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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Morley Ashton, Volume 2 (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 2 (of 3)
-       A Story of the Sea
-
-Author: James Grant
-
-Release Date: December 20, 2020 [EBook #64081]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORLEY ASHTON, VOLUME 2 (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. II.
-
-
-
-  LONDON:
-  TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE STREET, W.C.
-  1876.
-  [All rights reserved.]
-
-
-
-
-
-  CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS,
-  CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS.
-
-
-
-
-
-  CONTENTS.
-
-
-  CHAPTER I.
-  MARIQUITA ESCUDERO
-
-  CHAPTER II.
-  THE CREW OF THE "HERMIONE" DISCONTENTED
-
-  CHAPTER III.
-  ROSE AND DR. HERIOT
-
-  CHAPTER IV.
-  MAN OVERBOARD
-
-  CHAPTER V.
-  THE LIVID FACE
-
-  CHAPTER VI.
-  WHAT THE DOCTOR OVERHEARD IN THE FORECASTLE BUNKS
-
-  CHAPTER VII.
-  MEASURES FOR DEFENCE CONCERTED
-
-  CHAPTER VIII.
-  THE SAIL TO WINDWARD
-
-  CHAPTER IX.
-  THE STORM
-
-  CHAPTER X.
-  THE FOUR CASTAWAYS
-
-  CHAPTER XI.
-  CAPTAIN HAWKSHAW MAKES A DISCOVERY TO LEEWARD
-
-  CHAPTER XII.
-  DR. HERIOT'S PATIENTS
-
-  CHAPTER XIII.
-  CAPTAIN HAWKSHAW's TROUBLES INCREASE
-
-  CHAPTER XIV.
-  HAWKSHAW TURNS NURSE
-
-  CHAPTER XV.
-  A BITER BITTEN
-
-  CHAPTER XVI.
-  DREAD
-
-  CHAPTER XVII.
-  UNMASKED
-
-  CHAPTER XVIII.
-  THE EXPULSION
-
-  CHAPTER XIX.
-  THE MEETING
-
-  CHAPTER XX.
-  THE CORPSE-LICHT
-
-  CHAPTER XXI.
-  OUT OF SCYLLA AND INTO CHARYBDIS
-
-  CHAPTER XXII.
-  FOUR BELLS IN THE DOG-WATCH
-
-  CHAPTER XXIII.
-  THE CRISIS AT LAST
-
-  CHAPTER XXIV.
-  HOW THE SHIP BROACHED TO
-
-  CHAPTER XXV.
-  THE CABIN ATTACKED
-
-
-
-
-
-MORLEY ASHTON.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-MARIQUITA ESCUDERO.
-
-After the breathless calm of the past day, the heat of the cabin was
-intense.  The lamp was trimmed and lit by the steward, but the
-skylight was still kept open.
-
-"Awfully hot, Morley, is it not?" said Tom Bartelot, as he threw off
-his jacket.
-
-"Yes; and the heat makes one so thirsty, too!"
-
-"I can't give you iced champagne, as in the gardens at Rio; but the
-steward has bitter beer, beaujolais, and potash water, with grog for
-you, Morrison, which I know you prefer; and you, too, Noah, my old
-Triton.  And now let us to work, and overhaul the old man's papers."
-
-Morrison, who had been scanning over the manuscript, helped himself
-to a glass of grog mechanically, without taking his eyes from the
-writing.  Noah Gawthrop, who had been specially invited below, in
-virtue of the part he had borne in the past day's episode, received a
-jorum of stiff grog from the steward, and seated himself near the
-bulkhead, uncomfortably, on the extreme edge of a sea-chest, in
-preference to the well-cushioned locker, which he evidently
-considered too fine for his tarry trousers.
-
-Morley and Bartelot were each furnished with a glass of beaujolais
-and potash water.  The stars were visible through the open skylight,
-paling away into the blue ether overhead, when Morrison began to
-read, translating the recluse's Spanish into tolerable English, as he
-made himself master of the subject; the sole interruptions, as he
-proceeded, being an occasional interjection from Noah, such as "Dash
-my buttons!" "Smite my timbers!" varied by "Darn my eyes! the
-ragamuffin! the regular-built old Bluebeard!" followed by a hard slap
-of his hand upon his own thigh; though much of what he heard proved a
-sore puzzle to him, especially the religious invocations, the
-outbursts of remorse, and bitter self-reproaches, which we omit in
-the rehearsal of his story.
-
-The manuscript proceeded thus:
-
-"I pray the reader hereof, if he be a good Catholic, to say a novena,
-or nine days' prayer, for the repose of my sinful soul; and I beg of
-the first Christian man who shall give my remains interment to place
-a cross at the end of my grave.
-
-"Let whoever beholds these poor remains profit by the sad spectacle
-they exhibit, even as the recluse, Brother Pedro, has sought to
-profit by the prayers, penance, and mortification of twenty years
-spent in this solitude, while striving to atone for the errors of
-forty spent in the world as Don Pedro Zuares Miguel de Barradas.
-
-"I was a man of fortune in New Spain; my forefathers were of the
-purest blood--the boasted blue blood of those who dwelt by the Ebro,
-without taint of Goth, of Moor, or Jew--and my more immediate
-predecessors, men who came with Hernan Cortez, of Medellin, and
-Francis Pizarro, of Troquillo, to conquer the new world which
-Columbus had given to Castile and Leon.
-
-"My direct ancestor, Don Miguel de Barradas, came from San Pedro de
-Arlanza, in the district of Burgos.  A near kinsman of Hernan Cortez,
-he was one of the first who settled on the table-land of Anahuac,
-founding one of those powerful families which flourish there, and who
-also possess all the sea-coast, from La Vera Cruz to San Luis de
-Potosi.
-
-"In power and right of action, we were free and unfettered, as the
-Spanish nobility at home.  No agrarian law could there force us to
-sell our vast estates, if we neglected to cultivate them; and our
-farmers we could harass, oppress, cajole, or expel at our pleasure.
-
-"Proud of my descent from one of those who conquered Tlascala and
-Tenochtitlan in 1521, no man was more vain of his old Castilian
-pedigree than I; yet there came a time when I joined the patriots,
-and fought for the separation of Peru from the mother country, and,
-with my own blood, sought to cement the foundation of the free United
-States of South America.
-
-"Prior to my entering upon that career of usefulness, my objects in
-life were very different.
-
-"I was possessed of vast wealth; I had been well educated and highly
-accomplished by my parents, at whose desire I had travelled over all
-Europe, and had visited its capitals, to the improvement of my taste,
-though but little to the advantage of my morals.
-
-"I was possessed of a person that was considered handsome.  I deemed
-myself a model and mirror of honour, and had a spirit ever high and
-haughty, but at times crafty and ferocious.  My character was full of
-inconsistencies; thus, wherever I went, I became involved in quarrels
-on frivolous pretexts and points of honour--quarrels, which
-invariably ended in duels, and in these I was generally the victor,
-whether with sword or with pistol, for I was skilful in the use of
-both.
-
-"Within this shadow was a darker shade!
-
-"No man's wife or daughter--even were he my best and dearest
-friend--could be safe from my artful, insidious, and too often
-successful advances; for to see any woman, possessed of even moderate
-attractions, was to love her at once.
-
-"Success in each instance gave new courage and address, and led to
-success in others; thus my whole time was spent in weaving plans and
-intrigues, and the chief aim of my existence was to feel myself the
-conqueror.  Thus to flame succeeded flame, so rapid were my fancies,
-so insatiable my desires, that I rejoiced in the idea of making three
-or four assignations with as many different beauties in one day.
-
-"Opposition in some, the tears, the reproaches, and the despair of
-others, added but piquancy to this pursuit of the innocent and
-unwary, while my hand with the small sword was so skilful and steady,
-my aim with the pistol so deadly and true, that relations and rivals
-sought to punish me in vain, though thrice I escaped miraculously
-their attempts at deliberate assassination.
-
-"Of all whom I deceived none do I mourn more in this time of
-repentance and bitterness, than Mariquita Escudero, whose image and
-memory fill me yet--even at the distance of many years--with
-inexpressible sorrow.
-
-"She was the only daughter of Miguel Escudero, a worthy old farmer of
-mine, near Orizaba--that mighty volcano, whose summit is 1,300 feet
-higher than the Peak of Teneriffe, and which serves as a landmark to
-all mariners bound for La Vera Cruz.
-
-"Though tainted, as we deemed it, with the Mexican blood of her
-mother, who was an octoroon of a native tribe, Mariquita inherited
-from her father good old Castilian blood, and was a girl far
-exceeding all whom I had met or known in loveliness and goodness, in
-virtue and in purity.
-
-"She had heard of my evil reputation, and warned by common rumour--it
-may be by her parents, or inspired by native modesty--she always drew
-her mantilla close, and shunned or avoided me, when I visited Orizaba.
-
-"Piqued by her coldness and inflamed by her beauty, which was of a
-very remarkable kind, I relinquished, or forgot for the time, every
-other amour, to engage in this new one, proceeding to work warily,
-and with all the subtlety of the fiend I was then.
-
-"Though I frequently visited the _granja_ (farm) of old Miguel
-Escudero, I ceased to notice, save by a casual bow, the presence of
-Mariquita; but strove assiduously to gain the friendship of her
-brother, Juan, a handsome and high-spirited young man, whom, as he
-was a deadly shot and good swordsman, I thought it would be as well
-to remove from the vicinity of my operations.
-
-"I might easily have had him taken off, by distributing a few dollars
-among the bandidos of the Barranca Secca; but, though wicked enough,
-I was not sufficiently a villain for that, and so preferred to
-procure for him a commission as an _alferez_ (ensign) in the guards
-of the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, an honour which, being so
-unusual, when conferred on the son of a humble _grangero_, or farmer,
-filled the soul of Miguel with gratitude, and Juan with pride and joy.
-
-"Not content with this, I appointed Escudero overseer of all my
-estates, with an income of about five hundred pistoles per annum; so
-my cold little beauty, the Senora Mariquita, had now a horse and
-mounted groom when she went abroad, instead of a mule, as before, and
-a barefooted negro runner.
-
-"These presents--this unwonted patronage--passed well enough as
-rewards to an ancient and faithful adherent of our house, for old
-Miguel Escudero had been an especial confidant of my father, and was
-descended from one of the twenty men-at-arms whom my ancestor, Don
-Miguel, had brought from San Pedro de Arlanza in Old Castile.  He
-regarded me with a friendship, a love, that was almost paternal, and
-now pressed me to visit him at the handsome residence which my favour
-and bounty had conferred upon him; so I went to spend three months
-under the same roof with Mariquita, on the slopes of the vast Pic
-d'Orizaba, to hunt the wild cattle, the elks, the buffaloes, and
-cabri, and the grisly black bears, in the ever green forests and
-lovely savannahs that spread away from thence towards the Rio de
-Carraderas; and, nightly, it was my joy to lay the spoils of the
-chase at the feet of Mariquita, in compliment to her as the mistress
-of her father's house, for such she was--luckily, for the furtherance
-of my project, her watchful mother having been recently removed by
-death.
-
-"I now saw more of her than I could ever have done by periodical
-visits, and my passion grew greater by our intimacy, for the girl was
-a wondrously lovely brunette, though her skin was exceedingly fair.
-The form of her hands and feet, the contour of her head, and the soft
-luxuriant masses of her ripply black hair, were all perfect; and her
-eyes, large, dark, clear, and liquid, were beautiful, and ever
-varying in expression.
-
-"I was too artful, too well trained in the ways of vice, to seem more
-than simply pleased with the society of Mariquita.  I was
-scrupulously attentive to her at table and elsewhere.  If she
-mounted, my hand and knee were at her service; but when dismounting,
-she always preferred the attendance of her father, or her old negro
-groom, as if determined that no hand of mine should ever touch her
-slender waist.
-
-"We occasionally accompanied each other on the guitar.  Songs of love
-were long, long avoided, but they came at last.  I remember the first
-we ventured on--'Love's First Kiss,' an old song of Burgos, beginning:
-
-  "'A aquel caballero madre.'
-
-And then came a time, too, when I saw that Mariquita ceased to avoid
-me--a time when her cheek flushed palpably, and when her lovely eyes
-dilated and sparkled at my approach with emotions of pleasure there
-were no concealing.
-
-"In me she beheld her father's patron and benefactor, her brother's
-friend; so gratitude soon led the way to love.
-
-"I beheld the growth of this secret influence with exultation, yet
-never spoke of love.  Inspired by my master, the devil, I was too
-wary yet to mar my game until she loved me irretrievably and deeply.
-My efforts, my passion, were about to be rewarded at last!
-
-"For good or for evil, to what is a man most indebted for success in
-life?  To genius, birth, education, or perseverance?  To none of
-these, but simply to success itself.
-
-"Alas! she was too young, too tender, and too artless--too full of
-keen Spanish and generous Indian impulses, to withstand me; and after
-a time I saw that she burned with a passion equal to my own, which I
-still pretended to suppress within me, and to veil under an outward
-aspect of indifference and respect.
-
-"'The first symptom of true love in a young man is timidity; in a
-girl it is boldness,' says a writer.  'This will surprise, and yet
-nothing is more simple: the two sexes have a tendency to approach,
-and each assumes the qualities of the other.'
-
-"This strange analysis of the human heart was fully realised in the
-case of Mariquita.
-
-"One day we were riding at the foot of the vast Cordillera, through
-those odoriferous groves, the leaves of which are used for perfuming
-the chocolate.  We had contrived to miss our black groom, who had
-dismounted in a part of the wood, to examine a shoe of his horse; so,
-as the atmosphere of noon was intensely hot and breathless, we sought
-a shady and sequestered spot, where, under the cool, humid, and
-umbrageous forest leaves, the smilax or sarsaparilla roots, the
-liquidambar, the choacun root, and the balsam of tolu were growing in
-luxuriance, and where the wild cotton tree, and the broad-leaved
-tobacco plant, the yellow gourd, and the purple grape, all formed a
-jungle together.
-
-"Languid and panting with the heat of the day, the length of our
-ride, and, inspired by the pleasure she now felt in my society,
-Mariquita never looked so lovely; and now, when praying that she
-would alight, strange to say, I spoke timidly and with a
-wildly-beating heart; but, to my surprise, she consented, and held
-out her hand with a delightful smile.
-
-"As I lifted her from the saddle, she threw back her long low veil,
-and the heavy masses of her perfumed hair fell upon my cheek.
-
-"She leant heavily forward in my arms, and, instead of placing her on
-the ground, I pressed her tenderly to my breast, with my lips
-trembling on her forehead.  Then I murmured in her ear:
-
-"'Mariquita, _mi querida_--Marguerita, my idol--I love you--love you
-dearly!  Will you pardon me; will you permit it?'
-
-"She did not reply, but her head sank upon my shoulder, for the
-crisis had come!  Her lovely face was close to mine, and I felt her
-breath upon my cheek.  The colour had left hers, for those emotions
-which cause some women to blush make others grow pale; but her
-half-closed eyes sparkled with passion and joy under their long black
-lashes, and her rosy lips were parted by a divine smile.
-
-"I felt that I had triumphed; that Mariquita, the once proud, cold,
-and reserved Mariquita, loved me, for that emotion which had made me
-at first seem timid now made her actually bold, and her sweet lips
-sought mine, it may be but too readily, in the first glow of her
-girlish ardour.
-
-"She gave me one long and passionate kiss, and then, without
-assistance, she sprang from my arms to her saddle, saying, with
-mingled smiles and tears:
-
-"'We have both been foolish--very foolish, Senor Don Pedro, but let
-us begone.'
-
-"'Mariquita, consider the heat--your fatigue!' I urged.
-
-"'We are some miles from the _granja_, and have first the road to
-find,' she replied hurriedly.
-
-"With her horse's reins and her whip, she had resumed something of
-her former self, but the memory of my kisses yet burned upon her brow
-and lips.  I endeavoured, in vain, to lead the conversation back to
-the sudden impulse which the simple act of dismounting had given to
-both our hearts.
-
-"I begged of her to moderate the pace of her horse, as there was
-plenty of time for us to reach home; but she would not listen to me,
-and seemed to blush with anger now at the memory of what had passed
-between us; yet little cared I for that, felt assured that we had
-passed the Rubicon, that this beautiful girl loved me, and that the
-time I had spent with old Miguel Escudero, in rambling among his
-plantations, where the negroes hoed the sugar, planted tobacco, and
-gathered the cotton tufts, had not been spent in vain.
-
-"Mariquita did not avoid me, so for several days after this I never
-missed an opportunity, especially when old Senor Escudero was not
-present, of pressing my suit, and giving her assurances of my
-unalterable love!  Unalterable!  Oh, _mal hay as tu_, Pedro de
-Barradas, into how many charming ears had those same words been
-poured, and in the same tender accents, too!
-
-"But Mariquita, who had become more mistress of herself, always heard
-me with composure, and with a bearing unlike that she had exhibited
-in the wood; but I could see that the simplest remark, or most casual
-tone of my voice, made her heart vibrate with pleasure, and her
-colour deepen.
-
-"One evening we were standing together at an open window, which was
-shaded by a vine-covered verandah, and faced the usually flaming
-summit of the volcano of Orizaba.  It was wonderfully still on that
-occasion; a column of thin smoke only ascended from it to the very
-zenith.  The evening was lovely, and the sun's farewell rays were
-gilding the mighty summit of the cone; all was calm and quiet, save
-in our hearts, which beat tumultuously.  I drew closer to Mariquita,
-and as she stood before me, I passed my arms round her, kissed the
-back of her delicate neck tenderly, and whispered:
-
-"'How long shall I speak to you of love, Mariquita?'
-
-"'As long as you please, Senor Don Pedro,' she replied, with a tender
-smile, as she half turned round her head.
-
-"'Call me Pedro, my beloved one, without the ceremonious don--and
-senor, too, oh, fie!'
-
-"'_Bueno--Pedro mi querida._'
-
-"'Sweeter still!' I exclaimed, in a low voice.
-
-"'Well?'
-
-"'Well, dearest Mariquita; how long shall we speak of love?'
-
-"'As long as you please.'
-
-"'Ah! feel how my heart beats.  I ask how long in vain?'
-
-"'Long enough, senor,' said she, with a pretty pout.
-
-"'_Senor!_'
-
-"'Yes, senor, unless--unless----'
-
-She paused.
-
-"'What?'
-
-"'You speak of marriage, too,' she replied, suddenly unclasping my
-hands, which were tenderly folded round her slender waist.
-
-"'Do you love me?'
-
-"'Do I love you?' she repeated, reproachfully, turning her full,
-clear, and glorious eyes to mine, while throwing back her veil and
-the masses of her silky hair together; 'you know that _I do love
-you_, Pedro, fondly, deeply, passionately, for you have won that
-which never belonged, and never shall belong, to another--my heart.'
-
-"'Beloved Mariquita!' I exclaimed, and pressed her to my breast in a
-long and mutual embrace, 'and you will be mine--mine?'
-
-"'At the foot of the altar, Pedro--at the foot of the altar alone,'
-she whispered, with a heart that swelled with love, and with dark
-eyes steeped in languor.
-
-"But vain are human resolves, even when made by a heart so pure and
-guileless as that of Mariquita, when struggling with a passion so
-deep and consuming; for with these very words on her lips she was
-yielding; we were alone and undisturbed, and ere the sun's last rays
-had faded from the cone of Orizaba, Mariquita had lost her honour!
-
-* * * * *
-
-"The hapless Mariquita!  She loved me more than ever now.  She clung
-to me with all the strength of love, of sacrifice, and of despair.
-
-"For days after this, on her knees, she besought me to marry her.  I
-would raise her, kiss and console her, and flatter, too--how weary
-now the task!--flatter and pacify her, making countless promises and
-professions, for I still loved her in my own selfish fashion; but I
-shrunk from the idea of marriage with the daughter of one of my own
-grangeros--one whose ancestors had been hewers of wood and drawers of
-water to mine--a girl, moreover, who had the taint of native blood in
-her veins!
-
-"I, Pedro de Barradas, Knight of Santiago de Compostella, and Lord of
-Anahuac, whom the proud daughters of the first men, and of the
-noblest houses in New Spain, had failed to lure within the meshes of
-matrimony, was not likely to mate with the daughter of Miguel
-Escudero, however much I might love her, and however much she might
-please my somewhat fastidious eye.
-
-"I heard her many tender and pathetic entreaties--and once, too, her
-wild threats of self-destruction, poniard in hand--that I would save
-her from impending shame; but I was pitiless as the ocelot--the
-tiger-cat that lurked in the woods of Orizaba--all the more pitiless
-that I knew she fondly--yes, madly--loved me.
-
-"Weary of the endless task of seeking to console one who would not
-and could not be consoled, I quitted Orizaba for some months, as we
-were planning the revolt against the mother country, a movement which
-was to secure to me the captaincy of the great castle of San Juan, de
-Ulloa, the citadel of La Vera Cruz, which mounts nearly 200 pieces of
-cannon, and is the key of the whole province.
-
-"During my absence and in the fulness of time, Mariquita had a son,
-born in secrecy, amid tears, shame, and sorrow.  She baptised it by
-the name of Pedro, and sent him to a lonely puebla in the mountains
-that overlook the Barranca Secca, to be nursed by one of my people.
-This birth, all unknown alike to Miguel Escudero, whom I had
-despatched on a political mission towards the shores of the Pacific,
-and to his son, Juan, who was now a lieutenant of infantry at the
-castle of San Juan de Ulloa.
-
-"My passion for Mariquita still existed; her love for me was greater
-than ever now, and she lived but for me, and in the hope that in
-pity, if not for love, I would espouse her still, and these hopes I
-was always wicked enough to fan; 'so man wrongs, and time avenges.'
-
-"Completely in my power, surrounded by my toils, the victim of my
-wiles, still loving me dearly and desperately, and still hoping for
-the ultimate fulfilment of my thousand protestations, the poor girl
-continued to meet me from time to time in a deserted sugar-mill on
-the mountains of Orizaba, a secret intercourse that ended fatally for
-her and for all, for another son, whom we named Zuares, was born, and
-at the same time the whole affair came to the knowledge of Miguel
-Escudero, who, though but a humble grangero, had all the pride of
-birth, and more than the ideas of spotless honour, honesty, and
-female purity, possessed by any grandee of old Castile.
-
-"The poor old man's horror was beyond all description.
-
-"To find that his daughter's honour had been lost, his hospitality so
-infamously violated, his home disgraced, his prospects ruined, and by
-me--ME, whom he had so loved and so respected, as his friend and
-benefactor, was a mortal stab too deep to survive, and within an hour
-after the revelation came upon him in all its stunning details, poor
-Miguel Escudero had ceased to exist.
-
-"He did not die by his own hand, he was too good and too religious a
-man for such a terrible act; but sinking on the floor of his chamber,
-he never moved again.  He died of autopsy--paralysis of the heart!
-
-"I was not present at this scene of horror, being, fortunately for
-myself, in command of the great castle of San Juan de Ulloa.
-
-"On the day of Corpus Christi, after having attended mass, I was
-walking on that portion of the ramparts which faces the flats of
-Gallega, accompanied by some of the officers of my staff, when the
-young lieutenant, Juan Escudero, approached to inform me, in a voice
-broken with grief, of his father's sudden death, and to request leave
-of absence to attend his obsequies.
-
-"My heart was struck with remorse, and grew sick with shame.  I
-placed my purse in his hand; I gave him my best horse, and bade him
-begone to Orizaba with good speed; but I trembled like a craven in my
-soul for the hour of his return.
-
-"A few days passed, and the young lieutenant came back.
-
-"I was walking alone on the same ramparts when I saw him steadily
-approaching me.  He was clad in his uniform, and his silver
-epaulettes glittered in the sun.  He had a band of crape on his right
-arm, and another on the hilt of his sword--a soldier's simple
-mourning for a lost parent, and, alas! a lost honour.
-
-"He came straight up to me; his handsome face, so like the face of
-Mariquita, was deadly pale; but the glare of wild hate shone in his
-eyes, and his nether lip quivered spasmodically.
-
-"'Senor Don Pedro de Barradas,' said he, saluting me, ceremoniously,
-'I have the honour to confess the many services you have rendered my
-family in the days when you were true to yourself and to us.  For all
-these I beg to thank you.  But I have also to confess the many deep
-wrongs you have done us, and I here brand you, before God and man, as
-a villain and a coward, whom I have vowed to kill like a dog, here on
-the ramparts of San Juan de Ulloa!'
-
-"My heart sank, and my hand trembled.
-
-"'Senor Teniente--Senor Escudero,' I began, in a rash and vague
-attempt to explain or to extenuate; but the brother of Mariquita was
-mad with ungovernable fury, and he rushed upon me, sword in hand.
-
-"I knew that he would kill me without mercy, and that there was
-nothing left for me but to defend my life to the utmost, and to do
-this all my skill was requisite.
-
-"I was the best swordsman in La Vera Cruz; but he was twenty years my
-junior, young, active, and filled with just rage and indignation.
-
-"Compelled to stand on my own defence, my sole object was to ward off
-his cuts, to parry his thrusts, and to keep him at bay till the
-castle guard came to separate us.  I sought to disarm, and if driven
-to sore extremity to wound him only; but while he was making a
-desperate lunge at me, my sword entered his heart.  I felt its hot
-blood spout upon the blade, and pour through the hilt upon my hand,
-as I flung my weapon down in grief and dismay.
-
-"Juan threw up his hands, and uttered a wild cry.  It was
-'Mariquita,' as he fell dead on his face, at my feet.
-
-"Long, long did a horror of these events oppress me.  I buried him in
-the church of the Augustine Friars, and had one hundred masses sung
-for the repose of his soul--oh, who will say one for me!--I would
-have made some effort to requite the living victim of my wickedness;
-but now retribution came upon me.
-
-"Mariquita was still living at her father's old _granja_, on the
-borders of the Barranca Secca, in shame and seclusion, nursing her
-children, Pedro and Zuares, who now bore the dishonoured name of
-Barradas, and each of whom had, strange to say, a little red cross,
-like that of Santiago, on his left shoulder, where their mother's
-hand engraved it, lest the children should be lost.
-
-"About a month after Juan's death, I was betrayed by some of his
-friends into the hands of the troops of his Majesty Ferdinand VII.,
-and was placed by them on board a vessel for conveyance to Spain,
-where an ignominious death as a traitor awaited me.
-
-"When passing near this isle, a heavy gale came on, and I fell
-overboard.  In such a sea, to save me was impossible; but a sailor
-heard my shriek of despair, and cast over to me a hencoop.
-
-"God, in his goodness, enabled me to reach it, and after drifting on
-the dark ocean for more than an hour, I was cast ashore, and here
-have I remained ever since, leading a life of piety and austerity, of
-penance and of prayer, in the humble and earnest hope that this
-imitation of the holy men of old may atone for the errors I committed
-in the world as Don Pedro Zuares Miguel de Barradas.
-
-  "Rueguen a Dios por el."
-
-
-Such was the substance of this strange confession, which we have
-written out in a more readable and coherent form than Morrison found
-it, and which throws a light on the parentage and origin of the two
-dark seamen on board the _Hermione_; and as for the fate of the
-hapless Mariquita, the reader has already learned it from Captain
-Hawkshaw's unpleasant reminiscence of the Barranca Secca.
-
-The evening of the next day saw the _Princess_ steering for the
-north-western extremity of the island of Tristan d'Acunha.  At nine
-o' clock, Bartelot ordered a light to be hoisted at the end of the
-foretopmast studdingsail boom, and a gun to be fired, as a signal for
-a shore boat, which promptly came off from this remarkable place.
-
-As he wanted fresh water, the captain continued to stand off and on
-till dawn next day, when Morley, who had spent the morning watch in
-successful fishing, had the gratification of seeing the sun rise on
-the isle of Don Tristan d'Acunha.
-
-Situated far amid the lonely waves of the Southern Atlantic, at the
-distance of 1,500 miles from any continent, this lofty island has a
-peak of 5,000 feet in height above the level of its beach.  At dawn
-it seemed like a cone of flame, shaded off by purple tints, and
-towering amid a rose-coloured sea, whose depth is so vast that it far
-exceeds even the height of Tristan's loftiest peak.
-
-Two islands are near it: one is named the Inaccessible; the other,
-the island of the Nightingale; but they are mere masses of wild
-storm-beaten rock, against which the ocean rolls its masses of foam,
-and above which, in the amber-tinted sky, a cloud of sea-hens,
-petrels, and albatrosses wheel and flutter.
-
-In the little town which held a British garrison when our imperial
-captive pined in St. Helena, there is a mixed population of English
-and Portuguese mulattoes, though the isle is described in a recent
-gazetteer as being as desolate as when the Cavalier Tristan d'Acunha
-traversed the southern sea with his high-pooped caravel, and gave the
-place his name, in the first years of the sixteenth century.
-
-Morley, Gawthrop, and three of the crew went ashore in the jolly-boat
-to procure some fresh water and vegetables.  Morrison followed in the
-quarter-boat; both returned in about an hour, and after what they had
-brought off was put on board, they were sent ahead with a warp to tow
-the ship off the land, towards which a dangerous current had been
-drifting her.
-
-A fine breeze soon after sprang up; the _Princess_ bore away upon her
-course, and ere midnight came down upon the sea, she had bade a last
-farewell to the lofty isle of Tristan d'Acunha.
-
-When next we see her on the ocean, we shall have something to narrate
-very different from the hitherto peaceful and prosperous voyages of
-Bartelot and his shipmates.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II.
-
-THE CREW OF THE "HERMIONE" DISCONTENTED.
-
-For days Captain Hawkshaw was haunted by the recollection of that
-strange episode, the sinking corpse; whose features--seen through the
-fevered medium of his own imagination and his guilty
-conscience--seemed to assume the likeness of Morley Ashton, as they
-went slowly down through the green, translucent sea, after Dr. Leslie
-Heriot had attached the cannon-shot to its heels.
-
-He accounted for the exclamation of horror that escaped him, by
-saying to those in the boat that he felt a sudden qualm of sickness,
-of disgust, or a giddiness; and his first resource when on board was
-to Joe, the captain's steward, for his brandy bottle.
-
-When he began to reason with himself, however, in a calmer moment, he
-perceived the impossibility of the remains being those of Morley
-Ashton, as no influence of current, tide, or wind could have drifted
-them from the coast of Britain so far through the ocean as the South
-Atlantic.
-
-The idea was absurd--impossible!
-
-Moreover, the drowned man had not been dead more than a week to all
-appearance; and then his hands had grasped a life-buoy, evincing that
-he must have fallen overboard from some ship, or been the victim of a
-wreck.
-
-When the impression of that affair began to wear away, his fears of
-the two Barradas, and a recollection of the manner in which Pedro,
-Bill Badger, the bulky Yankee, and others of the crew had insulted
-him, resumed their sway; but after a time he began to take courage.
-
-"What have I to fear from the Barradas?  Nothing!" he would whisper
-to himself, as if to gather comfort from the echo of his own
-thoughts.  "Suppose they denounce me to my friends--to Ethel--I have
-simply to deny, and that is all.  The story of the
-padre--d----nation!--no, I mean of the Barranca Secca--I have already
-told, and Master Zuares does not shine in that affair.  Even to Ethel
-it is nothing new, for I have related it more than once, to increase
-her horror of the Barradas when the crisis comes."
-
-A _crisis_ was coming, which the captain did not quite foresee!
-
-"Even to Ethel it is nothing new--I can deny, deny, and defy them
-all.  'Tis only my word against theirs."
-
-This was all very well; but ere the voyage ended there occurred
-several events, which alike put the captain's courage and resolution
-to flight.
-
-As the _Hermione_ approached the Cape of Good Hope, she encountered
-alternate storms and calms, with weather so unusually cold for the
-season, that Hawkshaw had a fair excuse for permitting his whiskers
-and moustache to resume their wonted aspect of luxuriance, as he had
-ceased to hope for concealment on board.
-
-Though pretty well inured now, by their very protracted voyage, to
-the discomforts of ship-life, Ethel and Rose Basset remained a good
-deal in the cabin, especially the former, to avoid Hawkshaw's
-attention, which were thus repressed by the presence of the captain,
-when it was not his watch, of Mr. Quail, or her father, who preferred
-to lie reading or lounging on the cabin locker, to facing on deck the
-spoon-drift that flew over the lee quarter when the ship was going
-free.
-
-She found Adrian Manfredi, the young Italian mate, a pleasant
-companion, for Rose rather absorbed the society of Dr. Heriot.  He
-was gentlemanly and well bred; he had seen much of the world, and her
-preference for him was so decided, that Hawkshaw felt at times a pang
-of jealous rage in his heart, which was in no way soothed when, in
-the mate's hours of leisure, they took to reading together in
-Italian, "I Promessi Sposi," the beautiful novel of Alessandro
-Manzoni, from the neat little three-volume edition, printed at Lugano.
-
-This emotion became all the more bitter after Ethel gave Manfredi a
-handsome gold locket, to hold the hair of his little brother, "the
-brave boy, Attilio," whose story he told in a previous chapter.
-
-The young man was no doubt charmed by the beauty and society of a
-sweet English girl like Ethel Basset; thus his voice became mellow
-and soft whenever he addressed her, and his eyes sparkled with
-admiration and pleasure whenever he saw her, but beyond this, no sign
-of a deeper emotion escaped him.  Perhaps he felt the folly or
-futility of encouraging it.
-
-On the other hand, Ethel's preference for him was greatly induced by
-some real or imaginary resemblance which she saw, or thought she saw,
-in his features to those of Morley Ashton; though Rose and her father
-failed to perceive it, and Hawkshaw, who always trembled in his soul
-at the young man's name, treated the idea with angry ridicule.
-
-The sullenness and other growing peculiarities in the bearing of the
-crew had been increasing, so that some would scarcely obey those
-orders necessary for the working of the ship.  Captain Phillips,
-though full of anxiety for the probable issue, resolved to forbear
-until a ship of war hove in sight, or until he could dismiss some and
-put others in prison, if this state of matters still continued, when
-the _Hermione_ hauled up for Table Bay.
-
-One day Adrian Manfredi had charge of the deck.
-
-The ship was running nearly fair before a fine topgallant breeze;
-there was not much of a sea on, but the sky was lowering, and a great
-gray bank of cloud was resting on the ocean to the northward, for
-they were encountering regular Cape weather now.
-
-Manfredi was conversing with Ethel from time to time, and she was
-still busy with the last volume of "I Promessi Sposi," when one of
-the crew, named Samuel Sharkey, a coarse, square stump of a fellow,
-having great misshapen hands, a large and very ugly visage, came
-deliberately aft, with a short black pipe in his mouth, and stood
-near her, puffing with great coolness, and eyeing her with a very
-admiring leer.
-
-Ethel glanced at him uneasily, and removed to a seat nearer the
-taffrail, for there was cool insolence in the man's sinister eyes and
-bearing which alarmed her very much.
-
-On this, Sharkey, the seaman, gave a peculiar whistle, to which Bill
-Badger, the tall, ungainly Yankee, who was at the wheel, responded;
-and these signals now attracted the attention of Manfredi, who had
-been looking aloft, and securing some of the halyards to the
-belaying-pins.
-
-"Hollo, you sir!" said he, "what do you want aft, eh?"
-
-"None o' your grand airs, Mister Manfreddy," was the sulky response,
-"'cos they won't do in this part o' blue water, so I tells you at
-once."
-
-"Take that pipe out of your mouth; remember that you are on the
-quarter-deck, and there is a lady here."
-
-"That is just what brought me aft.  Are you chaps and the cabin
-passengers a goin' to keep the gals--the old judge's darters--all to
-yourselves?  I don't mean to offend you, marm; oh, not at all, by no
-manner o' means," he continued, making a mock bow to Ethel; "but,
-shiver my topsails, if, mayhap, we won't be better acquainted afore
-we sights Maddygascar and the gut of the Mosambique Channel--ha, ha!"
-
-And as he concluded he continued to leer at Ethel.
-
-"You are drunk, fellow," said Manfredi, who was resolved to keep his
-temper, if possible, for the man's words contained in them a
-reference to ultimate views sufficiently daring to excite alarm.
-
-"I am no more a feller than you are, mayhap not so much," replied
-Sharkey, taking his huge square hands out of his trousers pockets and
-proceeding to clench them very ominously; "and as for being two or
-three cloths in the wind, 'taint the six-water grog as we gets aboard
-o' this 'ere beastly craft as will make me so."
-
-"Go forward, I command you, or by Heaven I'll throw you overboard,"
-said Manfredi, in a hoarse voice.
-
-"If you want to swim, there may be two as can play at that,"
-responded the ugly seaman; "but I knows summut easier in seamanship,
-and I would advise you to l'arn it."
-
-"What is it?"
-
-"To run ten knots an hour right in the wind's eye, with everything
-set that will draw, aloft and alow, skyscrapers, moonrakers, and all."
-
-"My dear Miss Basset, I beg of you to excuse this scene, and permit
-me to lead you below," said Manfredi, with an agitated manner, to
-Ethel, who had listened to all this with great dismay.
-
-"My dear, don't do nothin' o' the sort; just stay here and see how
-I'll rib-roast him," said Sharkey.
-
-"Go forward, you gallows lubber!" thundered Manfredi, growing pale
-with a passion which he strove to repress, lest he should terrify
-Ethel, between whom and this seaman he interposed.
-
-Sharkey, instead of complying, put his right hand behind him, and
-suddenly drew forth a sheath-knife--one of those ugly weapons which
-few seamen are now without.  Armed with this, he was about to make a
-rush at Manfredi, when the latter, quick as thought, and as if he had
-anticipated some such catastrophe, snatched up a heavy iron
-marlinespike and hurled it full at Sharkey's head, with such force
-and unerring aim that he was knocked down, senseless and bleeding,
-with a severe wound on the head.
-
-"Carry the scoundrel forward, and drench him well with salt water, to
-bring him to," said Manfredi, while panting with excitement, to the
-Barradas and some of the crew who had run aft.  He took the knife
-from Sharkey's relaxed hand, and threw it into the sea, adding, "I
-will serve every man who disobeys me now in the same fashion, and tow
-him overboard for twenty knots at the end of a line, if the captain
-will allow me."
-
-"Mayhap as you won't," growled Sharkey, recovering a little, as he
-was lifted up by his sulky and muttering messmates; "and if you don't
-repent this work _afore to-morrow morning_, you infernal Hytalian, my
-name ain't Sam Sharkey!"
-
-That some general outbreak among the crew was on the _tapis_, and
-might have taken place but for his own resolute conduct, Manfredi had
-not a doubt.
-
-With his face covered with blood, the mutineer was carried forward,
-and Dr. Heriot (whom Ethel's scream when she beheld the scuffle had
-brought on deck) with others, hastened to the forecastle to examine
-the wound and have it dressed.
-
-The marlinespike, an iron instrument that tapers like a pin, and is
-used for separating the strands of rope when splicing or marling, had
-inflicted a severe wound on the forehead of Sharkey, and the blood
-was flowing freely from it.
-
-He growled and swore, using fearful oaths and threats, while Heriot,
-bathed, dressed, and bandaged the gash.  Captain Phillips threatened
-to have him put in irons till the ship reached Cape Town; but as the
-wound was severe, he permitted him to remain in his berth in the
-forecastle bunks, where his shipmates remained to console him, and
-hear his reiterated threats of revenge.
-
-Manfredi apologised to Ethel for the alarm he had unwittingly caused
-her, but added that no other course was left him but to strike the
-ruffian down, to preserve his own life and authority.
-
-Quiet Mr. Quail made a due entry of the event among his columns of
-"remarks" in the ship's log, while Mr. Basset waxed warm at the
-affair, and expounded learnedly and as became a new-fledged judge, on
-the law relating to merchant seamen, quoting Shee's edition of "Lord
-Tenterden," and so forth with great fluency.
-
-So generous and forgiving was Manfredi, that, at lunch time, he sent
-boy Joe, the captain's steward, forward with a tot of brandy to the
-patient in the forecastle, and the amiable Mr. Sharkey drank it to
-the last drop, with a fearful invocation of curses on the donor's
-head, and thereupon dashed the wooden tot in Joe's face.
-
-Before the first dog-watch the event was apparently forgotten; but it
-increased the desire of Captain Phillips to reach Cape Town and get
-rid of some of his crew.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
-ROSE AND DR. HERIOT.
-
-Supper was over in the cabin, and the little community there would
-soon be separating for the night, or "turning in," as it is
-technically named.
-
-"How brightly the stars are shining," said Rose, as she peeped up
-through the skylight.
-
-"Should you like to go on deck for a moment?" asked Dr. Heriot, in a
-low voice, as he hastened to her side.
-
-"Yes--for a moment only."
-
-"Take care of chill," said Mr. Basset, warningly.
-
-"Take care rather of yourself, Miss Rose, and, of all things, take
-care of the doctor," said Captain Phillips, laughing.  "Manfredi has
-charge of the deck; see how she is trimmed aloft.  Report to me when
-you come down, and then I'll turn in."
-
-Rose coloured on hearing the captain's bantering tone, as she threw a
-shawl over her head and shoulders, took the doctor's ready arm, and
-hastened up the companion-stair.
-
-Ethel smiled sadly at her joyous and girlish sister, for she had seen
-how the intimacy between the young doctor and Rose had been ripening;
-and she wondered, or speculated on, how they would separate when the
-tedious voyage was over.  Then she thought of Morley Ashton, and the
-fatal blight that had fallen so awfully and mysteriously upon her own
-first love.
-
-"Miss Basset," said Hawkshaw, rising, "would you wish--
-
-"To go on deck?  Oh, no, thank you," said she hurriedly, anticipating
-and replying to his offer without looking up from "I Promessi Sposi."
-
-Hawkshaw seated himself again, and bit his lip, while that malignant
-gleam which filled his eyes at times shot from them covertly and
-unseen.
-
-He made one other effort to engage her in conversation, by saying, in
-a low voice, as he stooped over her:
-
-"Your sad smiles, Ethel, go straight to my heart, with an effect,
-believe me, that is cruel--killing!"
-
-"Why!  it seems that 'I can smile, and murder while I smile,' as
-Shakespeare says.  Is it so?"
-
-"Bantering--bantering still--even here, when on the verge of
-destruction, perhaps!" muttered Hawkshaw, as he drew back with
-another fierce but covert gleam in his stealthy eyes, and Ethel never
-lifted hers again from her book, until a noise on deck aroused her.
-
-Rose clung closely and affectionately to the doctor's arm, as they
-traversed the quarter-deck towards the taffrail, and turned to look
-at the ship, at the sky overhead, through which the wild black scud
-was driving, and on the mysterious world of water and of darkness,
-through which she was careering under a press of canvas.
-
-Encouraged by Rose's ready accession to his request, the young man
-held her right hand in his, and pressed it tenderly to his heart.
-
-There was none near them save the man at the wheel; for it was about
-the middle of the first watch, or nearer eleven o'clock.
-
-Rose had a presentiment that a crisis was approaching in her
-relations with the young doctor.  The somewhat annoying banter of
-Captain Phillips, the affectionate warnings of Ethel, and the praises
-of him so loudly sung by her old nurse, had all, in a manner,
-prepared her for it, as much as the steady and delicate attention he
-paid herself.
-
-Nightly, when Rose retired to rest in that little cabin, which seemed
-so small, so very small, the first night they occupied it, Nance
-Folgate was wont to chant her praises of the handsome doctor.
-
-"Lor' a mussy me!--for a Scotchman--he is such a sweet dispositioned
-youth, Miss Rose.  Oh, yes! now, ain't he, miss?  He gives me no end
-o' cordials and stuffs when I'm in low spirits, which are often the
-case, 'specially when it blows 'ard, and the ship tumbles about.
-There is such a modesty in all his words and ways--now, ain't there?
-If I was a fine young gal like you, instead o' bein' a poor old
-toothless thing, I would love him, that I would, when I saw how much
-he loved me--he is such a nice young man, is the doctor.  But why
-don't you answer, miss?"
-
-If Rose did not reply to such rhapsodies as these, it was not because
-she disagreed with them; but her young heart was wild with pleasure,
-and she often affected to be asleep that she might conceal her
-flushing cheek on her pillow.  But if the young doctor had won over
-the old nurse, it was just as he had won over the quiet and
-unaffected Mr. Quail, or anyone else, as he was a good obliging
-fellow, and fond of doing kind offices for all.  So Rose, yielding to
-an irresistible impulse, assented to a tête-à-tête on deck, on the
-night in question.
-
-After a silence of some minutes--
-
-"How strange it is," said Rose, in her soft, sweet voice, "that amid
-the wind which moans through the rigging, I seem to hear the sound of
-bells."
-
-"Bells?"
-
-"Or is it from the bottom of the sea?"
-
-"Don't say so, Rose," replied Heriot.
-
-This sounded strange in both their ears, as he had.  never simply
-called her "Rose" before; yet the implied familiarity was not without
-its novelty and charm.
-
-"Why may I not say so?" she asked.
-
-"It is an old superstition of our Scottish sailors that the bells of
-wrecks and sunken ships are rung by mysterious hands at the bottom of
-the sea, to announce storms and disasters."
-
-"Ah, but you Scots are so superstitious; you live in a land of omens
-and ghosts, predictions and dreams, even in these fast railway times."
-
-"Yet I would that we were in Scotland now," said Heriot, with a sigh,
-as he thought of the doubts and clouds that veiled the future.
-
-"We?" repeated Rose, inquiringly, while peeping from her hood and
-shawl, so that the light of the binnacle lamp fell full on her sweet
-young face, and very beautiful the dark-eyed girl looked.
-
-"Yes, we," reiterated Heriot, whose heart was rushing to his head as
-he held, unresisted, her plump little hands in his.  "I wish to speak
-with you, Rose, to--to--I have so long desired--do you--do you care
-for me Rose, dear Rose?"
-
-"Care for you!" she repeated, faintly.
-
-"Can you love me, dear, dear Rose, as I love you?"
-
-"Yes," said Rose, in a whisper, as her head dropped on Heriot's
-shoulder, and his lips were pressed on her throbbing brow, for now
-the great secret was told, and all her pulses beat with a new,
-happiness.
-
-A few moments of joyous silence followed.  Then crossing the deck to
-leeward, they were more in obscurity; and fortunately for them,
-Manfredi at that moment went forward, so Heriot pressed Rose to his
-breast, and said in a low, earnest, and agitated voice:
-
-"But Rose--my beloved Rose; to what end do I love you?--to what
-purpose?--how taught you love to me?  We are to land you at the Isle
-of France, and then sail on through the Indian Seas--to leave
-you--leave you there, for I have no home--no settled abode."
-
-("Papa's daughters are unlucky in their lovers," thought Rose.)  She
-replied, however, while tears of apprehension filled her eyes:
-
-"Why cannot you leave the ship?  Sailing with it to and fro must be
-very tiresome."
-
-"Leave it?"
-
-"Yes, and live with us in the Isle of France."
-
-"Live with you, Rose?" said Heriot, with sad perplexity.
-
-"Settle, I mean--at least, while papa is there."
-
-"I cannot, even if I had the means.  I am bound to the owners and to
-Captain Phillips, for this voyage at least, unless the _Hermione_
-procures another medical officer."
-
-"At Singapore?"
-
-Heriot smiled sadly at Rose's simplicity.
-
-"Ah, yes--that will be delightful! and if poor dear Morley Ashton,
-who is dead, were here with us now, how happy Ethel and we should all
-have been!" exclaimed Rose, while nursing herself into a mood of the
-most prosperous cheerfulness, as her happy young spirit soared into a
-bright world all her own, and Heriot caressingly slipped a ring on
-her "engagement" finger, whispering in her ear:
-
-"It was my mother's, Rose--wear it, at all events, for her sake and
-mine."
-
-Another kiss and the bond was sealed.  Then Rose, in a tumult of joy
-that could only find vent in tears, hurried below, with her head
-inclined on Ethel's bosom, told her of all that had passed between
-Leslie Heriot and herself--a pretty little narrative, interspersed
-with hesitations, smiles, and blushes, till they were startled by the
-wild hubbub that reigned on deck, where a terrible catastrophe had
-occurred.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV.
-
-MAN OVERBOARD.
-
-A sudden squall, and a sea which heavily swept over the poop with a
-shower of blinding spray, that hissed away amidships, had first
-driven Rose and Heriot below, and just as they retired hand in hand,
-they heard the voice of Manfredi, shouting through the wild blast:
-
-"Below there! all hands ahoy! come, tumble up to take in sail!"
-
-Then the men were heard grumbling and swearing as they hurried
-half-dressed out of the forecastle bunks, to assist the watch; next
-followed the orders "to let go," "haul down," "clew up," amid the
-cracking and flapping of the canvas, as the topsails were lowered
-almost to the caps; the royals and topgallant sails taken off her;
-flying gib and studding sails all in in a twinkling, though for a
-time the wind howled fearfully, and the ship careered before its
-fierce breath almost on her beam-ends.  Little more than steering
-canvas was left upon her, for wild and black was the Atlantic squall
-that had come suddenly over her, accompanied by torrents of rain,
-that rattled on deck, like a tempest of rouncival peas, while ever
-and anon the red lightning flashed vividly at the horizon, but still
-the brave ship flew on.
-
-"By the sky to-day I knew we should have a gale to-night," said
-Captain Phillips cheerfully, as he donned his storm-jacket of shiny
-oilskin, and came on deck.
-
-  "'A mackerel sky and grey mares' tails
-  Make lofty ships carry lowly sails.'
-
-A glorious sailor is Manfredi!  How smartly he had all the cloth off
-her.  But we'll need our best umbrellas to-night."
-
-Suddenly, from the forecastle, through the many wild sounds of the
-squall, there came the appalling cry:
-
-"A man overboard! hard down! hard down!"
-
-Other shouts followed.
-
-"Ahoy! heave over the life buoy! mainsail to the wind! clear away a
-boat!"
-
-Captain Phillips grasped his trumpet; Mr. Quail--who had just turned
-into his berth with his clothes on, "all standing"--Dr. Heriot, and
-Hawkshaw sprang on deck at this new alarm.
-
-"Hard down with the helm!" cried Phillips; "to the braces, men! let
-go, and haul!  Back with the mainyard!  Ready the starboard quarter
-boat, and cut away the life-buoy!"
-
-The mainsail was speedily laid to the mast, though there was great
-danger lest, in such a gale, it might be carried away entirely, and,
-in the excitement of the moment, even the most sullen of that
-ill-assorted crew worked cheerily and well.
-
-Alternately the huge ship rose and sank on the mighty rolling waves;
-and now the spray flew from stem to stern over her in white and
-blinding sheets, plashing over her courses, and hissing under the
-arched leaches of the bellying sails.
-
-Upheaved she rose on the foaming surge one moment, to sink down into
-the yawning trough of the sea the next, loose spars, buckets,
-handspikes, and everything else adrift, going to leeward, and
-overboard.
-
-A faint but despairing cry came from the waves; another followed, as
-the drowning man, struggling hard for existence, rose on the white,
-foamy crest of a wave, and then sank for ever into the black and
-gaping bosom of the midnight sea.
-
-Then, after some minutes of the most painful and lingering suspense,
-the captain, the doctor, and others, came to the conclusion that all
-was over, and that the poor victim must have perished, for it was
-found impossible to lower a boat with safety, or with the least hope
-of success, in such a sea or squall.
-
-"Fill the mainyard, Mr. Foster," said the captain to the second mate.
-And he sighed bitterly as he spoke, for John Phillips was a kind and
-good-hearted man.  "God receive the poor fellow!  We could do nothing
-more.  Let the ship lie her course; muster the hands aft, please, and
-see who is missing."
-
-The yard heads were filled; the vessel's bow fell off from the wind,
-and there was less strain upon her now, and less spray broke over
-her, as she tore through the sea at liberty.
-
-Aft the mizzenmast the drenched seamen mustered.
-
-"Boy Joe! steward! bring a lantern," said the captain.
-
-And now, by its weird light, were to be seen the two dark and sullen
-Barradas; Bill Badger, the bulky and insolent Yankee; the square,
-squat, and ugly Sharkey, with his head bandaged up; the Messieurs
-Brewser, Batter, Cribbit, and others of that remarkable crew.
-
-"Are all present, Mr. Quail?" asked the captain, as the mate passed
-the lantern along the dripping line.
-
-"All except _one_, sir," replied Mr. Quail, whose face wore a very
-ashy hue and alarmed expression.
-
-"Who is it?"
-
-"Mr. Manfredi, sir; he is nowhere on deck."
-
-"'Twas his watch, was it not?" said Phillips, starting.
-
-"Yes, sir."
-
-"Good Heavens, can it be?" exclaimed the captain, in an agitated
-voice, as the threat of Sharkey occurred to him.  "If there has been
-foul play to-night, I say woe to the perpetrator of it!"
-
-Some one now uttered a snorting laugh in the dark.
-
-"Let us search below," said the doctor, taking the steward's lantern,
-and proceeding to examine in person.
-
-He did so, and soon returned to report that no trace of Adrian
-Manfredi could be found, so the crew were dismissed.
-
-"Who was the person that called out 'Man overboard?'--who saw him
-last?" demanded the captain, as they descended to the cabin.
-
-"I did, sir," said Joe the steward, as he closed the door.  "I was
-stowing the jib in its netting with Pedro Barradas," he continued, in
-a low voice, as if afraid to be overheard.  "Mr. Manfredi was
-standing on the topgallant forecastle, holding on by a rope and
-directing us.  Our heads were stooped over our work, when all of a
-sudden we heard a cry.  On looking one way, I saw him falling into
-the sea; on looking another, I saw a man in his shirt-sleeves, armed
-with a capstan bar, slipping down into the forecastle bunks."
-
-"A man?" repeated the listeners.
-
-"Did he strike him overboard?" asked the captain.
-
-"We supposed so," replied Joe, in a whisper, and glancing furtively
-at the skylight.
-
-"We."
-
-"That is, Pedro Barradas and I.  He laughed--"
-
-"The mutinous villain!"
-
-"And tried to stop me from shouting to put the helm down."
-
-"Did you see the man's face?"
-
-"No, sir."
-
-"Who do you think he was--speak!" said Captain Phillips, perceiving
-that Joe, a fat, good-natured fellow, with flabby cheeks, and large
-boiled-looking gray eyes, hesitated through fear, "speak!"
-
-"I am frightened, in this ship, almost to say who I thought he was."
-
-"In this ship--right!  Was it Sharkey, eh?"
-
-The steward's teeth chattered.  He again glanced fearfully at the
-skylight, and gave a nod in the affirmative, and the captain struck
-his right heel on the floor.
-
-"There has been murder committed on board to-night; yes, a most foul
-murder!" he continued, turning by a mere coincidence to Hawkshaw,
-who, on hearing the terrible word, grew deadly pale, and trembled
-violently from head to foot.  "Would to Heaven that I had only
-half-a-dozen good hard-a-weather English seamen to keep this coloured
-lot in order.  Even Lascars of the lowest caste were better than what
-we have!"
-
-The consternation in the cabin was very great, and the conversation
-continued below, and the storm above, till Mr. Quail, with many
-unpleasant forebodings, went on deck to relieve the watch at four
-o'clock A.M., when the wind began to abate and the sea to go down.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V.
-
-THE LIVID FACE.
-
-The event of the night shed a gloom, a horror, over all in the cabin
-next day; nor was the alarm in the breasts of Captain Phillips and
-his mates in the least soothed, when it was remarked that the cook's
-grindstone was kept at work all the forenoon, and a most ominous
-sharpening of sheath and clasp-knives went on, while sundry jokes
-were uttered audibly about "Mister Manfreddy having gone on a visit
-to Mr. David Jones and Old Mother Carey, without his umbrella, too;"
-"and the rain a fallin' like Niagary," as Badger, the Yankee, added,
-with a diabolical grin.
-
-The morning sky was gray and cloudy; a heavy sea was still on, and
-not a sail was in sight, so Captain Phillips swept the horizon with
-his telescope in vain.
-
-At breakfast Ethel and her sister were informed that Mr. Manfredi had
-fallen overboard in the night, and been drowned.  No hint of foul
-play was given them, at their father's special request; but they wept
-and mourned for the poor young fellow, of whom they now recalled to
-memory so many pleasing traits and anecdotes; among others, the sad
-story of his little brother, Attilio, who had been so savagely shot
-by the Austrians at Pistoja.
-
-His seat at table, his place in the cabin were empty; his face and
-form were no longer seen, and his step and voice were no longer heard.
-
-The suddenness of the catastrophe seemed most difficult of
-realisation; and the words of Dana, in a passage of one of his works,
-which Dr. Heriot pointed out to Rose, came painfully and truthfully
-home to all their hearts.
-
-"Death is at all times solemn, but never so much so as at sea.  A man
-dies on shore; his body remains with his friends, and the mourners go
-about the streets; but, when a man falls overboard at sea and is
-lost, there is a suddenness in the event which gives it an air of
-awful mystery.  Then at sea you miss a man so much.  A dozen men are
-shut up together in a little bark upon the wide wide sea, and for
-months and months see no forms and hear no voices but their own; but
-one is suddenly taken from among them, and they miss him at every
-turn.  There are no new forms or faces to fill up the gap.  There is
-always an empty berth in the forecastle, and one more wanting when
-the small night-watch is mustered.  There is one less to take the
-wheel, one less to lay out with you upon the yard.  You miss his form
-and the sound of his voice--for habit had made them almost necessary
-to you, and each of your senses feels the loss."
-
-"So we shall never see him again--never!" said Ethel, with her eyes
-full of tears; "so kind, good, and gentle."
-
-"And so handsome, too!" added Rose.
-
-"A better seaman never trod a deck," sighed Mr. Quail.
-
-"Damnation!" was the singular addendum of Captain Phillips, through
-his clenched teeth, when thinking of the secret he had not revealed,
-and the crime which, as yet, he dared not attempt to punish.
-
-So Ethel put past "I Promessi Sposi," which had Manfredi's name
-written on the fly-leaf of the first volume, as the relic of a friend
-with whom she had spent many happy hours, whom she never more could
-see, and on whose vast tomb, the boundless ocean, she almost
-shuddered to look--for was not Morley Ashton sleeping there too?
-
-So the gloomy day passed slowly on, and night came on.
-
-Retired to their little cabin, Ethel and Rose were disrobing for
-rest--Nance Folgate had long since gone to sleep--and now,
-relinquishing the sad subject of Manfredi, Rose, with a blush on her
-charming face, was detailing to Ethel, for the second time, her
-interview with Leslie Heriot, whose ring--containing a large Scottish
-pearl, set with diamonds--glittered on the engaged finger of her left
-hand.
-
-"And you are sure that you love him, Rose?" said Ethel, as she took
-her sister's face caressingly and affectionately between her soft
-hands.
-
-"Dearly, devotedly," was the energetic reply.  "How could I do
-otherwise, when he is such a kind, darling fellow--and so handsome
-too?"
-
-"Have you weighed well the probabilities of the future?"
-
-"What do you mean, Ethel dear?"
-
-"What papa may think."
-
-"Oh, Leslie will speak to papa to-morrow, or on the next day, at the
-latest."
-
-Ethel smiled sadly at her sister's confidence.
-
-"Our voyage will soon be over, dear Rose," said she, shaking her head
-seriously.  "Once round the Cape of Good Hope, we shall be speedily
-at the Isle of France, and then your dream of joy will have an end--a
-rough awaking; not so sad or rough as mine, but a gloomy reality, and
-a doubtful future, nevertheless."
-
-Poor Rose's usually merry eyes now filled with large tears, and she
-permitted the braids of her fine dark hair, which her slender fingers
-were wreathing up for the night, to roll down in unheeded masses over
-her bare bosom and back, which shone white as the new-fallen
-snowdrift, in the light of the cabin lamp that swung above her.
-
-"And Jack Page--poor Jack Page!" said Ethel, smiling, to arouse
-Rose's spirit; "is he quite forgotten--eh?"
-
-"Oh bother Jack Page!" replied Rose, crimsoning, and with the
-faintest tinge of irritation in her tone, as she proceeded vigorously
-to knot up the masses of black hair.  "He was a pleasant enough
-fellow to flirt with, or play croquet with at Laurel Lodge (dear old
-Laurel Lodge! ah, heavens!  Ethel, shall we ever see it again?) He
-was a good fellow for fishing or sailing on the mere----"
-
-"And to botanise with, and to gather wild flowers on Cherrywood
-Hill," added Ethel, a little maliciously.
-
-"Yes; but he gave himself such insufferable airs after he became a
-rifle volunteer; and as for loving him, I should almost as soon think
-of loving your adorer, the gallant Captain Hawkshaw.  By-the-by, how
-taciturn he has become of late."
-
-"Perhaps he finds his task a hopeless one," said Ethel, with a
-haughty smile.
-
-"He seems quite changed somehow," said Rose, slipping into bed, "does
-he not, Ethel dear?  Why don't you speak to me?" added Rose, with
-sudden alarm, and springing from her berth, on perceiving her sister
-standing pale and motionless, her lips parted, her dark eyes dilated
-with terror, and their gaze fixed on the little circular window of
-their cabin, which was simply a pane of thick glass, about nine
-inches in diameter, framed in an iron ring, and secured by a powerful
-bolt.
-
-Rose gazed in the same direction, and beheld, to her intense dismay,
-the whole aperture filled by a human face--a man's apparently--pale,
-livid, green, and distorted, as viewed through the coarse crystal,
-with large keen eyes, that glared in upon them.
-
-Whoever the person was that dared thus to violate their privacy, he
-occupied a position of extreme peril, for the little window in
-question was below the plank sheer of the ship, and considerably
-abaft the mizzen chains, so that the eavesdropper must have been
-swinging alongside, almost with his heels in the foam that boiled
-under the ship's counter.
-
-Could the sea give up its dead?
-
-Was it a spectre--Manfredi, or Morley Ashton?
-
-Such were Rose's first ideas, as she clung in terror to her rigid but
-more resolute sister, who sprang forward and vainly attempted with
-her delicate hands to wrench round the bolt, and open the little
-window; but at that moment a fierce and sardonic smile seemed to
-spread over that livid and distorted visage, which instantly
-vanished, and then nothing was seen through the aperture but the vast
-sea that rolled in the starlight far away.
-
-"Papa--Nurse Folgate!" screamed Rose; but the old woman slept like
-one of the seven sleepers.
-
-"Hush!" said Ethel, "'twas only some insolent seaman; but we must
-prevent a recurrence of this," she added, as she rapidly hung a
-species of curtain over the window.  "Good heavens, Rose! to think
-how often this may have happened before, and we in total ignorance of
-it; but the captain shall be told in the morning."
-
-"Oh, Ethel!" exclaimed Rose, "how terrified I am."
-
-"Why?"
-
-"At first I thought it was his ghost."
-
-"Whose?"
-
-"Poor Mr. Manfredi's."
-
-"Nonsense, child!"
-
-"A ghost on board of a ship, how dreadful that would be!  Almost as
-bad as a fire, for there would be no escaping from it."
-
-Inspired by natural emotions of doubt, Ethel opened the door and
-peeped out into the great cabin.  All was still and quiet there, at
-least nothing was heard but the jarring of the rudder in its case,
-and of the brass swings of the lamp and tell-tale compass, with the
-heavy creaking of the ship's timbers, the backwash under the counter,
-and one other sound, to which she had become pretty familiar about
-this time--to wit, the profound snoring of Mr. Quail, as he lay at
-full length on the cabin locker, with his peacoat spread over him,
-and his sou'-wester at hand, ready to relieve the deck when the
-middle-watch was called.
-
-She secured the door, perhaps more carefully than usual.  She knelt
-down by Rose's side to say her prayers, after which they retired
-together, but lay long awake, conversing of that future, the events
-of which, happily, they could so little foresee, until they dropped
-asleep, Rose with her charming face half pillowed on Ethel's snowy
-shoulder.
-
-All remained still in the ship; but while the two sisters slept with
-arms entwined, each "hushed like the callow cygnet in its nest,"
-anxious hearts were watching over them elsewhere; and they formed the
-subject of a somewhat unusual, but animated, discussion among the
-seamen--a discussion of which, as yet, they were happily ignorant.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI.
-
-WHAT THE DOCTOR OVERHEARD IN THE FORECASTLE BUNKS.
-
-The love he bore Rose, the love that she permitted him to bear, and
-which she so fully reciprocated, together with the regard and esteem
-he had for the grave, gentle Ethel, and good, easy Mr. Basset,
-increased the anxiety with which the young Scotch surgeon beheld the
-growing discontent of the crew.
-
-On deck, he more than once had heard them conferring in most
-unpleasant terms about the disappearance of the third mate, and, in
-reply to some remark of Sharkey's, Zuares Barradas said, with a
-cunning twinkle in his eyes:
-
-"_Bueno! paso a paso va lejos._"
-
-"Wot the devil does that mean, shipmate?  Avast with your Spanish.
-Carn't you speak the queen's English?"
-
-"Well, it means that 'step by step goes far'.  Manfredi is gone; a
-little spell and we shall have it all our own way," replied the
-Spanish American, as he hitched up his trousers and slunk forward.
-
-"These rascals are decidedly up to something--or whence all this
-skulking about, this whispering in gangs, and knife-sharpening," said
-Heriot to the captain.
-
-"The grindstone has never been idle all day," observed Mr. Quail, who
-was looking, as the captain remarked, "rather white about the gills,
-in consequence."
-
-After a long conference in the cabin, Dr. Heriot offered, there being
-no moon about the middle of the first night-watch, to creep forward
-to the forecastle bunk, where, in defiance of orders, the crew now
-kept a light burning after sundown, and endeavour to overhear their
-conversation.  The duty of acting eavesdropper was not a pleasant,
-but, in this instance, a most necessary one.
-
-The first night Heriot attempted this, he failed to get forward
-unseen; but on the second, as the atmosphere, though very cloudy, was
-fine, and the ship under easy sail was going large, that is, with the
-wind abaft the beam, which careened her slightly to port, Heriot,
-armed with a sharp bowie-knife, concealed in his breast, so as to be
-ready for any emergency (for if discovered by the watch he might be
-sent overboard after poor Manfredi) crept forward on the leeside,
-keeping his head close under the bulwarks, and in the shadow.
-
-The men of the watch were all grouped to windward, smoking with their
-backs against the long-boat, and the steersman could see little else
-than the lights that glared in the binnacles, and the ship's canvas,
-that towered aloft between him and the sky.
-
-Through the two yolks of dense, thick glass that admitted light to
-the forecastle bunks, in which the seamen had their chests and
-berths, he could see nothing, save that they had, as usual with them,
-in defiance of the captain's order, a lamp or lantern, the light of
-which glared as from two bull's-eyes upon the forehatchway, the foot
-of the foremast, the gallows-bitts abaft it, the scuttle-butt, and so
-forth.
-
-These two lines of light had the effect of rendering the rest of the
-deck dark, thus favouring the purpose of Heriot, who reached unseen
-the forecastle, and crept along it, until he found himself close to
-the coaming of the scuttle, or small square hatchway, which gave
-access thereto, and from whence there ascended into the pure saline
-atmosphere of the midnight sea a combination of odours that were
-neither of Araby nor of Ind; for more than a dozen of dirty, tarry,
-unwashed, and uncombed specimens of those seamen usually denominated
-"coloured," the most ruffianly of their class, such, as may be seen
-lounging and loafing about the quays and grog-shops of Liverpool and
-Birkenhead, were all seated closely round a chest, which was lashed
-by ringbolts to the deck, and formed the table, whereon they had
-recently supped on scalding-hot "scouse" from a greasy wooden kid;
-and the fumes of this savoury mess yet mingled with the tar with
-which their clothes were saturated, and the coarse tobacco in which
-they were all indulging freely, by means of pipes, quids, and
-cigarettes.
-
-A ship's lantern, in which a candle sputtered, shed a wavering light
-through the perforated tin upon the black hair, massive frontal
-bones, and square jaw of Pedro Barradas, and on his coarse,
-leather-like ears, in which a pair of silver rings were glittering;
-on the dark olive face of his brother, Zuares, a villain of a more
-pleasing type, only because he was younger and handsomer; on the
-cruel, sardonic visage, the keen eyes, hooked nose, and enormous
-chin, and tangled elf-locks of Bill Badger, the long-legged and
-ungainly Yankee; on the huge head and giant hands of the odious
-Sharkey, who sat with his cheeks wedged between his hands, his elbows
-planted on the chest, and his eyes that, from under the bloody
-bandage encircling his temples, glared at each speaker alternately;
-and on all the rest of the ill-selected crew--fell the lantern's dim
-uncertain ray, bringing some forward into light, and leaving others
-almost in shadow.
-
-Though quite sober, for as yet they had no means for procuring
-alcohol, they generally all spoke at once, and were engaged in an
-angry dispute, which, however, they were still cautious enough to
-conduct with suppressed voices.
-
-Pedro Barradas grasped in his left hand an old dice-box, which was
-served round with spunyarn, and two suspicious-looking dice were
-rattled in it from time to time.
-
-At the moment that Heriot peeped in, it would seem as if our Spanish
-acquaintance suddenly lost his temper.  His black eyes filled with
-fire, his swarthy cheek grew livid and pale, he showed all his sharp
-white teeth like a dog about to bite, and striking his drawn knife
-into the lid of the chest, round which they were all grouped, and
-with a force of action that made them all shrink back, he uttered a
-tremendous oath, and said, in a low, hoarse voice:
-
-"It is agreed, then, that we take the ship, and make all the people
-aft walk the plank.  Am I to understand this?"
-
-"Yes, yes," from all hands was the reply; "and all must walk the
-plank to leeward."
-
-"Except the women," suggested the Canadian seaman, named Bolter.
-
-"In course we shall keep them!" said Badger, laying a long and dirty
-finger on one side of his hawk nose, and closing an eye wickedly;
-"and take very partik'lar care o' the darlings, too."
-
-"We take the ship," resumed Pedro Barradas, speaking good English,
-and with an air of authority; "and then we shall run her on her own
-account."
-
-"How?" asked one.
-
-"In the slaving or piccarooning line, or anything else that comes to
-hand."
-
-"But where to?" asked the Canadian, who seemed a man of doubts.
-
-"Anywheres, darn your nutmeg of a head!" growled the Yankee;
-"anywheres, arter we has had a jolly spree ashore."
-
-"On what shore, mate?"
-
-"On the coast ov Africy, in course; but not afore, mate--not afore, I
-calc'late."
-
-"Come, now, I likes this," observed Sharkey, putting in his voice;
-"if water and wittles runs short, we may overhaul an Ingeeman,
-homeward-bound, or an Australian liner----"
-
-"With sojers aboard, mayhap," said Bolter; "so what will you dew
-then?"
-
-"Hail or signal for a boat, to be sure, and sink it to leeward with a
-cold shot through its ribs.  Shout that it has been swamped under the
-counter, and to send another, and another, and so knock 'em all on
-the head.  Then run her aboard, take all out of her--the women, too,
-if any--then scuttle or burn her."
-
-"A game you won't play long athout being overhauled by some cussed
-man-o'-war," said the Canadian.  "I tell you, mates, the good old
-piratical times have been put out o' fashion long since.  Even the
-slaving business is knocked up by them blazing smoke-jacks and
-gun-boats of the African squadron.  The sea ain't wot it was, mates,
-when old Kidd sailed the _Vulture_ down the Channel with a skull and
-marrow-bones flying at his foremasthead."
-
-"Hooray!  I'll ship with you, Barradas," cried another.  "Grog for
-the drinking, a grab at these gals, and the pick o' the good things
-in the passengers' trunks and cabin-lockers."
-
-"And till that time comes," added Sharkey, "we'll work Tom Cox's
-traverse with old Phillips--that we shall.  Precious little work
-he'll get out of me."
-
-"But I don't like usin' the knife or plank if they could be done
-athout, mates," said the Canadian ponderingly.
-
-"The Reverend Mr. Ben Bolter, a Methody parson, 'll offer up a
-blessin' over the empty mess-kids," sneered the Yankee.
-
-"_Par todos santos_," growled Pedro Barradas, giving the Canadian a
-glance of profound scorn, while Zuares uttered a shrill and ferocious
-laugh.
-
-"I say, cooky," said Sharkey, in a way which he supposed to be very
-jocular, "as Ben Bolter don't like the stickin' business, couldn't
-you put summut tasty into the mess-kid o' the cabbin passingers, and
-pison the whole bilin' o' them?  I have known o' such things being
-done afore now, mates, and many other things, too, that never
-appeared in the ship's log.  Have you any Calabar beans aboard?"
-
-"Yaas," replied the cook, with a regular negro grin, for he was a
-black Virginian, named Quaco; "dere's a bagful in de hold.  Why?"
-
-"I have known of a handful, put in a copper of peasoup, doing for a
-whole ship's crew afore now."
-
-"When?"
-
-"In the Gulf of Florida once, and again among the Coral Islands, in
-the Pacific.  Aye, aye, mates, I have seen some rum sprees in my
-time."
-
-"And you are likely to see more," added the Yankee, "ere this cussed
-old craft gets her anchors over the bows, and her ground-tackle rove.
-Ha, ha!  But as for the pison, you darned fool, wot of old Basset's
-gals?  We wants 'em partik'lar, you know.  So avast with your Calabar
-beans.  I guess, mate, you're up a tree, rayther."
-
-Sharkey was abashed into silence.
-
-"And that Scotch doctor," said a gaunt, unhealthy-looking seaman,
-named Cribbit, who had not yet spoken, and who so frequently required
-Heriot's medical aid that he had imbibed half the contents of his
-medicine-chest, "must he, too, walk the plank?"
-
-"In course he must," drawled Bill Badger, stuffing an enormous quid
-in the inmost recesses of his capacious mouth.
-
-"No, no, _demonio_, no!" said the elder Barradas; "we must keep him
-alive so long as we want him.  We can't physic ourselves,
-_companeros_, especially if fever comes aboard, which it is likely to
-do if we hug the land."
-
-"But in physicking us he might poison the whole blessed gang,"
-suggested the Canadian.
-
-"No fear of that.  We'll have him chained to the mainmast, and if a
-man dies in his hands, then _el senor doctor de medicena_ shall be
-tipped overboard after the others."
-
-"Thank you, my Spanish _patrone_," thought Heriot, who had listened
-to all this with blood that alternately boiled and curdled; "a
-pleasant little medical practice you are likely to find me here!"
-
-"Mayhap that fellow, Hawkshaw, would join us?" suggested the Canadian
-again.
-
-"He, the white-livered Perro!" exclaimed Pedro, "I long to have my
-Albacete knife between his ribs.  I'll teach him to play off
-quarter-deck airs with me, the God-abandoned Piccaro!  Well, is it
-agreed that, instead of letting old Phillips haul up for Table Bay,
-we keep the ship off the land whether he will or will not take her
-before we are abreast of La Tierra de Natal; hug the coast of Africa
-after; have a run through the Mozambique Channel, and then stand
-right across the Indian Sea for whatever we may overhaul?"
-
-A unanimous clapping of very hard and very dirty hands responded
-heartily to this programme.
-
-"Now, Pedro, the _dados_ (dice)," said Zuares, impatiently.
-
-"Yes, mates, the dice!" added the Yankee, setting his chin, which was
-like a shoemaker's knife, upon his knees, and clasping his hands over
-his ankles, so that he squatted on his hams like a huge baboon.
-"Hooray! the old _Herminey_ has been trimmed by the starn since she
-saw Dungeness Light; but we'll trim her by the head arter we doubles
-the Cape--eh, mates?  So now to draw lots for them two pretty
-creeturs, as I calculate is just agoin' to bed about this blessed
-time.  Think o' that, mates!  I'm a thorough-bred Yankee--half bull,
-half shark, with an uncommon cross of the snake; so I'm blowed if I
-can wait almost till we leave Table Bay astarn and bear up towards
-Natal.  But rattle away, Pedro, my boy!--Captain Pedro that is to be,
-I reckon."
-
-The blood of the young Scotchman grew cold as he listened, longing
-for a brace of loaded revolvers, that he might shoot down the whole
-band; but the talkative Yankee began his nasal drawling again.
-
-"How I'd like to have one of 'em under a big palm-tree in some snug
-diggin' on the Africy coast, or in a wigwam on the Mozambique,
-thatched with leaves, no topsails to reef o' nights, and nothin' to
-do all day, but keep on admiring her, and swigging the grog old
-Phillips has aboard, or blowing a whiff of 'baccy--eh, mates?
-Jeerusalem! that's summut like life, I calculate!"
-
-"_Morte de Dios!_" swore Pedro Barradas, with a very dark look; "haul
-in your slack, and be hanged to you!  There are other things than the
-two girls worth casting lots for!"
-
-"Is there really, now?" drawled Badger.  I was looking into the
-senoras' cabin the other night, and saw them going to bed.  I saw
-lovely necks and shoulders, and all that; but I saw more, I can tell
-you, _companeros_."
-
-"Smite my timbers!" "Shiver my tawpsails!" "Darn my eyes!" "Oh,
-Jeerusalem!"  And "What did you see?" asked several all at once.
-
-"A splendid jewel-case," replied the Spaniard, while an avaricious
-gleam sparkled in his dark eyes; "a box with diamond rings for the
-ears and fingers; carbuncles, turquoises, and topazes, in bracelets
-and necklets, all glittering on the trays of blue and crimson velvet.
-So he who loses the girls should have a chance----"
-
-"Of grabbing the jewels," interrupted Badger; "in course he
-should--in course!"
-
-"Jewels or not," said Zuares Barradas, laughing, while he rolled up a
-fresh cigarito, "I'll teach one senora, at least, that it is no
-longer here _mira y no totas_, as they say in Minorca."
-
-"Which means, in your cussed lingo?" asked Bolter.
-
-"_Look_ at me, but _touch_ me not!" replied the young Spaniard, with
-a grin.
-
-"I'm rayther pertik'lar," observed Mr. Badger, "and I might do
-neither one nor t'other, if I wor in Minorky."
-
-"Ay, mate; but if you saw the Minorca girls in their robazillas of
-white lace or silk, pinned under their pretty dimpled chins, and
-falling over their shoulders, to be lifted at times by the wind, only
-as if to show the low bodice and rounded bosom beneath--_hombre_."
-
-"Here is a sentimental young villain, with an eye for the
-picturesque!" thought Heriot.
-
-"Now, then, the dados," said Pedro, rattling the dice-box.  "I throw
-myself first."
-
-"_Maladetto_, Pedro!" interrupted Zuares.  "Content yourself with rum
-and plunder; you are too old and crank for either of these girls to
-be pleased with you."
-
-"_Vaya usted al Satanos!_" responded his affectionate elder brother.
-"The girls, at all events, are not too young for me to be pleased
-with them.  I am not more than forty, you son of a burnt castano."
-
-"Take the old nurse, Pedro--you'll have her a free gift, gratis, all
-for nothin', and Badger's blessing into the bargain.  If one o' these
-gals falls to me," continued the talkative Yankee, "I reckon I must
-get shaved by the doctor, and be fixed anew; have my 'air swabbed
-down with some o' the cook's slush, and a hextra pull up o' my shirt
-collar--eh, mates?"
-
-Amid the ferocious laughter which these and similar remarks drew
-forth, and while the dice-box rattled on the sea-chest lid Dr. Heriot
-withdrew, and crept aft, just as he had done forward, by keeping
-close under the lee bulwarks.
-
-Reaching the companion-way unseen, he slipped downstairs, with a
-burning brain and aching heart--a heart sick and sore with
-apprehension for others rather than for himself; and now, with his
-ear tingling with countless coarse oaths, obscenities, and foul
-jokes, which, of course, have been omitted in our relation of the
-remarkable discussion he had overheard, he sought at once the cabin
-of Captain Phillips, to communicate the dreadful game that was on the
-_tapis_ in the forecastle of the ill-fated _Hermione_.
-
-CHAPTER VII.
-
-MEASURES FOR DEFENCE CONCERTED.
-
-Though Ethel and Rose had retired to rest, the hour was not late, and
-Captain Phillips, Mr. Basset, and Hawkshaw were still lingering over
-a glass of wine in the cabin, when Dr. Heriot entered it.
-
-The pallor of his face, and the excited expression of his eyes, made
-them start with exclamations of surprise and inquiry; and their alarm
-increased when he filled up a glass with port and drained it, the
-crystal rattling against his teeth while he did so.
-
-"Hallo, doctor, what the deuce is the matter?" asked bluff Captain
-Phillips, changing colour, or rather losing it partially.  "You have
-been forward--eh?"
-
-"Yes, sir; and have there heard more than enough to confirm our worst
-fears."
-
-Phillips arose, and closed the cabin door.  He then summoned from his
-berth Mr. Quail (as Mr. Foster, the second mate, had charge of the
-deck), and they, together with Mr. Basset and Hawkshaw, heard with
-undisguised consternation the result of the doctor's eavesdropping.
-
-As for Hawkshaw, he had long endured the horrible conviction of
-guilt, with the still more gnawing sense or dread of perpetual
-suspicion in others.  He loved Ethel, yet, as we have said elsewhere,
-at times he almost hated her for her coldness to him; but now his
-soul was full of terror--terror for her and for himself, as he knew
-he would meet with little mercy from the Barradas and their friends.
-Retribution for the crime he had committed at Acton Chine was about
-to come at last, and he had fallen into a trap of his own devising!
-
-Neither Captain Phillips nor Mr. Quail were much astonished, though
-grieved and alarmed, by Dr. Heriot's tidings; but poor Mr. Basset's
-first thought was for his daughters--his young, delicate, and
-tenderly-nurtured girls; and already, in his excited imagination, he
-beheld them, after his own butchery, in the rude grasp of those
-lawless wretches, and subjected to the grossest indignities, far from
-help or human aid, upon the lonely sea, and in a floating
-hell--indignities the mere idea of which wrung the poor man's heart
-with agony.
-
-To-morrow, to-night, even now, they might be advancing towards the
-cabin, intent on assassination and robbery!
-
-The dread was maddening to the unhappy parent, who made a step
-towards his daughters' sleeping place, as if in anticipation, by
-thought and deed, to save them from the coming peril.  He had no
-voice or coherence of thought for a time, and listened like one in a
-dream to the discussion or consultation now held by the officers of
-the ship.
-
-After relinquishing his practice as a barrister in London, Scriven
-Basset had spent many years of ease and affluence at Laurel Lodge,
-and all unused to alarms or excitements, he felt himself totally
-destitute of the stamina or courage requisite for facing so sudden
-and perilous an emergency.  Personal danger he might have confronted,
-for he had all the spirit of a gentleman; but at the thought of his
-daughters--the graceful and ladylike Ethel, the sweet and playful
-Rose--his soul seemed to die within him.
-
-Cramply Hawkshaw's visage was paler than usual.  He remembered the
-threats used towards himself, when Pedro Barradas so summarily
-appropriated his gold watch, and while trembling for Ethel, he began
-to think of means for quitting the ship, for the safety of his own
-person, of which--being all the property he possessed--he was rather
-disposed to be economical.
-
-"The accursed--the bloody-minded villains!" exclaimed Captain
-Phillips, after a pause, while pacing to and fro.  "This comes of
-having a coloured crew; and this is why they have been so sullen and
-insolent of late."
-
-"And so lazy at work, too," groaned Mr. Quail.
-
-"Lazy! they have done little else but take three turns a day round
-the long-boat, and then a pull at the scuttle-butt."
-
-"For weeks there has been no work done," resumed Mr. Quail; "all our
-spunyarn and chafing-gear are worn out, and you might as well expect
-them to polish the chain-cable, or brighten up the best bower, as
-prepare for an emergency, or get the fellows even to wash or mend
-their own clothes."
-
-"If a man-of-war hove in sight, I'd put an end to their sogering!"
-said Captain Phillips, still pacing about.  "I'd make them toe the
-mark, and work the old iron out of them.  I'd have them all seized
-up, and made spread-eagles of at the gangway, the coloured vermin."
-
-"A worse lot were never shipped, unless on board a Spanish pirate,"
-said Mr. Quail, with another groan, as he thought of plump, jolly
-Mrs. Quail, and their five little Quails, at that moment, doubtless
-all a-bed in their pretty little rose-covered cottage near the
-Windmill-hill at Gravesend.
-
-"Is there not one on whom we could depend?" asked Mr. Basset, in
-faltering accents.
-
-"Not one, sir," replied Captain Phillips; "not one, except Boy Joe,
-the steward, and he is not worth much."
-
-"We are in a desperate situation, certainly," said Heriot.  "But I am
-most concerned for you and--and your daughters, Mr. Basset."
-
-Tears started to the lawyer's eyes, and he wrung the young doctor's
-readily-proffered hand.
-
-"And I, too, Mr. Basset, feel for you and your two dear girls--though
-perhaps this business may be all talk and sogering; yet I confess it
-don't look like it," said the captain.  "Thank Heaven I am a
-bachelor, and have no one depending upon me but the son of my poor
-brother Bill, that was drowned in the Straits of Sunda, and my life
-is insured on his account, so that is all right; but these young
-ladies----"
-
-Phillips paused, for Mr. Basset, who was reclining on the cabin
-locker, covered his face with his hands, and groaned aloud.
-
-"We have no time to lose in preparing to meet these rascals," said
-Dr. Heriot, with growing confidence.  "We must see what arms we can
-muster, and endeavour to use them too.  D--n it, Captain Phillips, we
-must show fight in some fashion, and not all walk the plank without
-making some of them walk it also.  I have a pair of good rifled
-pistols."
-
-"And I have two six-barrelled revolvers and a fowling-piece," added
-the captain.
-
-"Sixteen shots," said Hawkshaw, brightening a little.  "We can
-barricade the cabin, and defend it with these against them."
-
-"We are seven, including myself," said Phillips.
-
-"Seven?" said Mr. Basset, looking up.
-
-"Yes, sir; there are the two mates, the doctor, yourself, and I,
-Captain Hawkshaw, and Joe the steward."
-
-"But they are eighteen in number, and armed too."
-
-"Only with sheath-knives, so far as we know; but then there are
-hatchets, cleavers, handspikes, and capstan-bars, with anything else
-that will form a weapon."
-
-"Oh that we were nearer the coast of Africa, that we might all get
-into a boat, and quietly leave the ship on a dark night!" said Mr.
-Basset, wringing his hands, while Dr. Heriot unlocked a case of
-pistols--the parting gift of his class-fellows on his leaving the old
-College of King James VI.--and proceeded at once to load and cap
-them, after which he put all the ammunition in his pockets.
-
-"Fear for your girls bewilders you, sir," said Captain Phillips, in a
-low voice, to Mr. Basset.  "That, perhaps, is natural; but to be
-landed on the coast of Africa might not mend matters much with you
-and them, if you fell in with some houseless Dutch bushmen or wild
-Cape Caffres; and as for me, I shall never quit my ship while a plank
-of her holds together."
-
-"Captain Phillips," said young Heriot, with his teeth clenched, and
-his eyes flashing, as he thought of sweet Rose Basset, whose last
-kiss seemed yet to linger on his lip, "if they keep quiet until
-morning, I have a mind to call forward Pedro Barradas in front of the
-crew, tell him what I have overheard, and then, as an example, shoot
-him dead before the rest!"
-
-The captain vehemently opposed this idea as rash, and added:
-
-"You are very risky for a Scotsman; you would only perish under the
-knives and handspikes of the rest, and thus bring destruction the
-sooner on us all."
-
-"Oh, if a man-o'-war would but come in sight!" groaned Mr. Basset.
-
-"They are seldom so far off the Cape; and we are a good way to the
-southward of it already."
-
-"Could we not sound the crew?  All may not be so bad as the
-Barradas," said Hawkshaw.
-
-"They are all alike, confound 'em!" rejoined Captain Phillips, as he
-brought from his cabin the two revolvers and the fowling-piece, all
-of which he proceeded quietly, but quickly, to load and cap.
-
-The arms and ammunition were distributed among them, and Hawkshaw
-really handled the "six-shooter" like a man who was used to it, and,
-doubtless, when in Mexico, his life and his food had frequently
-depended on the goodness of his aim.
-
-"If we only take care and fire steadily, we may dispose of them all
-in case of an attack," said Dr. Heriot, who, with the captain, was
-the most resolute of the little band.  "Our chief aim must be to
-prevent a surprise."
-
-After a council of war, it was arranged that the ladies should be
-warned against leaving the cabin or venturing much on deck, and that
-they should be kept in ignorance of the why and wherefore.
-
-That the seven men in the cabin should stand staunchly by each other,
-and never undress when lying in their berths, so as to be ready for
-instant service.
-
-That one at a time should hold a strict watch on the companion-way
-and cabin door, and that all should keep their arms loaded and their
-ammunition constantly about them.
-
-That as little canvas as possible should be kept no the ship, so that
-aloft she might be ready for any sudden emergency, squall, or
-catastrophe.
-
-A large trunk, full of Mr. Basset's law-books (which next morning was
-to have been shot into the hold as lumber), was placed near the outer
-cabin door, and lashed by one of its handles to a brass ring-bolt,
-and so arranged that, sluing round the other end, it effectually
-barricaded the sliding-door that opened to the steerage and
-companion-ladder.
-
-To defend this avenue in case of an attack, and so sell their lives
-as dearly as possible, or, it might be, to shoot all their assailants
-down in succession, were the simple but stern resolutions come to.
-
-These preliminaries adjusted, the captain, armed with his revolver,
-took the first two hours' spell.  The rest retired to their various
-berths, and lay down with their clothes on, and their weapons beside
-them.
-
-The two hours passed away in silence.
-
-The captain went on deck, and sent the second mate, Foster, below, in
-a not very enviable frame of mind, after hearing what was on the
-_tapis_, for, like Mr. Quail--
-
-  "He, poor fellow! had a wife and children--
-  Two things for dying people quite bewildering."
-
-
-So, with a beating and anxious heart, he lay down on a locker, with a
-sharp hatchet under him--the only weapon that came to hand.
-
-The ship was still going large, with the breeze abaft the beam, and
-the fore and main studding-sails set.  Joe, the steward, was at the
-wheel; the light in the forecastle bunks was extinguished now, and
-the watch on deck were all grouped, in silence apparently, to leeward
-of the long-boat.
-
-All seemed still for that night, or rather the remainder of the
-morning, when the captain warned the miserable Mr. Basset to take the
-next "spell," or watch, as sentinel at the cabin door.
-
-Pale and sleepless, with bloodshot eyes, the poor man received the
-loaded revolver, with all the timidity and awkwardness of one who had
-never handled such a weapon before, and dreading lest it might
-explode of its own accord, like a loaded fire-wheel, and thus shoot
-himself and everybody else; but anon the thought of his daughters
-nerved his heart and steadied his hand.
-
-Slowly, as if Time stood still, the minutes passed; and when, as
-usual, the ship's bell clanged at each half-hour on deck, it sounded
-in his ears and in his soul like the knell of doom!
-
-So the poor father continued to watch in breathless anxiety; now
-pacing the carpeted cabin in miserable restlessness, then seating
-himself upon the stern locker, with the revolver on his knee, and his
-hands over his face, breathing an unuttered prayer for his darling
-daughters; now listening, keenly as a hunted hare, at the door of
-their little cabin, to hear their soft, low breathing.  Anon, seeking
-the companion-way, as if the confined air of the ship stifled him,
-and looking up at the mizzen-rigging towering into the starry sky,
-where the mizzen-topsail, topgallantsail, and the driver, with the
-boom and gaff, spread between him and heaven like a broad gray cloud
-of canvas.
-
-Then the thought of his dead wife, and their once dear happy home in
-England far away.
-
-By a freak of memory, past hours of happiness, of joviality and
-frivolity--hours spent amid the flowery and leafy seclusion of Laurel
-Lodge, came crowding on him, with faces of friends, their voices,
-smiles, and little episodes; the green sunny lawn, the stately chase
-of Acton-Rennel, the Norman cross on Cherrytree Hill, and the great
-yew that shaded his wife's grave in that quiet old English
-churchyard, where he might never lie: all these came before him now,
-and he marvelled in his aching breast if the horrors that overhung
-him now were not a nightmare, and all a dreadful dream!
-
-Ethel and Rose, so pure, so fair, so lovely, and so highly bred, to
-be in such peril; at the mercy of such men as those who formed the
-crew of the _Hermione_, and far from all human succour on the wide,
-wide, open sea.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII.
-
-THE SAIL TO WINDWARD.
-
-Under the interlaced crosses of Great Britain--our brave old
-union-jack--a very different crew manned that good little ship the
-_Princess_, of London, which we last left when dropping the giant
-cone of Tristan d'Acunha astern, and bearing on her voyage towards
-Tasmania.
-
-Under Tom Bartelot's command, all went well and prosperously, and his
-ship had fine weather and spanking topsail breezes, after leaving the
-romantic Isle of Tristan.
-
-Anxious to be useful and to kill time, Morley Ashton had applied
-himself to seamanship, and, in seeking to master all the mysteries
-thereof, became the peculiar pupil of old Noah Gawthrop, who
-confidently undertook "to make a man and a sailor of him, before they
-saw Wan Demon's Land."
-
-He could soon dip his hands in a bucket of tar without wincing; slush
-the mast, from the royal-masthead down, without becoming squeamish;
-he could box the compass, take his trick at the helm, and achieve
-many clever things, from holding the log-reel upwards to sending down
-a royal-yard without mistake or blunder, which Noah told him "was one
-of the prime feats of seamanship, which even the queen on the throne
-couldn't do."
-
-The first time he accomplished this, was when a squall was coming on.
-Ben Plank had the fore-royal, Noah the main-royal, and Morley the
-mizzen.
-
-His spar was certainly the lightest, with a smaller sail, but he had
-it struck and sent down before the others, greatly to the delight of
-old Noah, who, with all his ugliness, which was undeniable, was a
-genuine salt of the old school--a regular British tar, with his
-slouching shoulders and light gait, swinging arms, and half-closed
-hands, that were always ready to "tally on" to anything; a comical
-twinkle in his eye, and who believed in whistling for wind as truly
-as the Turkish skipper who pours oil upon the sea, in the hope that
-it may float to Mecca, for the same useful purpose.
-
-Noah bore on his breast, engraved in gunpowder, a little romance of
-his younger days--a sailor and a girl standing on the sea-shore.  In
-the background (or offing, to speak more correctly) lay a ship, with
-her topsails loose, hove-apeak to her anchor, while the smoke from a
-gun--the signal for sea--curled over her quarter.  Under the male
-figure were the initials "N.G.," and under the girl's were--what we
-won't say, for in them, lay the pet secret of old Noah's honest
-heart.  The ship, however, he often pointed to with pride, saying it
-was a "lovely pictur' of her Majesty's ship the _Haurora_, of fifty
-guns, as was--an ugly smoke-jack now, with a screw-propeller in her
-starn."
-
-The weather was cool, almost cold, at times, and frequently icebergs
-were in sight, with their white glistening pinnacles standing sharply
-defined against the sky, and shaded off with pale green or purple
-tints, that blended with the deep blue of the sea.
-
-Tom Bartelot's cheerful temperament, his songs and his bonhomie, and
-Morrison's queer legends of Scotland and the sea, together with grave
-and earnest advice, and confidence in a Providence who ordered all
-things for the best, had a good effect upon Morley Ashton's spirits,
-which might have sunk, circumstanced as he was, amid the monotony of
-a sea voyage, with foreshadowed fears of evil tidings on reaching the
-Isle of France, after making a tour so circuitous as Tasmania.
-
-Ignorant of the unlooked-for detention of the _Hermione_ at the
-Canaries, and of the series of foul winds she had encountered, Morley
-never doubted that now the Bassets must have reached their
-destination, and been installed in their new home; that Mr. Basset
-must have entered on his official duties, and if they were
-accompanied by one so enterprising as Cramply Hawkshaw, it was
-difficult to foretell how Cupid and Fortune--blind deities
-both--might reward his perseverance, and thus cast a fatal blight
-upon the hopes of our hero who, like a poor "pilgrim of the heart,"
-or a knight-errant of old, was traversing the sea from shore to shore
-in search of a lost love.
-
-One day, as Morley trod the deck to and fro listlessly, he was
-startled by the unusual, or, at least, unexpected cry of--
-
-"Land, ho!"
-
-Telescope in hand, he sprang up the weather-rigging.
-
-"Land it is, indeed," said Tom Bartelot, shading his eyes with his
-hand, and peering over the weather-quarter.
-
-"What land, Tom?"
-
-"Diego Alvarez, or Gough's Island.  I have been looking out for it
-all forenoon.  Keep her full and by--full and by, lad," he added to
-the steersman; "keep her closer to the wind--see how that foretopsail
-shivers."
-
-This was about six bells (_i.e._, 3 P.M.) on a fine, clear afternoon.
-The hill of Gough's Island arose dim and blue upon their weather-bow.
-
-Discovered long, long ago, by an adventurous Portuguese mariner, who
-bestowed upon it its name, it is a lonely and desolate place, covered
-with moss and sea-grass, the abode only of sea-elephants and the
-fur-seal.  It was named anew by Captain Gough, of the _Richmond_,
-when on his voyage to China in 1731.
-
-After leaving it astern, good fortune seemed to abandon the
-_Princess_ and her crew.
-
-A series of foul winds that veered round every point of the compass,
-with heavy gusts and squally weather, beset her, and so cloudy was
-the sky, that for several days Bartelot and his mate were quite
-unable to make an observation--_i.e._, to take the sun's altitude at
-noon.
-
-In one squall the mizzen-topniast was carried away, being broken
-right off at the cap, the heel with the fid alone remaining in the
-top.
-
-"So, friend Morley," said Tom, "if this kind of work and these foul
-winds continue, we may see the Table Mountain, and have to run into
-the bay for fresh water."
-
-"At the Cape of Good Hope?"
-
-"Yes.  Then if you wish to have a day's run in Lubberland, you may
-come ashore with me; and who can say," he added, kindly, on
-perceiving how Ashton's countenance fell at the prospect of fresh
-delays, "but we may there find a craft bound for the island of Paul
-and Virginia, and get your hammock swung aboard of her at once?"
-
-One day the weather cleared a little, and the sun broke forth a few
-minutes before noon.
-
-Bartelot and Morrison betook them to quadrant, sextant, and chart,
-and found they were within some 300 miles of the Cape of Storms.
-
-After this the sky resumed its sombre and inky hue; the sea was gray,
-save where the sun shot his beams like a flood of yellow light
-through a rent in the clouds, and lit the waves below with a golden
-sheen, long and steadily, about fifteen miles distant on their
-weather-bow.
-
-"Sail, ho!" shouted Ben Plank, who, with some others, was up aloft
-taking advantage of this bright blink, to get the spare
-mizzen-topmast shipped, with all its hamper and gearing.
-
-"Where away, Ben?" asked Morley, snatching Tom's telescope from its
-brass hooks under the companion-hatch.
-
-"There, sir, in that streak of light to windward."
-
-Looming large as coming out of the haze, Morley saw a large,
-square-rigged vessel, with all her fore-and-aft canvas set, running
-close-hauled on a different current of wind, which did not as yet
-affect the _Princess_, and which would probably carry her ahead.
-
-Her canvas was white as snow, and shone like the outspread wings of a
-swan in the bright gleam of sunshine, and in strong relief against
-the gray and dusky sky beyond.
-
-She was visible but for a few minutes--so briefly, indeed, that
-Morrison had not time to run the ensign up to the gaff-peak, when she
-seemed to dart into the gray obscurity ahead, and to vanish like a
-phantom that melted into the sky; but though invisible, it was
-evident that the _Princess_, a faster sailer, would soon leave her
-far astern.
-
-In that large square-rigged ship, that spanked along on a taut
-bowline, with the white foam curling under her black bows, and flying
-over her gilded catheads, how little Morley Ashton imagined that
-Ethel Basset--the Ethel of his hopes by day and dreams by night, the
-centre around which all his aspirations and his life itself
-revolved--was seated side by side with Hawkshaw on one of the
-quarter-deck seats, watching, through a fifteen-mile lorgnette, or
-racing-glass, the outline of the _Princess_, whose canvas being all
-in shadow came blackly out, for a few minutes, from the sombre
-atmosphere to leeward, and then melted from their view for ever.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX.
-
-THE STORM.
-
-Varied by occasional torrents of rain, black, cloudy, and squally
-skies, the regular "Cape weather" continued after this, and the
-_Princess_ was soon running under close-reefed topsails.  So
-frequently were the reefs taken in and shaken out, that Bill Morrison
-said they reminded him of an old Scottish seaman's rhyme:
-
-  "Gif the rain pouirs ere the wind swurl,
-  Your topsails lowse and gar them furl;
-  But gif the wind blaws ere pouirs the rain,
-  Your topsails lowse, and hoist again."
-
-
-Even the gay spirit of Tom Bartelot became depressed by the gloomy
-and threatening state of the weather, and he spent nearly his whole
-time on deck, or in observing the compasses, the barometer, and state
-of the pumps.
-
-Two days after the strange sail had been seen no the weather-bow, the
-glass was still falling, while the sea and wind were rising.
-
-At seven bells, after taking a hurried breakfast Tom found the wind
-increasing to a gale, so he took in the maintopgallantsail, the
-second reef of his topsails, and set the mainstaysail.
-
-By midday he had to summon all hands on deck.
-
-"Close-reef the topsails, furl mainsail and fore and mizzen-topsail."
-
-These orders followed each other rapidly.
-
-Soon after, the _Princess_ was flying through the gloomy sea under a
-close-reefed maintopsail and reefed foresail, shipping a great deal
-of water the while, and labouring hard, as her pumps worked ill.
-
-After this, the wind began to die away, the sea went somewhat down,
-and then more canvas was spread on the ship; but there were many
-indications in the sky and atmosphere which filled Tom and Morrison,
-and Gawthrop, too, for he had his nameless nautical instincts, with
-anxieties which the younger men of the crew could not fail to
-perceive.
-
-"How's the barometer, Morrison?" was the frequent question.
-
-"Still falling slowly, sir."
-
-"What do you think the night will be?" asked Morley.
-
-"There's a gloom, and a closeness too, indicating thunder."
-
-"Aye," said Noah Gawthrop, who had the wheel, "the wind and the sea
-will make a fine bobbery together in these parts afore the morning
-watch, is called."
-
-"Steward--Ben Plank, get the dead lights shipped," cried Bartelot,
-"here comes the squall again!  In with all the light sails, Morrison;
-hurry forward--'way aloft lads, and lay out on the yards!"
-
-Thus, by six o'clock, she was again running under close-reefed
-topsails and foresail.
-
-The clouds were banking up in strange, wild, and fantastic forms to
-windward; black and sombre, they were altering every moment,
-revealing weird-like patches of white and livid sky beyond.  At some
-parts of the horizon the blended sea and sky had the darkness of
-night, while in the zenith there was at times the brightness almost
-of noon.
-
-"I don't like the aspect of all this, Morley," said Bartelot, in a
-low voice to his friend; "we are in for a rough, wild night, and I
-wish it were well past."
-
-The wind veered rapidly round half of the compass; sometimes it
-seemed to blow from all quarters at once.  It came in strong and hot
-gusts, while, through the bosom of the black clouds at the horizon,
-the red lightning seemed to plunge its seething bolts in the sea, and
-to add to the sublime terror of such a scene; the atmosphere was so
-sulphurous that, at times, luminous lights like fireballs or meteors
-were seen on every masthead, yardarm, and beam-end.
-
-"Furl the topsails, lower the yards upon the cap, leave nothing set
-but the close-reefed foresail," were now Bartelot's orders.
-
-Morley had never before seen so wild a tempest; but he was now seaman
-enough to scramble aloft with the rest, and soon found himself on the
-foot-rope, and "laying out" on the arm of the main-yard, and, as he
-was first up at the weather-earring, there holding on with all his
-strength, for so weird was the scene below, the napping of the
-canvas, the snapping of ropes, that cracked like coach-whips in the
-bellowing wind, the swaying of the rigging, and the pitching of the
-ship, that a terrible nausea came over him, together with a
-giddiness, and had not a seaman, named Erwin, who was by his side,
-caught him, he might have toppled into the sea, that roared and
-seethed below.
-
-Ben Plank, being a strong fellow, had his post in the slings of the
-mainyard, to pack the sail, and make up the bunt, or stow the heavy
-middle portion.  Soon all was snug aloft; but again the wind changed
-so rapidly, that it flew round from the south-east to the north-west,
-and then with a mighty sound of rending and tearing, the foresail was
-split to ribbons, that flapped and cracked like rifle shots in the
-tempest, while the ship, which seemed almost enveloped in lightning
-for an instant, was almost thrown on her beam-ends.
-
-"Stand from under, men--there go the masts!" shouted Bartelot through
-his trumpet, and a stunning peal of thunder bellowed over the ocean
-at the same moment.
-
-Then followed a mighty crash, as if the heavens were falling on the
-deck, and all shrunk instinctively aside, or stooped downward, as the
-three topmasts and jib-boom broke off at the caps, and the _Princess_
-was a wreck in a moment.
-
-"Hatchets--cut away the hamper to ease the ship!" was now the order,
-and, in a short time, the tangled wilderness of yards, masts,
-cross-trees and blocks, stays and rigging, on being cut adrift,
-whirled out of sight to leeward, carrying with it the unfortunate
-seaman Erwin, who had been caught by the body in the bight of a rope.
-
-By the fall of the mizzen-topniast the starboard quarter-boat was
-dashed to pieces, and the other, which was a life-boat, was torn from
-its davits and vanished in the darkness like a child's toy, as a
-tremendous sea pooped the ship.
-
-"Tom," gasped Morley, as he clung, half-drowned, or stunned, to a
-belaying-pin, "are we indeed lost--do you think all is over?"
-
-"Nearly so--if this continues long," was the composed reply.  "Hold
-on, lads, here comes another sea!"
-
-Now the black waves continued to burst over the vessel with a series
-of thundering explosions, as if determined to overwhelm it, till all
-around was foam, as white as snow; but though labouring at times with
-her gunwale almost under water, her whole deck strewed with fragments
-and splinters of timber, bulwarks, buckets, pieces of rope, blocks,
-sails, and spars, that were washed to and fro, and while the crew,
-knee-deep in this debris, clung to shrouds and belaying-pins, she
-rose up buoyantly ever and anon, on the crest of a wave, with all the
-water streaming from her, and all the while the wild wind blew in
-gusts, and bellowed like an unchained fiend.  Amid the terrible scene
-another seaman was swept overboard and drowned; the long-boal was
-uprooted from its lashings and chocks over the main-hatch, and
-carried over the side, by a sea that came right amidships, and tore
-away half the starboard-bulwarks, so, fearing that the ship would
-founder, Bartelot, with a heavy heart, gave orders to cut away the
-lower masts.
-
-The men were soon at work with sharp axes, and, while keeping afoot
-with difficulty under the drenching seas, shipped every moment by the
-labouring hull, after cutting through the shrouds and stays, a few
-blows at the foot of each mast, readily sent them, in succession,
-crashing to leeward, where they vanished amid foam and obscurity.
-
-Noah Gawthrop had just relinquislied the now useless wheel, when a
-wave broke over the quarter, tearing the rudder from its bands, and
-dashing the wheel to pieces.
-
-"All's over with the poor _Princess_, Morley," said Tom, with a
-groan; "she won't outlive the night, I fear."
-
-Morrison now came aft to report that the chain-pump had given way,
-the other had become choked, and that water was rising fast in the
-well.
-
-"She's sprung a leak, sir, somewhere about her fore-foot, so it is a
-bad look-out for us all," said Plank, the carpenter.
-
-By this time the bulwarks were all torn away from the stanchions and
-timber-heads amidships by the sea, which now made clean breaches over
-the entire hull.
-
-Nothing could be done now by the crew, but to leave the ship to her
-fate, and to hold on by whatever offered itself, and wait the event
-of the storm abating, or, what seemed much more likely, of the ship
-foundering, by settling bodily down into the trough of the sea, and
-rising never more.  Her cargo, too, sugar and tobacco, were the
-reverse of buoyant under the circumstances; so now, Morley, Bartelot,
-Morrison, the chief mate, Plank, the carpenter, and old Noah, were
-all grouped about the quarter-deck, some holding on by the
-timber-heads, others by the stump of the mizzenmast, while the rest
-of the crew were grouped forward, where they lashed themselves to the
-stump of the foremast, the barrel of the windlass, and gallows-bitts;
-but so dark was the night, so terrible the sea, and so loud the wind,
-that neither party could see or hear anything of the other.
-
-Suddenly there was a rending crash!
-
-An invocation of heaven rose to the lips of all, and a wild,
-despairing cry from those in the forecastle reached the ears of our
-friends on the quarter-deck.  Morley felt the whole ship tremble
-beneath his feet, as the entire quarter was burst up, or torn away
-from the rest of the hull, and with his companions he found himself
-floating on it, as on a species of raft, and up to his neck in water
-every moment, while whirled away from the ship, of which they saw no
-more, and which, no doubt, went speedily down with all on board.
-
-Just as this happened, Plank, the carpenter, was swept away,
-clutching with despair a fragment of wreck.
-
-On this frail remnant of the shattered ship, the other four
-unfortunates found themselves adrift on that wild, dark midnight sea,
-which whirled it to and fro like a cork on the black, tempestuous
-waves.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X.
-
-THE FOUR CASTAWAYS.
-
-"Lord have mercy on us!" escaped the lips of all.
-
-It would seem that, by the strength and violence of the sea, the
-entire quarter-deck abaft the mizzen-mast, with a portion of its
-bulwarks, the taffrail, some parts of the stern windows and quarter
-galleries, had been torn from the ship, and this crazy fragment was
-all that intervened between our four friends and eternity.
-
-Being level with the sea it could not be capsized, which, at least,
-was one good property.
-
-Lashed to such parts of it as were available, the poor victims clung
-there in desperation and silence, waiting, and praying in their
-hearts that the storm would abate; and now, as if its errand had been
-done, its object accomplished in the total destruction of the
-unfortunate _Princess_, the gusty wind began to lull gradually,
-though the agitated sea rolled high and black as ever.
-
-As the common saying has it, the waves "ran mountains high;" but it
-must be borne in mind, that few waves rise more than ten feet above
-the general level of the water, which, when ten more are given for
-the trough of the sea, makes the whole height from base to crest
-twenty feet--sufficiently high to be terrible in aspect and effect.
-
-Over the raft of the _Princess_ (for it was little better) those vast
-hills of water made a thundering breach every instant, or came
-surging up through the apertures, from whence the companion and
-skylight had been torn away.
-
-The taffrail was strong, and it was chiefly to it that Bartelot,
-Morley, Morrison, and Gawthrop lashed themselves, for gradually all
-that remained of the bulwarks were torn away, and the stump of the
-mizzenmast was soon worked or sucked out by the sea.
-
-There was an appalling sense of loneliness, of dread and desolation,
-and of too probable death being near at hand, though, perhaps, all
-the more terrible, if it were protracted.
-
-So the fearful night wore on; the black scud was passing away, the
-stars shone out, and the four castaways began to hope that morning
-was at hand.  Yet, ruthlessly, wave after wave came rolling over
-them, each with its high and monstrous head, curling white with snowy
-foam, though its sides were black and inky.  Then there would be a
-roar as of thunder when each burst over the fragment of wreck,
-engulfing and half choking the poor dripping wretches who clung to it
-in silence and despair.
-
-But now, as dawn, began to spread rapidly over the east, the sea went
-down, and the wind also; the waves ceased to roll over the broken
-deck, which floated steadily, and as it rose upheaved on each
-successive swell, the occupants cast around them, eager glances from
-their bloodshot eyes, in the hope of descrying a sail.
-
-Dawn came thoroughly in--a cloudy morning, but no sunshine.  Ere long
-they could see the whole horizon; but there no vestige of a sail was
-visible, and now they looked blankly in each other's pallid faces.
-
-"My poor crew!" said Bartelot, with a thick sob in his throat, but
-the exclamation had escaped him many times before; "second-mate,
-carpenter, sail-maker, steward, cook, boys, and all--all gone but us,
-Morley.  Sad--deplorable, is it not?"
-
-"Do not grieve for what is irreparable," said Morrison.
-
-"If I saw you, Bill Morrison, my friend Ashton, and my old shipmate
-Noah, all safe, I don't care if I were shark-meat this minute," he
-resumed, bitterly.
-
-"Don't say so, Bartelot, my old boy," replied Morley, with an
-affectation of spirit he was far from feeling: "you have behaved
-bravely, and done all that man could do to save your ship.  Take
-courage; you have buoyed me up many a day, when my heart had sunk to
-zero.  Let me try to cheer you in turn."
-
-"Cheer!" Tom repeated, shaking his head sadly, and still more
-bitterly, as he surveyed their home upon the waters.
-
-"Oh, Heaven! to think of this being a bit of the old _Princess_ we
-all loved so well!" groaned Morrison, looking almost affectionately
-on the frail planks over which the sea rippled at every heave.
-
-"Aye, sir," chimed in Noah; "it are odd, but it was a bit of that
-same blessed deck, as was holystoned and prayer-booked, swabbed and
-squilgeed of a morning till it were white as snow--whiter a'most than
-the deck of her Majesty's yacht.  I've poured half the sea over that
-deck, I have, when the head-pump was rigged for'ard of a morning, and
-now what is it, but only a bit of drift-wood, and we a clinging to
-it, like four wet barnacles?  Lor' help us!"
-
-"And bless our poor shipmates!" added Bartelot, pointing upwards.
-
-"They are all gone, sir--found sailors' graves, every one of them,"
-said Morrison; "the ship would fill, and go down the moment she
-parted aft."
-
-"But you've done your duty, sir," said Noah; "and can clear yourself
-of the ship's loss before any naval court in any part of the world.
-I only wish we were all afore one this blessed minute, instead o'
-drifting about here, without compass, biscuit, or 'bacca."
-
-Now came the oppressive reflection that they were without food and
-without water.
-
-Morley had read very recently the "Paul Huet" of Eugene Sue, and the
-more true story on which his romance is founded--the awful wreck of
-the _Medusa_, French frigate, and thus the horrors which her crew
-endured upon the raft came vividly and painfully before him now.
-
-The saline property of the atmosphere, their long and repeated
-immersions in the ocean, the quantities of its water they had been
-compelled to swallow when the drenching waves broke over them, soon
-excited thirst.  This longing was increased by heat, when the sun
-came forth; but as yet they had no desire for food.
-
-All their energies were bent on watching the horizon around them, but
-no sail appeared; so the wreck continued to float listlessly about,
-without making way apparently in any direction.
-
-A boat they might have rowed in the direction of the Cape of Good
-Hope, and though they might have failed to reach the coast, while
-minus food and water, they would always have increased their chances
-of being picked up by a passing ship, homeward or outward bound; but
-on the wreck they were helpless, as if upon a desert rock fixed amid
-the sea.
-
-The first day passed slowly, wearily on, and the sun verged westward
-in his course.
-
-Now night descended on the sea.  There was no moon, but the stars
-shone clearly and sharply.
-
-Worn by emotion, by toil, suffering, and lack of sleep, they trusted
-to the security of their lashings, and strove to find rest, or
-oblivion, in slumber; but a half-wakeful doze was all they could
-achieve.  Each body lay, to all appearance, torpid; but the anxious
-soul slept not, so each had his own keen active thoughts and dreams.
-
-Tom Bartelot conjured up a certain pretty little English face, whose
-smiling blue eyes were associated with many a summer evening walk
-among the sylvan scenery of Richmond Park, in the gardens of Kew, and
-visits to Hampton Court.
-
-Morrison's heart was in his old mother's cottage, where he first saw
-the light, by the broad waters of the Dee, that roll from the hills
-of Crathie and Braemar in "the bonnie north country;" for he had
-intended, at the close of another voyage, to go home to Scotland,
-with all his earnings and wages, to spend them with her, and for her
-only; but all that seemed hopeless now, though the hum of the sea in
-his ears, as it rippled against the wreck, suggested the surf that in
-boyhood he had seen breaking over the Black Dog of Belhelvie.*
-
-
-* A rock on the Aberdeenshire coast, so named from its appearance at
-low water.
-
-
-Poor old Gawthrop, with his grizzled whiskers, and lips baked in dry
-salt, dreamt of neither father, mother, nor love--for all who loved
-old Noah were dead long ago; but he had a vision of a stiff jorum of
-
-  "Boatswain's grog--just half and half,"
-
-such as he used to get in the _Haurora_, of fifty guns; while Morley
-Ashton thought, and dreamed, and murmured to himself of Ethel Basset.
-
-  "Absence makes the heart grow fonder."
-
-
-He had now been long absent from Ethel, and been long mourned by her
-as one who was lost to her for ever, and numbered with the dead.  And
-now death menaced him again!
-
-He had been saved from destruction by his friend--saved from a death
-by starvation, or despair, at Acton Chine; but only to perish with
-him here amid the lonely waters of the South Atlantic; for this time
-it seemed that he was too surely doomed to die--an idea rendered all
-the more bitter by a conviction that Ethel would never, and could
-never, know the dark story of his disappearance, for no mortal lips
-could tell her save those of Hawkshaw.
-
-Morley felt that he might perish now; that she would never learn the
-true character of his rival; of his own awful escape from Acton
-Chine; of his journey to Rio de Janeiro; of his sufferings on the
-raft, till relieved by death; of how he had been tossed hither and
-thither by fortune's unrelenting hate, and how deeply and devotedly
-he loved her.
-
-By this last misfortune, the wreck, more than all the others, he
-might, by dying, leave her to become the wife of Hawkshaw, the
-would-be assassin!
-
-So another night passed over, and the raft, or wreck, still floated
-darkly, silently there; and now those who were thereon had ceased to
-speak, even in whispers.
-
-Another day dawned--a day of glorious sunshine; but no food, no
-water, no hope came with it; for not a sail was in sight, and their
-eyes ached with weariness in searching the faint blue watery line
-that marked where the sky and ocean met.
-
-They were becoming very feeble now, and the cravings of nature were
-maddening.
-
-Their hair was encrusted by salt, as white as hoar-frost, their lips
-were baked, their tongues parched.  Already they had become gaunt and
-white, hollow-cheeked, and old-looking, with eyes bloodshot and wild.
-
-Their feet and legs were sore and sodden by long immersion in the
-brine, and their whole bodies were rendered stiff and weary by the
-wet ropes which lashed them to the taffrail--a means of security
-which they dared not unloose or relinquish for a moment.
-
-Ere long they were in a species of delirium.
-
-Hunger brought its own fantastic and exciting suggestions of
-well-cooked viands, of hearty homely dishes, steaming and savoury,
-roasts and stews, puddings and pies; but thirst, agonising thirst,
-suggested ideas of cool rivers, amid which snows were dissolving; of
-lonely mountain tarns, where the brown trout sported under the
-broad-leaved water-docks, and where the wild bird swam; of glassy
-meres, of crystal rills, that murmured under old oak trees, or shady
-drooping willows, with dark green sprays, and water-lilies that
-dipped therein; of iced champagne, that effervesced in crystal
-goblets; of sparkling hock and seltzer-water; of jolly London stout,
-all brown, with its creamy froth; of every impossible luxury that
-they had not, and never more might feel upon their cracked lips and
-dry, hard, arid tongues!
-
-A dead bird!--it was a huge albatross, with wings outspread--floated
-slowly past them on the glassy oil-like sea, thus indicating a
-current that ran eastward.
-
-They were all too weak to attempt to swim for it; so, wolfishly, with
-haggard eyes and longing appetites they watched the wretched carrion
-for hours, until it floated out of sight.
-
-Then three nautilus shells, with purple sails outspread, passed near
-them, and, to Morley's excited vision, they seemed like large Roman
-galleys, or fairy barges; at a vast distance--such craft as he had
-read of in legends of the Rhine, in fairy tales, and knightly ballads.
-
-And now came Mother Carey's chickens, hopping and tripping about the
-wreck, and on the ripples round it--merrily and happily, like brown
-sparrows in a farmyard at home.
-
-About the setting of the sun, they were roused from their
-listlessness by the sudden apparition of a large vessel,
-barque-rigged--that is, with the fore and mainmasts of a ship and a
-mizzen like a schooner's mainmast, with a long spanker-boom--bearing
-down towards them.
-
-There was a fine breeze blowing; she had all her canvas set, and ran
-on a taut bowline.
-
-"A ship! a sail! a sail!" they exclaimed together.
-
-"Now, blessed be Heaven!" said Tom, "we are saved at last!
-Hurrah--hurrah!"
-
-She was painted a kind of yellowish white; her side chains and
-hawse-holes, and all her iron work, looked red and rusty, as if she
-had been long in tropical waters.
-
-With almost inarticulate lips they sought to hail her, and waved
-their hands in frantic glee as she came on, with the white foam
-curling under her bluff bows, where the old copper was green, and
-covered with barnacles.  Her side was lined with the faces of her
-crew, who seemed to be in earnest conference, and some of whom
-gesticulated violently.
-
-She seemed to be foreign by her build and rig, as well as by the
-scarlet and blue shirts and fur caps of her men.
-
-Now she was close to them, and the white flag, with the black eagle
-of Prussia, was hoisted at her gaff peak; now she would certainly be
-hove in the wind, with a mainsail laid aback, and have a boat lowered
-to relieve them.
-
-So close was she, that the wheel revolved to keep her away a point or
-two, lest she might run the frail wreck under with her bluff bows, as
-she sheered past.
-
-Tom hailed in English "to relieve them from misery--to save them, for
-the love of mercy and of God!"
-
-He spoke imploringly, for a sudden doubt had chilled his heart.
-
-Hoarsely the hail was responded to in German, and the barque passed
-on--on, without lifting tack or sheet, without lowering a boat, or
-tossing a single biscuit, to those four men who were all but dying on
-the wreck!  The Prussian--she was the _Einicheit_, of Dantzic--stood
-away on her course, and left Bartelot and his three friends in an
-agony of disappointment and despair that bordered on madness!*
-
-
-* For the infamous conduct of this Prussian crew to a Scottish ship
-in distress, see any paper of May 26, 1864.
-
-
-With such terrible emotions in their hearts, as no pen could portray,
-they saw her slowly diminish in distance, and vanish into the yellow
-haze that overspread the evening sea.  Then once more night descended
-on the world of waters, and again they were alone--more alone, they
-felt, than ever, for even their fellow-beings had abandoned them.
-
-During all that night Morley Ashton was delirious.
-
-Dreams and thoughts of Acton Chase and woods, that rustled their
-green leaves in the soft west wind; of golden fields, of bearded
-grain, that waved like yellow billows beneath its breath; of the
-voices of the larks that soared aloft into the blue sky, and of the
-cushat dove that cooed to its mate in the leafy dingle; the ring of
-the village chimes, and of children's merry voices--came strongly to
-memory, with the comforts of the land he never more might
-tread--English home he never more might see.
-
-Anon, strange monsters seemed to come out of the starlit bosom of the
-glassy deep, to bob and dance, to glare and jabber, with faces green,
-white, lilac, and rose-coloured; and all as if to mock their misery.
-
-These, however, were only seaweed and foambells, or floating blubber,
-to which the water gave unusual size and phosphorescent light, while
-the sufferers' giddy brains and weakened eyesight lent them wild and
-fantastic forms.
-
-Poor Tom Bartelot must have been quite deranged; for more than once
-Morley heard him singing what seemed to be a scrap of his old
-drinking song, and his voice sunk into a childish quaver at the
-couplet:
-
-  "Oh, deign, ye kind powers, with this wish to comply,
-  May I always be drinking yet always be dry."
-
-
-Then he suddenly changed his note to a kind of hoarse wail, as he
-sang:
-
-  "King Death was a rare old fellow,
-    He sat where no sun could shine;
-  He lifted his hand so yellow,
-    And pledged us in coal-black wine."
-
-
-He soon after became senseless, and hung, as if asleep, drooping,
-alas! it might be, dead, in the lashings that secured him to the
-taffrail.
-
-Towards the morning of that terrible night, Morley felt life ebbing
-within him, and, as it ebbed, he had a last wild dream--wild, indeed;
-but too delicious to be true.
-
-A long, long time seemed to elapse, but another day had dawned, and a
-ship--the false, cruel Prussian barque of yesterday--had returned in
-quest of them.  She lay to, a boat came off, he heard the rattle of
-the fall tackles, and the splash of the water.  They were, he
-thought, rescued; he felt the lashing that bound his swollen limbs
-cut by a seaman's jack-knife, and now kind faces and kind hands were
-around him, and gentle voices were murmuring in his ear.
-
-Cool wine and grateful cordials seemed to be poured between his
-parched lips, and then to be suddenly withheld when he would have
-imbibed more.
-
-Oh, the madness of this tantalising and most feverish dream, for
-Ethel Basset seemed to be there!
-
-Ethel, with her sweetly feminine and dear affectionate face, was
-bending over him; her lips were close to his, her kiss was on his
-cheek; but he could neither respond nor speak, for Hawkshaw's visage,
-pale and wrathful, was between them, with knitted brows and glaring
-eyes, as he had seen it last, when he fell beneath his hand at Acton
-Chine.
-
-Then he seemed to sleep, to die; for he felt and remembered no more.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI.
-
-CAPTAIN HAWKSHAW MAKES A DISCOVERY TO LEEWARD.
-
-On the night the _Princess_ was lost, the _Hermione_ did not escape
-the same storm, which probably traversed in a circle all the waters
-of the South Atlantic.
-
-It was no doubt the mere skirt of the tempest which affected her, as
-the sky around was clear, and the stars shone brilliantly.
-
-Her jib was blown out of the bolt-rope and split to ribbons, and she
-had her topsails close-reefed.
-
-"Stow what remains of the jib," ordered Captain Phillips; "into the
-netting with it--quick, men; cheerily now, and up with the
-foretopmast-staysail."
-
-As soon as this was done, he added:
-
-"Go below, the watch, and take a nap if you can, for it may blow
-great guns before morning."
-
-"It is blowing three gales in one as it is," said Mr. Quail.  "The
-water comes waist-high in the lee-scuppers, and washes right chock
-aft to the taffrail."
-
-The _Hermione_ was tearing through the sea upon the wind, so she
-rolled little, but the wild waves came pouring over her catheads and
-topgallant forecastle, and over the weather bulwarks, swashing and
-plashing their snowy spray far above the level of her main-courser.
-
-"Who is at the wheel?" asked the captain, who was standing at the
-break of the quarter-deck.
-
-"Badger, the long Yankee," replied Mr. Quail.
-
-"All seems quiet among these rascals forward; and they worked
-cheerily enough to-night."
-
-"All quiet as yet, sir; but we don't know when their little game may
-begin."
-
-"If they should have changed their minds?" suggested Phillips.
-
-"No chance of that, sir," said Quail, shaking his head.
-
-"Or, if the doctor was mistaken?"
-
-"Impossible, sir," said Quail, shaking his head again--it was under a
-cloud of spray this time; "and, even if he was so, we can't mistake
-the disappearance of poor Manfredi after Sharkey's ugly threats, and
-their mutinous spirit in general.  As first mate, I have seen enough
-of it to last my time at sea."
-
-"I am prepared for the worst, at all events," responded Phillips, in
-the same low voice, as he instinctively felt for the butt of the
-revolver pistol in his breast-pocket, and ascended to the weather
-side of the poop.
-
-Veering round to the south-eastward, the wind was soon dead against
-the ship, which laboured hard, though running close-hauled, and,
-while beating to windward, her head was many points away from her
-proper course.
-
-She was running fast through the water--ten knots an hour at
-least--but was making great leeway.  The strain on the
-weather-rigging was great; there every shroud, rope, and halyard were
-tight as iron wire, while to leeward they were all blown out in wavy
-bights and bends, especially at every lurch.
-
-There was never a lull in the fierce gale, and, with every wave that
-burst against her bows, the _Hermione_ seemed to roll, or swerve,
-bodily off to leeward.
-
-On this night poor Mr. Basset was in great mental misery, lest, amid
-the tempest, for to such the gale nearly amounted, the crew should
-put their nefarious designs in execution; but they had their hands
-too full of necessary work to find time for mischief then.
-
-He twice ventured on deck, but, to the landsman's eye, the aspect of
-that wild, stormy sea, visible under a starry and cloudless sky, so
-appalled him, that each time he returned to the cabin with such
-visible signs of tremor or emotion, that Ethel, who had found the
-impossibility of sleeping, and had hastily thrown on her morning
-wrapper and shawl, joined him, and sat caressingly by his side.
-
-Pale, anxious, and lovely she looked in her white-frilled dress; and
-now every sound on deck made her father start with agitation.
-
-"Is the gale increasing, papa?" she asked, for the twentieth time.
-
-"Undoubtedly it is--but the captain laughs at it, and says his ship
-is strong and stout."
-
-"How soundly dear Rose sleeps amid all this hurly-burly."
-
-"Bless the poor child--oh yes; but go to bed beside her, darling, we
-have little fear to-night--for the ship, at least."
-
-"Have we aught to fear from the sea, papa?"
-
-Mr. Basset did not reply.
-
-"You are silent, papa," resumed Ethel, scanning his features keenly
-and affectionately, and patting his cheek with her delicate hand;
-"then there is some danger of which you do not tell me.  Oh, papa,
-what is this you would conceal from me, who, I know, am all the world
-to you?"
-
-"You are, indeed, all the world to me now, Ethel--you and Rose,"
-replied the poor man, in a broken voice, as his eyes filled, and his
-heart swelled with uncontrollable anxiety and emotion; "but there,
-dear, there, kiss me, and go to bed; don't waken Rose--let the poor
-child sleep while she may."
-
-And leading Ethel to her cabin, he pushed her gently in, and closing
-the door, lay down on the stern-locker to watch, but not to sleep.
-
-This gale blew steadily for more than eight-and-forty hours, during
-which the _Hermione_ carried as little canvas as possible, yet she
-made so much leeway as to be blown far to the southward of the
-Cape--how far was known only to Captain Phillips and his two mates,
-Mr. Quail and Mr. Foster, as they had tacitly agreed to keep the crew
-in total ignorance of the ship's working or progress, hoping, by
-doing so, to delay, if they could not ultimately frustrate, any dark
-plans the intending mutineers had formed.
-
-During all this gale, which showed no signs of abatement until the
-evening of the second day, Ethel and her sister remained in the cabin
-with old Nurse Folgate, who, with all her love for them, was
-deploring the moment of weakness in which she consented to leave the
-leafy seclusion of Acton-Rennel, "to go forth a-voyaging round the
-world, nobody knew to where."
-
-Dr. Leslie Heriot found much to keep him below, too; and thus, by day
-and by night, according to the plan formed and already described,
-there was always at least one armed man guarding them and the
-cabin-door.
-
-As for poor Mr. Basset, he never quitted the side of his daughters
-now, until he saw them into their little cabin for the night; and
-Ethel, who soon perceived her father's new solicitude and
-affectionate anxiety, was quite at a loss to understand what caused
-it.
-
-None knew how the lots had fallen, or whose cast of the dice had been
-highest in the forecastle bunks of the _Hermione_; but many of her
-crew, when they came on deck, on the morning subsequent to the
-amiable discussion so luckily overheard by Dr. Heriot, bore
-unmistakable marks of a conflict, in the shape of blackened eyes,
-swollen noses, and, in more than one instance, a slash or stab from a
-knife.
-
-Whatever were the ultimate intentions of these men, matters remained
-unchanged on board the ship, the duty of which was carried on
-excellently during the gale, for then every man did his duty readily
-and cheerfully, either by force of habit, or from the knowledge that
-to do so would save themselves much trouble and probable danger.
-
-No doubt they deemed it better to wait for an opportunity after they
-were assured of being past the Cape, when they would seize the ship,
-and, as the doctor heard suggested, haul up for the Mozambique
-Channel, a very unwise idea on their part, as, in the narrow sea,
-they ran the imminent risk of being overhauled by some man-of-war,
-homeward bound, or transport full of troops--chances to be avoided in
-the open Indian Ocean.
-
-The tempest had blown them to the westward, and also considerably to
-the southward of the Cape, which lies in latitude 33.5.42 South, and
-longitude 18.23.15 East.  But the morning of the third day came in
-clear and calm; there was a gentle breeze from the eastward, and the
-ship was running close-hauled, with her port-tacks on board, and
-everything set upon her that would draw, even to triangular skysails
-and niaintopgallant staysails, so that her hull seemed a mere black
-speck under such a cloud of white canvas.
-
-And the glorious morning sun cast her shadow far along the smooth
-ocean to the westward, as she cleft its waters swiftly and steadily
-with her gallant prow, from which a white female figure, representing
-the _Hermione_ of the classical age, the daughter of Venus and wife
-of Cadmus, with Vulcan's golden necklet round her slender throat,
-spread her graceful arms above the foam.
-
-The fourth and fifth days after the gale were serene and lovely in
-the extreme.
-
-There was scarcely need for the watch to rig the head-pump for the
-last three mornings; washed by the waves of the recent gale, the
-decks were white as snow, and not even a shred or thread of spunyarn
-could be seen about the wheels of the carronades, the coamings of the
-hatches, or the mouths of the scupper-holes.
-
-Breakfast over, Rose and Ethel came on deck, and Doctor Heriot
-hastened after them with cushions, shawls, and wrappers, for the
-morning air in that extreme southern latitude was cold, though clear
-and bracing; even an iceberg was visible at the far and blue horizon
-to the westward, an object to which Heriot drew the attention of the
-sisters, and promptly arranged for them his telescope; but the fair
-voyagers had become quite used to such things, so Ethel betook
-herself to a novel, and Rose began a piece of crochet (which seemed
-like the web of Penelope) in expectation that her lover would sit by
-and converse with her.
-
-Both seemed paler than usual, in consequence of the few days'
-confinement below.  Their father was anxious still, and the poor man
-continued to linger about them, to hover near them, and instinctively
-his trembling hand felt for the loaded revolver he carried in secret,
-if one of the crew came near his daughters, and his heart beat
-quicker if even one glanced to them, for in him he suspected the
-winner by the dice-box of the two abhorred Barradas.
-
-Hawkshaw, whom the young doctor's steady attentions to the sisters
-galled and fretted, was up in the fore-rigging, somewhere, looking
-out for a sail, as no one on board longed for the appearance of a
-ship of war more than he did; so he kept one eye on the horizon, and
-another on the quarter-deck, where Ethel and Rose were seated,
-chatting and laughing.
-
-Heriot had carefully examined, capped, and charged anew his revolver,
-and placed it in his breast-pocket before he joined them, so the crew
-very little suspected how completely all their superiors were
-forewarned and forearmed.
-
-The two girls looked, if possible, lovelier than ever on this, as it
-will prove in the sequel, eventful morning, by a species of delicate
-pallor induced by the close atmosphere of the cabin; and as young
-Heriot gazed into their clear, full, earnest eyes, a fierce, high
-spirit swelled up in his heart, and he almost rejoiced that the
-terrible circumstances in which they were placed, sailing as it were
-with a volcano on board, would give him an opportunity of showing how
-dearly he loved Rose Basset, how willing he was to dare, alas! it
-might be to die for her!
-
-Not that he would gain much by the last move, as reflection showed,
-and die he might, perhaps, by the hands of some of those ruffians,
-before she could be succoured and protected, and then there was acute
-agony in the contemplation of what she might endure when he could
-neither see nor avenge it.
-
-"Look, Ethel dear," Rose suddenly exclaimed with girlish delight,
-"there is a great swan asleep on the water."
-
-"A swan here?" queried Ethel.
-
-"It is an albatross," said the doctor, smiling, "and sleeping sound
-enough, certainly.  I could almost toss a biscuit on his back."
-
-There, not twelve yards distant from the ship's side, on the smooth
-surface of the sea, was a great albatross, with plumage white as
-snow--a bird whose pinions may have measured twelve feet from tip to
-tip--fast asleep, and floating with his huge head under his wing.
-
-Slowly he was upheaved upon each huge glassy swell, and slowly he
-sank down into the glassy vale between them, sleeping, as Ethel said,
-just as she had seen the swans on Acton Mere at home, and now this
-lonely bird was perhaps 300 miles from land.
-
-When first descried he was upon the weather-bow, and now he was upon
-the lee quarter, so rapidly the ship left far astern this great bird
-of the "Ancient Mariner," enjoying his nap, all undisturbed, upon the
-morning sea.
-
-Hawkshaw, who was pretty far up the fore-rigging, now drew the
-attention of some of the crew, who were at work upon the foreyard,
-greasing the sling thereof, reeving new bunt-lines to the foot of the
-foretopsail, &c., to a small dark object that was floating on the
-water at a great distance, and the discussion that ensued about it
-soon caught the attention of the anxious and active Mr. Quail, who
-was standing at the break of the quarter-deck, for the _Hermione_ had
-a species of half poop, so he descended into the waist and hailed the
-talkers.
-
-"Fore-top there!"
-
-"Aye, aye, sir," replied Bill Badger and Zuares Barradas.
-
-"Do you see anything, that you keep such a bright look-out to
-leeward, eh?'
-
-"Yes, sir; there is something in sight," replied Zuares.
-
-"Something; well, what is it?"
-
-"The head o' the great sea-sarpent, I rayther reckons it to be,"
-replied Bill Badger, impudently; "I sees his row o' grinders standing
-up above the water."
-
-"Grinders, you Yankee swab," responded Mr. Quail (under his breath,
-however, for the fid-maul and a couple of iron marlinespikes were
-lying in the foretop, and one of these might fall out of it, by
-accident); "what you call grinders are the timber-heads of a piece of
-wreck--if not, I am as green as a cabbage!  A piece of wreck in sight
-to leeward, sir," he reported down the skylight to Captain Phillips,
-who came promptly on deck, telescope in hand.
-
-"Whereabouts, Mr. Quail?"
-
-"There, sir; you can see it now under the leach of the forecourse,
-when the ship rises--can you make it out?'
-
-"Wreck it is, Quail; the taffrail and sternpost of a vessel.  Ease
-her off a bit, Pedro; edge down towards it," said the captain to the
-elder Barradas, whose strong hands grasped the handsome,
-brass-mounted wheel of the _Hermione_; "we are raising it fast."
-
-"If there ain't men a-clinging to it, I'm a Dutchman!" shouted
-Badger, from the foretop.
-
-"The fellow is right," said Phillips, politely passing his glass to
-Mr. Basset; "human figures are visible on it.  Ready the lee quarter
-boat, there--clear the fall tackles; keep her on a little just as she
-is, Mr. Quail, and then back with the mainyard."
-
-All the crew crowded to the leeside of the deck now, and their entire
-attention was riveted on the piece of drifting wreck which lay like a
-log in the water; but towards which they were rapidly bearing down.
-
-Ere long, four men could be distinctly seen upon it, but whether
-alive or dead none could say with certainty, though all surmised the
-latter, as they made neither sign nor hail, but remained still, mute,
-and passive as the timber-heads to which they were lashed, and which
-rose and fell, slowly and sullenly, amid the sunny ripples of that
-calm morning sea.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII.
-
-DR. HERIOT'S PATIENTS.
-
-Filled with the interest roused by this new episode, the crew, for a
-time, forgot everything in their desire to know what ship this had
-been, where she hailed from, to relieve the sufferers, and to learn
-all they had undergone; for, even in his worst moods, Jack is always
-ready for anything, and the more of novelty it contains, the better
-for him.
-
-The four drooping figures could be distinctly discerned now, with
-their heads bare, their faces blanched and pale.  Ethel and Rose were
-full of commiseration; already their gentle eyes were swimming in
-sympathetic tears.  The former kept by the side of her father, and
-the latter, in her excitement, leant more heavily than usual,
-perhaps, on the arm of Dr. Heriot; and even old Nance Folgate had
-come out of her berth, and muttering "Lor' a mussy me!" from time to
-time, clung with cat-like tenacity to the nettings on the
-lee-quarter, to see the castaways, whom, she had no doubt, had been
-devouring each other from time to time, till only four were left now.
-
-"Back with the mainyard," shouted the captain; "to the braces, men;
-let go and haul!"
-
-The lee-braces were cast off the belaying-pins; the weather hauled
-in, and the yard was slued round till the sail was laid flat to the
-mast; and now the great ship, which had been edged down towards the
-piece of wreck, as she lay to, rose and fell with slow, but regular
-and impatient heaves, on the swelling ridges of the sea, while, with
-a quick revolution of the double-sheaved blocks, the fall-tackle fell
-and the quarter-boat vanished from its davits with a splash into the
-sea alongside.
-
-She was speedily manned: Mr. Foster, the second mate, took the
-tiller; Bill Badger, the Yankee; Joe, the steward; Quaco, the black
-Virginian, and Dr. Heriot (with Rose's entreaties to take care of
-himself, ringing in his ears), shipped their oars in the rowlocks,
-and she was shoved off.
-
-"Happy go lucky! here's summut new, at all events," said Bill Badger,
-as he made the tough blade of the stroke-oar bend like a willow wand;
-for after a long, dull voyage like that of the _Hermione_, varied
-only by adverse winds and the loss of a mast at the Canaries--a
-voyage in which a few restless and roving spirits are shut up for
-many weeks in the small compass of a ship--anything that may serve to
-relieve or vary the tedium and monotony of the life they lead is
-welcome; hence, a drifting wreck, with its contingent stories,
-mysteries, and the surmises it may occasion, is, perhaps, the most
-welcome, though least lively adventure they could meet with.
-
-The proceedings of the boat's crew were watched with deep interest by
-those who lined the ship's side, about 500 yards off.
-
-Mr. Foster pulled round the stern of the wreck, and was seen to stoop
-with his face close to the water, as if he was endeavouring to read
-(which was the case) the vessel's name, then sunk some feet below the
-surface, as the wreck was half submerged.
-
-Then he sheered the boat alongside, and by the painter it was made
-fast to a timber-head; but almost immediately after, for fear of
-accidents, this was cast off, and she was simply held on by the
-boat-hook.
-
-Mr. Foster, Dr. Heriot, and another stepped along the piece of
-quarter-deck, and were seen to be examining the four men, whom they
-relieved from their wet lashings by simply cutting these through with
-a slash of Quaco's jack-knife.
-
-"Evidently, the poor fellows are not dead," said Captain Phillips,
-joyfully, as he clapped his fat hands together.
-
-"How do you know, dear sir?" asked Ethel; "ah, the poor men, I do not
-see them move!"
-
-"They are putting them into the boat to bring them aboard, Miss
-Basset.  If they had been dead, there would have been little use in
-doing that."
-
-"What would you have done in that case, captain?" asked Mr. Basset.
-
-"Sunk each of 'em simply, with a round shot at his heels, as we did
-the poor fellow whom we found floating with the life-buoy.  Mr.
-Quail, get some brandy and wine out of the cabin locker--some water,
-please, too."
-
-"Oh, let me assist you, sir," exclaimed Ethel.
-
-"And me--me too," added Rose, with enthusiasm.
-
-"Stop, ladies, you'll only lose your footing and get a tumble,
-perhaps, the ship is pitching so; better stay where you are, and hold
-on by the side netting."
-
-"Hush!" said Captain Phillips, suddenly; "silence on deck--silence
-fore and aft, for Dr. Heriot is hailing the ship, and waving his cap."
-
-"What is it that he is saying?" asked several, as the doctor's clear
-voice came distinctly over the water.
-
-"Captain Phillips," they heard him cry, "please to request the ladies
-to leave the deck."
-
-"That is plain enough, miss," said Mr. Quail, touching his cap to
-Ethel.
-
-"Why--for what must we go?" said Rose, pouting.
-
-"You must permit me to lead you below, ladies," said the captain;
-"depend upon it, the doctor knows best.  There is something there he
-does not wish you to see."
-
-So Ethel, Rose, and the old nurse, to the intense mortification of
-the latter, left the deck, and retired to the cabin to wait the event.
-
-The truth was that the worthy young doctor had found the four
-sufferers on the wreck, though not dead, as he fully ascertained on
-feeling their pulses, in such a frightful state of prostration and
-delirium, that he deemed it better Ethel and Rose should be spared
-the shock of their first appearance, and should not witness the
-conveyance of them up the ship's side.
-
-"They are all in the boat now, and now she is shoved off.  Give way,
-my boys--give way!" shouted the captain, whose kind, ruddy English
-face flushed with eagerness.  "Lay out on your oars and pull with a
-will, for a glass of grog awaits you all."
-
-To do them justice, the men in the boat needed no incentive; to the
-whole length of their arms they bent to their oars, and the boat came
-sheering alongside in a twinkling.
-
-"In larboard oars, out fenders," said Mr. Foster, as he relinquished
-the tiller.
-
-"Into the main-chains there, some of you, and bear a hand to get the
-poor fellows on board," said Captain Phillips, jumping down the short
-ladder at the break of the quarter-deck, just as four thin and wasted
-figures--their tattered clothes sodden and saturated by salt water,
-their matted hair encrusted with salt--were handed like children up
-the side, passed over the bulwark, and laid on the deck near the
-long-boat.
-
-"Poor fellows, poor fellows!  God help them," said Phillips,
-commiseratingly, as they seemed quite insensible.  Their teeth were
-clenched, but their lips were far apart, cracked, parched, and, in
-some instances, bleeding.  They breathed irregularly, and twitched
-their fingers convulsively.
-
-"They must be your peculiar care for a time, doctor," said Mr.
-Basset, as Heriot flung his coat on the deck, and while rolling up
-his shirt-sleeves, rushed below to his medicine-chest.
-
-"Boy, Joe--steward, bring wine and brandy here!  Carpenter, get four
-comfortable hammocks slung in the 'tween decks; and you, Quaco, my
-darkey, get us plenty of hot water from the galley," cried Phillips.
-
-"Yaas, sar," replied the sable Virginian, as he hastened forward with
-a bucket.
-
-Every one bustled about, and even Sharkey, the sulkiest villain of
-that ill-assorted crew, made himself useful in some way, or fancied
-that he did so.
-
-"These men are evidently British seamen," said the captain, as the
-doctor stooped over each, and raising his head, poured weak
-brandy-and-water, with some medicament therein, down his throat.
-"How thirstily they drink!  One opens his eyes.  All right, my
-friend, you'll soon come to," added the kind skipper, as he patted
-Morrison on the shoulder.  "Now then," said he, "Mr. Quail, get the
-quarter-boat hoisted in, and fill the mainyard.  Trim the ship to her
-course."
-
-"Very good, sir."
-
-It was soon done, and the _Hermione_, as she began again to walk
-through the water, soon left the piece of wreck astern.
-
-"Did you make out the name of that unfortunate craft, Mr. Foster?"
-
-"Yes, sir; but with difficulty."
-
-"And what was it?"
-
-Our readers, of course, anticipate the reply.
-
-"The _Princess_, of London--ship rig evidently, from the side chains,
-the double row of dead eyes, and the gearing of the mizzenmast."
-
-"All right.  Now bring up the ship's log."
-
-The four patients were taken below.  A little food, such as might be
-made for children, arrowroot with, sherry, and so forth, was given to
-them, and greedily they devoured it.  They were then stripped,
-sponged with warm fresh water, and lifted each into a comfortable
-hammock, the active young doctor, Mr. Foster, the captain and
-steward, working for them like servants and nurses with hearty
-good-will.
-
-Gentle cordials were then administered, and soon after Heriot
-appeared in the cabin with a bright and smiling face, wearing the
-happy expression of one who, in doing a good action, has done his
-best, to report that they had fallen into a sound sleep, were all
-doing well, and would, he hoped, soon be free from danger.
-
-"It was too bad of you to send us below like children," said Rose.
-
-"And you think they will recover, doctor?" asked Ethel, interrupting
-some playful apology of Heriot's.
-
-"Recover?  Oh yes, and perhaps be with us soon at table, too; so poor
-Manfredi's seat may thus be filled.  Like Banquo's, it has long been
-empty."
-
-"Oh, Leslie, how can you jest thus?" whispered Rose.
-
-"I don't jest, dearest," replied the doctor, deprecatingly.  "I liked
-poor Adrian Manfredi too well to associate his idea now with a jest,"
-he added, gravely, as he thought of that night in the forecastle
-bunks, of the revelations he had heard, and the peril that was yet
-unaverted.
-
-"Have the poor men said anything?" asked Ethel.
-
-"Not much, Miss Basset, beyond a few indistinct and delirious
-mutterings."
-
-"Could you gather who they were?"
-
-"No; but they all seem to be seamen, save one."
-
-"One?"
-
-"Yes."
-
-(How little could she dream who _this one was_!)
-
-"And you are able to distinguish," she resumed.
-
-"At once--by their hands and general appearance."
-
-"And this one, who is not a seaman?"
-
-"Is a pale, and thin--but then he has been starved--and
-gentleman-like young man.  Though half dead with privation, he made a
-whispered apology for the trouble he gave us."
-
-"Poor fellow!" said Ethel, whose eyes glistened.
-
-"Where was their vessel from?--how was she lost?--and where was she
-lost?" asked Rose.
-
-"They are past telling all this now," said the doctor, smiling, and
-patting Rose's hand; "by to-morrow evening, perhaps, we shall learn
-all."
-
-"I do long so to hear their story--how terrible it must be--quite a
-nautical romance; and then, the other poor men of their ship, who
-have been drowned!"
-
-"Yes, Rose," said Ethel, glancing at the captain and mate, who were
-each making an entry in his log or journal, "this incident will fill
-up an entire page of your diary."
-
-"How--why?" asked Rose, reddening very perceptibly.
-
-"For Lucy Page's perusal," said Ethel, with a smile that had a little
-mischief, or waggery, in it.
-
-Rose grew redder, for her diary or journal of the voyage, which she
-had begun to keep (from the day she left Laurel Lodge), for the
-special perusal of her friend and gossip, Lucy Page, had proved
-rather a bore, and had been completely relinquished, as she could not
-consistently omit, and yet shrank from recording, memoranda of a
-certain little interview with the doctor, being naturally restrained
-therefrom by a certain awkwardness, if the eye of Jack Page, now
-almost a myth to her, as he has been, perhaps, to the reader, should
-peruse them also.
-
-So Rose had ceased altogether to continue that interesting volume,
-which, we may presume, terminated abruptly on that night recorded in
-a previous chapter, when she and the doctor took a turn on deck to
-view the stars.
-
-At this moment Cramply Hawkshaw entered the cabin with an expression
-of face so scared, so altered, and so unmistakably wretched, that
-Ethel surveyed him with surprise; and then, with some commiseration,
-she kindly inquired if he was ill?
-
-He complained of giddiness, and abruptly hastened on deck.
-
-In fact, our ex-Texan officer had just come from between decks, where
-he had been visiting the doctor's patients.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIII.
-
-CAPTAIN HAWKSHAW'S TROUBLES INCREASE.
-
-Inspired by some emotion beyond curiosity--a feeling which it would
-be alike impossible to define or describe, Hawkshaw had gone between
-decks to look at the rescued men.
-
-A man had been left to watch them.  He was Bolter, the Canadian, to
-whom Dr. Heriot had given strict injunctions that the sleepers were
-not to be disturbed to gratify the mere curiosity of the crew; and he
-growled out a few words by way of warning to Hawkshaw, who, assuming
-a jaunty air, said:
-
-"Now, my amphibious biped, how are your patients?"
-
-"None of your names, mister," replied the Canadian, knitting his
-brows.
-
-"You mistake me, my good fellow; I simply wished to know how our new
-friends are."
-
-"Judge for yourself--blow'd if I know," was the sulky rejoinder, as
-Bolter replaced a tremendous expectoration (which he shot fairly over
-Hawkshaw's shoulder and out at the lee port) by a huge quid; "but
-they seemed all goin' forren--out'ard bound, till the doctor hove 'em
-up fresh."
-
-Each was in his hammock sleeping soundly, in that deep, drowsy torpor
-which enables even "the famished to escape from the pangs of hunger,
-and those who are perishing of thirst to escape for a time from the
-agony of the parched throat"--the sleep that covereth a man all over
-like a mantle, as honest Sancho Panza said, when, in the fulness of
-his heart, he blessed the great inventor thereof.
-
-On tiptoe Hawkshaw passed from sleeper to sleeper.
-
-One seemed a brawny and weather-beaten seaman, with grizzled locks,
-that were fast becoming gray; his bare and muscular chest was
-tattooed blue with gunpowder.  This was our old friend Noah Gawthrop.
-
-The second he looked at was somewhat hard-featured, with a high
-forehead, dark, full eyebrows, a well-shaped nose, and one of those
-prominent chins which bespeak firmness, decision of character, and
-indomitable perseverance.  He was the Scotch mate, Bill Morrison.
-
-The next was a pale, wan lad, whose handsome but attenuated
-features----
-
-"Gad's fury!" burst from the lips of Hawkshaw, as the sudden
-recognition of those features struck a terror into his soul.  "He
-here! he!  Can it be possible?"
-
-"Hullo, shipmate, what's the row?" said Bolter, looking up from a
-sea-chest, on which he was lolling, with his hands in his pockets;
-"Vast and belay this gab o' yours, or you'll waken 'em up, which is
-clear ag'in the doctor's orders."
-
-"A mosquito stung me," said Hawkshaw, with a confusion which Bolter's
-perceptions were not fine enough to discover.
-
-"A miskitty in these latitudes!" he exclaimed, mockingly.  "I'm not
-so jolly green a hand as to believe that; but be off on deck, and
-leave me to keep my watch 'athout you.  I may say this, though the
-ship is yet trimmed by the starn," added the fellow, with an insolent
-grimace, for like the rest of the crew, whom the Barradas influenced,
-he had a peculiar aversion for Hawkshaw.
-
-The latter had now shrunk back, scarcely breathing, after assuring
-himself that the pale sleeper was indeed Morley Ashton; and then
-flashed upon his mind the keen and savage idea of getting him again
-removed from his path--by strangling him in his sleep, by putting
-poison in his food--and thus to send him out of the world ere his
-eyes again fully opened on it, and ere he, Hawkshaw, could be
-destroyed by the story he had to tell--by the great crime he had to
-reveal.
-
-From the cabin, as we have told, he went on deck, and, desirous of
-avoiding all, of seeking that solitude so impossible to find on board
-ship, he ascended into the fore-rigging, and sat there, amid a whirl,
-a chaos of thought, endeavouring to consider his prospects and
-position now!
-
-Could he have been mistaken?
-
-Impossible!  The likeness had been too deeply impressed upon his
-memory since that awful night at Acton Chine; so he needed not to go
-between decks again, and, moreover, he dared not, lest Morley should
-awake and recognise him.
-
-"How came he to escape death at the Chine?  How to be sailing on the
-sea, and hereabout too?" thought Hawkshaw.  "Oh, strange, and most
-accursed fatality!  But for me, perhaps, we might have passed that
-piece of wreck--passed it unseen by all on board; but Fate is
-retributive; I was the first to descry, the first to be anxious to
-visit it."
-
-For a moment, but a moment only, there came into his soul a gleam of
-joy, with the conviction that he was not, as he had so long
-remorsefully considered himself, the destroyer of a fellow-creature.
-
-His victim--Heaven alone knew how!--had escaped, and was here alive
-and safe on board the _Hermione_.  The ever-present idea of crime,
-with the word that had seemed ever before his eyes, on his lips, and
-in his heart--that shone in his dreams like those letters of flame
-that flashed on the vision of Belshazzar, could be a terror to him no
-longer.
-
-The proverbs, that "Murder will out;" that "God's retribution will
-fall upon a murderer;" the law, that "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by
-man shall his blood be shed," would haunt him no more,--for this
-crime at least.
-
-Such were his ideas for a moment; but the next, cold, selfish fear
-resumed its sway, and reason showed him that he was yet an assassin
-by intent--one whom his intended victim would expose, crush, and
-destroy, _if_--what?--he was not anticipated, crushed and destroyed
-_first_.
-
-To Hawkshaw, this waif from the ocean was worse by a thousand degrees
-than his _rencontre_ with the two Barradas.
-
-To avoid the accusations, the shame and contumely that Morley Ashton
-could heap upon him, by the exposure of his falsehood, cruelty, and
-hypocrisy, he would, happily, now have relinquished even Ethel
-Basset, and all he had hoped from her father's patronage in the Isle
-of France.  He would gladly have fled; but whither could he fly--how,
-when, where?--encompassed as he was by the sea?  Save in its depth,
-there was no escape from this accursed ship, as there was no eluding
-his own conscience, in this floating prison, the _Hermione_--how he
-loathed the name!--with her crew of foul and treacherous mutineers.
-
-He had one hope left.  Morley might die on getting food.  He seemed
-so weak when brought on board, that the powers of digestion might be
-past, so that death might ensue from mere inanition.
-
-But then his three companions would probably know his story, and were
-certain, if they survived, to reveal all Hawkshaw's guilt.
-
-In the bitterness of his soul, he contemplated suicide, by slipping
-quietly overboard before the fatal recognition and discovery took
-place; but then came the fierce thought--if one of us is to perish,
-why should not he? and what time so fitting as now, when he is
-weak--almost dying?  And thus, in his blind desperation, some of his
-old Mexican instincts or propensities grew strong within him, and he
-conceived the fiendish idea of strangling, or otherwise destroying,
-the half-dead lad in the night.
-
-If marks of violence were found upon him, Hawkshaw knew there were so
-many "black sheep" in the forecastle, that one of them would readily
-be blamed for the crime.
-
-A fierce eagerness to put himself in a safe position, to prevent the
-discovery that would blight him for ever, now possessed his whole
-soul, and, nerving it for the deadly task he had to do, made him long
-for the darkness and silence of night, when he resolved to make the
-attempt.
-
-In this pleasant mood of mind, he heard the cabin bell rung by Joe
-the steward, announcing dinner, and descending reluctantly from his
-perch in the fore-rigging, he went aft and took his seat between
-Ethel and Dr. Heriot, who were conversing gaily, while he had all the
-misery of having to veil over the secret serpent that gnawed at his
-heart, by an outward air of ease, security, and pleasantry, which,
-however, was nearly put to flight by Captain Phillips asking if he
-had seen the devil in the foretop, he looked so very white about the
-gills.
-
-One portion of the conversation, maintained amid the clinking of
-glasses and plates, and the difficulty of balancing wine-glasses
-nicely when the ship rolled, was by no means calculated to restore
-his equanimity.
-
-"Miss Basset," said the young doctor, blandly, "I hope you will come
-with me, and visit those poor fellows?"
-
-"Yes, with pleasure.  Rose and papa will come too."
-
-"Well, it will cheer them a bit to see your dear, kind, pretty
-faces," said Captain Phillips, bowing to each sister, ere he drained
-his glass of sherry.
-
-"You will quite spoil my girls by flattering them," said Mr. Basset,
-laughing.
-
-"Our good captain is too honest for flattery," resumed Dr. Heriot;
-"but, Miss Basset, there is one fellow there who interests me much,
-though why I cannot say.  Please to look at him well when you see
-him.  There is something very remarkable about him."
-
-"Indeed, how, pray?"
-
-"I judge by his bearing, and the general expression of his face.  As
-a clever American writer says, of a similar impression, 'His is one
-of those cases which are more numerous than supposed by those who
-have never lived anywhere but in their own homes, and have never
-walked but in one line from their cradles to their graves.  We must
-leave our straight paths for the by-ways and low places of life, if
-we would learn truths by strong contrasts, and in hovels, in
-forecastles, and among our own outcasts in foreign lands, see what
-has been brought upon our fellow-creatures by accident, hardship, or
-vice.'
-
-"Vice!" repeated Hawkshaw, with a nervous start, and in dread lest
-Morley had already discovered himself.
-
-"Oh, do not misunderstand me.  I merely completed the quotation.
-Heaven forbid, Mr. Hawkshaw, that I should attribute vice to one so
-gentle as my poor patient; but to-morrow, or at latest, next day, you
-shall see them, ladies, and I shall have much pleasure in being your
-guide between decks."
-
-Hawkshaw felt as if the doctor was dictating his sentence of
-degradation and death; but he strove to preserve an unmoved
-countenance, and to affect a pleasant demeanour.
-
-Then he had to do the honours of the table to Ethel Basset, while his
-food seemed to choke him, with the agreeable consciousness that he
-whom she still loved, and for whom she still sorrowed, Morley Ashton,
-was asleep quietly in his hammock, on the other side of the
-after-bulkhead, and scarcely three feet distant from her chair.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIV.
-
-HAWKSHAW TURNS NURSE.
-
-For that night all went well on board, as Dr. Heriot kept his watch
-between decks lest he should be wanted, and the next morning he
-reported a great improvement in his four patients, whom food, wine,
-and sleep were restoring so fast that he hoped by evening, perhaps,
-to learn their names, whence they came, and all about them.
-
-Hawkshaw started on hearing this.  That all the four had been found
-dead in their hammocks would have been to him the more welcome
-tidings.
-
-"Aye, doctor, be sure about their names, as we must have them
-inserted in the log," said Captain Phillips.  "Miss Basset, may we
-trouble you to pour out some tea for the poor fellows?"
-
-Younger than his companions, Morley was the first to recover complete
-consciousness for a time on this morning.  Naturally strong, lithe,
-and active, he had been wont, when ashore, to ride, shoot and fish,
-to be a first-rate bowler at cricket, a good hand with foils, gloves,
-single-stick, and to indulge in all hardy sports; hence his vigorous
-frame was less shaken than those of Bartelot, Morrison, and Noah, who
-were his seniors in age.
-
-The 'tween decks of the _Hermione_ was a clear and airy place.
-Through a half-open port to leeward he could see the bright green sea
-running past in the morning sunshine; a pleasant breeze came down the
-half-grating of the open hatchway, and as the ship was running on a
-wind, the hammocks hung steadily.
-
-The ship's bell clanged on deck; he heard a hoarse voice calling the
-watch, and gradually the dream-like events of the past day unfolded
-themselves with some coherence, and with a sigh of joy, an unuttered
-prayer of gratitude, he closed his eyes again, with the delicious
-conviction of being safe and in kind hands.
-
-Ere long Boy Joe came from the cabin with warm tea and soaked
-biscuits for them.
-
-How little did Morley know whose hands had poured it into the cups!
-And now, refreshed, and aware of each other's presence, all swinging
-side by side in their hammocks, Bartelot and Morrison began to
-converse with him.
-
-This roused old Noah, who had dozed off to sleep again; so he began
-to mutter hoarsely in a dream:
-
-"All starbowlines ahoy; come, tumble up the larboard watch."
-
-"What is the matter, Noah?" asked Bartelot.
-
-"It is that 'ere smatchet of a marine drummer," replied Gawthrop,
-looking up vacantly.
-
-"He is dreaming of the old _Aurora_, of fifty guns," said Morrison,
-in a weak voice, quite unlike his own.  "Hollo, Noah, old fellow;
-you've not unroved your life-lines yet, eh?"
-
-"No, mate, thank Heaven," he replied, in something of the same
-childish treble; "nor you.  And you shall see the Black Dog of
-Belhelvie yet, as I hopes one of these blessed days to see
-Dungeonness Light and the buoy at the Nore."
-
-"Here, shipmate, drink this, and talk after," said Joe, the steward,
-as he held another cup of warm tea (in which a whipped egg was
-substituted for milk) to the lips of Noah, who drained it at a
-draught, and then looked less wild and more awake.
-
-"Go ahead, old boy," said Joe, a curly-headed, good-humoured-looking
-English lad, as he tucked the blanket about Noah's shoulders; "it is
-tea for dunnage, and soft biscuits for ballast just now.  By-and-by,
-it will be grog and old horse for cargo, eh?"
-
-"It's the 'tween decks that did it," muttered Noah.  "I thought I was
-aboard the old _Haurora_ in the Black Sea, with the boatswain ahead
-in the dingy, seeing all the yards squared by the lifts and braces."
-
-Bartelot sank into slumber again, but Morley began to be more lively
-and awake, and proceeded to compare with Morrison the notes and
-incidents of yesterday, and how they came to be rescued.  Their
-voices sounded strangely to themselves and to each other, as at times
-they sank into husky whispers.
-
-Morrison had seen much of the world.  In the words of his countryman,
-a poor sailor too (Falconer, the doomed author of the "Shipwreck"),
-he had been in every climate under the sun.
-
-  "Where polar skies congeal the eternal snow,
-  Or equinoctial suns for ever glow.
-  Smote by the freezing or the scorching blast,
-  'A ship-boy on the high and giddy mast,'
-  From, regions where Peruvian billows roar
-  To the bleak coasts of savage Labrador.
-  From where Damascus, pride of Asian plains,
-  Stoops her proud neck beneath tyrannic chains,
-  To where the Isthmus, laved by adverse tides,
-  Atlantic and Pacific seas divides.
-  But while he measured o'er the painful race,
-  In fortune's wild, illimitable chase,
-  Adversity, companion of his way,
-  Still o'er the victim hung with iron sway."
-
-
-Morrison was deeply thankful to Providence for his rescue; and on the
-first night of their being saved, Morley could remember, through his
-dreams, hearing the poor fellow praying very devoutly in his hammock,
-and in his own national dialect, which grew all the broader and more
-Doric as he communed with God and himself.
-
-On the afternoon of the day, so pregnant with events of importance to
-him personally, Cramply Hawkshaw felt himself impelled, on various
-pretences, to keep aloof from those who shared the cabin with him;
-for he was in momentary dread that Dr. Heriot, to whom the name of
-Morley Ashton had been rendered quite familiar by the confidences of
-Rose Basset, would enter, and startle all by announcing who was one
-of the four men rescued from the wreck.
-
-The better to achieve his dastardly project, he volunteered to attend
-them on this night between decks; and his offer, though it excited
-some surprise, was at once accepted by Dr. Heriot, who gave him
-several directions as to the small quantities of food and diluted
-wine they were to receive, if they required nourishment.
-
-So Hawkshaw drank deeply, mixing brandy and sherry, to nerve himself
-for the dark purpose he had conceived; and, to conceal his pallor,
-his restlessness and wretchedness, he secluded himself in his own
-berth, and strove to sleep; but there was no sleep for him.
-
-Thoughts maddened him, and he muttered to himself inaudibly, while,
-with a hot and trembling hand, he wiped the bead-drops from his
-aching brow.
-
-"Why should I waver or shrink now?" he asked himself--not aloud, for
-fear of being overheard; "what may I not dare, who have dared
-everything, I who have risked all?  For the past I have no
-compunction now.  Another might have done all those things as well as
-I, for I did not create myself, neither did I scheme out my own
-accursed destiny.  Is there a demon within me, or is there one
-presiding over me--some fiend, some angel of darkness, whom I cannot
-see, but to whose whispers I am compelled to listen?  Why does this
-wretched boy cross my path again?  Why does the sea--why does the
-grave--give up its dead, as if to haunt, to tempt, to goad me into
-crime on one hand, if I would not lose name, honour, consideration,
-respect, and, it may be, Ethel and affluence, on the other?  I had
-thought to be good, and loyal, and true for her sake, even though she
-loves me not; but all in vain.  Ethel to marry me?  Oh, that would be
-like a white moss-rose entwined with the deadly hemlock!  Had Heaven
-not impelled or abandoned me, and had Hell not allured and prompted
-me, perhaps I had not been the creature I find myself to-night.
-_Caramba!_ it is a game of desperation between this Ashton and me.
-The ball is yet at my foot, and shall I not strike it?  Yes, and with
-a vengeance, too!"
-
-Watch after watch was called; the half-hourly bells of the ship
-seemed to be rung every five minutes, instead of every thirty.
-
-The night, solemn and starry, approached more swiftly than he could
-have wished; and yet he longed that the fatal time was past--that the
-terrible deed he had to do was done.
-
-Thus he lay on his bed, almost perspiring with mental agony and with
-criminal sophistry, gradually nursing himself into the conviction
-that the first law of nature--self-protection and
-self-preservation--rendered that deed imperative, needful, and
-requisite.
-
-He almost consoled himself by the idea that there was but half a life
-to crush out; for was not Morley nearly half dead already?
-
-Darkness had set in, before he missed daylight, so completely had his
-mind and thoughts been abstracted and turned inward; thus he received
-a species of electric shock, when the curtain of his berth was
-withdrawn by Heriot, who said:
-
-"Now, then, Mr. Hawkshaw--come, tumble up, old fellow--eight bells
-have struck; it is twelve o'clock, and you have not been 'tween decks
-yet to look after these men."
-
-"Twelve--twelve o'clock is it?" he stammered, with confusion, as he
-leaped out.
-
-"Yes, to a minute; the ladies and all have supped and turned in.  By
-Jove! you've had a long spell in your berth.  Can you make your way
-forward alone?"
-
-"Oh yes," replied Hawkshaw, who reeled like a tipsy man, for the ship
-was now running before the wind, so she rolled till her lower
-studdingsail-booms nearly touched the water.
-
-"You have your revolver, of course?"
-
-"Yes," said Hawkshaw, with chattering teeth.
-
-"Ah! we never know what may happen.  By-the-by, I have got the names
-of those four sea-waifs; but the captain has gone to bed."
-
-"And who are they?" asked Hawkshaw, in a faint voice, and half
-averting his face.
-
-Heriot opened his note-book, and drawing nearer the cabin lamp, read:
-
-"_Thomas Bartelot, late master of the 'Princess,' of London, a_
-300_-ton ship, from Rio last; William Morrison_ (countryman of mine)
-_first-mate of the same; Noah Gawthrop, a seaman_----"
-
-"And the fourth?" asked Hawkshaw, in agony, as Heriot paused.
-
-"A young cabin passenger.  I did not get his name, as the poor fellow
-was sound asleep.  They are the soul survivors of the ship.  Good
-night; we have a spanking breeze, and carry topmast stun'sails.  Take
-my poncho wrapper in addition to your railway rug."
-
-"Why?"
-
-"You'll find it cold enough, watching between decks till sunrise."
-
-"Thanks.  Good night," muttered Hawkshaw, through his teeth, which
-the poor wretch clenched, to prevent them chattering, so strong were
-his emotions, as he passed through the door of the after bulk-head,
-and sought his way, by lantern light, to that place which was to be
-the scene of his great crime, where, all unconscious of his entrance,
-Morley and his three companions were swinging in their hammocks.
-
-About four hours after this, a cry--almost a yell rang through the
-silent ship, startling the watch on deck and the man at the helm,
-terrifying Mr. Basset (whose duty it was to watch at the cabin door),
-bringing Captain Phillips, Mr. Quail, and Dr. Heriot from their
-berths, in dread that the great crisis of the voyage had come, that
-the mutineers were in arms; there, too, were Ethel and Rose, in their
-white-laced night-dresses, the latter with her rich hair all falling
-over her neck, peeping fearfully from their cabin door, while Nurse
-Folgate had buried herself under her bed-clothes, for that cry, which
-"pierced the night's dull ear," was one of mortal agony, and it
-seemed to come from--_between decks_!
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XV.
-
-A BITER BITTEN.
-
-After leaving the doctor, Hawkshaw, to gather "Dutch courage," took a
-last mouthful from his brandy flask, and with his slippers on, stole
-softly and stealthily between decks, so softly that his entrance was
-unheard by our four friends, whom he found awake, and conversing in
-low tones; so he seated himself on a chest, with his face completely
-in shadow, and there he remained listening, and scarcely daring to
-breathe, for with every roll of the ship the four hammocks swung
-regularly to and fro, side by side, from port to starboard, and the
-outer one, in which Morley lay, nearly touched the watcher's head at
-times.
-
-The air-port was closed now, and the place was lighted by the feeble
-rays of a ship-lantern, which swung from one of the beams.
-
-In shadow, as we have said, and with a broad tarpaulin hat slouched
-over his stealthy cat-like eyes, that flashed with malignant light,
-Hawkshaw sat, or crouched, listening, watching, and waiting for the
-time that would suit the attempt, eagerly, and all but breathlessly,
-and the duration seemed interminable, for he had no watch, his gold
-repeater having been so summarily appropriated by Pedro Barradas.
-
-Morley spoke, and his voice, so long heard only in troubled dreams,
-now thrilled through the heart of Hawkshaw, causing sharp pangs of
-fear and agony; yet Morley's remark was a very simple one; but his
-voice, like the voices of the others, was husky and weak.
-
-"Oh, the delight of such a cozy bed as this, after all we have
-undergone!  Eh, Tom!"
-
-"Yes, Morley, lad," replied Bartelot; "but I should like to know what
-craft we are on board of, and for where bound.  I quite forgot to ask
-the doctor."
-
-"She's true British at all events, by her build 'tween decks,
-captain," said Noah Gawthrop.  "Thank God for all his mercies,
-'specially to a rough old salt like me.  He was very good and kind to
-remember a poor old feller like Noah, that he was, when there are so
-many younger and better folks to take care of.  But I think the
-doctor mentioned her name, captain."
-
-"Her--who?"
-
-"Why the ship, I mean, sir."
-
-"Yes--I am sure I heard it; she is the--the--"
-
-(Hawkshaw trembled as Tom paused, for if the name was uttered in
-Morley's hearing, he--the listener--was lost!) "Well, it is strange
-that I don't remember; but her skipper's name is Phillips, and she
-hails from London.  I made out that somehow."
-
-"I know one Phillips--Bill Phillips, who was lost in the Straits of
-Sunda.  He was once captain of the brig _Erminia_," said Morrison.
-
-"_Herminya_!" replied Gawthrop, "that is the name o' the identical
-craft as we're aboard of; but she is too large--too broad in the beam
-for a brig."
-
-"I am weary of speaking, mates, and wish to sleep," said Bartelot,
-yawning; "here, under a good deck of British oak, we may take a long
-spell of it without fear; and yet I can't help thinking of the poor
-_Princess_, and all who perished with her.  Their faces are always
-before me."
-
-"And that was a waluable cargo o' hers, that was," added Noah, "and a
-power o' trouble we took with the sugar and 'bacca casks at Rio.  Oh,
-lor, to think of all that 'bacca goin' to Davy Jones, and never a
-leaf of it being smoked or cut in quids!  She was steeved to within a
-fathom of her beams, she was; and then we had Californy hides for
-dunnage to the hatches--aye, aye, all gone, and I'll never have
-another watch-mate like old Ben Plank again!"
-
-"Poor Ben!" said Morrison; "he'll never more cheer the lads in the
-forecastle, or on the watch of a clear night, with the 'Bay of
-Biscay' or 'Tom Bowling,' or lead the chant of 'Time for us go,' when
-shipping the capstan bars.  A better crew than ours never hove up
-anchor!"
-
-With a purpose so cruel and deadly in his mind, it may be imagined
-with what exasperation and impatience Hawkshaw listened to a
-conversation so trivial, and maintained so drowsily at intervals.  He
-began to hope they were dropping asleep, when old Gawthrop spoke
-again.
-
-"Oh, warn't that warm tea delicious this morning, captain!  I doesn't
-think as I'll ever take kindly to grog again, but become a regular
-quaker and teetotaller."
-
-"Not even thumb-grog, Noah, eh--on a wet night, when a shout comes
-down the forescuttle, of 'All hands reef topsails!'" said Bartelot
-laughing.
-
-"I am almost afraid to sleep," said Morrison, "for dreams of the
-wreck always come with it, and again I seem to find myself up to my
-neck in cold salt water.  I had often in memory, while we were
-drifting about, a story my mother, poor woman! used to tell me, when
-I was a laddie at home, and played truant frae the school, and when
-she wished to frighten me into good behaviour; so between sleeping
-and waking I used to think sometimes I was one of the doomed men she
-used to speak of."
-
-"Doomed, mate; how?" asked Morley, raising his voice; "how were they
-so?"
-
-"It was the belief of some of the seafaring folk who dwell in the
-north of Scotland, that those among them who were wicked and sinful
-in their lives were roused in the night by the knocking of a skeleton
-hand on their cottage doors.  The tap sounded like that of a bony or
-fleshless hand, though neither the hand or arm of the summoner were
-visible to mortal eyes.  Compelled by a power they dared not, and
-could not resist, those who were so summoned left their snug beds,
-their wives and bairns (if they had them), and went, awe-stricken and
-sick with horror, down the beach, where at such a time there was
-always a heavy sea rolling in white foam, a black scud drifting
-overhead and a storm coming on.  Compelled by the same mysterious
-power that brought them forth, the shivering wretches had to step on
-board a long, black, coffin-shaped boat (which was always sunk to its
-gunnel in water), and then they shoved off to sea.  A grinning skull
-formed the figure-head of this grim barge, and human bones the
-thole-pins.  Then a great dark cloud spread itself like a sail on the
-laughing wind, and away they were borne careering into the offing of
-the black and midnight sea, from whence there was no return, for
-there they had to cruise for ever, like Vanderdecken at the Cape,
-until the final day of Doom!  Many a time such boats have been seen,
-driving past the lighthouse on Buchanness, and the deep caverns of
-that tremendous shore, where the sea bellows for ever and
-ever--sailing on and on, towards the north, the shrieks of the
-despairing mingling with the wind, on a cold winter night, when the
-sleet and rain were sowing all the German sea."
-
-"Such a diabolical story!" exclaimed Morley.
-
-"Well, that is a lively legend of the north of Scotland," added
-Bartelot; "but now silence, mates, and let us to sleep, if we can."
-
-Before this end, so desirable for the purpose of Hawkshaw, was
-attained, he heard the middle-watch called, and the port-tacks were
-brought more on board, which showed that the wind was veering upon
-the quarter; then all became still, and he heard only the ceaseless
-creaking of the timbers, the sound of the sea rushing past, the sway
-to and fro of the sleepers' hammocks, and his own half-suppressed
-breathing.
-
-The idea of cutting the head-clew of Morley's hammock, and letting
-him fall head-foremost on the lower deck, occurred to Hawkshaw; and
-then he preferred the idea of relaxing the clew, so that it might
-seem to have given way, and the result of such a fall in Morley's
-weak state would certainly kill him, while all the blame of the event
-would fall on the carpenter or sailmaker who slung the hammock.
-
-But Hawkshaw's trembling fingers completely failed to undo the knot
-of the clew--one of those mysterious ones which sailors alone can tie
-and untie--so he was compelled to relinquish the idea.
-
-He next approached softly, to assure himself that the four men were
-asleep.  He opened the lantern, and passed the lighted candle twice
-across their faces, which were still wan, pale, and weird in aspect,
-after all they had so recently undergone.
-
-He looked on Morley Ashton last, for it required some courage to do
-so steadily, while memories of the past and anticipations of the
-future were conflicting in his heart.
-
-Morning was at hand now, the first sleep of the night was past, and
-the four were again in dream-land--chiefly, perhaps, our friend
-Morley--in that state which is between sleep and wakefulness.
-
-Various shades of expression were passing over his handsome, pale,
-and gentle face.  He muttered at times, too, and gave uneasy moans
-and starts, for thought, life, the soul, were still at work.  Then
-his mouth wore a soft smile, as Ethel's image most likely came before
-him; anon, there was a knitted brow and stern compression of the
-lips, as some fierce emotion followed; and next there came a gaunt
-aspect of despair, with some memory of the floating wreck, all
-evincing that, while he slept, the reflections of life were busy amid
-that uneasy slumber.
-
-With bent brows, with haggard cheeks, with eyes that glared snakily
-in fear and hate, Cramply Hawkshaw gazed upon his victim; and as his
-deadly intent came gushing up in his heart--as his cruelty and wrath
-were screwed "to the sticking point," he quietly extinguished the
-candle, without perceiving that two eyes close by were watching him
-narrowly, with wonder and alarm.
-
-There was no light now, save that of the stars, which struggled dimly
-and uncertainly through a couple of yolks in the deck overhead, and
-through the grating of the open hatchway.
-
-Hawkshaw's heart panted as that of a chased tiger might do, and the
-old emotion he felt on that terrible night at Acton Chine--a lust of
-cruelty, of vengeance, and destruction--swelled or glowed within him!
-
-A flame seemed to pass out of his eyes, while a thousand glaring orbs
-appeared to fill or pierce the obscurity about him; his breath became
-short and difficult, a deafness fell upon his ears, or there came
-around him an awful silence, as if the world itself stood still.
-Then his hands felt as if endued with a giant's strength as they made
-a clutch at Morley's mouth and throat, for he had resolved to
-strangle or suffocate him.
-
-But it was an attempt, and no more, for ere he could achieve his
-detestable purpose, he felt his hands seized, and one was grasped as
-if by the teeth of some wild animal.
-
-The bite, with the terror and confusion it occasioned, so bewildered
-him, that the wild cry of agony which roused all on board the ship
-escaped his lips; he dealt a heavy blow in the dark at some one or
-something, he knew not what, and breaking from the strange assailant,
-fled, baffled, in consternation, to the after cabin.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVI.
-
-DREAD.
-
-"What the devil is the matter?" asked Captain Phillips, as he hastily
-donned his pea-jacket, and addressed Hawkshaw, who was seated on the
-cabin locker, panting with excitement.
-
-"Did you utter that dismal howl, Captain Hawkshaw?" added Dr. Heriot,
-impatiently; "speak, sir, have you lost your voice?"
-
-"Very nearly, and my senses too," groaned the other, whose cup of
-shame and misery was well-nigh full now.
-
-"What has happened?"
-
-"Look at my hand!" said Hawkshaw, striving to gain time for
-thought--to rally his scattered wits for the coming _dénouement_--for
-an explanation, or a bold defiance.
-
-"Well, what has happened?"
-
-"It is almost bleeding--bitten."
-
-"By what--by whom?" asked everyone at once
-
-"A madman."
-
-"Mad!" was exclaimed in wild tones by all.
-
-"Yes," said Hawkshaw, through his clenched teeth, and with a glare in
-his eye, that seemed somewhat akin to insanity; "one of those fellows
-between-decks--one of those wretches we took off the raft (a curse
-upon them all!) has bitten me."
-
-"But which of them?" asked Heriot, who had now completely attired
-himself.
-
-"Oh, I don't know which, and I care not which," replied the wretched
-Hawkshaw, as he rubbed and blew his breath upon his aching digits.
-
-"And he actually bit you?"
-
-"Yes; have I not already said so?"
-
-"What were you doing?"
-
-"Doing--adjusting the clothes upon him," replied Hawkshaw, after a
-pause; "and look you, he has almost bitten my hand to the bone."
-
-As he spoke he held up his right hand to the cabin lamp, and there
-certainly were the marks of a row of teeth distinctly visible, for
-Noah Gawthrop had been determined to give Morley's nocturnal
-assailant a stamp by which he would know him again.
-
-"For all that I know, he may have half strangled one of his
-companions, in addition to this wild assault upon me," added the
-Texan captain, as a sudden thought occurred to him, for in his
-confusion he did not know how far he had assaulted Morley.
-
-Heriot, a very sharp-witted and intelligent fellow, who, at his
-native university, had met men from all parts of the world, and had
-thus gained a considerable insight of human character, had been
-scrutinising Hawkshaw keenly, and something in his manner, or in the
-expression of his face, seemed to excite some vague suspicion--Heriot
-knew not exactly of what--in his mind.
-
-"To me this appears like an impossibility," he began; "excuse me
-saying so, but what motive----"
-
-"I know nothing of motives, Dr. Leslie Heriot," interrupted Hawkshaw,
-becoming furious and desperate; "but this I know, that I may be
-tempted to use my revolver with a vengeance, if I am molested again
-by anyone on board this ship; be assured of that."
-
-At this sudden outburst, Heriot gave a smile of well-bred surprise,
-and glanced at the captain, who said:
-
-"This is a most extraordinary and unaccountable affair, and must be
-instantly inquired into.  I am sure that the poor fellows looked
-quiet enough when I saw them last.  Steward--Joe, a lantern--quick!
-Come, doctor, Mr. Basset--we'll see to this."
-
-"Oh, Leslie," cried Rose, "take care, take care!"
-
-"Oh, papa--dear papa, you, at least, must not go," added Ethel, who
-had now put on her morning wrapper, or dressing-gown, and appeared at
-the door of her little cabin.
-
-"Pooh, pooh, Miss Basset, there is not the slightest cause for fear,
-my dear girl," said the captain, laughing, as Joe lit a ship-lantern.
-
-"But the poor man's sufferings may have made him vicious--wild."
-
-"I'll take care of your papa, ladies; and bite the fellow's head off,
-mayhap, if he bites him.  Come, Captain Hawkshaw, and show us which
-of the four is the culprit, and then, if need be, we shall get the
-bilboes ready." *
-
-
-* Iron shackles used on board ship to secure the feet of prisoners.
-
-
-"No, no, I cannot," replied Hawkshaw, with a sullen and hang-dog
-expression in his now white and livid face.
-
-"What--you won't go?"
-
-"No."
-
-The captain looked at him with a smile of contempt.
-
-"Lead the way, captain," said Mr. Scriven Basset, impatiently; for
-his ideas of legal prerogative and position were gradually becoming
-stronger as he drew near the scene of his future judgeship--the sunny
-Isle of France.  "I am anxious to see the end of this singular
-affair."
-
-"Oh, most accursed fate!" murmured Hawkshaw, as he sank upon the
-stern locker.  "All is over with me now!" he added, as Mr. Basset,
-the captain, Heriot, and others quitted the cabin, to go forward
-between decks, and then every minute that elapsed seemed at least an
-hour.
-
-The cabin appeared to whirl round him like a great revolving
-cylinder; there was a confused hum of voices, that seemed to mingle
-with the rush of many waters, in his ear.
-
-Again his former thoughts of suicide occurred to him; but his soul
-shrank within him at the idea of self-destruction.  A loaded revolver
-was close by; he glanced at it with haggard and wistful eyes.  One
-bullet would enable him to escape the coming shame, and by so doing,
-he would gain a triumph--a ghastly victory over them all.
-
-But then he thought of a suicide's grave in the midnight sea; shot
-off a grating to leeward, without even a prayer, and shudderingly he
-withdrew his hand, and closing his eyes, muttered, with quivering
-lips:
-
-"No, no--I cannot--I cannot."
-
-At this moment a soft little hand was laid gently upon his, and
-looking up he beheld Ethel Basset.
-
-Ignorant of all this man's secret life; of his crimes committed in
-wild and lawless lands; the wrong and cruelty of which he had been
-guilty to herself and to Morley--she surveyed him with something of
-pity, and he gazed at her bewildered, and in silence, thinking that
-she never looked so lovely as at this terrible moment of his
-humiliation and suspense.
-
-She wore a loose and ample morning wrapper, of white stuff, spotted
-with red; it was profusely frilled, and fitted closely round her
-delicate throat, and her tapered white arms came softly out from its
-wide falling sleeves.  A white tasselled cord confined it at the
-waist, and she had no ornament about her, save Morley Ashton's ring.
-
-Turned hastily off her face, and behind her white and handsome ears,
-her dark, glossy, and glorious hair fell in a long mass down her
-back, and she was knotting it up with her right hand (thus showing to
-perfection a smooth white arm and dimpled elbow), while her left, so
-soft and small, rested on the hand of Hawkshaw; the hand that only
-five minutes before had aimed a death-clutch at the throat of Morley
-Ashton.
-
-She gazed kindly and inquiringly into his pale and agitated face, for
-his present wretched and guilty aspect astonished and perplexed her.
-
-Her colour, always so delicate, was somewhat heightened beyond its
-usual roseleaf tint, by the late excitement, and, as we have said,
-Hawkshaw, with all his selfishness, with all his guilt and
-bloodthirstiness, thought he never beheld her looking so lovely and
-so pure as at this, to him, most terrible time.
-
-She was about to speak, when several footsteps were heard coming
-towards the great cabin, on which she retired hastily to her own, and
-shut the door.
-
-"Oh, my God! they are coming to denounce me!  Peril--disgrace--ruin,
-and no escape but death!" groaned Hawkshaw, covering his eyes with
-one hand, while the other fell, by chance--or was it fatality!--on
-the cold butt of the loaded revolver.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVII.
-
-UNMASKED.
-
-The time spent by the captain and his companions in the place where
-the four castaways were located must have appeared interminable to
-the wretched Hawkshaw, as they remained there fully an hour, for much
-had to be inquired into, and much more related and explained.
-
-Resolved to question, cross-question, sift, and refine, and all
-unconscious of the surprise that was awaiting him, Mr. Basset, with
-tolerable lawyer-like activity and importance, fussily followed jolly
-Captain Phillips, who had one hand stuffed into that pocket of his
-pea-jacket which held his revolver, and in the other hand he swung a
-ship's lantern.
-
-To Mr. Basset's unpractised eye, the 'tween decks seemed rather a
-dreary den, to say the best of it.  It was lower in height, or, to
-write more correctly, between beams, than the ship's cabin, and its
-furniture was exceedingly simple, consisting only of a small breaker
-or gang-cask, and wooden drinking tot, set upon a sea-chest which was
-securely lashed to the bulkhead, while a railway rug and poncho
-wrapper lay thereby.
-
-Then his eye caught four queer-looking long bags, that swung by clews
-and cleats from the beams longitudinally, and ont of each of the
-aforesaid bags a human face was peering, with eyes expressive of
-inquiry and interest; but their features could not be discerned, for
-all was darkness, or nearly so, except where the light of the lantern
-fell.
-
-"Hallo, my friends," said Captain Phillips, as he held his lantern
-up, and took a rapid survey of them all, "so you are awake, I see.
-What the deuce has been doing here, that we are all turned up in the
-night, or rather the middle of the morning watch, in this way, eh?"
-
-"I don't understand what it is all about, sir," replied Tom Bartelot;
-"but a few minutes ago, in my sleep, I heard a terrible cry."
-
-"Who was it that bit the gentleman?" asked Phillips, angrily.
-
-"I did, your honour," replied Noah Gawthrop, looking over the edge of
-his hammock, and twitching his grizzled forelock.
-
-"You--and you acknowledge it!" said the captain, turning towards him
-with angry surprise.
-
-"Yes; and I hope as I have left the marks o' my blessed grinders in
-him, that's all."
-
-"The fellow is mad," said Mr. Basset in an undertone.
-
-"Do you think so?"
-
-"Who else would talk thus?"
-
-"Likely enough, sir," whispered Joe, the steward; "for I heard that
-old one this morning saying that he was tormented by a marine
-drummer, and shouting for all hands to reef topsails.  He seemed to
-think himself on board a man-o'-war."
-
-"A little crazed, perhaps, by recent suffering," suggested Mr.
-Basset.  "A short sleep may soothe him; but a bite is a serious
-offence--a very serious offence."
-
-"I ain't no more mad than your honour," said Noah, who had overheard
-their whispers, and looked up angrily; then he added, in a different
-tone, "But--is that you, Captain Phillips--lor' bless you, don't you
-mind o' me?"
-
-"No, I do not," replied the captain, curtly.
-
-"Not remember old Noah Gawthrop, as sailed for ten year and more with
-your brother, Captain Bill, and was wrecked with him in the Straits
-of Sunda?"
-
-"Noah, it is, by Jupiter!" exclaimed Phillips, shaking the old
-seaman's hand with genuine warmth.  "This is, indeed, strange; 'tis
-long since we last met, Noah."
-
-"Five years ago, if it is a day, since I came home from the West
-Ingees, and ran up the Mersey in a old sweating sugar-ship--her
-berths aft and bunks for'ard a swarming with bugs and cockroaches, a
-crew of Jamaiky darkies, and her lower rigging all alive with
-poll-parrots.  I see you minds o' me, Captain Phillips--lor' bless
-me, in course you does, and know that I am no more mad than yourself,
-or my own good captain here, Mr. Thomas Bartelot, of the _Princess_
-as was, poor old craft."
-
-"Oh, glad to see you, captain," said Phillips, shaking hands with Tom
-on this blunt introduction; "and glad too, that we came so
-opportunely to save you."
-
-"Yes," resumed Noah, "I'm the man as saved your nevvy, Master Bill,
-when all hands went down in the Straits of Sunda, and I brought the
-child home with me, and gave him to yourself, as your honour very
-well knows.  I was father and mother, dry nurse, and wet nurse, and
-everything to that 'ere boy, I was; and many a time I rope's-ended
-him, too, for putting plugs o' powder in my 'baccy pipe, or japanning
-the starn o' my trousers with new pitch.  So you knows me well
-enough."
-
-"Of course I do, Noah, my brave old salt."
-
-"Of course you does.  Ah, sir, your brother, Captain Bill, would
-never have been lost, but in passing the straits during a south-east
-monsoon, he hugged the coast of Java, with his port tacks aboard, and
-so we went bump ashore on a blessed coral reef, where the sea made
-clean breaches over us.  I made a grab at Master Bill, who was
-hauling his pet tom-cat by the tail out o' the wash to leeward, and
-then we all crouched under the weather-bulwarks, ready to cut away
-the masts, if necessary.  But the sea saved us the trouble; for there
-came a regular snorer, that carried away the topmasts at the caps,
-breaking them sharp off like 'baccy pipes, the midship-house, boats,
-and everything went to leeward, while the ship parted, breaking her
-back fairly on the reef.  I found myself in the dark, swimming away
-for the bare life, among sharks and long seaweed, with little Bill
-riding on my back like Sinbad's Old Man o' the Sea, and, top of all,
-the tom-cat, holding on to Bill with all his claws out.  'Hold on,
-you young warmint,' says I, and so he did, until we got ashore, and
-next day we were sent off by the Dutch in a queer jigamaree, with a
-lateen sail forward, and a dandy in her starn, to a British
-man-o'-war, that was bearing through the straits on a taut bowline,
-before the same monsoon that finished us off on the coral reef."
-
-"But why did you bite the man?" asked Captain Phillips, who had
-listened with some impatience, returning to the matter in hand.
-
-"Because he is a pirate, if ever one broke biscuit!'
-
-"Take care, Noah; he is one of our cabin passengers."
-
-"I was a watching him, your honour, and I had queer suspicions that
-he meant foul play to one of us at least, and so I pretended to
-snooze, keeping watch with one eye open, though he did pass the light
-twice athwart my face.  I saw him, your honour, though he doused the
-glim, and I could make out that he was going to strangle--to garotte,
-in true Californy style--my shipmate here, young Master Morley
-Ashton, who was asleep----"
-
-"Mr. Morley Ashton!" exclaimed Mr. Basset, in an excited voice, as he
-hurried round to the other side of the hammock; "I should like to see
-the gentleman who is named so."
-
-"Surely I should know that voice!" cried Morley, springing up in his
-hammock, and almost falling back within it, overwhelmed by
-astonishment on finding himself face to face with Mr. Basset--with
-the father of Ethel!
-
-"What is this?--who is this?  You, Morley Ashton, on board the
-_Hermione_?" exclaimed Mr. Basset, in a gust of genuine bewilderment,
-equalled only by that of Morley, who trembled with anticipation and
-astonishment, and who felt at his heart a sudden and clamorous joy.
-"You one of the four men taken from that melancholy wreck!  How came
-it to be?  Explain--tell me.  Good heavens! how?  Oh, my poor boy,
-Morley, we have long numbered you with the dead, and have mourned for
-you as such--none more, believe me, than my dearest girl."
-
-"Where am I, sir?--what ship is this?" stammered Morley, as a new
-light began to break in upon him, while grasping Mr. Basset's hand,
-with one arm thrown caressingly round his neck.  "Am I on board the
-_Hermione_?  Has she picked us up--saved us from death?"
-
-"Yes, sir; this is the _Hermione_, of London," said Captain Phillips,
-"too long delayed by contrary winds, and the loss of a mast near the
-Canaries."
-
-"Oh, Morley Ashton," began Mr. Basset, "if you did but know----"
-
-"Ashton?--Ashton?" interrupted the captain; "are you the gentleman
-who was to have sailed with us--who telegraphed for a cabin berth,
-and was not forthcoming when we dropped down the river?"
-
-"I am the same, sir."
-
-"What came of you?  How did you disappear?"
-
-"I was a victim to the foulest treachery and cowardice!"
-
-"At the hands of whom?" asked Mr. Basset.
-
-"Cramply Hawkshaw."
-
-"What! he whom Gawthrop bit in the dark?"
-
-"Bit, that I might know him again, your honour, for I warn't strong
-enough to grapple with him."
-
-"And who, he says, attempted to strangle you in your sleep?" asked
-Dr. Heriot, coming forward.
-
-"Hawkshaw here! on board with you--with _her_!" said Morley, in a
-faint voice, as certain undefinable, but terrible, suspicions arose
-in his mind.
-
-"Yes; he is with us, a cabin passenger," replied Mr. Basset.
-
-"Here! here! on board the _Hermione_?" continued Morley, almost
-vacantly, for his brain spun round.
-
-"Yes, sir, in your place," said the captain.
-
-"Great Heavens!"
-
-"Your passage was taken out, your berth ready, the money paid; but
-you had slipped from your moorings somehow, so he went in your place.
-There is nothing very wonderful in that, is there?"
-
-"He went with Ethel?" said Morley, in a tremulous and imploring voice
-to Mr. Basset.
-
-"He came with me, as the son of my old friend, Tom Hawkshaw, of
-Lincoln's Inn, to push his fortune in the Mauritius," said Mr.
-Basset, hastily.
-
-"And Ethel--Ethel?" continued Morley, in a broken voice, while his
-eyes filled with tears.
-
-"Is well, though she has mourned for you deeply," replied Mr. Basset.
-"But pray be calm, my poor boy.  How terribly agitated you are!  Do
-not doubt her, or misunderstand me."
-
-"And I shall see her--see her again?"
-
-"Very soon--in ten minutes, perhaps."
-
-"Oh, this is indeed happiness," sighed Morley, sinking back in his
-hammock.  "Heaven is kind--most singularly merciful to me.  But
-Hawkshaw--that wretch!" he added, starting up with new energy.  "Oh,
-Ethel must shun, avoid and loathe him, for she knows not that he is
-an assassin!"
-
-"How an assassin?"
-
-"Or one who would be such."
-
-"A regular-built pirate, and no mistake--a rascally Californy
-piccaroon!" added Noah, with sundry adjectives, which we feel the
-propriety of omitting.
-
-"Aye, Mr. Basset, as Douglas Jerrold says, 'he is a scoundrel, who
-would whet a knife on his father's tombstone to kill his mother.'
-Oh, you know him not as I too surely, too truly, and too well know
-him, and all of which he is capable."
-
-"These are severe and sweeping assertions.  Explain this enigma--this
-most unaccountable affair."
-
-"You remember, Mr. Basset, the night of my sudden disappearance from
-Laurel Lodge?"
-
-"I shall never forget it.  You had gone to Acton station, concerning
-a telegram from London."
-
-"Concerning a berth in this very ship!"
-
-"Yes."
-
-"Returning alone, I met Cramply Hawkshaw, who entered into
-conversation with me, offered me a cigar, gradually lured me to the
-summit of the rocks above the Chine.  There we sat listening to the
-village chimes in the old church tower, chatting, smoking, and
-enjoying the pleasant breeze from the Bristol Channel, till he,
-inspired by rivalry, jealousy, and hate, or by some fiendish
-combination of them all, at a moment when I was completely off my
-guard, by one furious blow struck me over the cliff into the Chine!"
-
-"The Chine--oh, my God!" said Mr. Basset, in a voice that sank low
-with horror.  "We came to look for you, Cramply and I, for he said
-that he had seen you walking there, and certainly we found marks of a
-struggle--the gravel dislodged, and the turf torn.  You fell into the
-sea of course, but from that height!  How--by what miracle did you
-escape?"
-
-"A miracle, a narrow chance indeed!  A turf-covered ledge received
-me, and there for many, many hours, more than a night and a day, I
-remained sleepless, and scarcely daring to move, chilled less perhaps
-by the cold sea-breeze than by the horror of drowning if I rolled off
-the narrow shelf, of dying slowly by starvation and falling a prey to
-the sea-birds at last, till I was saved by my friend Captain
-Bartelot, whose vessel passed below me."
-
-Excited by the memory of all he had undergone, Morley's voice
-faltered and grew weak as he spoke.
-
-"Yes, sir," said Bartelot, striking in, "we chanced to see a human
-figure perched up among the gulls and cormorants, so we made a longer
-tack close in shore, and sent off a boat's crew, who climbed to the
-top of the rocks and hove him the end of a line.  He was then towed
-up, and being quite insensible, Morrison, my mate, brought him on
-board.  So, being outward bound--a storm having been signalled by
-Admiral Fitzroy, and beginning to break white in the offing, we had
-no time for backing and filling, or chopping about the rocky shore at
-Acton--I stood right down the Channel, intending to put him aboard
-the first suitable ship.  We never overhauled any but foreigners, so
-we took him with us to Rio.  He has often been well-nigh out of his
-mind sometimes, sir, about--I may be pardoned mentioning her
-name--Miss Basset; but he was in safe hands with me, sir, his old
-schoolfellow, Tom Bartelot."
-
-"A strange and terrible story!" exclaimed Dr. Heriot.
-
-"Poor Ethel, Morley," said Mr. Basset; "oh, what she has endured, and
-in silence, too!"
-
-"I can know that well, by what I, too, endured.  Dear, dear Ethel;
-and I shall see her----"
-
-"So soon as she can be wisely informed of the great surprise, of the
-great joy, that await her.  But that fellow, Hawkshaw--the fact of
-how I have been duped, deluded, and disgraced by the pretended
-friendship of such a man, falls like a thunderbolt upon me!"
-exclaimed good, easy Mr. Scriven Basset, with more energy than he was
-wont to exhibit, "and to think of my poor, sweet, and virtuous girls
-being contaminated by the society of such a man, and my secluded home
-being polluted by his presence, though sheltered there under the name
-of his good and worthy father!  Damme! it's enough to make one
-suspicious of all mankind!"
-
-Mr. Basset thrust one hand into his breast, and the other under the
-tails of his coat, and trod to and fro the whole length of the
-'tween-decks, about twelve feet or so, swelling and reddening with
-just ire and indignation.
-
-Bartelot, Morrison, and Gawthrop added many details corroborating the
-remarkable escape of Morley from Acton Chine, and descriptive of his
-mental sufferings during the voyage to Rio de Janeiro; and by the
-time this interview, so full of stirring interest to all concerned in
-it, was over, and the captain and his companions had quitted the
-'tween-decks, a new day had dawned, the sun was rising brightly from
-the sea, and throwing the shadow of the lofty _Hermione_ far astern
-upon the gleaming waters to the westward.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVIII.
-
-THE EXPULSION.
-
-Hawkshaw's hand, as we have stated, fell unconsciously on the loaded
-revolver which lay by his side, but was instantly withdrawn.
-
-He had not the courage to die by his own hand, in the fashion to
-which the old Romans were so partial in all their griefs and
-difficulties.  He looked up with a half-haggard and half-bullying or
-defiant expression, as Captain Phillips, Mr. Quail, the doctor, and
-Mr. Basset entered the cabin.
-
-The latter gave him a long, steady, and withering glance, and after
-knocking at the door of Ethel's little cabin or state-room, entered
-it hastily.  Then the varying exclamations of astonishment and joy
-which were heard within it sounded as additional knells of
-disgrace--they might be those of death to Cramply Hawkshaw; and now,
-after surveying him long and sternly, Captain Phillips addressed him
-with great deliberation.
-
-Hawkshaw found himself regarded with horror and aversion, but no
-ashes of fire were heaped upon his miserable head, for the good,
-jolly captain was the only person who spoke.
-
-"Sir, give me up that revolver."
-
-Hawkshaw seemed to be stunned, and did not reply.
-
-"The revolver, sir; do you hear me?"
-
-"Why?"
-
-"Never mind why or wherefore--they matter little now."
-
-"I thought that we were all armed for a particular purpose."
-
-Captain Phillips smiled bitterly.
-
-"Yes," said he; "but you can be no longer trusted with arms on board
-my ship."
-
-"Indeed!" said Hawkshaw, who knew not very well whether to cringe or
-bully, and pondered in his desperation.
-
-"Yes; so surrender your arms.  I'm an easy-going fellow, but one who
-won't be trifled with, for all that.  Your revolver!"
-
-Hawkshaw reluctantly handed Captain Phillips the loaded weapon.
-
-"Thank you.  Now, sir, I must inform you that we have had a long
-interview with the men in the 'tween-decks--those whom you so kindly
-undertook to watch, though such a duty was scarcely necessary--and
-after the revelations they have made, but chiefly after the account
-given of you by Mr. Morley Ashton--you wince at the name, I see--you
-can no longer remain in the cabin of the _Hermione_."
-
-"Revelations!  Did I not say that one--one at least--of these men was
-mad?"
-
-"You shall not be sent forward," continued the captain, "among my
-crew, however congenial some of their spirits may be."
-
-"What, then?" asked Hawkshaw, with undisguised alarm.
-
-"You shall be secluded between decks till the end of the voyage, or
-be sent on shore at the first land we make, in the hope that we may
-never see you more."
-
-"At the Cape of Good Hope?" asked Hawkshaw eagerly.
-
-"I do not mean to touch at the Cape now, as we are so far to the
-southward of it," replied the captain, little foreseeing that this
-information was to have a fatal influence over all on board.
-
-"Sir," replied Hawkshaw, gathering courage for a moment, "may I
-remind you that my passage to the Isle of France----"
-
-"Is paid for, you would say?"
-
-"Yes--_carambi_!"
-
-"By Mr. Ashton's money.  Ha! ha!  I have known of a man being
-marooned on a rock in the Gulf of Florida--aye, or set adrift on a
-hencoop, or in a punt, with three biscuits and a bottle of water, in
-the middle of the South Pacific--a poor devil who was far less
-criminal than you.  I would to Heaven we had never seen you.  No ship
-with such a thorough-bred rascal on board could hope for a prosperous
-voyage; and," continued the captain angrily, as his professional
-superstitions came to memory, "the fact of having you with us
-sufficiently accounts for the loss of our foremast after passing the
-Madeira Isles, for the mysterious loss of poor Manfredi, and the head
-winds we have uniformly encountered.  Why, damme! we might as well
-have had a parson, or an undocked Tom cat aboard.  Seclusion from
-among us is a punishment slight indeed for the crimes of which you
-have been guilty, but chiefly for your double and dastardly attempts
-upon the life of that young gentleman.  You understand me, sir."
-
-"I understand only, Captain Phillips, that your mind has been
-poisoned by a parcel of infamous falsehoods, which, on the first
-shore we make, I shall ram down the throat of him who uttered them
-with a pistol-bullet!"
-
-"I hope the person referred to will not be such a confounded donkey
-as to exchange shots with a convicted assassin," replied Phillips.
-
-"Assassin!  I--I--I----"
-
-Choking with sudden and uncontrollable passion, Hawkshaw sprang up
-from the locker, his bloodshot eyes flashing with fire, his face pale
-and haggard, the veins of his temples swollen like whipcord, and his
-heart stung with the idea that Ethel in her little cabin could hear
-all that passed.  His voice, husky and inarticulate, failed him, but
-his bearing was so threatening that Captain Phillips cocked the
-revolver pistol, and said, sternly:
-
-"If you attempt to strike me, I will shoot you down like a gull.
-Quit the cabin this instant, and if you would keep your heels out of
-the bilboes, never let me find you aft the break of the quarterdeck."
-
-Hawkshaw's hands were opened and clenched convulsively, as if his
-fingers twitched for an object to grapple with, and on which to vent
-the pent-up rage and shame that consumed him; yet he found that he
-had no resource but to submit and retire, so he slowly left the
-cabin, but with an air of defiance which so ill became him, and so
-ill befitted his present predicament, that Phillips, the mate, and
-doctor, knew not whether to pity or laugh at him.
-
-But the whole episode was a painful one, as they could not forget, at
-this climax of his humiliation, that this man, so summarily disgraced
-and cast forth from among them as an unclean thing, had been for so
-many months their companion and associate, their friend, and, to all
-appearance, their equal.
-
-He repaired to the quarter-deck, and the cool breeze that swept over
-the morning sea gratefully fanned his flushed face and throbbing
-brow.  For a time he was blind with rage, and trod mechanically to
-and fro over the very cabin wherein Ethel and Rose (now filled with
-tumultuous joy by the strange tidings their father had brought them,
-were making a hurried toilette); till the appearance of Mr. Quail,
-who came to relieve the deck, to call the watch, to change the
-helmsman, and have the log hove, recalled the stern order of Captain
-Phillips, and, descending the break of the quarter-deck, he went
-sullenly forward--a proscribed man.
-
-As he did so a mocking laugh met his ear.
-
-It came from Pedro Barradas--who had just relieved the wheel, and
-who, being ignorant of the events that had transpired in the cabin,
-naturally supposed that Hawkshaw had, as usual, quitted the
-quarter-deck to avoid him.
-
-For a moment this laugh stung him deeply; but many emotions were
-conflicting in his breast on this miserable morning, so that he
-scarcely felt anger at Barradas.
-
-He had passed a sleepless night; but no sensation of weariness felt
-he, as he clambered into the fore-rigging, and sat there to consider
-his position--to watch the inmates of the cabin, and to avoid the
-crew, until he could conceal himself somewhere for the night.
-
-Oh, how he longed for its friendly shadow and concealment--longed for
-it, while the beams of the morning sun gilded all the sea, and lit up
-the full swelling sails of the _Hermione_.
-
-Feverish, and madly excited by the many emotions which had convulsed
-him since the moment in which he recognised the sleeping Morley
-Ashton, and more especially by the terrible and wicked thoughts of
-the past night, a longing for vengeance, or victory, rather--victory
-at any risk or price--filled his heart, till he nearly became mad,
-when thoughts of his rival's safety, restoration, and triumph were
-contrasted with his own exposure, expulsion, and disgrace.
-
-The crew, among whom he dared not venture, would soon learn the whole
-story, and, knowing alike their reckless character and their
-nefarious projects, he already felt, by anticipation, the sharp
-stings of their fierce and brutal mockery, and the coming vengeance
-of those he had contemptuously ignored--the Barradas.
-
-"Why did I not put a bullet through my head before old Phillips took
-away my pistol?" thought he.  "Had I done so, by this time, perhaps,
-I would have been peacefully at rest below the surface of that blue
-and shining sea, instead of being perched up here, a moody wretch--a
-miserable and disappointed outcast."
-
-Slowly, slowly the sunny morning wore on.
-
-He heard Joe the steward's bell--once a welcome sound--rung for
-breakfast.  The smoking ham and eggs, broiled chicken, tea and
-coffee, were borne from the steaming galley, aft to the cabin; he
-knew that the whole party, with their familiar faces, would be
-assembled at table as usual; and others, too, he shrewdly
-anticipated, would be there.  Nor was he mistaken; for all the four
-castaways were so much better this morning, notwithstanding the
-recent disturbance, that they had quitted their hammocks, with the
-intention of coming on deck.
-
-Perhaps they had already begun to feel that necessity which so soon
-impresses the sick or ailing on board of ship--the expediency of
-getting well as soon as possible (especially in such a ship as the
-_Hermione_); for, after a time, there is but little sympathy to spare
-for useless hands, either fore or aft; "an overstrained sense of
-manliness being the characteristic of seafaring men, or rather of
-life on board ship."
-
-Apart from these considerations, and being bodily better, the
-knowledge that Ethel Basset was only separated from him by a few
-planks worked a miracle upon Morley Ashton.
-
-Their sodden and surf-beaten rags had all been thrown overboard, so
-Morley was attired from the wardrobe of Dr. Heriot; the others were
-supplied by the captain and Mr. Basset; and the appearance of Noah
-Gawthrop, when rigged out in a black swallow-tailed dress coat,
-belonging to the latter gentleman, with gilt buttons, and lappels of
-watered silk, an old crimson velvet waistcoat, an ample pair of dark
-tartan trowsers, and a sou'-wester of Mr. Quail's, was unique, and
-excited considerable speculation when he came on deck.
-
-Forgetting his "landlubber-like toggery," with sailor-like instinct,
-Noah cast his eyes aloft, and critically surveyed all the rigging,
-and a smile, that puckered up the wrinkles of his old face, showed
-that the result of his scrutiny was satisfactory.
-
-His remarkably ill-favoured visage was in no way improved by a patch
-of black sticking-plaster, with which Dr. Heriot had covered a cut on
-the bridge of his copper-coloured nose, the result of Hawkshaw's
-random blow in the matutinal row between decks.
-
-Descending the break of the quarter-deck, Noah went forward, to get
-his breakfast with the crew, concerning whom the officers of the ship
-deemed it yet unwise to give him any warning.
-
-He had considerably recovered his strength, and was eagerly welcomed
-by the seamen as he walked forward, and all gathered in a group about
-him in the break of the deck at the forecastle bunks, clamorous to
-hear his yarn about the loss of his ship--where she was from, where
-bound to, what she was loaded with, and so forth--to hear all about
-himself, and, though recorded last, not the least exciting topic on
-which they wished enlightenment, was the cry that had come from
-between decks in the first hour of the morning watch.
-
-Noah, seated on the barrel of the windlass, with a tin mug of
-scalding hot coffee, together with a slice of salt junk, and Quaco's
-"plum-duff," after denouncing the tea and arrowroot of Joe the
-steward, proceeded to give, in his own fashion, a rambling narrative
-of all the recent events in which he had borne a part.
-
-The words which he uttered did not reach the ear of Hawkshaw, in his
-lofty perch; but suddenly all eyes were simultaneously cast aloft to
-where he sat near the sling of the foreyard, and Noah threateningly
-shook his clenched hand at him, while a roar of mocking laughter from
-the crew--that bitter laughter which he so long dreaded--filled his
-heart with rage and spite, that he nearly fell from his seat among
-his tormentors.
-
-For a time, it seemed as if all these villainous upturned faces--the
-thick, African nose and sausage-like lips of Quaco, the glittering
-eyes and olive face of Zuares Barradas, the hideous squat form of
-Sharkey--a wretch with the life of Manfredi to atone for--Badger,
-with his sunken orbs and great square jaw; Bolter, the
-unhealthy-looking Canadian, and all the rest--had been turned into
-mocking fiends, who would yet drive him to more desperate deeds, for
-he was now expelled, cast forth from among those with whom he had
-associated, without a prospect of return, or a hope of retrieving
-himself.
-
-"Is not life altogether a long comedy," says some one, "with Fate for
-the stage-manager, and Passion, Inclination, Love, Hate, Revenge,
-Ambition, Avarice, by turns, in the prompter's box?"
-
-Hawkshaw felt bitterly in his soul that his life had been a tragedy,
-in which the evil passions alone had played their parts by turns, and
-sometimes all together.
-
-What would the last scene of that tragedy be?
-
-"Hallo, foretop there!" cried Bill Badger, the tall, lantern-jawed,
-and odious Yankee.  "Well, capting, I guess you're chawed up rayther.
-Thunder and lightning! come, ship with us in the little game we've
-got in hand.  Jine us; you carn't do better now; and who knows but
-you may get your gal with the black shiners, after all?"
-
-"_El cuchillo primero!_ (My knife first)" said Zuares Barradas,
-touching the haft of his Albacete knife with ferocious significance.
-
-Honest Noah opened his eyes very wide at these singular remarks,
-which were followed by another roar of brutal laughter.  On this,
-Hawkshaw, to get, if possible, beyond the reach of their
-conversation, trembling in every limb with rage, and with a strange
-blindness coming over his sight, as the old clamorous ferocity
-gathered in his soul, while feeling that the mocking words had not
-been uttered in vain--as they suggested certain ideas of probable
-vengeance on his exposers--proceeded to climb farther up the rigging,
-until he perched himself on the fore-crosstrees, his past experience
-having made him seaman enough to achieve this.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIX.
-
-THE MEETING.
-
-How shall I describe the almost mute meeting between Ethel Basset and
-Morley Ashton? or shall I omit it altogether?
-
-Instinctively, and with proper good taste, all in the cabin left them
-to themselves for a time; and even Rose--the saucy and impulsive
-Rose--who looked just as Morley had last seen her when playing at
-croquet in Acton Chase, with her pretty straw hat, her green zouave
-jacket, and tiny bronzed Balmoral boots, after rushing back to give
-him one kiss more, tripped upstairs on deck to join the doctor.
-
-Mr. Basset had managed to break the matter--the vast secret--to Ethel
-skilfully and gently, by saying that the wrecked men could afford
-some information concerning Morley Ashton; that they knew where he
-was, that one had seen him lately, that he was alive and well, and so
-forth.  Thus there was no scene, no screaming, no fainting for joy,
-and certainly no dying of that pleasant emotion.  Such a climax as
-the latter would have put the narrator of these events very much
-about indeed, for, our story being a true one, this little romantic
-portion of it dovetails with the rest--rather flatly, perhaps,
-because it is _true_.
-
-For a time neither could exactly "realise" (to use a good
-Americanism) that they were reunited--Ethel, that Morley lived;
-Morley, that he should so suddenly find himself by the side of her
-whom he had been pursuing through the deep, reunited, and on board
-the _Hermione_, of London.
-
-Again and again she fell upon his breast, repeating, in a voice that
-was almost breathless, but exquisitely touching:
-
-"My darling--oh, my darling! can this be possible?  Is this reality?"
-
-Their poor hearts were too full to permit much to be said; nor would
-it be fair to them, or interesting to others, to rehearse all the
-little that they did say then.  But how much had they to ask, to
-relate, to explain, and to deplore?
-
-Morley had undergone so much, he had seen so many strange faces, and
-places too--Rio de Janeiro, with bay, mountains, and isles; Tristan
-d'Acunha, with its cliffs and mighty cone; Diego Alvarez, with its
-sea-elephants and fur seals; the Island of the Hermit, with its
-strange story of old Don Pedro de Barradas.  He had encountered,
-moreover, so many gales of wind, the wreck, with all its contingent
-woes and horrors, and so forth, that Laurel Lodge, and Ethel's face,
-figure, and whole image had seemed ten years off--at least, ten years
-appeared to have elapsed since their sudden separation.
-
-To poor Ethel the intervening blank had seemed greater, for Morley
-had lived with hope, while she had none; and, to understand and
-conceive her utter bewilderment, we must bear in mind all she had
-undergone.
-
-The sudden and unaccountable disappearance of Morley, and the
-supposed mode of his death (for it was only supposed, after all), had
-occasioned a more bitter sorrow, a keener and more protracted agony,
-than she could have endured by weeping at his deathbed, and
-afterwards knowing that he was at rest in a grave she could see,
-where she might plant flowers and drop her tears.
-
-To have seen him borne forth from Laurel Lodge to Acton churchyard,
-amid all the real and paid-for pageantry of woe, would have been
-actual contentment, when contrasted with all she had suffered--doubt,
-uncertainty, despair!
-
-Oh, she felt how deeply she must loathe Hawkshaw as the author of all
-their woe!
-
-But now Morley was beside her, with her hands in his, looking
-lovingly into her loving eyes, drinking in her murmured words,
-sitting close, very close, to her, so this reunion was as stunning
-and bewildering in its own way as their separation had been.
-
-They were dearer to each other now by a thousand degrees than ever
-they were before, even after Morley's absence in Africa.
-
-"It is good sometimes to be absent," says a graceful writer,
-truthfully; "better still to be dead, as regards our own
-imperfections and our equally imperfect friends.  How they rise up
-and praise us for virtues we never possessed, and benignly pardon us
-for sins we never committed.  How tender over our memories grow those
-who, living, worried our lives out, and might do so again, if we were
-alive, to-morrow."
-
-They had none of those upbraiding thoughts to recall.  Can it be
-reality, this happiness? was the uppermost idea in both their minds.
-
-It was indeed Ethel whose head reclined upon his breast.  She was
-changed since last they met at peaceful Laurel Lodge, among its
-rose-bowers, its giant laurels and stately sycamores; and yet how
-lovely she was--lovelier even now than then.
-
-Long grieving had imparted a sweet Madonna-like sadness to the soft
-features; her cheeks were thin, and Morley's affectionate eye could
-see two white hairs amid the deep black braiding of the young girl's
-head; and he saw, too, that her broad, low brow, had an impress of
-care and sorrow--sorrow for him, even now, when her dark eyes were
-flashing through their tears of joy.
-
-It was indeed she, that beloved one, whose name he had so dotingly
-murmured to himself a thousand times, in the lonely watches of the
-night, when treading the ship's deck under the sparkling stars of the
-tropics, when the glorious planets of the Southern Cross--fabled by
-the devout mariners of the old Spanish Argosies to be "a brooch taken
-from the breast of the blessed _Madre de Dios_"--looked close and
-nigh, so close as to cast the ship's shadow on the rolling waters.
-
-It was she whom he had imagined in those wild dreams by day, when the
-dreams of the waking are wilder by far than those of the sleeper.
-
-She was beside him again, and they were hand in hand as of old, eye
-bent on eye, lip meeting lip.  Ethel, his own Ethel--after all they
-had undergone--was beside him, so suddenly, so unexpectedly, that it
-seemed indeed a dream, or like a set scene, the plot or conception of
-a sensational romance or playwright--a trafficker in plots,
-contrivances, and _situations_.
-
-It was so, and truth proved stronger than fiction after all!
-
-And so, forgetful of others, forgetful assuredly of breakfast, till
-Joe in the steerage and Quaco in the galley were in despair about the
-eggs and coffee, they would have sat till the sun that now shone
-through amber clouds so merrily ahead to the eastward had beamed his
-farewell rays in crimson through the stern-windows from the westward,
-had not Joe's bell, rung vigorously and impatiently for the third
-time, brought the whole party, including Mr. Foster, who had no
-sympathy whatever for lovers, and who felt famished, having had
-charge of the deck since 4 to 8 A.M.--the morning watch--and it was
-now half-past 10, alike by his appetite and the captain's chronometer.
-
-All oblivious of the unhappy wretch who was "chewing the cud of sweet
-and bitter fancy" aloft in the fore-crosstrees (where the swaying of
-the mast made the rolling of the ship seem so much greater than
-below) jovial indeed was the party which assembled at the sound of
-Joe's bell, and how curly-headed Joe's honest English face shone as
-he handed round coffee and tea, with whipped eggs for cream, or as he
-skipped about with hot water, and handed to the ladies preserves in
-tin cans, midshipmen's nuts and American biscuits in a silver
-bread-barge, a spotless white towel thrown over the sleeve of his
-round jacket the while, for Joe was something of a hybrid, half
-waiter and half seaman.
-
-Under the cheering influence of Ethel's presence Morley's features
-soon became less haggard, and the keen, hawk-like expression of his
-dark eyes--an expression the result of suffering, danger, and of
-being long menaced by death--rapidly softened and passed away.
-
-But with breakfast untasted, or feigning only to partake thereof,
-Ethel, pale and feverish, sat like one in a dream.
-
-For this sudden restoration of Morley to life and to her, as it would
-seem from the bosom of the deep--from the greedy waves of that vast
-ocean which they had been traversing for more than three months--was
-more difficult of realisation than the horror of his disappearance
-and of his supposed dreadful death.
-
-But she, and Rose too, seemed so forgetful of every one present, save
-Morley, that worthy young Dr. Leslie Heriot, F.R.C.S.E., actually
-envied him--envied the earlier intimacy he could claim with these two
-charming sisters, and felt almost jealous of the deep interest they
-evinced for our poor waif of the sea.
-
-"And so you are indeed Miss Ethel Basset?" said Tom Bartelot,
-surveying the lovely girl with honest admiration and kindliness, when
-he was introduced to her.
-
-"I am, sir," replied Ethel, smiling at his manner; "and a very old
-friend of Mr. Ashton's."
-
-"I can scarcely regret the loss of my ship, the poor _Princess_" said
-Tom, gallantly, "or my own suffering and misfortune, when I consider
-that all have been but the means to a happy end."
-
-"Sir?" said Ethel, blushing a little, and looking down.  "You
-mean----"
-
-"That they have been the means of bringing you and my old chum and
-schoolfellow, Mr. Ashton, together again," continued Tom, blundering
-still more by his straightforward inferences.
-
-"You are very kind, sir, in saying so," replied Ethel, as her colour
-came and went.
-
-"That poor lad loves you as his very life," continued Tom, warming
-with his subject; "aye, far beyond it, for, when compared with you,
-he don't value it more than a bit of old rope-yarn!  Many an hour has
-he walked the deck by my side, speaking of you, and praising you; and
-even when he didn't speak, by his silence and his sighs, I knew well
-enough that he was thinking all the deeper."
-
-"My poor Morley?" said Ethel, who heard all this with joyous tears in
-her eyes.
-
-As soon as they came on deck, Noah Gawthrop presented himself in his
-peculiar attire, the black dress-coat and crimson vest, and doffing
-his sou'-wester at the break of the quarter-deck, twitched his
-grizzled forelock, and beckoned Morley.
-
-"Mr. Ashton," said he, in a stage whisper, "wot's this I hear forward
-among that rum lot in the fok'stle?"
-
-"Really, Noah, I cannot say.  What have you heard?"
-
-"Why, sir, they says as your sweetheart, Miss Basset--she you were
-always raving about on the wreck--is aboard o' this here craft."
-
-"Yes, Noah, she is," replied Morley, laughing.
-
-"Is that dainty little 'un her?"
-
-"Which?"
-
-"She with the pork-pie hat, red stockings, and red cheeks, the
-jigamaree jacket, and crinnyline?" said Noah.
-
-"No; the taller lady."
-
-"Smite my timbers!  A regular-built stunner!  Wot a wonderful
-coinsiddins!--wot a cannondrum! as the player chaps say, when they go
-bouncing about to the fiddles and blue fire!"
-
-"It is destiny, Noah."
-
-"Jest wot they says too!  Well, I have given over sweethearting now;
-but I have shared my pay with many o' that sort o' ware in my time.
-The best of 'em all--here's her photograff done in gunpowder by the
-cook's mate of the _Haurora_, as we were a working out of the harbour
-of Odessa.  Many a mouthful of salt-water I've swallowed, and many a
-whistling Dick I've heard since that was done," said Noah, pointing
-to the tattooing visible on his breast when his check shirt was open.
-"But won't you introdooce me as an old shipmate?  'Mornin' marm,
-'mornin'," he added, sweeping the deck with his sou'-wester, as Ethel
-came frankly forward; "I'm one o' them as took Mr. Ashton off the
-cliffs, and sailed with him to Rio Janairey, in South 'Meriky, in the
-old _Princess_ as was."
-
-"Indeed--oh, I am most happy to see you, sir," replied Ethel.
-
-"Call me Noah, marm--Noah Gawthrop; I ain't used to being sir'd,"
-said he, smoothing down his gray hair.
-
-"Well, my good friend Noah," said Ethel, her eyes beaming, as she
-presented her little white hand to Gawthrop, who looked at his own
-hard palm, rubbed it well on his trousers as if to clean it, and then
-shook hers gently and kindly, not crushing it up as the tars do
-invariably in the play.
-
-"Such a dear old thing it is!" said Rose, laughing, as she observed
-this interview.
-
-"I've made a man of him for you, Miss Ethel--I knows your name, you
-see; one couldn't be long with Mr. Ashton, keeping watch and watch,
-without finding out that--but I have made a man of him for you, marm.
-He wasn't worth a tobacco-stopper at first; but I've taught him to
-becket a royal, and send it down, yard and all, in a stiff topgallant
-breeze, or a regular squall; to slush a mast from the truck-head
-downward; to haul out to leeward when on the yard-arm, and if that
-ain't summut towards making him a good husband for you, and one as
-will, through the voyage of life, keep a firm hand on your rudder,
-and trim you nicely by the starn, I don't know wot is."
-
-Noah's praises and rough congratulations were unintelligible to
-Ethel; but as they were calculated to excite laughter, and as some of
-his adjectives applicable to the "shark up aloft in the
-fore-cross-trees" were neither elegant nor euphonious, he was
-speedily sent forward by Tom Bartelot.
-
-Rose, perceiving that Ethel was deadly pale, for the events of the
-morning proved rather too much for her strength, took her below for a
-little time, by Mr. Basset's suggestion.  Morley affectionately, and
-tenderly handed her down the companion-stair--not a glance of his the
-while, not an emotion or movement being unnoticed by Hawkshaw, who,
-like a hawk, or rather like a tree-tiger robbed of his prey, was
-still perched alone in the fore-crosstrees.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XX.
-
-THE CORPSE-LICHT.
-
-As Morley turned away from the companion, he was confronted by his
-old friend Morrison, the mate of the defunct _Princess_.  The
-Scotsman's honest face was radiant with pleasure, and grasping
-Morley's hand, he congratulated him warmly on the sudden change that
-a few hours had made in all his plans and prospects.
-
-"No use in thinking of Tasmania now, or calculating the chances of
-finding a ship for the Isle of France, and all that, Mr. Ashton, eh?"
-said Morrison, laughing.
-
-"Thank Heaven, no," said Morley, as they descended the break of the
-quarter-deck, and went to windward, near the main-rigging; "so great
-has been the alteration in all our affairs, that I can scarcely
-believe I was the poor doomed wretch of a few hours ago.  Another
-night on that wreck would have seen us all dead men, Morrison."
-
-Then Morley thought how strange it would have been if the ship, with
-Ethel on board, had passed the wreck, on board of which he was lying
-dead, and there was no voice to inform them of his fate, and the
-terrible mystery involving it.
-
-"And you will be getting married now, Mr. Ashton," said Morrison,
-after a pause.
-
-"Married!" repeated Morley, with astonishment; "where--where--here
-upon the open sea?"
-
-"No; but when we are all landed at the Mauritius, where I shall have
-to look out for another ship, and, perhaps, may have to work my way
-home before the mast, for home to Scotland I must get somehow; and
-before the mast----"
-
-"You shall never go in that fashion, Morrison, if I can help it; but
-as for my being married to Miss Basset"--Morley felt his cheek flush
-and his heart flutter at the thought--"that is an event which is
-somewhat distant yet, and must be so, till fortune--the old
-story--smiles on me."
-
-"That I am sorry to hear," replied the Scotsman; "what says poor
-Robbie Burns, in one of the sweetest of his songs?--
-
-  "'Oh, why should Fate sic pleasure have,
-    Life's dearest bonds untwining?
-  And why sae sweet a flower as love
-    Depend on fortune's shining?'
-
-Well, Mr. Ashton, hap what may, though our path in life and our homes
-will aye be far apart, I'll never forget the days we have spent
-together; and miserable enough some of them have been latterly,"
-continued Morrison, who was a warm-hearted and impulsive fellow, and
-whose keen gray eyes grew moist as he spoke; "and so, as I said, hap
-what may, you shall always have the best wishes of poor Bill
-Morrison, though a sailor has seldom more to give, unless it be a
-quid from his tobacco-box, or a share of his grog on pay-day."
-
-"Fortune may go and hang herself," said Morley; "she has never
-favoured me till now."
-
-"Perhaps she thought such a good-looking fellow might be left to
-shift for himself," replied Morrison, laughing.  "I once heard the
-song I have just quoted sung by a girl, whose story was a very
-strange one.  She was separated from her lover by adverse
-circumstances, and though they never met again in life, they repose
-now in the same grave."
-
-"Another of your melancholy yarns, Bill?"
-
-"Well, it isn't lively.  Shall I tell it to you?"
-
-"Yes, please.  Miss Basset is still below."
-
-"I had entered on board the _Clyde_, a Greenock ship bound for
-Tasmania.  I was but a third mate then, and that post, you know, is
-only a trifle better than being before the mast.  She had several
-emigrants, and among them was a man named Udny, with his wife and a
-daughter whom I heard them call Hester.
-
-"There was with them a good-looking young fellow from the shore, a
-shepherd apparently, for he wore a checked tweed suit with a Border
-plaid, and a broad blue bonnet.  He was evidently not going the
-voyage; but he continued to hover about Hester Udny with a sad and
-dreary expression of face, and I could see that the girl's eyes were
-red and sore with weeping.
-
-"She was a bonnie, fair-haired Scotch lassie.  That the pair were
-lovers we could all see, and we knew that they were about to be
-separated for ever, perhaps, as her parents, poor and expatriated
-cotters, were going to find a new home in Tasmania.  The lad was
-poorer still, and had to remain behind in the old country.
-
-"My heart bled for them, and from time to time I could not restrain
-the inclination to observe them, as they sat, hand in hand, oblivious
-of the noisy throng about them, and the coarse jests of the
-cargo-puddlers, dock-porters, and especially of the sailors, each of
-whom volunteered to replace her sweetheart on the voyage.
-
-"Twilight came on as we began to cast off the warps, and were towed
-down the river by a tug-steamer, so quickly, that the lights of
-Greenock soon twinkled out amid the haze and smoke astern.
-
-"The sun had set, but the red flush of the departed day lingered
-brightly beyond the dark peaks of the Argyleshire mountains that look
-down on the Gairloch, the Holy Loch, so solemn and still, and many
-another place that I can see in memory yet, and that I often saw in
-dreams when we were floating on the wreck.
-
-"The lad was to go back, among a few other shore people, in the
-tug-steamer.  I heard the girl sobbing as if her heart would break
-when she heard the order given for them to quit the ship, as we were
-preparing to cast off the towline and loosening the topsails out of
-the bunt.  I was sent forward with a gang to cat and fish the best
-bower anchor, and hoist it over the bows on board.  When again I went
-aft, sail had been made on the ship; the tug-steamer had disappeared
-in the obscurity astern, and the sad girl was sitting alone, with her
-eyes fixed on the lights that glistened in the castle of Dumbarton.
-
-"We had been for some days at sea before the girl came on deck.  She
-looked pale, wan, and thin--worn almost to a shadow with mental
-suffering and sea-sickness; and the close atmosphere of a crowded
-steerage was as poison to one accustomed from infancy to the green
-lanes and wooded hills of Cydesdale.  All pitied her forlorn
-appearance, and even the roughest sailor did not jest with her now.
-
-"One evening she remained longer on deck than usual.  I had the
-wheel; the ship was running before the wind with topgallant-sails,
-lower and topmast stun'sails set.  The air was mild and the stars
-shone clearly and brightly amid amber to the westward and the blue in
-the zenith.
-
-"With her head muffled in a plaid, Hester Udny was seated near me;
-but I had my attention mostly fixed upon the binnacle.  There was
-silence fore and aft, and silence on the sea, when I heard the poor
-lassie singing to herself in a sweet, low voice, that song of Burns',
-and the notes became full of pathos fit the lines:
-
-  "'Oh why should Fate sic pleasure have,
-    Life's dearest bonds untwining?
-  And why sae sweet a flower as love
-    Depend on fortune's shining?'
-
-
-"Suddenly she uttered a cry, and springing to me, grasped my arm.
-Her plaid or shawl had fallen back, and her fine golden-coloured hair
-was all in disorder; her eyes, which were a deep blue, were
-unnaturally bright and dilated, and their gaze was fixed wildly upon
-a part of the deck just aft the mainmast.
-
-"'Sailor--sailor; oh, man, man, do you see that?' she asked, in tones
-of terror.
-
-"'What?' said I.
-
-"'A flame rising up through the deck, and growing higher every
-moment.'
-
-"'Flame?' I repeated; 'there is no flame.'
-
-"'Fire--it is not fire; it is the figure of a man--head, shoulders,
-arms, and hands--flame, all flame, pale blue, wavering, and
-indistinct!'
-
-"'Nonsense, lassie, you are demented,' said I.
-
-"'And you don't see it, sailor--you don't see it?' she continued,
-wildly.
-
-"'No, my poor lassie,' said I; 'your eyesight must deceive you.'
-
-"'Oh, heaven!' she shrieked, in a voice that brought all who were
-below tumbling up the hatches as if the ship were going down.  'Can I
-be going mad?  It is like the figure of my Willie!'
-
-"She fell senseless on the deck, and was carried below.
-
-"This alleged apparition caused great speculation, and, as we had
-several emigrants from the Western Highlands on board, no small
-degree of terror, so that part of the deck abaft the mainmast was
-always watched narrowly and suspiciously; but neither flame nor
-figure saw we, though Hester afterwards asserted that one of the
-watch, who heard her cry, and hastened to assist her, passed
-_through_ the figure, which wavered as he did so, but again resumed
-its luminous form.
-
-"A fortnight elapsed before she was brought on deck again; and I must
-own to being shocked at the change in her appearance.  Her keen blue
-eyes seemed unnaturally large and sunken, with dark rings round them,
-and her poor, thin, transparent hands trembled as she muffled her
-plaid or shawl over her head, when the watch on deck hastened to make
-a comfortable seat of old sails for her under the lee of the bulwark.
-
-"Fearing a repetition of what had occurred before, her father and
-mother insisted on taking her below when twilight approached; but,
-urged by some undefinable feeling or emotion, she lingered longer
-than she should have done.
-
-"We were now in latitudes where the sun sets quickly, the dusk comes
-on as rapidly, and heavily falls the dew.
-
-"Hester Udny, pale as a spectre, was soon observed to fix her eyes
-upon that portion of the deck abaft the mainmast where she had seen
-the apparition, with a wild, but steady and deliberate gaze, as if
-fascinated; and then, in faint and tremulous accents, she declared
-that the figure of flame was again visible, pale and luminous,
-sometimes turning from amber to blue, and becoming hazy; that beyond
-it, or through it, she could see the line of the ship's bulwark, and
-the shrouds of the mainmast, as if it was transparent.
-
-"To undeceive her, the captain passed and repassed the place, going
-each time, as she said, amid her cries, completely through the
-figure, unsinged, unhurt, and all unconscious that he was doing so.
-
-"She swooned, and was carried below again.
-
-"What added greatly to the strangeness of this phenomenon was the
-circumstance that some of the crew, when standing over the spot where
-the spectre was alleged to appear, were seized with giddiness,
-strange qualms, and even sickness, alike by day or night, and were
-ridiculed by those of a less nervous temperament, who never felt any
-such sensations, as 'green-horns' and 'fanciful lubbers.'
-
-"Hester Udny never came on deck again--alive, at least.
-
-"She remained in bed during the remainder of our voyage, evidently in
-a rapid decline, and on the day when we made the south-west cape of
-Van Diemen's Land--a high, bold, and rocky promontory--she expired.
-
-"We were soon within six miles of the land, and her parents begged so
-hard that they might be permitted to bury the poor girl ashore, that
-our skipper acceded to their request.  Assisted by the sailmaker,
-they wrapped her up in blankets, and her body was placed on a grating
-along the thwarts of the long-boat amidships, with a union-jack
-spread over it.  No other pall had we, nor could we have found a
-better for a heart so true as that poor lassie once possessed; and
-there she lay when we entered the mouth of the Derwent river, and
-worked against a head wind up D'Entrecasteaux's Channel.
-
-"I see that I am tiring you, Morley, with this long yarn; but Miss
-Basset is still below, and the strangest part is yet to come.
-
-"We got aground on the western side of the channel, but ran an anchor
-out, manned the capstan, and hove the ship off.  At half-past nine
-that night we came to anchor in thirty-fathom water, off Hobart Town,
-fired a gun, and furled our canvas, with the ensign at our gaff-peak
-half hoisted, to show that death had boarded us before the harpies of
-the custom-house.
-
-"By daybreak next day I was ordered with a gang to prepare for
-breaking bulk, and proceeded to unship the main-hatch prior to
-starting the cargo.
-
-"On removing a bale or two, and a few casks, how great was our horror
-to find, just abaft the mainmast, and under that portion of the deck
-where Hester Udny had twice seen the figure of flame--a figure
-perhaps always there, though invisible to us--the skeleton of a man,
-standing quite erect against the after-bulkhead!
-
-"He was dressed in a gray tweed suit, with a blue bonnet, surmounted
-by a red tuft, and a checked Border plaid was over his right
-shoulder.  All the flesh had dried upon his bones, so that his
-clothes hung loosely on him.  A few blackened shillings, and a mouldy
-letter or two, were found in his pockets, so we at once supposed
-that, being unable to pay his passage, the poor fellow had secreted
-himself in the hold, little knowing how the cargo would be screwed
-and stowed up to the beams, and how hermetically the hatches would be
-closed by battens, tarpaulins, and iron bands; and thus he had
-perished miserably, unheard, unseen, and unknown--perished of
-suffocation, and remained there until he dried into a veritable white
-mummy.
-
-"Our commiseration was greatly increased when we found that the
-mouldy green letters were written by Hester Udny, and in the poor
-stowaway her parents recognised her lover, Willie, the lad whom we
-had all seen hovering about her on the night we hauled out from
-Greenock to drop down the Clyde.
-
-"They were buried ashore, these two ill-starred and unfortunate
-lovers, in the burying-ground of the big brick church of Hobart Town,
-and the whole ship's company attended the funeral.  Jack's a rough
-fellow, Mr. Ashton, but I can assure you that, as we lowered their
-two plain black coffins into their deep grave, side by side, with a
-few fathoms of line, there was not a dry eye among us.
-
-"And some of the roughest patted the old father on the back, as he
-stood dreamily at the head of his daughter's grave, in that far
-foreign land--sae far frae the Hills o' Campsie, and wondering if it
-could a' be true, and that she was lying there, while tears streamed
-down his cheeks, and his white hair waved i' the wind under his auld
-blue bonnet."
-
-It was a peculiarity of Morrison's, that whenever he became
-interested, or perhaps more perfectly natural, he always slid into
-his old Scottish vernacular.
-
-"This is a sad story, Morrison; but the luminous figure which the
-girl saw--how the deuce do you account for that?  She was out of her
-mind, of course?"
-
-"Out of her mind! not at all!" responded the philosophical Scot; "she
-was of a delicate temperament, and in a highly nervous and sensitive
-state, thus she may or must have seen that which was invisible to us
-of a rougher texture--the gaseous light proceeding from the
-fermentation, putrescence, and decay of the body beneath the deck--in
-short, that which we call in Scotland a corpse-Kent." *
-
-
-* Concerning such appearances, see Baron von Reichenbach's work on
-the "Dynamics of Magnetism, Electricity," &c. &c., with notes
-thereto, by Dr. John Ashburner.
-
-
-But now to return to our own story.
-
-A long consultation ensued concerning what was to be done with
-Cramply Hawkshaw, and the conclusion come to was simply that he
-should be kept in the seclusion, or "Coventry," enjoined by Captain
-Phillips, till the vessel reached the Isle of France; and Morley gave
-a species of parole, that he would studiously avoid, nor seek in any
-way to punish him for the outrage he had formerly committed, or that
-which he had latterly attempted.
-
-So the first day of Morley's re-union with his friends passed merrily
-and happily away.
-
-In honour of the event, Mr. Basset had a case containing some of his
-favourite Marcobrumier and sparkling hock hoisted out of the
-store-room, and in the cabin that night the wine went round so
-freely, that Captain Phillips's merry eyes shone in his head, Tom
-Bartelot came out in his favourite drinking-song, and poor Mr. Quail,
-all unused to such beverages, when he went up to relieve the deck, at
-eight bells, saw two wheels and two steersmen, and the _Hermione_,
-tearing through the sea with six masts, and at least seven-and-twenty
-crossyards upon her.
-
-As it came on to blow about midnight, a reef was taken in the
-topsails, and forgetting the evil projects broached by his crew on
-this occasion Captain Phillips gave a double allowance of grog to the
-watch, with pots of hot coffee to those who preferred them--kindness
-thrown away, as it proved in the sequel.
-
-Now that our hero and heroine are safely re-united on board the very
-ship in which they were originally to have sailed together, the
-reader who is versed in novel-lore may suppose that nothing remains
-but for Mr. Basset to bestow his paternal benediction no them in the
-true fashion of the "heavy father," and for Hawkshaw, either at once
-to be forgiven, no promising to be a good boy for the future, or to
-receive condign punishment.
-
-But, unfortunately, our story is not fictitious, so it ends not here.
-
-Morley has escaped death, and is again seated by the side of Ethel
-Basset, gazing into her quiet, deep, and loving eyes as if he could
-do so for ever, and never, never weary, of course; but storms as yet
-unthought of, unheard and unseen, are ahead.
-
-The good ship _Hermione_ lies bravely to her course, now east and by
-north: but she carries with her the growing elements of discord,
-crime, and misery.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXI.
-
-OUT OF SCYLLA AND INTO CHARYBDIS.
-
-The little excitement consequent on discovering the piece of wreck,
-the rescue of those who were on it, and the speculation caused by the
-recent uproar in the night, and the exclusion of Hawkshaw from the
-cabin, soon passed over among the crew, who now began to consider
-that there were on board four more men to feed, to win over to the
-project of Pedro Barradas--a process which seemed doubtful--or to be
-got rid of, if the attempt to win them failed.
-
-The only one with whom they supposed there was a chance of success
-was Noah Gawthrop, or "Old Sticking-plaster," as they named him, from
-the patch on his nose; and hence Badger, and one or two others, were
-deputed to sound him on the subject; but the chief defect in their
-plans arose from a doubt of the ship's whereabouts, and whether
-Captain Phillips would haul up for Table Bay.
-
-Some were disposed to enlist Hawkshaw in their daring scheme, or at
-least to sound him, too, as a little homicide in no way injured a man
-in their estimation; while the misery of Hawkshaw's position on board
-might have made him ready to embrace any proposition that came short
-of jumping into the sea.
-
-Neglected, to all appearance forgotten--for who could sympathise with
-an assassin?--he had passed the whole of the first day without food
-in the fore-rigging.  Towards evening Quaco brought him a pot of hot
-coffee from the galley, which was a grateful beverage to his parched
-throat, and in the twilight he came down stiff, sore, and benumbed,
-and walked about amidships.
-
-There, Joe, the steward, came to say, that when he "wished to go
-below, his traps and berth were 'tween decks, where he would have
-full leisure to employ his mind in squaring the circle."
-
-At this jibe he clenched his hands to chastise Joe; but felt too much
-crushed to make even the attempt, and turned in silence away.
-
-On the second or third day after his expulsion from the cabin, when
-retiring to his place between decks--the same quarter in which the
-four hammocks had been hung--he encountered Miss Basset, and passed
-her so closely that he felt her skirts brush against him.
-
-Though dark and soft, Ethel's eyes were at times keen and piercing,
-for they possessed a wonderful power and beauty of expression--a
-beauty one may meet with perhaps but once in a lifetime.  As she
-passed Hawkshaw, she drew aside her skirt, as if to avoid contact,
-and hastily cast down her eyes, as if loath to humiliate him, while
-her breast heaved, and her cheek grew painfully pale; but in her
-eyes, as they flashed beneath their downcast lashes, Hawkshaw could
-see the horror, the loathing, and even terror with which his presence
-inspired her.
-
-More humbled than ever by this, though he could have expected nothing
-else, he slunk to his place of penance--his prison he deemed it, as
-he seldom left it--and casting himself upon the sea-chest, groaned
-aloud in rage, in bitterness, and agony of spirit.
-
-His food was brought to him by Quaco, the black cook; but his
-appetite was gone, so each meal was taken away almost untasted.
-
-"By golly, Massa Hawkshaw, you had better eat and keep strong," said
-Quaco, with a grin on his shining face.
-
-"Why--what the devil is it to you whether I eat or not, you black
-thief?" asked Hawkshaw, savagely.
-
-"Kindness, on'y kindness, massa--yaas, yaas," he replied, grinning
-more broadly than ever.
-
-"I want none, even from you."
-
-"Dat be bad--dat is; but, golly! don't you know what Pedro Barradas
-am up to?"
-
-"No."
-
-"He's agoin' to be massa capting."
-
-"What?"
-
-"He's agoin' to trim de ship by de starn, he is.  Jolly, ain't it!
-But there will be no loblolly boys allowed to skulk 'tween decks
-arter dat--by golly! no," and, grinning away like an ogre, with his
-yellow eyeballs gleaming, his white teeth and angular cheek-bones
-shining, Quaco retired with the greasy wooden mess-kid on which he
-had brought Hawkshaw some hot lobscouse.
-
-Quaco's words made his heart beat faster, and set him to think
-deeply, and with indescribable agitation.
-
-The proposed seizure of the ship was again upon the _tapis_.
-
-Should he acquaint Captain Phillips of it; but perhaps he knew of it
-already more fully, and was quite prepared.
-
-By his silence, Ethel might be destroyed; by speaking in time, she
-might be saved; but only saved for Morley Ashton.  Damning thought!
-The first impulse made him start to his feet, to summon Joe; the
-second made him sink back sullenly on the sea-chest again.
-
-To join those in the cabin was but to serve Morley Ashton and those
-who loathed him; to league with the mutineers, whom he dreaded, was
-but to sink deeper in disgrace and more hopelessly into crime.
-
-On shore, he would have gladly fled from them all; but in that
-floating prison, the _Hermione_, he had but one resource left--to
-join the crew--if he would save his own life.  He felt himself
-helplessly at the mercy of the Barradas; and, by joining them in the
-scuffle or conflict that must precede the capture of the ship, he
-might find a fair means of putting a period to Morley Ashton's
-existence, if some one else did not anticipate him.  Morley he hated
-with a tiger-like emotion--a mingled dread and aversion.
-
-For himself, he might yet have Ethel in his power.  Some very daring,
-dark, and incoherent thoughts flashed through his mind.  He might
-have her, in spite of Fate and Fortune, too; and afterwards, when
-once on shore, she would feel herself compelled to link her future
-life with his.
-
-The shore--any shore--oh, how he longed for it.
-
-He felt himself constrained to avoid the deck, save in the night, and
-thus to spend the entire day below.
-
-Secluded there like a felon, avoided like a reptile, he asked
-himself, was he really the man of yesterday or the day before?--the
-same Cramply Hawkshaw who had sat at table with the Bassets and
-officers of the ship, enjoying their society and companionship, as an
-equal and friend?
-
-Was the past, indeed, gone for ever?  He was on board the same ship
-(how he loathed and cursed every rope in her rigging, every plank in
-her hull); he still heard the same daily sounds on deck, the same
-voices from time to time, and more than once he had heard Rose
-Basset's ringing laugh; there was the same rush of water alongside;
-the same moaning of the wind aloft; the same bell clanging the half
-hours; all seemed unchanged but he alone!
-
-He could not bring back the perfect idea of himself, or what he was.
-
-How bitterly he felt, how impatiently he spurned the restraint
-imposed upon him in the circumscribed space of the ship, and longed
-for land, any land, as we have said--Africa, even Dahomey, were
-welcome--that he might escape and hide himself from all; but chiefly
-from the Bassets, before whom he had so successfully glozed over his
-secret life and real character by a network of lies, crimes, and
-cunning--a network which Morley's sudden appearance had torn aside.
-
-Right well he knew the light in which all viewed him now--a swindler,
-impostor, and worse.
-
-Unless it lingered in the emotions of envy and wounded self-esteem,
-his selfish passion for Ethel had quite evaporated, amid his shame
-and humiliation, or was almost merged in his vengeful hate of
-Morley--a sentiment rendered all the deeper by the wrongs already
-attempted without success.
-
-So there, between decks, in the scene of his last attempted crime, he
-sat and brooded darkly on the past, or scheming out the future; a
-trial he did not dread, even if the vessel reached the Isle of
-France, and Morley Ashton urged it by an appeal to the civil
-authorities.
-
-There would be but his bare accusation, without a single witness to
-support it, so a bare denial was all that was necessary, for well he
-knew that no human eye had seen that encounter by the verge of Acton
-Chine, in England.
-
-Then there was a memory of Ethel's loathing attitude and averted
-glance lingering like a barbed arrow in his heart.
-
-"Yes," said he, aloud, "I feel the time at hand when I may requite
-hate with deeper hate."
-
-"_Buenos noches, mi hombre de nada_," ("Good night, my rascal, or man
-of nothing") said a voice in his ear, and, starting from his reverie,
-he found himself confronted by the tall and muscular figure of Pedro
-Barradas.
-
-It was night now, and the candle flickered dimly in the lantern of
-perforated tin, which swung from a beam above, and its downward rays
-fell on the dark face and picturesque figure of the South American
-seaman, with his crisp locks and coal-black beard, his tawny ears, in
-each of which a silver ring was glittering, his loose shirt of dark
-blue woollen, open at his breast, on which a cross was tattooed, and
-girt at the waist by a Spanish scarlet sash, in which his Albacete
-knife was stuck.
-
-A fierce and malicious grin pervaded his sombre features--such a grin
-as one might imagine in the face of a laughing fiend--as he surveyed
-the crushed and miserable Hawkshaw, who, being quite unarmed, was not
-without emotions of terror and alarm.
-
-"You scurvy _ladrone_," said Pedro, grinding his strong white teeth,
-"when I remember that evening in the Barranca Secca, between Xalappa
-and the Puebla de Perote, and the use you made of your lasso, I
-wonder what devil prevents me from putting my knife into you."
-
-Hawkshaw started back, and glanced hopelessly about for a weapon.
-Pedro laughed hoarsely; but his merriment did not allay the alarm of
-Hawkshaw, who knew that such men as he could jest with their victim
-while the knife was piercing his heart.
-
-"So the air of the cabin has not agreed with you, eh?  Well, I
-daresay you have been worse lodged and fixed in Texas, where some of
-the huts are no better than a _retranche_; but I think you had better
-come forward and hitch in with us."
-
-Hawkshaw still glanced uneasily about him.
-
-"Demonio! why don't you speak, and be d----d to you?" roared Pedro,
-losing his patience, which was never at any time a very extensive
-commodity.  "Have you lost your lying tongue as well as your wits?"
-
-"No, Pedro Barradas, I have lost neither."
-
-"How long it is since I have heard my name on your tongue,
-_companero_; not since we were diggers together on the banks of the
-Feather River.  Speak out--_presto_!"
-
-"What do you want with me, or require of me?"
-
-"I am exceedingly anxious to ascertain something of which the crew
-have been kept in ignorance for some time past."
-
-"Something--from me?" asked Hawkshaw, with surprise.
-
-"Yes."
-
-"You mean the progress and working of the vessel?"
-
-"Precisely so; her whereabouts upon the sea."
-
-"How should I know?"
-
-"How you should or should not is nothing to me; but, _presto_, no
-equivocation," said Pedro, placing his right hand on the haft of his
-knife.
-
-"Then, for the soul of me, I cannot tell you," replied Hawkshaw, with
-great earnestness.
-
-"You must have heard it mentioned, casually or otherwise, in the
-cabin.  The latitude and longitude, I mean."
-
-"If so, may I die if I can remember them now."
-
-Pedro's eyes began to gleam dangerously; but he changed his tactics,
-and asked:
-
-"What does the captain mean to do with you?"
-
-"Do with me?" stammered Hawkshaw.
-
-"Yes, _santos_!  I spoke plain enough."
-
-"But I do not understand," said Hawkshaw, evasively.
-
-"Must I speak more plainly?"
-
-"If you please."
-
-"How cursedly polite we are," sneered Pedro.  "Well, most illustrious
-Senor Caballero, does he mean to maroon you, or hang you?"
-
-"Neither; and in either case it is not probable he would consult you."
-
-"Well, _companero_, perhaps he will land you at El Cabo de Bueno
-Esparanza?" said Pedro, with more suavity.
-
-"We are not to touch at the Cape," was the unwary reply.
-
-"Not to touch at the Cape?" repeated Pedro, so loudly that he might
-have been heard in the cabin.
-
-"No."
-
-"Why."
-
-"Simply because I have been given to understand that we are past it."
-
-"_Por vida del demonio_!  Past it, say you?" exclaimed Pedro, as if
-communing with himself.
-
-"One thing, at least, is certain.  We are not, I am sorry to say, to
-touch at the Cape."
-
-"And who told you this?"
-
-"The captain himself."
-
-Pedro uttered a tremendous Spanish oath, expressive of extreme
-astonishment and satisfaction.
-
-"So--so this cunning old Englander has been keeping us all in the
-dark as to where we are?"
-
-"Exactly."
-
-"But wherefore?"
-
-"That I cannot say," said Hawkshaw, evasively.
-
-"_Morte de Dios_! does he suspect?--does he smell at a rat!"
-exclaimed the Spaniard, with a sudden rage; but Hawkshaw remained
-silent.  "We must be somewhere off the coast of La Tierra de Natal,
-and if so, by the ship's steering to-day, the mouth of the Mozambique
-Channel should be upon our weather-bow; yet how far distant, none but
-the captain and his mates can say," continued Pedro, as if in
-communion with himself; but he was wrong in his supposition, for the
-ship, at the time he spoke, was about a hundred miles to the
-southward of Algoa Bay, which opens between Cape Recife and Cape
-Padrone in southern Africa.
-
-"Listen to me," said Pedro, suddenly, with a savage glare in his
-black eyes, a low and husky tone in his deep, sonorous voice, his
-right hand on the haft of his knife, and his left planted on
-Hawkshaw's shoulder with the grasp of a vice.  "We mean to take this
-ship, and run her on our own account; but as four new hands have been
-added to the officers, will you join us?  It is a fair offer--your
-only chance of vengeance, too: for, ashore, you will not be worth a
-rotten castano."
-
-"Well--well--I am with you," said Hawkshaw, in a low and husky voice.
-
-"_Bueno!_ we should fight for the ship whether you were with us or
-not.  Your hand on it, mate!  But first, what terms do you want?"
-
-"My life, in the first place, to be respected by all, and to be set
-ashore on the first land we see, as I am not a seaman."
-
-"The _first_ land may be a sea-weedy rock, at the mouth of the
-Mozambique," said Pedro, with a diabolical grin, as it suggested a
-new idea of cruelty.  "Your share of plunder?"
-
-"I seek no plunder.  I seek but revenge and liberty."
-
-"Your hand, then; and let us forget all about the Barranca Secca."
-
-Pedro grasped in his strong, hard hand the shrinking fingers of
-Hawkshaw, thinking the while;
-
-"This ship once ours, I shall soon make short work of it with _you_,
-my fine fellow!"  Grinding his teeth, he added aloud, "If you betray
-us, woe to you."
-
-"I am pledged," said Hawkshaw, in a voice like a groan.
-
-"The cargo is valuable, so we shall go in for a good stroke of
-business together."
-
-"When--when do you make the attempt?"
-
-"To-morrow night, or the next, at latest."
-
-"I shall be ready."
-
-"Then to-morrow evening at four bells, in the second dog-watch, be in
-the forecastle bunks, and you will learn all.  Till then, companero,
-be silent, and _remember_!"
-
-With another significant touch of his knife-handle, Pedro retired,
-leaving Hawkshaw in a very unenviable state of mind.  As a bold and
-reckless ruffian, the Spanish American valued him little as an ally;
-but the chief object of his visit had been attained--information that
-the ship, instead of being hauled up for Table Bay, was _past_ it.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXII.
-
-FOUR BELLS IN THE DOG-WATCH.
-
-All the next day there blew a gale, and Captain Phillips, anxious to
-make the most of it, as the wind was fair, squared his yards, with
-all that he dared to spread upon them.  So sharp was the aforesaid
-gale, that on a taut bowline, no vessel could have shown more than a
-single sail, perhaps; but the _Hermione_ tore on before the hurrying
-blast, with her fore and main courses bellying out before it, and her
-three topsails set with a single reef in each.
-
-Ere long, Captain Phillips was heard to shout:
-
-"Away aloft, men--shake the reefs out of the topsails--masthead the
-yards."
-
-Cheerfully enough the watch sprang aloft and obeyed the order.  And
-now the foam flew in white sheets over her sharp bows, rolling aft to
-the break of the quarter-deck, from whence it surged forward again,
-and gurgled through the scuppers on each side alternately.
-
-Astern a tremendous sea kept rolling after her, for waves and wind
-and all were with her now, and she sped before them at the rate of
-eleven knots an hour; thus it required all the strength of Pedro
-Barradas and of Noah Gawthrop, who volunteered for it, to hold the
-wheel, and steer her steadily.
-
-Inspirited by the speed with which his brave ship tore along through
-foam and spray, Captain Phillips walked briskly to and fro, with his
-hands thrust into the pockets of his glazed storm-jacket, a
-gutta-percha speaking-trumpet under one arm, and his jolly red face
-shining with pleasure and drops of spray, as he glanced alternately
-aloft, over the quarter, or at Mr. Quail, who smiled approvingly.
-
-"Hurrah, old ship!" said he; "now she goes through it! now she walks
-along with a will.  She smells the Mauritius already, I think."
-
-"The Bird Islands, or the Mozambique, more likely," muttered Pedro to
-Noah.
-
-"What the devil have we to do with either one or the other?" asked
-Noah, with sulky suspicion.
-
-"There she goes!" continued the captain; "and on she shall crack as
-long as her sticks hold together.  Mr. Quail, get preventer-braces
-reeved; ship tackles on the backstays, haul all taut, and belay."
-
-All day the gale held on thus, and about nightfall, when it began to
-abate into a steady breeze, in which the swinging booms of the lower
-studding-sails dipped at times like birds' wings in the brine, the
-_Hermione_ must have run more than 120 miles, and she was about that
-distance off the most southern portion of the coast of Natal.
-
-How often had Captain Phillips and Mr. Basset wished to be fairly
-round the Cape of Good Hope--to have doubled it, though it was far
-away from dear old England; yet it was a necessary feature or point
-to be achieved in the voyage.  They were fairly round the great Cape
-of Storms now, and the vessel's course was east and northerly, with a
-calm sea and a fair wind.
-
-Every one should have been in the highest spirits; but, save Ethel
-and Rose, Morley and his three companions, all were cloudy, anxious,
-and dull; for Captain Phillips, his officers, and Mr. Basset felt
-themselves still menaced by secret dangers.
-
-During the most of this day Morley had remained below with Ethel.
-Rose was working beads on a cigar-case for the doctor, and Tom
-Bartelot, with Morrison, remained by choice on deck.
-
-"Now that we can be of service, Captain Phillips," said Tom, "we must
-be allowed to take our turn of duty.  I know that sick folks are soon
-deemed little better than skulkers aboard ship."
-
-"How so?"
-
-"When one has to take a fellow's trick at the helm, another his
-look-out aloft, or out upon the booms, a third his watch, and a
-fourth something else, they soon weary of him."
-
-"True," replied Captain Phillips, in a low voice, as they drew near
-the break of the deck, and beyond ear-shot of that tall son of
-Columbia, Mr. William Badger, who was at the wheel, with his very
-long legs, half-cased in very short trousers, placed very far apart;
-"but your arrival on board, if a lucky circumstance for you all, has
-been rather a godsend to me."
-
-"Indeed!  How?  The ship doesn't look short-handed."
-
-"Ah! here comes Mr. Ashton; and please call your mate here.  I have
-something to say to you all."
-
-Tom beckoned Morrison, who had been busy coiling and belaying some of
-the running rigging, for the crew had become exceedingly untidy and
-neglectful.
-
-Badger's keen eyes peered from under his beetling brows, as if he
-strove to see, what he could not overhear, the conversation that
-ensued, when Captain Phillips detailed the secret state of his crew,
-and the daring project which the doctor had heard so freely canvassed
-in the forecastle.
-
-Bartelot and Morrison heard the honest captain's narrative with
-astonishment and indignation, but Morley with a terror and agony very
-much akin to Mr. Basset's, under the same circumstances.
-
-"In such a state of matters, why did you not haul up for Table Bay,
-where some ships of war are sure to be?" asked Bartelot.
-
-"Such was my intention; but the same hurricane that destroyed your
-ship drove mine too far to the southward.  That circumstance made us
-the means of saving you; but I lost thereby a chance of thinning out,
-or altogether dispersing the crew, and shipping another."
-
-"Aye, aye," observed Morrison; "what between crews of Lascars and
-coloured men, Chinese junks and piratical Bornese boats, there are
-many craft disappear in these seas, and at Lloyd's the typhoons are
-held responsible for all."
-
-"If that fellow who is at the wheel, and two who are named Barradas,
-were quietly overboard, I could manage the rest, I think."
-
-"Barradas! are they Spaniards?" asked Tom.
-
-"Spanish South Americans--two of that bad lot who are so often to be
-seen loafing about the Liverpool docks."
-
-"Troublesome hands always."
-
-"And these two are among the worst--the very worst.  They were chums
-of that fellow Hawkshaw in Texas and Mexico, at the gold diggings,
-and elsewhere, it would appear.  They are two brothers, named Pedro
-and Zuares--at heart, pirates both."
-
-"Barradas!" said Morley, striving to remember; "that name seems
-familiar to me."
-
-"Have you forgotten the name of the old hermit--the 'darvish,' as
-Noah called him--whom we buried on the island, and whose papers I
-read to you?" asked Morrison.
-
-"Don Pedro Zuares de Barradas," said Bartelot.
-
-"I remember now.  I have his Spanish cross below," said Morley.
-"Good Heavens! if these should be his sons!  The names are the same.
-How singular!"
-
-"And they were comrades of Hawkshaw, you say, Captain Phillips?"
-
-"Comrades, or shipmates, or something--nothing good, you may be
-assured."
-
-And now Morley, just as Dr. Heriot joined them, recalled Hawkshaw's
-strange story of how the one named Zuares committed--unwittingly,
-however--the awful crime of matricide, in the Barranca Secca--that
-savage story which he related on a summer evening in Acton Chase, to
-the Bassets and Pages; and now, by a strange fatality, their lot was
-all cast together within the narrow compass of a single ship, upon
-the wide and lonely sea.
-
-"These are most calamitous tidings," said Morley, in a low and
-troubled voice, as he passed his arm through Heriot's, and drew him
-aside; "love, they say, laughs at danger; but here, Dr. Heriot, love
-may weep," he added, almost with a groan.
-
-"Hang it, man, call me Heriot--Leslie Heriot, or whatever you like;
-but drop the doctor, it sounds so precious stiff, especially
-when--when we both love these two girls."
-
-"Well," said Morley, who, as an Englishman, had his local or national
-prejudices, but meant to be complimentary, "for a Scotchman, you are
-a nice fellow, Heriot; but--but Ethel and Rose, what are we to do
-now?"
-
-"Fight to the last gasp for them, that is all," replied Heriot,
-stoutly.
-
-While they were conversing thus, Noah Gawthrop approached Captain
-Bartelot, and, in his own fashion, began to state that he had heard
-some strange hints dropped by the watch at night, by others that
-lounged about the windlass-bitts and forecastle; that some of the
-crew had been whetting their knives on the carpenter's grindstone,
-that all were on the alert, and were, he added, "sartainly up to
-summut that looked like squalls, or mischief."
-
-As an old man-o'-war's man, Noah knew well how unpleasant was the
-reputation of being a tale-bearer, and that, if it was bad ashore, it
-was deemed ten times worse at sea; but in the _Aurora_ he had
-acquired certain ideas of discipline which had never left him, so he
-considered that he was only doing his duty in this matter.
-
-"What do you mean to do, your honour?" he asked of Captain Phillips,
-in a husky whisper.
-
-Phillips gave him a grim smile, and showed the butt of a revolver in
-his breast-pocket.
-
-"Oh, the poor girls below," said Morley.
-
-"I have perilled my life many times, young gentleman," said
-Phillips--"many times on land, but oftener still on the great highway
-of waters, and, though scared a bit, I ain't going to be frightened
-now; and, believe me, my ship shall not be taken without a scrimmage.
-Let these mutinous curs come on and do their worst, I'm ready for
-them--life for life, and man to man."
-
-"Hooray, and the _Haurora_ for ever.  Beat to quarters--them's my
-sentiments," said Noah, with a voice so loud that long Badger, at the
-wheel, craned his scraggy neck to listen, and opened his eyes and
-ears very wide indeed.  "D----n their limbs!  I hopes to see 'em all
-with their ears nailed to the mainmast, and here's the fist as will
-handle the hammer and nails."
-
-As he made this unwise exclamation, he stepped aft, to relieve Badger
-at the wheel, and that ungainly personage, avoiding the group who
-were at the gangway, passed forward to the forecastle, where he at
-once informed his colleagues that he "rayther reckoned that old
-man-o'-war shark had blowed the whole affair upon them."
-
-Deeply-muttered oaths and vows of vengeance on poor old Noah were the
-immediate result.
-
-"_Por mi honor!_" exclaimed Pedro, who was polishing the blade of his
-knife on the sole of his shoe; "so, so, this is what old
-sticking-plaster is up to--eh?"
-
-"In course, my Spanish gamecock."
-
-"_El espio y picaro!_ (spy and scoundrel)," said Pedro, grinding his
-teeth.
-
-"The old corksucker!" growled the rest, using in this the most
-opprobrious epithet known at sea.
-
-"He's a old man-o'-war's man, and, I reckon, has got notions o'
-discipline, doffing his hat to the quarter-deck, and other darned
-nonsense whipped into him, nigger fashion, by the boatswain's cat.
-To try gettin' over such fellows is summut like reefing of a
-stun'sail, or anythin' else that's next to useless."
-
-Having delivered himself of this aphorism, Badger proceeded to "darn"
-sundry parts of Noah's person, such as his eyes and limbs, and by the
-unanimous vote of all he was consigned to very warm latitudes indeed.
-
-Amid this, the ship's bell struck.  It was the appointed time--four
-bells in the second dog-watch--and then, pale as a spectre, or
-looking like an evil spirit whom the sound had summoned--Cramply
-Hawkshaw descended through the scuttle into the little apartment, or
-fore-cabin, a close and squalid den, where his appearance was greeted
-with shouts of ironical welcome and applause, in which the watch on
-deck joined.
-
-We have already detailed a scene in this unpleasant quarter of the
-ship; but have little desire to rehearse another, and so shall be
-brief.
-
-With a mocking grimace on his moustached lip, and a ferocious gleam
-in his wild black eyes, Pedro presented Hawkshaw to the crew as a new
-_companero amigo_--associate and friend.
-
-"Hitch in, mates--make room for the capting," said Badger, drawing in
-his long, lean, and misshapen legs.  "So having 'ad a spell in limbo
-aft, you're bound for the bunks forward, eh?  Come, Pedro, prodooce
-the dev'l's bones--let him have a shy with the ivories.  I reckon
-he's got an eye on the gals aft, as well as ourselves; and I say,
-capting--Jeerusalem! ain't the black eyes o' that oldest gal regular
-Broadway shiners!"
-
-In his misery and rage, Hawkshaw had slunk forward, and joined the
-crew with two ideas uppermost in his mind: that he would yet revenge
-himself on Morley Ashton, and might also have the haughty Ethel at
-his mercy--that she yet might be his, and his only, despite fate,
-fortune, and friends, and despite her own aversion for him.
-
-But when he found himself among this crew of desperadoes, whose
-obscene lips bandied about the names of those so pure and gentle,
-fair and tender, as Ethel and Rose Basset, the old times of Laurel
-Lodge came to memory, and though bad, hardened, and desperate,
-Hawkshaw felt his soul die within him.
-
-But it was too late for receding now!
-
-Criminal though he was, to find himself the chosen comrade and
-companion of these wretches, filled up the full measure of his
-misery; but no sympathy can be wasted on him, when we remember the
-crimes of which he had been guilty, and the keen suffering he had
-caused to Ethel, to Morley, and to others.
-
-In mockery, and in a pretended spirit of good fellowship, Pedro's
-loaded _dados_ were produced from his sea-chest, and they proceeded
-again to cast lots for wives among the women in the cabin, amid roars
-of laughter, cheers, and other noises, while, to enhance the general
-din, Mr. Badger smashed the mess-beef kid, dashed the butter gallipot
-to pieces, and danced a hornpipe on the tin bread-barge.
-
-This noisy laughter was heard distinctly in the cabin.
-
-"Surely that sounds jolly and well," said Tom Bartelot, as the party
-from the deck entered it; "fellows who laugh so loudly cannot mean
-much mischief."
-
-"Ah, you don't know them," said Captain Phillips, in a low voice.
-
-"Mischief?" said Ethel, looking up inquiringly.
-
-"What, is it possible that you don't know?" Morley was beginning,
-when Mr. Basset placed a finger on his lip warningly.
-
-Those extremely hilarious sounds in the forepart of the ship were
-simply caused by the lots for sweethearts or wives being cast anew.
-
-Ethel had fallen to Pedro Barradas, thanks to his
-peculiarly-constructed dice; Rose fell to the share of Bill Badger;
-and Nance Folgate, the old nurse, to Hawkshaw; and hence the yells
-and screams of laughter that ascended from the fore-scuttle, and rang
-upon the still and starlight night.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXIII.
-
-THE CRISIS AT LAST.
-
-On the morrow, a gale like that we have described carried the ship
-still farther on her course; but again, towards evening, the sea and
-wind went down together, and a calm and lovely night stole over the
-world of waters.
-
-Morley had intended to speak to the two Barradas about what he
-suspected--his knowledge of their secret history.  Had he found an
-opportunity for doing so, much evil would, perhaps, have been
-averted, as he might have exercised a little influence over them; but
-one time they were aloft in the rigging, at another, tarring down the
-backstays, clapping on chafing gear, or otherwise occupied most of
-the day, as they now began to feel a _personal interest_ in the ship;
-so no opportunity occurred, and the fatal evening of the intended
-mutiny crept on.
-
-And, notwithstanding that he was a quiet and peaceable man, and
-possessed of much of the caution usually attributed to his
-countrymen, matters were precipitately brought to a crisis by
-Morrison, Tom Bartelot's Scotch mate, as we shall soon have occasion
-to show.
-
-On this night our old friend was at the wheel, as a volunteer; and,
-as the atmosphere was singularly calm, Morley and Ethel, Rose and
-Heriot, were on deck, sometimes seated in pairs, conversing in low
-and confidential tones, or promenading, arm-in-arm, between the break
-of the deck and the taffrail.
-
-Mr. Basset and the captain were smoking near the companion-hatch, Mr.
-Quail had turned in below, and the second mate, Foster, had charge of
-the ship, whose lofty spread of snow-white canvas shimmered with a
-weird effect in the light of the rising moon, which heaved up at the
-horizon, the size of three European moons--sublime and vast--to shed
-a blaze of silver radiance far across the sea.
-
-Noah's hints had already made Captain Phillips take in his
-studding-sails and royals, so the ship was now running snugly and
-easily, under the fore and main-course, topgallant-sails, jib and
-spanker.
-
-Ethel sat silently, with her hands clasped on Morley's left arm, for
-the moonlight on the water, the stars above, and his familiar voice,
-made her think of home, and the beautiful garden at Laurel Lodge,
-with its ribbon-borders of pinks, mignonette, and scarlet geraniums;
-its roseries, its gigantic sweet peas, her sister's boasted azaleas,
-which Hawkshaw had ridiculed in an evil hour; its avenues of laurels
-and stately old sycamores.
-
-She now drew forth her mother's miniature, which she wore in her
-breast, at the end of a slender gold chain.  It had been taken in
-that dear mother's youth, when she closely resembled Ethel herself.
-
-Who that surveyed that soft, bright, smiling face, could realise the
-idea that it was the image of one who had long been dead, and had
-passed away.
-
-So, as Ethel gazed upon it, her mother's figure, expression of face,
-and tone of voice, the embodiment of that gentle friend and loving
-mentor, all a mother should be, "the best and most beautiful of
-earth's creatures," rose to memory, strangely mingled with
-recollections of her death and of her funeral, on a sunny day, in
-peaceful Acton churchyard, while the familiar bell tolled solemnly in
-the old grey Norman tower, and when the turf looked so green, the
-fresh earth so brown, and that awful and mysterious grave, as it
-yawned beneath the old yew tree, so deep, so terrible!
-
-Then there was the reverend rector, her father's dearest friend,
-reading the beautiful and impressive service for the faithful
-departed, while his voice faltered and his eyes glistened.  It was
-the last day of an English autumn, when the leaves of the tall oaks
-in the Chase, and the foliage of every coppice, were brown and crisp,
-and when all the world seemed hushed and still; when even the village
-urchins who clambered on the churchyard wall were mute, and sat
-uncovered, and no sound stirred the air but the rector's voice, and
-the solemn bell that boomed in the time-worn tower, and shook its ivy
-leaves.
-
-So all that sad and mournful day came vividly back and unbidden to
-memory now.
-
-"Mamma, dear, dear mamma! she did so love you, Morley!" said Ethel,
-as she closed the miniature, and placed it tenderly in her bosom.
-
-Inspired by livelier thoughts on the other side of the quarter-deck,
-merry Rose Basset and the doctor were leaning over the bulwarks, and
-watching the luminous animacula that gleamed in the passing waves.
-
-In the second chapter of our history, we have related how Mr. Basset
-had considered the early engagement between Morley Ashton and Ethel
-the mere fancy of a boy and girl--a fancy which separation, or the
-spirit of change, might cause to wear away and be forgotten.
-
-But now, by his most providential restoration, by the strength of
-their mutual regard, by what the poor fellow had undergone; by what
-Ethel, too, had suffered, and, more than all, by the necessity for
-securing her future happiness, he felt himself bound to do the utmost
-in his power to advance Morley's interests, when they all reached
-their new home in the Mauritius, and a reiterated promise to this
-effect had made the young pair supremely happy.
-
-Rose and the doctor were the next consideration; what was to be done
-with them?
-
-The excitement consequent to recent events; the expected outbreak
-among the crew; the discovery of the wreck, its occupants, and their
-story, together with Hawkshaw's villainy, had so fully occupied the
-attention of all on board, that Heriot had scarcely found an
-opportunity for broaching a matter, which Captain Phillips's jokes
-had quite prepared our friend, the judge, to have laid before him,
-for his earnest consideration and kindly sympathy--neither of which
-he had quite made up his mind to accord; but Rose had always flirted
-with some one; and when two favourable occasions came to pass, Heriot
-was dissuaded by her thoughtlessly saying:
-
-"Now, don't bother yet, my dear old darling Leslie," for this was her
-unromantic style ("a jolly one," the doctor thought it) of addressing
-him.
-
-Mr. Basset would have been blind indeed, had he not seen the growing
-intimacy which existed between them; but he had no idea that matters
-had proceeded the length of interchanged promises.  Neither did he
-observe the ring which Rose now wore on her engaged-finger--to wit
-(for the information of the uninitiated), the third of the right
-hand; and to use a hackneyed phrase, "as fairy" a finger as ever
-rejoiced in that pleasant decoration, for among Rose's chief beauties
-were her hands, plump, white, and tiny.
-
-Recent events, we have said, prevented explanations, or any account
-of what the doctor's prospects were.
-
-"Not much, they are, certainly, dear, dear Rose," whispered Heriot,
-as they sat together in the moonlight, while the ship still sped
-before the wind, with all the reefs out of her topsails.  "I have,
-one way and another, but 100_l._ a year at present.  Had I more, I
-would have sought out a snug practice at home, and not roved about as
-the surgeon of a sea-going merchantman."
-
-"Then you would not have met me, sir," said Rose, with waggish
-asperity.
-
-"But I have an uncle, a jolly old fellow, who loves me well, for my
-mother was his only sister; and he loves me for that, perhaps, rather
-than any merits of my own."
-
-"My poor modest Leslie! well--and this uncle?"
-
-"When he dies--distant may the day be when he does so!--I shall come
-into 400_l._ per annum more.  If at the Isle of France, I could
-battle the watch----"
-
-"Battle what?"
-
-"Oh, it is an old college phrase; I mean, fight my way into a
-practice somehow.  With you to cheer me on, we should do very well.
-Then, an M.D., to get a practice, must have a wife."
-
-"Why?"
-
-"What is the difference between a doctor and a student?  'There is
-but a degree between them,' says some one; but until the student has
-the magical letters M.D. added to his name, he is nothing, and even
-then he will never get the _passepartout_ to private houses, unless
-he has a wife; and where could I find one dearer, sweeter, more
-playful and joyous, more charming than----"
-
-"Me, you would say?"
-
-"Yes."
-
-Then here, as no one was looking, there followed a sound which made
-honest Morrison, who was at the wheel, "prick up his ears," and laugh
-quietly to himself in the moonlight.
-
-A ship, of course, does not offer the lover-like facilities of shady
-lanes, green thickets, rosy bowers, or flowery garden walks; but it
-produces a thousand occasions for polite attention, amidst its
-rolling, tumbling, and pitching about, its extreme discomfort and
-peculiarity, which are not given by the solid and immovable earth,
-and which the fair dwellers thereon do not require; but it is,
-nevertheless, a very awkward place for indulging in little bits of
-osculation--a phrase for which I refer my fair reader to her
-dictionary, if she knows it not.
-
-All as yet was quiet in the _Hermione_.
-
-The embers of discord were still smouldering amid the crew, and the
-brave ship flew steadily over the shiny waters of the moonlit sea,
-her ghostly shadow falling far across them.
-
-Inspired by the calm and beauty of the night, Morrison, as he leaned
-thoughtfully over the wheel, his left hand grasping an upper spoke,
-and his right hand a lower one, thinking, perhaps, of his present
-shattered prospects, without ship or funds, his distant home, and his
-mother's cottage by the Dee, was singing to himself in a low and
-plaintive voice.
-
-Ethel looked up and listened, though she scarcely knew the language
-in which he sang--a portion of a sweet little song (by some local
-poet), and which he recalled, as we do now, from memory, though
-perhaps he may have heard it from his mother, to whom this brave and
-honest fellow was attached, with a devotion that was almost childish.
-
-  "The tear dims my e'e
-    As I look to heaven hie,
-    And sigh to be free
-  Frae want and frae wae;
-    But I dinna see the road,
-    For between me and my God
-    A darkness has come doon,
-  Like the mist on the brae.
-
-  "The nicht is wearin' past,
-    The mist is fleein' fast,
-    And heaven is bricht at last
-  To the closin' e'e;
-    In the hollow o' the hill,
-    The weary feet are still,
-    And the weary heart is hame
-  To its ain countrie."
-
-
-At that moment the ship's bell clanged.
-
-"Stand by to heave the log--relieve the wheel," cried Mr. Foster.
-
-After considerable delay Badger, the Yankee, came slowly shambling
-aft, to "take his trick" at the helm, and at the same time the whole
-crew came scrambling noisily up the fore-scuttle, where the watch on
-deck joined them, and they gathered in a group about the
-windlass-bitts.
-
-Captain Phillips, Mr. Basset, and Tom Bartelot, exchanged glances of
-intelligence and inquiry, while the second named, inspired by some
-miserable foreboding, grew deadly pale.
-
-"You have not hurried yourself, mate," said Morrison.
-
-"No; didn't intend to, I reckon," drawled the Yankee, in his nasal
-twang.
-
-"Why did you not come aft the moment the bell struck?"
-
-"Now, stranger," said Badger, in a tone of mock expostulation, "d'ye
-wish your few brains blowed out with the cook's bellows, or not, that
-you asks questions or gives orders here?"
-
-"Take the wheel, and take it in silence," said Morrison, haughtily
-and sternly; for, although no mate on board the _Hermione_, he still
-felt the habit of authority strong within him.
-
-"I knowed a man at Cape Cod, in the state of Massachusetts,"
-continued Badger, still delaying, and speaking slowly through his
-long nose; "a Scotchman he was, Mr. Morrison, and the very moral o'
-you, with a hook nose and chin, that 'ad hold a ginger-nut between
-'em, who fed sea-gulls with iron filings, and sold their wings for
-steel pens.  A 'cute crittur!  But, as I said, he was called a
-Scotchman, though I calc'lates he was a Yankee Jew of Hirish
-parentage."
-
-"If you don't take the wheel, I'll show you the foretop with a
-vengeance, my fine fellow," said Morrison, who could stand anything
-but sneers at his country.
-
-"You're riled a bit, you air, and your monkey's getting up.  You've
-been too well fed, mate," drawled Badger.  "I reckons that at home,
-in your own little clearin' of a country, you fed upon fir shavings
-and cold water.  As for decent junk, reg'lar old hoss, and plum-duff,
-I calc'late you never heerd on 'em afore.  Now, in this here craft,
-as the junk's atrowcious, so that even an 'ungry Scotchman or a blue
-shark wouldn't look at it, we mean to have a blow-out to-night in the
-cabin, and on the best in the steward's locker too."
-
-At that moment Mr. Foster, who, with Joe, had been heaving the
-log-line, on hearing words, came aft, and took the wheel from the
-hands of Morrison, who was trembling with suppressed passion.
-
-"Go forward, you rascally carrion," said the Scotchman, "or, by the
-heavens above us, I soon will make blue sharks' meat of you."
-
-Badger drew his knife, which gleamed in the moonlight, but at the
-same instant he was laid sprawling on the deck by a blow from the
-butt-end of a revolver with which Captain Phillips had armed
-Morrison, and which the latter swung at the full length of his arm
-and with no unsparing hand.
-
-The cry of rage uttered by Badger was answered by a yell from the
-forecastle, and all the crew came rushing aft, armed with knives,
-capstan-bars, and some with pistols, which they had hitherto secreted
-in their sea-chests.
-
-"Below, ladies, below--into the cabin, and barricade the door; quick,
-quick!" cried Captain Phillips, as Ethel and Rose, to their
-astonishment and terror, were hurried, almost thrust down, the
-companion-stair.
-
-Then several pistol-shots were exchanged, and a furious struggle
-instantly took place on deck.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXIV.
-
-HOW THE SHIP BROACHED TO.
-
-At the time of this outbreak the _Hermione_ was, as we have stated,
-somewhere about 100 miles off the mouth of Algoa Bay, and not, as
-Pedro had calculated, near the entrance of the Mozambique Channel.
-
-Hurried, actually thrust into the cabin by the hands of Morley
-Ashton, Dr. Heriot, and others, Ethel and Rose Basset's terror and
-astonishment may be imagined; and greatly were these emotions
-increased by the sounds they heard on deck--the sudden uproar, the
-stamping of feet, as of men engaged in a deadly struggle, the oaths,
-imprecations, and occasional discharge of pistols.
-
-If Captain Phillips and his friends were disagreeably surprised to
-find that the crew possessed some four or five old ship pistols,
-which they had hitherto kept secretly in their sea-chests, they, on
-the other hand, were much more disappointed on discovering that the
-officers and passengers were fully prepared for them--alike
-forewarned and forearmed; and the sudden appearance of their pistols
-and revolvers, as shot after shot flashed from them in the clear
-tropical moonlight, baffled the first rush aft of Pedro and his
-brother, for most of the crew, following Hawkshaw's prudent example,
-suddenly retreated to the forecastle, their own peculiar region and
-quarters.
-
-A ball from Pedro's pistol found a harmless victim, for he shot dead
-poor Joe the steward.  But at the same moment a ball from Heriot's
-revolver grazed the assassin's left ear, tearing a ring out of it,
-and as he rushed back with a bewildered air, at first believing
-himself to be shot through the head, Morrison followed him past the
-long-boat, showering, with a capstan-bar, such blows upon him as
-would have prostrated any other man than Barradas, who turned twice
-upon his pursuer, to whom he opposed in vain his clubbed pistol and
-the blade of his Albacete knife.
-
-Poor Mr. Foster, who, as related, had taken the wheel from Morrison,
-was now assailed by Badger, the long Yankee, who had gathered himself
-up from the deck, where he had lain sprawling.
-
-"Villain!" exclaimed Foster, as he clung to the spokes of the wheel,
-which he dared not relinquish lest the ship should bring to by the
-lee, and as he glanced the while with irrepressible agitation at the
-upheld knife of the wretch who had grasped his collar, and held it at
-the full length of his long, lean, muscular left arm.  "Villain,
-would you lift your knife to me?"
-
-"Ah, you 'tarnal Britisher, I would choke you like a weasel," hissed
-the Yankee through his yellow teeth.
-
-"Do be quiet, Badger," urged Foster, as he thought of his poor wife
-and little ones asleep in their beds at home.  "Have you no pity--no
-fear?"
-
-"Nayther, I reckon," snivelled the Yankee.
-
-"No conscience?" asked Foster, as he felt the grasp tightening on his
-collar.
-
-"Conscience be d----! as we say in Californy.  I left my blessed
-conscience at Cape Horn long ago.  Do you understand that?" said
-Badger, ferociously.
-
-Down came the threatening knife, flashing in the moonshine.  Foster
-quitted the wheel and leaped aside, leaving the collar of his jacket
-in Badger's hand; but the point of the blade gave him a severe slash
-on the right shoulder.
-
-Filled with rage and fear, the second mate broke away, and plunged
-down the companion-stair into the steerage in search of a loaded
-weapon.  Tom Bartelot and Mr. Basset followed him, on the same
-errand, and the crew, believing that a fight had begun, once more
-made a furious rush aft, and thus, being now minus five of their
-number, the captain, with Morley, Heriot, and Noah Gawthrop, found
-themselves driven, under a shower of blows and missiles, past the
-break of the quarter-deck, and, ultimately, down below, where they
-all fell in a heap upon Mr. Quail, who had turned out, half dressed,
-on hearing the row on deck.
-
-The last to effect a retreat was Morrison, who had emptied the six
-barrels of his revolver without hitting anyone, but having a
-capstan-bar, a weapon to which he was more accustomed, he gave way,
-step by step, with his face to the foe; but ultimately he was beaten
-down the companion-stair, covered with blood, which flowed from a
-wound on his right temple.
-
-Fighting inch by inch, there is little doubt that, at this crisis,
-the crew might have forced an entrance to the cabin, especially if
-some had entered by the skylight; but now a yell burst from them,
-followed by a tremendous crash, and the sound as of a vast ruin
-descending on the deck.
-
-On Foster abandoning the helm, the ship, which had been running with
-a spanking breeze upon her starboard quarter, broached to; by
-swinging round, all her sails were taken aback upon the weather-side,
-the sudden strain was more than her spars could bear, and the fall of
-a maintopmast, which had been sprung (_i.e._, split) in a recent
-gale, brought down the fore and mizzen, with all their yards and
-hamper, clean off at the cap of each; and thus, in a moment the
-beautiful _Hermione_ was a scene of as great a ruin and disorder
-aloft as she was below.
-
-The wilderness of masts, yards, booms, sails, blocks, and gearing
-that suddenly descended on their heads somewhat cooled the ardour of
-the crew, and severely injured two or three of them; but Pedro, a
-thorough seaman, gave instant orders to cut, clear away, and coil up,
-while, rushing to the wheel, his powerful hands soon made it revolve;
-the _Hermione's_ head fell round, once more the wind came on her
-quarter, her fore and main courses, jib, and driver swelled out
-before it, and she stood on, but slowly, crippled and shorn of all
-her fair proportions.
-
-This unexpected misfortune to the mutineers gave those whom they had
-for a time vanquished and driven below time to gather their energies,
-to reload their weapons, consider their position and resources, and
-to put in requisition those plans originally formed for the defence
-of the cabin, their stronghold, and chiefly of the two Misses Basset.
-
-The huge trunk, filled with Mr. Basset's law books (which fortunately
-came too late on board to be shot with other lumber into the hold)
-was slued round, and jammed across the cabin-door, which was further
-secured by its usual bolts and fastenings.
-
-Heriot's pair of pistols, two revolvers, a double-barrelled
-fowling-piece, and a sharp hatchet, were their only weapons, but they
-had plenty of ammunition, all made up in cartridges, and so they
-resolved to expend it to some purpose.
-
-"My ship! my ship! my poor ship! everything seems to have gone to the
-devil aloft," groaned Captain Phillips, in an agony of rage and
-mortification.
-
-"Oh, papa--dear papa--what has happened?  What means that dreadful
-noise on deck?" asked Ethel and Rose together, as they clung to their
-bewildered parent, and saw with alarm their companions' blanched,
-flushed, and, in some instances, blood-stained faces.  Dr. Heriot and
-Morley Ashton were both bleeding; the former from a scalp wound, and
-the latter from a cut in the lip.  "Oh, papa! tell us what all this
-means?"
-
-"It means that those infernal villains have risen to murder us all,
-ladies; but don't be alarmed for all that," said Captain Phillips, as
-he reloaded his revolver, while a horrible hurly-burly was heard on
-deck, where the crew, under the orders of Barradas the elder, were
-cutting away or securing so much of the rigging and spars as might be
-useful to them, even to bringing on board the jib-boom, which had
-been snapped off at the cap, and hung in the guys at the end of the
-whiskers, with the sail drooping in the water; and all the while they
-worked amid a storm of oaths, imprecations, and threats.
-
-Among other things cast adrift was the body of poor Joe, whose
-pockets were soon investigated--his pipe, knife, tobacco-box, and a
-few coppers appropriated by Messrs. Sharkey and Bolter--after which
-they cast him over to leeward with as much indifference as if he had
-been a dead gull or bit of "old horse" (_i.e._, mouldy junk).
-
-Meanwhile, overcome with horror and anxiety for the probable future
-of his two daughters, poor Mr. Basset was completely bewildered, and,
-for a time, as Captain Phillips said, "had no more pith in him than
-an empty sack."  Reclined on the stern-locker, he pressed his
-daughters to his breast, keeping, as if for protection, an arm round
-each, and he exclaimed more than once:
-
-"Oh God! most merciful of all who show mercy, protect my poor girls."
-
-"He has committed their protection to you, sir," said Tom Bartelot,
-rather impatiently; "only show a little pluck, like the rest of us,
-and we shall weather these villains yet--aye, work them to an oil, if
-they don't fire or sink the ship."
-
-"Oh, what new--what sudden horror is this?" exclaimed Ethel, wringing
-her hands, and then clasping them over her temples, while she turned
-her flashing eyes on each in succession.
-
-"No sudden 'orror at all, marm," said Noah Gawthrop, as he tightened
-his waist-belt, rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, and looked
-everywhere about to spit, but, being in the cabin, restrained the
-impulse; "we've known o' the rig they were goin' to run this long
-time past."
-
-"And Hawkshaw?" asked Ethel, shuddering.
-
-"Is a leader among them," replied Morley, applying a handkerchief to
-his bleeding lip.  "I never had a better opportunity for clearing off
-old scores than to-night, but somehow he never----"
-
-"Oh, Morley, dear! leave vengeance to other hands," said Ethel,
-imploringly.  "Dear, dear papa," she added, laying her pale brow on
-Mr. Basset's cheek, "and so it was this knowledge--this horrible
-dread hanging over you--that has given such a mournful tenderness to
-your voice and manner for some time past."
-
-Her voice, so mellow and thrilling, pierced poor Basset's heart: he
-could only answer by his tears.
-
-"Oh, Morley, love!" said Ethel, in a low, beseeching voice, "say
-something to comfort poor papa."
-
-But Morley could only press Mr. Basset's hand in silence, for, in
-fact, the poor fellow knew not what to say.  Rose had tied her little
-handkerchief round the doctor's head, and it seemed a more agreeable
-remedy than the piece of court-plaster he had hastily stuck on his
-scar.
-
-To Ethel the watchful, mysterious, solicitous, and almost sorrowful
-regard which her father had so long exhibited towards herself and
-Rose was quite accounted for now.
-
-"Oh, my poor papa--my own papa!" she exclaimed, as she threw her arms
-round his neck, and nestled with her lovely face close to his, "I
-have no fear of death; I would face it courageously--but you, and
-Rose, and Morley.  Oh, I fear that the blow which kills me may kill
-you all, too, you love me so much--so much more than I have deserved,
-dear papa!"
-
-"Alas, Ethel! it is not death only that I fear for you, my sweet and
-innocent lamb--and Rose----"
-
-"Below there, ahoy!" hailed a hoarse voice down the companion-stair,
-after the hurly-burly had somewhat ceased on deck.
-
-"It is the voice of that villain, Sharkey," said Quail.
-
-"The murderer of poor Manfredi," added Dr. Heriot.
-
-"Below there, you swabs and cork-suckers! have you all gone to
-sleep?" hailed the squat mutineer.
-
-"Hollo!" responded Noah, "what do you want, gallows-bird?"
-
-"We want the two girls.  Give them up, and come on deck.  Tumble up,
-or it will be the worse for every man jack of you."
-
-"How so, you squab ragamuffin?" asked Captain Phillips.
-
-"We'll drop down the skylight, and make precious short work with you
-all," was the hoarse response.
-
-"Come on then, one at a time, or all together--we are ready for you,"
-said Captain Phillips.
-
-At the same moment the cover of the skylight was roughly wrenched
-off, and the chill night wind poured through the cabin, extinguishing
-the lamp.
-
-A noisy and derisive cheer followed.
-
-"Silence fore and aft.  _Por vida del demonio guardad vuestra maldita
-garulla_ (_i.e._, "Hold your cursed clack").  Ere long I shall let
-you know who is captain of the ship now," cried a deep bass voice
-there was no mistaking, and the dark visage of Pedro Barradas was
-seen looking down, just as Heriot led Ethel and Rose to their cabin,
-when he whispered to them to take courage, and closed the door.
-"Surrender, and give up your arms, or I shall set fire to the ship,"
-added Barradas.
-
-"What will you gain by doing so?" asked Captain Phillips, feeling
-with his fingers if the caps on his revolver were all right, and
-taking a full sight at Pedro's head, which he could see above the rim
-of the skylight.
-
-"Gain?  Not much, certainly, unless it be vengeance," replied the
-Mexican, hoarsely.
-
-"Vengeance, you miscreant?  Of what can you, accuse me?  Surely I
-never wronged you."
-
-"I have nearly lost an ear by the hand of one among you."
-
-"That infliction you brought upon yourself."
-
-"If you do not surrender in less than twenty minutes, I shall fire
-the ship or scuttle her, and then shove off with all the boats,
-leaving you to drown like a rat in a trap," continued Pedro.
-
-"Fool, as well as villain, what purpose would that serve, but to
-destroy you all?  Do you know how far we are from land?" asked the
-captain.
-
-"I know that we are off the mouth of the Mozambique, and will soon
-make the land by steering nor'-nor'-east," replied the mutineer, with
-a grin.
-
-"You are wrong, Pedro Barradas--by Heaven you are!  We are only off
-the Bay of Algoa."
-
-"Well, if this wind holds good, and we keep the ship under her
-courses and lower studding-sails, we will make the channel soon
-enough for our purpose.  But ha, ha!  Senor Capitano, do you hear
-that?" he added, as the sound of axes was heard; "we are starting the
-main-hatch to get at the bread and spirit room, so while you starve
-here, we shall drink and be jolly."
-
-Captain Phillips groaned as he heard those sounds, which indicated a
-further destruction of the ship; but, taking a sure aim at Pedro, he
-fired!  The red flash and sharp report of the pistol were followed by
-a yell of rage.
-
-"A miss is as good as a mile," cried Badger, the Yankee; and Pedro,
-whose cheek was grazed by the ball, replied by firing into the cabin
-a random shot, which lodged in the table; and now, with pistols and
-the double-barrelled fowling-piece, there ensued a regular skirmish,
-in which our friends, in the dark seclusion of the cabin, had all the
-best of it, the mutineers' mode of warfare being simply a waste of
-ammunition, as some four or five of them in succession continued to
-dart past the open skylight, down which they fired at random.
-
-Too terrified to weep, Ethel and Rose, clasped in each other's arms,
-reclined on their knees against the side of their bed, with poor old
-nurse Folgate grovelling on the carpet beside them.
-
-Every instant they heard the sharp reports of the pistols, and saw
-the explosions flashing through the slits in their cabin-door, and
-all unaccustomed to the horrors of such an event, they could scarcely
-believe that they were not in a dream.
-
-Who could imagine that such a scene would occur on board of a London
-ship?  But they knew not the evils that attend a mixed crew.
-
-Ignorant of the chances and casualties of voyaging on the deep, Ethel
-and Rose, but particularly the former, was utterly bewildered by this
-terrible episode, in which she found herself and friends involved.
-Every shot, every sound, made her heart leap for her father and her
-lover.
-
-She had pictured to herself how, with Morley by her side, she would
-tend for life the declining years of her only and beloved
-parent--tend him as her mother would have wished her to do.  He, on
-the other hand, had hoped to tend, watch, guide, and see her and Rose
-far on the chequered highway of life; but now it seemed as if they
-were all about to be torn from each other--he to suffer a violent and
-cruel death, they dishonour and death together.
-
-Rose!  Rose!  Poor Ethel's soul shrank within her at this crisis; but
-it was more with fear for dear, merry little Rose than for herself.
-
-For some time the exciting skirmish we have described continued,
-without anyone being hit, apparently, either above or below, till
-Morley felt someone close by utter a low heavy moan, or sigh, and
-then fall suddenly and heavily against him.
-
-"Quail--Mr. Quail," he exclaimed, "is this you?  Are you hurt--are
-you hit?"
-
-It was poor Mr. Quail who, unable to reply, fell on the floor of the
-cabin with blood bubbling from his mouth.  A lucifer-match was
-promptly applied to a candle, a light procured, and the wounded man
-was laid on the floor of the captain's state-room, where Dr. Heriot
-soon discovered that he was quite dead, being shot in the head by a
-common nail, a proof that the ammunition of the enemy above was
-running short.
-
-"My God!  Poor Quail--his wife and little ones!" exclaimed honest
-Captain Phillips, with deep emotion.  "Oh, gentlemen, when will these
-horrors end?"
-
-A low groan from Mr. Basset alone replied, and the features of the
-hapless mate soon grew livid and ghastly in the flickering light of
-the candle, as the damps and the pallor of death stole over them
-together.
-
-Meanwhile the crash of axes was heard in the hold, where already some
-of the mutineers were making their way in search of plunder, through
-the cargo, hoping to make a breach in the bulkhead and reach the
-store where the ship's provisions and spirits were kept.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXV.
-
-THE CABIN ATTACKED.
-
-Some of the mutineers now proceeded to throw various missiles, such
-as cold shot, ship-buckets, spare or fallen blocks from aloft, the
-carpenter's paint-pots, and so forth, into the ship's cabin; but only
-in one instance, when Tom Bartelot received a contusion on the
-shoulder, from a wooden marline-spike flung at random, did any of
-these take effect, as our friends lurked securely, pistol in hand, in
-the recesses of the upper stern-lockers, in the berths, and so forth,
-but none as yet could foresee where this strife was to end, or who
-would first come to terms, before the ship was utterly destroyed, as
-it bade fair to be, if this internal war continued.
-
-Now the voice of Barradas was heard, giving orders to cast loose one
-of the carronades on the quarter-deck.
-
-"What are they about to do with the carronade?" asked Morley, as he
-listened intently.
-
-"Lower it between decks, to fire through the bulkhead," suggested the
-old man-o'-war's man, Noah.
-
-"But have they any round shot?" asked Morley.
-
-"We have six rounds for each gun round the coaming of the
-main-hatch," said Captain Phillips, with a very dejected air; "and
-there are plenty more in the hold.  Shot are wanted sometimes in the
-Indian seas."
-
-"And the powder?"
-
-"Is all kept in a little magazine near the taffrail--the powder
-required for immediate service, I mean."
-
-"The gun is cast loose," said Bartelot; "if Noah's idea be their
-game, it is all up with us, as they may bowl us to death without
-danger of resistance."
-
-"Unless when they are at work in the hold, we make a sally, regain
-possession of the deck, ship on the main-hatch, and smother the whole
-brood!" said Phillips, with a more savage emotion than ever before
-glowed in his kind and jolly breast.
-
-A few minutes of painful suspense served to show that the intentions
-of the mutineers were quite different.
-
-They were heard to break open the powder magazine, and load the
-carronade, which, with loud yells, and much vociferation, they urged
-forward to the rim of the skylight with such force as nearly to break
-the framework to pieces, and over it, by using capstan-bars as
-levers, they levelled and depressed the gun, by hoisting up the hind
-wheels of the carriage, and driving home quoins under the breach,
-till the muzzle was at the angle of forty-five degrees, and pointed
-almost towards the bulkhead of the little cabin in which Ethel and
-Rose were weeping and praying.
-
-Scarcely a moment was given for question or consideration, ere Quaco,
-the black Virginian, came rushing aft from the caboose, with his
-sable cheekbones shining, and his yellow eyes aflame, as he
-flourished a red-hot poker, which, as an extempore match, he applied
-to the touch-hole.
-
-A sudden and blinding flash, with a cloud of suffocating smoke,
-filled all the cabin, and there was a report, or concussion, which
-made the ship reel to her centre; a hundred splinters seemed to fly
-in every direction, but still no personal danger was done, though the
-gun had been charged, not with round shot, but with a bag of nails,
-nearly all of which crashed through the centre of the mahogany table,
-and lodged in the deck below.
-
-It was not until the first blink of dawn that those in the cabin knew
-this; their first idea being, that a round shot had been sent through
-the vessel's bottom; but, mad and furious though the mutineers were,
-there was a method in their proceedings, and to utterly destroy the
-ship was no part of their daring plan.
-
-Wailing cries of terror came from the ladies' cabin, and wild and
-noisy ones from the old nurse; but no one was hurt there, though all
-were nearly stifled by the smoke of the discharge, ere it rose slowly
-through the open skylight, and floated away into the still night air.
-
-As the sailors were withdrawing the gun, taking advantage of its
-recoil, a volley of pistol-shots from below whistled about them, and
-Dr. Heriot, with a steady aim of the fowling-piece, sent a charge of
-buck-shot from both barrels into the face and shoulders of one
-fellow, who was immediately borne forward to the care of Quaco, who,
-greatly to his own delight, and with all the mingled fun and cruelty
-peculiar to his dingy race, proceeded to extract them from the
-bleeding wretch, more curiously than skilfully, with the prongs of a
-carving-fork.
-
-They now lashed the gun to its port again, and retired forward, to
-consult probably.
-
-The ship's bell was no longer struck to call the watches, but the man
-at the wheel was regularly relieved, and, though sometimes exposed to
-shots from the cabin, he was never fired on.  Under her courses and
-other lower sails, the ship was steered to the north-east, but her
-exact course those in the cabin knew not, as the tell-tale compass
-had gone to wreck long ago, under the missiles showered so liberally
-through the skylight.
-
-By the sounds that came aft from time to time, it was evident that
-the crew were eating, drinking, and making merry in the region of the
-forecastle; but the fears of those in the cabin were increased by
-this hilarity, which increased the evil chances that overhung the
-ship, if a gale came on, and found her with her crew and rigging in
-such a state of disorder, and half the main-hatch open!
-
-As day dawned, and the armed lurkers in the once trim cabin looked
-around them, its aspect filled them with exasperation and dismay.
-
-The mahogany table, polished to perfection by poor Joe, was split,
-and literally torn to pieces by the contents of the carronade; and
-below it, the planks were thickly sown with nails.  All the missiles
-we have enumerated, the fire buckets, double and single blocks,
-six-pound shot, holystones, and "prayer-books," &c., encumbered the
-floor; and there, cold, white, and ghastly, lay the stiffened corpse
-of the unfortunate Mr. Quail, with many a spot and patch of blood,
-that had dropped from the cuts and scars of his companions.
-
-Taking advantage of the lull in the hostilities, Morley, Bartelot,
-and Noah Gawthrop added all the missiles that strewed the floor to
-the barricade behind the cabin-door; Mr. Foster procured more caps
-and ammunition for their fire-arms; Heriot prepared plasters and
-bandages for their flesh wounds and bruises, while Mr. Basset and the
-captain took some wine-and-water, with biscuits, to Ethel, Rose, and
-their old attendant, as the only breakfast they had to offer.  After
-this, unknown to their fair friends in misfortune, Morrison and
-Foster made preparations to launch the mortal remains of the poor
-mate into the deep.
-
-No time was there then for prayer or homily.
-
-The body was simply rolled up in a blanket taken from his own bed,
-lashed tight at the head and foot with a piece of rope.  To the
-ankles were lashed four of the shot with which the rascals on deck
-had favoured them; and, opening one of the large windows next the
-rudder-case, they permitted the body to drop gently, feet foremost,
-into the pale-green water that seethed under the counter.
-
-It could be seen sinking slowly far down into the depths of the
-morning sea, where it vanished; but not soon enough to elude the keen
-instinct of some Cape pigeons and albatrosses, which gathered, with
-ravening beaks and flapping wings, about the place where the corpse
-went down, and where but a few spreading ripples appeared upon the
-trough of the rolling waves.
-
-By her frothy wake astern, the _Hermione_ seemed to be going through
-the water at the rate of six knots an hour, for the breeze was fresh
-and steady.
-
-Some cold beef from the locker of poor Joe, and a glass of
-brandy-and-water, were served round for breakfast; and none spoke,
-though all thought of how they would fare when the last drop of water
-in the cabin was gone!
-
-So passed the noon.
-
-The ill-fated ship still ran north-eastward, increasing hourly, as
-Captain Phillips said, her chances of being overhauled by some
-homeward-bound ship--a chance on which their hopes of succour mainly
-depended now.
-
-
-
-END OF VOL. II.
-
-
-
-CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, CRYSTAL PALACE
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's Morley Ashton, Volume 2 (of 3), by James Grant
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