stove she questioned me afresh upon our situation, -and begged me to conduct her on deck. I answered presently, when she -had broken her fast. She said: - -'Only think how it would be with me if I were alone.' - -I stopped in what I was about, and looking at her a little steadily, -but with a smile, I said: - -'I'm glad my presence is welcome to you. It will be owing to no fault -of mine if it's not always so whilst we're together.' - -A grateful look freshened her face with an expression of life that was -like colour and a smile. - -'Think of me alone here!' she said in a low voice. 'I should have gone -mad days ago. It never could have come to my knowing that this hull -had stranded amongst the ice. I should have destroyed myself in my -craziness.' - -'You have gone through too much,' said I, 'to miss of being rescued. -You'll be saved and so shall I, and for no other reason, I dare say, -than because I'm with you. I have some hope that this hulk will take a -more comfortable posture. Did you hear a roar like an explosion just -now astern?' - -'Yes. Was it the ice?' - -'Ay. But should it trim us, I hope it will not send us afloat.' - -She listened whilst I told her of the huge berg that lay linked to the -island by the beach of ice on which the hull rested. Then I talked -as cheerfully as I could of making this interior a tight, dry, warm -room for her whilst we lay waiting for that help which was bound in -some shape of whaler or sealer to come along. She shuddered and looked -around her with a face of sudden imploring grief; but I went on, -speaking as heartily as I could. - -'We'll make this cabin dry and warm,' said I. 'I'll get that water to -leeward there baled out. I'll rout the carpet up on deck and see what -the breeze will do for the brine in it. They've managed very well over -and over again up in the Arctic latitudes for months and months with -meaner accommodation and a poorer hold. I'll stock this cabin that -things may be handy. There's plenty of oil aboard I hope. There'll be -coal to last us in the forepeak; we shall be helped out of this before -it's all used up.' - -'How long,' she asked, 'are we likely to remain here?' - -'It was a saying of Nelson that at sea everything is possible and -nothing improbable. It's certain these islands are visited. My -intention is, Miss Otway, since we're here, so to provide for ourselves -that we may be alive when help comes. Do you see that?' - -'Oh yes.' - -'Don't be scared, then, because I talk of provisioning and securing -ourselves as though we were to be locked up for years.' - -Whilst I talked I was at work getting breakfast. The angle of the -deck was an abomination and a terrible hindrance, but I made no -further trouble of it than my laboured motions expressed. Yet beyond -the boiling of the kettle there was nothing to be done in the way of -cooking owing to the slant of the stove. The discomfort was incredible. -It was like being in a ship poised on her beam ends on the edge of a -sea, magically arrested in her downward rush, and hanging fixed, as -though capsizing. - -All was as hushed in the interior as though we were in harbour. The -seethe coming from the flashes of silent swell, whenever the dark green -folds, blindly sweeping, tore themselves against some edge of ice, -was too faint to invade us: the noise of the sea was shut out by the -heights of ice astern, and no echo of the booming of the gale sweeping -over the frozen summits penetrated. But for the insufferable posture -of the hull my heart might have beaten with some sort of restfulness -and even gratitude; for, dreadful as our situation was, it lacked the -terrors of the past days and nights; we were at least safe for the -time being, whilst in any hour gone by we might have been crushed to -pieces; we had a right to look forward with some hope, because we were -plentifully supplied with food; the hull was a stout shelter, and I -could not conceive, unless there happened some convulsion of ice, that -the swell of the bay, however enraged by storm, could hurt us; it might -thump and thrust us high, further out of its reach--that was all--and -trim the vessel by so doing into a habitable structure. - -These were my thoughts as I put some breakfast on the deck for my -companion. It was impossible for her to help herself. I had to place -the fiddles on the deck to save the food from slipping from her hand. -I talked with so much confidence that, when she had made a light meal, -I heard something like a note of her spirit in her voice, and saw a -little light of kindling hope in her eyes. Presently she begged me to -take her on deck, on which I helped her to stand, and, catching hold of -her arm, conducted her to the companion steps. - -She ascended painfully. I stepped out on deck and brought her to my -side; and then, emerging, she looked around. Never can I forget that -poor young lady's face as she gazed at the savage, desolate, frozen -scene, realising the significance of it slowly. She shrank, she -cowered in the companion way; she shuddered violently, whilst her hand, -with a wandering gesture, came to my arm. I see her now in memory -turning her white face towards the towering mass astern, then looking -at the dumb blankness of the ice cliffs ahead, with the bows of the -beam-ended hulk rising to them as though upon a lift of sea. - -'Is this it? Is this it?' she whispered. - -She stared straight up at the flying gloom, blacking off the ghastly -white edge of the iceberg in shadows of a ragged, smoke-like stuff; -she strained her eyes at the little space of sea showing in angry, -dark, flashing ridges past the huge ice projection that made the bay, -shutting out from our sight all the rest of the ocean too. Then, -turning to me, she tried to speak, swayed, with an effort to cover her -face, and fainted. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - -MR. MOORE CONTINUES THE STORY - - -No news of Marie reached us after we received a letter by a brig called -the 'Queen of the Night' which had spoken the 'Lady Emma' in the North -Atlantic. She had sent us a sort of diary or journal: it was meant for -her father and me: she wrote in spirits which, the entries showed, -were gaining in brightness, and there was no doubt that her health had -greatly improved. Some of her descriptions were very fine: she seemed -to have thrown herself into the very life of the voyage and wrote of -the sails, rigging, discipline and manoeuvres of the vessel with the -easy familiarity of an old sailor. - -We gathered that she was perfectly happy with Captain and Mrs. Burke, -and of Mr. Owen she spoke with gratitude for his attention and sympathy. - -I was told, however, by one or two seagoing acquaintances not to wonder -if we did not hear again from Marie until the ship arrived at her first -port, Valparaiso. A vessel might be ninety days upon the ocean and yet -not 'speak' another. A friend spoke of an Indiaman that, in the whole -voyage from Bombay to the Thames--not allowing, of course, for the -ships seen on touching at Capetown--had sighted nothing but the topmast -canvas of a vessel whose hull was sunk out of sight below the horizon. - -I was living in rooms out of Bond Street. One morning in 1860, it was -October 2, and Marie had then been absent from England six months, -during which, after the arrival of the Liverpool brig, we had received -no news whatever either of her or the 'Lady Emma.' I say, on October 2, -whilst at breakfast, I picked up a morning newspaper and began to turn -it about. After reading for some time my eye lighted upon a paragraph -headed, 'Loss of the ship "Lady Emma."' I trembled and felt sick; I -wanted courage to read the paragraph, though the paper was shuddering -in my hands, and my eyes were upon the news, yet before reading I -caught myself reasoning; it is another 'Lady Emma'--it cannot be -Marie's ship--there may be ten or twenty 'Lady Emmas' afloat--and then -I read. - -The paragraph--I have not preserved it--was to this effect: - -The barque 'Planter,' being to the eastwards of Cape Horn, fell in with -a ship's long-boat full of men. The captain took the unfortunate people -on board, but some were found to be lifeless, having been frozen to -death during the night. Their story was, they were the boatswain (Wall) -and survivors of the ship 'Lady Emma,' Burke, master, that sailed -from the Thames bound to Valparaiso on April 2. She had been driven -to the southward and eastward by heavy weather, and when she was in -about fifty-nine degrees south latitude, she was totally dismasted by -a sudden hurricane. After fruitless efforts to erect a jury-mast, the -crew abandoned her in the long-boat. With them went the ship's doctor -(Owen). The master refused to quit the ship, and remained aboard with -his wife and a young lady passenger. Very shortly after the long-boat -had been met with, one of the crew of the 'Planter' fell overboard. -A boat was lowered in charge of the chief mate, Mr. Ralph Selby, but -before she could reach the man a sea capsized her, and the mate and the -three men who were in her were drowned. Within a week of picking up the -survivors of the 'Lady Emma's' crew, the 'Planter' transferred them -to a vessel bound to Monte Video, where they were forwarded by H.B.M. -Consul by steamer to this country, arriving yesterday at the West India -Docks. Mr. Owen died before the arrival of the vessel at Monte Video, -and was buried at sea. It is supposed that the 'Lady Emma' foundered -prior to the rescue of her crew, as Captain Parry of the 'Planter,' -which is a barque of four hundred and sixty tons, cruised at great risk -amongst the ice in the neighbourhood of the spot where the hull was -supposed to be lying without seeing anything of her. - -I sat as one paralysed, read the account through again, scarcely even -then believing that the ship was the same that my betrothed had sailed -in. Next, thrusting the newspaper into my pocket, I jumped up, ran into -the street, and, jumping into a cab, bade the man drive me to Messrs. -Butcher and Hobbs, at such and such a number in the Minories. It was -about a quarter to ten o'clock. - -Butcher and Hobbs were the owners of the 'Lady Emma'--of her and a -little fleet of smaller vessels. I had been introduced by Captain -Burke to Mr. Hobbs, and now it came to me as I was driven fast, -with my brain in a whirl, half mad with consternation, grief, the -hundred emotions which must needs throng upon so abrupt a disclosure -of dreadful news as this I had just read--it came to me, I say, that -Mr. Hobbs in my presence had very earnestly advised Captain Burke to -insure some goods he was taking out as a speculation of his own; and I -recollected the captain replying, with an arch, laughing air, full of -strong confidence, that insurance would only render him indifferent: -he had no fear as to the safety of the ship. If he insured and she was -lost, it would be said he sank or stranded her. - -On my arrival in the Minories I entered an old-fashioned, grimy office, -in which sat a tall, stoutly-built seaman with immense whiskers, both -hands on his knees; he stared idly, as though waiting. I went to a -desk, and asked for Mr. Butcher or Mr. Hobbs. The clerk may have -recollected me; he instantly rose, entered an inner office, and -returning, begged me to step in. - -Mr. Hobbs was alone: a large fat man, yellow-haired and bearded, -with staring, watery eyes. As I entered he stood up, with an air of -deep dejection, and extending his hand, bowed over it, looking down, -exclaiming: - -'I know the business that has brought you here, sir. It is terrible--it -is shocking! But----' He then stood erect, and shrugged his shoulders, -with a roll of his eyes upwards. - -'The report in the paper is true, then?' said I. - -'I grieve to say it is,' he replied. - -I so trembled with grief I could scarcely speak to the man. - -'Are we to entertain no hope whatever?' I said, leaning upon the table -for support. He placed a chair; I sank into it and proceeded: 'Surely -we need not certainly conclude the dismasted ship sunk after the -long-boat left her merely because----' and here, forgetting the names, -I brought out the newspaper to refer to--' the "Planter" failed to find -her after a few hours' search in, perhaps, thick weather, and amongst -the ice, which may have been numerous?' - -'Oh, of course,' he exclaimed, 'we must not abandon hope. As you justly -put it, the "Planter's" search counts for little, considering how -brief it was, and the state of the weather. I'll not pretend I have -much hope myself, but the sea provides many chances. Again and again -you hear of rates rising, till no further risk is taken; then the ship -is posted, her end made sure of, and one fine morning she's signalled -off some Channel station, blowing leisurely along with the loss of her -foretop-mast and her bottom beach-like with weed. I don't despair, sir; -yet I must honestly own my hope is not strong.' He paused, then said, -'I believe one of the crew of the "Lady Emma's" in the front office.' -He walked to the door and looked out. 'Would you like to see him? He -was the boatswain of the ship. His name is Wall.' - -I eagerly begged him to bring him in. He called, and the big sailor -I had noticed entered. I immediately recollected that Marie, in the -fragment of journal she had sent us, had described and praised him for -his civility and his qualities as a seaman. He stood before us, cap in -hand, his back slightly arched by years of stooping and hauling and -curling of his body over yards and booms; his weather-coloured face -was hard as leather, and rugged and knotted with muscle; one of those -seafaring faces, impenetrable to the chisel of ocean experience which -fifty tragedies of the deep would no more mark than the human anguish -in shipwreck alters the face of the rock which stares through the salt -smoke down upon the scene. - -'This gentleman,' said Mr. Hobbs, 'is Mr. Archibald Moore. The young -lady passenger aboard the "Lady Emma" was----' he dropped his head and -was silent. - -I gazed at the seaman with consuming interest; he had been among the -last--he might have been the last--who had seen, who had spoken to -Marie. - -'You'll not tell me,' said I, in a broken voice, 'there's no hope for -the three you left behind you?' - -'No, sir, I'll not tell you that,' answered the man in deep tones, -which trembled upon the ear with the power of their volume. 'I've said -all along that if the ice only lets the hull keep afloat, there was -nothen to prevent her being fallen in with. She wasn't so far south,' -continued he, looking at Mr. Hobbs, 'as to be out of the way of half a -dozen chances a week if the weather opened out the sea, and gave a view -of her as she lay flat, with but twelve foot of foremast standing.' - -'Why were they left behind?' I cried. 'Why were they left to wash -about in a dismasted hulk amongst ice, to perish horribly after days of -suffering perhaps?' and I beat the table with my fist. - -'Mr. Moore, the capt'n refused to quit,' said the seaman, speaking -calmly in his deep voice, and viewing me with an air of respectful -pity. 'My mates'll tell you I entreated of him and the ladies to enter -the boat, likewise did Mr. Owen, the doctor. We wasn't listened to. The -captain was all for waiting for something to come alongside, and take -the hulk in tow. He was for jury-rigging her--on a twelve-foot stump of -foremast!' said he, slowly regarding Mr. Hobbs. 'The consarn blew over -the bows. What in that way was going to stand down there?' - -'You should have used force,' I said. - -'With the capt'n?' he exclaimed, with a slow, astonished shake of his -head. - -'Had you got the captain into the boat, the ladies would have -followed.' - -'Neither 'ud have been alive next morning. The young one would have -froze to death in a few hours. You should have heard the strongest -amongst us groaning with the cold when we lost sight of the craft we -were making for, and when the night drawed down, and we were for the -hull, all hands of us mad for the shelter of her and the warmth of -our blankets and the hot drinks to be got. I tell ye, sir,' he added, -calmly and respectfully, 'that the captain knew more about it than we -did, and was right to keep the ladies aboard; for if they was to die, -better comfortably in a warm cabin than in an open boat with spray -sheeting over them at every plunge.' - -'What was the situation of the hull when the crew abandoned her?' I -asked. - -Mr. Hobbs pulled open a drawer, and read aloud a copy of an entry in -the log-book of the 'Planter' in which the meeting with the long-boat -was minuted. The situation as there stated was Latitude 58 degrees 45' S., -Longitude 45 degrees 10' W. This copy of the logbook entry had been handed by -Captain Parry of the 'Planter' to the master of the ship to whom the -crew had been transferred. - -A yellow glazed map of the world hung in the office over the -mantelpiece. My eye went to it, and I made a step, saying to the -boatswain Wall: - -'Show me to the place. What land lies nearest to it? What is the usual -track of ships passing Cape Horn?' - -He hung back, evidently ignorant of maps and of latitude and longitude. -Mr. Hobbs, picking up a ruler, approached the mantelpiece, and, peering -close at the dingy map, presently put the end of the ruler upon a part -of it and said: - -'This, as nearly as possible, will be the place where the crew -abandoned the hull.' - -'Is that land there?' - -Mr. Hobbs slanted his head to read, and exclaimed; 'Ay; in this little -group we have--my sight is not what it was--ah! the South Orkneys. -These to the left--' with straining sight and some difficulty he spelt -out 'South Shetlands.' - -'What sort of islands are they?' I asked. - -'About the most desolate, froze-up, oninhabited rocks on that side of -the world,' answered Wall. 'There's nothen to be thought of along o' -them.' - -'Why?' I asked. - -'Because going ashore there would be like hittin' ice. In the swell -that's always a-running, the hull 'ud go to pieces with the first blow, -like a loosed faggot. Their one chance,' he added, in a voice of deep -conviction, 'lies in their being fallen in with and taken off. That may -have happened. If so, it'll be a question of waiting.' - -'If so,' cried Mr. Hobbs, with a raised manner of cheerfulness that -was scarcely sincere I thought, 'Captain Burke will bear in mind the -suspense and anxiety you and the young lady's father are suffering, and -exert his experience as an old seaman to promptly communicate, so that, -let us trust, if there be good news in store, we'll get it quickly.' - -'Suppose the hull should have been thrown upon an iceberg,' I -exclaimed, addressing Wall, 'must she inevitably go to pieces?' - -'That 'ud depend upon how she took the ice,' he answered. - -'If she stranded and lay dry--such things have happened--could the -three live in her?' - -'Yes, sights more comfortably than if she was afloat.' - -'For how long?' - -'She was freighted,' said Mr. Hobbs, 'with an abundance of the -necessaries of life.' - -'How long could a vessel remain on the ice in a habitable state?' - -'Years,' answered Wall, 'if she's let alone. Give her a snug berth -clear of the wash of the sea and tumbling blocks, and what's to hurt -her?' - -Mr. Hobbs was staring at me earnestly. 'I could wish to persuade you,' -he exclaimed, with a melancholy inclination of his head, 'to discard -the notion of the hull finding a berth in an iceberg. Our hope must -take a practical form. Let us, then, believe that the wreck has been -encountered by one of the many whalers and other vessels which frequent -those seas, and that Captain Burke and his companions are at this -present moment safe.' - -I turned to Wall and plied him with questions. What was the condition -of the hull? What had been the state of Miss Otway's health? Did he -believe, by recalling her looks when he last saw her, that she had -the strength to outlive the horrors, trials, suspense, suffering, of -even one week of a dismasted hull, rolling about amidst the ice in -dangerous, desolate seas?--the wildest in the world and in their -mid-winter? Was Captain Burke, singlehanded, aboard the wreck, as a -man, capable of doing anything to help them into safety? If not, why -had he stuck to the ship? What madman's nightmare of imagination could -have induced him to remain with two women aboard a vessel he could do -nothing with? - -I almost raved my questions at the man, so wild grew my heart with -grief whilst I listened to his plain answers, full of an old practical -seaman's good sense, though several times he repeated that the captain -was right to keep his wife and Miss Otway aboard, as they never could -have survived the first night in the long-boat. - -He increased my distress by hinting somewhat doubtfully that Captain -Burke had fallen a little weak in his mind during the voyage; he spoke -of an apparition that had been seen to walk on the ship's forecastle; -it had been clothed in the likeness of the captain, and ever after he -had ceased to be quite the same man. - -'Can you imagine,' I cried, rounding upon Mr. Hobbs, 'that the loss of -the ship is owing to Captain Burke having gone mad?' - -'You wouldn't say so?' he answered, looking at Wall. - -'No, sir,' answered the seaman, 'there was no madness in that job of -dismasting, if it wasn't in the weather.' - -'But,' I exclaimed, picking up the ruler Mr. Hobbs had used, and laying -the end of it upon the map, 'what was the captain's motive in carrying -this vessel so far south? See where the Horn is? What, in God's name, -was he doing so high?' - -'He was blowed there,' answered the man. - -'I understand,' said Mr. Hobbs, 'that a succession of hard northerly -gales settled the vessel to the southward and eastward, considerably -out of the usual course.' - -'The "Planter" was also blowed south,' said Wall. - -I continued to question with impassioned anxiety, eagerness, and -grief, till I found I was likely to become an intruder in the office, -on which, asking the boatswain Wall for his address, and ascertaining -that he did not mean to look about him for another berth at present, I -shook hands with Mr. Hobbs, and walked to my place of business in the -City--a private bank near Gracechurch Street. - -Sir Mortimer Otway was at this time at Paris on a visit to some -friends. I had heard from him two days before, and understood that he -would return on the fourth or fifth. His health was not good. Of late -he had become very anxious about his daughter. He thought it was time, -after six months, that he should receive news of her, or that the 'Lady -Emma' should be reported. This being so, I resolved not to write, but -to wait until his return, when I would tell him of the wreck of the -ship, if, indeed, the account of it did not reach him through other -hands, or the newspapers in Paris. - -For my own part I was so shocked, so stunned, there was something so -terrible to my imagination in the character of this wreck, in every -circumstance of it, having regard to the loneliness of the three, the -wild and stormy breast of waters where the hull had been left plunging -helpless by her crew, that I could not hold up my head. I could not -speak. I sat in a sort of stupor. My father reasoned with me; he -pointed out that the hull was afloat, a stout, seaworthy vessel when -the crew left her; that being dismasted she was less likely to beat -against the ice than were she moving through the water under sail; that -a vessel had been seen and pursued by the crew; that where one was -there must be others; and so on, and so on. - -I heard him and that was all. - -I cannot tell how great was my love for Marie. I felt that I had acted -as a wretch, betrayed the darling of my heart to her destruction, -in sanctioning her father's scheme of sending her away alone--and -she must be alone if she was without me--on a long voyage in a -comparatively small sailing ship. The fancy of her in that rolling, -dismasted hull was a dreadful oppression to my imagination and worked -in me like madness itself. I had seen the ship, and so the figure of -her as she tumbled dismasted amidst the heavy seas far south of Cape -Horn was easy to paint. To think of my Marie, that delicate, fragile, -timid girl, imprisoned in such a hulk, enduring hours and perhaps days -of anguish in poignant suspense and heartbreaking expectation of death, -all alone as she was, countless leagues away from me, from her father, -with no other companion than her old nurse, who, let her devotion be -what it might, must surely fail her at such a time. - -My mind felt crazed. I could not lift my head nor speak. - - -END OF THE SECOND VOLUME - - -PRINTED BY -SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE -LONDON - - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Heart of Oak, vol. 2 of 3, by William Clark Russell - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEART OF OAK, VOL. 2 OF 3 *** - -***** This file should be named 62378-0.txt or 62378-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/3/7/62378/ - -Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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