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diff --git a/old/64080-8.txt b/old/64080-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index eca6424..0000000 --- a/old/64080-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8114 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Morley Ashton, Volume 1 (of 3), by James Grant - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Morley Ashton, Volume 1 (of 3) - A Story of the Sea - -Author: James Grant - -Release Date: December 20, 2020 [EBook #64080] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORLEY ASHTON, VOLUME 1 (OF 3) *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines - - - - - - - - - - MORLEY ASHTON: - - A Story of the Sea. - - - - BY - - JAMES GRANT, - - AUTHOR OF "THE ROMANCE OF WAR," "FAIRER THAN A FAIRY," ETC. - - - - In Three Volumes - - VOL. I. - - - - LONDON: - TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE STREET, W.C. - 1876. - - [_All rights reserved._] - - - - - CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, - CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS. - - - - - CONTENTS. - - - CHAPTER I. - The Blind Goddess - - CHAPTER II. - Laurel Lodge - - CHAPTER III. - Cramply Hawkshaw - - CHAPTER IV. - Rivalry - - CHAPTER V. - Suspicion - - CHAPTER VI. - For the Last Time - - CHAPTER VII. - The Rejection - - CHAPTER VIII. - Morley and Hawkshaw - - CHAPTER IX. - Alarm - - CHAPTER X. - Poor Ethel - - CHAPTER XI. - Darkness made Light - - CHAPTER XII. - On board the good Ship "_Hermione_," of London - - CHAPTER XIII. - Acton Chine - - CHAPTER XIV. - The Rescue - - CHAPTER XV. - An Old Shipmate - - CHAPTER XVI. - Under the Tropic of Capricorn - - CHAPTER XVII. - Second Hearing - - CHAPTER XVIII. - Rio de Janeiro - - CHAPTER XIX. - Ethel amid the Atlantic Isles - - CHAPTER XX. - Moonlight on the Sea - - CHAPTER XXI. - The Story of a Brave Boy - - CHAPTER XXII. - Zuares and the Shark - - CHAPTER XXIII. - Hawkshaw's Old Friends - - CHAPTER XXIV. - Up Anchor - - CHAPTER XXV. - The Suspicious Sail - - CHAPTER XXVI. - The Strange Island - - CHAPTER XXVII. - The Hermit - - - - -MORLEY ASHTON. - - - -CHAPTER I. - -THE BLIND GODDESS. - -It was the evening of one of the last days of spring, when that -delightful season is blending with the approaching summer, and when -the sun was setting on one of those green and fertile landscapes -which we find nowhere but in England, that a young man paused upon -the crest of the eminence which overlooks, from the southward, the -beautiful little vale and sequestered village of Acton-Rennel, and, -with a kindling eye and flushing cheek, surveyed the scene and all -its features, on which he had not gazed for what now seemed a long -and weary lapse of time. - -Morley Ashton--for it was he whom we introduce at once to the -reader--was a handsome and active young fellow, with a lithe and -well-knit figure, somewhat above the middle height; but he was thin -and rather sallow in face, as if wasted by recent sickness or -suffering. - -His short-shorn hair and well-pointed moustache, together with the -general contour of his head, suggested the idea of a soldier, and yet -no soldier was he. - -Forethought and penetration were perceptible in the form and lines of -his brow; his keen, bright, but contemplative eyes, and the shape of -his lower jaw, betokened firmness, decision, and courage; and well -did Morley Ashton require them all, for these pages, and the course -of our story, which opens at no remote date, but only a very short -time ago, will show that he had a very desperate game to play. - -Tanned by warmer suns than those which shine in his native England, -his complexion was dark, and, at times, there was a keen, bold -restlessness in his eyes, which seemed to indicate that he had seen -many a far and foreign shore, and many a danger too, since last he -stood by the old Norman cross on Cherrywood Hill, and looked on the -vale and village of Acton-Rennel. - -In Morley's dress--a stout grey tweed suit--there was nothing -remarkable; but a large and well-worn courier-bag, slung by a broad -strap across his right shoulder, seemed to indicate that he was -travelling, and dust covered his boots; yet he had only walked some -four miles or so from the nearest station on the London and -North-Western line. - -As he looked upon the landscape, where the cowslips were spotting the -meadows; where the wild rose was blooming, and the yellow gorse was -flowering by the hedgerows; where the cherry and apple trees were in -full blossom by the wayside; the landscape, so rich in its foliage -and greenery; so calm in aspect, with the square tower of its Norman -church, stunted in form and massed with ivy, darkly defined against -the flush of the western sky; the little parsonage, secluded among -plum and apple trees, over which its clustered chimneys and quaint -old gables peeped; the thatched village, buried amid coppice, wild -hops, wild flowers, and ivy; the fertile uplands, where the wavy corn -would soon be yellowing under the genial summer sun; and, stretching -in the distance far away, the wooded chase, the remains of a great -Saxon forest, whence comes the name of our village, Æctune, or -Oaktown-Rennel, whose leafy dingles have echoed many a time to the -horn of William Rufus, ere he fell by Tyrrel's arrow; the landscape, -where the voice of the cuckoo rose at times from the woodlands, with -the occasional lowing of the full-fed herd, winding homeward "slowly -o'er the lea." As he gazed on all this, we say, a sigh of pleasure -escaped from Morley Ashton, for it was long since he had beheld such -a scene, or one that had so much of England and of home in all its -placid features. - -Save a glimpse of the distant ocean, rippling and shining in the -sunset, through a rocky opening or chasm, known as Acton -Chine--terrible in the annals of wreckers and smugglers--the -landscape might have seemed in the very heart of England; but on the -ocean, "our water-girdle," Morley turned his back, for of late he had -tasted quite enough of spray and spoondrift, having just landed in -the Mersey, after a long and perilous voyage. - -He passed the old church with its deep grey buttresses, and older yew -trees; its picturesque Lykegate, footstile, and gravelled path, that -wound between the grassy mounds and lettered stones; he passed the -village, with its alehouse and well-remembered sign-board; and then -he struck into the long green lane that lies beyond--the lane in -which Dick Turpin robbed the rector. - -All was very calm and still. - -The merry voices of some little roisterers, who swung with frantic -glee upon a paddock gate, soon died away in the distance; the wheel -of the rustic mill had ceased to turn, and the water flowed unchafed -along its narrow race; even the hum of the honey bee had died away, -as it had gone laden to its home, and soft and almost holy thoughts -would have stolen into Morley's heart, at such a time and place and -sober sunset, but for the keen anxiety that made him hasten on--the -anxiety that love and long absence had created, and verses that he -had somewhere read occurred to him with painful truth:-- - - "Ah! not as once!--my spirit now - Is shadowed by a dull cold fear, - Nor Spring's soft breath that fans my brow - Nor Spring's sweet flowers my breast can cheer. - - "Oh, Spring! sweet Spring! if Heaven decree - My term of life to be so brief, - That joy I would afar but see, - But taste the bitter cup of grief." - - -While proceeding, he looked frequently and eagerly around him; for -now every old gnarled beech that overhung the path, and every meadow -gate brought back some stirring thought or tender memory. - -The flush in the western sky was bright, so he shaded his eyes with -his hand (though whilom accustomed to more cloudless skies and -brighter suns than ours), as if looking for some expected person. - -At last an irrepressible exclamation of joy escaped him, as a hat and -feather, and a female figure there was no mistaking, met his eye. - -He flourished his wide-awake hat, and then quickened his pace, as a -little parasol was waved in reply. - -In a minute more his arms were around a young girl, who rushed -forward, panting and breathless, to meet him, and his lips were -pressed to hers in a long and silent kiss. - -"Ethel, my own, own Ethel, at last--at _last_!" he exclaimed, in a -voice rendered tremulous by excess of emotion; but the young girl for -some time was unable to reply. She could but sob upon his breast in -the fulness of her joy. - -There was a long and tender pause, during which their lips, though -silent, were busy enough, perhaps, for "Love," says some one, "is a -sting of joy, but a heartache for ever!" - -"I knew, dear Ethel, that you would come to meet me," said Morley, -"if my letter arrived in time to inform you of the train by which I -would leave Liverpool." - -"Where you landed last night--only last night--and this evening you -are here," she exclaimed. - -"Yes, Ethel; but poorer than when I left England," said the young man -sadly; "poorer than when I left you," he replied, drawing her arm -through his, but still retaining her hand, with both of his folded -over it;--"and now tell me how are all at Laurel Lodge. Your -papa----" - -"Is quite well." - -"And your sister Rose--merry little Rose?" - -"Well, blooming, and lively as ever." - -"Why did she not come to meet me too? My letters have told you, -Ethel, that after enduring the misery of three years' exile on the -Bonny River, wearily waiting and toiling, transacting the sale of -camwood, ivory, and palm oil, for my owners in Liverpool, and often -enduring the frightful fever of that pestilent place----" - -"Ah, my poor dear Morley, how it has thinned and wasted you!" said -Ethel, looking at him tenderly through her tears. - -"I have been compelled to return, almost broken in health, and what -is worse, perhaps, in a worldly sense, well-nigh penniless, Ethel, to -look for other work at home. But tell me something of yourself, -dearest!" - -"What can I say?--what can I tell you, Morley, for here, at Laurel -Lodge, each day that passes is so like its predecessor?" - -"How will Mr. Basset--how will your father, welcome me?" asked -Morley, anxiously. - -"Most kindly, Morley." - -"You think so, still," continued the young man. - -"Yes. All the more kindly that you have not been favoured by -fortune; papa is most generous," replied Ethel. - -Morley did not feel quite persuaded of this, but replied: - -"Bless him and you for this assurance, darling. Oh, Ethel, how -charming your sweet English face seems to me! Do you know, dearest, -that for three whole years I have never seen a white woman or a red -cheek? But you have not told me about Rose--no husband yet?" - -"She has lovers in plenty, and Jack Page is her adorer," said Ethel -smiling; "but there is enough time for Rose to think of marrying. -Besides----" but Miss Basset paused and sighed. - -"True; she is two years younger than you, Ethel. But our marriage, -my love, seems far, far off indeed. Oh, farther than ever! Your -father----" - -"Will welcome you warmly, of that be assured, but----" - -"But what, Ethel? Something weighs upon your mind." - -"Many misfortunes have come upon him, misfortunes which we could -never have foreseen." - -"In your two last letters, you hinted something of losses in London -speculations." - -"Yes; and consequently, he has come to the resolution of leaving -Acton-Rennel--leaving dear Laurel Lodge, where since childhood we -have been so happy." - -"Leaving Laurel Lodge!" exclaimed Ashton. - -"Leaving England itself, Morley," said Ethel, as her fine eyes became -suffused with tears again. - -"England!" repeated Morley Ashton, breathlessly, and growing very -pale indeed. - -"Yes; did you not get my letter, in which I told you that papa had -been appointed to a vacant judgeship in the Isle of France, and that -in two months or less from this time we shall sail for that distant -colony?" - -"No--no! I hear all this now for the first time." - -"Papa will tell you all about it," continued Ethel, weeping on her -lover's shoulder. "He has been appointed one of the three judges in -the supreme civil and criminal court of the island." - -"Oh, what fatality is this!" exclaimed Morley Ashton, mournfully, as -he struck his hands together; "have I returned to England, but to be -more than ever an exile, and to learn that you are going where you -must school yourself to forget me?" - -"Oh, do not say so, Morley!" implored Miss Basset. - -"All is ended now," replied her lover; "on earth there is nothing -more for me." - -"Or _me_!" said Ethel, upbraidingly. - -"True; in the selfishness of my own love and grief, I forget yours." - -The girl's tears fell fast, and he held her locked to his breast; for -there was no eye on them in that sequestered lane, where the evening -star, sparkling like a diamond set in amber, alone looked on them. - -After a pause: - -"See, Morley," said the girl, with a lovely smile, as she drew her -ribbon from her bosom; "our split sixpence!" - -"Here is the other half, dear Ethel. I used to carry it at my -watch-guard, but seals and charms are dangerous gear among the black -fellows of the Bonny River, who want every trinket they see, so I -thought it safer where your lock of hair lay--next my heart. It was -a happy hour in which you gave me that dear lock, my sweet Ethel." - -"It was on an evening in summer, when we sat yonder by the old stile -at the churchyard. How often have I wished to live that hour over -again!" sighed his companion. - -"And, sweet one, so we shall in reality, as I have often done in my -day-dreams, when far, far away from this dear home and you; but this -approaching separation crushes the heart within me, and destroys all -hope for the future." - -"Take courage, Morley, though I have none," said the young girl, -while still her tears fell fast. - -Ah me! a split sixpence is of small value, yet here it was riches, -for it embodied the hopes, the future, and was all the world to two -young and loving hearts! - -"Amid the pestilent swamps and mangrove creeks of West Africa, where, -from September to June, the steamy malaria rises like smoke in the -sunshine, baleful," said Morley, "and laden with disease and death, O -Ethel, my thoughts were with you! There, while engaged in the stupid -and monotonous task of daily bartering old muskets, nails, and -buttons, powder, rum, and tobacco, for palm-oil, camwood, ivory, -lion-skins, and gorgeous feathers, bartering, cajoling, and often -browbeating the hideous and barbarous savages of Eboe and Biafra, for -our house in Liverpool, the hope of being reunited to you alone -sustained and inspired me. In my wretched hut, built of stakes, -roofed with palm-leaves, and plastered with mud, or on board the -river craft, where we always sleep at some seasons, and during the -horrors of the fever which left me the wreck of myself, it was your -memory alone that shed light and hope around me. And there was one -terrible night, when the breathless air was still and heavy, and when -a green slime covered all the ripples of the rotten sea, while my -pulse was as fleet as lightning, and my brain was burning, and when I -thought that certainly I must soon die, my old friend Bartelot--you -have often heard me speak of Tom Bartelot, of Liverpool--conveyed me -to his brig, which rode at her moorings inside Foche Point, and he -actually cured me, merely by talking for hours of you, Ethel, and of -our meeting again--cured me, when, perhaps, the doctor's doses -failed. And now, Ethel, poor though I am, broken in spirit, and -crushed in hope--this hour, this moment, and these kisses, dearest, -reward me for all, all--toil, danger, suffering, and hoping against -hope itself!" - -As he spoke he pressed Ethel Basset again to his breast in a long and -passionate embrace, and a bright, happy, and lovely smile spread over -the face of the young girl. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -LAUREL LODGE. - -To a certain extent the conversation in the preceding chapter must -have served to inform the reader of the relative positions and -prospects of those whom, without much preamble, we have -introduced--to wit, the hero and heroine of our story. - -Morley Ashton was the only son of a once wealthy merchant, whose -failure and death had left him well-nigh penniless, to push his -fortune in the world as he best could. Thus, as agent of a Liverpool -house, he had been, as he stated, broiling for the last three years -on the western coast of Africa, with what success the reader has -learned from his conversation with Ethel Basset, to whom he had now -been engaged for four years. - -Ethel was now somewhere about her twentieth year, and though her face -was not, perhaps, of that kind which is termed strictly beautiful, it -would be difficult to say wherein a defect could be traced. - -Her features were regular, and, though somewhat pensive in -expression, her occasionally sparkling and piquant smile relieved -them from that insipidity which frequently is the characteristic of a -perfectly regular face. - -Though, in addition to singing, riding, and waltzing to perfection, -she could play rather a good stroke at billiards, and make a good -shot at the archery butts, her manner was gentle and graceful, her -mind intelligent, and she improved on acquaintance, for few could -converse with Ethel Basset for half-an-hour without being somehow -convinced that she was lovely. - -Her taste in dress was excellent, and one felt that from her little -gloved hand, or, rather, from her smoothly-braided hair to the little -heels of her kid boots, Ethel was a study. - -Her mother's death had early inducted her into the cares and mystery -of housekeeping, and made her thoughtful, perhaps, beyond her years. - -Mr. Scriven Basset, her father, was a kind and warm-hearted, but -somewhat easy-tempered man. In early life he had practised -successfully as a barrister in London, where he had contracted a -wealthy marriage. After this event he had retired to Acton-Rennel, -and there, for the last eighteen years or so, his life had passed -quietly and happily. - -His tastes were elegant, but expensive; thus his villa of Laurel -Lodge was fitted up in a style of no ordinary splendour, and to part -with the elegancies by which he was surrounded would cost some pangs -when the time came. - -Since a pecuniary change had come upon his affairs, and as he had -procured, by the friendship of the M.P. for Acton-Rennel, a legal -colonial appointment, all his household goods must be scattered. He -knew this, and that there was no help for it: save his dead wife's -portrait, and a few equally dear "lares," all must "come to the -hammer," as he phrased it, when he and his two girls sailed for their -new home in the tropics. - -He knew that poor Morley Ashton and his daughter, Ethel, had loved -each other in early youth, when the prospects of the former were -fair, and his "expectations" unexceptionable; and, though reverses -came which blasted these, and rendered a marriage unadvisable, -strange to say he did not separate them. - -This was but a part of his easy disposition, and he permitted them to -correspond, in the hope that, by absence, their mutual regard would -gradually die away, as the mere fancy of a boy and girl. - -But fortune ordained it otherwise. - -Had Morley come home with wealth (three years on the Bonny River will -scarcely serve to acquire that), he could have had no objections to -their marriage; but there would be many now that Morley had come home -poor. - -Mr. Basset knew, moreover, that Morley, as his last letter had -informed Ethel, was to visit them at Laurel Lodge immediately on his -return. - -"Well, well," thought the easy Mr. Basset, "a few weeks will separate -them hopelessly now, so the poor young folks may as well be left to -bill and coo together in peace until we sail for the Mauritius, which -will be three times as far off as the Bonny River." - -This policy was dangerous, and somewhat questionable; but we shall -see how it ended. - -Proceeding slowly hand in hand, and while such thoughts as these -passed through the mind of papa, who, reclining in his easy-chair, -was still lingering over his wine and walnuts, watching dreamily the -last flush of the sun, that shone down the dingles of Acton Chase, -Morley and Miss Basset reached the end of the green lane, where a -handsome white gate closed the avenue that led to Laurel Lodge. - -It was long and shady; a double row of giant laurels, from which the -villa had its name, bordered the approach, and over these rose some -venerable sycamores, in which the lazy rooks were croaking and cawing. - -Laurel Lodge was a house of irregular proportions, the oldest part -having been built in the middle of the seventeenth century, had small -latticed windows, with carved mullions of red sandstone. The modern -additions had been built by Mr. Basset, and were lofty and elegant, -with large windows, some of which opened to the gravelled walks of -the garden. - -There was a handsome Elizabethan porch, surmounted, as some thought, -rather ostentatiously by the Basset arms, a shield having three bars -wavy, supported by two unicorns, armed and collared; and the pillars -and arch of this porch, like the roof and clustered chimneys of the -older part of the edifice, were covered with masses of dark ivy, -fragrant honeysuckle, clematis, and brilliant scarlet-runners. - -Through the vestibule beyond, with its tesselated floor and walls, -covered with fishing, riding, and shooting appurtenances--rods, nets, -boots, whips, guns, and shot-belts--Ethel led Morley to the door of -the well-remembered dining-room, where, as we have said, Mr. Basset -was still lingering in the twilight, over his full-bodied old port. - -Though every feature of this comfortable English villa was known of -old to Morley, after his three years' residence in a wigwam on the -banks of the Bonny River, its aspect impressed him deeply now, and -his eyes wandered rapidly over the furniture of carved walnut and -marqueterie, inlaid with representations of game and fruit, the -crimson velvet chairs, and old Rembrandt tables of quaint and -beautiful designs, the buhl clock on the rich marble mantel-piece, -the gorgeous vases of Sèvres and Dresden china, the ivory puzzles and -Burmese idols, of which he had glimpses between the parted silk and -damask curtains of the drawing-room windows. - -Then there were the Brussels carpets, the grates that glittered like -polished silver, the black wolf and dun deer skins, and the -eight-light chandeliers of crystal and Venetian bronze, with armour, -pictures, statuary, and rare books in gorgeous bindings--in short, -the tout-ensemble of Laurel Lodge, wherein taste, wealth, luxury, and -comfort, were all so rarely and singularly combined, formed to the -mind of poor Morley a powerful contrast to the cabin of Tom -Bartelot's 200-ton brig, and to the before-mentioned wigwam, with its -roof of palm-leaves and trellised walls of reeds and bamboo cane, -through which the mosquitoes and the malaria came together by night. - -"It is Morley, papa," said Ethel, as they entered; "he has come by -the very train we expected, and has walked all the way from Acton -station." - -"The express from Liverpool; but, ah, my dear sir, it was not even -quick enough for me. I would have come by telegraph if I could," -said the young man, as Mr. Basset shook him warmly by the hand. - -"Welcome back to England! welcome home, Morley!" said he. "Sit -beside me, lad, and let me see how you look! Ring for wine and more -glasses, Ethel. And so, after all your toil and danger, worldly -matters have not prospered with you, eh?" - -"No, sir," sighed the young man, with his eyes fixed tenderly on -Ethel, who had flung her hat and parasol on the sofa, and seated -herself beside him; "I have come back to England a poorer fellow than -when I left it." - -"I am deeply sorry for that, Morley--port or cherry? Under the -sideboard are some Marcobrunner, Johannisberg, and Sauterne, too, I -think--port you prefer?--then the bottle stands with you. Sorry for -your sake, and the sake of others, to hear what you say." - -As he spoke he did not glance at Ethel, who was filling Morley's -glass; so she sighed and trembled, for it seemed, by his tone and -manner, as if he still acknowledged the fact of her engagement with -Morley Ashton, but considered it all at an end now. - -"Matters have not prospered with me, either," said Mr. Basset, who -was a healthy and florid-looking man, nearer fifty than forty, -however, but with the dark hair already well seamed with grey; "quite -the reverse," he continued, emphatically; "so that I cannot upbraid -you with being on worse terms with fortune than myself. You have, of -course, heard of all that has occurred?" - -"Ethel has told me all," said Morley, sadly. - -"Aye, fortune is fickle, and was well portrayed as blind, and as -Shakspere has it:-- - - "'Will fortune never come with both hands full, - But write her fair words still in foulest letters? - She either gives a stomach and no food,-- - Such are the poor in health; or else a feast, - And takes away the stomach; such are the rich, - That have abundance and enjoy it not." - - -"He can console himself with scraps from Shakspere, while my heart is -bursting," thought Morley. - -"And so Ethel has told you all?" resumed Mr. Basset, cracking another -walnut of the fruit which had followed a luxurious dinner. - -"Yes, sir, and in doing so has wrung the soul within me." - -"Oh, Morley," said Ethel, placing her ungloved hand kindly upon his, -"do not talk so mournfully." - -"Aye, aye, lad," said Mr. Basset, thinking most of himself, as, with -his head on one side, one eye closed, and the other admiring the ruby -colour of his wine as it shone between him and the flushed sky, "at -my age, though I am not very old, but have many settled habits, it is -hard to leave one's native country, and to set out with these tender -girls on a long, rough voyage; but needs must--you know the rest." - -"And so Ethel and I meet again, only to be separated for ever," -exclaimed Morley, while he pressed her hand within his own, and in a -tone so mournful that Mr. Basset, who, like every matter-of-fact -Englishman, hated scenes, as they worried him, fidgeted in his chair, -and said to Ethel: - -"Where is Rose? Has she not seen Mr. Ashton yet?" - -"She is with the captain in the conservatory, I think." - -Morley, who disliked the formality of being termed "Mr. Ashton," -glanced at Ethel, and perceived that a blush was burning on her cheek. - -"You did not tell me that you had a visitor," said he. - -"We had matters of greater moment to think of, Morley, had we not?" -asked Ethel, anxiously. - -"Besides, the captain is rather more than a visitor," observed Mr. -Basset, laughing. - -"More?" said Ashton, with a sickly smile. - -"He has spent some few weeks with us," said Ethel. - -"Weeks, Ethel?" exclaimed Mr. Basset. "Why, girl, they have run to -months now. He is the son of one of my oldest and dearest -friends--old Tom Hawkshaw, of Lincoln's Inn--and has seen a great -deal of the world. He is a fine, free, rattling fellow, whom I am -sure you will like; at least, I hope so, as he proposes to follow, -perhaps to go with, us to the Mauritius." - -Morley felt his heart sink, he knew not why, at these words--or at -what they imported. - -"Has there been a game playing here of which I have been kept in -ignorance?" thought he. - -There was an instinctive fear or jealousy in his mind, and he dared -scarcely to look at Ethel. When he did so, there was a painful blush -upon her cheek. - -"Do not speak of the Mauritius, my dear sir," said he, in an agitated -tone. "I cannot conceive or realise the idea of your all being -anywhere but here--here at dear old Laurel Lodge." - -"Never mind--time soothes all things. Fill your glass, Morley. The -Mauritius possesses a splendid climate, though it is rather hot from -November to April; and there the best of wine can be had almost duty -free. Once we are there, who can say, but I may find you a snug -appointment, my boy, and Ethel shall write to acquaint you of it." - -Now Mr. Basset had in reality no more idea at that moment of -procuring any such post for Morley, than of securing one for the -personage who resides in the moon, but it suited him to say so at the -time; and thus Morley, with a heart full of gratitude, exclaimed: - -"Ah, how, sir! how shall I thank you?" - -"By working hard and industriously at home in the meantime; by never -shrinking from trouble, nor fearing aught that is onerous." - -"Such, sir, has ever been my maxim and habit--yet what have they -availed me?" - -"With your business habits, your father's well-known name and -connections in Liverpool, your intimate acquaintance with the west -coast trade of Africa, you cannot be at a loss to push your way until -you might join us. My friend the captain, as I have said, perhaps -goes with us. Has Ethel told you that I am pledged to do something -for him? But Heaven alone knows what will suit him; he is such an -unsettled dog, and has been so long accustomed to wandering ways in -California, and among scalp-hunters in Texas, the Rocky Mountains, -and everywhere else." - -All this sounded ill and unwelcome to Morley, and served to disturb -him greatly. - -His sallow cheek, long blanched by past illness, burned redly; his -eyes were hot and sad in expression. As he drank another glass of -port, he felt the crystal rattling on his teeth, and as Ethel watched -him anxiously, her little hand stole lovingly into his, which closed -tightly upon it. - -He perceived that she had still his engagement ring on the proper -finger, but another ring--a huge nugget-like affair, with a green -stone--was there too! - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -CRAMPLY HAWKSHAW. - -Before Morley had time to think or inquire--if, indeed, inquiry was -necessary--concerning this trinket, a lovely, laughing girl of -eighteen burst into the room, and kissed him playfully on each cheek. - -"Rose," he exclaimed, "Rose, how you have grown. The little girl I -left behind has become quite a woman!" - -"Why have you delayed so long, Rose?" said Ethel, almost with -annoyance. "Did you not know who was here--that Morley had arrived?" - -"No. If so, do you think I would have delayed?" - -"Yet you have done so." - -"Oh, don't be jealous," replied Rose, laughing, though her answer -unwittingly galled Morley, and annoyed Ethel more; "we were not -flirting, for the captain was only telling me about the flowers of -South America; and I merely amuse myself with him and Jack Page, when -I can get no one else." - -Morley thought of the strange ring on Ethel's finger, and as he -caressed Rose's hand, there arose some unpleasant forebodings in his -mind; but at that moment, as lights were brought, and tea announced -in the drawing-room, the gentleman whom they styled "captain" entered -from the conservatory, throwing back therein the fag-end of his cigar. - -Ethel hastened to introduce him to Morley as "Captain Cramply -Hawkshaw, the son of papa's old and valued friend." - -The captain bowed coldly to Morley, whom he scrutinised from head to -foot in a cool and rather supercilious manner. - -Hawkshaw was rather under than over the middle height, and possessed -a tough and well-knit figure. He had rather a good air and bearing; -but at times his manner was absurd and swaggering, and his features, -though good and well cut, were decidedly sinister--so much so, that -his eyes had in them, occasionally, an expression, which, to a keen -observer, was most forbidding. - -Under his light grey sack coat, he wore no waistcoat, but had his -trousers girt by a Spanish sash; a tasselled smoking-cap, like an -Egyptian tarboosh, was placed jauntily on his thick mass of curly -dark hair. He rejoiced in a luxuriant beard and pair of long -whiskers, with which his moustaches mingled. - -He interlarded his conversation somewhat profusely with digger terms, -Spanish oaths, and Yankee military phrases, American interjections, -and frequent allusions to bowie-knives and six-shooters, and a pair -of these weapons always figured on his dressing-table. - -In fact, the captain seemed a character, though scarcely worth -studying; but one that must frequently appear, more for evil than for -good, in these pages. - -At a glance, Morley perceived that he was somewhat of a swaggering -fool--perhaps worse. He conceived an instinctive aversion for -him--an aversion, however, that seemed to be quite mutual--and he -marvelled by what idiosyncracy of his nature Mr. Basset could -tolerate, or propose to patronise, a guest whose bearing was so -questionable, and whose presence was rendered so obnoxious to -himself, by his too-evident partiality for Ethel. Nor was this -emotion lessened when our hero perceived, that whenever he spoke, a -covert sneer stole into the cunning eyes of the captain. - -He had been an officer, it appeared, among the Texans, in the -Partizan Rangers, or some such distinguished corps; and like Gibbet, -in the "Beau's Stratagem," he considered "captain" a good travelling -name, and one that kept waiters, grooms, and even railway porters in -order; so he still adhered to his regimental rank in the Partizan -Rangers, or true-blooded Six-shooters of Texas. - -He talked of scalping Red Indians, and shooting Spanish picaroons, as -if such were his daily amusement; and when smoking out of doors, -would squat on the grass in the mode peculiar to the Texan troopers, -among whom he had undoubtedly become a deadly shot, and a good -horseman--the only qualities he possessed. - -"Papa," said Rose, while Ethel was officiating at the tea-urn, "I -wish you to scold Captain Hawkshaw----" - -"Why, what has he done now?--been burning your dog's nose with his -cigar--smoking it in the drawing-room, or what?" - -"He has been laughing at our loveliest azaleas, and saying they were -only weeds." - -"In Tennessee, my dear Miss Rose, in Tennessee," said the captain, -with a deprecating grimace, while caressing his long whiskers; "but -your namesake, the rose itself, is perhaps deemed little better than -a weed in some countries." - -"Where you have been?" inquired Morley. - -"But," continued Hawkshaw, without deigning to hear his question, "to -me--one who has seen the luscious fruit and gorgeous flower-covered -districts of Xalappa, and of Chilpansingo, in the _tierras -tiempladas_ of Mexico--there is nothing you can show in this tame -England of yours that interests you." - -"Ours," retorted Rose; "is it not yours too?" - -"Nay, nay," said the captain, shaking his head and the tassel of his -tarboosh together, "I am a cosmopolitan." - -"And care nothing for your country?" said Morley. - -"_Caramba!_ as we say in Texas, I did so once; but the sun shines -brighter in other lands than it does in England." - -"You will never make me think so, captain," said Mr. Basset, pushing -aside his tea-cup; "for even now my heart sinks with deep depression -at the thought of leaving home." - -"'Tis nothing when you are used to it, sir--positively nothing. -However, you have comfortable diggings here, and some very pretty -fixings, too," observed the captain, casting his eyes on the mirrors, -the hangings, and vases of Sèvres and Dresden china which decorated -the drawing-room; "and thus, perhaps, don't care much about sailing -in search of 'fresh fields and pastures new,' eh, squire?--or judge, -I suppose we should call you?" - -"No, I shall leave my heart behind me in England--in dear old -Acton-Rennel. But the sooner we are gone the better; for every day -now seems to bind me more to the place where my happiest years have -been spent," said Mr. Basset, whose eyes grew moist as his heart -filled with the memory of the wife whom he had lain in the grave but -three years before, and with whom Morley Ashton had been an especial -favourite, for he was gentle and lovable, yet manly withal. - -In her resting-place--under the old yew at Acton church--he felt that -she was still near, and still his; but once away from England, the -separation would seem complete indeed. - -Half shaded and half lit by the drawing-room lights, Ethel's beauty -seemed very striking. Tall and dark-eyed, there was something of -great delicacy in her cast of features, over which, as we have said, -a pensive shadow often rested; especially when her white eyelids and -long, dark lashes were drooping. - -She was a girl whose whole air and manner, expression of eye, and -turn of thought, were the embodiment of refinement; thus the -conversation and brusquerie of the digger captain were by no means -suited to her taste. - -On the other hand, Rose was somewhat of a brown-haired hoyden; very -lovely in her bursts of wild joy and laughter; all smiles and rosy -dimples, and full of waggish expressions, in which the quieter Ethel -never indulged; so she rather enjoyed the fanfaronades of Hawkshaw, -and mimicked some of his idioms and Spanish exclamations with great -success. - -Tea over, and the piano opened, Morley hung fondly over Ethel, who -ran her white fingers over the notes of an old and favourite air, -which they had often sung together; while the captain, with his feet -planted apart on the rich hearthrug, was romancing, or to use his own -phraseology, "bouncing away" about the Tierra Caliente the mighty -sierras of New Mexico, and so forth, to Mr. Basset, whose eyes were -fixed on the embers that glowed in the bright steel grate, and whose -thoughts were elsewhere. - -"Your visitor seems quite at home here--a privileged man, in fact," -said Morley. "You did not tell me this at first, Ethel," he added, -in a lower tone. - -Ethel blushed, and replied: - -"We have been so used to him that I quite forgot." - -"So used--then he has been long here." - -"Nearly three months." - -"Three months ago, Ethel, I was lying in Tom Bartelot's cabin, off -the Bonny River, in hourly expectation of death, and with little hope -of being where I am to-night, by your side, dearest, and listening to -that old air again. And he has been here three months?" - -"Yes, ever since his return from California." - -"Is he rich--this captain--what horse-marine corps is he captain of?" -continued Morley in an angry whisper. - -"Oh, Morley, hush! he is not rich, poor fellow!" - -"Poor devil!" muttered Morley. - -"But he has realised something; I know not what; though he asserts -that he has come back to us poorer than when he went away." - -"To us," replied Morley, with growing displeasure, which he strove in -vain to conceal. "Who is he?" - -"A second cousin, or something of that kind, to papa, and the son of -his old friend, Mr. Thomas Hawkshaw, of Lincoln's-inn. But why all -these questions?" asked Ethel, looking her lover fully and fondly in -the face. - -Morley Ashton did not reply, for he felt an instinctive doubt and -hatred of Hawkshaw: emotions that rose within his breast he scarcely -knew why or wherefore; but, as a Scottish poet has it: - - "Men feel by instinct swift as light, - The presence of the foe, - Whom God has marked in after years - To strike the mortal blow!" - - -Hawkshaw, while talking apparently to Mr. Basset, had his keen and -sinister eyes fixed on the couple at the piano. They seemed plainly -enough to indicate similar emotions in his breast, and to say: - -"You are one too many in my diggings, Mr. Ashton. _Poco e poco_, I -must get rid of you, my fine fellow, at whatever risk or cost!" - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -RIVALRY. - -For a few days after Morley's arrival, he felt almost happy--happy in -the society of Ethel, though the time when she would have to quit -Laurel Lodge and sail from England--a time of painful, and it bade -fair to be most hopeless separation--hung like a black cloud on the -horizon of their future, and, alas! that time was not far distant now. - -In three days the air of his native England had begun to redden -Morley's cheek, but his eyes were sad in expression, and his heart -was at times oppressed by thoughts which even Ethel's smile failed to -dispel. - -We have said the season was spring, and the last days of April, the -time of which Clare sang so sweetly in his "Shepherd's Calendar." - - "With thee the swallow dares to come - And cool his sultry wing; - And urged to seek his yearly home, - Thy suns the martin bring. - - "Oh, lovely month, be leisure mine, - Thy yearly mate to be. - Though May-day scenes may lighter shine, - Their birth belongs to thee." - - -All the old familiar places where Ethel and Morley had wandered hand -in hand before, they revisited now together. - -The old green lanes of the picturesque village of Acton-Rennel, -which, with its quaint old tumble-down houses of white-washed brick, -and the black oak beams that run through their walls at every angle, -its ivied porches and latticed windows, half hidden by wild roses and -honeysuckles, is one of the prettiest in England, were wandered in -again and again. - -Then there was the ancient church, with its moss-covered Lyke-gate -and sequestered graveyard; the stile near her mother's tomb, where -they had plighted their troth, and split the sixpence which has -already figured in our story; Acton Chine, a dreadful chasm in the -cliffs which overhung the sea, where the brain grew giddy if the eye -attempted to fathom its depth, where the sea-birds wheeled and -screamed in mid-air, and where the boom of the breakers on the rocks -below came faintly to the ear--all were visited again and again, and -never were Morley and Ethel weary of rambling by the margin of -glittering Acton Mere, where the snow-white swans "swim double, swan -and shadow," or in Acton Chase, scheming and dreaming of a future all -their own, when he would strive to rejoin her in the Mauritius, and -fortune yet might smile upon them all. They were too young, too -loving, and too ardent to be without such hopes and day-dreams, -though more than once Morley Ashton said: - -"Oh, Ethel, I thought the time had gone for ever when I could lose -myself in a world of my own creating." - -They spent hours together by Cherrywood Hill and the Norman cross, -where, according to old tradition, a Crusader, lord of Acton-Rennel, -when returning from Jerusalem, had died of joy at the sight of his -English home; but no place loved they more than stately Acton Chase. - -This is the remains of one of those grand old English forests, where -the Norman kings were wont to hunt of old, and where the marks of -King John have been found on more than one of the old trees when -cutting them down lately. The storms of a thousand years have -scattered the heavy foliage of these old English oaks; but every -summer their leaves are thick and heavy again, as in the days when -the wild boars whetted their tusks upon their lower stems. - -In long rows, trunk after trunk, gnarled and knotty, solemn, brown, -and distorted, they stand within the chase, in distance stretching -far away, all green with moss or grey with lichens, and with the long -feathery fern, which shelters the timid deer, the fleet hare, and the -brown rabbit; and where the golden pheasant lays her eggs, waving -high around their venerable roots, some of which stretch far into the -brooks and tarns, where the heron wades, and the wild duck swims. - -In the centre of this chase stands one vast tree "the monarch of the -wood," sturdy, old, and almost leafless now, for its trunk has been -thunder-riven. - -This is called the Shamble-oak, for thereon, when the lover of fair -Rosamond came hither to hunt with the Norman lords of Acton-Rennel, -they were wont to hang the slaughtered deer, ere it was roasted and -washed down with Rhenish wine, in the old oak hall of Acton Manor, a -ruin now, as Cromwell's cannon left it. - -Every tree on which, Orlando-like, Morley had carved the name and -initials of his mistress, was sought for again; every familiar spot -was revisited, and Captain Hawkshaw found, to his rage and -mortification, two emotions which he could not at all times skilfully -conceal, that Morley was always with Ethel, while he was left to -amuse Rose, who always teased or quizzed him, or with her companions, -who seemed to dislike him, to play chess with Mr. Basset, to the -enjoyment of a cheroot, or to his own society, which no one envied -less than himself. - -Moreover, the farewell visits of friends, and entertainments provided -for them, afforded Morley and Ethel many opportunities of being -undisturbed together; and had it not been that the captain's -self-esteem was wounded, and his inordinate pride hurt, by the -preference which Miss Basset showed for her old and affianced lover, -Morley, he might have found plenty of consolation, for among the -visitors at Laurel Lodge were some very attractive girls; but -Hawkshaw's mode of making himself agreeable, even when most disposed -to do so, seldom pleased. - -There was something sinister in his keen eye, and a quaint -_brusquerie_ in his manner, that made ladies instinctively shrink -from him. - -"Pshaw--_caramba_," said he, on one occasion; "it is very odd that I -am always nervous when among crinolines and crape bonnets." - -"Pray," asked Morley, with a disdainful smile, "how comes that to -pass?" - -"You forget the many years I have spent among Red Indian squaws and -brown Mexican donzellas." - -"Your nervousness should make you more choice in your expressions," -said Lucy Page, a tall, grave friend of Ethel's, a handsome girl, -with whom Hawkshaw was walking, as they were all promenading one -evening, after tea, among the trees of Acton Chase. - -"Though not much in the habit of receiving advice, I shall hope to -profit by yours, Miss Page," said Hawkshaw, bowing with a malevolent -smile. - -"Pardon me," continued Miss Page, colouring under the short veil of -her round hat; "I do not presume to offer advice to so travelled a -man; but, for all that, I know a very ugly word may be veiled in your -favourite Spanish." - -The captain laughed so loudly, that the young lady bit her lips with -vexation, and Rose saucily inquired if he were vain of his teeth. - -"I might be, if I had not seen yours, which the father of dentists -and mother of pearl might envy," said he, with a mock reverential -bow. "But we are sparring, it seems," he said, with a slight flush -on his cheek, as Miss Page turned haughtily away and entered into -conversation with Mr. Basset. But our officer of the Partizan -Rangers was not to be easily put down, and to prove this, he began to -whoop noisily at the cattle, which were browsing under the trees. - -"Hah, demonio!" he exclaimed; "if I had a lasso here, ladies, I would -show you how we loop the cattle in Texas. Many a wild bull, I have -overtaken with my horse at full gallop, and fairly tailed him." - -"What may that be?" asked Rose Basset, who loved, as she said, "to -draw the Texan warrior out." - -"Cutting the poor animal's tail off, I suppose," suggested Miss Page. - -"Not at all," said Hawkshaw, curtly. - -"Then what is it, pray?" asked Ethel. - -"Technically, it is catching him by the tail when at full speed, and -slewing him round like a ship in stays; that is what we call -'tailing' in Texas." - -"But to lasso?" began one of the ladies, to whom the captain's -explanation was not very lucid. - -"That is to catch Master Bull by casting a looped rope round his -horns." - -"Have you ever achieved this?" asked Morley. - -"I should think so--rather, and a great deal more," replied the -captain, almost contemptuously. "I once caught one in midstream, -when swimming the Arroya del Colorado, a salt arm of the sea, more -than eighty yards broad, while a wild pampero (that is, a gale of -wind, ladies) was rolling the waves in mountains up the bight; and -with the same lasso, not long after, I caught a rascally picaroon, -just about your size, Mr. Ashton, by the neck, and well-nigh garotted -him, when I was riding past at full gallop." - -"And the result?" said Morley, disdaining to notice something -offensive in Hawkshaw's tone, when addressing him. - -"Well, the result was mighty unpleasant for the poor devil of a -picaroon," replied Hawkshaw, as the whole party rested themselves on -the soft velvet grass of the lawn, when he began to amuse himself by -tossing a clasp-knife of very ugly aspect among the buttercups, and -skilfully decapitating one at every toss. - -"Oh, pray tell us all about it!" exclaimed Rose, smiling brightly -under her parasol, and drawing two very pretty feet, cased in bronze -boots, close under her crinoline. - -Hawkshaw seemed here to recall some real memory of his wild and -wandering life, for a dark, savage, and malignant gleam came into his -eyes, while a hectic flush crossed his weather-beaten cheek, and he -began thus: - -"I was travelling through the Barranca Secca, which lies between -Xalappa and the Puebla de Perote, on the long, hot, dusty road which -leads from Vera Cruz to Mexico. - -"Though I had not a farthing in my pocket, and knew not how I was to -procure a supper for myself or my horse on reaching Orizaba (for I -had spent all my ready money), I was well mounted, and well armed, -with a first-rate six-shooter, a bowie-knife, and carried, moreover, -a lasso, for whatever might come to hand--to catch a stray _cavallo_, -a wild bull, whip nuts from a tree, to loop in a chocolate-coloured -_raterillo_, which means a thief, or, perhaps, a run-away nigger. - -"The sun was setting behind the Cordilleras de los Ondes, when I -entered a _quibrada_, as the Spaniards name it, a deep gully--all -great adventures take place in ravines and defiles; but I am more -practical than most men, and so call things by their right names--so -it was a gully in the mountains, worn, bored, and torn by the -waterspouts and thunderstorms of ages; but lofty trees that towered -above the underwood of aloes and azaleas--azaleas to which yours are -weeds, indeed, Rose--overshadowed it, and cast a gloom upon the road, -which seemed to enter a species of sylvan tunnel. I took a hearty -pull of aquadiente from the leathern _bota_ at my saddle-bow, and lit -a Manilla cheroot, to make the most of the 'shining hour.' - -"This portion of the Barranca Secca had a particularly bad name as -the haunt of robbers, and there was more than one wooden cross, -covered with green creepers, and many a pile of stones by the wayside -marking the lonely and unconsecrated grave of a bandit, who had been -shot by the National Guard of Orizaba, the soldiers of Santa Anna, -long ago, or where the victim of the bandido's knife or rifle lay. - -"Well, anxious to get through the gully, I was going at a fine -rasping pace, when I met a man, armed with a long rifle, and carrying -a knife and brace of pistols in the red and yellow sash which girt up -his blue cotton breeches. His tawny breast, feet, and legs, from the -knees at least, were bare, and a sheepskin jacket, tied by a -cocoa-nut cord, dangled over his right shoulder. - -"I recognised him at once, as Zuares Barradas, a young man, whom, -with his brother Pedro, I had met at the gold-diggings on the Feather -River, and with whom I had travelled from the seaport of San Diego, -when they had both deserted their ship to try their fortunes at the -mines. - -"'What--capitano, is it you?' he exclaimed, 'welcome to the Barranca -Secca.' - -"'_Muchos gratias_, senor,' said I, having some anxiety to be on good -terms with the fellow. - -"'How far do you go to-night?' - -"'To Orizaba.' - -"'A light, if you please, senor--I have lost all my lucifers.' - -"He was a sallow, dark-skinned, half-blood; that is, half Mexican, -half Spaniard, and wholly devil--partly seaman, partly landsman, and -wholly pirate in spirit." - -"Good heavens!" exclaimed Rose, "were you not terrified to be alone -with such a person in such a place? I am sure I should have screamed -and died of fright." - -Hawkshaw smiled and continued: - -"His eyes, black and sparkling, told of a cunning equal to that of -the serpent in the scripture, and of a ferocity that death alone -could tame. He had neither beard nor moustache, for he was too -young; but his raven hair hung in masses beside his olive cheeks, and -he had silver rings in his ears. - -"Such was Zuares Barradas, who, like his brother, Pedro, feared -nothing on earth, and respected nothing in heaven." - -"Was, you say--is he now dead?" asked Ethel. - -"You shall hear; but such fellows don't die easily, Miss Basset, be -assured. - -"'Are you looking for game?' I asked. - -"'_Por vida del demonio_, that I am!' said he, with a savage grin, -'but it is neither the elk, the jaguar, or the vinado I seek.' - -"'What then, _amigo mio_?' - -"'You must know,' began the young rascal, 'that Pedro and I have -spent all our money--every duro, yes, every quartil--he at the -wineshop, and I on Katarina, the barmaid at the Pasada de Todos -Santos, and that other jade with the wheel--what's her name?--Fortune -has since been as unkind to me as Katarina, with whom I parted on bad -terms.' - -"'You quarrelled?' said I. - -"Zuares looked keenly into the gully, listened a moment, and then -resumed his bantering style. - -"'When last I visited the posada, Katarina had on a very handsome -crucifix and pair of silver bracelets, so I took them off, saying, -"Senora, a beautiful bosom, and such pretty hands as yours, require -no adornment. Permit me to relieve you of these baubles--they are -absurd!" She was about to permit herself the luxury of screaming, -but I touched my knife and quieted her. Since then I have been left -to shift for myself, as my father and mother too have turned their -venerable backs upon me.' - -"'I have not a coin, Zuares,' said I, with growing alarm, lest the -underwood of aloes might be full of such evil weeds as the younger -Barradas. 'Surely you mean not to rob me?' - -"'Of course not; you are a _bueno camarada_. But as Pedro and I came -through the Barranca Secca we heard that an old woman of the Puebla -de Perote, who sold some cattle at Orizaba, will pass this way about -nightfall. She is veiled, and has the blessed duros concealed among -her hair, for fear of thieves--ha! ha! for fear of thieves," he -continued, pirouetting about, and slapping the butt of his musket. -'Pedro watches one part of the road and I the other, so the money we -shall have--(what use has an old woman for it?)--even should we take -her scalp with it.' - -"'Perhaps her hair may be false,' said I. - -"'Then I shall be saved some trouble.' - -"'She may resist, and make an outcry,' said I. - -"'Then so much the worse for her,' said the young fellow, with a -fierce scowl, as he placed his hand under his sheepskin jacket into -the Spanish sash, where his long knife was stuck. - -"'In this place none would hear her,' said I. - -"'There you mistake,' he replied. 'There are more than forty free -bandidos lurking in the Barranca, and Pedro and I have no wish to -lose the prize we have tracked so far. Maldito, see, 'tis she!' he -exclaimed, as a dark female figure became visible about a hundred -yards off, traversing an eminence, over which the road went, and -thence descended into a hollow. 'Till I return, stay where you are, -and beware how you follow me!' - -"With what thoughts, you may imagine, I sat on my horse, afraid to -interfere in the matter. Many a rifle might be covering me from -among the wood of aloes and mangrove trees; so what was the old woman -to me, that I should risk a bullet-hole in my skin to save her duros? - -"Zuares Barradas descended into the hollow, which was dark almost as -night, so thick were the trees overhead, though the setting sun -gilded brightly their topmost branches. - -"Suddenly I heard a shriek ring through the rocky gully, and Zuares -rushed out, with what appeared to be a bundle in his hand; but it was -a bundle from which the blood was trickling among the summer dust of -the roadway. - -"'She resisted, and fought and bit like a tiger-cat, _la muger muy -vieja_ (the old beldame),' he exclaimed, with an oath, 'so I have cut -off her head to save time.' - -"Kneeling down, with the bloody knife in his teeth, he proceeded -hastily to unroll the veil, and the long grizzled hair of his victim, -to secure the money, which was concealed among the thick plaitings of -the latter. - -"While doing this, I observed that he carefully kept the dead face -_downwards_, as if he lacked the courage to look upon it. - -"Thirty silver duros, with the eagle and thunderbolt, soon glittered -in his hands; but he dropped them, as if they had been red-hot, and -threw up his arms in dismay, on finding among the folds of the torn -veil a little piece of cow's horn, tipped with silver--an amulet worn -by women as a protection against the _mal de ojo_, or evil eye. - -"On beholding this, a shudder passed over his brown and muscular -frame, and turning up the dead face, now livid, white and horrible, -with fallen jaw, and glazed eyes, he exclaimed, in a piercing and -terrible voice: - -"'_Mia madre! mia madre!_' - -"He had decapitated his own mother!" - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -SUSPICION. - -While the ladies listened breathlessly, and uttered proper -exclamations of horror, the narrator, with their permission, lighted -a cigar, and, squatting on the ground in the Texan mode, continued -his story. - -"Zuares grovelled in the dust, so dismounting, I picked up the -blood-spotted dollars, and was in the act of pocketing them, when a -musket flashed in the dark, leafy hollow, a bullet whizzed past my -left ear, and----" - -"What! did you actually take the poor woman's dollars?" exclaimed -Morley. - -"Of course," replied Hawkshaw, coolly; "would you have had me leave -them on the mountain road?" - -"Yes; perhaps no; but----" - -"_Caramba!_" said Hawkshaw, angrily, but using his favourite Spanish -interjection, "in such a country as that, I was not such a thundering -muff." - -"Go on, please. What followed, pray?" asked Ethel. - -"I took up the money that lay on the road. You, Mr. Ashton, may call -it robbery, perhaps--granted. But what do the best men in England, -yearly, at the Oaks, the Derby, and elsewhere? Oh, there is no such -thing as robbery on the turf, of course. Well, where was I?" - -"A musket was fired at you," said Rose. - -"Exactly, and then I saw Pedro Barradas, a vast and bulky Spanish -seaman, whom, unfortunately, I knew too well, advancing towards me, -with his Albacete knife tied by a handkerchief bayonet-wise to the -muzzle of his piece. He was a ferocious fellow, and I knew that, -when he and Zuares were so far inland, rapine and robbery were their -sole objects and means of subsistence. - -"These brothers once carried off a poor boy, the son of a widow, who -resided near the Laguna d'Alvarado, and kept him among their -companions in the mountains, till his mother was well-nigh -distracted. A ransom of fifty duros was required by a padre, whom -they sent as their messenger. She sent twenty--all she could borrow -or scrape together; but, instead of her boy, she received back one of -his ears, with a message that other parts of him, perhaps his -_cabeza_ (head) would follow, if the fifty duros were not forthcoming. - -"The money was collected and intrusted to the padre, who, unknown to -himself, was followed by twenty soldiers, sent by the commandant of -Orizaba, with special orders to shoot the Barradas and their -companions. - -"Pedro saw these men approaching, and, believing that the padre had -betrayed them, he pocketed the dollars, and with his stiletto stabbed -the bearer and the boy to the heart, and fled to the woods of the Rio -Blanco. - -"Such was the character of the fellow who now advanced against me. - -"I sprang upon my horse, unwound my lasso, took the slack of it in my -right hand, and, swinging the loop round my head, rode full at him, -as I could not encounter him on foot, or escape his aim on horseback, -if I permitted him again to reload. - -"Shrinking back with an oath and a cry, he twice eluded me; but on -the third cast I looped him round the neck, drew the lasso over my -right shoulder, stooped hard over my horse's mane, and spurring -onward, dragged him headlong over the dusty road, for more than two -hundred yards. - -"His shrieks were soon stifled, and when I reined up, the blood was -gushing from his mouth; his limbs were quivering, and his face was -blackened by strangulation; but he was not dead, however. - -"Dismounting, I released the loop of the lasso from his bare and -muscular throat, and then rode off at full speed, leaving the two -brothers, and the mother, whom, in their cruelty and ignorance, they -had tracked and destroyed, all lying on the mountain path together. -I never looked behind me, nor did I draw bridle till reaching -Orizaba, which lies sixty miles westward of Vera Cruz, where I put up -at the Posada de Todos Santas (or All Saints) about midnight, when -the volcano of Citlaltepetel, which rises from amid forests of vast -extent, and covered with perpetual snows, was flaming in the sky -eighteen thousand feet above me. - -"And there, in Orizaba, the duros sent me by fortune in the Barranca -Secco, procured me a good supper, a bottle of vino-bianco, well iced, -from the hands of the fair Katarina--a most enchanting fluid it -proved, after such a devil of a hot ride. Then I went to bed, and -blessed myself that I could sleep with an easier conscience than -either Zuares or Pedro Barradas." - -This pleasant little episode in the captain's wandering Mexican life, -made the listeners regard each other, and him especially, with some -surprise. - -The girls looked at him blankly under their parasols, and through the -short black veils of their little round hats, for the actual horror -of the story impressed them less than a certain cool gusto in -Hawkshaw's manner, combined with his grim, matter-of-fact mode of -relating it; but this story of the Barradas was only one of many such -as he related incidentally from time to time. - -"It is no easy matter," says Goethe, "for one man to understand -another, even if he bring the best disposition with him. What, then, -is to be expected if he bring the smallest _prejudice_?" - -Aware that he was a rival--a cunning, a daring, and so far as could -be gleaned from his conversation, an unscrupulous one, Morley, as may -well be supposed, was strongly prejudiced against Hawkshaw, and felt -certain that, under a considerable amount of bombast and external -_bonhomie_, he concealed a character that was alike mean, fierce, and -avaricious; but "every man," says the writer just quoted, "has -something in his nature which, were he to reveal it, would make us -hate him." - -"And such creatures as these were your companions in South America?" -exclaimed Ethel Basset, almost with a shudder. - -"Do not say so," replied Hawkshaw, who, perhaps, feared that he had -been too communicative "but travelling, in such countries especially, -acquaints one with strange bed-fellows and strange boon companions, -too. But enough of the Barradas, who have likely been shot or -garotted long ago. How delightful is this soft grass under the shady -trees. By Jove, we are better here than in some places where I have -been; the plains of Vera Cruz, for instance, among hot sand, mosquito -flies, that sting like wasps, prickly pears, and herds of wild -bisons; but, with all its charms, this is a cold-blooded country, -this England of yours, Mr. Morley, and ill-suited to such a spirit as -mine." - -"Is it not your country as well as ours?" asked Morley, coldly. - -"I scolded him for speaking thus the other night, when he laughed at -my azaleas," said Rose, shaking her parasol at the offender. - -"Well, I was certainly raised here, which is my misfortune, and not -my fault; but I have been so long where the bowie-knife or revolver, -the hatchet or rifle settle all quarrels, disputes, jealousies, or -impertinent interferences," he continued with an unfathomable smile, -"that I can ill tolerate the system----" - -"Of a well-regulated police," interrupted Morley, closing the -captain's sentence with a meaning smile, that was not unlike his own. - -"_Caramba!_--yes; and, then, on the wild prairies, while one has a -good musket and ammunition, we are so careless of money." - -"The money of others especially," said Ethel. - -Hawkshaw bit his nether lip; but observed with a smile: - -"Be assured, my dear Miss Basset, that when in South America I did -not squander my cash among tradesmen, or ruin myself by paying -tailors and bootmakers." - -What Hawkshaw meant by this was not very apparent; but when the -little party resumed their promenade among the grand old trees of -Acton Chase, Morley gradually drew Ethel somewhat apart from the -rest. After being silent some time: - -"I entertain a horror of that fellow!" said he; "and I am astonished -that your father tolerates or patronises him. Excuse me, dear Ethel; -but I cannot help saying so." - -"You mean Mr. Hawkshaw?" - -"Pray don't omit his rank of captain--yes, Hawkshaw--a most decided -aversion for him." - -"Though I don't like him, Morley, I am sorry to hear this," said -Ethel, gently, while colouring a very little. - -"Why?" - -"He is such a favourite with papa--for his father's sake, I grant -you, rather than his own--for old Mr. Hawkshaw was, indeed, a great -and valued friend to papa, when early in life he much required one." - -"Listen, Ethel, and, dearest, do be candid with me--has Hawkshaw ever -spoken of love to you?" - -"Frequently, before you came," said Ethel, smiling. - -"D---- his impudence!" - -"Oh, fie, Morley!" said she, folding her hands upon his arm, and -looking up smilingly in his face. - -"And I must quietly endure his presence here, after this most -annoying admission from you!" - -"There is something worse still you may have to endure," said Ethel, -sadly; "the voyage on which he may too probably accompany us." - -Morley felt a keen pang in his breast at these words; he glanced, -too, at the strange ring on Ethel's finger, which an emotion of pride -or pique had hitherto prevented him from referring to. - -"It seems preposterous, Ethel," he exclaimed, "that this man should -propose to accompany you, while I, your affianced lover, am left -behind; and, by Heaven, it shall not be so!" - -"Dearest Morley!" - -"Poor as I am, Ethel, I am not so poor that I cannot pay my way to -the Mauritius--in the same ship, too, and I shall write this very -night to London about it!" - -"Oh, Morley--oh, what happiness!" - -"I shall take a berth in the forecastle bunks, rather than be left -behind. You have now at your breast a flower that Hawkshaw gave you." - -"A flower!" - -"Yes,-a wild rose." - -"I had quite forgotten it; but let this show you how it is valued;" -said Ethel, laughing, as she threw it on the ground, and placed -thereon a pretty little foot, cased in a kid boot, with a heel of -very military aspect. - -"My own dear Ethel!" exclaimed Morley, pressing to his heart her hand -and arm, which leant so lovingly and confidingly on his, "I have one -thing more to ask you about--this queer-looking ring with the green -stone!" - -"Well?" - -"Is it a gift of his?" - -"Yes; when he first came to Laurel Lodge he begged me to accept of -it, saying that it was found in Mexico, at some battle fought by -Juarez, at a place with an unpronounceable name." - -"It was more likely found as he found those dollars about which he -told us some time ago." - -"Mercy! do you think so?" - -"I am inclined to think the worst of him!" said Morley angrily and -emphatically. - -"Oh! Morley, do not let prejudice blind you, and do not condescend -to be jealous of him," said Ethel, imploringly; "I would return the -ring, but that the act might affront him, giving, moreover, to its -first acceptation, a significance, an air of importance, I have no -wish should be attached to it. Do you understand me, Morley, dear? -Then he is papa's friend and guest." - -Morley was pale with concealed annoyance. - -Ethel perceived this, and that he was distressed by the double -prospect of a rival living in the same house with her, and -embittering the few days that intervened before their long--alas! it -might be final--separation. - -With her eyes full of tears, she drew Hawkshaw's gift from her -finger, and gave it to Morley, begging him to return it to the donor -at a fitting time. - -This was, to say the least of it, a most unwise request, with which -he readily enough undertook to comply, and secured the ring in his -portemonnaie, as they rejoined their friends, who were now gathered -round the shamble oak in the centre of the chase. - -When Morley reflected on the story told by Hawkshaw, it seemed that -there must have existed between him and those lawless brothers, Pedro -and Zaures Barradas, a greater intimacy than he had admitted in the -narrative; and he became convinced that, under a nonchalant and -swaggering air, his rival concealed a real spirit of latent ferocity, -with a dark character that had been inured to cruelty and promptitude -to vengeance, when such could be taken with safety and secrecy; so -Morley Ashton resolved, but somewhat vainly, as we shall show, to be -on his guard against him. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -FOR THE LAST TIME. - -Mr. Scriven Basset had made all his arrangements for departing to his -legal charge in the distant Isle of France. - -He had secured passages for himself, his two daughters, and an old -and valued servant, Nance, or, as she was more frequently termed, -Nurse Folgate, in the _Hermione_, a fine ship of 500 tons burden, -which was advertised to sail from the London Docks in fourteen days -from the time we now write of. - -Meanwhile, poor Morley resolved to make the most of the present, and -endeavoured to shut his eyes to the future; but while striving to be -blindfolded, he knew that this future, with all its separation and -sorrow, its fears, and, alas! its doubts, must ensue. - -There were times when Morley thought of asking Ethel to bind herself -to him in writing; but he soon thrust the idea aside as mistrusting -and melodramatic. There were other occasions when he actually -thought of imploring her to contract a stronger tie, by consenting to -a secret marriage; but it seemed an abuse of her kind and easy -father's hospitality, and a violation of the trust reposed in him, -and this, too, he abandoned, resolving to trust to Ethel's faith, to -patience, and to time. - -Poor Morley! He knew how dark and lonely seemed the three years of -their past separation, and he felt keenly how much more lonely and -dark would be the vague years of that which was to follow. - -Then the pictures he drew of this long severance from Ethel--the -voyage by sea for so many weeks, so many months; a residence in -another land, with strangers, rich and attractive, perhaps, about -her--a severance during which she would be hourly exposed to the -attentions and addresses of a rival so cunning, so artful, so -enterprising, and, in some respects, not so unpleasing, as Cramply -Hawkshaw, filled him with intense apprehension, anxiety, and disgust. - -"Why should I not go with her?" thought he, suddenly. "The money -which will enable me to do so I shall only squander here in England, -it may be, without avail, while there, in the Mauritius, a new sphere -will be open to me." - -Like all impulsive people, on this new idea he acted at once. He -wrote to the agents for the _Hermione_ to secure a cabin passage for -himself, a measure which Captain Hawkshaw, for some reason as yet -unknown, had omitted to take, though Mr. Basset had always more than -half indicated that he was to accompany him abroad. - -Now, when it was announced and definitely settled at Laurel Lodge -that Morley was to go, the spite and disappointment of the ex-digger -and _soi-disant_ captain of Texan Rangers was ill-concealed indeed; -for, doubtless, he considered it no joke to lose all chance of a -lovely bride, with a fair prospect of getting--excuse us for using -his own phraseology--"into comfortable diggings," under the wing of a -colonial official. - -After Morley wrote to London, two days elapsed without an answer -coming from the agents, and the anxious dread of Ethel and himself, -lest there was no more accommodation in the _Hermione_, was so great -that he vowed he would go before the mast rather than be left behind. - -Already Laurel Lodge had a somewhat dismantled aspect. Bookshelves -were emptied in the library; the walls were denuded of pictures in -dining-room and drawing-rooms; choice plants in the conservatory and -rare flowers in the garden had been given away to the Pages and other -old friends. - -Chests, bales, and boxes, corded, labelled, and all very "outward -bound" in aspect, encumbered all the hall and vestibule, indicating -but too surely that the Bassets were on the eve of departure; and now -came their last Sunday in the old village church. - -Morley Ashton and Captain Hawkshaw were in the same pew with Mr. -Basset's family. - -The curate who officiated was an old friend of theirs, and his voice -faltered as he besought the prayers of the congregation for those who -were about to leave them, and set forth on a long and perilous -journey. - -Then Ethel felt her timid heart tremble, and Rose sobbed under her -veil, while many a moistened eye turned kindly to the Bassets' pew; -but a smile curled the moustached lip of the Texan Ranger, as much as -to say: - -"Speak to me of danger--pah!" - -The solemnity of the place, and the soft familiar music of the choir, -and the old organ pealing from its shadowy loft, soothed the grief -and agitation of Ethel's heart, though a keen pang shot through it, -when she reflected, that when again the sacred melody rang through -that ancient church, only seven days' hence, she might perhaps be -separated from Morley, and most assuredly would be ploughing the sea, -while he--ah! he might come here, where they had last sat side by -side, and feel himself alone--so terribly alone! - -Some such thoughts were swelling in the breast of Morley Ashton, for -his eyes were turned on her with a deep and unfathomable expression -of tenderness, while hers was bent upon her prayer-book--it might be -on vacancy. - -There was a wonderful charm in those snowy lids and downcast lashes, -so dark, so silky, and in the pure, pale loveliness of the whole face -of Ethel, especially when contrasted with the rounder and rosier -beauty of her younger sister. - -Over the high oak pews, quaint with old carvings, dates, and -monograms; the marble tablets, where lay the men of yesterday; the -time-worn tombs of those whose rusted helmets, spurs, and gloves of -mail, erst worn in many a field against the Scot and Gaul, now hung -over them amidst dust and cobwebs; over the painted windows, through -which the sunshine poured its rays of many colours; over the bowed -heads of the hushed congregation; over the altar, before the rail of -which, during many a day-dream in Africa, he had knelt in fancy, the -bride-groom of Ethel Basset;--over all these the eye of Morley -wandered, but to fall, again and again, on her soft and downcast -face, her sweet mouth and long lashes, and on her little tremulous -hand, cased in its pale kid glove, that touched his from, time to -time, as they read from the same prayer-book. - -"No answer yet from London!" was ever in his mind, and keenly in -anticipation he felt the nervous dread of being severed from her -after all. - -But now the morning service was ended; the organ was pealing its -farewell notes from the dark recesses of the vaulted loft, and the -Bassets rose up to depart. - -In that old pew the people of the parish had seen their heads bowed -in prayer when Ethel and Rose had nestled beside their mother, now at -rest in the adjacent graveyard--nestled with their shining heads bent -over the same volume, and now they were on the verge of womanhood. -Ere evil fortune came upon them, so good had those girls been to the -sick, the poor and ailing, that a crowd of village matrons, the -mothers of the blooming Dollys and hobnailed Chawbacons, blessed them -with hands outstretched; and so deeply moved were all present, that -when they passed down the aisle and issued--from amid those flakes of -many-coloured light that fell on oaken pew and carved pillar--through -the deep old gothic porch, into the grassy churchyard, where the -tombstones that stand so thickly were shining in the sun that -streamed in his glory down the far extent of Acton Chase, poor Ethel -burst into a passion of tears, and sobbed aloud. - -"Oh, Morley!--oh, papa!" she exclaimed; "how sad it is to do -anything, and know that we are doing it for the last time!" - -Morley pressed the hand that laid upon his arm. - -"I have had the same emotion in my heart all day, Ethel, dear," said -he, "with a sadness for which I cannot account. I have no one now to -cling to but you. I never had a brother or sister. My father died, -as you know, before I went far away to Africa, and now he sleeps by -my mother's side, in yonder old churchyard, among the Denbigh hills; -and their graves, of all our English ground the dearest spot to me, I -shall never look on more." - -"My poor Morley!" said Ethel, her eyes sparkling through tears of -affection. - -"Oh, how plainly still I can draw their faces and forms, as my mind -goes back quickly and feverishly at times over the past days of -infancy, when their kind eyes smiled on me under our old roof. How -different seems that early home and parental care, which to a child -are as a fortress and tower of strength, when compared to----" - -"Our diggings in manhood, eh?" interrupted Hawkshaw, who had joined -them unperceived, and thus cut short Morley's intended peroration. - -The latter repressed his rising wrath with difficulty. Jealousy of -Hawkshaw, perhaps, he had not; but that Ethel should be annoyed by -the society of such a man was repugnant to him. But how was he to -act? - -He could not quarrel with Hawkshaw while they both shared, for a -brief period now, the hospitality of Mr. Basset; and to retire from -Laurel Lodge would but serve to leave him in full possession of the -field, and to embitter the last few days they would all spend -together in good old England, and in the home of their early loves -and best associations. - -With Morley, Ethel and Rose had paid a visit for the last time to all -their old haunts and rambles. At Acton Chase, now almost in the full -foliage of an early summer; at Acton Chine, that frightful cliff -which overhangs the sea; at the moss-grown Norman cross; on -Cherrywood Hill, where in childhood they had often sought in vain, -among the long grass and the pink bells of the foxglove, for the -elves and fairies of whom they had read so much in nursery lore. - -They paid a last visit to the ivy-clad cottages of all their old -pensioners and favourites in the village, to each and all of whom -they gave some little memento; to the churchyard stile; to every -place connected with the memory of their past happiness; and, lastly, -to their mother's grave the sisters paid a visit that was sad and -solemn. - -Some daisies which grew there Ethel gathered and placed in her -breast, and with something of the same spirit which often inspires -the poor expatriated Highland emigrant, she made up a little packet -of English earth to take with her to her new home beyond the sea. - -She sadly viewed their garden, where a blush of summer roses, of -crimson daisies, gorgeous lilacs, and sweetbriar had now replaced the -earlier flowers of spring, the yellow pansies, the purple auriculas, -the golden crocuses, the pale white snowdrop, and she wondered if -such things grew in the distant Isle of France. - -It was on her return alone from a farewell visit in the village, that -she was overtaken by Hawkshaw, when something like an unpleasant -crisis took place in the relations which had subsequently existed -between them. At that time Morley was absent, having walked to the -Acton railway station, for the purpose of telegraphing along the -London and North-Western line, to the agents of the _Hermione_, for -intelligence regarding his berth and passage. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -THE REJECTION. - -Hawkshaw had been rambling in Acton Chase alone, when he met Ethel, -or overtook her, near the great old shamble oak, which we have before -mentioned. - -He had been pondering on the state of his affairs and finances, which -were far from flourishing. His pocket-money was almost gone, and for -a time he had been reduced to clay pipes and cheap cubas. He was -without the means, in fact, of travelling so far as the Mauritius; -and as Mr. Basset--good-natured, easy-tempered Mr. Basset--whose -character had no particular point save perfect amiability, though -half intending or adopting the idea that Cramply, the son of his "old -friend Tom Hawkshaw, of Lincoln's Inn," should accompany him abroad, -had never made an offer of means to enable him to do so; thus our -Texan Ranger was somewhat at his wit's end on the evening in -question--an evening of which, at that moment, he little foresaw the -end; and he rambled under the stately oaks of the ancient chase with -a cloudy expression of eye, though still wearing the melodramatic -scarlet cap and Spanish sash, which had excited considerable -speculation among the rustic hobnails of Acton-Rennel. - -Hawkshaw had imbibed rather too much of Mr. Basset's Amontillado -after dinner; this, with some champagne, of which he had partaken -freely during that meal, and a glass of brandy, imbibed as a -corrective after it, rendered him somewhat blind alike to -consequences, and to foregone conclusions. Thus, on suddenly meeting -Ethel in such a secluded place, he resolved on speaking more openly -of his love to her. - -Had Mrs. Basset survived at this period of our story, there can be -little doubt that she would speedily have relieved Ethel from the -presence and advances of such a lover, despite her husband's -reverence for the memory of "old Tom Hawkshaw, of Lincoln's Inn." As -the matter stood now, the village gossips, at the tap of the "Royal -Oak," the blacksmith's forge, and other rustic resorts, had long -since settled the whole affair. Ethel was the affianced of Morley -Ashton, and poor little Rose was assigned to "the captain with the -red thingumbob cap." - -"'Fortune favours the brave;' 'nothing venture, nothing have.' They -are two old saws; but I must keep them in view, nevertheless," -thought Hawkshaw, as he threw away his cigar and joined Ethel Basset, -on whose cheek there was a charming flush, for the May evening was -warm. She had been walking fast, to learn what tidings the electric -wire had for her and Morley; and the last farewell of an old -cottager, who dwelt by the skirts of the chase, had agitated her. - -The captain opened the trenches by some of the remarks usually made -about the weather, and the beauty of the evening; then he adverted to -his good fortune in meeting her, especially in such a place; how much -he had longed for an opportunity of speaking with her alone, as his -future happiness or misery would be the result--an opportunity that -had not occurred for some time (since Morley Ashton's arrival he -might have said), and so, after sundry awkward pauses, he proceeded -to declare his regard, his esteem, his passion for Ethel. - -She listened to him with considerable annoyance and concern, but -barely slackened her pace as he spoke. - -The extreme self-possession, the quiet manner, the cool and gentle -aspect of Ethel, baffled Hawkshaw, and irritated him so much, that -there were times, when in his self-communings he actually felt a -doubt whether he loved or--hated her! - -And now, while he spoke of love, volubly, but yet with agitation, she -continued to fit on a lemon-coloured kid glove, with provoking care -and accuracy, on her small, pretty hand, and seemed to be fully more -occupied with it than with him. - -The very movements of her hands, the white parting of her smooth, -dark hair--all betokened a placidity which, as he said, mentally, -"served to worry him." Yet Ethel was greatly agitated, though -Hawkshaw's eye had not the acuteness, nor had he the refinement, to -be aware of it. - -"I am deeply grieved to hear all this, Captain Hawkshaw," said she; -"for already you must be assured," she added, in a tremulous -voice--"assured that I cannot love you in return." - -"Now, Ethel, call me Hawkshaw, Cramply, which you will, or anything -you please that is not formal, but do not, for Heaven's sake, speak -so coldly. And so--and so it is quite impossible?" - -"Quite," she said in a low voice. - -"Wherefore? Am I so hideous?" - -"Far from it." - -Hawkshaw was aware of her undisguised preference for Morley Ashton; -and though he knew, or feared what her reply would be, the wine he -had imbibed, or some strange emotion that stirred within his breast, -made him urge the hopeless matter still. - -"Ethel," said he, softly, but through his clenched teeth, and while -his cheek grew pale with suppressed passion; "you will, perhaps, have -the kindness to explain?" - -Trembling with excitement and annoyance, and while tears started to -her eyes, she replied: - -"Explain, sir! Why should I be called upon to explain? You know -well that since I was seventeen I have been engaged--have loved -another." - -"At seventeen, interesting age, a girl is in the first flush of -womanhood," began Hawkshaw, in his sneering tone; "fresh in feeling -and tender in sensibility; the consequence is that, of a necessity, -she falls in love with the first fellow, be he good, bad, or -indifferent, who presents himself." - -"But I did not fall in love, as you phrase it, with the first who -presented himself, any more than I am likely to do with the _last_," -replied Ethel, with an air that now was one of unconcealed annoyance. -"My sister Rose is a girl whom all allow to be charming, and is as -much admired as any in the county, and she has passed seventeen, your -rubicon, your girlish equator, your ideal line, without 'falling in -love' with anyone----" - -"That you know of, Miss Basset," said Hawkshaw, sharply. - -"Rose has no secrets from me, sir!" - -"Do not let us quarrel, for Heaven's sake. I apologise." - -"How tiresome--how impertinent! and yet I dare not tell Morley," -sighed Ethel, in her heart, as she continued to walk very fast; but -Laurel Lodge was a long way off, and the sunlit waste of the chase -stretched for, at least, a mile before them yet. - -Bitterly did she now repent having entrusted Morley with the ring, as -it might lead to some unseemly quarrel between him and Hawkshaw; on -this occasion she had an admirable opportunity for returning it -personally. After a pause: - -"With all this fancied attachment to your first love, I do not think -you very romantic, Ethel," said Hawkshaw. - -"You are right, sir; indeed, I am quite matter-of-fact." - -"_Caramba!_ it is too bad for a charming girl of two-and-twenty to be -so." - -"What right have you to deem me charming, or to assume my age?" asked -Ethel, angrily, and with her eyes now full of tears, which the short -veil of her little hat concealed. - -"I can no more help deeming you so than help admiring the sunshine. -But, ah, Ethel, if I had you where I have been--where the volcanic -mountains of the Sierra Nevada look down on the valley of the -Colorado, I could teach you, or perhaps infuse into your impulsive -nature something of the fire, the romance--the glorious romance--of -Spanish South America." - -"Thank you," replied Ethel, relieved and laughing, when she found -Hawkshaw was indulging in one of his platitudes; "but I would rather -learn it here, amid a sweet English landscape, like this old wooded -chase, than among flaming volcanoes, tawny savages, stinging -mosquitoes, and your old friends, the Barradas." - -"The Barradas!" repeated Hawkshaw, starting, as his eyes flashed with -a gleam of malevolence and alarm; his brows knit, his hands twitched -spasmodically, and he gave Ethel a keen glance of inquiry; for she -had unwittingly touched some hidden spring, some secret sore--or it -might be sorrow. For a moment he looked as if he could have sprang -upon her; but he laughed, and said, with an evident effort at being -jocular: "To return to the subject--to this love of thrilling, -blushing, and susceptible seventeen, which deprives me of you, -occurred five years ago?" - -"And since then I have found no reason to change my mind. Here is -the gate of Miss Page's house, where I wish to call. Good evening, -captain. Her brother Jack will see me home." - -Ethel bowed, left him, and closed the iron gate. - -She was, in reality, full of intense anxiety to learn what tidings -Morley had received by the telegraph from London; but being bored and -worried by Hawkshaw's cool and impudent love-making, she took this -opportunity of quitting him, which, in her nervous haste, she did, -perhaps, rather too abruptly. - -A shower of tears relieved her; but Hawkshaw, as he watched her -figure flitting up the Pages' avenue of lilacs, balsam, poplars, and -giant hollyhocks, bit his nether lip till the blood nearly came, and -his sinister eyes emitted one of their most malevolent gleams. - -"Curse her!" he muttered, hoarsely and deeply, "curse her! She spoke -of the Barradas, too! But I shall crush her proud heart yet--crush -it like a rotten _castano_!" - -Then he turned away towards the seashore, with vengeance burning in -his heart, and had not proceeded a quarter of a mile before he -encountered Morley Ashton, perhaps the last person in the world he -could have wished to meet at such a time, and when in such a bitter -mood. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -MORLEY AND HAWKSHAW. - -A fierce and panther-like spirit swelled up in the breast of Hawkshaw -on seeing his fortunate rival approach. He felt a strong desire to -strangle him, and thus, by one determined stroke, remove him from his -path, and gain revenge on Ethel too! - -He had more than once conceived the idea, in his wilder and more -bitter moods, of giving Morley a _quietus_ of strychnine, or putting -a loaded revolver in his hand, so that it might go off conveniently, -and, to all appearance, unawares; but coroners' inquests often -brought unpleasant things to light, and Morley was completely master -of that ticklish fire-arm, the "six-shooter," as well as himself, and -our Texan captain was far too politic to risk his valuable neck, in -committing an open outrage on the queen's highway in England, -whatever he may have done in his well-beloved Mexico, among the wild -inhabitants of which he had learned the art--no small one -certainly--of veiling alike every purpose, love, hate, or fear, under -a bland and smiling exterior, when it suited his purpose to do so. - -The man he hated most on earth was Morley Ashton, yet he walked up to -him frankly, with a smile in his deep eyes, and on his cruel lip -(though his moustache concealed that), his right hand extended, and a -cigar-case in his left---- - -"A lovely evening, Ashton," said he. "Had a pleasant walk? Have a -weed--eh? Try a cigar?" - -"Thank you--I don't smoke cubas." - -"Do you prefer a regalia?" - -"Thank you, I have some here." - -"_Caramba_! I have smoked them two feet long ere this." - -"In Texas?" - -"Yes." - -"I thought so," replied Morley, laughing. He was in excellent -spirits. A telegram to Acton-Rennel had announced that his cabin -passage to the Isle of France had been secured on board the -_Hermione_, immediately on receipt of his mandate, and added, that a -letter, duly announcing the circumstance, had been posted for Laurel -Lodge. - -"I never received it, Hawkshaw--odd, isn't it?" said Morley; "but it -matters nothing now." - -Hawkshaw gave a bitter smile unnoticed. No wonder that Morley had -never received it, as his quondam friend had found the letter -referred to, in Mr. Basset's post-bag, which hung in the hall, and, -after making himself master of the contents, had quietly put it in -the fire, thinking by delay to create confusion, and, perhaps, -stultify Morley's intentions altogether. - -In his joy, honest, good-hearted Morley felt blandly disposed even to -Hawkshaw, of whom he had such a constitutional mistrust. He had now -an excellent opportunity for returning the ring, with which Ethel -(whom Hawkshaw, incidentally, assured him was from home) had so -unwisely entrusted to him; but in the height of his own satisfaction, -he felt loth to mortify his luckless rival, and so delayed the matter -for a time, while, smoking their cigars, they walked together slowly, -side by side, up the hill, towards the rocks that overhung the sea, -and border on the Yale of Acton. - -"And so, old boy," said Morley to the silent and brooding Hawkshaw, -"I am to go with our dear friends, the Bassets, after all." - -"And what follows?" - -"Of course, I shall have to look about me for some employment the -moment we land, because I would rather die than be dependent on any -man; but when I have the new judge's influence to second my -exertions, something suitable and jolly will be sure to turn up." - -"Ah--yes," accorded the other, smoking vigorously. - -"Then, I shall have all the joy of the voyage with--(Ethel, he had -almost said)--with my old friends the voyage through those very -waters I so recently traversed on my half-hopeless homeward -journey--a most miserable dog in my own estimation. - -Morley, who, in the exuberance of his joy, began to whistle "A Life -on the Ocean Wave," seemed to commune with himself rather than -Hawkshaw, whose sinister visage at this moment presented somewhat of -a picture as he listened. - -"Like you, friend Ashton," said he, "I have failed to climb - - "'The steep ascent where Fortune frowns afar.' - -But I have learnt to fling a bowie-knife, point foremost, with deadly -effect, and to handle a six-shooter ditto, damme--yes, and that is -something." - -Had Morley looked at Hawkshaw as he spoke, he would have seen a -fierce glitter in his usually cunning eyes, betokening mischief. - -"Well," he resumed, "any place is better than this conventional -England. One of the greatest annoyances to me is the state of -society in it; so you are wise to squat elsewhere." - -"Indeed! How?" asked Morley, watching his cigar smoke as it curled -away in the breeze that came from the sea, whose breakers they could -now hear bursting on the rocks. - -"Because that state compels us, as if we wore a vizard--a mask--to -conceal our suspicions, our loves, and our hatreds--yes, Mr. Ashton, -still more especially our hatreds--under a suave and cold-blooded -exterior." - -"The result of good breeding, I presume?" - -"The result of cursed conventionality, I call it. The stronger the -hate, too often, the brighter and softer is the smile that conceals -it. _Maladette_! 'Tis not so in some of the sunny lands where I -have been, and where a little homicide, now and then, is considered -but a casual occurrence." - -The captain was in what Morley and Mr. Basset were wont to term one -of his "bitter and bouncing moods"--moods which rather amused them; -so as this was scarcely a moment in which to proffer the ring, Morley -lit another cigar, and to put off the time until he could meet Ethel, -strolled on till they reached the summit of the cliffs, from whence -could be seen the far extent of the dark blue sea, that stretched -away to the south-west, with the sails that dotted it, shining red, -rather than white, in the ruddy light of the setting sun. There, -too, was visible the smoke of more than one steamer, rolling far -astern, like a long and fading pennant on the sky. - -So the rivals continued to ramble on in no very companionable mood, -for Morley was happy and abstracted, while Hawkshaw was bitter and -quarrelsome, till the deep hoarse booming of the breakers announced -that they were close to Acton Chine, towards which, as if by silent -and tacit consent, they proceeded. - -The evening was lovely, and its calm beauty increased as the sun set -and twilight stole on. - -With the shrill practical whistle of an occasional locomotive on the -London and North-Western line, there came on the breath of the soft -west wind the more poetical tinkling of the waggon-bells from the -dusty highway, in the green vale far down below; and now, though the -placid air rang joyously, the evening chime from the broad, low -Norman spire of Acton church, the solid outline of which stood -defined and dark against the flush of the saffron sky beyond. - -And with the breeze that wafted the sound came the fragrant perfume -of the ripening fields, their warmth and fertility, as if it had -stolen "o'er a bed of violets." Sunk in deepening shadow now, green -Acton Chase, with all its great oaks blending in a mass, stretched -far away in the distance to the foot of the uplands. - -Acton Chine--the reader may perhaps have seen it--is a seam or chasm -in the rocks, rising to the height of four hundred feet or more, -sheer from the sea, whose waves for ever roar, toil, and boil in -snow-white foam against its base. - -Standing where Morley and Hawkshaw did, on the evening in question, -one might say with Edgar, but perhaps more truly than he did of Dover: - - "How fearful - And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low! - The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air, - Show scarce so large as beetles * * * - The murmuring surge, - That on the unnumbered idle pebbles chafes, - Cannot be heard so high. I'll look no more, - Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight - Topple down headlong." - - -There, too, as at Dover, on the dark face of those rocks, the fine -green tufts of the samphire grow. The waves outside the chine are -white as snow with foam and fury, while within the water is calm, -deep, and dark as those of a far-sunk well. - -Above, around, and below, the sea-birds wheel and scream, for the -clefts and crannies of the rocks are full of their nests. And here, -in explanation, we may add that chine is an old Anglo-Norman word, -derived from echine--a gash or rent; and these chasms are so named in -some parts of England, particularly about the Isle of Wight, where we -find Compton Chine, Brook Chine, and the Black Gang Chine. - -Morley peeped over into the awful profundity below, and then shrank -back instinctively, with an emotion of inexpressible alarm and -awe--it seemed so vast, so terrible! - -Retiring, he seated himself on the verge of the giddy cliff and -removed his hat, that the sea-breeze might play on his hot and -flushed forehead. Cool and grateful, it refreshed, soothed, and -calmed him. - -Impressed by the beauty of the scene and of the evening, a calm joy -pervaded Morley's heart, and he prayed a voiceless prayer to God to -strengthen him for his destiny. - -What put prayer into his head at such a time? - -The scene was grandly terrible on one side, and softly serene on the -other; but Morley was familiar with both. - -Was it present happiness, or a solemn foreboding of future woe, that -filled his soul with pious thoughts? - -Morley himself could not tell. He thought of the future; and none -can foresee what is in the womb of Time. - -To be separated from Ethel--ah! there was no chance of that now; but -Hawkshaw--the cunning and hateful Cramply Hawkshaw--for some brief -space would hover about her still! - -What of that? The broad waters of the mighty sea on which he looked, -and whose breakers boiled against the rocks four hundred feet below -him--the sea from which a red moon, round and vast as a -chariot-wheel, was rising--would be around him and Ethel, and this -man Hawkshaw would be left behind. - -While these thoughts occurred to Morley, he opened his portemonnaie, -and drew forth the ring he had promised to return. - -At that moment Hawkshaw, who was seated behind him, crept near, with -a visage pale, damp, and distorted by malevolence, and with a -fiendish glare in his eye. - -* * * * * - -About an hour after this, the captain was seen leisurely proceeding -along the road to Laurel Lodge. - -_He was alone!_ - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -ALARM. - -Darkness had set in, and candles had been lighted for an hour nearly, -when Hawkshaw entered the now half dismantled drawing-room of Laurel -Lodge. - -Rose was idling over the piano; Ethel was seated near the unremoved -tea equipage, and Mr. Basset was busy among some papers in his -escritoire. Hawkshaw, for reasons of his own, dared not encounter -the pale, inquiring face of Ethel. - -"Have you seen anything of Mr. Ashton?" asked her father, looking up, -with one glance at Hawkshaw, and another at the clock on the -mantel-piece. "It is past nine. He was only going to the railway -station, and has not yet returned. His absence is most singular." - -Hawkshaw hesitated, and looked at his watch with a confused air, as -he muttered: - -"Past nine--yes, ten minutes." - -"He was seen to pass the gate with you," said Ethel. - -"With me?" said Hawkshaw, starting. - -"Yes." - -"By whom?" he asked, with some asperity. - -"Nance Folgate," said Rose. - -"Ah--true, yes--we took a turn together; and when I saw him last he -was going towards the chine." - -"The chine!" exclaimed the girls together, in a tone of surprise that -was not unmingled with alarm. - -"The chine, at this hour!" repeated Mr. Basset. - -"It was eight then; and he said he intended to enjoy a quiet weed -along the cliffs." - -"Most strange!" said Ethel, "when he had news of importance to -communicate to me." - -"He cannot be long now. I returned without him, as I felt -odd--giddy; the regalias I sometimes smoke here don't agree with me. -I used to get such prime ones in Mexico." - -"You look pale--absolutely ill," said Mr. Basset; "have some wine. -What is the matter?" - -"Thanks," replied Hawkshaw, almost tottering into a chair, and -tossing his red cap aside. - -"The last bottle of our Cliquot is on the sideboard." - -The cork was soon cut, and Hawkshaw nearly filled a crystal rummer -with the foaming champagne, of which he drank thirstily. As he did -so, his hand trembled, and the vessel was heard to rattle against his -teeth. - -Whence this unusual emotion, which did not escape the anxious eyes of -Ethel. - -"Oh, Heaven!" thought she in her heart, "if he should have quarrelled -with Morley! His manner is so excited, so strange, something -unpleasant--terrible--must have happened." - -Time passed slowly. - -Half-past nine struck, then ten, but there was no appearance of -Morley. Ethel watched at the windows which opened to the lawn; she -listened and lingered at the front door. Then Rose and she ventured -to the foot of the avenue, now lighted by a clear, cold moon, and -gazed down the long green lane, in which she had first met him on his -return; but all was still, not a footfall was heard, nor aught but -the dew dropping from the leaves. - -Far into the darkness and silence stretched the vista of that long -and shady lane, so famed for its wild roses in summer, its filberts -and black brambleberries in autumn, its scarlet hips and haws in -frosty winter--a real old English lane. - -A sound breaks the impressive silence--it is the distant clock of the -village church striking the hour of eleven. - -Anon twelve struck, and no Morley came. - -Ethel wept aloud. Mr. Basset now became seriously alarmed, and -knowing how dangerous was the chine, and indeed, how much so were all -the cliffs along the adjacent coast, he closely questioned Hawkshaw -(who had now become more composed) as to when, where, and how he had -last seen Morley, and his story never varied--that they had separated -at the pathway which ascended upwards from the old London road to -Acton Chine; that Ashton was in high spirits, having had a most -satisfactory telegram from town, and that the speaker, when looking -back, had last seen the outline of his figure between the earth and -the sky on the summit of the rocks above the chine. - -"He must have fallen and hurt himself--broken a bone, perhaps," -suggested Mr. Basset, rising, and proposing to start. - -"Oh, for mercy's sake--papa! papa!" began Ethel. - -"Let us go forth to search--I am at your service!" said Hawkshaw. - -"Nance Folgate, summon the gardener; let us get lanterns--a rope, a -pole or two, so as to be ready for any emergency." - -Pale, trembling, faint, and in tears with apprehension and vague -fears of some impending disaster, Ethel would have accompanied them, -but for the opposition made by her father and Hawkshaw; and with -sickening anxiety, she saw them depart, knowing that some hours must -necessarily elapse before they could bring intelligence that might -relieve her agony or crush her heart for ever. - -Muffled in cloaks and shawls, she and Rose, with old Nance Folgate, -lingered at the end of the avenue, so long as the lantern lights were -visible; and hour after hour, till dawn was drawing near, did they -wait, trembling with every respiration, and listening in an agony of -expectation to every sound, till the shades of night began to pass -away. - -When Mr. Basset, Hawkshaw, and the gardener set out, a little after -twelve, the night had become dark--unusually so for the -season--cloudy and windy. - -They traversed the road leading to that portion of the cliffs on -which Hawkshaw averred he had last seen Morley Ashton lingering in -the twilight. - -Hallooing from time to time, as they continued to ascend the pathway -to the shore, they pushed on rapidly, yet pausing ever and anon to -listen; but there came no response on the gusts of wind that -occasionally swept past them. - -The clock of Acton church in the valley below struck the hour of two, -when they reached the summit of the cliffs, when weird and wild was -the scene around them. Masses of cloud, like dark floating palls, -were hurrying across the heavens; the stars between them shone out -clear and brightly; the ocean, that stretched in distance far away, -and blended with the sky, was flecked with foam, for there was a gale -coming on from the seaward, and the boom of the hurrying waves as -they rolled in white surf against the rock-bound coast, and mingled -their roar with the bellowing wind in that deep and awful chasm, _the -chine_, was terrifically grand and impressive, especially at such an -hour. - -Disturbed by the lantern-lights, and the voices of the three -searchers, the wild sea-birds screamed and wheeled about in flocks. - -The soft close turf grew to the very verge of the shore and wall-like -cliff, and as the searchers proceeded along the giddy summit, seeking -for traces of feet and hallooing from time to time, the utmost -caution was necessary for their own safety. - -Gradually they drew near the chine. - -"Hallo--what is this?" exclaimed Mr. Basset, as he trod on something; -"a hat--and near it, a kid glove." - -They picked them up, and recognised Morley's light grey "wide-awake," -and a glove supposed to be his, all uncertainty about the -first-mentioned article being ended, by their perceiving his name -written on the lining thereof. - -Proceeding with greater care, a little farther on they found his -cigar-case, and a few feet below, near the edge of the cliff, the -ends of two half-used cigars. - -"I told you he was enjoying a quiet weed," said Hawkshaw. - -Mr. Basset and the gardener made no reply; but with eyes and lanterns -close to the ground, were breathlessly examining several footmarks -impressed in the soft gravelly soil and sea grass about the mouth of -the chine. - -"For Heaven's sake, take care, sir," exclaimed the gardener, whom the -scene, the place, the hour, and the awful booming of the black sea in -the profundity four hundred feet below, appalled. "But look here, -sir," he added almost immediately; "oh, sir, look here!" - -Two deep ruts in the gravel, as if formed by a man's foot slipping -downwards, and two places from which the grass had been recently torn -away by hands that had clutched them evidently in despair, showed but -too plainly and too terribly that some one had fallen over there. - -"Look here, captain--look here!" continued the excited gardener. - -Hawkshaw was pale as death, and he drew back with an irrepressible -shudder. - -"Oh, heavens!" exclaimed Mr. Basset, "poor Ethel!--he has fallen over -here, and must have perished--most miserably perished!" - -"Nothing could save him, sir," said the gardener, in a low voice, "he -would be drowned, if he was not dead before he reached the water." - -After lingering hopelessly for a time, as if loth to accept the fact -of such a sudden calamity, they began to descend from the chine, and -slowly and sorrowfully retraced their steps to Laurel Lodge, to -increase by their story the alarm, dismay, and grief, which already -reigned there. - -* * * * * - -In vain were descriptions of Morley Ashton's person and dress -circulated in the local papers, in vain were they distributed among -the rural police, fishermen, and coastguard, by Mr. Basset, during -the few days that remained before he left England. - -In vain were telegrams dispatched along the coast, north and south -(at Mr. Basset's expense), by Hawkshaw, who made himself most -singularly and kindly active; no trace could be found of the missing -one; and after three days had elapsed, there remained not a shadow of -a doubt that he had been drowned by falling or being thrown over the -cliff of the chine. The London detectives who examined the spot were -suspicious enough to aver the latter, from the traces they found, -and, in their opinion, Mr. Basset and Hawkshaw, the latter most -unwillingly, ultimately found themselves compelled to concur. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -POOR ETHEL. - -The day that followed the return of Mr. Basset and Hawkshaw from the -perilous exploration of Acton Chine was one of dreadful suffering for -poor Ethel. - -Kind old Nance Folgate had forced the girls to retire to bed as dawn -was breaking; but no sleep closed the eyes of Ethel Basset. - -Morning came--a bright May morning--and still no word of Morley; for -she could not realise as yet the idea, the dread conviction, of his -death--that he had indeed perished so miserably. - -Oh! was this the world of yesterday? - -Her sister, Rose, weary with watching overnight, was now asleep. -Happy Rose, who could gain oblivion in slumber. Ethel quitted her -restless bed, opened the window, and looked forth into the sunny -morning. - -There was still the garden, with its trees and flowers, the first -rays of the sun shining through the conservatory, a distant glimpse -of the village church through a long vista of oaks, and the blue sea -beyond. There, in the distance, she could trace the road that wound -over the uplands towards that fatal Chine--the road he must have -pursued but yesterday. There also--but tears, hot and blinding, -welled up in her eyes, and she nestled again beside her sleeping and -unconscious sister. - -"Gone! Morley gone--Morley dead--Morley drowned!" - -These words seemed ever on her lips, written in the air before her, -to be whispered in her ears and in her heart, while fancy drew an -agonising picture of his fall from that dreadful cliff into the -yawning profundity below, where he would be tossed and dashed upon -the rocks, till his poor, uncoffined remains were chafed to pieces by -the waves. - -As the lagging day drew on, she did not quit her bed; but, after a -time, total prostration of mind and body enabled her to sleep soundly -and deeply, with her aching head pillowed on the bosom of Rose; while -her father, with Hawkshaw and others, pursued a hopeless and -fruitless search for the missing man. - -This slumber lasted little more than an hour, and waking brought her -back to misery--a misery that flashed upon her vividly, keenly, and -suddenly, calling all her half dormant faculties into instant life -and action. - -It was indeed coming back to agony. - -Vainly did Rose speak to her of hope, that it might not have been he -whom Hawkshaw had watched proceeding towards the Chine, and that the -half-smoked cigars might not have been his. - -"But the hat, with his name written in it, and the glove--his glove, -Rose; see where I sewed it for him yesterday--only yesterday!" she -would exclaim, while pressing it to her lips as she sat up in bed, -with her dark hair all dishevelled about her white and polished -shoulders, pale, worn, and crushed by an anguish there was no -alleviating--for the loss of the poor dear heart, who had loved her -so truly and so tenderly. - -When re-examined by day, the verge of the Chine, by the abrasion of -the soil, bore conclusive evidence that a short struggle had taken -place, and that some one had fallen or been pushed over there. A few -drops of blood were detected on the stones; but of this circumstance -Ethel was not informed. - -"Eat something, Miss Ethel--a bit of cake; take a little tea, a glass -of wine, or anything; you must, darling, you must!" said old Nance -Folgate, pillowing her favourite's head on her breast, towards the -close of this most dreadful day. - -Ethel silently declined, for the smallest crumb would have choked -her; but grief is thirsty, so she drank the wine and water with -gratitude, or rather permitted Rose to pour it between her pale and -passive lips. - -Then a shower of tears followed, and she moaned and sobbed aloud, and -heavily. Another night followed, another day dawned; but no hope -dawned with it, and no tidings came. - -The first shock over, there settled on the mind and soul of Ethel a -deep and settled grief. She ceased to weep, save when alone. For a -time she was reckless of the future, or viewed it with sullen -indifference or composure, none knew which. She cared not how soon -they quitted Laurel Lodge now, nor how soon she saw the shores of -England fade from view, though she thought, with a shudder, of the -ocean which she knew must have entombed the corpse of him she loved -so long and well. - -And Cramply Hawkshaw--how did he comport himself during this painful -crisis? Quietly, earnestly, full of apparent solicitude, ready in -suggestion and active in inquiry. He remained mostly with Rose; but -when Ethel appeared on the evening of the second day in the -dining-room, he was ready, with hand and arm, to attend her politely, -and silently. - -She entered Morley's bed-room, now empty of its tenant. She flung -herself upon the couch in an agony of grief, for the place seemed -full of his presence, and his beloved form appeared to rise up -embodied before her. - -There were his travelling bag; his telescope and flask, his -hair-brushes, a stray glove or so, and a miniature of herself, which -had been the poor fellow's only solace when far away from her in -Africa. There were other mementoes of the beloved one she would -never see more; he whose poor remains, if they were not lying at the -foot of that dreadful Chine, were being, perhaps, swept away to -sea--that sea which, at times, she hoped she might not live to -traverse. - -Here prostrate on the couch she was found by Rose and Nance Folgate, -who conveyed her out, and locked the door. - -This event, by the confusion and anxiety it created, delayed the -departure of the Bassets from Laurel Lodge for a week longer. - -There were times when Ethel wished that she might die, though she -shrank from the idea of being separated from her father and sister, -and from not sharing their perilous journey; but her mother's grave -under the close-clipped grass looked so calm and peaceful in the -sunshine of the old English churchyard, that she almost longed to be -laid by her side. However, as some one says, "Grief rivets the chain -of our life instead of breaking it." So Ethel did not die; but she -fell into a state of languid apathy, which caused her father and -sister the most serious apprehension. - -There were other times, when dreadful thoughts occurred to -Ethel--thoughts that came to her mind unbidden, and that she dared -express to none; but she could not help associating the mysterious -and terrible calamity which had befallen Morley with the idea of -Hawkshaw, his rival. - -She remembered the unusual and unnatural pallor of his cheek, and his -strange excitement on the eventful night; how he complained of -illness; how thirstily he drank of the champagne; and how his hand -shook so that the crystal which contained the wine rattled nervously -against his teeth. - -The thought of his story of the Barranco Secco; of his having too -surely associated in California, and elsewhere, with such men as -Pedro and Zuares Barraddas; and she remembered many episodes of his -Mexican life, which he had incidentally related, and at which, though -she and Rose had been wont to laugh at them, she shuddered now, and -knew not why! - -She perceived, too, that Hawkshaw wore his own ring once more, so -Morley Ashton must have formally returned it to him on that fatal -evening. - -Prior to Morley's final arrangement to accompany them, Ethel had -schooled her little heart to bear the separation, consequent on their -anticipated sea voyage, and change of home, contemplating it as a -sorrow that might have a happy end when brighter fortune smiled upon -them all; but now she had lost him by a separation that would endure -while life lasted. - -The slight tinge of colour which her delicate cheek usually wore -faded completely away. Her eyes lost their brilliant and calm -expression, her lips their wonted smile, her spirits all their -buoyancy. - -Mr. Basset, we have said, saw this with alarm, and by every means in -his power hastened to break up his household, and leave Acton-Rennel. - -His daughter's thoughts were with the dead; but still the living, and -the duties of life, claimed her care. One cannot live in the world -and not be of it; thus, one of her last days spent at pleasant Laurel -Lodge was occupied in paying farewell visits--supported between Rose -and Hawkshaw--to her old pensioners and dependents in the thatched -cottages among those lovely green lanes, that ere long were to know -her footsteps no more, and these old people mingled their blessings -with tearful hopes of her happiness and long life, in the new home to -which she was about to depart. - -On the tenth day after Morley's disappearance she found herself, with -her father, Rose, Hawkshaw, and old Nurse Folgate, seated in a -first-class carriage, speeding along the London and North-Western -line towards the metropolis. - -Laurel Lodge had long since vanished, with its whole locality. - -Steeped in summer haze, the landscape flew past like the wind; but -Ethel was listless. To her it seemed that the purpose of life, the -joy of existence, the romance of love, and the charm of youth, had -all gone for ever. - -Hawkshaw was seated opposite to her. She lowered her veil to conceal -her face; he held the last number of _Punch_ well up to conceal his. - -As Morley had disappeared thus, and beyond all trace, and as his -berth was secured in their ship, the _Hermione_, which was to sail -for the Isle of France, as soon as her cargo was all hoisted in, -Hawkshaw availed himself of the circumstance to go in his place; by -which means this most enterprising Texan officer secured his passage -free. - - - - -CHAPTER XL - -DARKNESS MADE LIGHT. - -We last left Morley Ashton and Hawkshaw seated near the verge of -Acton Chine. - -The former was extracting from his portemonnaie the ring which Ethel -Basset had so unwisely commissioned him to return, and he remained -with it in his hand for a minute or two, forming in his own mind the -least offensive mode of tendering it. At that time the chimes of the -church of Acton-Rennel rung out joyously their closing peal, and the -sound, together with the beauty of the evening, the softness of the -wooded landscape on one hand, and the wild grandeur of the -surf-beaten rocks on the other, were not without a most soothing -influence on the somewhat poetic and imaginative temperament of -Morley, who reflected on the shortness of the time he would be -permitted to look on that familiar scene, and the changes that must -take place ere--if ever--he saw it again. - -He said something of this kind to Hawkshaw, who was alternately -silent or nervously garrulous, adding, with a sad smile-- - -"I never hear the chimes of old Acton, ringing over the woodlands, -without thinking of the lines-- - - "'Those evening bells, those evening bells, - How many a tale their music tells, - Of youth, of home, and native clime, - When last I heard their soothing chime.' - -And then the scenery here about is so glorious, and so thoroughly -English in its character and fertility!" - -"Bah! you don't call this scenery, do you?" asked Hawkshaw, brusquely. - -"Is it not charming?" - -"May be so to you; but to me, who have hunted, scouted, and trapped -over the mighty Sierras, which divide Texas from New Mexico--Sierras -covered to their cloud-clapped summits with forests of oak, pine, and -cedar, and all alive with wild horses and cattle; or to me, who have -seen the yet denser woods out of which the Arkansas and Trinidad -rivers come roaring to the sea, your mild, Dutch-looking, English -landscape, is no more than a rat-ranche would be if compared to St. -Paul's Cathedral?" - -"It must be somewhat dangerous, a land teeming with wild horses and -cattle?" said Morley, to change the subject, and smiling, as he lit a -fresh cigar. - -"Dangerous? _Caramba_! I rather calculate it is!" - -"How?" asked Morley, carelessly. - -"In those mountain ranges are wild trappers, and lawless bandidos, -like those Barradas I told you of one evening--do you remember?" - -"Perfectly." - -"Fellows of all colours--white, black, and brown, yellow, and -copper-coloured--who may be off with your purse and scalp before you -know where you are. Then there are bears, conguars, buffaloes, -panthers, wolves, foxes, and alligators. I was nearly gobbled up by -one when bathing in the Red River. Immortal smash! I had a close -run for it, and only kept him off by splashing and kicking like a -sunfish in a breeze." - -After a pause-- - -"I wish we had the ladies here," said Morley; "the evening is so -lovely--the sunset is so rich." - -"Aye--our Ethel is romantic, very!" observed Hawkshaw; "she rather -likes 'Thaddeus of Warsaw,' and copies verses in a hot-pressed album; -sighs often when alone, no doubt, and always ties the ribbons of her -bonnet in a true-lover's knot." - -Morley looked fixedly at the speaker, for the whole speech, and the -phrase, "our Ethel," displeased him. - -"Mr. Hawkshaw," said he, gravely, "there is something of a sneer in -your tone, which I do not understand." - -"Sneer--not at all. Do you imagine that I would sneer at one so -charming as our friend, Miss Basset--one whom we mutually admire so -much?" replied Hawkshaw; but as he spoke the fire of secret hate -mingled in his eye with that of the admiration, we cannot term it -love, he bore for Ethel. - -"Apropos of Miss Basset," said Morley, now careless whether he -offended or not, "I have here a ring of yours, Captain Hawkshaw, -which she commissioned me to return to you, as, on reflection, she -cannot think of depriving you of so interesting a relic of your -Mexican campaigns." - -"Thank you," replied Hawkshaw, with a quiet stare, as he took the -ring from Morley, and placed it on one of his fingers, even his bushy -moustache failing to conceal the fierce quiver of his upper lip; "I -received it at a ball, from the eldest daughter of General Santa -Anna, and so can well afford to receive it back from a daughter of -old Scriven Basset." - -This was the third or fourth history of the ring Morley had heard; -but he only smiled in silence. - -"You think you have done your duty," resumed the captain, as the -resolution to quarrel became strong in his breast, so strong that he -cared not to repress it; "but I reckon, friend Ashton, that you are -slightly up a tree, as the Yankees say." - -"Sir, I do not understand you," said Morley. - -"I am not so vernal as to fail in perceiving that you are awfully -spooney upon Miss Basset." - -"If I am to construe your slang into meaning that I love her, you are -quite right," replied Morley, coldly, as he rose up. - -"But you cannot think of marrying her, even if old Basset be donkey -enough to let you!" - -"Captain Hawkshaw!" - -"For one who can scarcely float himself, it is thankless work to take -a sinking craft in tow," continued the captain, whose phrases were -quite as often nautical as Mexican. - -"Sir, you are impertinent." - -"_Caramba!_ not at all--but truthful--only truthful," replied -Hawkshaw, with a studied insolence of manner, as he continued to -knock the ashes off his cigar, so that they flew all over Morley's -face. "If I had you in Mexico, I would give you advice more -seriously; as it is, in this tame, stupid land of good order, -coroners' inquests, rural police, and city bluebottles, I must -content myself with what I have said." - -"Stand back, sir, and permit me to pass you!" said Morley, haughtily, -as he found that, on rising, he was unpleasantly near the verge of -the rocks, and that Hawkshaw, with a dark and dangerous gleam in his -eyes, stood menacingly between him and the safer portion of the edge. - -It was at that moment, that unexpectedly as a star falls, or light -flashes, a diabolical idea occurred to Hawkshaw, just as if a fiend, -unseen, was at his ear to whisper and to urge him on. - -A sudden silence seemed to fill the air--to pervade the land and sea. -He ceased to hear the roar of the waves in the Chine below, or the -screaming of the wild sea-birds in mid air. A clamorous ferocity--a -terrible anxiety, seemed to possess his whole soul. - -He cast a hasty glance around him; not a person was near, and no eye -was upon them, save One in heaven, and that dread eye he forgot. He -gave the unsuspecting Morley a dreadful blow with his clenched hand, -and then a violent push. The victim staggered backward, reeled -forward, and as he fell, clutched wildly at the turf which fringed -the edge of the rocks. - -"Oh, Heaven!" burst from his lips; "Hawkshaw--you cannot--you dare -not mean this! Save me--Ethel!" - -The pieces of turf he clutched so desperately gave way, and without a -sound he vanished into the awful profundity below! - -Hawkshaw lingered a moment by the fatal spot, for in that moment all -his senses were paralysed. His breath, his sight, and hearing were -gone, and he felt as one who had ceased to live. - -Then he glanced carefully, fearfully, and stealthily around, to -assure himself again that the dreadful deed he had committed was -unseen by mortal eyes, and anon, turning, he proceeded rapidly to -descend the winding pathway from the Chine, and then sought the road -to Laurel Lodge. - -The minutes spent in descending seemed to be so many hours. His feet -felt as if glued to the dusty path, and his knees trembled under him. -Before he reached the highway the fierce fever of his blood had -cooled, though his heart still beat wildly, and his temples throbbed -painfully. - -There was a revulsion of feeling now, and he began to wish the cruel -deed undone. It was an act so tremendous, so fearful to be -perpetrated among civilised people, that it appalled him more than he -could have expected, though he had witnessed, yes, and acted in many -a deed of cruelty and bloodshed, in climes where the law, unless it -were Lynch law, was unknown even in name. - -The sun had set, and the sombre shadows of evening were deepening on -the land and sea. - -Hawkshaw walked hurriedly, taking a great circuit, that the -perturbation of his spirits might subside a little before he -presented himself at Laurel Lodge; but the throbbing of his temples, -and the leaping of his heart, continued the same as he hastened on; -and now, as the twilight deepened, the trees and shadows began to -take strange and threatening forms, and ever before him he seemed to -see the last despairing glance of Morley's eyes, and in his ears to -hear the rending of the turf as it gave way, with the awful sound of -the poor victim's voice, as with the terror of a dreadful death in -his soul, he so vainly sought the pitiless destroyer to save him. - -In the cool flow of a wayside runnel, he bathed his trembling hands -and flushed forehead. Then he began to consider that, as no one had -seen him commit the act, he need scarcely wish it undone; that he -should dismiss the palsying fear that was gnawing at his heart, for -in time he would strive to forget, as he had forgotten and lived down -many a thing before. - -He had removed a troublesome rival from his path, and fearfully had -he punished Ethel for her rejection of his addresses but two hours or -so before, it now seemed years ago, and for her open preference of -the hapless Morley Ashton; and yet--and yet the emotions of that -man's soul were what no pen can depict. - -The summer moon that rose so broad and redly from the distant sea now -showed her clear, bright, silver disc above the rocks of Acton Chine, -but Hawkshaw dared not look upon her lest he might see murder on her -face, as slowly, with parched lips, pallid cheeks, and trembling -hands, he left the long, green lane, and proceeded up the avenue that -led to Laurel Lodge. - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -ON BOARD THE GOOD SHIP "HERMIONE," OF LONDON. - -Amid the glare, the roar, and bustle of the mighty world of London, -ten days passed away like a painful dream, an unrealisable -phantasmagoria, to Ethel, and like a dream, too, appeared the -embarkation at the crowded docks (which seemed crammed with all the -vessels in the world) one board the _Hermione_, a fine clipper ship -of 500 tons register, which, with all her canvas loose, and blue -peter flying at the fore, was towed down the crowded river by a -puffing, panting, noisy little paddle-tug, which rejoiced in the name -of _Garibaldi_. - -Blackwall, with its docks; noble Greenwich, with its terraces and -domes; Woolwich, where, now and then, a drum beat sharply, or a -cannon boomed through the air, were speedily passed; vast fleets of -merchantmen, crowded river steamers, and lumbering barges, sidling -down with the tide were glided between; each bend of Father Thames -was traversed, and soon the _Hermione_ was off Gravesend so busy as a -watering-place, and ever alive with whistling trains and smoking -steamers, in its noise, bustle, and gaiety contrasting with sombre -Tilbury, on the flat Essex shore, with its brick-faced bastions, -double-ditch, and moat--an old cannon or two lying among the sea -slime, and a solitary sentinel pacing to and fro before King -Charles's Gate. - -At Gravesend, where the _Hermione_ lay for a time, with blue peter -still flying, and her foretopsail loose, as a double signal "for -sea," she was joined by her captain, who came by the down train from -town; the tug was paid off and a pilot taken on board, with the last -of the sea-going stores. - -Then sail was made on the ship, and the sunset of a fine May evening -saw her past Sheerness, with its vast basin, docks, and storehouses, -and the guard-ship at the Nore, which pealed her evening gun across -the silent sea. - -The wind was freshening as the eventful day went down. - -Ethel and Rose, with old Nance Folgate, were all below now, sick and -ill. Mr. Basset and Hawkshaw trod the lee side of the quarter-deck -together. Both were silent. Mr. Basset was gazing sadly at the -shore along which they were running, and anon at the red hulk of the -floating light, which is anchored four miles north-eastward of -Sheerness, and the lamps of which were now twinkling amid the haze -and obscurity far astern. - -Hawkshaw was full of thought, too. He felt a secret joy at being -scatheless and free from England; though, when reflecting, he -thought, in the words of Jane Eyre: "It is not violence that best -overcomes hate, nor vengeance that most certainly heals an injury." - -The _Hermione_, we have said, was a 500-ton ship. She was one of the -finest of her class that ever left the slips at Blackwall, and this -was only her third voyage; thus, in addition to being new, she was -well found and well fitted up in every respect. - -John Phillips, her captain, was a bluff, ruddy-visaged, jolly little -man, with cheeks turned red by exposure to sun and sea-breeze. He -had three mates; the senior, Mr. Samuel Quail, was a plain, honest, -rough seaman, who expected next voyage to have a ship of his own; the -second, Mr. Foster; but the third was Adrian Manfredi, an Italian, a -quiet and rather gentlemanly young man, of whom we shall hear more an -on. - -The _Hermione_ had a surgeon, Leslie Heriot, a Scotsman, of course, -and F.R.C.S.E.; a boatswain, carpenter, blacksmith, and a crew of a -somewhat mingled kind, as we shall have unfortunate cause to show ere -long. She was bound for Singapore, but was to touch at the Isle of -France on her way out. - -Her cabin was handsome and spacious, and little cabins, called -state-rooms, opened off it with sliding doors. - -Ethel, Rose, and Nance Folgate had one of them. Mr. Scriven Basset -and Hawkshaw had the berth opposite. The others were occupied by the -officers of the ship, and all bade fair to form a pleasant little -community during the long voyage before them. - -For two days the _Hermione_ lay at anchor off Deal; on the third day -she put to sea. By this time Ethel and Rose had nearly got what -Captain Phillips bluntly termed "their sea-legs under them," and sat -on the quarter-deck seats after breakfast, well muffled in cloaks; -for though a lovely May sun was shining on the rippling sea, and all -over the fertile coast of Kent, the atmosphere was chill, as the -breeze swept over the watery Downs. - -The day was charming, the wind was fair, and, with everything set -upon her that would draw, even to her topgallant studding-sails -rigged aloft, the _Hermione_ flew before it. - -The chalky cliffs of Kent; Dungeness lighthouse, with its miles of -shingly headland; gay Brighton, with its far extent of sandy bay, -that stretches from Beechy Head to Selsea Hill; the chalky ranges -that look down on the wooded weald of Sussex--were soon passed, and -ere long the cliffs of the Isle of Wight, gilded by the evening sun, -rose on the starboard bow. - -Rose Basset, about whom, attracted by her girlish beauty and -_espièglerie_, the young Scotch surgeon and the Italian mate were -both disposed to hover, asked questions from time to time--those -silly, but, perhaps, natural questions which landfolks will ask on -board ship, which, somehow, did not sound quite so silly when asked -by the rosy lips of such a pretty girl as Rose--while poor Ethel -remained seated in silence, with her eyes fixed on the distant coast, -and wondering how far Laurel Lodge and Acton-Rennel were beyond those -shadowy cliffs of chalk. - -Her reflections or thoughts were all chaos--a mere mass of confusion. -Thus, at times she could scarcely realise where she was, or how she -came to be on board the _Hermione_, whether the journey by rail to -London, her ten days' sojourn there, and her being at present on the -sea, were not all a dream--a protracted nightmare, from which she -would waken and find herself in her familiar bed-room in dear old -Laurel Lodge, which her eyes were never more to see. - -She thought, "How bright the evening sun may be shining on it now; -how gaily down the long leafy vistas of Acton Chase, and on poor -mamma's grave. How little could she have conceived that we should be -so far from it? But the Lodge--ah, others inhabit it now; others -look through the windows and pass through its rooms; others promenade -the gravelled walks and play croquet on its grassy lawn, or cull -flowers in its conservatory. The place that knew us once, knows us -no more; we shall never see it again; never tread its soil, or -breathe its air; never more, never more!" - -Her tears fell, tears that fell hot and fast. - -"Oh, to be with Morley and at rest," she sighed in her heart. "But -then there is papa, poor papa, who loves me so well, and Rose." - -Her father's kind and benevolent face, sweet, ruddy Rose's happy -smile, and the familiar visage of Hawkshaw (who had become exceeding -gentle and attentive), were ever before her. But Laurel Lodge, with -its home life, its elegance, and quiet details, with the face, voice, -image, existence, and loss of Morley Ashton, seemed all to have -passed away to a vast distance from her. - -In a very few days she seemed to have lived a great many years in -thought and suffering. - -"Cheer up, Ethel--permit me to call you so," said Hawkshaw, who had -been silently regarding her sweet, pensive face. "Cheer up," he -repeated, in a low voice; "think of what is before us in the -Mauritius--the lovely Isle of France--the land of Paul and Virginia, -that amiable little Virginia, about whom every lady at least once in -life sheds so many tears, especially when in her early teens. We -must go over all the places depicted by Bernardin St. Pierre in his -novel; the Shaddock Grove, the Mount of Discovery, Cape Misfortune, -and the Bay of the Tomb--eh?" - -"In pity leave me to myself," said Ethel, on whose sensitive ear his -half-jocular voice sounded gratingly. - -"As you please," he muttered, under his breath, with impatience, as -he went to leeward and lit a cigar. - -Next evening Ethel wept again, as she saw the last of England--the -lovely coast of Devon, with all its apple-bowers mellowing in the -sun--fade into a blue streak, that blended with the evening sea. - -Then, for the first time, sea and sky, cloud and water were around -them, and she strove to rouse herself from the apathy that had been -oppressing her faculties, and endeavoured, if she could not speak, at -least to listen to the conversation of others. - -"Our crew are indeed a mixed lot, Mr. Basset," she heard Captain -Phillips say to her father; "mixed in character and in colour; more -like a gang shipped in the Mersey than in London." - -"How so, sir?" asked Mr. Basset. - -"We have Yankees, West Indians, and Mexican Spaniards--some of these -last are the worst of the lot." - -"Been a good many years in Mexico, Captain Phillips," said Hawkshaw, -assuming a jaunty air. - -"Have you?" - -"Yes, and should like to see some of your fellows." - -"They are quarrelsome, I presume," observed Mr. Basset. - -"Very, and very apt to use their knives. Keep her away a point or -two to the southward, Ellerton," said he to the man at the wheel. -"Mr. Quail, desire the watch to bring those lee braces more aft." - -"They should be restricted in the use of such weapons as -sheath-knives, by law," said Mr. Basset, emphatically, and thinking, -perhaps, of his judge's wig, which he had been recently trying on. - -"So they should, sir, but the law seldom reaches far into blue water, -unless so be as a Queen's pennant is floating over it. Do you see -that fellow out upon the arm of the mainyard just now?" - -"Ah!--what is he perched up there for?--amusement?" asked Mr. Basset. - -"He is busy securing the eye of the stun'sail boom." - -"Well, captain?" - -"To my mind, he is the very model of a pirate." - -They all looked up, and saw a large-boned, powerful, athletic, -dark-skinned, and black-whiskered fellow, clad in a red shirt, and a -pair of remarkably dirty canvas trousers, secured about his waist by -a black belt, in which a long sheath-knife was stuck. - -He was astride the yard-arm; the bronze-like soles of his muscular -bare feet were turned towards the group, and, as the captain said, he -was doing something to the studding-sail boom. - -"A foreigner, I presume, by the rings in his ears," said Mr. Basset, -with his hands thrust into the pockets of his ample white waistcoat. - -"A Mexican Spaniard," said Captain Phillips; "we have two of them on -board, brothers, and a pretty pair of rascals they are. But there -goes the steward's bell for tea, ladies; Miss Basset, may I have the -pleasure of taking you below? She's running on a wind now, and will -be pretty steady. Doctor Heriot, oblige me by doing the attentive to -Miss Rose." - -The young surgeon (whom the captain's request was meant to quiz) -hastened, smilingly, to proffer his arm as directed, and the whole -party, including Quail, the first mate, Manfredi, the third (as the -second had charge of the deck), descended to the cabin, where Rose -did the honours of the captain's tea-table, for Ethel was still too -weak or too listless to do so. - -The last to leave the deck was Cramply Hawkshaw. As he turned to -descend, he looked up at the Spanish seaman, whose outline and dark -profile were clearly defined against the sky. - -"'Tis Pedro Barradas," he muttered; "confusion and a curse! the -Barradas here." - -His face was white as that of the dead--white as on the fatal evening -when he entered Laurel Lodge; and he seemed scarcely to know what he -was doing, as with one of his stealthy glances cast around, he -descended to the cabin, from which he did not issue for the remainder -of that night. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -ACTON CHINE. - -More than three weeks have now elapsed since that eventful evening -which saw Hawkshaw and Morley Ashton ascending the steep pathway that -leads to Acton Chine, and which, moreover, saw the first-named -personage traversing the same path homeward--but _alone_. - -Though Morley was flung over the cliff, and though the turf which he -grasped gave way, so that he actually fell into the yawning gulf -below, he was not fated to perish. - -But before the turf parted in his despairing grasp, poor Morley lived -a lifetime, as it were, of keen agony. - -He knew the profundity of the awful abyss that yawned in blackness -far down beneath him, and he heard the roaring of the fierce waves, -that leaped and boiled as if impatient of their prey. - -The chine we have stated as being about 400 feet in height; its -depth, to the bottom of the sea, we have no means of knowing, the -foundation of its rocks being far below where mortal eye can fathom. - -After the name of Ethel escaped him, he had no power to utter another -cry, for the terrible expression which he read in the malignant face -of Hawkshaw, while standing safely on the brink above, paralysed him, -and he remained silent--but silently desperate, in his wild and -despairing attempts to raise himself up, and to regain a footing on -the cliff; but he had no purchase (to use a mechanical term); thus, -while clinging by his hands, his feet and knees scraped fruitlessly -on the hard face of the basaltic rocks. - -Mechanically, too, he moved his body, as one who, in sleep, dreams, -and is afraid of falling. - -He felt the turf rending, the last clutch of life parting, by the -very efforts he made to save it. Then a blindness seemed to come -upon him--a mist, through which the form of Hawkshaw seemed dilated -to colossal proportions, towering between him and the sky like a -destroying angel, while the roaring of the sea beneath seemed to fill -all space, as with the roll of thunder. - -Bead-drops of agony oozed upon his icy brow, while despair and the -terror of death were in his heart, and though the whole episode -lasted little more, perhaps, than a single minute, Morley Ashton -lived, as we have stated, _a lifetime of agony_! - -The turf gave way! a sigh--it seemed his parting soul--escaped him; -_he fell_, and vanished from the eyes of Hawkshaw. - -But Heaven had ordained that the poor lad was not to perish. About -thirty-five, perhaps forty feet below the verge of the chine, there -extends a ledge or abutting piece of rock, about five feet broad, and -eight or ten feet long, so far as the eye may judge of it from the -seaward, as mortal hand has never measured it; and on this natural -shelf he fell heavily, and almost senseless by emotion and the shock. - -A thick coarse moss, of a kind that has grown there for ages, mingled -with a species of guano deposited by the sea-birds, received him -softly, and broke the force of his fall, which, had the face of the -basalt been bare, must have produced the most fatal injuries. - -For some time Morley thought all was over, and he lay still--half -stunned alike by the shock and by the suddenness of the whole event. -Then his heart filled with a gush of gratitude to Heaven that he was -saved, till reflection brought a thrill of horror that he was now -utterly lost. - -He heard still the ceaseless roaring and bellowing of the breakers, -gurgling, sucking, and surging in the chine; he heard also the wild -screaming of the sea-birds above and below him, as the astonished -gulls and cormorants wheeled in circles, or alighted on the shelf of -rock beside him, and flapped their wings with a sharp and at times -booming sound. - -The evening passed away, and night came on before Morley dared to -stir, to move, or look about him. In all its starry splendour, he -could see the Plough and the glorious stream of the Milky Way. - -Then the moon, that whilom rose as we have said, red and round as a -crimson shield, at the far verge of the watery horizon, had gradually -reached almost to the zenith, when her disc, small and sharply -defined, shone like a ball of glowing silver amid the sparkling ether. - -A broad flake of her glorious sheen poured aslant into the gaping -chine, increasing, perhaps, its weird and ghastly aspect; but this -broad stream of light enabled poor Morley to examine the place of his -fall, and he soon saw in all their details the horrors of his -hopeless situation. - -Above, the rock ascended sheer as a wall to the height we have -stated--a wall up which it was hopeless to think of climbing. - -Below, the cliff receded from the ledge on which he lay, so that in -reality the sea was foaming completely beneath him. - -From the land-side his position could neither be seen nor even -discovered in any way whatever; and even if it were so, in what way -were the finders to succour him? - -How many ships might pass before even a sailor's ready eye might -detect a human figure perched so far up, among the hungry cormorants -and shrieking sea-mews? - -Without shelter, food, or water, how long could he survive on the -giddy shelf of that storm-beaten sea-cliff, where he dared not close -an eye lest he might roll into eternity below? - -To ascend was impracticable; to descend was to die! - -How awful it was to see the white sea-birds skimming the ocean with -wings outspread, or floating in the air, and know that they were more -than 300 feet below him! - -If descried by the crew of a fisher-boat, the idea occurred to him of -risking a plunge into the water: but from this desperate thought his -heart recoiled at once. To fall whizzing through the air from such a -height would insure his falling breathless into the sea, so that its -waves would close over him when his lungs were empty, and he would -never rise again. - -Days might pass, and nights would certainly pass, during which no eye -could see him, save those of the sea-birds that wheeled in circles -round him, as if impatient of their repast, from which his apparent -life and power of action--as he "who-whooped" from time to time to -scare them--as yet denied their craving beaks and bills, but only as -yet, for he anticipated with horror a time when, faint and expiring, -they might pounce down in one voracious flock and rend him piecemeal. - -And thus Ethel, life, hope, and the world, were all cut off from him -at one fell swoop, by a single blow of Hawkshaw's felon hand. - -Conquered, powerless, and crushed by the united horrors of his -situation; unseen, unknown, left to die within a pistol-shot of help, -within forty feet of safety, he cowered his face between his knees, -and murmuring, "Oh, villain! villain!" he wept like a child. - -So the breakers continued to boom, so sickening in their monotony, -far down below, and the night passed on. Morley strove to pray, but -his mind was a chaos; he could neither thank Heaven for his first -escape, nor implore aid for the future. For a time he was stupefied. - -So the wild sea-birds--the black-billed auk, the mouse-coloured -guillemot, the huge white gull, the rank, coarse cormorant, whose -shape Milton describes Satan as assuming, when devising death, he -perched upon the Tree of Life--continued to wheel and scream around -the miserable Morley, who remained on his lofty perch in an agony of -spirit. - -The sea ebbed and flowed again; the moon paled and waned; the clouds -gathered in heaven and divided again. Day stole over the brightening -ocean, and gradually a bright May morning--the same morning when, -creeping from Rose's side, the weeping Ethel drew the curtains of her -window, and looked forth upon the upland path that led to this fatal -spot. - -The morning star twinkled brightly and propitiously above the edge of -the chine, and then its light faded into radiance of the growing dawn. - -And with day came hope, that if he was doomed to die it might not be -unseen. Morley wiped his damp brow and eyes with his handkerchief, -for though the season was summer, the atmosphere was damp and chill -upon the cliff above the sea. - -He heard once the voice of a lark, but it was high above him. - -From the place where he sat, Morley's eye could command a range of -about eight miles of sea, and as the day dawned he anxiously swept -the offing, but in vain; nothing was visible, but what the Ancient -Mariner saw, "the sea and sky, the sea and sky," till about sunrise, -when a white sail and the smoke of a steamer, both hull down, could -be seen at the horizon, some thirty miles off; thus, so far as -succour was concerned, they might as well have been beyond the -equator. - -Fourteen hours had he now been missing. - -What would be the emotions, the bewilderment, the grief of -Ethel?--what the specious, the artful, it might be the villainous -story framed by Hawkshaw to account for his disappearance? It might -be one that would blast his character, blacken his memory, and sever -even her love from him. - -Was not a murderer capable of anything? - -Now a fisher-boat, brown and tarry, with a patched lugsail, of no -particular hue, bellying out in the fresh morning breeze, with the -snow-white foam bubbling under her sharp prow, shot into sight about -two miles off. - -Morley shouted, though he might have saved himself the trouble, for -the two men who formed her crew could no more have heard him than if -he had been in the moon; but he could not repress the impulse that -made him halloo to them again and again. - -He waved his white handkerchief frantically. If observed, it would -seem but a sea-bird's wing at such a distance; but the two black -specks in the fishing-boat were seated with their backs to the shore, -one intent upon handling his tiller, the other grasped the sheet, and -both were enjoying their pipes and gazing seaward; so the boat, with -her bellying sail, and foam-dripping prow, passed on, and Morley -remained still unseen and alone. - -Other three boats passed, under a press of sail, towards the fishing -ground; but they were far off--so far that he scarcely made any -attempt to signal them. - -He felt no hunger; but now a thirst, which he had no means of -allaying, and which the saline property of the atmosphere tended to -increase, came upon him to add to his troubles and misery of mind and -body. - -Now a steamer passed, bound for Ireland, or the Isle of Man. - -She was nearly ten miles off; but in the hope some idling tourist or -passenger might be scanning the coast with a telescope or lorgnette, -he continued, with anxious vigour, to wave his handkerchief, but -waved it in vain, for she sped on her course and rapidly disappeared, -though the long, smoky pennant, emitted by her funnel, lingered for -hours across the sky before it melted into thin air and passed away. - -And still the angry waves boomed below, and the greedy sea-birds -wheeled and screamed around him. How he longed for wings like the -latter! - -"Oh, Heaven!" he exclaimed, "aid, inspire, and sustain me for a -little time, or let me perish at once, and end this day of horror!" - -More than once, he actually conceived the idea of endeavouring to -lure a couple of gulls within his grasp, and then to plunge into the -sea, in the hope that their flapping and outspread pinions might -break the force of his descent; and once safely in the ocean, he knew -that he could swim round the chine, and reach the level beach that -lies about a quarter of a mile to the westward of it. - -But he might as well have hoped to catch the distant clouds or the -hues of the rainbow, as those wild gulls and gannets. - -So the weary day passed on, and, with horror, he contemplated the -prospects of another night of hopeless watching, of sleeplessness and -thirst, for he dared not close his eyes, even for a moment, lest -drowsiness should come upon him, when he might topple from his perch -into the eternity that yawned below. - -The rising wind moaned in the chine, and waved the tufts of samphire -below, and those of the grass forty feet above his head. - -The sun was verging to the westward. The breeze, which had been soft -and mild all day, changed, and blew keenly against the cliff, rolling -the sea in billows before it; and now, about six o'clock in the -evening, so far as Morley could judge--as his watch had been broken -in his fall--a smart, square-rigged vessel--a ship, as he soon -perceived--lying as near the wind as she could, on a long starboard -tack, came gradually near the shore. - -When she first hove in sight she might have been six miles off, but -was running steadily towards the chine. - -Morley knew that she would come within half a mile, or less, of the -coast, without going about or shortening sail, as the water was so -deep; so he resolved not to miss this chance of life and rescue! - -To have a larger signal than his handkerchief, he drew off his white -shirt, and, holding it by the sleeves, permitted the whole garment to -wave out like a banner on the wind. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -THE RESCUE. - -On came the beautiful ship, with all her white canvas shining in the -setting sun. Her deck, on which, from his fearful perch, Morley -could look completely down, was spotless, and her crew seemed -pigmies, herself a toy, but one, nevertheless, instinct with life, as -she flew before the breeze, careening gracefully over, with the white -foam curling under the bows, and sweeping past her counter, to form a -long grey wake in the green sea astern. - -Frantically Morley waved his impromptu banner, his signal of -distress; and long he continued to do so, bathed in perspiration, and -enduring an agony of hope and anxiety, before he could perceive the -crew hastening to the bows, the forecastle bitts, and some ascending -into the fore-rigging, as if to have a better look at him. - -"Hurrah! and blessed be God, they have seen me!" he exclaimed. - -At that moment up went the scarlet ensign to the gaff-peak, from -whence it was dipped once, and hoisted again, as a signal that he had -been observed. - -On she comes; and now she is about half a mile distant from the rocks -of Acton Chine. A man is heaving the lead in the fore-chains, but no -soundings are there for more than forty fathoms; and borne over the -water, and upward through the ambient air, the words of command came -clearly to Morley's excited ear. - -Now the headsails shiver, heavily flap the jib, forestaysail, and -foretopmast-staysail, round swings the main and maintopsail yards -sharp to windward, and now she lies to, with her broadside to the -shore. - -A quarter-boat is lowered; six men--Morley can count them--drop into -her; something is thrown in, Morley knows not what, but a telescope -would have revealed that it is a coil of stout rope. - -Now the oars are shipped. Bravo! she is shoved off, and the dripping -blades flash in the last rays of the setting sun, as she darts from -the ship's side, and sweeps round the promontory, and out of sight, -towards the little cove, where Morley knew there was a landing-place -and little strip of white sand. - -Morley waited nearly an hour--it seemed an age--after this. The ship -still lay off the rocky shore, rolling heavily on the ground -swell--so heavily, that the cracking flap of her loose canvas reached -his ear sometimes. Once the mainyard was slued round, and sail was -made on her for a little way, as if she had been drifted by wind and -current rather too close in shore; but again the yard was backed, -and, as before, she lay to, motionless and still. - -The sun had gone down, dusk was stealing over the land, and the warm -saffron flush that bathed the western sea and sky became obscured by -masses of copper-coloured clouds. - -Morley's heart beat wildly; he listened, but heard only the boom of -the eternal breakers in the horrid grave that yawned below, and the -screaming of the sea-birds around him. - -Suddenly he heard a cheer--the mingled shout of several voices--ring -in mid-air above him. Oh, how his poor heart bounded at the sound! - -He looked upward, as he had done a hundred times before, but saw -nothing, save the impending rock, for a time, till suddenly something -appeared to swing over it, between him and the sky. - -Down it came, and soon he grasped it, and the rope to which it was -attached. - -Wrapped round with a seaman's neckerchief, it proved to be a pint -bottle, with a memorandum, written in pencil, twisted round the neck. - -"_Take a pull at the bottle, to give you strength, and lash the line -round you; tie the knot well, for your life depends on it. Then pass -up the word to hoist away, and never fear but we shall pull you up._" - -Such were the directions pencilled on the scrap of paper. - -With a sigh of joy and gratitude, Morley, faint, weary, and trembling -in every limb and every nerve, uncorked the bottle, which contained -brandy-grog--stiff half-and-half. As directed, he took a hearty -"pull" thereat, for strength and coolness were alike necessary now. - -He then cast the bottle into the profundity below. No sound followed -its descent: and the fall of a sixty-four-pound shot would have -caused none there. - -He tied the rope round his body, under the arm-pits, but with -considerable difficulty, as his hands trembled like aspen leaves. - -"All ready? heave away!" he shouted. - -After a time the rope was tightened from above; a few sharp tugs -followed, as if those who sought to save him wished to assure -themselves that all was secure below. - -Then followed the familiar "Yeo-heo!" of merchant seamen when pulling -together, and Morley felt his scalp bristling as he was lifted off -his feet and swung into mid-air. - -The hated ledge of rock--hated, though, but for its lucky -intervention, he must long ago have "slept the sleep that knows no -waking"--receded below him, and he was dragged up the face of the -bluff so speedily that all his care was requisite, by the use of -hands and feet, to save his face and knees from being bruised and -torn. - -At last he reached the verge--that awful verge, close to where the -tufts of grass had parted in his seeming death-grasp. Here a -stoppage, a trivial delay, occurred; Morley was too blind and giddy -to know why or wherefore, but he was not without fear that the knot -his feeble hands had tied might break loose, or that the chafed cord -might part, here, as it were, upon the threshold of the world and a -new lease of existence; nor did he feel secure until he felt himself -grasped bodily by the strong hands of several sturdy seamen, dragged -in, as it were, and landed like a huge fish on the grass. Pale, -panting, weak, weary, and becoming breathless, he fainted outright. - -"Here's a coil, mate," said one of the seamen. "The poor fellow has -gone right off into a swound, and is as useless as a wet swab." - -"What's to be done now, Mr. Morrison?" asked another. - -"We can't leave him, dying, it may be, of starvation," replied the -seaman addressed--one in authority, apparently, and who spoke English -correctly, but with a Scottish accent. "No house is nearer than -yonder hamlet. He is well rigged, and don't look like a poor -samphire gatherer, after all. How the dickens did he get up or get -down there, unless on a grey gull's back?" - -"Take a leg and an arm, Bill. Heave ahead. We must get him down -from this 'tarnal steep bluff, somehow." - -And, carrying Morley as carefully as they could, the seamen, who were -six in number, proceeded downwards by the narrow path which led to -the beach. - -So intent had these worthy fellows been on their humane operations, -that they had completely failed to observe how the dense clouds had -been banking up to seaward; how the waves were curling up, white and -frothy, and how the wind was freshening, till it swept the -spoon-drift off each foaming crest, into the trough between; or how -the ship had doused her royals, and handed her topgallant-sails, to -make all snug for the coming blast. - -"We have not a moment to lose," said Morrison, the mate. "It is -almost dark already, lads--very dark for a May night. A breeze in -shore is coming on fast. Let's be off to the ship without delay." - -"But this poor fellow, sir." - -"Can't be left to die upon the beach. It would be clear murder, -mates." - -"Let us take him aboard with us, and send him ashore with the first -in-shore craft we overhaul after he gets his sea-legs." - -"In, in! Here comes the gale! Out oars! Shove off!" - -And thus Morley Ashton, still insensible, or completely stupefied and -passive, in three minutes more was speeding over the rising waves, as -fast as six oars could bear him, towards the unknown ship. - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -AN OLD SHIPMATE. - -For twenty-four hours after he was on board, Morley Ashton was -alternately faint and delirious. His nervous system had been -overstrained, and thus, for a time, he knew not where he was, by whom -rescued, or by whom surrounded, and, at times, he still fancied -himself on his awful perch above Acton Chine, and still in his ears -he seemed to hear the roar of the waves and the screaming of the -sea-birds. - -Meanwhile a heavy gale had sprung up, and the ship which sheltered -him had been compelled to stand off to sea, pursuing her course -south-south-west, and thus the land had vanished astern some seven -hours before Morley recovered complete consciousness, and began to -look curiously and inquiringly around him. - -Was he in a dream? - -Whence the strange and not unfamiliar odour of new paint and tar, and -the close atmosphere, so undeniably that of a ship's cabin? Then -there were the creaking of timbers, the jarring of all sorts of -things, the swaying to and fro of a chained lamp, of a brass -tell-tale compass, that swung in the skylight--the swaying, also, of -berth-curtains on brass rods and rings, the rattle of racks and -plates and dishes in an open locker, the clatter of blocks on deck, -and the gurgling wash of water against the outer sheathing, with the -jolting of the rudder, and the rasping of its chains. - -Aided by the gleams of uncertain radiance that came down the square -skylight, and sometimes with prismatic hues through the yokes that -were inserted in the planking of the deck, Morley looked around him, -and became assured, beyond a doubt, that he was a-bed in the cabin of -a ship under sail, and in no dream at all. - -At that moment footsteps were heard descending the companion ladder, -and a seaman, muffled in a storm jacket and sou'-wester, both of -which were shining with salt spray, approached the berth in which -Morley lay. - -"Bartelot--Tom Bartelot! old friend and school-fellow," he exclaimed, -with bewilderment, "where on earth did you come from?" - -"Not from among the clouds and gulls, as you did, Morley," replied -the other, laughing. - -"And so--so you are beside me!" - -"Of course I am, and right glad to see you again, Ashton; but this is -a queer business of yours, old fellow." - -"How?--why?--where am I?" - -"Aboard my ship, to be sure." - -"Then I have had fever again, and have never been at home; have never -seen Ethel! Have never been thrown into Acton Chine! I have had -dreams, Tom--oh, such dreams!" - -"I rather think you have, Morley." - -"How mad I must have been, and such queer things I must have said. -Did I speak about the Bassets and the Isle of France? I would have -sworn that I had seen Ethel, had spoken to her, and--and kissed her -many times. Dear Ethel! And so we are still on board your brig in -the Bonny River?" - -"Now, what are you talking about? You are most awfully at sea, in -more ways than one!" exclaimed Bartelot, thrusting his hands deep -into his trousers pockets, and regarding Morley with great surprise. -"My poor chum, Ashton, you are not aboard my old brig, the _Rattler_, -of Liverpool, at Foche Point, with the yellow flag--the sign of -fever--flying at the foremasthead, but aboard of my new ship, the -_Princess_, of London, of 300 tons register (we won't say what -burden) and Al at Lloyd's, bound for Rio de Janeiro, with a mixed -cargo, and now about eighty miles off the Land's End and Cape -Cornwall." - -"Tom, Tom, how you bewilder me," groaned Morley. - -"We are just clearing St. George's Channel with a glorious -breeze--quite aft--though it will soon be upon the starboard quarter, -I fear. So now, my boy, tell me how the deuce you came to be perched -up aloft among the gulls and gannets on yonder rocks? A most fearful -place it is, and a world of trouble it cost my first mate, Bill -Morrison, to get you towed up in safety." - -The silence almost of stupefaction succeeded this information, and -some time elapsed before Morley could understand or realise the truth -of it. - -Meanwhile, let us describe Captain Thomas Bartelot, of the ship -_Princess_, of London. - -He had a free, open, jovial, and merry expression, a fresh and ruddy -complexion, a pleasant voice, and a very winning manner. He was a -stout, rather gentlemanly man, about ten years older than Morley, but -more muscular, better developed, and thicker, especially about the -arms, the biceps whereof indicated that he had been used to a good -deal of pulling and hauling in his time. He had on a glazed -sou'-wester, the strings and ear-laps of which he untied, and a -storm-jacket of tarred canvas, secured by horn-buttons, of which -attire he now proceeded to disencumber himself, for on deck the -weather had been rough, and the spray was flying in showers of foam -over the catheads, occasionally over the quarter, and he "had just -left the ship in charge of Morrison," he said, "and come below for -the double purpose of seeing how Morley was getting on, and procuring -a caulker from the steward's locker." After a pause, during which -time the said "caulker" was imbibed from a square case-bottle: "When -you were brought on board, Morley, by Morrison and the boat's crew, I -was so surprised at recognising you," said Bartelot, "that I scarcely -knew whether my head or heels were on the deck. You were in a -death-like faint, or I would have sent you ashore again. The night -was fast becoming dark, and the weather foul. We couldn't keep -dodging about the coast, as Admiral Fitzroy had telegraphed, 'Gales -of wind expected from all quarters;' so I resolved to give the land a -wide berth (lucky it was for you that we hugged it so close!) and -stood off to sea. I am sorry for that, Morley, but I couldn't help -it, old boy; insurance brokers, ship agents, and owners won't stand -trifling nowadays, so console yourself that it was no worse. You -couldn't have fallen into better hands than Tom Bartelot, eh? Look -there," he continued, pointing to a small yellow map of Britain, -framed and glazed on the bulkhead, and having all the coast -surrounded by little black spots. "Each of these spots, Morley, -marks a wreck of last year. It is the 'Wreck Chart,' published by -the Life-boat Institution, and it shows quite enough of black spots -in the Bristol Channel to warrant me in getting out to sea; and -somehow, to my mind, we have had three gales now for one we used to -have before Admiral Fitzroy took to telegraphing about his south and -north cones, storm-drums, and what not. Old Gawthrop, one of our -men, swears he whistles up the very gales he telegraphs. But speak, -Morley, why don't you say something? Am I to have all the talking to -myself?" - -"Oh, Tom, I owe my life to you." - -"To Bill Morrison, rather." - -"Who is he?" - -"My Scotch mate." - -"But this adventure, and my being taken off to sea, I know not -whither----" - -"Rio de Janeiro, I told you." - -"It ruins my prospects for ever!" - -"Sorry to hear you say so; but we'll put you aboard the first -homeward-bound craft we overhaul. Till then, you are heartily -welcome to swing your hammock in my cabin, and to share our junk and -grog." - -"Thanks, thanks, old fellow; but a homeward-bound ship will avail me -little." - -"The deuce!--would you wish to swim or fly?" - -"Unless I could be landed near Acton-Rennel, and within a week, it -matters not where I am; for Ethel Basset, if she lives--survives my -supposed loss--don't laugh in that way, Tom, please--must be, like -myself----" - -"How--where?" - -"Upon the sea." - -"Drink this," said Bartelot, handing him a tumbler of wine-and-water; -"and now tell me all about this matter, for I own to being rather -curious about it." - -Morley related his story briefly and rapidly. - -"My berth was secured and paid for on board the _Hermione_, of -London." - -"I know the craft well, and jolly Jack Phillips, her captain, too," -said Bartelot; "a fine old fellow he is, and your friends are in -capital hands." - -"I was to have sailed with them for the Isle of France," said Morley, -in a voice like a groan; "sailed once more in search of fortune--the -blind jade! Ah, Tom, the Romans were right when they depicted her as -a woman, for she has much to do in the happiness or misery of man." - -"Is that the wine or water talking now?" asked Tom, supplying himself -with another measure, nautically named "a caulker," from the -before-mentioned square case-bottle. - -"Don't chaff me, Tom, for mine is an evil destiny." - -"Oh, bother! don't talk of destiny, like a fellow in tights, with a -broad-brimmed tile, addressing the lustre, or the footlights, at the -Surrey. Every man who has a steady heart--a heart, mind you, that -don't yaw even when the wind is foul--and keeps a strong hand on the -tiller of perseverance, is the maker of his own destiny. I learned -that long ago, before I knew the mizzen-top from a marlin-spike. -This spirit will make a man go right before the wind, through even -Hamlet's 'sea of troubles,' and never heed the waves or breakers -thereof." - -"Why, Tom," said Morley, with a sad smile, "you are a regular -salt-water preacher." - -"A philosopher if you will; but no preacher--oh, d----n it, I haven't -come to that. I suppose that piratical beggar--what's his name?" - -"Hawkshaw--Cramply Hawkshaw," replied Morley, through his clenched -teeth. - -"I suppose he will consider you quite a gone 'coon, as the Yankees -say; but you must haul up for the Mauritius (if we can find a ship -for thence at Rio, which is not very likely) and have the fellow -exposed, tried, and punished as he deserves." - -"Punished! how know I that ere I can reach the Mauritius, penniless -as I am----" - -"Penniless! You young swab, don't you know that you can command my -purse--no great matter certainly--to the last farthing?" - -"Thanks, my dear Bartelot." - -"Well, as you were about to say, before you may reach the -Mauritius----" - -"He may be--he may be----" - -"What?" - -"The husband of Ethel Basset." - -"Whe-e-e-uh!" whistled Tom Bartelot. - -"How can I foresee what one so subtle, so daring, so reckless as -Hawkshaw may achieve!" - -"Well, drink your wine-and-water; remain quiet in the meantime. You -may keep all your night watches below if you like, and, till you -regain your strength, content yourself with exercise by day--a -Dutchman's promenade, three steps and overboard, eh?" - -There was a pause, during which Morley sighed deeply. - -"Cheer up, Morley," said jolly Tom Bartelot; "look firmly ahead, and -boldly face the little spray and black scud of misfortune. Pursue -your present way contented for some time at least, with confidence -and hope, and never look astern. It is no use, as nothing ever comes -that way, either for good or for evil. It would be a poor love that -won't outlast a sea voyage, however long it might be, and if Miss -Basset forgets you----" - -"Forgets me--agony! Tom, she may be made to believe that I have -deserted her." - -"Impossible!" - -"That I have been murdered, then!" - -"Hawkshaw would not tell upon himself, surely?" - -"That I fell over the cliff and was drowned!" - -"Ah--that would be a likely tale enough." - -"I know not what specious tale the villain may form to deceive Ethel -and her father," continued Morley, impetuously. - -"When at Rio, write to her all about it." - -"Write! By the ship that bore my letter, I would fly to her." - -"I should prefer sailing; but every man to his taste. In another day -or so, according to your own showing, she will be upon the sea!" - -"True--true, and with that wretch, most probably," said Morley, -relapsing into wretchedness, and striking his forehead with his hand. - -"Come, come," urged Bartelot, patting him on the shoulder, "turn out -and take a sniff of the breeze on deck. Another glass of wine first; -drink and be jolly, man. What says the old song? for it is an old -song of Captain Topham's, and none of mine, be assured! - - "'You bid me my jovial companions forsake, - The joys of a rural recess to partake; - With you, my good friend, I'll retreat to the vine, - Its shelter be yours, but its nectar be mine; - For each 'twill a separate pleasure produce, - You cool in its shade, while I glow with its juice; - For own no delight with his rapture can vie, - Who always is drinking, yet always is dry.'" - - -"Many a night have we sung that together when in the Bonny River, on -board the dear old _Rattler_," said Morley, listening with pleasure -to the song which Bartelot trolled forth with a fine mellow voice. - -"Ah!--the _Rattler_," said Bartelot, sighing; "they broke her up for -firewood--think of that. I sent my old mother at Liverpool a table -made out of her timber." - -"Go ahead, Tom--finish your song." - -"Ah, there is life in the old dog yet, I see," replied Bartelot as he -resumed: - - "'The lover (that's you, Morley) may talk of his flames - and his darts, - His judgment of eyes and his conquest of hearts; - May smile with the wanton, and sport with the gay, - Enjoy when he can and desert when he may; - Yet the warmest adherents of love must deplore - That its favours when tasted are favours no more; - Then how can such joys with his ecstasy vie, - Who always is drinking, yet always is dry?'" - - -As Tom concluded (he was not a bit of a toper, as we shall show ere -long, though he sang so bacchanalian a ditty), the sunlight died -away, the cabin became gloomy, the rolling of the ship and the noise -on deck increased. - -"The gale freshens," said he, "and the glass is falling fast. We -shall have the wind blowing great guns to-night, so we must close our -shutters, as I once heard a lubber call them. Don't you remember, -Mr. de Vavasour Spout, the Cockney supercargo? Steward, pass the -word to Mr. Morrison to have the dead lights shipped. I must be off -to the deck, Morley, and have some more cloth taken off her--send -down the topgallant yards, get the lumber out of the tops, and bend -the trysail aft." - -Morley was too feeble to leave his berth for that night, especially -as the _Princess_ encountered a heavy gale of wind. - -He could slumber, but his dreams were wild, and disturbed by starts, -visions, and memories of all he had undergone; and every thought of -Acton Chine and its horrors caused a shudder to pass through his -frame. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -UNDER THE TROPIC OF CAPRICORN. - -Next morning, when Morley ventured up, everything was dripping wet; -on deck and aloft all bore cheerless evidence of a rough night that -had passed. - -The _Princess_ had but little canvas spread, for the sea was rising -still; the fore, main, and mizzen topsails were taken off her, and -ere long she was speeding before the wind and sea under a -close-reefed foresail and storm staysail. - -Morrison, one of the most powerful men on board, with another grim -old seaman, named Noah Gawthrop, whose weather-beaten visage -resembled nothing on land or sea but a knot on a gnarled oak tree, -were at the wheel, and it was with the utmost difficulty they could -keep the helm, so heavily did breaker after breaker poop the ship. - -Though heavy, the wind was fair for the _Princess_, but it bore her -away from the shores of Britain, was Morley's first and regretful -idea. - -No other craft was in sight, and the gray sky imparted an opaque tint -to the dark and tumbling sea, which seemed to follow her -brine-dripping sides, as swiftly she darted on, at times cleaving -asunder, or riding across, the long rolling mountains of water that -burst in hissing showers over the varnished bowsprit and gilded -catheads, over the iron windlass and forecastle bitts, and after -drenching the cowering watch, poured away through the scuppers to -leeward as the buoyant ship rose on each successive wave, like a -gallant sea-bird trussing her pinions. - -Amid that waste of waters, no living thing was visible from the deck, -save a brown flock of Mother Carey's chickens, the stormy petrels, -tripping with outspread wings up the slope of one wave and down the -slope of another. - -Though accustomed to the sea, by his past voyaging, Morley gazed -around him with a bewildered air. He addressed something--he knew -not what--to the men at the wheel, but the Scotch mate was too full -of anxiety about his steering to reply, and, as for Mr. Noah -Gawthrop, he heard the remark with stolid indifference, and -expectorated vociferously to leeward. - -The bronzed face and keen gray eyes of the Scotchman were turned -alternately to the leech of the close-reefed foresail, the bellying -of the storm staysail, and the compass-box, while his feet were -planted firmly on the deck-grating, and his weather-beaten hands -grasped the wheel like his shipmate on the other side. - -Neither of these men ever spoke to each other. Instinct and skill -taught them simultaneously and mutually when to keep her full and by, -when to let her yaw, or when to let her ship a sea. - -Wearied with toil, and the double watching of the past night, Captain -Bartelot was asleep in his damp clothes on the cabin-locker. So noon -passed away, and still the _Princess_ flew on through mist and spray, -under her close-reefed foresail and storm staysail. - -Another vessel, similarly stripped of canvas, flew past them on the -opposite tack, and, like a spectre, disappeared in the wrack and -gloom; but, anon, the wind and sea went gradually down together, the -clouds burst asunder, and the sun came joyously forth. - -The gale gradually abated to a fine spanking breeze, the mainsail was -set, and the reefs shaken out of the foresail; topsail after topsail -were hoisted and sheeted home. Then followed the studding-sails and -royals, and the _Princess_, with everything on her that "would draw," -swept out into the waters of the mighty Atlantic. - -A lovely evening followed, and a rosy sunset, but not a ship was in -sight, and Morley now calculated that they must be more than 200 -miles from land. - -"By Jove, this is excellent!" exclaimed Tom Bartelot, lounging back -in his chair, after a late dinner (for on this day the cook's fire -had been washed out of the caboose); "how happy I am to have you -here, Morley. Confess, old fellow, that you couldn't have fallen -into better hands." - -"I do confess it most willingly; but, my dear old friend, I must be -set on shore, if possible, at the first opportunity. I have Hawkshaw -to punish, and Ethel to save from the insult of his presence." - -"On shore, with the breeze blowing thus--the Scilly Isles more than -150 miles astern, and not a sail in sight." - -"But, Ethel--the Bassets--what will they think of my sudden -disappearance? What story may that rascal tell them?" - -"Nothing that you can't unsay by-and-bye." - -"Unsay when it may be too late." - -"Too late!" - -"And to have Ethel left in the power, or rather, subjected to the -wiles and addresses of one so cruel, so artful." - -"Tut, tut, if she would slip from her moorings by the old man's side, -to sail in company with a rascally pirate, she's not worth much, -friend Morley, and certainly not worth regretting." - -"Ethel shall judge what I have suffered, by what she is suffering -herself." - -"Try some of that brandy-and-water, and don't get into the doldrums. -Light a cheroot--there's a box of capital ones on the locker behind -you. Have patience; in a few months at farthest----" - -"Months! You talk to me of patience, Tom, as if you had never seen -me practise it." - -"In what way?" - -"Have you forgotten when I was broiling, for a pittance, on the Bonny -river? how I toiled, worked, aye, slaved, and cheered myself with the -thoughts of Ethel Basset, and an English home? For three years I had -patience, amid adversity and illness. Heaven knows how I got through -those three years, Tom." - -"Just as you shall get over the three months that must pass before -you reach the Mauritius after visiting Rio." - -"Well, I returned, as I have told you, to find that her future home -was to be elsewhere than in England; that we were to be separated, -perhaps, hopelessly; that I had a rival, too, a kinsman, a _protégé_ -of her father's, a son of a certain Tom Hawkshaw, of Lincoln's Inn--a -fellow without honour, honesty, money, or scruple." - -"I'd like to give him a dip at the end of a deep-sea line." - -"Sail, homeward-bound, on the weather-bow!" reported Morrison, one -morning, a few days after this. - -Morley's heart leaped, and he rushed on deck to look at the -stranger--a smart bark, close-hauled, with all her starboard-tacks -aboard. She was evidently a foreigner, being painted a pale -pea-green. - -"A Baltic craft, I take her to be," said Morrison. "Here she comes, -running sharp on a wind, with a bone in her teeth." - -"A bone?" repeated Morley. - -"Yes; the spray flying under her cutwater, and over her catheads. -Don't you remember the fun we used to have with De Vavasour Spout, -the cockney supercargo, when talking all manner of nautical rubbish -to him. Morrison, run up our ensign; lay the mainyard to the mast; -steward, hand up the trumpet, we'll overhaul her." - -The orders were promptly obeyed; the stranger also backed his -mainyard, and showed his ensign--black and white. - -"Prussian," said Morrison. - -"Bound for the Elbe," added Bartelot, whose hail was answered in a -hoarse dissonance, that made even Noah Gawthrop's grim visage relax -with a smile, as he sent the debris of his quid to leeward, and -anathematised foreigners in general, and their Hugos in particular, -while each vessel stood off on her course again. - -"No chance for you, Morley," said Bartelot, "so we'll give it up and -think no more about it." - -Ten days elapsed after this, and, in all that space never once did -the _Princess_ come within hail of a homeward-bound ship, so Morley -strove to resign himself to his fate. - -"Rio de Janeiro be it," said he. - -He took his watch with the rest of the crew, and endeavoured to make -the time pass; but weary, weary was his lot for days and weeks--days -and weeks of mental suffering, during which he fretted, chafed, and -loathed, at times, the floating prison which bore him away, almost -hopelessly, from the watery path which he now concluded Ethel must be -traversing--she, due southward, towards the sun; and he, -south-westward, towards the land of fire. - -It is an age of swift postal arrangements, of telegrams, magnetic and -electric, but nothing could avail Morley there on the wide, wide sea; -the appliances of modern science were there as nugatory and of as -little avail as in the days when Columbus ploughed the same waters in -search of the western world--he had nothing to console him save -patience and hope. - -She might be dying of grief for his loss, for people sometimes do die -of grief, though, pardon me for the heresy, fair reader, people -seldom die for love; and, unless assisted by some good genii or -spirits of the air, Morley was powerless, and without the means of -acquainting her that he was safe, alive, well, and had miraculously -escaped a most foul and deliberate attempt to assassinate him. - -So, weary were the days and more weary the nights, while the swift -ship flew on, making a most prosperous voyage towards a clime of -sunnier skies and brighter seas than those of England; but, weary -though it seemed, and insufferably slow, the time passed, -nevertheless. - -Each day the sun grew hotter and rose higher overhead. - -The Line was passed; Father Neptune came on board in all the -splendour of oakum wig, tar, and yellow ochre; and Morley, having -crossed the Line before, escaped being shaved with a hoop and bathed -in salt water, though old Noah Gawthrop, who personated the god of -the ocean, and Morrison, who personated Amphitrite, the mother of -Triton, had some very waggish views respecting him. And now the -atmosphere was hot, indeed. - -"When I was last at Rio," said old Noah, whose voice, like worthy Tom -Pipes's, had "a cadence like that of an east wind singing through a -cranny"--"the crabs and winkles were roasted in their shells upon the -shore." - -The winds continued favourable; the _Princess_ steadily held her -course, and the day on which they would probably see Rio Janeiro was -already confidently spoken of by Tom Bartelot and his first mate, -Bill Morrison, for both were practical seamen, and holders of -first-class certificates. - -Though a grave and stern man, and one deeply imbued with many of the -northern superstitions of his country, with a few--but luckily a very -few--of its theological whim-whams, Morrison became a great friend of -Morley, and, though a believer in mysterious lights, warnings, and -presentiments, in second sight, second hearing, and so forth, he was -remarkably well informed, well educated, and spoke Latin, and more -than one European language fluently. - -His face was browned by long exposure to every climate in the world; -he had faced all the dangers of the deep, and their name is legion; -he was hardy, tough, and athletic, and, being at times -conversational, he learned from Morley, long ere the voyage was over, -the whole history of his love, rivalry, and adventures. - -"Take heart, young gentleman," said he, as they kept their watch -together on a lovely moonlight night, when drawing near the tropic of -Capricorn; "when I was a bairn at home, my mother (God bless her puir -auld body!) aye taught me that 'the ways o' Providence were dark and -intricate, perplexed wi' mazes and distressed wi' errors,' and I have -seen but little reason to alter my opinion in manhood, or as I grow -aulder in the horn, as we say in Scotland. But something tells me -that you will bring this rascally piccaroon up wi' a round turn yet." - -"But Miss Basset?" - -"If _she_ countenanced him," interrupted the Scotchman, turning his -keen gray eyes and knitted brows to Morley, "why, then, I say, e'en -let her go with a flowing sheet." - -"Which means----" - -"That you'll be well free of so unseaworthy a craft." - -So, at this period of their story, the loved and the loving, Morley -Ashton and Ethel Basset, are both traversing the same mighty ocean. -Morley knew that, if Ethel lived, she would now inevitably be sailing -for the Isle of France; but she, alas! believed that her lover was no -more, and lost to her indeed for ever! - -Will they ever meet more? - -They may meet peacefully and happily again, never to separate; or, it -may be, that they shall be united never more on this side of the -grave, for both are now upon the sea, and the perils encountered by -those who go down into the great deep and see the wonders -thereof--wreck, storm, fire, mutiny, piracy, and famine--may be the -lot of one or of both. - -The wheel of fortune turns, and anon we shall see! - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -SECOND HEARING. - -The Scotch mate, Morrison, spun many a strange yarn to Morley, when -together they kept their watches at night under the glorious radiance -of a tropical moon, when the vast sea shone like a silver flood, over -which the _Princess_ glided before the trade wind, with all her -canvas, topsails, and topgallant sails set. - -"When falling over those rocks, on which we found you, Ashton," said -he, on one of those occasions, "did you utter any person's name?" - -"Not that I remember of--why?" asked Morley, with surprise. - -"Because--I have known of such things--_that_ person might have heard -your cry, however far distant." - -"I do not understand." - -"I mean on the principle, or rather the theory, of polarity. In the -terror and despair of such a moment, your thoughts would flash, or -rush to some one whom you loved--say Miss Basset--who became the -recipient of the force, the hearer of your cry, by that faculty which -is called in some countries _second hearing_." - -Morley, though he coloured at Ethel's name, smiled, for he knew that -this was another of Morrison's strange theories. - -"I never heard of an instance of this," said he; "have you?" - -"I shall tell you," replied Morrison; "but, perhaps, you won't -believe me?" - -"Why?" - -"Because you English are so sceptical about the mystic, generally." - -"I shall try, however." - -"When I was third mate of the _Queen of Scots_, a clipper ship of -Aberdeen, on a voyage home from Memel, we encountered in the North -Sea a dreadful gale from the westward. We stripped the ship of -everything, until at length we hove her to under a close-reefed -main-topsail. - -"The night was dark--black as pitch, as the saying is; the sea white -as snow with foam, and the wind blew as if the clerk of the weather -was determined to blow his last. - -"The captain was on deck, holding on by the weather mizzen rattlings -by one hand, while the other held his speaking trumpet. - -"'Away! forward! Morrison,' he shouted to me, 'and see the -flying-jib stowed,' for somehow it had got loose. - -"It was a perilous duty to perform at such a time, and in such a wild -night. So, being loth to order a man for it, I undertook the task -myself. - -"I _felt_ my way, like a man in the dark, along the wet and slippery -bowsprit, which one moment seemed tilted up in the air, and the next -went surging, cap under, in the seething trough of the sea, when the -bows of the _Queen_ plunged down. Then I felt as if my heart was in -my mouth, for I was but a young sailor, and thought of what would -come of poor old mother and dad at home, if I should perish, and -there would be no share of my wages to get monthly from our owners. - -"At that moment I planted my feet on the leeward foot-rope, and -nearly fell into the world of waters that yawned and whirled below. - -"In my fall I caught a rope, and swung at the end of it, like a -salmon grilse at the end of a line. - -"None spoke to me, lest even to suggest anything might cost me my -life, and none could aid me, for I was beyond the ship altogether. -My shipmates seemed paralysed by the same peril that filled my own -heart with despair and dread of death. I was but a youth; so the -exclamation, 'God help me, mother!' escaped me, and was swept away by -the howling wind. - -"At length, favoured by a lurch of the ship, I somehow regained my -footing on the bowsprit, stowed the jib in its netting, crept along -the dripping spar, and regained the deck, where the men crowded round -me with congratulations on my escape; for, had I remained even one -moment longer among the foot-ropes, I should never have been seen -again, as thrice in succession, with awful rapidity, the ship went -forward, plunging bows and bowsprit under the sea with such force, -that the starboard cathead and all our headrails were swept away. - -"Well, sir, at that very hour--aye, at that very moment--my poor old -mother, who was a-bed and asleep in her cottage by the Don, was -awakened by a voice, which, with true maternal instinct and terror, -she knew to be mine, crying as if in agony, and from a vast -distance--'God help me, mother!' - -"In the still and silent night, it rang dreadfully in her startled -ears, and in her anxious heart. She roused her neighbours, and -declared--poor auld body--with loud lamentations, that her dear -Willie, her sailor laddie, her only bairn, was drowned; but it was -only my thoughts that had rushed homeward, and she had received them -in her sleep. - -"It was, indeed, my voice she had heard, swept--He who holds the -great deep in the hollow of his hand alone knows how--over the wide, -roaring waste of the North Sea, and she never ceased to mourn for me, -till our ship was signalled off the Girdleness, and all reported safe -on board." - -As Morley was neither so superstitious nor so deeply read as his -Scotch friend, and consequently was ignorant of Dr. Ennemoser's queer -theory of polarity, he could only listen in silence, as this was only -one of many anecdotes such as Morrison was wont to beguile the -watches of the night with. - -At the time he fell over the cliff, and clutched the turf at -Hawkshaw's feet, the name of "Ethel" escaped him, as we have related; -but Morley had no recollection of the circumstance, and though at -that dread moment his very soul seemed to fly to her, no warning -voice came to poor Ethel's ear, so, in this instance, the first -mate's theory was at fault. - -"How steadily the trade wind holds," said he. "Watch, ahoy there, -forward! set the royals and top-gallant studding-sails, and up with -the flying jib--quick, lads, rouse it out of the netting, and hoist -away." - -These orders were promptly obeyed, and faster flew the _Princess_ -through the phosphorescent water, which seemed to smoke under her -counter, and gleamed in millions of sparks in the long wake, that -could be traced astern for miles upon the moonlit sea. - -"I have sometimes wondered, Mr. Ashton, what would be the emotions of -a murderer, at such a moment as that I endured, when clinging among -the hamper of the wet bowsprit, on that night in the North Sea, or -when in any similar peril," observed the mate, recurring to his -anecdote, as they trod to and fro. - -"His emotions would be anything but enviable. That man, Hawkshaw, -must feel himself a deliberate and cold-blooded assassin, and I -frequently wonder how he comforts himself." - -"I should not like to go to sea with that fellow," said the mate; "no -ship that has a murderer on board can reach its destination in -safety, or at least without accident." - -"Another of your theories, I hope; but pray don't say so," said -Morley, thinking of the Bassets; "yet he was only an assassin in -intent--not fact. Moreover, he may not be on board the _Hermione_ at -all." - -"Will you be surprised if I tell you that I was once accused of -murder?" asked Morrison, turning his grave, grim Scotch face with a -smile to Morley; "aye, and marooned, too, as one, though innocent as -the babe that is unborn. It is a queer yarn, so I don't mind telling -it to you. - -"Before I shipped aboard the _Queen of Scots_, I was a foremast man -of a Peterhead whaler that was bound for a fishing trip to the north. - -"Off the Noss-head, a rocky bluff on the south of Sinclair's Bay, and -which has a dry cavern in it always full of seals, we encountered a -tremendous storm, which carried away our flying jib-boom snapping it -like a clay pipe right off at the cap; at the same time we lost our -long-boat with all our live stock; so, amid whirlwinds of foam, we -ran round Stromo, hauled up for Thurso Bay, and came to anchor under -the lee of the land in Scrabster Roads to refit. - -"Our skipper ordered another long-boat from old Magnus Sigurdson, a -boat-builder at Scrabster, who had a fine one nearly complete, and -ready on the stocks in his yard, and which, for certain reasons of -his own, he was remarkably anxious to get rid of at almost any price. -Thus, ere she was brought aboard and lashed to the boat-chocks -amidships, strange stories concerning her preached the ears of our -crew, when drinking in the public-houses of Thurso. - -"It would seem that when old Magnus, his wife and family were a-bed -at night, they were roused by the sound of a hammer knocking at the -sides of the boat in the building-yard; then came the clinking, as of -nails being driven into her planks, with other noises, so exactly -like those made by Magnus when at his daily work, that his gudewife, -Alie Sigurdson, had some difficulty in believing that he was in bed -beside her. - -"'Perhaps it is some idle callants amusing themselves among the -chips,' said Magnus, on the third night, and tried to sleep; but -louder grew the hammering; so at last he leaped from his bed, dressed -himself, and went forth to the yard. But no one was there; the -strange sounds had ceased; the night was starry and still, and he -only heard the hollow booming of those great billows that roll for -ever, in snow-white mountains, over the Kirkebb, against the rocks of -the Bishop's Castle, the cliffs of Pennyland, and the piers of -Thurso: for there three vast currents meet from the German, the -Atlantic, and the Northern oceans. - -"All the family of old Sigurdson heard the hammering, night after -night, while the boat remained on the stocks, and the sound thereof -made his poor bairns cower and nestle in the recesses of their box -beds with affright; yet not a mark could be seen upon its ribs, -thwarts, or sheathing, even after she was painted. - -"At last the boat was upon rollers, and ready to be run to the beach. - -"On that night the din of hammers in the yard of Magnus Sigurdson -exceeded any that had ever rung there before. Quicker, thicker, -faster than ten smiths' hammers ringing upon as many anvils, rang the -strokes, and the old man listened with fear and trembling. - -"Bible in hand, he crept forth at last. - -"Still there was nothing to be seen, save the unlucky boat standing -on its props in the broad moonlight; but in the lulls or intervals of -the breakers that rolled upon the distant beach, he heard moans of -distress, sighs of fatigue, and faint mutterings, which seemed to -proceed from the boat itself. - -"Such was the history of our new longboat, a story still current in -the north of Scotland; and such was the craft in which I found myself -at midnight, alone amid the North Sea, marooned and abandoned by my -shipmates on a charge of murder. - -"You may imagine what I felt in such a situation. - -"Despising the stories that were current concerning the boat, our -skipper had it shipped, paid Magnus Sigurdson his money, and we -sailed from Scrabster Roads for the whale fishery. Four days after -we were becalmed in the North Sea, some fifty miles or so beyond the -Skaw of Unst. - -"Day succeeded day, night succeeded night, and there came no wind. -Around us--strange it was in such a latitude--the sea seemed like -oil, so still, so glassy and waveless. Loose in its brails, the -canvas flapped against the masts and yards; and now, when too late, -the men whispered anew, and murmured about the bewitched boat of -Magnus Sigurdson. - -"At the far horizon we more than once saw craft passing under easy -sail, but the breeze that bore them on never reached us. - -"From murmuring, the crew became clamorous; so, yielding to their -entreaties, and being perhaps a little impressed or scared himself, -our skipper ordered the mysterious boat to be shoved overboard and -cast adrift; and heavily, with a thundering plunge, she fell -bow-foremost into the glassy sea; but by that power of attraction -which larger bodies possess over smaller in the water, she lay close -to the ship, and jarred there with every roll she gave on the long -oily ridges that swelled up from time to time. - -"Three days followed, and still no wind. - -"In vain the captain whistled and consulted the dog-vane; in vain the -first mate blew up a feather, and cast bits of burnt wood over the -side, to watch which way the stream went. - -"Some urged that we should sink the boat by scuttling her; but at -last Harold Trasnaldson, an old Orkney whaler, red-faced and -yellow-bearded, from the Isle of Stronsay, said, openly: - -"'This will never do, mates; there's one aboard of us with human -blood upon his hands, and the mark of Cain upon his brow, though we -can see neither. So here this ship will float, mayhap, till -doomsday, for who ever heard of such a calm in these seas?' - -"So, in five minutes after this, we were all casting lots at the -capstan-head. - -"Three times we drew, and three times the fatal lot fell upon me. - -"Denial, threats, and entreaty were alike vain. I was roughly -hustled overboard into the enchanted boat. Two biscuits, a bottle of -water, and an oar were given me, and I was peremptorily ordered to -shove off and scull to a distance from the ship, which I was supposed -to pollute by my vicinity, and was mockingly desired to keep company -with Mother Gary and her chickens, Mr. David Jones, and the Flying -Dutchman. - -"With a heart bursting with mortification, rage, and many real and -imaginary fears, I sculled the heavy boat away from the ship, and, -strange to say, in ten minutes after I felt a coolness in the air and -saw a catspaw on the water. Gradually it freshened. A breeze -came--a breeze at last! - -"The sails of the whaler filled; topsails and courses were sheeted -home; up went jib and spanker; the ocean began to ripple under her -bluff, iron-plated bows, and the crew gave me a cheer of derision, -while my poor heart died within me, as she stood away upon her course -to the whaling-ground, and ere the sun set, had disappeared, leaving -me alone upon the gloomy North Sea. - -"I shall never forget, Mr. Ashton, the horror of feeling myself -marooned in such a craft, and under such an accusation; and such is -the power of imagination, that, as the boat rolled and lurched on the -waves of the dark and midnight sea, I almost fancied that I could -see, between me and the stars, while crouching in the bow-thwarts, a -huge shadowy figure, like the Spirit of Destruction, which haunted -the boat of Ronald of the Perfect Hand. - -"But when day dawned I saw the rocks of Balta, the most eastern of -the Shetland Isles, shining redly at the horizon, and soon after I -was picked up by the _Thorson_, a Danish galliot, bound for Leith, -where I was safely landed a few days after." - -"And the whaler?" - -"She and her crew were never heard of again. So whether she had -really a breaker of the commandments on board, or whether the boat of -old Magnus Sigurdson, of Scrabster, wrought the mischief, I cannot -say. I only spin the yarn as it occurred to me. Strike the bell -there, Gawthrop." - -"Aye, aye, sir," growled old Noah, who had been dozing astride the -spanker-boom. - -"Call the next watch; it is Captain Bartelot's, and now, Mr. Ashton, -'tis time for you and I to leave the deck, and turn in." - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -RIO DE JANEIRO. - -On a gorgeous tropical morning, when the _Princess_ was nearing her -destined port, and when Morrison declared that already he could see -the "land-blink" in the sky, Morley watched with some interest the -result of what is termed in nautical astronomy, "taking a sight," or -"making an observation," by noting the altitude of any heavenly body, -in order to estimate the latitude and longitude. - -"What is the time?" asked Bartelot. - -"Twelve, sir, by the sun," replied Morrison. - -"And by the chronometer?" - -"Twelve." - -"Then bring me the correct latitude, while I calculate the longitude. -I have had a capital sight to-day." - -He then relinquished the quadrant, and proceeded, compass in hand, to -"prick off," as the sailors term it, the ship's place upon the chart. - -Looking the while at a large chart of the Southern and Northern -Atlantic, Morley asked: - -"Where should a vessel, bound for the Mauritius, be now, if she left -London at the same time I said the _Hermione_ would sail?" - -"Always the same thought, Morley?" said Bartelot, looking up with a -smile. - -"Well, Tom?" - -"If winds are fair, and all went well"--at these words Morley gave a -sigh of anxiety--"she should now be here, about St. Helena, or a few -miles to the southward, and off the African coast." - -"And we are how far from that?" - -"Farther than I should like to fly, Morley." - -Poor Morley sighed again, and looked eagerly at the chart; thereon, -by three spans of his hand, he could compass the world of waters that -lay between him and Ethel Basset. - -On the 6th July, the _Princess_ was in latitude 19 deg. 57 min. -south; longitude, 37 deg. 48 min. west; and Cabo Frio (or the cold -cape of South America) bore about forty-five miles to the westward. - -They were drawing very near Rio de Janeiro, and many ships bound for -the same quarter were in sight daily. - -The trade-wind continued steady and fine; Morley looked with keen -interest on the ships that veered from time to time in sight. Among -them all, might be one that would have a freight for the Isle of -France. - -To search for such was to be his first object and occupation on -landing; and worthy Tom Bartelot assured him that money should not be -wanting to further his double purpose of joining Ethel and punishing -Cramply Hawkshaw. - -"But, ah, Tom," said he, on one occasion, "how, or when, is a poor -devil such as I to repay you?" - -"Think of that when the time comes," said Tom, laughing. - -About 10 A.M., on the morning of the 9th, the look-out man, old Noah -Gawthrop, who was in the forecrosstrees, sung out, in his queer voice: - -"Land a-head!" - -"Where away?" asked Morrison, jumping off the companion seat. - -"Land on the starboard bow, sir," added Noah. - -Morley's heart leaped at the sound, and the telescopes of Bartelot -and Morrison were speedily levelled in the direction indicated. - -"It should be Cabo Frio," said the Scotchman. - -"And Cabo Frio it is!" added Bartelot, emphatically. "Look, Morley, -that is the great headland on the coast of Brazil." - -"It was there the _Thetis_ frigate was wrecked in 1830," added -Morrison; "she had lost her reckoning, on a dark December night, and -was borne more than twenty-four miles to leeward by the current." - -"Then we shall see Rio to-night?" said Morley. - -"No, no; Rio lies sixty-four miles beyond the Ilha de Cabo Frio--the -cold cape, rather a misnomer in this season, at least," replied the -mate. - -"Steward, bring up the case-bottle; let the men forward have each a -tot of grog, while we'll have a glass below on the head of this." - -"Head of what, Tom?" asked Morley. - -"Scenting the land, to be sure," replied Bartelot, as the three -descended to the cabin. - -"You are a clever seaman, Tom, and have made the land to a minute, at -the time you foretold a week ago." - -Bartelot laughed, and said: - -"Father wanted me to go into the navy, where he said I was certain to -shine, as I never was out of scrapes and turmoils at school and at -home; but I had no ambition. What does old Topham's song end with?" -and pouring out his grog, Bartelot began to sing: - - "'Ambition, they tell me, has charms for us all, - But well I'm convinced they are charms that must pall; - The pageant of splendour may lure for a while, - But soon we grow sick of its weight and its toil; - Nor can it compare with us, Morley, my boy, - Whose appetites strengthen the more we enjoy. - Then deign ye, kind powers! with this wish to comply-- - May I always be drinking, yet always be dry!'" - - -After the long voyage, sixty-four miles from the Cabo to Rio seemed a -trifle to Morley. He strove to be thankful and content in his heart, -that the first portion of his watery pilgrimage was nearly -accomplished, and that he had now attained what was rather more than -the beginning of a future end. - -By 5 P.M. they were within seven miles of the land, and the rocky -Cabo, a vast insular mass of granite, which terminates a long range -of mountains, was glowing redly in the light of the Brazilian sun. -The highest summit there has an altitude of more than 1,500 feet; the -sea and sky around were both serene and beautiful. - -The water possessed a strangely pure and crystalline aspect; so much -so, that at times the bed, or what appeared to be the bed of the -ocean, was visible, but this was only the flowers of the sea. - -Long and mysterious plants (the _Nereocystis_), which, with a stem no -thicker than a spunyarn, grow from their roots in the deep bed of the -ocean to the length of 300 feet and more, and have at their upper end -a huge bulbous-shaped vesicle, filled with air, which floats upon the -surface, or near it, and from this bulb there springs a thick crown -of dusky leaves. - -These tremendous marine vegetables are more commonly found on the -north-western than on the eastern shores of America, but many are to -be seen at times off the coast of the southern continent. - -Elsewhere Morley's eye could discern masses of rock or coral reefs, -that rose to within fifty or sixty feet of the surface, showing a -freight of shellfish, sea-anemones, wondrous creeping things, and -fibrous tufts of giant seaweed. - -But the scene changed with tropical rapidity, when with midnight -there came on sudden black squalls, with heavy rain, deep hoarse -thunder, and vivid red lightning, that seemed to flash and play about -the granite summits of the Cabo Frio with a brilliance that eclipsed -the gleam of its lighthouse, which marks now where our frigate, the -_Thetis_, perished. - -Bartelot reefed his fore and mizzen topsails; but when the weather -faired he shook out the reefs again. He set his main -topgallant-sail, mainsail, and jib, and the rising sun that gilded -the mountains which bound the plain of the Corcovada saw the -_Princess_ running fair into the lovely bay of Rio de Janeiro, with -the British ensign flying at the peak, her private colours at the -foremast-head. - -Now were heard the rattle of the chain-cables, as they were hauled up -from the tier, laid along the decks in French-fake, that is, in lines -all clear, and bent to the working anchor. - -The harbour of Rio, one of the finest in the world in size and form, -stretches twenty nautical miles inland, widening to the breadth of -eighteen miles at its centre. On its western slope stands the city -of Rio, or, as it is sometimes called, San Sebastian, crowded with -magnificent edifices. - -The entrance to the bay from the ocean is bounded at its southern -extremity by the Pao d'Asucar, or sugarloaf, a conical mountain, more -than 1,200 feet in height. - -On the northern side the ocean rolls in snowy foam, against a mighty -rock of glistening granite, at the base of which stands the castle of -Santa Cruz, with a triple platform, from which 120 pieces of cannon -point towards the sea. - -Looking beyond this entrance, the bay is seen to be studded with -little isles, nearly eighty in number, clothed with glorious verdure, -brilliant with fruit, giant flowers, and wondrous foliage, though -here and there the grim muzzle of a cannon shows where a battery is -built, and among these isles a fleet of small steamers are always -puffing and gliding. - -Beyond all this and around it--a new scene, indeed, to Morley--the -great mountains of the new world rise in a thousand fantastic forms, -covered to their summits with wood, forming a vast amphitheatre -around Rio de Janeiro, the City of Palaces, a title which it well -deserves. - -Morrison, who had been getting the cable clear, and the anchors -hoisted over the bows, now came to Morley's side, and pointed out the -church of Nossa Senhora da Gloria, on the lofty hill that juts into -the sea, between the city and the Praya de Flamengo; and then -indicating the castle, on which the gaudy flag of the Brazilian -Empire floated, he said, in his deep Scotch accent: - -"In 1515, where that great castle stands, there stood only a wooden -fort, built in that year by Juan Diaz de Salis, to be a place of -refuge for Protestants, and forty years after they named it the -Castle of Coligni; but the Portuguese came upon it in the night, and -put every living thing in it to the sword. It was Juan Diaz who gave -the place its name, Janeiro, as his ship ran into the bay in the -first days of January. A wild place it must have been then." - -"Hands prepare to shorten sail--stand by the anchor!" were now the -orders of Bartelot. - -The canvas was clewed up preparatory to being handed, and the light -warm breeze from the wooded shore swept through the bared rigging and -spars. - -Already the seamen were hurrying up aloft; the small bower anchor was -let go with a plunge; hoarsely rushed the chain-cable as it vanished -from the deck through the hawse-hole; and now the _Princess_ rode at -her moorings in eight-fathom water, in the noble harbour of Rio de -Janeiro--the region where eternal spring and endless summer reign. - -And now, leaving Morley Ashton to push his way among the skippers and -merchant-officers in the Rua Direta, and all its branching streets, -seeking a mode of transit to the Isle of France, while Tom Bartelot -sends his crew ashore, and procures a copper-coloured gang to "break -bulk" and start his cargo, we shall return to Ethel Basset, whom we -left five chapters back, with her quondam lover, on board the -_Hermione_, of London. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -ETHEL AMID THE ATLANTIC ISLES. - -Unlike the _Princess_, which, as we have shown, accomplished a most -prosperous voyage, the _Hermione_ encountered a series of head-winds -and hard gales; she had several of her spars carried away, and even -before skirting the Bay of Biscay, had to put in requisition her -spare foretopmast and topsail yards. - -This was considered by all on board a singularly unlucky beginning, -as Captain Phillips said; all the more so, that a pair of sparrows -had built their nest in the forecrosstrees, during the time that the -ship lay in the London-dock, and had finished it, too, undeterred by -all the noise and bustle around them. - -This was considered so good an omen, that the event was actually -recorded in the ship's log; biscuit crumbs were scattered in the tops -for their support, and orders were given not to disturb the birds, if -possible, so they went to sea with the ship. So the female sat upon -her eggs, while the male hopped and twittered about the top and below -in search of the scattered crumbs; but in the first tough breeze, as -some ill-disposed fellow--supposed to be Pedro Barradas--was going -aloft at night, the nest was destroyed, and flung with its two little -eggs on the deck; the poor birds were swept away to sea, and hence, -as Mr. Quail affirmed, came the ill-luck, the head-winds and hard -gales, encountered by the ship. - -After passing the Madeira Isles her foremast was carried away, and at -the very time when Tom Bartelot was informing Morley Ashton that she -should be somewhere off St. Helena, the _Hermione_ was creeping -slowly under a jury foremast into the harbour of Teguise (the chief -town of Lanzarota, one of the Canary Isles), to refit; and there the -dockyard appliances were so small and so poor, that she was delayed -for more than a fortnight. - -Mr. Basset took Ethel and Rose to a posada in the town, where, though -the accommodation was miserable, as usual in all Spanish posadas, it -was a vast relief, after the discomfort, circumscribed space, and -monotony of the ship, to tread on _terra firmâ_, under the cloudless -sky of the Canary Isles, and to see the sheep, and goats, and camels, -too, browsing in the grassy pastures. - -The inevitable Hawkshaw, glad, for certain cogent reasons of his own, -to keep clear of the ship, or, at least, of its crew, of course -accompanied them, as Mr. Basset's guest. - -It should have been mentioned that when the captain came on deck next -morning, after recognising Pedro Barradas on the yard-arm overnight, -so complete was the change in his costume and toilet, that scarcely -anyone knew him. - -His thick, luxuriant brown beard, and most cherished moustaches, were -shaved clean off; his hair, of which he had a great quantity, was now -shorn quite short. In lieu of the scarlet tarboosh, in which he had -been hitherto wont to figure, he wore a white wide-awake; and his -military boots, with brass heels, were exchanged for a pair of white -shoes with yellow soles. - -For the natty, short sack-coat, and Spanish sash beneath it, a -surtout and vest of most ample and business-like cut had been -substituted. On the whole, his _tout ensemble_, if less picturesque -and striking, was infinitely more respectable. - -"Lor' bless me!" exclaimed old Nance Folgate, terrified to meet on -the companion-stair a man whose eyes and voice she alone could -recognise. - -Captain Phillips and Mr. Basset laughed heartily at the change; even -Ethel smiled, and Rose made great fun of it; and it was soon remarked -that, with his hirsute appendages, the ci-devant captain relinquished -all his South American reminiscences, the Spanish interjections and -Yankeeisms, with which his conversation had been so fully flavoured -hitherto--a change greatly for the better. - -Hawkshaw pleaded the heat they were soon to encounter as a reason for -his new toilet, though they were scarcely clear of the "chops of the -Channel." For many weighty reasons, best known to himself, he kept a -nervous watch upon Pedro and Zuares Barradas; and the appearance of -either of these seamen coming aft, to take the wheel, or perform any -other ship's duty, sent the Texan captain below, with a celerity and -abruptness which was so often repeated, that there were -times--especially when he was conversing with the young ladies, Mr. -Basset, Captain Phillips, or Dr. Heriot--that it became so strange as -to excite remark, though no one could have understood what his -conduct meant. - -The rough weather encountered by the _Hermione_ after leaving the -British Channel afforded ample excuses for remaining below; but how -to avoid his dreaded South American acquaintances during the months -of a protracted voyage he knew not, and he felt the wretched -conviction that it was impossible! - -Whether it was a dread of some destructive revelation, or whether his -growing love for Ethel had somewhat purified this luckless and guilty -fellow's mind, we know not; neither can we say whether he repented -the terrible past, as that could be known to Heaven and himself only. -It is very possible that he may have felt alike repentance and -remorse, with gleams of hope for the future, as no human character is -so utterly bad as to be without one redeeming point at least. - -"No time," says Robert Burns (in one of his unpublished letters -preserved at Edinburgh), "can cast a light further on the present -resolves of the human mind; but time will reconcile, and has -reconciled, many a man to that iniquity which at first he abhorred." - -The appearance of Zuares had even a more exciting effect on Hawkshaw -than that of Pedro. - -Zuares, the unwitting matricide of the Barranca Secca, was a more -youthful but equally picturesque-looking ruffian. He was decidedly -handsome, with well-cut features; his eyes and nose were very fine; -but he had a cruel and savage mouth, which he inherited from his -Mexican blood. - -It seemed the very machination of Satan, or of a retributive destiny, -that, after he had so fearfully rid himself of Ashton, now placed him -in the same ship with these two men. - -If seen by them, if known and recognised, he felt himself lost with -Ethel, Mr. Basset, and all on board. - -Should they meet him face to face, he dare not decline their -recognition, and with that recognition the assumption or resumption -of an old and insolent familiarity, from which he had everything to -dread, and from which he shrank instinctively now. - -Poor wretch! his position was far from enviable. - -He felt conscious, probably, that he had led a wild and reckless, a -wandering and unprofitable life; but softened now by his regard for -Ethel Basset--though even that regard was full of self-interest and -selfishness--he mentally resolved that, if he were spared from this -disaster, this hourly terror of exposure, and if he escaped the toils -and perils in which those Barradas could involve him, that he would -turn over a new leaf, and be for the future a better man. - -"Ah, these new leaves!" exclaims Digby Grand; "if the half of them -were turned over, what a gigantic volume they would form in the life -of many of us!" - -With this resolution, perhaps, he strove to soothe the remorse, or -guilt, he felt for the outrage on Morley Ashton. It was not his -first crime, probably, nor the first time he had taken the life of a -fellow-creature in some fashion. - -"Barradas--Barradas!" he never ceased to mutter. "How the wheel of -fortune turns! What fiend brought us together again? But fate is -fate, and there is an end of it!" - -Consequently, right glad was he to avail himself of a fortnight on -shore at the Canaries, till the _Hermione_ was reported ready for -sea, and had the blue peter fluttering at her new foremast head. - -Rose found, in the Canaries, and boat visits to Santa Clara, -Aleguenza, and Graciosa (three islets adjoining Lanzarota), and to -the old Spanish Castle, which, in 1596, the Earl of Cumberland -assailed at the head of 600 men-at-arms, ample materials for the -diary she was keeping; and Ethel wrote letters to the Pages, and -other dear friends at Acton-Rennel, dated from the Posado de St. -Iago, opposite the Canal de Bocagna, detailing the terrors and -dangers they had undergone, in such exaggerated terms as young ladies -generally resort to when excited, or fired by a desire to run into -flowery description. - -A fine day in July--but all days are fine in that region, save those -of October and November--saw the _Hermione_ entirely refitted, her -spars and hamper all a-taunto, under a heavy press of sail, once more -at sea, and leaving the Cape of Mascona rapidly astern, while the -sharp cone of Teneriffe rose as rapidly from the ocean on her -weather-bow. - -For some time after this the voyage was truly delightful, and, as Mr. -Basset had anticipated, the change of scene and of air acted most -beneficially on Ethel. She was in excellent medical hands, too; for -young Dr. Heriot, though more disposed to be attentive to Rose, was -unremitting in his care of Ethel, to whose pale cheek the colour was -gradually returning. - -The atmosphere, especially in the evening, under the quarter-deck -awning, was charming, and a day seldom passed without something -occurring to break the monotony of the voyage. - -The Canary Isles were passed in succession; one day they had a -glimpse of Africa, about twenty miles distant. It was the great -headland forming the extremity of Jebel Kahl, or the Black Mountains -of Sahara. - -Low, and dim, and distant looked that little strip of blue coast. -How strange to think it was a portion of that vast continent of -perils and wonders--the land of Park, Lander, Livingstone, Speke, and -Grant! - -After leaving the Canaries they had a tedious calm for nearly three -days--a fresh delay. - -The ocean was still as the waters of an English mere in summer. The -sails hung straight and motionless upon the yards, though the ship -kept sheering round from time to time, her bowsprit pointing to all -the points of the compass in slow succession, and occasional swells -that heaved slowly up and sunk noiselessly down in the glassy sea, -jerked the neglected rudder and its wheel a few inches to and fro. - -Ethel and Rose sat reading under the awning; the doctor was fishing -over the taffrail; the mates were forward superintending the men, who -were busy cleaning the forecastle. - -Captain Phillips sat somewhat moodily on a spare topsail-yard, that -was slung alongside, smoking, with his short fat legs dangling over -the water, and his eyes fixed on the horizon, as if he was waiting to -see the coming breeze. - -Tempted by the heat, Manfredi was about to strip for a bathe about -the ship's bows, when the Yankee, Bill Badger, who was busy painting -the grating of the head-boards, sung out: - -"Take care, mate! for here comes a fellow that gobble up the prophet -Joaney. Once in his ballast port, I calculate you'll never be a -capting, Mr. Manfreddy. Blowd if I don't get a harpoon, and have a -shy at the beggar!" - -"Look, Miss Rose," cried Captain Phillips, from his perch on the -spare topsail-yard, "there goes a sea-lawyer." - -Rose looked at her papa and laughed, while the ship's cook threw over -a piece of rancid pork, with a sharp skewer in it, for mischief, as -there is a natural antipathy between Jack Tar and Jack Shark. - -The shark--a white one--turned on his back, and the piece of pork -that floated steadily on the oily sea vanished into his capacious -maw, the opening and shutting of which made the girls shudder, and -old Nurse Folgate, who was knitting beside them, utter a "Lor' a -mussy me!" with great earnestness. - -Hawkshaw hoped the heat might tempt either of the Barradas to take a -bathe alongside, but they were much too cautious to do so. - -"How horrible!" said Ethel, as the monster sailed away, with his -black triangular fin erect. - -"A fellow like that would dart at a man in the sea, and snap him up -as a snipe would a fly," said Dr. Heriot. "I have heard, Miss -Basset, of the master of a Guinea ship, among whose cargo of slaves -there prevailed a strange rage for drowning in the belief that, after -death, they would be restored to their native country, their tribes -and wigwams; to cure them of this, or to convince them that they -could not reanimate their dead bodies, he ordered one, a gigantic -negro, who had died at a ring-bolt, to be towed overboard by the -heels at the end of a line. A shark rose. In an instant twenty men -tailed on the rope to haul the body in, yet that instant did not -suffice. The shark devoured every morsel save the feet and ankles, -which were tied by the end of the rope." - -One day a whale rose suddenly, about a quarter of a mile from the -ship, and brought a shriek of dismay from old Nance Folgate, who -clung to Manfredi, the Italian mate, on seeing it floating steadily, -like Sindbad's island in the sea; and still greater was her terror -when he spouted a cloud of water in the air, stuck up his flukes, and -went surging down with a sound like a roar to the depths below. - -On another day there came a shoal of porpoises from windward of the -ship, rushing in madlike and headlong career. - -On they come, on and on, surging, rollicking, flashing in the -sunshine, as they leaped from one bank of water to the other, all -keeping time in their ocean race, all going together, and all -crossing the ship's bows in one frolicsome shoal. So close do they -pass that their little red eyes can be seen twinkling and glancing; -and away they go, surging and leaping on towards the far horizon, -till they are lost or blinded amid "the grey and melancholy wastes" -of ocean. It is always on a breezy day that these living shoals are -seen. Rose clapped her hands, as if at a horse-race, when they -passed. - -"You English call them porpoises, from our Italian term, -_porco-pesce_," said the soft voice of Manfredi; "but is it not -strange, Mees Rose, that they do go so very fast with only three -fins?" - -"Only three, Mr. Manfredi?" - -"Yes; one on the back, placed rather below the middle, and two on the -breast--no more." - -But greater was the excitement when a water-logged vessel, whose deck -was almost flush with the sea--a brig which the waves of some mighty -storm had swept of everything from stem to stern, so that the stumps -of her two masts, and a few weather-worn timber-heads, alone were -visible above her planks--was passed, drifting, silent and alone, -about two miles to leeward. - -The melancholy object excited, of course, much remark, and made Ethel -and her sister weep, and speculate upon the probable fate of her -crew, their story, and the story of that poor deserted ship, to the -rusty chain-plates of which the barnacles and seaweed clung, as it -drifted away into the wastes of sea and sky; and Ethel thought of the -oft-quoted words of the Psalmist--words she had heard again and again -in the old church at home: - - -"They who go down to the sea in ships, and do business in the great -waters, these see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the -mighty deep." - - -Dr. Heriot, who was a very enterprising young man, Hawkshaw, and -Manfredi, proposed to have a boat lowered for the purpose of visiting -the wreck, and ascertaining her name; but the _Hermione_ was running -free, under a press of sail, and Captain Phillips and Mr. Quail -flatly refused permission; so that the old wreck was rapidly dropped -astern. - -On the warm summer Sunday mornings, when the quarter-deck--that -looked so very small when they came on board at first--got an extra -drenching, holystoning, and swabbing; when the running rigging aft -was more neatly coiled over the belaying-pins, and between the four -six-pound carronades; when the binnacle lamps and other brasses had -received an extra polish; when camp-stools, cushions, and hassocks -were brought from the cabin, and "a church was rigged;" when the -somewhat motley crew assembled in their cleanest attire, and stood -by, bareheaded and respectful (to all outward appearance), to hear -jolly Captain Phillips read the grand and impressive service of the -Church of England, with Mr. Quail, the first mate, or Dr. Leslie -Heriot, acting as clerk, making all the responses; while the great -ship, with her vast spread of white canvas bellying on the wind, and -shining in the sun, with the British flag flying aloft in honour of -the day, though no other eyes could behold it, save those in heaven; -when all this took place weekly, we say, Ethel was indeed soothed and -charmed by the solemnity of the scene, upon that illimitable world of -waters, and her thoughts naturally reverted to the gray old house of -God at home, with its Norman spire and Gothic porch, the pew where -last she had sat by the side of Morley Ashton, and then she seemed to -see the old yew-tree that cast its shadow on her beloved mother's -grave--the grave which lay in that dear English soil she never more -might tread, never more might see. - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -MOONLIGHT ON THE SEA. - -At such times as the Divine service on Sunday, when there was a great -muster of the crew, Hawkshaw always remained below on one pretence or -other, unless he had assured himself that his two _bêtes noire_, the -Barradas, were neither at the wheel nor in "the church," which was so -easily improvised upon the quarter-deck. - -On these occasions, it was observable that Rose Basset and the young -Scotch doctor always read from the same book. - -This did not fail to attract the notice of Captain Phillips, who, -being unable to resist a joke thereon, gave them once or twice a -remarkably knowing wink, in the very middle of the service he was -reading so solemnly, a proceeding which very much scandalised Mr. -Samuel Quail, and made Rose colour and glance nervously at her papa. - -And there was one Sunday when, after prayers had been read, the crew -dismissed forward to smoke, sing, or mend their clothes, as usual on -Sundays, and the passengers had assembled in the cabin for lunch, he -proceeded to quiz poor Rose and the doctor, by offering, in his -"double capacity of skipper and parson, to perform a Scotch marriage -for them on the high seas." - -Rose reddened again with so much real annoyance at this broad jest, -that Captain Phillips offered a species of salt-water apology, which -rather made the matter worse; so the handsome young doctor blushed -too, all the more so, perhaps, that his soup was scalding hot, and -the thermometer on the bulkhead stood at eighty in the shade. - -"After the rigs I have seen run by those who live by salt water," -continued the jolly captain, "I have always thanked my -stars--wherever they may be--that I am still a bachelor; yet had I, -in other times, met such a young lady as you, Miss Rose, mayhap I'd -have struck my colours and changed my mind--who knows? But perhaps -things are best as they are." - -"You should be ashamed of saying so, captain," said Rose; "and I am -certain that some one has missed a good kind husband, through your -mistake." - -"Mayhap, miss, mayhap; but 'tis too late now for old Jack Phillips to -'bout ship, and make a fool of himself, by hauling up for the gulf of -matrimony." - -"Gulf? Fie, captain!" exclaimed Rose; "you should call it a bay, or -happy haven." - -"Do you know, captain, how they treated old bachelors in Sparta?" -asked the doctor. - -"Stopped their grog, mayhap, or keel-hauled 'em, I shouldn't wonder." - -"They were stripped of their clothes, and in the coldest days of -winter were forced to run through the principal streets, chanting -songs, full of sharp sarcasms upon their own condition." - -"Deuced hard lines, doctor; was there any other nice little thing -they made us do?" - -"Yes," resumed the doctor, furbishing up his Scotch latinity to -punish the captain for making Rosa blush, "Athenæus, the grammarian -of Naucratis----" - -"My eyes! there's a name to turn in of a night with!" - -"Well, he tells us that there was, every year, a laughable festival -celebrated in a great temple, at which all the bachelors of a certain -age were compelled to attend, that the ladies might taunt, mock them, -and slap their faces as much as they pleased." - -Honest Phillips rubbed his curly head, the brown hair of which was -becoming thickly seamed with gray, slapped his sturdy thigh, and -burst into a hearty fit of laughter. - -"Overhaul the charts, Quail, and see where this same Sparta lies. -Its latitude and longitude won't do for me, Sam. Another glass of -wine, ladies, and then I must be off to relieve the deck, and let Mr. -Manfredi down." - -The night that followed this day was peculiarly lovely--lovely even -beyond what night is in the tropics at times. - -Mr. Basset, the captain, Mr. Quail, and the second mate were having a -quiet rubber in the cabin; Hawkshaw had fallen asleep on one of the -lockers, or pretended to do so; Rose and Dr. Heriot were promenading -the deck aft the mainmast, in very close conversation, and Ethel was -seated alone near the taffrail, at the stern of the _Hermione_, which -was gliding through the water with an almost imperceptible motion, -for the wind was light and steady. - -She was alone, for no one was near her, save the man at the wheel, -Zuares Barradas, who seemed oblivious of all save his duty. The -light of the binnacle lamps fell steadily on his dark olive face, his -bare neck, arms, and breast, on which the figure of a Madonna had -been graven with gunpowder, on the rings in his ears, and on his -black, glittering eyes. - -The ship had her three courses, top and topgallant sails, royals, and -lower studding-sails set; and this vast cloud of canvas shone white -as snow in the moonlight, the bellying curve of every sail being -beautifully and softly rounded into shadow by the chastened radiance, -and with every heave she gave upon the long glassy rollers, the -reef-points pattered like a shower upon the taut and swollen bosom of -the sail. - -Star after star twinkled out and was lost, and then seen again under -the arched leach of each square of canvas, as the ship rose and fell -with each successive heave. Forward she was sunk in silence; the -watch were clustered in a group near the chocks of the long-boat or -main-hatch; the rest of the crew were all seated together about the -windlass and forecastle-bitts. - -Nothing broke the silence, save Mr. Basset's voice, or Captain -Phillips's laugh, in the lighted cabin, the occasional rattle of the -rudder in its case, the wash of the passing sea under the counter, or -the gurgle of the long wake astern, that seemed like a path of green -fire amid the eddying bosom of the deep, the unfathomable deep, that -held, as Ethel believed, the remains of him she loved and mourned, as -a widow, in her heart of hearts. - -Full of thoughts of home, of sadness, and of the past, Ethel reclined -against the taffrail, with a heart inspired by deep and indescribable -emotions; and her dark, swimming eyes wandered with admiration over -the phantom-like outline of the vast white ship, gliding in awful -silence unerringly over the solitude of the broad ocean, beneath the -mighty dome of the star-studded sky. - -Her thoughts were finding vent in tears, when she found that some one -was near her. Passing a handkerchief across her eyes, she drew her -cloak closely round her as this person came forward, and politely -touched his cap. It was Manfredi, the handsome and pleasing young -Italian mate. - -"Pardon me, Miss Basset," said he, in his distinct yet somewhat -broken English; "I have been observing you for some time, and am very -sorry to see you so _triste_--so sad." - -"I was not sad, Mr. Manfredi." - -"Oh yes you were," said he, with smiling earnestness. - -"The great beauty of the night impressed me. To you, perhaps, it may -be little worth noticing after the skies of your native Italy." - -"The skies are clearer here than in Italy; the air is purer and -freer," he replied, with a sad smile. - -"When so far away, do you never wish for home?" - -"I did so once." - -"And now?" - -"I have no home, save on the sea." - -This was said with such a melancholy and pathetic brevity, that Ethel -gazed at the young man inquiringly, but in silence. - -"I had a home in Italy once, madam--a home, though humble, as happy, -perchance, as yours in England; but the Austrians came and brought -death and sorrow upon it, so I turned my back on the place where the -olives and acacias grew before my father's house, and returned there -no more." - -"The Austrians," repeated Dr. Heriot, who, with Rose leaning on his -arm, had now joined them; "we, in England, occasionally heard of -great outrages committed by them." - -The black eyes of Manfredi sparkled, and a sigh escaped him. - -"Mr. Manfredi is sighing," said the heedless Rose; "depend upon it -that love has something to do with his memories of Italy." - -"You mistake, madam," said the third mate, with a smile at the lively -girl, whose fair English face and fine merry eyes looked so beautiful -in the moonlight, that the younger Barradas at the wheel regarded her -more than his compass, so that frequently the sails shivered aloft, -and he was somewhat wild in his steering; "my memories of Italy are, -many of them, pure and charming, as if love formed a portion of them; -and yet I wish all these memories to die together." - -"What kind of paradox is this, my dear Manfredi?" asked Dr. Heriot. - -"It is no paradox." - -"We have a Scottish writer who says that 'No thought, no delightful -memory, ever dies; it may remain silent for a season, but it will -come from those inexpressibly deep regions of memory; it will come at -some time to brighten the present, and to brighten the recollection -of the past." - -The face of the young Scotchman flushed as he spoke, with Rose's -pretty hand trembling on his arm; but the Italian only smiled sadly, -and said: - -"You mistake me, doctor. The pure and tender memories of my home are -so inseparably blended with the sad and bitter, that I have no desire -but to forget them altogether, for the former add but poignancy to -the latter. Surely you must have heard the story of my brother, -little Attilio Manfredi, whose assassination was termed the great -crime of the House of Hapsburg? As such it went the circuit of the -English newspapers, which received the story from the _Monitore -Toscana_, whose sheets were under the revision of the assassin, the -Austrian commandant." - -After a silence of a minute, for the Italian seemed labouring under -deep emotion, Dr. Heriot said: - -"No; I do not remember of this, Manfredi." - -"Pray tell us about it," said Rose. - -"Pray do," added Ethel. - -"Wait, ladies, please, until the wheel is relieved, and I shall tell -you a sad but simple tale of barbarous cruelty." - -A tall, rawboned Yankee sailor, with a hooked nose and villainous -square jaw, now relieved Zuares Barradas, who civilly touched his hat -and went forward, just as the whist-players came on deck, and -proceeded to exchange tobacco-pouches and light their pipes. - -Immediately on discovering that the helmsman was changed, Hawkshaw -appeared on deck and joined the group, to whom Manfredi proceeded to -explain what he meant by relating one of the darkest stories that -ever disgraced the pretty voluminous annals of continental military -tyranny. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. - -THE STORY OF A BRAVE BOY. - -"In 1850," began Adrian Manfredi, "I was, with my elder brother -Attilio, a schoolboy at home, in our father's house at Pistoja, and -had no more idea then of becoming a seaman or a wanderer on the sea, -than I have now of filling the chair of St. Peter. - -"Our father was a sculptor; his studio was always filled with choice -efforts in Tuscan and Carrara marble, in alabaster and chalcedony. -He was a leading member of the Academia delle Belle Arti: but in that -land of artists his means were small; hence our living was frugal and -our house somewhat humble, because it was very old, being the same in -which Pope Clement IX. was born. - -"My brother Attilio was said to be as beautiful as an angel by all -the mothers of Pistoja. Indeed, he was a very handsome little boy, -and frequently served my father as a model; thus Attilio's figure -appears in more than one of the groups which he contributed to the -Great Exhibition at London in 1851. - -"Versions of my brother's story have already, as I have stated, -appeared in the English newspapers. I now propose to tell you mine. - -"Pistoja, our native place, is a Tuscan town, situated amid a fertile -country, at the base of the beautiful Apennines. In fancy I can see -it still, with its carved cathedral of snowy Carrara marble; its -convents and hospitals; its quaint streets of the middle ages; its -old and crumbling walls, that were built by Didier, last king of the -Lombards, and the clear blue waters of the Ombrone, bordered by -chestnut groves, and lands that teem with corn, wine, and oil, all -reddened in the setting sun, as I saw them last; and that feature, -the blot and blight on all the rest, the accursed Austrian eagle, -that floats above its ancient fortress. - -"Yes, Pistoja, like too many other Italian towns, had or has an -Austrian garrison, and, at the time I refer to--the first months of -1850--all Europe was filled with ardour, interest, and sympathy by -the gallant stand made by the Hungarians, under Kossuth, and other -chiefs, against their imperial oppressors; and nowhere did their -victories and their downfall find a more ready echo than in the -hearts of Italians. - -"The boys of the Academia de Pistoja, which my brother Attilio and I -attended--he was then twelve, and I but ten years of age--held a -jubilee with others, on an evil day, when fresh tidings of some new -battle came. We received a holiday. I went to fish in the Ombrone, -and my brother returned home. - -"When, chancing to pass near the palace of the Bishop of Pistoja, -where the Austrian commandant, Colonel Count Rudolf de Veinrich, had -quartered himself (after expelling our venerable prelate), Attilio -saw a number of soldiers in what he considered the Hungarian -uniform--brown tunics, embroidered and faced with red. - -"When passing the first sentinel, Attilio lifted his little hat and -cried: - -"'Viva Kossuth! Viva Hongria!' - -"'Viva!' replied the sentinel, whose comrades joined in the cry, -adding: - -"'Eviva--bravo Hongrie!' - -"Thus emboldened, the rash boy continued to wave his hat and shout -the name of Kossuth. - -"'Come hither, boy,' cried the soldiers, in strange Italian; 'we wish -to speak with you.' - -"Attilio, believing that he beheld the countrymen of the Hungarian -dictator, approached, but was instantly surrounded and seized, and -then, to his astonishment, he found himself in the hands of a party -of Croats, whose uniform, in his ignorance of such matters, the boy -supposed to be Hungarian. - -"They were proceeding to drag him into the guard-house, when Attilio, -active and nimble, glided like an eel through their hands, sprang -from an open window and escaped, but was closely pursued. - -"Fearing to take shelter in our house, which would implicate our -innocent parents, and insure their ruthless pillage, he left the town -behind him, and fled, bareheaded, towards the woods. As it chanced, -he came close to where I was fishing in the Ombrone. - -"'Change jackets with me, Adrian!' he exclaimed, 'the Austrians are -after me--change, but ask no questions.' - -"We exchanged in a moment; my jacket was black, and his a bright -green; thus, when he disappeared, the Croats came upon me. I uttered -an involuntary cry of real terror as they seized me, and handled me -very roughly before they discovered their mistake. - -"Then I laughed at them, on which they spitefully broke my rod, and -seized my fish basket, with its contents. A closer search was -instituted for poor Attilio, and at night he was dragged from our -dear mother's arms, and reconducted to the guardhouse, where he was -brought before Count Rudolf de Veinrich, colonel of the Regiment de -Radetzki. - -"Knowing well the kind of hands he had fallen into, Attilio gave -himself up for lost; yet he was brave as a lion; his courage never -deserted him, and, in contempt of his captors, he spat upon the -Austrian flag that hung over the guard-house door. Yet he wept, when -in the dark, for the mother from whom he had been torn--the poor -little boy of twelve happy years! - -"I may mention that though, like the Italians, the Croats generally -profess the Catholic religion, in the military portion of that -semi-barbarous race there is a strong element of the Greek schism, -and of this last was the Regiment de Radetzki composed. Its soldiers -had all the worst qualities of the Croat; they were revengeful, -deceitful, intemperate, prone to robbery, and officered by Germans, -who, when in Tuscany, cared little to restrain their licentiousness. - -"Their colonel, notwithstanding his title of count, was a man without -family or friends, save such as position gave him, without kindly -sympathy or common human feeling. His mother had been found -speechless and dying near the new Scottish gate of Vienna, and she -expired soon after in the Allgemeine Krankenhaus, or great infirmary -of the city, leaving her child to the foundling hospital, by the name -of Rudolf. - -"Ten years after a person of rank, a prince of the Russian Empire, on -searching the books of the said hospital, discovered in this -foundling his own son, the mother being a hapless Polish woman, whom, -he had deluded and abandoned; so the little Rudolf, on the payment of -so many thousand ducats, became a count, and in time rose to the rank -of colonel of Croats; and, as such, exercised the stern military laws -of Austria with unexampled severity. - -"On bringing my brother before him, the Croats charged Attilio with -attempting to induce them to desert in the name of Kossuth; and then -with defiling the flag of the Empire by spitting thereon. - -"'Did he attempt to seduce you by money?' asked the colonel, with a -frown on his face. - -"'Yes, Herr Colonel,' replied a corporal named Schwartz, and he -produced eighteen _quattrini_, which he had found in the pocket of my -jacket, and which were in value about twopence British. - -"On this the colonel, undeterred by the manly aspect of the beautiful -little boy--for my brother Attilio was beautiful--struck him with his -gloved hand, and with his sheathed sword, repeatedly. - -"He then ordered him to be put into one of the dark, damp, and horrid -dungeons of the old castle of Pistoja, where, among the rats, the -toads, the gloom, and the cobwebs, the poor boy wept for his parents, -and for me; wept in cold and forlorn misery, on some wet straw, near -which a clay pitcher of water was placed. - -"He had a stone whereon to rest his head if weary, and his right -wrist was fettered by a chain to his left ankle. - -"'Sono desolato! Sono perduto!' ('I am ruined! I am lost!') he kept -repeating from time to time. - -"Our father was crushed with grief, our mother was filled with wild -despair, and I was stupefied!" - -"And they dared to seize him thus?" exclaimed Mr. Basset, flushing -with indignation like an honest John Bull, while vigorously polishing -his forehead with his silk handkerchief; "a frightful outrage on the -rights of the subject! Where were the police? Where was that great -bulwark of liberty, the writ of _habeas corpus_?" - -Manfredi smiled sadly, and replied: - -"You forget that I am talking of Tuscany?" - -"True, my dear sir, true; but go on." - -"The poor boy!" said Ethel, mournfully. - -"Those odious, hateful Austrians!" commented Rose. - -"D----n them!" was the addendum of Captain Jack Phillips, while -Manfredi resumed: - -"In this horrible condition, crushed for a time in body and in soul, -and drowned in tears, he remained, while all access was denied to -him, even to our parents; but ultimately he was found by the good -Padre Marraccini, who had come to visit the sick prisoners, and who, -by chance or mistake, was shown by Corporal Schwartz into the -atrocious dungeon where our poor little Attilio lay. - -"Undeterred by the grim Croat, who carried a smoky lamp, the light of -which scared the rats and toads, who were seen hurrying away to their -dark and slimy recesses, the child leaped up with a cry of joy, and -hastened towards the padre, who was our father's friend, but in -hastening fell, for his chain was short, and cramped the action of -his limbs. - -"'Water, Padre Marraccini!' he exclaimed hoarsely, 'water; for I am -dying of thirst, and they have _salted_ what is in that pitcher.' - -"With great difficulty the commiserating padre procured him some -water in the hollow of a broken bottle; the corporal would give -nothing else, and it cut the poor boy's mouth, so that he drank his -own blood, his tears, and the water together. - -"'My mother, my father--are they well?' he asked. - -"'Yes.' - -"'It seems so long since I saw them--the day before yesterday when I -went to school,' continued Attilio, weeping, with his head on the -padre's shoulder. 'And Adrian, my brother--did they hurt him, for he -changed jackets with me?' - -"'Hush!' said the padre, glancing at the stolid Croat who stood by -them, with a lamp flaring in one hand, and his drawn bayonet -glittering in the other. - -"'Get me out of this, Padre Marraccini; pray get me out of this -place, and home to my mother. Oh, my mother! my mother!' - -"'I will, dear Attilio, I will--that is if I can.' - -"'I shall take courage. I shall be a man!' - -"'Do, until I return from the commandant.' - -"With dire forebodings in his heart, the poor old padre hastened to -the count, whom he found seated at his wine, after dinner, with -several Austrian officers, in the saloon of the bishop's palace. - -"After enduring considerable annoyance--even insult--from the -Croatian sentinels and German lackeys--insults which he endured with -contempt, perhaps, rather than with meekness, and feeling himself the -servant of a higher master than even the Emperor of Austria--he was -admitted to an audience, and he begged--he dared not, in such a -presence, demand--'the release of the child Attilio Manfredi, who had -been seized by the soldiers of the garrison.' - -"'Seized, Fra Marraccini, for attempting to seduce them by money to -desert their colours, in the name of the rebel Magyar, Kossuth,' -replied the count, sternly. - -"'Term it as you please, Signor Excellenza. I implore you to allow -me to restore him to his parents--his heart-broken mother especially.' - -"'It cannot be; his case is not in my hands.' - -"'In whose then?' - -"'It has been remitted to the general-commanding at Prato.' - -"'And the answer will come----' - -"'About midnight,' interrupted the count, with a dark glance there -was no misinterpreting. 'Enough, priest. You may go.' - -"The poor priest felt his soul sink within him. Instead of seeking -our parents, to whom, knowing the Austrians as he did, he could give -no hope, he returned to the castle, and sought to prepare the unhappy -child, my brother, for the fate, the great change, that was to follow. - -"All day had elapsed without food passing the boy's mouth, and he was -in such a state as to be incapable of swallowing the coarse cake -which the priest had procured with difficulty from the Croatian guard. - -"Attended by the corporal, named Schwartz, who remained persistently -in the dungeon, holding a lamp, the priest sat on the damp stone, -with Attilio on his knee; and resting his head caressingly on his -shoulder, besought him to make his confession, in the fashion of our -church--to speak in whispers, lest the Croat might overhear and mock -them. - -"But the confession of a boy--a mere child, so pure, so good, and -sinless, could interest the soldier but little, and the youthful -prisoner made it with charming artlessness; though his large dark -eyes began to dilate with mournful anxiety, fear, and wonder, and -then to sparkle with courage and sublime resignation, as Fra -Marraccini spoke to him in earnest whispers of his spiritual state, -beseeching him to think of hopes beyond the grave, of the Father he -had in heaven as well as his father on earth, and of the Blessed -Madonna, who was the mother of all good children. - -"Then the little boy began to see clearly the terrible meaning of the -priest, and though his heart yearned, and his tears fell fast when he -thought of his poor mother who was on earth, and whom he never more -should see, at length he became pacified, or worn out by emotion, and -fell asleep in the arms of dear old Father Marraccini. - -"So the hours stole on, Corporal Schwartz trimmed the lamp, growled -and swore, tugged his obstinate moustache, and smoked his huge -meerschaum, while the old priest, heedless of his impatience, read -the prayers for the dying with the child asleep upon his knee. - -"The galloping of a horse was heard, and the clank of a sabre, as an -Austrian dragoon passed the grated window of the prison. - -"'Poor Attilio!' groaned the priest. - -"'Rouse the prisoner!' croaked the corporal, harshly, 'here comes the -final order about him!' - -"At that time the clock of the fortress struck midnight. - -"Prato is only six miles from Pistoja, so the general there had not -hurried himself. - -"'They are not really going to kill me, Fra Marraccini, are they? -Oh! my sweet mother! Oh! my dear father! and my little brother -Adrian, too, shall I never see you any more?' exclaimed Attilio, as -he was dragged out by the guard. - -"'Remember what I have said and taught you," whispered the priest; -'take courage, and be a Christian.' - -"'Yes, padre, and a Tuscan, too!' replied Attilio, as they were -conducted from the dark passages and vaults of the ancient castle -into one of the dry ditches, where the moon was shining in all her -brilliance--yes, gloriously, as now she shines upon this tropical sea. - -"There, between the high walls of the dry ditch, were several -Austrian officers in their white uniforms, with long boots and black -varnished helmets, surmounted by plumes or spikes, and double-headed -eagles, and all apparently flushed with wine. - -"Beyond them were twelve Croats under arms, drawn in a single rank -across the ditch. - -"'Corporal Schwartz,' said the count, as he opened a letter, 'unlock -the prisoner's chains.' - -"As they were taken off and flung rattling aside, the courage of -Father Marraccini rose. - -"Bareheaded before this imposing group, whose breasts were covered -with imperial orders and medals, stood Attilio, with his dark eyes -cast down, his crossed hands on his breast, humble, but courageous. - -"'He looked so fair and handsome!' says the kind padre, in an account -he wrote of this affair. 'The moonlight silvered him from head to -foot, and made him look like an angel. The boy was very sad, but at -the same time calm. No entreaty passed his lips to be allowed to -look once more upon his parents' faces. All he said was, "Don't -leave me any more--oh! see to what a pass they have brought me!"' - -"'Priest, bring the boy forward,' said Count Rudolf, imperiously. - -"Marracini did so, and so clear and bright was the moonlight, which -poured aslant over the grand masses of the ancient castle of Pistoja, -on the glittering arms of the ferocious-looking Croats, on the white -uniforms and glittering accoutrements of the Austrian officers, and -on the boy's pale face, that the count could read distinctly, as if -at noon-day, the brief but pompous despatch of the general commanding -at Prato. - -"'Attilio Manfredi,' said he, 'listen! Your sentence has come hither -in German, but I shall read it to you in Italian.' - -"The boy bowed, played nervously with his hands, and said: - -"'Dio il voglia, Signor Colonello--se piace a Dio!' ('God willing--if -it please God!') - -"'Attilio Manfredi,' resumed the tall Austrian, raising his voice -with a hiccup at times, 'scholar of the Academy of Pistoja, son of -Adrian Manfredi, sculptor, and member of the Academia delle Belle -Arti, you have been accused and fully convicted of attempting, by -bribery, to induce Corporal Carl Schwartz and Private Demetrius -Spitzbübbel, with other soldiers of Veltmarshal Radetzki's Croatian -Regiment, to desert the fatherly and benign service of his Imperial -Majesty Ferdinand I., Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Bohemia, -Lombardy, and Venice, Dalmatia, Crotia, Sclavonia, Galicia, -Lodomeria, and Illyria----'" - -"Dash my wig!" exclaimed Captain Phillips; "why did he omit the -Cannibal Islands, and the Viceroy Whanky-fum?" - -"Count Rudolf paused to draw breath, as well he might after such a -mouthful of words; and again the fine large eyes of the boy dilated -with wonder, at a list of names that sounded so strange and barbarous -to his Tuscan ear. - -"'Have you the courage to hear your sentence?' - -"'Si, signore; the blessed Madonna, who is alike the mother of my -mother and me, support me!' - -"'She does, my son!' cried Marraccini, with enthusiasm. - -"'Silence!' exclaimed the count. 'Prisoner--you are to be shot to -death by a platoon of twelve men.' - -"He deliberately folded the despatch and drew back. - -"'The mother of God receive me!' murmured the poor boy; then he -added, in a feeble voice, 'Father Marraccini, when it is all -over--when I am dead--cut off three locks of my hair: one for my dear -father, one for dear, dear mother, and one for my little brother -Adrian.' - -"Here Manfredi drew a locket from his breast and kissed it. - -"'You will keep my crucifix for yourself, in memory of your little -penitent, and say masses for his soul.' - -"It was now the old priest's turn to weep, and he wept aloud, while -the brave little Attilio had not a tear in his eye. - -"Hoarse, and harsh, and rapid were the German words of command, and -in less than three minutes, a volley of twelve rifles that rang like -thunder on the still midnight, waking all the echoes of the fortress -and of the silent streets of Pistoja, announced that all was -over--that the great crime had been committed! - -"In five minutes more Attilio was flung into a hasty grave dug in the -ditch beneath the castle wall, quicklime was cast over him, and -there, uncoffined and unconsecrated, the Croats covered him up. - -"My poor little brother! - -"My father and mother could not survive the shock of this atrocity. -They both died soon after; I was left alone in the world, and, -turning my back upon Pistoja, became a sailor and a wanderer. - -"A wooden cross nailed on the castle wall, by tine kind hand of Fra -Marraccina, marked the uncouth grave of my brother till 1860, when -the ecclesiastical and civic authorities of Pistoja took heart, and, -with many grand and empty ceremonies, exhumed his sad remains, and -reinterred them in a coffin within the church of the Confraternita -dei Dolori, where they now lie, and may they rest in peace![*] - - -[*] For the truth of this story, see the _Athenæum_ of 1860. - - -"Fra Marraccini, now Bishop of Pistoja, performed the funeral mass, -and wrote me all about it when I was far away, a merchant seaman, in -the Southern Pacific.. The good man sent me his blessing, and it -reached me even there." - -As he concluded, the Italian crossed himself, and stepped aside, as -if to light a cigar; but Ethel Basset and others knew, by the tremor -of his voice, that he had turned to hide his emotion. - -"And this cruel colonel--this Austrian," she asked, "what became of -him?" - -"The curse that fell on Cain followed him. He died, not on a -gallows, as he deserved, but fell beneath the Danish rifles, at the -foot of the Dannewerke," replied Manfredi, with flashing eyes; "and -now I am Christian enough to say: may he, too, rest in peace, even as -my brother rests at Pistoja." - - - - -CHAPTER XXII. - -ZUARES AND THE SHARK. - -The voyage of the _Hermione_ had now lasted several weeks. - -During that time Hawkshaw had never ventured to resume the subject -which Ethel had so summarily dismissed on that evening in Acton -Chase--the evening which had an end so fatal--the subject, of his -passion for her, and certainly, as such things grow and mature by -propinquity, it was more deeply rooted now than it was then. - -He was wisely and sedulously attentive during their daily and hourly -intercourse in the circumscribed space on shipboard--attentive, but -nothing more. - -Yet Ethel knew well what those delicate attentions inferred, and -shrank from them systematically and intuitively, and in such a -manner, though quiet and gentle, as to give the persevering -ex-captain of Texan troopers not the shadow of a hope for the future. - -Moreover, he was rather galled to perceive that ever since that -evening when Morley Ashton disappeared, Ethel had adopted a nun-like -soberness of attire and colour that reminded one of mourning. Save -Morley's engagement-ring, she wore no ornament, and Hawkshaw knew -that to the black ribbon around her neck was attached a locket, with -a braid of Ashton's hair entwined with her own, on one side, and on -the other, a miniature of herself, for it was the same locket which -he had worn when in Africa, and which she had found lying on his -toilet-table on the morning after his mysterious disappearance and -supposed death. - -She knew that he had always borne it next his heart, and now she -resolved it should ever be worn next her own; for with such things do -lovers solace themselves. - -Hawkshaw knew, we say, quite well, that the black ribbon around that -white and slender neck sustained that which she deemed an -affectionate memento; so he never dared to ask her what it was, lest -its production should serve as a curb and rebuke to himself; and -while it was worn thus, he deemed it almost hopeless to resume the -task of entreating her to love him, or permit his loving her. So day -followed day, and still the great ship that bore them all flew on, -but not always successfully, for she encountered such a succession of -headwinds, as served almost to prove the truth of what our old friend -Bill Morrison, of the _Princess_, stated to Morley, about a ship that -had a "shedder" of blood on board; and now, even jolly Captain -Phillips lost his temper with his mates, his crew, himself, and -everybody but Rose Basset, who, he was wont to say, "could wind him -round her little finger like a bit o' spunyarn." - -Though the _Hermione_ made long tacks westward and eastward, on the -latter sometimes "sighting" the coast of Africa, and though the winds -were ahead, and fearfully protracting the voyage, the weather was -very fine, almost to monotony, and thus for days after the moonlit -evening on which Manfredi told his tale, nothing occurred to disturb -the even tenor of the voyage, save the usual sights to be seen at sea. - -A drove of porpoises dashing in the wind's eye; a shower of silvery -flying-fish crossing the vessel's course, and falling in hundreds, -like a glittering torrent, into the sea, from, which they had sprung; -the stormy petrels tripping gracefully with brown wings outspread, -above the snowy spray, or the black fin of a shark prowling for offal -in the vessel's wake astern; and once a sucking-fish was seen fixed -to the rudder, where it remained for weeks, wriggling and twisting, -for no amount of motion in the water, not even the waves of the -wildest storm that furrows up the sea, can shake it off when once it -adheres to a ship's bottom, to a whale, or a shark, as it is -sometimes wont to do. - -Captain Phillips was not superstitious enough to believe that this -small parasite retarded the progress of a ship, though such has been -for ages the idea of those who live, and have lived, by salt water, -as we may find in many - - "----a book, - From Captain Noah down to Captain Cook," - -but more especially in the works of many who have written of nautical -phenomena between the days of Pliny, Plutarch, and Captain Dampier. -Yet to watch from the taffrail its obstinate adherence and wriggling, -amid the foam down below, was for some time an amusement which duly -found a record in the journal or diary which Rose kept for the -special perusal of her friend Lucy Page when they met again. - -On another day a ship was passed, "bound for Europe"--they had ceased -to speak of Britain now--and all crowded to the side to hear her -hailed. On she came, and each vessel backed her maintopsail and -showed her colours, plunging stern down and head, their cutwaters -dripping with foam, their bright copper, that rose to the bends, -flashing in the sun, the sails of the stranger shivering, as the -_Hermione_ kept the weather-gauge of her. - -"Ahoy!" came faintly from a trumpet over the sea; "what ship is that?" - -"The _Hermione_, of London--two months out--bound for Singapore. -What ship are you?" - -"The _Robert Bruce_, of Glasgow, bound for Europe." - -"Where from?" - -"Batavia." - -"Report all well." - -"Aye, aye; good-bye." - -Then the latitude and longitude, chalked on a black board, would be -shown over the quarter of each ship; the colours were dipped at the -gaff-peak, the yard-heads filled, a parting cheer exchanged, and each -left the other to plough through the waste of waters, and each, ere -the sun set, would be "hull down" to the other, at the horizon. - -Then Rose hurried to her desk to record this trivial, but, to her, -important episode; but, alas! events were soon to occur which would -make her diary, if kept amid them, the most startling work of the -kind ever penned by a human hand--especially a hand so small and so -pretty as hers. - -That the young Scotch surgeon, Dr. Leslie Heriot, was very much -captivated by Rose was evident to all in the cabin; but Rose was so -accustomed to have plenty of admirers to talk to, laugh, and flirt -with, when on shore, that to have an acknowledged dangler on board -ship seemed nothing unusual, and she accepted his attentions -accordingly. - -She conceived it to be a penchant that had begun with the voyage, and -would end with it; but, being less volatile than she was, to our -young M.D. and F.R.C.S. of Edinburgh, it was a passion deeper than -she thought, and of that she was to have ample proof ere long. - -Whether it was that the irritation always consequent to headwinds -extended from the occupants of the after cabin to those of the -forecastle bunks, we know not; but about this time a very perceptible -difference began to manifest itself in the tone and conduct of the -crew towards the passengers--towards each other generally, and the -officers of the ship in particular; in short, a general insolence of -bearing, to which the latter had been quite unaccustomed. - -We have stated that they were a mixed crew; that the coloured, the -foreign, and the Yankee elements largely predominated among them; -hence, they were not the kind of men to stand upon trifles. - -Thus, when two had their grog stopped for insolence to Mr. Quail when -ordering them to work the spun-yarn winch, they drew their knives, -and swore they "would have blood, if not their Jarnaiky rum;" and so -menacing generally was the conduct of the rest, that Mr. Quail was -polite enough to content himself by entering in the ship's log a -threat he affected not to overhear, and gave the mutineers their grog -two days after, when both got three tremendous sousings, when ordered -to "lay out forward and furl the gib." - -The watch on deck at night went sometimes to sleep, committing the -care of the vessel to the winds and the man at the helm; and, as he -occasionally chose to nod also at his post, the _Hermione_ was thrice -thrown in the wind, hove flat aback with all her studding-sails set, -and fortunate it was that, on each of these occasions, the wind was -light, or some of her masts would have gone by the board. - -Sailors are never idle when at sea, as a ship perpetually finds work -for every hand at all times, were it only to "polish the -chain-cable;" but the crew of the _Hermione_ were resolutely slothful. - -By day, the men who lounged about the forecastle bitts, or stood in a -row with their backs against the bow to leeward, exchanged strange -cries, whoops, signals, and scraps of low ribald songs with those who -were engaged aloft, or elsewhere; and more than once the man at the -wheel ventured to do so likewise; and when told by Captain Phillips -never again to come aft the mainmast, or appear on the quarter-deck, -he very deliberately spat thereon, and told him that he and his -quarter-deck might both be--not blessed at least. - -These unusual indications were quite enough to cause alarm, and a day -seldom passed that Captain Phillips, Mr. Quail, and his three mates, -did not confer about them, or exchange glances, the anxiety and -import of which Mr. Basset and his two daughters knew nothing. - -The captain dreaded that this secret spirit of disorder might develop -itself in scenes of outrage when the old, and now almost disused, -ceremony of receiving Neptune and crossing the Line took place. To -ignore the occasion might cause discontent, and to celebrate it might -provoke what he feared; but, fortunately, for twenty-four hours, -about the time of crossing the equator, the wind blew almost a -hurricane, so Neptune and his visit were alike forgotten. - -There was one occasion on which Hawkshaw hoped to get rid, at least, -of one of his chief sources of dread--the Barradas. - -There fell a dead calm one day about noon; the air was almost -suffocating, the sea like glass or oil, and there was not a breath of -wind to stir the canvas, or even to wave the scarlet fringes of the -quarter-deck awning, under the shade of which Ethel and Rose reclined -languidly, with light summer dresses, and fan in hand. - -It was strange that with this listlessness below there seemed to be -aloft a current of air, which did not descend even to the -skysail-yards, but played with the vane and its scarlet streamer on -the mainmast-head. - -On this day the _Hermione_ was about a hundred miles to the northward -of St. Helena. The air was thin and ambient; the sunlight, broad and -blazing, exhaling from the sea a thin white haze, which, at the dim -horizon, made the sea and sky so blend together, that none could tell -where cloud began and water ended. - -Through the glassy surface of the still, calm sea the black crooked -fin of a great shark was seen, as he glided stealthily alongside, -preceded, as usual, by the long, wriggling pilot-fish. - -It was evidently a white shark, by the mode in which he swallowed; -for when the cook cast some offal to him, he turned on his back, and -opening his dreadful mouth, exhibited his six-fold row of teeth, -triangular, and sharp as razors. This terrible apparatus for -mastication is quite flat in the mouth when the shark is in a state -of quietude; but when biting or swallowing food, it has the power of -erecting it with vast power, by the enormous muscles of the jaw. - -The whole body being of a light ash colour, his grim form, with the -motion of his pectoral fins, could be distinctly seen, as he floated -alongside, or glided to and fro. - -Now Zuares Barradas, a daring and athletic young fellow, stripped of -everything but his canvas trousers, appeared suddenly in the -starboard forechains with a coil of rope in his hand, and a murmur -almost rang along the deck, as he made one end of his coil fast to a -belaying-pin, preparatory to plunging into the sea. - -"Oh, Mr. Quail!" exclaimed Ethel, "is he about to fish for that -dreadful thing?" - -"No, miss," replied Quail, quietly; "he is going to attack it." - -"Attack it?" - -"Yes, in the water. Shouldn't care if a few more tried the same -game," growled the mate. - -"Is it not rashness--madness? So handsome a young man, too," -continued Ethel, greatly excited. - -"It is rashness and madness too, as you say, Miss Basset." - -"You will prevent it, surely?" - -"By no means. The weather is warm; if he wants a dip, let him have -it," replied the mate, who had not forgotten that Zuares was one of -the men who had drawn his knife when his grog was stopped. - -Before he could be either warned or prevented, the younger Barradas -sprang into the jolly-boat, which had been alongside for the -carpenter, who had taken advantage of the calm to perform some piece -of work upon the outer sheathing. - -Shoving off to the full extent of the painter, Zuares stood for a -moment in an attitude which showed his handsome, athletic, and tawny -form to great advantage, and when the horrible shark came within six -yards of the boat, rising at the same time so near to the surface -that his gray body shone through the pea-green sea, as if scaled with -gold and silver, a cry of terror burst from Ethel Basset, as Zuares -plunged headlong into the water, within three feet of his jaws. - -Turning instantly, the shark shot towards his expected prey, who rose -near his tail, and, on the shark turning again, dived once more -beneath him, with a skill and courage he could only have acquired on -the half-savage shores of his native country. - -All on deck beheld this strange and perilous game with breathless -interest, and even the ruffianly crew were hushed into silence by a -scene so unexpected. - -Thrice the ill-matched antagonists appeared on the surface, Zuares -swimming with the hand he had at liberty, and keeping the other, with -the coiled rope, behind him on his loins, the shark following, but -warily, as if in doubt. Each time Zuares got breath he dived -headlong down, and on the third time, the monster dived after him, so -closely and so simultaneously, that not a doubt remained in the minds -of those who lined the ship's gunwale that they had encountered -below, and that the bubbles, now rising fast to the surface, would -soon be tinged with blood. - -Even the swarthy visage and beetling brow of Pedro Barradas grew -pale; and his present emotion found vent in a heavy curse. - -Ethel and Rose covered their faces, and sank down on the quarter-deck -seat. Nance Folgate gazed steadily at the place where the shark and -seaman had disappeared, and continued to utter a series of noisy -outcries, and "Lor' a mussy me's!" - -Five, ten, fifteen, twenty seconds elapsed--they seemed an age; then -suddenly the slack of the rope at the starboard fore-rigging was seen -to tighten and pay out. - -"Tail on--tally on--yeo-heavo!" was now the cry, and a dozen pairs of -strong hands were pulling at it, and meeting, apparently, with a -resistance that threatened to snap the rope. - -At that moment, Zuares Barradas, panting, breathless and weary, rose -to the surface at some distance, and swam leisurely towards the boat, -while the shark--round the tail of which, and the small back fin that -is close thereto, he had, in some fashion known best to himself, -contrived to loop the rope tightly--was drawn, ignominiously and in -great wrath, tail-foremost from his proper element. - -A hurrah, rather varying in its cadence, as it did not come from -British throats, greeted the monster's appearance as he floundered -alongside, with his head downwards, and his awful jaws rasping and -scraping in impotent fury against the ship's outer sheathing. - -Up, up he was hoisted tailwise; then the carpenter, armed with his -hatchet, descended into the fore-chains, and put an end to his power, -by severing the spinal column, after which Jack Shark was cut adrift -to perish, and amid great exultation the intrepid Zuares was hauled -on board. - -His right arm was severely lacerated and bleeding; but this, he -stated, was done by one of the monster's fins, and not its jaws. - -Handsome though the young fellow was, Ethel and Rose beheld him more -with fear than admiration, for his feat savoured of a courage that -was reckless or diabolical. - -"True," said Dr. Heriot, aside to Mr. Quail; "a fellow who sets so -little store upon his own life will set still less upon ours." - -Although Captain Phillips would, perhaps, have felt small regret had -Zuares shared the fate of the Prophet Jonah, he ordered the steward -to give him a good tot of grog, and ere long, as the breeze sprang up -and sail was made on the ship, nothing remained of an adventure so -exciting, but an entry made very briefly by Mr. Quail in the ship's -log:-- - -"4 P.M., _calm. Zuares Sarradas caught and killed a shark_. - -"6 P.M., _steady breeze; people employed in shifting the foretopsail -and slushing the mainmast. Pumps attended to as usual._" - -The pumps and the foretopsail were evidently of more importance to -Mr. Quail than the shark and its story. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII. - -HAWKSHAW'S OLD FRIENDS. - -One day, Ethel, inspired perhaps by Hawkshaw's evil genius, expressed -a wish to go forward and see what she termed "the front part of the -ship." - -Her papa and Dr. Heriot were near; but as Hawkshaw had a jealous -dislike of Heriot's attention to the sisters, and Mr. Basset had no -desire to take more trouble than was absolutely necessary, the -ex-captain drew closer to her, on which she said: - -"Please take me to see it." - -Hawkshaw, though he would almost as soon have walked into a furnace, -gave his hand reluctantly to Ethel, pulled his newly-donned -wide-awake down over his eyes, and led her forward from the sanctum -of the quarter-deck. - -Though in no way enchanted with her cavalier, Ethel, with a -minuteness that, to him, was alike distressing and provoking, -insisted on examining everything in this new region of the ship. The -capstan, with its drumhead, pals, and bars; the hatches, with their -tarpaulins and iron bands; the long-boat upon its chocks, lashed -amidships, full of hens, pigs, and all the debris of the deck; the -cook's galley, with its hot, steaming coppers and tin pans; the -skuttle-butt, from which the sailors drunk their water, by a long tin -measure lowered through the bung-hole; the bowsprit, riding gallantly -above the foam, with its perpendicular martingale for guying down the -headstays, dipping in the sea from time to time; the catheads with -their double sheaves; the windlass, the best bower anchor, and the -sheet anchor; and last of all, she peeped into the forecastle bunks, -a dreary-looking little den, in the berths of which a number of the -ruffian-like crew were lounging, sleeping, and some, in defiance of -all orders, smoking pipes and cigaritos. - -So full of interest had the beautiful and intelligent girl been while -exploring this new world, passing from object to object, stepping -lightly and gracefully with her gathered skirts above her pretty -tapered ankles, that some time elapsed before she perceived, that -which the more wary Hawkshaw had from the first observed, the cool -and deliberate insolence with which the seamen--so unlike British -seamen--were observing her. They loitered or stood directly in her -way, and, when she begged pardon or turned aside, they leered at her, -thrust their tongues in their cheeks, applied their forefingers to -the side of their noses, whistled, and betrayed other and -unmistakable signs of coarse wit or insolent admiration. - -Ignorant of all this, poor Ethel continued to loiter among them, -thinking them all very brave and fine fellows, though very dirty, and -quite unlike William in "Black-eyed Susan," with his spotless -trousers, tight at the waist and loose at the feet, his low-crowned, -varnished hat, with its black ribbon, his dandy jacket, broad collar, -and black silk neckerchief, with its peculiar tie. - -The Barradas, Bill Badger, and Co., were the very antipodes of all -this; but now the cook's galley interested her again. - -"Oh, Captain Hawkshaw--the cat--look at the poor cat!" she exclaimed, -as this useful domestic animal peeped at her from amid the cook's -kettles. - -"Well, Ethel, what of the cat?" - -"See, what a horror it is!" continued Ethel, pointing to pussy, who -had neither ears nor tail, and whose usually silky coat was coarse as -that of a Spitzbergen bear, by almost daily immersions in the salt -water of the lee-scuppers. "Captain Hawkshaw, tell me----" - -"You must not speak so loudly, Miss Basset!" said that personage, -with uncontrollable asperity and alarm. "I am close beside you; and -others will hear as well as myself," he added. - -"Others, sir?" repeated Ethel, with astonishment. - -"You were about to ask something," said he, with visible uneasiness -and confusion. - -"I was about to ask who had mutilated the poor animal so cruelly." - -"How can I say? Some ruffian, no doubt. Come aft, and ask the -captain about it." - -"Lord love you, marm," said the cook--a greasy black fellow, who -seemed to be in a perpetual state of steam, grime, and perspiration; -and no wonder, when he had his blazing coppers around him, and -overhead a tropical sun that melted pitch out of the decks--"there -ain't no cruelty in this whatsomdever." - -"What! no cruelty in mutilating the poor animal thus?" - -"It's natur's wicious, marm," replied the cook, with great -earnestness. "'Tain't lucky to have a cat aboard o' ship, or a -parson neither, for the matter o' that. We can't dock the parson; -but we docks the cat, as you see." - -"Poor little pussy!" - -"Poor! be darned, marm! I shears off the ears for'ard, and docks the -tail aft, leavin' on'y the starn post; and so a cook's knife alters -their appearance and their wicious nature entirely." - -"What strange stuff is that you are cooking?" - -"Scouse, for the fork'stle, marm; have a taste?" replied the cook, -offering a huge dirty ladle, filled with a queer mess, to Ethel's -lovely lip. - -But she shrank back; so he poured down his capacious throat the -scalding contents, which, in reality, was a savoury mess, composed of -salt junk, chopped into small pieces, bruised biscuits, potatoes, -suet and pepper, all stewed up together, and ready to be served up in -the wooden kid for the ship's crew. - -"Shall we go aft, now?" said Hawkshaw, with irrepressible annoyance. - -"Yes, please," replied Ethel, hastening away, on finding herself the -centre of what she deemed a curious, but which was in reality an -impertinently admiring group. - -And, grasping the belaying pins to steady her steps, she hastened -towards the quarter alone, for Hawkshaw remained behind, paralysed, -and almost cursing her in his heart, on finding himself confronted by -the bulky form and lowering front of Pedro Barradas. - -He saw that Ethel, alone and unattended, had reached a seat near the -taffrail, and was now beside her father, Rose, Dr. Heriot, and some -of the ship's officers; so he turned hastily away, seeking to get aft -by passing between the foremast and the forehatch; but there he was -encountered by Bill Badger, the raw-boned, red-skinned, and -ruffianly-looking Yankee, who said, while touching his hat in -insolent mockery: - -"Avast! I beg yer pardon, Capting 'Awkshaw, but haul yer wind. I -calculate there's a yellow cove as wants to speak with yer uncommon -pertic'lar--one o' the not-to-be-done squadron." - -Turning, with rage and desperation in his heart, Hawkshaw affected a -calm exterior, and said, suavely, to Barradas: - -"I believe you wish to speak with me, my good fellow?" - -"Ha! ha! ha! _morte de Dios_; how well he does it!" exclaimed the -black-whiskered Pedro, slapping his huge thigh with a great brown, -hairy hand, and showing a row of strong white teeth that a shark -might envy. "But it won't do, capitano--_caramba!_ it won't do!" - -"I do not comprehend you, fellow!" said Hawkshaw, with an assumption -of dignity. - -"Oho! hallo, mates, he doesn't comprehend. Shall I make him?" - -"Aye, aye; pitch into the cork-sucker!" growled several of the crew, -bent upon mischief. - -"Step with me this way," said Hawkshaw, with growing perturbation, -drawing Pedro Barradas towards the bow of the long-boat. "I assure -you that I am quite at a loss to know what you mean." - -"Mean!" thundered the other, with a scowl on his dark visage, so -terrible that Hawkshaw expected next moment to see a sharp knife -glittering at his throat; "do you pretend to say that you have -forgotten our old South American life, _camarado_, and how well you -handled your lasso in the Barranca Secca, between Orizaba and the -Puebla de Perote?" - -"You are labouring under some strange mistake." - -"If I were, would you take it so quietly, unless you were a coward? -Mistaken! _Por vida del demonio_, I am not!" - -"You are, fellow!" - -"Oh, no, we are not mistaken," sneered the seaman. - -"We?" - -"Yes, we--Zuares and I. We knew you at once, and have known you ever -since we cleared the Thames; so you may as well let your beard grow, -and leave off skulking below when we take our trick at the wheel, or -our spell at church on Sunday. You may as well leave off your -blasted quarter-deck airs, too, for they won't go down with either of -us." - -"Scoundrel!" began Hawkshaw. - -"Hah! is it to be _guerra al cuchillo_ between us?" said the half -Spaniard, touching his knife with a grim smile; "if so, _cuidar con -el lobo!_"--(beware of the wolf.) - -"Let me pass," said Hawkshaw, choking with rage. - -"Not yet. I see you have still on your finger the ring we cut off -the hand of the old padre, whom we lured into the Barranca, by -sending, in the name of our Lady of Guadaloupe, a message that he -must hasten to a dying man." - -"Liar!" hissed Hawkshaw, while the crew drew nearer. - -"He bent down to hear the confession of the expiring sinner--you, -capitano--YOU, who sprang up and cut his throat. Ho! ho! Demonio, I -knew from the first that we were _companeros de viage_." - -"Villain and fiend!" muttered Hawkshaw, while drops of shame and rage -rolled over his damp, pale visage, and his hands longed to clutch the -muscular throat of the brawnier, mocking, and malevolent Barradas; -"villain and fiend! so you are here?" - -"Yes, and Zuares, too, Senor Capitano, as you have known well by the -skulking aft; so civility is best. Oh, neither of us have forgotten -that pleasant afternoon which we spent together in the Barranca -Secca." - -"Was I to blame for your mistake, or your brother's crime?" - -"Now, what have you to say that I do not denounce you to your fine -friends in the cabin, eh?--particularly to that girl with the dark -eyes. Santos! what shoulders she has, such a bust and ankles! and -then, there is that pretty little mina-bird, her sister, with the red -cheeks and plump arms. It makes a fellow's mouth water to see them -here upon the open ocean, so far from land--and help, eh, mates?--one -would admire a coal-black negress here. And so you love the oldest -one, capitano, eh?" - -Hawkshaw drew back with indignant disgust at the idea of Ethel being -referred to by such lips. - -"Hah, did I sting you there?" resumed Barradas; "well, beware that -you do not feel all the bitterness of losing her." - -"Losing her?" - -"Yes--before our ground-tackle is rove and ready. Take care," -continued the mocking ruffian, "that you do not experience the -bitterness of seeing a happiness that shall never be yours, _ours_. -Harkee, _hombre_, can your fair ones swim?" - -"Why?" asked Hawkshaw, mechanically. - -"We meant to have had some fun with them when we crossed the Line, -and shall have it yet. In their dainty white English skins--nothing -else, remember--they will look uncommonly pretty floundering -alongside, in the belly of a top-gallant studding-sail, won't -they--eh?" - -"You cannot mean--you dare not!" gasped Hawkshaw. - -"Oh, don't be shocked, _companero_, before that comes to pass, you -and some others shall have walked the plank, or been shot endlong, -foot foremost, off a grating to leeward. Do you remember the Gulf of -Florida, and what we did there to the mate of the _Polacca_?" - -"Will you keep silent?" groaned Hawkshaw. - -"Yes--if I am paid for it," grinned the other. - -"Of course." - -"But how am I to answer for Zuares, unless he is paid, too?" - -"Of course," replied Hawkshaw, utterly bewildered. - -The storm so long dreaded had burst upon him at last; and this was -all he reaped by the cruel manner in which he had supplanted Morley -Ashton. - -"Well, the _duros_?" resumed Pedro, with a scowl, placing his hooked -nose instantly within an inch of Hawkshaw's. - -"I have no money." - -"_Maldita!_" replied the South American, with a frown, "have you -nothing?" - -"Absolutely nothing--but this watch." - -"Let us see it--presto!" said the impatient Pedro, with an oath that -made even Hawkshaw shudder. - -Turning his back to the quarter-deck, the latter drew from his vest -pocket, with a sullen, humiliated, and hang-dog aspect, a handsome -gold watch. - -"_Muchos gratias_," said the mocking Barradas, with a grin, as he -snatched it away with such force as to snap the guard; and then he -thrust it into one of the pockets of his tarry trowsers, adding, "Now -be off to your quarter-deck, and take care how you come forward -again, _until you are wanted--vaya usted al demonio!_ and the devil -go with you!" - -Barradas spat at Hawkshaw, with a scowl in his face, and turning -away, walked to the forecastle, laughing. - -A red blindness came over Hawkshaw, as if a crimson cloud enveloped -him; he trembled in every limb, and his breath came in short painful -gaspings. So black was his fury, that at first he thought of getting -a revolver from his baggage, and shooting both the Barradas before -the passengers and crew; but the fear of being instantly immolated by -the latter restrained him, for he was a coward at heart, and one, -moreover, who felt that he dared not die! - -He was staggering, oppressed by hate, by rage, and shame, with the -voice and mocking laugh of Barradas and his companions ringing in his -ears, filling his tortured heart with bitterness and confusion, when -suddenly several men on the weather-side exclaimed: - -"A man in the water!" - -"A dead body alongside!" - -"Lay the ship in the wind!" - -"Where away?" cried Mr. Quail. - -"It's to leeward now. Bear a hand, boys; lower away the -quarter-boat--stand by the falls." - -This clamour, perhaps, arrested some immediate catastrophe, and gave -a new current to the fierce emotions of Hawkshaw. - -Though everything was set aloft that would draw or catch a breath of -air, the breeze was very light, and all upon the starboard beam; thus -the ship went very slowly through the water, with a steady but gentle -heel to port. - -Far away to leeward the western sun cast her giant shadow upon the -sunny bosom of the deep, and it was in the midst of that shadow, -about twenty yards from the ship, that the sad object was seen -floating. - -Soon it was abeam; then on the lee quarter, and soon astern, among -the gold-tipped summits of the waves, as they rippled up in rapid -succession beneath the passing breath of the light breeze. - -Captain Phillips gave orders to lie to; so the mainyard was backed, -and two of the crew, who owned the aristocratic names of Cribbit and -Bolter, accompanied by Dr. Heriot, Manfredi, and Hawkshaw (who, after -his late excitement, was anxious to do something, he knew not what), -shoved off in the larboard quarter-boat, with four six-pound shots in -a canvas bag, to sink the body after examining it. - -A few strokes of the oar brought them alongside, scaring away a flock -of Mother Gary's chickens that were hovering and tripping about it. - -The body appeared to be that of a young seaman. - -It was floating on its face, as all male corpses do when in the -water, while those of females float on their back. How is it -so?--let naturalists determine. - -With his death-clutch his hands still grasped the lanyard of a -life-buoy, from which the action of the weather had effaced the -ship's name, and, as the poor fellow was minus a jacket, there were -no pockets to search for anything that could lead to his identity. -His dark hair rose and fell, floating on the water with every ripple -that ran past him. - -"He must have fallen overboard in the night, or belonged to some -craft which has foundered in a storm that has not come our way," said -Manfredi. - -"Aye, aye," added Dr. Heriot; "some morning, perhaps the poor fellow -little thought his soul would be required of him ere night; and -little thinks some poor wife or sweetheart, mother or sister, that -one they love is floating thus, so far from land." - -"How long has he been in the water?" asked Hawkshaw, in a low tone. - -"About four days, I think," replied Dr. Heriot, who, as he spoke, -smartly lashed the bag containing the four six-pound shots to the -feet of the corpse, at the same time desiring Hawkshaw with a -clasp-knife to cut away the lanyard of the life-buoy, which was -grasped by the hands of the deceased. - -Hawkshaw reluctantly and shudderingly obeyed. - -Then, as the poor corpse began to sink feet foremost, slowly, -solemnly, and gradually into the pale green and transparent sea, the -head rose, nodding, but almost erect, from the water. - -The face became visible in the glare of the setting sun, now almost -level with the sea, and an exclamation of horror burst from Hawkshaw, -as he fell backward over the middle thwarts of the boat, for in the -ghastly lineaments of the sinking dead man, as the sea closed slowly -over them, he seemed to recognise--oh, was it conscience, fancy, or -reality?--the dreaded features of MORLEY ASHTON! - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV. - -UP ANCHOR. - -In all the fleet of merchantmen which crowded the busy harbour of Rio -de Janeiro, Morley could not discover a single vessel bound for the -Isle of France. There were hundreds freighted for Holland, the -Mediterranean, the Baltic, the United States, Britain, and elsewhere, -but not one for the island of his pilgrimage. So kind Tom Bartelot's -generosity was proffered in vain, and for a time poor Morley was in -despair! - -To return to England merely to find that Ethel and her family had -sailed at the appointed time, months ago, for the Isle of France, was -a line of action to which he, by nature restless, impetuous, and -impatient, could by no means reconcile himself to adopt. - -He wrote to her a passionate and loving letter by the British mail, -addressed to Laurel Lodge, to be forwarded after her, if she had -left. In this letter he detailed the story of his disappearance, -revealed the true character of Hawkshaw, and concluded by declaring -that, whatever happened, death alone would prevent him from finding -his way to her before the year was out. - -And this letter, which he knew might be months in reaching her, he -dropped into the post-office in the Rua Dirieta, with a sigh of hope, -and turned away sadly, again to seek the docks where the _Princess_ -lay, feeling oppressively in his heart that his youth was almost -gone--his once bright, hopeful youth gone--and without avail. A -bitter, bitter conviction! - -His letter, penned at such a distance from her, in a humble little -posada, frequented by seamen, in the Campo de Santa Anna, though duly -forwarded by the mail from Rio to Liverpool (for reasons which the -reader will learn ere long) never reached the hand of Ethel Basset. - -This, happily for himself, Morley could scarcely anticipate. The -return steamer from Liverpool would not leave Rio, he learned, until -its usual day of sailing (the 29th of every month); thus he knew that -the letter on which his very life seemed to depend would be lying -uselessly in the mail-bag for nearly three weeks. Tom Bartelot urged -that Morley should remain with him, and he, poor fellow, at present -had no other resource, and no immediate views. - -"One chance remains," said Tom: "the _Princess_ may get a freight for -India or China, and, if so, it will go hard with me if I don't -contrive somehow to get a sight of the Isle of France." - -But this hope was speedily dissipated by the ship being chartered for -Tasmania, or "Wan Demon's Land," as old Noah Gawthrop persisted in -calling it. - -Bartelot and Morrison were busy daily about the ship. Cast thus upon -himself, Morley rambled listlessly about the streets of Rio, feeling -downcast, forlorn, strange, and miserable. - -The glorious climate, the endless summer, the wonderful fruits and -flowers of the province, with the beauty of its capital city, alike -failed to soothe, to charm, or to interest him, for Ethel was not -there. - -In vain he visited the gay and beautiful Rua do Ouvidor, the Regent -Street of Rio, with its magnificent shops, some of which have their -enormous windows piled with massive gold and silver plate, the -produce of Brazilian mines, while others sparkle with jewels. He saw -nothing to interest him in the quaint old palace of the Portuguese -viceroy, and equally little in the noble residence of San Chris to -val. - -In vain he ascended the lofty hill which is crowned by the Church of -Our Lady of Glory, and saw, spread at his feet, the vast Bay of Rio, -with all its eighty isles and fleet of shipping, under steam, canvas, -and bare poles; its verdant eminences, every one of which is crowned -by a church or a convent, the surrounding mountains studded with -villages and villas, and all this visible by the warm and golden -light of a gorgeous Brazilian sunset in July. - -There, on the western shore, rises the City of Palaces, where the -early voyagers, 300 years ago, saw but a savage waste, a howling -wilderness. What a change in the New World since these times, when, -as quaint Richard Hakluyt informs us: - -"Old Master William Hawkins, of Plymouth, a man esteemed for his -wisdom, valour, experience, and skill in sea causes, much esteemed -and beloved of Henry VIII., and being one of the principal -sea-captains in the west port of England in his time, not contented -with the short voyages commonly made then to the coasts of Europe, -armed out a tall and goodlie ship, of the burthen of 250 tons, called -the _Paul_, of Plymouth, wherewith he made three long and prosperous -voyages unto the coast of Brazil--a thing in those days very rare, -especially in our nation." - -Great, indeed, is now the change, from those days when the _Paul_, of -Plymouth, let go her anchor in the Ganabara Janeiro, as the bay was -then named. - -If a man wishes to kill time or bury care, few places afford better -means for doing so than Rio, where all classes of that mixed race -which inhabit it have an unlimited love for mirth and pleasure; but -in vain did Morley Ashton, to the utmost of his limited means, visit -the opera, where the loveliest women of Brazil may be seen in full -ball costume, seated in boxes that are without fronts, as in our -European theatres; and alike in vain he sought the public -masquerades, and those glorious gardens by the cool seashore, for he -had but one idea, one desire, to see Rio sink astern. - -In this public garden, which is laid out with wonderful taste and -skill by a Scottish gardener, with enormous flower-pots, shrubberies, -and parterres, with winding walks between, bordered by tropical -trees, whose luxuriant foliage forms cool shades from the sun, are -beautifully-formed alcoves of trellis work, painted bright green and -gold, and over these are trained the gorgeous and odoriferous -flowering plants of that lovely clime; and in these great bowers are -nightly supper parties, lighted less by gas than by the moon or -stars, where music, mirth, laughter, love, flirtation, and frequently -dancing, make the night glide into morning unperceived; but of all -this, too, did our lost lover soon weary. - -To lessen his gnawing anxiety, to spend the weary time, to make -himself useful, and in some measure, by doing so, to repay, if only -by mere manual labour, the friendliness of Tom Bartelot, Morley tried -to become available on board the _Princess_, which was being rapidly -got ready for sea, and he endeavoured to interest himself in all the -details thereof. - -Every huge round cask of sugar or tobacco that was lowered into the -capacious hold seemed to hasten her departure, and every day that -passed was reckoned by our lover as one less of absence from Ethel. - -Ah! if, after all he had undergone, he should only meet her to find -that she was lost to him for ever! But he thrust that idea aside, -and, in spite of all that Tom Bartelot would say, he "tallyed on" at -the rope, and "took his spell," like a veritable negro, at hoisting -in the cargo. - -A numerous gang of slaves, natives of Angola (for to that province -the trade in "black passengers" is restricted in Brazil), sent by the -merchant who had chartered the ship, soon accomplished this, and ere -long the hatches were battened down, the tarpaulins spread over them, -and the iron bands locked round the coamings. - -Many of those slaves who worked on board were captured fugitives; and -to Morley's European eye there was something strikingly repulsive in -the iron neck-collars with which they were accoutred, like mastiff -dogs, while others had masks of tin that concealed the lower part of -their faces, and were secured at the back by iron padlocks. - -Yet these poor wretches were as merry as crickets withal, and tramped -away with their bare black feet on the sun-blistered deck, keeping -chorus and time to some uncouth ditty which they had learned in the -vast forests of their native Angola. - -In their activity, especially under the long lash of their -broad-brim-hatted taskmasters, they formed a strange contrast to the -lazy Portuguese, or Spanish South Americans, who lounged, or, to use -a well-known western word, "loafed" about the piers and quays in the -sunshine, clad in their coarse but brilliantly-coloured _surreppas_ -or blanket-cloaks, that hid their rags, or, it may be, nakedness -below; their poncho wrappers, or _abarcas_, or leather leggings, -wherein the dagger-knife was stuck, like the skene-dhu of the -Scottish Highlanders--solemn, stately, and polite ragamuffins, always -smoking, wherever or however got, a paper cigarito. - -Slowly, slowly, to Morley Ashton, seemed to pass the hours of the -insipid anchor-watch, when he performed that duty, with his eyes -fixed on the countless lights of Rio, that shed long lines of -tremulous radiance across the bay, and his thoughts, as ever, with -Ethel Basset. - -This is a small watch, composed of one, and, at times, of two men, -who look after the ship while at anchor or in port; and Morley was -frequently so abstracted or taciturn that his watchmate or companion, -when he had one, usually coiled himself up and dozed off to sleep -under the counter of the longboat, so our poor lover, when left in -charge of the deck, always forgot to strike the bell, which it was -his duty to do every half hour, as if the vessel were at sea. - -On the 23rd July, after being thirteen days in Rio de Janeiro, the -_Princess_ was ready for sea, and blue peter flying at her -foremast-head. The hands were all busy preparing for their new and -long voyage; the royal-yards were crossed aloft; the chafing gear -(mats or other stuff to save the rigging from being frayed) was -shipped on the backstays, or wherever necessary; the last of the sea -stores were taken in, and the studding-sail gear rove. - -The carpenter gave the ship a final touch of paint all round, the -standing and running rigging got their last overhauling, after the -fag-end of the cargo, which was principally composed of tobacco and -sugar, was hoisted in from a lighter alongside, and stowed away by -negroes between decks; the last boat laden with water had come off -and been hoisted to the davits, and about 4 P.M. Morley, with delight -in his heart, heard Bartelot's welcome order: - -"All hands stand by the anchor--ahoy!" - -It was soon heaved up, and hung dripping at the cathead; then came -the next orders to set the courses, cast loose the topsails, jib, and -staysails, to sheet home and hoist away. - -Old Noah Gawthrop grasped the wheel, the sails filled, her head payed -off, and the tall cone of the giant Pao d'Asucar, which was before -astern, was now on the larboard bow, and the _Princess_ began to -leave the harbour of Rio. - -In working out among the many isles which stud that magnificent bay, -bracing the yards sharp to port and then to starboard every few -minutes, a tug steamer nearly ran foul of her. - -"Look out!" shouted the carpenter, who was probably thinking of his -new paint, while assisting to get the anchor a-cockbill; "are your -eyes no better than sojers' buttons, Noah?" - -Old Noah, who handled the ship to perfection, disdained to reply as -he looked grimly at the puffing, pursy tug; but, nevertheless, -contrived to let the foreyardarm get foul of the foretopmast -rattlings of an ugly, squat, hermaphrodite brig[*] which shot -suddenly round the little isle of Paqueta, going at great speed, with -a vast fore-and-aft mainsail. - - -[*] A vessel with a schooner's mainmast and brig's foremast. - - -"Hallo, Noah," cried Morrison; "are you playing at sojers with that -wheel?" - -"Are you going to sleep? Wipe your eyes with the flying jib," added -Bartelot angrily, while some men jumped aloft and got the hamper -clear. - -"Dash my wig!" growled Noah, "after clearing a dirty smoke-jack, to -run foul o' that ere confounded butter-box! 'tain't like me, sir, -'tain't like me." - -"I know it is not like your steering, you old Triton," said Tom -Bartelot; "but keep a bright look-out for the next craft that comes -near us, or your next glass of grog won't be measured by the rule of -thumb." - -Poor old Noah, who had been a man-of-war's-man, and served with the -Black Sea fleet at Sebastopol, and who rather prided himself upon his -steering, almost wept with shame and vexation. Spasms twisted his -ancient visage, which was wrinkled like the kernel of a dry nut, and -his grey eyes, the pupils of which were like herring scales, glared -as he griped the wheel, with an air as much as to say: - -"Thumb-grog or not, sir, pity the next craft as I runs foul -on--damme!" - -And here, for the information of the uninitiated in such matters, we -may mention that the grog so specially mentioned, referred to that -made for the watch who came below in the dark; it was measured by -dipping the thumb into the can, to ascertain when it contained enough -of rum before adding water thereto; but, as the nights were often -cold as well as dark, the regular old salt had usually no sensation -in his thumb till the rum rose to the second joint thereof. - -"'Twarn't my fault, sir!" resumed Noah, as Bartelot came aft; "that -hermaphrodite brig don't answer her helm a bit--see how her mainsheet -jibs." - -"She is an old tub," said Bartelot, "and rolls at least twenty times -per minute in a sea-way, or, like a crab, goes sideways, -broadside-on, and any way but ahead." - -"Shiver my topsails!" shouted Noah, with delight, "if she won't be -bump ashore upon that blowed island of Packwetty, and sarve her -right, too." - -Contrary to his revengeful wish, however, the brig cleared it, and -now the _Princess_ soon passed the Castle of Santa Cruz, the giant -rock of the Pao d'Asucar, after which she felt the full force of the -sea breeze, and trimmed her sails on the starboard tack. - -Morley was full of joy, and strangely excited. - -The evening was a splendid one, and all the crew were in their summer -gear--straw hats, white duck trousers, and flannel shirts of any -colour they chose. - -By 8 P.M. the coast of Brazil was many miles off, and all the outline -of the land wore a deep blue indigo tint, against a warm sky of the -most brilliant gold and burnt-sienna, that gradually turned to -crimson, as the sun set behind the mountains of the Corcovado, the -Sugar-loaf, and La Gaviá. - -The pharos at the mouth of the Bay of Rio was twinkling like a star -that sunk at times amid the darkening waves, while, with night -closing around her, the _Princess_, with royals and studding-sails -set, bore swiftly on her course through the lonely waters of the -Southern Atlantic Ocean. - - - - -CHAPTER XXV. - -THE SUSPICIOUS SAIL. - -Though, to the impatient landsman, life on board ship becomes soon -monotonous, to be once again at sea was soothing to Morley Ashton. -He was not without imagination, and something of the poetic in his -temperament; thus, when contemplating the ocean, he felt how much -there is of the grand and sublime, the terrible and beautiful, the -free and fetterless in it; and hence, perhaps, the great popularity -of most tales, novels, and romances, which refer to that aqueous -element. - -Morley seemed to become a new man. With all his disappointments, he -was too young not to feel the fresh impulses of youth strong within -him; and thus hope seemed to come with the keen breeze that blew over -the starlit sea, as he and Morrison trod the deck, keeping together -the middle watch, which extends from midnight till four in the -morning. - -"There is," says one of the liveliest of our English writers, "a -great feeling of freedom in being the arbiter of one's actions, to go -where you will and when you will. The first burst of life is, -indeed, a glorious thing; youth, health, hope, and confidence, have -each a force and vigour they lose in after years. Life is then, a -splendid river, and we are swimming with the stream.--no adverse -waves to weary, no billows to buffet with us, as we hold on our way -rejoicing." - -Morley had buffeted with many adverse waves, but it was the ardour -and confidence of this "first burst of life" and spring of youth that -enabled him to surmount them; and, inspired by it, he looked -hopefully and manfully forward to the vague and uncertain future. - -Being an intelligent, well-educated, and well-read man, with a strong -sense of probity and trust in religion, Morrison, though several -years his senior, formed an admirable companion and occasional mentor -to Morley. He was a man who had undergone many vicissitudes in life; -but believing rigidly that all things were ordered for our ultimate -good, and nothing evil occurred which might not have been worse, he -passed through the world with a tolerable air of philosophy, and he -contrived somehow to infuse into Morley's more ardent nature the -quiet of content for the present time, with a spirit of perseverance -and hope for that to come. - -So Morrison talked away about Ethel Basset, as if he had known her -all his life. He pointed out a variety of ways and means for -reaching the Isle of France. He calculated the distance to a nicety; -about 2,400 miles from Rio to the Cape; about 4,800 miles from thence -to Tasmania; and about 2,400 more from thence to the Isle of France. -In short, making allowance for variation, leeway, head-winds, and so -forth, poor Morley found that he must traverse at least 9,600 miles -before he saw the land that was Ethel's new home! - -At this calculation he could not repress a sigh and an emotion of -repining, notwithstanding all the patience and philosophy with which -his Scottish friend sought to inspire him. - -But the ship flew fast on her watery path. She was spanking along at -the rate of nine knots an hour over a smooth sea with a glorious sky -overhead--a sky wherein he saw, for the first time, the Hole, or, as -sailors term it, "the Coal-sack," a deep and dark blue starless space -in the southern quarter of the heavens, an appearance only to be -found in those latitudes where, in its far immensity of lightless -azure, that portion of the sky becomes black, as if it had been -pierced by a hole. - -After they had been three days out from Rio, early in the morning, -Morley was roused from sleep, first by the rattling and hauling aft -of the starboard chain, which the watch on deck were unbending for -stowage in the cable-tier, and second by a conversation at the -companion hatch, where he heard the voices of Bartelot and Gawthrop, -who both summoned Morrison with something of excitement in their -tone, so he, too, hurried on deck. - -The wind, which had been due west all night, enabling the _Princess_ -to run her course with both sheets aft, had veered round to the -northward: so she was now trimmed with her starboard tacks on board, -and had all her fore-and-aft canvas set. - -"What is the matter?" asked Morley. - -"Look astern," replied Bartelot. - -He did so, and saw a long, low brigantine, with a black hull, and a -vast spread of snow-white canvas, heading directly in their wake -about ten miles astern. - -Every time she rose upon a wave her bright copper flashed in the -morning sun, and the foam that flew off from each side from her sharp -black prow was white as the cloth of the long tapering jib and fly -ing-jib that bellied out from the bowsprit and boom above. - -The crew of the _Princess_ were all grouped aft about the quarter, -regarding her with some anxiety, conferring in whispers, and the -telescope was passed alternately from Bartelot and Morrison to Noah -Gawthrop, Ben Plank, the carpenter, and some of the older men of the -crew. - -"Is there anything suspicious about her?" asked Morley of Gawthrop, -who was taking a long and steady look at her through a -tarpaulin-covered telescope. - -Noah did not reply immediately; but vigorously expectorated his quid -to leeward, and again applied his stern grey visual organ to the -glass, puckering up the other fearfully as he closed it. - -"When I came on deck this morning that craft was hull down at the -horizon, bearing northward close-hauled; but she soon altered her -course and headed directly after us. As I did not like the cut of -her jib, or her hull either, for the matter of that, I kept the ship -away six or eight points, upon which she still headed after us, and -spread more canvas, which I saw her crew had been wetting. I hoisted -our ensign, to which she made no reply by showing any colour, not -even a thread of bunting. She is full of men; I don't like her look -at all, and don't see why she should be dodging in this way." - -This was the explanation of Bartelot, who added: - -"And now, Noah, what do you say?" - -"I say, sir, as she's a powerfully-built brigantine--coppered to the -bends, sharp as a needle, and harmed, too, sir--harmed. She has -stings in her, that wasp has! Blowed if I don't see 'em a-tricing up -her bow ports now! She's up to some mischief, that confounded -miskitty; so as we can't meet her in her own fashion, my advice, -captain, is to give her a jolly wide berth." - -"Just what I mean to do, Noah. She has gained a knot on us in the -last twenty minutes; so, on a wind, we are no match for her; but -before the wind we'll give her the go-by hand over hand." - -Bartelot now ordered the vessel's course to be altered due south; the -tacks to be brought aft, the fore-and-aft canvas to be reduced, the -studding-sails to be set, and each, before it was hoisted out, was -well drenched by buckets of water, to make the canvas draw better; -and from the tops and cross-trees the courses and topsails underwent -a similar process. The royals were set, and little triangular -skysails above them, too; thus, in a very few minutes, the _Princess_ -was flying right before the wind under a mighty spread of canvas. - -The morning breeze was fresh and increasing, and as she tore through -the glittering water at the rate of ten knots an hour, deeply laden -as she was, it literally smoked under her bows, and flew over her -dripping catheads, while her new wake was one of white froth, like a -mill-race, extending at an acute angle from the old one. - -"Hah! look there--how well I knew she was bent on mischief!" -exclaimed Bartelot. A white puff, reduced by distance to the size of -a whiff of tobacco, escaped from, her lee-bow, and a long time after, -for she was nine miles or so astern, the report of a cannon came over -the water, but still no colours were displayed. "I knew it would -come to this; round goes her foretopsail-yard square before the wind." - -With man-o'-war-like rapidity she, too, altered her course, set her -fore-royal, her fore-top and top-gallant studding-sails, easing off -the long spanker-boom and sheet of her enormous fore-and-aft -mainsail, above which, on a mast that tapered away aloft like a -fishing-rod, she hoisted a tall, shoulder-of-mutton gaff-topsail. - -Fast flew the foam before her now, rising at times so high as to hide -nearly her black hull, the fulcrum above which this cloud of canvas -swayed as she rolled heavily from side to side; but, sharply though -she was built, and swiftly as she had hitherto run upon the wind, she -was no match _before_ it for a square-rigged vessel like the -_Princess_, with her greater spread of sail. - -So now she was left astern as fast as previously she had been -overhauling the _Princess_, and as both were now trimmed dead before -the wind, each rolled heavily from side to side. - -This too-evident pursuit caused considerable excitement, and no small -anxiety on board; for, with the exception of a revolver of Tom -Bartelot's, and a couple of fowling-pieces, the crew had no arms -whatever, save handspikes and their sheath knives, with which to -encounter the pirate, if such she proved to be. - -That she was not a ship of war was evident, as she did not possess -steam power, and carried neither ensign nor pennant at this juncture; -so, whatever her object was, Tom Bartelot, in his present defenceless -condition, was resolved to avoid her acquaintance, and continued to -run due south during the whole day, for though she was left astern, -the brigantine still continued to pursue them, with four long sweeps -out, which her crew worked amidships; but, about the middle of the -first dog-watch, viz., four o'clock P.M., she was more than hull down -at the horizon. - -Clouds were banking up to windward; the weather was becoming hazy; -but while daylight lasted, Bartelot did not alter his southern -course, though he took in some of his studdingsails, and sent down -his royals and skysails. - -When darkness had fairly set, he reduced the last of his -studdingsails, set his fore and mainstay sail, brought the starboard -tacks on board, and kept the ship upon her former course, after being -forced by this little rencontre on the high seas to run about 100 -miles out of it, for the ship had gone for more than ten hours at an -average of ten knots per hour by the log-line. - -He gave Gawthrop the wheel, and ordered him to steer by the stars, -when he could see them, as he kept the binnacle dark, lest its lamps, -by their light, might reveal the ship's course to some keen-sighted -mastheadman of the suspicious brigantine. The cabin lamp was lit -below, but a tarpaulin was spread over the skylight. - -Silence was ordered to be kept on deck, as water will convey every -sound to a vast distance; so, thus, in the dark, without moon, and -with very few stars visible through the gathering scud, to guide our -steersman, the ship sped upon her eastern course once more. The -chase of the day formed a fruitful theme in the cabin that night, -where they frequently congratulated themselves on their escape, and -many a strange story of the pirates, whom the progress of steam, and -its adoption in war vessels, had swept from those southern waters, -served to beguile the night. - -Morrison, who had the history and memoirs of all the buccaneers of -America and the Indian Isles by heart, particularly excelled in the -yarns he spun; but the most quaint was one he told of a Scottish -skipper--a Hebridean from Stornaway--who possessed a bottle, the -stopper of which informed him how to steer for the avoidance of -storms as well as the sailor's horn-book could do. - -"A bottle!" exclaimed Bartelot. "I have heard of many a man who has -lost his life, and his ship also, by application thereto; but never -of one who saved them through its means." - -"But this bottle and its stopper were unlike any you ever saw. - -"So 'twould seem." - -"It was one of our old flat-bottomed, blue Scotch dram-bottles, and -had a quaint stopper of delf-ware, in the form of a man's head, with -a rubicund visage, a jovial-mouth, wicked-looking little eyes, and a -comical red hat. By day, or at any time when the skipper was not -present, the queer visage which surmounted the cork remained stolid -and immovable, and to all appearance mere delf, like any other -stopper where a human face was carved or cast. But at night, when -the skipper was seated at his grog, the steward, who peeped in from -the steerage the man at the helm, who also peeped down through the -skylight; the mate or anyone else who came suddenly below for orders, -would find the skipper talking away to the stopper in the bottle -neck--the little head was seen to nod waggishly, the eyes to wink and -leer, the mouth to laugh, and the little red tongue to speak merrily; -and it was further said, that the bottle had the admirable and -economical property of being always half full----" - -"Like the widow's cruse of oil?" - -"Yes; but with the best Campbelton--some said Islay whisky--the -quantity of which never diminished, yet it was never replenished by -the steward, for the skipper seemed to prize his bottle as if it were -the lamp of Aladdin, and always locked it carefully fast in the stern -locker." - -"And where is this jolly old bottle now?" - -"At his death, he bequeathed it to a crack-brained skipper of -Montrose, who, under its influence, astounded the public by the -discoveries he made." - -"How?" - -"He sent the spirit of the bottle, in the form of a woman--a -_clairvoyante_--to pry aboard a war ship in the West Indies; to -search for Sir John Franklin; to visit his family in heaven, and -bring back locks of their hair; to inquire after numerous enemies, -who had all gone to the other place--and all of which revelations he -duly recorded as they came to pass, in a Scotch newspaper, to the -great astonishment of the queen's lieges." - -About twelve o'clock, Bartelot went on deck, and adjusted his -night-glass to sweep the horizon; but so dark and hazy was the -atmosphere, that a large ship might have been within three miles of -the _Princess_ and yet have been invisible from her deck; so, as the -middle watch was Morrison's, he and Morley turned in, and soon were -sound asleep. - -At 4 P.M. the latter was awakened by the bell being struck, and the -morning watch called. - -"Is that you, Morrison?" asked Bartelot, from his berth, as a step -was heard in the cabin. - -"Yes, sir; I was just about to call you in haste." - -"About that rascally brigantine?" - -"No, sir." - -"What is in sight, then?? - -"Land on the weather-bow, and we are raising it fast." - -"Land!" exclaimed Bartelot, in astonishment. - -"Bearing about twenty miles distant." - -"Bah! Cape Flyaway. You have been at your Montrose skipper's -wonderful dram-bottle." - -"Land as solid as the Bass Rock," continued the Scotchman -obstinately; "I have just had a squint at it from the -fore-crosstrees, and now mean to have a look at the chart." - -"This must be some of your second sight--there is no island -hereabout, Morrison. Come Morley, turn out--tumble up, there, and -let us have a look at Morrison's enchanted island. How's the wind?" - -"Veering ahead." - -"And how does she lie?" - -"East and by north," replied Morrison, glancing at the tell-tale -compass that swung in the skylight, and which is constructed so as to -hang with its face downward, for use in the cabin. Bartelot dressed -in haste, and was soon on deck, where Morley joined him. - -Although our hero knew it not--for who can foresee what to-morrow may -bring forth?--this enforced and necessary divergence from the -vessel's proper course brought about a very strange episode, or -adventure, which cast some light upon the origin, and, it might be, -the crimes, of certain persons whom we have been, however -unwillingly, compelled by the force of circumstances and the tenor of -our story, to introduce to the reader. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI. - -THE STRANGE ISLAND. - -When they came on deck, day was breaking. The stars were still -sparkling brightly in the blue zenith, and in the western quarter of -the sky; but they paled away and faded out, as dawn spread over the -east, and stole across the ocean in those long streaks of light that -are rendered so weird, strange, and indistinct, from having only the -tops of the lone waves to rest upon. - -There is, indeed, something glorious and impressive in the dawn of a -new day, as it spreads over the unlimited space of the mighty deep; -and this effect increases in its splendour, as the sun, with tropical -rapidity, heaves up at the horizon, amid a burst of golden haze, and -then all becomes life and light. There is no eagle there to soar -towards him, with the dew on his pinions, and no lark to sing at -"heaven's gate;" but the petrels trip along the brine, the huge -porpoise soars through the foam rejoicingly, and the silvery flying -fish flits like a little spirit from the spray. - -The wind was very light; the vessel was creeping along under a cloud -of canvas, and as Morley came on deck the watch were busy swabbing -it. No need was there to drench it first with water; there had been -a rough gale in the morning watch, during which Morrison had ordered -the foresail and foretopsail to be hoisted; since then, the wind had -come in angry puffs, and then died gradually away. - -Now the ship was almost becalmed, and there, sure enough, upon her -weather bow, a few miles off, lay the land which Morrison had so -confidently reported, rising in dark and opaque outline, like a dusky -patch of indigo, against the yellow and gold of the sky beyond, and -the amber sea, that lay in middle distance. - -For a time it looked like a dark cloud resting on the sunlit ocean, -from which it might arise and melt away, but, gradually, as the ship -crept on, the form of a headland, and some tuft-like palm-trees, -became defined against the sky. - -Higher rose the sun, and ere long the beams began to gild this -headland, and to shine glitteringly on the face of a bluff, in which -it terminated. - -"Land it is--but land here!" said Captain Bartelot. - -"An island, and not a very small one either," added Morley. - -"It is most extraordinary!" - -"How so?" - -"Bring up the chart, Morrison," said Bartelot, unheeding his friend's -query, "and the log-book, too, with yesterday's reckoning and -observation." - -Morrison dived below, but speedily re-appeared, with a chart and the -ship's log. - -"At twelve, sir, yesterday, when we were running away from that -rascally piccaroon, we were in latitude 28--25 south; longitude -35--20 west, Tristan d'Acunha bearing sixty-six miles to the -eastward." - -"That is not Tristan, but an island about three miles long, and there -is no indication of it whatever in the chart. It is covered with -trees; but I can see no sign of a human habitation," observed -Bartelot, as he resumed his telescope. - -Light though the wind, the ship gradually crept nearer the island; -and by breakfast time is was abeam of her, and about four miles -distant. - -Save the rock before mentioned, no part of it was very high; it -seemed to be about the size stated by Bartelot, and yet, strange to -say, it was not recorded or borne in any map or chart on board. - -Now there fell a dead and listless calm. - -The sun was burning hot and the sea glistened like oil beneath its -rays, but the fertility and greenness of this nameless and unknown -isle were charming to look upon. Morley regretted the fresh delay -occasioned by this calm, especially after the lost hundred miles -yesterday (though a hundred were a trifle after Morrison's galling -calculation of the oceans he had yet to traverse), but he could not -resist the emotions of curiosity and novelty so peculiar to his age -and temperament; and thus he expressed a strong wish to visit this -_terra incognita_--this beautiful island of the southern sea. But -Bartelot hesitated. - -"It may be the head-quarters, the rendezvous, of those who pursued us -yesterday," said he; "and some of their sort, shipmates and -companions, may be lurking among those thickets, the foliage of which -seems so inviting." - -"Save the sea-birds, I cannot discover a living object about it," -urged Morley. - -"There may be savages--who can say?--and most likely wild animals. -There are some very ferocious boars on Tristan d'Acunha, and other -South Sea isles. Then we have no arms." - -"The revolver and two fowling-pieces----" - -"Are not enough, Morley." - -"Come, let us be off." - -"Lastly, a sudden breeze might spring up, and blow the ship off the -island to sea, so far that the boat, and what would be worse, its -crew, might be lost. Four sufficient reasons, Morley, for not -venturing ashore." - -So Bartelot resisted all his friend's importunities, and the day -passed away in idleness, after an observation had been taken at noon, -and the exact bearings of the island recorded in the ship's log by -Morrison, for the information of the Admiralty, Lloyd's, and others -in London. - -The calm continued; not a speck could be traced in the unclouded sky, -betokening a coming wind, or a casual current of air. The ship lay -like a log, with her courses clewed up, her spanker brailed and all -the rest of her canvas hanging loose and straight from the yardheads; -the wheel, left to itself, oscillated a spoke or two, alternately to -port and starboard. There seemed to be little or no current in the -water; she had probably not moved in any way more than half her own -length for three hours, as Morley perceived by a bunch of seaweed, -the top tuft of some mighty trailer (the root of which was, perhaps, -forty fathoms deep in the bed of the ocean), which rested on the oily -surface of the water, and remained in the same position, with regard -to the ship, about five feet from the port quarter-gallery. - -In the first dog-watch, about four o'clock P.M., finding matters -still thus, and seeing all quiet on the isle, the whole outline of -which was reflected downward, as if in a mirror, and with wonderful -minuteness, the captain ordered the gig to be lowered. The -fowling-pieces and revolver were carefully loaded, capped, and placed -in her, and then he, Morley, old Gawthrop, and three more of the crew -shoved off for the shore, or, as they called it, in default of a -better name, "Bill Morrison's Island!" - -The light gig shot swiftly over the smooth sea, which our friends -soon perceived to be full of gigantic trailers and floating leaves; -amid these, through the translucent waters, at a vast depth from its -surface, the finny tribes, especially the beautiful silver fish, -could be seen darting to and fro. - -A little sandy creek or bight, bordered by mangrove trees and wild -palms, opened before the boat, and offered a secure landing place, -though overhung by rocks, that seemed to be literally alive with -albatrosses, sea-hens, and other aquatic birds. - -In a short space, Morley, Bartelot, and Noah Gawthrop, with the three -fire-arms, leaped ashore, and desiring their three shipmates who were -in the gig to lie on their oars a few yards off, to prevent any -surprise, they started on their tour of discovery. - -The island was covered with wood, the foliage of which was singularly -luxuriant, and of the most lovely green. Many of the trees and -plants were strongly aromatic, and filled the air with delicious -perfume. The myrtles, in particular, were of gigantic size, and -there were several groves of the graceful cocoa-palm, under which -were gourds, ground apples, and other tropical vegetables, growing in -wild luxuriance. - -A bird suddenly whirred up from the covert at Morley's feet. - -Bang went one of the barrels of his fowling-piece, and the bird fell -with flapping wings a few yards off, while hundreds of others, scared -apparently by a sound so unusual as the report of a gun, flew hither -and thither in confusion and dismay. - -"A good shot, Morley," said Bartelot; "but reload instantly, and -don't fire again. We don't know whom we may meet in these woods, so -it is as well to be prepared." - -The bird proved to be a species of black-cock, that is not uncommon -in the islands of the South Atlantic. - -"Keep a bright look-out ahead, sir," said Noah Gawthrop in a low -voice; "this island ain't quite so desolate as it looks, arter all." - -"How?" - -"I'm blessed if here ain't a regular made road, and no mistake, -captain." - -As Noah spoke, he pointed to a distinct foot track, or narrow beaten -way, that passed through the grass. In one direction it led to a -spring of deliciously cool and pure water, that fell plashing amid -the sylvan silence from the face of a rock, which was covered with -brilliant wild flowers; in the other it led away through a thicket of -myrtles, from amid which some wild goats fled, as our explorers -cautiously, and with cocked fire-arms, proceeded onward. - -Morley was thinking of Ethel, and if with her what an Eden this -lonely isle would be; but it was not without emotions of considerable -anxiety and curiosity that he and his two companions continued to -pursue the narrow track, which ascended in regular zigzag windings to -the summit of that high rock, which they had first discerned at sea, -and on the face of which the morning sun had shone so brightly. - -"It is merely a track made by the goats or wild boars," said -Bartelot; "the spring below seems to be the only one in the island, -and there, no doubt, they drink." - -"Mayhap, sir, the wild boars, and the wild goatses made the road; but -'twasn't them as made this bit o' furnitur--out of a ship's -sheathing, too," exclaimed Noah, when, on the very summit of the -eminence, that overlooked a vast expanse of sea, they came upon a -rude seat, formed, apparently, by the number of holes pierced through -it at regular intervals, from a piece of ship's planking, pegged down -upon two uprights, which were securely driven into the turf. - -The pathway ended here, and the soil about the seat seemed bare and -denuded of grass, as if worn away by the feet of frequent sitters. - -"What can this mean on such a place?" observed Tom Bartelot, -perspiring with heat, and pushing his straw hat on one side of his -handsome curly head. - -"It means, sir, as there is some reg'lar-built Robinson Crusoe a -livin' on this here island, and has made himself this seat to take a -good squint to seaward comfortable ov a mornin', to look out for a -ship, or, it may be, for the king of the Cannibal Islands, and them -cussed ribroasting salwages in their piratical canoos." - -This idea of Noah Gawthrop's seemed extremely probable; but after -making a circuit of the entire island, they found themselves again on -the eminence without discovering other traces of the supposed recluse. - -After hallooing repeatedly, scaring all kinds of wild birds from the -thickets above, and the gorse or jungle below, they descended towards -the spring; but before reaching it found a track that diverged from -thence into the very centre of the isle. - -Proceeding onward, their curiosity becoming whetted at every step, -they perceived a piece of cleared ground, covered with fine grass, on -which some goats and little kids, that appeared quite tame, were -browsing. - -Near this, enclosed by a fence of branches, torn from trees, stuck in -the earth, and twisted together, was a small garden, wherein were -some turnips, potatoes, radishes, ground apples, and other esculents -growing; and sheltered by a grove of giant myrtles, close by, was a -little hut, or wigwam, formed of driftwood, fragments of wreck, palm -leaves, and turf. - -It measured only about twelve feet by ten; it was about nine feet in -height, and was covered by masses of beautiful scarlet-runners, and -other parasitical plants of the tropics. - -The door, a panelled mahogany one, which had evidently been once a -portion of a large ship's cabin, was open; so the explorers advanced, -and, on entering, beheld a very remarkable, and, indeed, appalling -spectacle. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVII. - -THE HERMIT. - -The western sun streamed into the humble hut through the open door, -in a broad and yellow flake of light, that seemed to pierce like a -solid body the almost palpable obscurity within; and where that flake -of sunlight fell full in its glory, there lay, stretched on a bed of -moss and dry leaves, an old man, who was too evidently in the last -throes of death. - -He was clad in a species of long brown weed, which was fashioned like -a friar's gown, but had a hood or tippet, formed of grass matting, -and both were worn, torn, patched, and mended thriftily. - -A cord--a piece of common rope--girt his waist, and thereat hung a -little wooden cross, formed, apparently, by himself, of twigs of the -myrtle tied cruciform. - -His feet were bare, and, like his hands, they were shrivelled and -attenuated, till every bone and muscle was painfully visible. His -head was bald by age; his features seemed to have been noble and -commanding, and a beard, bushy but dignified, and white as snow, -flowed over his breast, and reached to his girdle. - -He was dying, whether of age, of illness, want of nourishment, or all -these three combined, those who looked on him knew not. - -Livid hues were spreading over his face rapidly; his nose, which was -fine and aquiline, became pinched and white at the point. - -As the visitors stooped over him, his eyes dilated, as if he were -still partially sensible to external objects; but it was evident that -sight had left him, and that the darkness of death was there. - -The hardships incident to a life of seclusion and mortification, such -as his must have been on that lonely island, together with his -wretched attire and venerable white beard, all served to make him -seem a patriarch in years; but Bartelot supposed that he was not much -over sixty. - -"He is sinking--dying' fast," said he, in a whisper, as he took off -his hat, while an irresistible emotion of reverence and awe stole -over him. - -"Outward bound, heaven help him! Goin' forren, and no mistake," said -Noah Gawthrop, doffing his straw hat. "I've seen some poor cretturs -like this, when I was in the Naval Brigade at Sebastypool. One was -always a crossing ov hisself from stem to starn, and from port to -starboard. Another was wot they calls a darvish--he was always a -spinning of hisself like a peg-top, and shouting, 'Allar--Allar!' -Now, I reckons this here's been a darvish o' some kind." - -"Had we come ashore this morning at the time I proposed, we might -have saved him, Tom," said Morley, in a low tone, to Bartelot. The -latter shook his head, and again the pupils of the glazing eyes -dilated, as if the sufferer's ear had caught a passing sound. - -"Well," resumed Noah Gawthrop, hissing a kind of sigh through his -clenched teeth; "it is a darned hard thing for a poor old fellow like -this to slip his cable without knowing what port he may have to steer -for." - -"He'll be brought up in heaven with a round turn, old boy; at least, -I hope so," said Bartelot, as he knelt down and applied to the -sufferer's lips a little water from a gourd or calabash that lay near. - -Another vessel of the same primitive kind contained some _yerba_, -leaves of an evergreen common in Paraguay, and in the isles of the -south, which, when diluted with water, yields a species of tea. A -smaller calabash contained some goat's milk; such were the equipage -and last repast of this poor old recluse. - -"See, Captain Bartelot, here is summut wrote on this bit o' plank," -said Noah; "it's in some forren lingo, as I takes it." - -On the board which formed the head of the truckle-bed, whereon the -hermit lay, appeared a cross, carved as if with a knife, and the -following inscription or request: - - "Hermano[*] Pedro Zuares Miguel de Barradas, - "1863. - "Rueguen a Dios por el." - -[*] Brother. - - -About five minutes after they entered, a heavy sigh, with a gurgling -sound, escaped the hermit, his head turned over a little on one side, -the lower jaw fell, quivered, became still, and all was over, and the -three strangers remained mute, hat in hand, and gazing with emotions -of solemnity and awe on this piteous spectacle. - -What was his story? What were the crimes he had committed, the -wrongs he had endured at the hands of man, of woman, of the world, -that he had been driven to seek a life of such wild and savage -seclusion? - -Was it the result of eccentric choice, or an inevitable necessity? -Who was he, and whence came he? How long had his dreary lot been -cast in that voiceless and solitary isle. Had he been the last, or -sole survivor, of some ill-fated crew, whose ship had never been -heard of since she left her port in old Spain, to be cast away amid -the lonely waters of the southern sea? - -All these questions must remain unanswered now, and be committed to -oblivion with him in his solitary island grave. - -That he was a Spaniard was evident from the name, if, as they had no -reason to doubt, that name was his which was carved upon the plank -that formed a portion of his humble couch, and also from the language -of the request, "Pray to God for him," which was written underneath. - -Deeply impressed by what they had witnessed, Morley Ashton, Tom -Bartelot, and Noah quitted the hut, and under the bright sunshine -stepped towards the little garden, where the few herbs the hermit's -hand would never cull were ripening in the warm glow. - -After a pause, Bartelot said: - -"We must give the old man a Christian burial, for we can't shove off -to the ship, and leave him lying there like a dead gull." - -He looked at his watch, and then at the sun, and added: - -"We have two hours yet before sunset; the calm still holds--not a -breath of air on land or sea--and the ship is lying yonder like a -log. Run to the boat, Noah, shove off to her, and bid the men -stretch well on their oars, as we have no time to lose. Bring Ben -Plank, the carpenter, ashore, with some boards to make a coffin; -bring a shovel, and my prayer-book, for the English burial service. -He wouldn't have believed in it much, perhaps, poor man! but 'twill -serve his turn now, as well as another, I hope. Look sharp, old -fellow." - -"Aye, aye, sir," said Tom, twitching his forelock, and hastening to -the creek where the boat lay, with its occupants smoking listlessly -in the sunshine, and wondering "what the deuce the skipper was up to -in that 'ere island," till Noah enlightened them by a yarn of his -own, about the "ould darvish or anchor-right they had found -a-drifting from his moorings, and dying all his self," information -that made them lay out on their oars, which flashed brightly as the -sharp gig shot over the sunlit sea. - -Some time elapsed, however, before she came off again; for, though -the ship, influenced by a gentle undercurrent, had drifted nearer the -shore, she was still three miles distant. - -When the gig's head was turned to the island, the _Princess_ had her -ensign half hoisted at the gaff peak by Morrison's order, in honour -of the funeral ceremony that was to be performed on shore, and the -crew were all clustered in the tops and on the cross-trees, with -their faces turned in that direction. - -The gig soon steered into the wooded creek again, bringing the -carpenter, with two large packing boxes, his hammer, saw, and nails; -Noah brought a shovel, and while the former proceeded to make a rude -coffin, the latter, with Morley, working by turns with their jackets -off, dug a grave for the hermit, in a place chosen by Bartelot, under -a magnificent myrtle. - -In an hour all the preparations were completed; he was coffined, and -lowered by some of the boat tackle into his last resting-place. - -With that reverence of which seamen are seldom devoid, Tom Bartelot -stood bare-headed at the head of the humble grave, and read the -burial services of the Church of England, Morley making the responses. - -On one side stood the ship's carpenter, a squat, sturdy sailor; on -the other, old, hard-visaged, weather-beaten Noah, hat in hand, his -grizzled hair glistening in the sunshine. - -At the words-- - -"Ashes to ashes--dust to dust," Tom, with his straw hat under his -left arm, dropped a handful of earth on the coffin-lid; a little -rapid shovelling followed; a few sods were batted down, and the -funeral party prepared to leave the spot. - -Ere doing so, Morley and Bartelot examined the hut very carefully; -but found only a few nuts and dried fruits, which formed the larder -of the deceased, an old and well-worn knife, like a seaman's, and two -or three drinking-cups, formed of cocoanut shells, on which were -carved crosses and other religious emblems. These were brought away -as relics of their visit. - -Just as they were retiring, Noah chanced to cast a glance at the -couch of leaves, from which they had so recently removed the body, -and near the plank whereon the name and request were written, he -found a book, a Spanish missal, as the title-page bore, "_Madrid,_ -1840, _Imprenta de Don Pedro Sanz, se hallara en su liberia calle de -Carretas,_" which he handed to the captain upside down, for any way -was all the same to poor Noah's eye. - -It contained a piece of folded ribbon, with a cross of red enamelled -on gold, shaped like a sword, placed between the masses for the dead; -and these relics he and Morley examined as they shoved off for the -ship, giving a farewell glance at the lonely grave, at the head of -which--as a humble monument to mark that a Christian lay below--Ben -Plank had erected two barrel staves, nailed together in the form of a -cross. - -There was a great deal of manuscript, written small and closely, in -Spanish, on the fly-leaves at each end of the missal, with implements -that had been apparently pens torn from sea-fowls' wings, and ink -furnished by leaves of the wild tobacco, dried in the sunshine, and -diluted with water. Thus, from its reddish-brown tint, the writing -had all the hue or appearance of that presented by a MS. of the -Middle Ages, rather than of a document which, by its date, seemed to -have been written only last year. - -"Stretch out, lads, and let us get soon on board. Morrison knows -Spanish well, and he'll read all this for us," said Bartelot. "I am -curious to know what it is, though, perhaps, it may only be prayers -and pious meditations, after all." - -The blood-red sun had now set behind the high rock of the Hermit's -Isle, and the rude seat, which he never more would occupy, could be -distinctly seen, defined in outline against the sky. With tropical -rapidity purple dusk was stealing over the red and golden sky. The -calm was passing away; the chill night wind, chill alike from sea and -land, was now blowing across the long rollers, that urged the swift -gig from this unknown shore towards the ship. - -They were soon alongside. - -"Stand by the fall tackles, watch on deck! Hoist in the boat!" -ordered Bartelot, as he sprang up the man-ropes and proceeded aft. -"Douse the ensign, Morrison. All is over; we've laid the old man in -his last home--and it has been a queer business this. Set the -courses; let fall and sheet home, for here comes the breeze; but -first look at these things." - -"The enamelled sword--a knight's cross of the Spanish Order of -Santiago de Compostello," said Morrison. - -"And this writing?" - -"On the fly-leaves of the prayer-book or missal?" - -"Yes," replied Bartelot, impatiently. - -"It begins:--'_The confession of Don Pedro Zuares Miguel de Barradas, -Knight Commander of the Order of St. James of Spain, Captain and -Governor of the Castle of San Juan de Ulloa, for the Federal -Government of the Free States of Mexico._'" - -"Barradas again? It seems to me most strange; but I seem to have -heard that name before," said Morley, searching in his memory, as -they descended to the cabin, while the yard-heads were filled, and -the ship, standing to her course before the freshening breeze, began -to leave astern the island where the old hermit lay. - - - -END OF VOL. I. - - - -CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS. - - - - - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Morley Ashton, Volume 1 (of 3), by James Grant - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORLEY ASHTON, VOLUME 1 (OF 3) *** - -***** This file should be named 64080-8.txt or 64080-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/4/0/8/64080/ - -Produced by Al Haines -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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