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diff --git a/21087.txt b/21087.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..09ba4fc --- /dev/null +++ b/21087.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9269 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ghost Ship, by John C. Hutcheson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Ghost Ship + A Mystery of the Sea + +Author: John C. Hutcheson + +Illustrator: Henry Austin + +Release Date: April 15, 2007 [EBook #21087] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GHOST SHIP *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +The Ghost Ship + +by John Conran Hutcheson +________________________________________________________________ +This book intentionally veers in and out of the supernatural, as the +title implies. The officers get more and more bewildered as they +work out their position, and yet again encounter the same vessel +going in an impossible direction. + +Having warned you of this, I must say that it is a well-written book +about life aboard an ocean-going steamer at about the end of the +nineteenth century. + +You will find it worth listening to, or reading, and I recommend it. +N.H. +________________________________________________________________ +THE GHOST SHIP + +BY JOHN CONRAN HUTCHESON + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +THE STAR OF THE NORTH. + +The sun sank below the horizon that evening in a blaze of ruby and gold. + +It flooded the whole ocean to the westward, right up to the very zenith, +with a wealth of opalescent light that transformed sea and sky alike +into a living glory, so grand and glorious was the glowing harmony of +kaleidoscopic colouring which lit up the arc of heaven and the wide +waste of water beneath, stretching out and afar beyond ken. Aye, and a +colouring, too, that changed its hue each instant with marvellous +rapidity, tint alternating with tint, and tone melting into tone in +endless succession and variety! + +Throughout the day the weather had looked more than threatening. From +an early hour of the morning the wind had been constantly veering and +shifting, showing a strong inclination to back; and now the sea was +getting up and the white horses of Neptune had already begun to gambol +over the crests of the swelling billows, which heaved up and down as +they rolled onward with a heavy moaning sound, like one long, deep-drawn +sigh! + +It looked as if the old monarch below, angered by the teasing of the +frolicsome zephyrs, was gradually working himself up into a passion, +which would vent itself, most probably, ere long in a much more telling +fashion than by this melancholy moan, so different to the sea-god's +usual voice of thunder! + +Yes, it looked threatening enough in all conscience! + +A brisk breeze had been blowing from the nor'-east before breakfast, but +this had subsequently shifted to the nor'ard at noon, veering back +again, first to the nor'-east and then to due east in the afternoon. +The wind freshened as the hours wore on, being now accompanied towards +sunset by frequent sharp gusts, a sign betokening plainly enough to a +seaman's eye that something stiffer was brewing up for us by-and-by. + +Glancing over the side, I noticed that our brave vessel, the _Star of +the North_, was becoming very uneasy. + +She was running under her jib and foresail, with fore-topsail and fore- +topgallantsail, being only square rigged forwards, like most ocean +steamers; but, in order to save coals and ease the engines, the skipper +had set the fore and main trysails with gaff-topsails and staysails as +well, piling on every rag he could spread. + +With this press of canvas topping her unaccustomed hull, the poor old +barquey heeled over more and more as the violent gusts caught her +broadside-on at intervals, rolling, too, a bit on the wind fetching +round aft; while, her stern lifting as some bigger roller than usual +passed under her keel, the screw would whiz round aimlessly in mid air, +from missing its grip of the water, "racing," as sailors say in their +lingo, with a harsh grating jar that set my teeth on edge, and seemed to +vibrate through my very spinal marrow as I stood for a moment on the +line of deck immediately over the revolving shaft. + +At the same time also that the afterpart of the vessel rose up on the +breast of one billowy mountain, her forefoot in turn would come down +with a resonant "thwack" into the valley intervening between this roller +and the next, the buoyant old barquey dipping her bows under and giving +the star-crowned maiden with golden ringlets, that did duty for her +figurehead, an impromptu shower bath as she parted the indignant waves +with her glistening black hull, sending them off on either hand with a +contemptuous "swish" on their trying in mad desperation to leap on +board, first to port and then to starboard, as the ship listed in her +roll. + +It was, however, but a vain task for these mad myrmidons of Neptune to +attempt, strive as recklessly as they might in their wrath, for the good +ship spurned them with her forefoot and the star-crowned maiden bowed +mockingly to them from her perch above the bobstay, laughing in her glee +as she rode over them triumphantly and sailed along onward; and so the +baffled roysterers were forced to fall back discomforted from their rash +onslaught, swirling away in circling eddies aft, where, anon, the cruel +propeller tossed and tore them anew with its pitiless blades--ever +whirling round with painful iteration to the music of their monotonous +refrain, "Thump-thump, Thump-thump," and ever churning up the already +seething sea into a mass of boiling, brawling, bubbling foam that spread +out astern of us in a broad shimmering wake in the shape of a lady's +fan, stretching backward on our track as far as the eye could see and +flashing out sparks of fire as it glittered away into the dim distance, +like an ever-widening belt of diamonds fringed with pearls. + +The SS _Star of the North_ was a large schooner-rigged cargo steamer, +strongly built of iron in watertight compartments, and of nearly two +thousand horsepower, but working up, under pressure, of nearly half as +much again on a pinch, having been originally intended for the passenger +trade. + +She belonged to one of the great ocean lines that run between Liverpool +and New York, and was now on her last outward trip for the year and +rapidly nearing her western goal--the Fastnet light--and, according to +our reckoning when we took the sun at noon, in latitude 42 deg. 35 minutes +North, and longitude 50 deg. 10 minutes West, that is, just below the banks +of Newfoundland, our course to our American port having been a little +more southerly than usual for the season. This was in consequence of +Captain Applegarth, our skipper, wishing, as I said before, to take +advantage of the varying winds of the northern ocean as much as +possible, so as to economise his steam-power and limit our consumption +of fuel; for freights "across the herring-pond," as the Yankees call it, +are at a very low ebb nowadays, and it is naturally a serious +consideration with shipowners how to make a profit out of the carrying +trade without landing themselves in the bankruptcy court. So, they have +to cut down their working expenses to the lowest point practicable with +efficiency, where "full speed" all the way is not a vital necessity--as +in the case of the mail steamers and first-class passenger ships of +enormous steam-power and corresponding speed, which, of course, run up a +heavy coal bill, for they always "carry on" all they can to and fro +across the Atlantic, accomplishing the passage now between Queenstown +and Sandy Hook, veritable greyhounds of the ocean that they are, within +the six days, all told, from land to land. Aye, and even this "record" +promises to be beaten in the near future. + +Prior to our leaving Liverpool on this voyage, the very day before we +sailed, in fact, greatly to my surprise and satisfaction, as may be +imagined, I was made fourth officer, the owners having unexpectedly +promoted me from the position of "apprentice," which I had filled up to +our last run home without any thought of so speedy a "rise." Of course +I had to thank my old friend Captain Applegarth for my good fortune, +though why the skipper thus spoke up for me I'm sure I cannot say, for I +was very young to hold such a subordinate post, having only just turned +my seventeenth year, besides being boyish enough in all conscience, and +beardless, too, at that! But, be that as it may, fourth officer I was +at the time of which I write. + +I recollect the evening well enough. + +It was on the seventh of November, the anniversary of my birthday, a +circumstance which would alone suffice to imprint the date on my memory +were I at all disposed to forget it. But that is not very likely. + +No, I can assure you. + +It would be impossible for me to do that, as you will readily believe +when you come to know my story; for, on this eventful evening there +happened something which, somehow or other, thenceforth, whether owing +to what visionary folk term "Destiny," or from its arising through some +curious conjuncture of things beyond the limits of mere chance, appeared +to exercise a mysterious influence on my life, affecting the whole tenor +and course of my subsequent career. + +I had better tell you, however, what occurred, and then you will be able +to judge for yourself. + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +"SAIL HO!" + +Away forward, I remember, the ship's bell under the break of the +forecastle, or "fo'c's'le," as it is pronounced in nautical fashion, was +just striking "two bells" in the first day watch. + +In other words, more suited to a landsman's comprehension, it was five +o'clock in the afternoon when I came on deck from my spell of leisure +below, to relieve Mr Spokeshave, the third officer, then on duty, and +the sight I caught of the heavens, across the gangway, was so beautiful +that I paused a moment or two to look at the sunset before going up on +the bridge, where Mr Spokeshave, I had no doubt, was anxiously awaiting +me and, equally certainly, grumbling at my detaining him from his "tea!" + +This gentleman, however, was not too particular as to time in relieving +others when off watch, and I did not concern myself at all about Master +"Conky," as all of us called him aboard, on account of a very prominent, +and, so to speak, striking feature of his countenance. + +Otherwise, he was an insignificant-looking little chap, as thin as +threadpaper and barely five feet high; but he was always swelling +himself out, and trying to look a bigger personage than he was, with the +exception that is, of his nose, which was thoroughly Napoleonic in size +and contour. Altogether, what with the airs he gave himself and his +selfish disposition and nasty cantankerous temper, Master Spokeshave was +not a general favourite on board, although we did not quarrel openly +with the little beggar or call him by his nickname when he was present, +albeit he was very hard to bear with sometimes! + +Well, not thinking of him or his tea or that it was time for me to go on +watch, but awed by the majesty of God's handiwork in the wonderful +colouring, of the afterglow, which no mortal artist could have painted, +no, none but He who limns the rainbow, I stood there so long by the +gangway, gazing at the glorious panorama outspread before me, that I +declare I clean forgot Spokeshave's very existence, all-important though +he considered himself, and I was only recalled to myself by the voice of +Mr Fosset, our first officer, who had approached without my seeing him, +speaking close beside me. + +Ah, he was a very different sort of fellow to little Spokeshave, being a +nice, jolly, good-natured chap, chubby and brown-bearded, and liked by +every one from the skipper down to the cabin boy. He was a bit +obstinate, though, was Mr Fosset; and "as pigheaded as a Scotch +barber," as Captain Applegarth would say sometimes when he was arguing +with him, for the first mate would always stick to his own opinion, no +matter if he were right or wrong, nothing said on the other side ever +convincing him to the contrary and making him change his mind. + +He had caught sight of me now leaning against the bulwarks and looking +over the side amidships, just abaft the engine-room hatch, as he passed +along the gangway towards the bridge which he was about to mount to have +a look at the standard compass and see what course the helmsman was +steering, on his way from the poop, where I had noticed him talking with +the skipper as I came up the booby-hatch from below. "Hullo, Haldane!" +he cried, shouting almost in my ear, and giving me a playful dig in the +ribs at the same time; this nearly knocked all the breath out of my +body. "Is that you, my boy?" + +"Aye, aye, sir," I replied, hesitating, for I was startled, alike by his +rather too demonstrative greeting as well as his unexpected approach. +"I--I--mean, yes, sir." + +Mr Fosset laughed; a jolly, catching laugh it was--that of a man who +had just dined comfortably and enjoyed his dinner, and did not have, +apparently, a care in the world. "Why, what's the matter with you, +youngster?" said he in his chaffing way. "Been having a caulk on the +sly and dreaming of home, I bet?" + +"No, sir," I answered gravely; "I've not been to sleep." + +"But you look quite dazed, my boy." + +I made no reply to this observation, and Mr Fosset then dropped his +bantering manner. + +"Tell me," said he kindly, "is there anything wrong with you below? Has +that cross-grained little shrimp, Spokeshave, hang him! been bullying +you again, like he did the other day?" + +"Oh no, sir; he's on the bridge now, and I ought to have relieved him +before this," I replied, only thinking of poor "Conky" and his tea then +for the first time. "I wasn't even dreaming of him; I'm sure I beg his +pardon!" + +"Well, you were dreaming of some one perhaps `nearer and dearer' than +Spokeshave," rejoined Mr Fosset, with another genial laugh. "You were +quite in a brown study when I gave you that dig in the ribs. What's the +matter, my boy?" + +"I was looking at that, sir," said I simply, in response to his +question, pointing upwards to the glory in the heavens. "Isn't it +grand? Isn't it glorious?" + +This was a poser; for the first mate, though good-natured and good- +humoured enough, and probably a thinking man, too, in his way, was too +matter-of-fact a person to indulge in "dreamy sentimentalities," as he +would have styled my deeper thoughts! A sunset to him was only a +sunset, saving in so far as it served to denote any change of weather, +which aspect his seaman's eye readily took note of without any pointing +out on my part; so he rather chilled my enthusiasm by his reply now to +me. + +"Oh, yes, it's very fine and all that, youngster," he observed in an +off-hand manner that grated on my feelings, making me wish I had not +spoken so gushingly. "I think that sky shows signs of a blow before the +night is over, which will give you something better to do than star- +gazing!" + +"I can't very well do that now, sir," said I slily, with a grin at +catching him tripping. "Why, the stars aren't out yet." + +"That may be, Master Impudence," replied Mr Fosset, all genial again +and laughing too; "but they'll soon be popping out overhead." + +"But, sir, it is quite light still," I persisted. "See, it is as bright +as day all round, just as at noontide!" + +"Aye, but it'll be precious dark soon! It grows dusk in less than a +jiffey after the sun dips in these latitudes at this time o' year," said +he. "Hullo! I say, though, that reminds me, Haldane--" + +"Of what, sir?" I asked as he stopped abruptly at this point. +"Anything I can do for you, Mr Fosset?" + +"No, my boy, nothing," he replied reflectively, and looking for the +moment to be in as deep a brown study as he accused me of being just +now. "Stop, though, I tell you what you can do. Run forwards and see +what that lazy lubber of a lamp-trimmer is about. He's always half an +hour or so behind time, and seems to get later every day. Wake him up +and make him hoist our masthead lantern and fix the side lights in +position, for it'll soon be dark, I bet 'ee, in spite of all that flare- +up aloft over there, and we're now getting in the track of the homeward- +bounders crossing the Banks, and have to keep a sharp look-out and let +'em know where we are, to avoid any chance of collision." + +"Aye, aye, sir," I cried, making my way along the gangway by the side of +the deckhouse towards the fo'c's'le, which was still lit up by the +afterglow as if on fire. "I'll see to it all right, and get our steam +lights rigged up at once, sir." + +So saying, in another minute or so, scrambling over a lot of empty coal +sacks and other loose gear that littered the deck, besides getting +tripped up by the tackle of the ash hoist, which I did not see in time +from the glare of the sky coming right in my eyes, I gained the lee side +of the cook's galley at the forward end of the deckhouse. Here, as I +conjectured, I found old Greazer, our lamp-trimmer. This worthy, who +was quite a character in his way, was a superannuated fireman belonging +to the line, whom age and long years of toil had unfitted for the +rougher and more arduous duties of his vocation in the stoke-hold, and +who now, instead of trimming coals in the furnaces below, trimmed wicks +and attended to the lamps about the ship, on deck and elsewhere. He +managed, I may add, to make his face so dirty in the carrying out of the +lighter duties, to which he was now called, probably in fond +recollection of his byegone grimy task in the engine-room, that his +somewhat personal cognomen was very appropriate, his countenance being +oily and smutty to a degree! + +He was a very lazy old chap, however; and, in lieu of attending to his +work, was generally to be found confabulating with our mulatto cook, +Accra Prout, as I discovered him now, more bent on worming out an extra +lot of grog from the chef of the galley in exchange for a lump of "hard" +tobacco, than thinking of masthead lanterns or the ship's side lights, +green and red. + +"What are you about, lamp-trimmer?" I called out sharply on catching +sight of him palavering there with the mulatto, the artful beggar +furtively slipping the tin pannikin out of which he had been drinking +into the bosom of his jumper. "Here's two bells struck and no lights +up!" + +"Two bells, sir?" + +"Aye, two bells," I repeated, taking no notice of his affected air of +surprise. "There's the ship's bell right over your head where you +stand, and you must have heard it strike not five minutes ago." + +"Lor', Master Dick, may I die a foul death ashore if I ever heard a +stroke," he replied as innocently as you please. "Howsomdever, the +lamps is all right, sir. I ain't 'ave forgot 'em." + +"That's all right, then, Greazer," I said, not being too hard on him, +and excusing the sly wink he gave to Prout as he told his barefaced +banger about not hearing the bell, in memory of his past services. +"Come along now and rig them up smart, or you'll have Mr Fosset after +you." + +Making him hoist our masthead light on the foremast, twenty feet above +the deck, according to the usual Board of Trade regulations for steamers +under way at sea, I then marched him before me along the deck and saw +him place our side lights in their proper position, the green one to +starboard and the red on our port hand. + +Old Greazer then mounted the bridge-ladder, in advance of me, with the +binnacle lamp in his hand to put that in its place, and, as I followed +slowly in his slow footsteps, for the ex-fireman was not now quick of +movement, an accident in the stoke-hold having crippled him years ago, I +half-turned round as I ascended the laddering to have a look again at +the horizon to leeward over our port quarters, when I fancied, when +advancing a foot with the lamp-trimmer, I had seen something to the +southward. + +In another instant my fancy became a certainty. + +Yes, there, in the distance, sailing at an angle to our course, right +before the wind, was a large full-rigged ship. Everything, though, was +not right with her, as I noted the moment I made her out, with her white +canvas all crimson from a last expiring gleam of the afterglow; for I +could see that her sails were tattered and torn, with the ragged ends +blowing out loose from the boltropes in the most untidy fashion, +unkempt, uncared for! + +Besides, she was flying a signal of distress, patent to every sailor +that has ever crossed the seas. + +Her flag was hoisted half-mast high from the peak halliards. Half-mast +high! + +I did not wait, nor did I want, to see anything further. No, that was +enough for me; and, springing on to the bridge with a bound that nearly +knocked poor old Greazer down on his marrowbones as he stopped to put +the lantern into the binnacle, I shouted out in a ringing voice that +echoed fore and aft, startling everybody aboard, even myself, "Sail ho! +A ship in distress! Sail ho!" + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +DID I DREAM IT? + +"Where away, Haldane?" cried Mr Fosset, the first to notice my shout, +catching up a telescope that lay handy on the top of the wheel-house of +the bridge; and, in his hurry, eagerly scanning every portion of the +horizon but the right one. "I don't see her!" + +"There she is, sir, away to the right!" said I, equally flurried, +pointing over the lee rail in the direction where I had observed the +ship only a second before as I mounted the bridge-ladder, although I +could not actually make her out distinctly at the moment now, on account +of the smoke from our funnels, which, just then, came belching forth in +a thick, black cloud that streamed away to leeward, athwart our +starboard beam, obscuring the outlook. + +"There away, sir; out there!" + +"Well, I can't see anything!" ejaculated Mr Fosset impatiently, rising +to his feet after stooping down to the level of the bridge cloth, trying +to get a sight of the strange vessel as best he could under the cloud of +smoke, which was now trailing out along the horizon, blown far away to +leeward by the strong wind across our beam. "I'm sure I can't see +anything over there, youngster; you must have dreamt it!" + +"Yes, when you were lolling about in the waist below there, just now," +put in my friend, Master Spokeshave, who had been pretending to look-out +from his end of the bridge because he thought he ought to do so as Mr +Fosset was there, although he really couldn't possibly see anything aft +from that position on the port side, on account of the wheel-house and +funnel, which were of course abaft the bridge, blocking the view. The +cantankerous little beggar sniffed his beak of a nose in the air as if +trying to look down on me, though he was half a head shorter, and spoke +in that nasty sneering way of his that always made me mad. He did enjoy +growling at any one when he had the chance; and so he went on snarling +now, like a cat behind an area railing at a dog which couldn't get at it +to stop its venomous spitting. "I saw you, my joker, star-gazing down +there, instead of coming up here to relieve me at the proper time! I +believe you only sang out about the ship to cover your laziness and take +a rise out of us!" + +"I did nothing of the sort, Mr Spokeshave," I answered indignantly, for +the little beast sniggered away and grinned at Mr Fosset as if he had +said something uncommonly smart at my expense. I saw, however, where +the shoe pinched. He was angry at my having kept him waiting for his +tea, and hence his spiteful allusion to my being late coming on watch; +so I was just going to give him a sharp rejoinder, referring to his love +for his little stomach, a weak point with him and a common joke with us +all below at meal-times, when, ere I could get a word out of the +scathing rebuke I intended for him, the smoke trail suddenly lifted a +bit to leeward and leaving the horizon clear, I caught sight again of +the ship I had seen over the rail. This, of course, at once changed the +current of my thoughts; and so, without troubling my head any further +about "Conky," I sang out as eagerly as before to the first mate, all +the more anxious now to prove that I had been right in the first +instance, "There she is, Mr Fosset, there she is!" + +"Where on earth are you squinting now, boy?" said he, a bit huffy at not +making her out and apparently inclined to Spokeshave's opinion that I +had not really seen her at all. "Where away?" + +"There, sir, away to leeward," cried I, almost jumping over the bridge +rail in my excitement. "She's nearly abreast of our mizzen chains and +not a mile off. She seems coming up on the port tack, sir!" + +For, strangely enough, although we were going ten knots good by the aid +of the wind that had worked round more abeam, so that all our fore and +aft sail drew, while the ship, which, when I saw her before, seemed to +be running with the nor'-easter and sailing at a tangent to our course +so that she ought really to have increased her distance from us, now, on +the contrary, appeared ever so much nearer, as if she had either altered +her helm or drifted closer by the aid of some ocean current in the +interim; albeit, barely five minutes at the best, if that, had only +elapsed since I first sighted her. + +But, stranger still, Mr Fosset could not see her, when there she was as +plain as the sun setting in the west awhile ago--at least to my eyes; +and, as she approached nearer yet in some unaccountable way, for her +bows were pointed from us and the wind, of course, was blowing in the +opposite direction, she being on our lee, I declare I could distinctly +see a female figure, like that of a young girl with long hair, on the +deck aft; and beside her I also noticed a large black dog, jumping up +and down! + +"I'm sure I can't see any ship, youngster," said Mr Fosset at the +moment. Even while he was actually speaking, I observed the sailing +vessel to yaw in her course, her ragged canvas flattening against the +masts as if she were coming about, although from the way her head veered +about, she did not seem to be under any control. "There's nothing in +sight, Haldane, I tell you. What you perhaps thought was a ship is that +big black cloud rising to the southward. It looks like one of those +nasty sea fogs working up, and we'll have to keep a precious sharp look- +out to-night, I know." + +"There's no ship there," echoed my friend "Conky," tapping his forehead +in a very offensive way to intimate that I had "a screw loose in the +upper storey," as the saying goes, grinning the while as I could see +very well in the dim light and poking his long nose up in the air in +supreme contempt. "The boy is either mad, or drunk, or dreaming, as you +say, sir. It is all a cock and a bull yarn about his sighting a vessel, +and he only wants to brave it out. There's no ship there!" + +"Can you see anything, Atkins?" asked Mr Fosset of the man steering. +"There away to leeward, I mean." + +"No, sir," answered the sailor; "not a speck, sir." + +"Do you see anything, lamp-trimmer?" + +"No; can't say I does, sir," replied old Greazer, after a long squint +over our lee in the direction pointed out, "Not a sight of a sail, nor a +light, nor nothink!" + +It was curious. + +For, at that very moment, when the first mate and Spokeshave and the +helmsman and lamp-trimmer, standing on the bridge beside me, one and all +said they could see nothing, I declare to you I saw not only the ship +and the figures on her deck, but I noticed that the girl on the poop +waved a scarf or handkerchief, as if imploring our assistance; and, at +the same time, the dog near her bounded up against the bulwarks, and I +can solemnly assert from the evidence of my ears that I heard the animal +distinctly bark, giving out that joyous sort of bark with which a well- +dispositioned dog invariably greets a friend of his master or mistress. + +I could not make it out at all. + +It was most mysterious. + +"Look, look, Mr Fosset!" I cried excitedly. "There she is now! There +she is, coming up on our lee quarter! Why, you must be all blind! I +can not only see the ship distinctly, but also right down on to her +deck!" + +"Nonsense, boy; you'd better go below!" said the first mate brusquely, +while Spokeshave sniggered and whispered something to the lamp-trimmer +and man at the wheel that made them both laugh out right. "There's +something wrong with you to-night, Haldane, for you seem quite off your +chump, so you'd better go below and sleep it off. There's no ship near +us, I tell you! What you imagined to be a sailing vessel is that dark +cloud there, coming up from the leeward, which is fast shutting out the +horizon from view. It's a sea fog, such as are frequently met with +hereabouts below the Banks, as we are now!" + +It was true enough about the cloud, or mist, or fog, or whatever it was; +for, as Mr Fosset spoke, the darkness closed in around us like a wall +and the ship that I swear I had seen the moment before vanished, sky and +sea and everything else disappearing also at the same instant, leaving +us, as it were, isolated in space, the veil of vapour being +impenetrable! + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +A CONFLICT OF AUTHORITY. + +Just then Captain Applegarth appeared on the scene. + +He had gone down by the companion-way into the saloon below, after Mr +Fosset had left the poop, to look at the barometer in his cabin, and now +came along the upper deck and on to the bridge amidships, startling us +with his sudden presence. + +The skipper had a sharp eye, which was so trained by observation in all +sorts of weather that he could see in the dark, like a cat, almost as +well as he could by daylight. + +Looking round and scanning our faces as well as he could in the +prevailing gloom, he soon perceived that something was wrong. + +"Huh!" he exclaimed. "What's the row about?" + +"There's no row, sir," explained the first mate in an off-hand tone of +bravado, which he tried to give a jocular ring to, but could not very +successfully. "This youngster Haldane here swears he saw a full-rigged +ship on our lee quarter awhile ago, flying a signal of distress; but +neither Mr Spokeshave, who was on the watch, nor myself, could make her +out where Haldane said he saw her." + +"Indeed?" + +"No, sir," continued Mr Fosset; "nor could the helmsman or old Greazer +here, who came up with the binnacle lamp at the time. Not one of us +could see this wonderful ship of Haldane's, though it was pretty clear +all round then, and we all looked in the direction to which he pointed." + +"That's strange," said Captain Applegarth, "very strange." + +"Quite so, sir, just what we all think, sir," chimed in Master +Spokeshave, putting in his oar. "Not a soul here on the bridge, sir, +observed anything of any ship of any sort, leastways one flying a signal +of distress, such as Dick Haldane said he saw." + +"Humph!" ejaculated the skipper, as if turning the matter over in his +mind for the moment; and then addressing me point blank he asked me +outright, "Do you really believe you saw this ship, Haldane?" + +"Yes, sir," I answered as directly as he had questioned me; "I'll swear +I did." + +"No, I don't want you to do that; I'll take your word for it without any +swearing, Haldane," said the skipper to this, speaking to me quietly and +as kindly as if he had been my father. "But listen to me, my boy. I do +not doubt your good faith for a moment, mind that. Still, are you sure +that what you believe you saw might not have been some optical illusion +proceeding from the effects of the afterglow at sunset? It was very +bright and vivid, you know, and the reflection of a passing cloud above +the horizon or its shadow just before the sun dipped might have caused +that very appearance which you took to be a ship under sail. I have +myself been often mistaken in the same way under similar atmospheric +surroundings and that is why I put it to you like this, to learn whether +you are quite certain you might not be mistaken?" + +"Quite so," shoved in Spokeshave again in his parrot fashion; "quite so, +sir." + +"I didn't ask your opinion," growled the skipper, shutting him up in a +twinkling; and then, turning to me again, he looked at me inquiringly. +"Well, Haldane, have you thought it out?" + +"Yes, captain, I have," I replied firmly, though respectfully, the ill- +timed interference of the objectionable Mr Spokeshave having made me as +obstinate as Mr Fosset. "It was no optical illusion or imagination on +my part, sir, or anything of that sort, I assure you, sir. I am telling +you the truth, sir, and no lie. I saw that ship, sir, to leeward of us +just now as clearly as I can see you at this moment; aye, clearer, sir!" + +"Then that settles the matter. I've never had occasion to doubt your +word before during the years you've sailed with me, my boy, and I am not +going to doubt it now." + +So saying, Captain Applegarth, putting his arm on my shoulder, faced +round towards the first mate and Spokeshave, as if challenging them both +to question my veracity after this testimony on his part in my favour. + +"This ship, you say, Haldane," then continued the skipper, proceeding to +interrogate me as to the facts of the case, now that my credulity had +been established, in his sharp, sailor-like way, "was flying a signal of +distress, eh?" + +"Yes, sir," I answered with zest, all animation and excitement again at +his encouragement. "She had her flag, the French tricolour, I think, +sir, hoisted half-mast at her peak; and she appeared, sir, a good deal +battered about, as if she had been in bad weather and had made the worst +of it. Besides, cappen--" + +I hesitated. + +"Besides what, my boy?" he asked, on my pausing here, almost afraid to +mention the sight I had noticed on the deck of the ill-fated ship in the +presence of two such sceptical listeners as Mr Fosset and my more +immediate superior, the third officer, Spokeshave. "You need not be +afraid of saying anything you like before me. _I'm_ captain of this +ship." + +"Well, sir," said I, speaking out, "just before that mass of clouds or +fog bank came down on the wind, shutting out the ship from view, she +yawed a bit off her course, and I saw somebody on her deck aft." + +"What!" cried the skipper, interrupting me. "Was she so close as that?" + +"Yes, sir," said I. "She did not seem to be a hundred yards away at the +moment, if that." + +"And you saw somebody on the deck?" + +"Yes, cap'en," I answered; "a woman." + +He again interrupted me, all agog at the news. + +"A woman?" + +"Yes, sir," said I. "A woman, or rather, perhaps a girl, for she had a +lot of long hair streaming over her shoulders, all flying about in the +wind." + +"What was she doing?" + +"She appeared to be waving a white handkerchief or something like that, +as if to attract our attention--asking us to help her, like." + +The skipper drew himself up to his full height on my telling this and +turned round on Mr Fosset, his face blazing with passion. + +"A ship in distress, a woman on board imploring our aid," he exclaimed +in keen, cold, cutting tones that pierced one like a knife, "and you +passed her by without rendering any assistance,--a foreigner too, of +all. We Englishmen, who pride ourselves on our humanity above all other +nations. What will they think of us?" + +"I tell you, sir, we could not see any ship at all!" retorted the first +mate hotly, in reply to this reproach, which he felt as keenly as it was +uttered. "And if we couldn't see the ship, how could we know there was +a woman or anybody aboard?" + +"Quite so," echoed Spokeshave, emphasising Mr Fosset's logical argument +in his own defence. "That's exactly what I say, sir." + +"I would not have had it happen for worlds. We flying the old Union +jack, too, that boasts of never passing either friend or foe when in +danger and asking aid." + +He spoke still more bitterly, as if he had not heard their excuses. + +"But hang it, cap'en," cried Mr Fosset, "I tell you--" + +Captain Applegarth waved him aside. + +"Where did you last sight the ship, Haldane?" he said, turning round +abruptly to me. "How was she heading?" + +"She bore about two points off our port quarter," I replied as +laconically. "I think, sir, she was running before the wind like +ourselves, though steering a little more to the southwards." + +The skipper looked at the standard compass in front of the wheel-house +on the bridge, and then addressed the helmsman. + +"How are we steering now, quartermaster? The same course as I set at +noon, eh?" + +"Aye, aye, sir," replied Atkins, who still stood by the steam steering +gear singlehanded. If it had been the ordinary wheel, unaided by steam- +power, it would have required four men to move the rudder and keep the +vessel steady in such a sea as was now running. "We've kept her pretty +straight, sir, since eight bells on the same course, west by south, sir, +half south." + +"Very good, quartermaster. Haldane, are you there?" + +"Yes, sir," said I, stepping up to him again, having moved away into the +shadow under the lee of the wheel-house whilst he was speaking to +Atkins. "Here I am, sir." + +"Was that vessel dropping us when we passed her, or were we going ahead +of her?" + +"She was running before the wind, sir, at a tangent to our course, and +more to the southwards, moving through the water quicker than we were, +until she luffed up just before that mist or fog bank shut her out from +view. But--" + +"Well?" + +"I think, sir," I continued, "that was done merely to speak us; and if +she bore away again, as she was probably forced to do, being at the +mercy of the gale, she must be scudding even more to the southwards, +almost due south, I should fancy, as the wind has backed again more to +the nor'ard since this." + +"I fancy the same, my boy. I see you have a sailor's eye and have got +your wits about you. Quartermaster?" + +"Aye, aye, sir?" + +"Let her off a point or two gradually until you bring her head about +sou'-sou'-west, and keep her so." + +"Aye, aye, sir," responded Atkins, easing her off as required. "Sou'- +sou'-west it shall be, sir, in a minute." + +"That will bring us across her, I think," said the skipper to me. "But +we must go a little faster if we want to overtake her. What are we +doing now, eh?" + +"I don't quite know, sir," I answered to this question. "I was only +just coming up on the bridge to relieve Mr Spokeshave when I sighted +the ship and have not had time to look at the indicator. I should +think, though, we're going eight or nine knots." + +This didn't satisfy the skipper, so he turned to the first mate, who had +remained moodily aloof with Spokeshave at the end of the bridge. + +"Mr Fosset," he sang out abruptly, "what are the engines doing?" + +"About thirty revolutions, sir; half speed, as nearly as possible." + +"How much are we going altogether?" + +"Ten knots, with our sails," replied the other. "The wind is +freshening, too." + +"So I see," said Captain Applegarth laconically. + +"And it'll freshen still more by-and-bye if I'm not mistaken!" + +"Yes, it looks as if we're going to have a bit of a blow. The scud is +flying all over us now that we are running before the wind. I really +think we ought to ease down, sir, for the screw races fearfully as she +dips and I'm afraid of the shaft." + +"I'm responsible for that, Mr Fosset," answered the skipper as, moving +the handle of the gong on the bridge communicating with the engine-room, +he directed those in charge below to put on full speed ahead. "I never +yet abandoned a ship in distress, and I'm not going to do so now. We're +on the right course to overhaul her, now, I think, eh, Haldane?" + +"Yes, sir," I replied. "I hope, though, we won't pass her in the fog, +sir, or run into her, perhaps." + +"No fear of that, my boy: The fog is lifting now and the night will soon +be as clear as a bell, for the wind is driving all the mists away. +Besides, we'll take precautions against any accident happening. Mr +Fosset?" + +"Aye, aye, sir?" + +"Put a couple of lookouts on the fo'c's'le." + +"Aye, aye, sir." + +"Perhaps, too, we'd better send up a rocket to let 'em know we're about. +Mr Spokeshave? Mr Spokeshave?" + +No answer came this time, however, from my friend, Master "Conky," +though he had been ready enough just now with his aggravating "quite +so." + +"I think, sir," said I, "Mr Spokeshave has gone below to his tea." + +"Very likely," replied the skipper drily; "he's precious fond of his +breadbasket, that young gentleman. I don't think he'll ever starve +where there's any grub knocking about. Fancy a fellow, calling himself +a man, thinking of his belly at such a moment! Go, Haldane, and call +him up again and tell him I want him." + +I started to obey Captain Applegarth's order, but I had hardly got three +steps down the ladder when Spokeshave saved me further trouble by coming +up on the bridge again of his own accord, without waiting to be +summoned. + +The skipper, therefore, gave him instructions to let off, every quarter +of an hour, a couple of signal rockets and burn a blue light or two over +our port and starboard quarter alternately as we proceeded towards the +object of our quest. + +"All right, sir; quite so!" said "Conky," as well as he could +articulate, his mouth being full of something he had hurriedly snatched +from the steward's pantry when he had gone below, and brought up with +him to eat on deck, knowing that the skipper would be sure to sing out +for him if he remained long away at so critical a juncture. "All right, +sir; quite so!" + +The skipper laughed as he went down again to get the rockets and blue +lights which were kept in a spare cabin aft for safety. + +"He's a rum chap, that little beggar," he observed to Mr Fosset, who +had been forward to set the look-out men on the forecastle and had +returned to the bridge. "I think if you told him he was the laziest +loafer that ever ate lobscouse, he couldn't help saying `Quite so!'" + +"You're about right, sir. I think, though, he can't help it; he's got +so used to the phrase," replied the other, joining in the skipper's +laugh. "But, hullo, here comes old Stokes, panting and puffing along +the gangway. I hope nothing's wrong in the engine-room." + +"I hope not," said the skipper. "We want to go all we can just now, to +overhaul that ship Haldane saw." + +"_If_ he saw it," muttered the first officer, under his breath and +glowering at me. "A pack of sheer nonsense, I call it, this going out +of our course on a wild-goose chase and tearing away full speed on a +wild night like this, in a howling sea, with a gale, too, astern; and +all because an ass of a youngster fancies he saw the _Flying Dutchman_!" + +I daresay the captain heard him, but the appearance just then of Mr +Stokes, our chief engineer, who had now reached the bridge, panting and +puffing at every step, as Mr Fosset had said, he being corpulent of +habit and short-winded, stopped any further controversy on the point as +to whether I had seen, or had not seen, the mysterious ship. + +"Cap'en, Cap'en Applegarth!" cried out the chief engineer asthmatically +as soon as he got within hail, speaking in a tearful voice and almost +crying in his excitement. "Are you there, sir?" + +"Aye, here I am, Mr Stokes, as large as life, though not quite so big a +man as you," answered the skipper jocularly. + +"I am here on the bridge, quite at your service." + +Mr Stokes, however, was in no jocular mood. + +"Cap'en Applegarth," said he solemnly, "did you really mean to ring us +on full speed ahead?" + +"I did," replied the skipper promptly. "What of that?" + +"What of that?" repeated the old engineer, dumbfounded by this return +shot. "Why, sir, the engines can't stand it. That is all, if you must +have it!" + +"Can't stand what?" + +"They can't stand all this driving and racing, with the propeller blades +half out of water every second revolution of the shaft. No engines +could stand it, with such a heavy sea on and the ship rolling and +pitching all the time like a merry-go-round at Barnet Fair. The +governor is no good; and, though Grummet or Links have their grip on the +throttle valve all the while to check the steam, and I've every stoker +and oiler on duty, the bearings are getting that heated that I'm afraid +of the shaft breaking at any moment. Full speed, sir? Why, we can't do +it, sir, we can't do it!" + +"Nonsense, Stokes," said the skipper good-humouredly. "You must do it, +old fellow." + +"But, I tell you, Cap'en Applegarth, the engines can't stand it without +breaking down, and then where will you be, I'd like to know?" + +"I'll risk that." + +"No, cap'en," snorted the old chief, doggedly. "I'm responsible to the +owners for the engines, and if anything happened to the machinery they'd +blame me. I can't do it." + +The skipper flew up to white heat at this. + +"But, Mr Stokes, recollect I am responsible for the ship, engines and +all, sir. The greater includes the less, and, as captain of this ship, +I intend to have my orders carried out by every man-jack on board. Do +you hear that?" + +"Yes, sir, I hear," replied Mr Stokes grumblingly as he backed towards +the bridge-ladder. "But, sir--" + +The skipper would not give him time to get out another word. + +"You heard what I said," he roared out in a voice that made the old +chief jump down half a dozen steps at once. "I ordered you to go full +speed ahead and I mean to go full speed ahead whether the boilers burst, +or the propeller races, or the screw shaft carries away; for I won't +abandon a ship in distress for all the engineers and half-hearted +mollicoddles in the world!" + +"A ship in distress?" gasped old Mr Stokes from the bottom rung of the +ladder. "I didn't hear about that before." + +"Well, you hear it now," snapped out the skipper viciously, storming up +and down the bridge in a state of great wrath. "But whether it's a ship +in distress or not, I'll have you to know, Mr Stokes, once for all that +if I order full speed or half speed or any speed, I intend my orders to +be obeyed; and if you don't like it you can lump it. I'm captain of +this ship!" + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +THE GALE FRESHENS. + +Presently a cloud of thick black smoke again pouring forth from the +funnels showed that Mr Stokes had set the engine-room staff vigorously +to work to carry out the skipper's orders; while the vibration of the +upper deck below our feet afforded proof, were such needed, that the +machinery was being driven to its utmost capacity, the regular throbbing +motion caused by the revolving shaft being distinctly perceptible above +the rolling of the vessel and the jar of the opposing waves against her +bow plates when she pitched more deeply than usual and met the sea full +butt-end on. + +The surface fog, or mist, which had lately obscured the view, rising +from the water immediately after the last gleams of the sunset had +disappeared from the western sky, had now cleared away, giving place to +the pale spectral light of night, an occasional star twinkling here and +there in the dark vault overhead, like a sign-post in the immensity of +space, making the wild billowy waste, through which we tore with all the +power of wind and steam, seem all the wilder from contrast. + +We had carried on like this for about an hour, steering steadily to the +southwards, without catching sight again of the strange ship, though +Spokeshave and I had continued to let off signal rockets and burn blue +lights at intervals, the gale increasing in force each instant, and the +waves growing bigger and bigger, so that they rose over the topsail as +we raced along, when, all at once, a great green sea broke amidships, +coming aboard of us just abaft of the engine-room hatchway, flooding all +the waist on either side of the deckhouse and rolling down below in a +regular cataract of tumid water, sweeping everything before it. + +"That's pretty lively," exclaimed Captain Applegarth, clutching hold of +the rail to preserve his balance as he turned to the quartermaster at +the wheel. "Steady there, my man! Keep her full and by!" + +"Aye, aye, sir," answered Atkins. "But she do yaw so, when she buries +her bows. She's got too much sail on her, sir." + +"I know that," said the skipper. "But I'm going to carry on as long as +I can, all the same, my man." + +Even as he spoke, however, a second sea followed the first, nearly +washing us all off the bridge, and smashing the glass of the skylight +over the engine-room, besides doing other damage. + +By Captain Applegarth's directions, a piece of heavy tarpaulin was +lashed over the broken skylight, securing the ends to ringbolts in the +deck; but hardly had the covering been made fast ere we could see the +chief engineer picking his way towards us, struggling through the water +that still lay a foot deep in the waist and looking as pale as death. + +"Hullo, Mr Stokes," cried the skipper, when the old chief with great +difficulty had gained the vantage of the bridge-ladder. "What's the +matter now, old fellow?" + +He was too much exhausted at first to reply. + +"What's the matter?" he echoed ironically when able at last to speak. +"Oh, nothing at all worth mentioning; nothing at all. I told you how it +would be, sir, if you insisted on going ahead full speed in such weather +as we're having! Why, Cap'en Applegarth, the stoke-hold's full of water +and the bilgepump's choked, that's all; and the fires, I expect, will be +drowned out in another minute or two. That's what's the matter, sir, +believe me or not!" + +With that the poor old chap, who was quite overcome with the exertions +he had gone through and his pent-up emotion, broke down utterly, +bursting into a regular boohoo. + +"Dear me, Mr Stokes; Mr Stokes, don't give way like that," said the +skipper soothingly, patting him on the back to calm him down, being a +very good-hearted man at bottom, in spite of his strict discipline and +insistence on being "captain of his own ship," as he termed it. "Don't +give way like that, old friend! Things will come all right by-and-bye." + +"O-o-h, will they?" snivelled the old chap, refusing to be comforted, +like a veritable Rachel mourning for her children. "We may possibly get +rid of the water below, but the crosshead bearings are working loose, +and I'd like to know who's going to give me a new gudgeon pin?" + +"Hang your gudgeon pin!" cried the skipper irascibly, not perhaps for +the moment attaching the importance it demanded to this small but +essential part of the engines, uniting the connecting rod of the crank +shaft with the piston which he thus irreverently anathematised; and +then, struck by the comic aspect of the situation, with the waves +breaking over us and the elements in mad turmoil around us, while the +fat old chief was blubbering there like a boy about his gudgeon pin as +if bewailing some toy that had been taken from him, that he burst out +with a roar of laughter, which was so contagious that, in spite of the +gloomy outlook and our perilous surroundings, Mr Fosset and all of us +on the bridge joined in, even the quartermaster not being able to +prevent a grin from stealing over his crusty weatherbeaten face, though +the man at the wheel on board ship, when on duty, is technically +supposed to be incapable of expressing any emotion beyond such as may be +connected with the compass card and the coursing of the ship. "Wha-- +wha--what's the matter with that now, old chap? One would think it was +a whale and not a gudgeon, you make such a fuss about it." + +Of course the captain's joke set us all off cackling again; Mr +Spokeshave's "he-he-he" sounding out, high in the treble, above the +general cachination. + +This exasperated Mr Stokes, making the old fellow quite furious. + +"This is no laughing matter, Cap'en Applegarth," said he with great +dignity, standing up as erectly as he could and puffing his corpulent +figure out to such an extent that I thought he would burst. "I'll have +ye to know that, sir. Nor did I come on deck, sir, at the peril of my +life almost, to be made a jeer block of, though I'm only the chief +engineer of the ship and you're the ca'p'en." + +He spoke with so stately an air that I confess I felt sorry I had given +away to any merriment at his expense, while the others grew serious in a +moment; and as for Atkins, his whilom grinning face seemed now to be +carved out of some species of wood of a particularly hard and fibrous +nature. + +"Now, don't get angry, Stokes, old fellow," cried the skipper shoving +out his fist and gripping that of the chief in the very nick of time, +for the vessel gave a lurch just then and, still "standing on his +dignity," as the poor old chap was, without holding on to anything, he +would have been precipitated over the rail to the deck below, but for +the skipper's friendly aid. "Don't be angry with me, old chum. I'm +sorry I laughed; but you and I have been shipmates too long together for +us to fall out now. Why, what the devil has got over you, Stokes? +You've never been so huffy since I first sailed with you, and I should +have thought you one of the last in the world to take offence at a +little bit of harmless chaff." + +"Well, well, Cap'en Applegarth, let it bide, let it bide," replied the +old chief, coming round at once, his rage calming down as quickly as it +had risen. "I don't mind your laughing at me if you have a mind too. I +daresay it all seemed very funny to you, my being anxious about my +engines, but I'm hanged if I can see the fun myself." + +"But it was funny, Stokes; deuced funny, I tell you, `ho-ho-ho!'" +rejoined the skipper, bursting out into a regular roar again at the +recollection of the scene, his jolly laugh causing even the cause of it +to smile against his will. "However, there's an end of it, gudgeon pin +and all. Now, about that stoke-hold of yours. It's flooded, you say?" + +"Aye; there's eighteen inches of water there now, right up to the +footplates," said the engineer with a grave air. "The bilge-pumps won't +act, and all my staff of stokers are so busy keeping up the steam that I +can't spare a man to see to clearing out the suctions, though if the +water rises any higher, it will soon be up to the furnace bars and put +out the fires." + +"Humph, that's serious," answered the skipper meditatively. "I'll see +what I can do to help you. I say, Fosset?" + +"Aye, aye, sir! Want me?" + +"Yes," replied the skipper. "Mr Stokes is shorthanded below and says +the bilge-pumps are choked. Can you spare him a man or two to help +clear the suctions? I daresay there's a lot of stray dunnage washing +about under the stoke-hold plates. You might go down and bear a hand +yourself, as I won't leave the bridge." + +"Certainly, sir; I'll go at once with Mr Stokes and take some of the +starboard watch with me. It's close on seven bells and they'd soon have +to turn out, anyway, to relieve the men now on deck." + +"That'll do very well, Fosset," said the skipper, and, raising his +voice, he shouted over the rail forwards-- + +"Bosun, call the watch!" + +Bill Masters, who had been waiting handy on the deck amidships, +immediately below the bridge, expecting some such order with the need, +as he thought, of the skipper reducing sail, at once stuck his shrill +boatswain's pipe to his lips and gave the customary call: Whee-ee-oo- +oo--whee-ee-ee. + +"Starboard watch, ahoy!" + +The men came tumbling out of the fo'c's'le at the sound of the whistle +and the old seadog's stentorian hail; whereupon the first mate, +selecting six of the lot to accompany him, he followed Mr Stokes +towards the engine-room hatchway. + +Before disappearing below, however, the engineer made a last appeal to +the skipper. + +"I say, cap'en," he sang out, stopping half-way as he toddled aft, +somewhat disconsolately in spite of the assistance given him, "now won't +you ease down, sir, just to oblige me? The engines won't stand it, sir; +and it's my duty to tell you so, sir." + +"All right, Stokes; you've told me, and may consider that you've done +your duty in doing so," replied the skipper, grimly laconic. "But I'm +not going to ease down till seven bells, my hearty, unless we run across +Dick Haldane's ship before, when we'll go as slow as you like and bear +up again on our course to the westwards." + +"Very good, sir," answered the old chief as he lifted his podgy legs +over the coaming of the hatchway, prior to burying himself in the +cimmerian darkness of the opening, wherein Mr Fosset and his men had +already vanished. + +"I'll make things all snug below, sir, and bank the fires as soon as you +give the signal." + +With that, he, too, was lost to sight. + +The skipper, I could see, was not very easy in his mind when left alone; +for he paced jerkily to and fro between the wheel-house and the weather +end of the bridge as well as he was able, the vessel being very +unsteady, rolling about among the big rollers like a huge grampus and +pitching almost bows under water sometimes, though the old barquey was +buoyant enough, notwithstanding the lot of deadweight she carried in her +bowels, rising up after each plunge as frisky as a cork, when she would +shake herself with a movement that made her tremble all over, as if to +get rid of the loose spray and spindrift that hung on to her shining +black head, and which the wind swept before it like flecks of snow into +the rigging, spattering and spattering against the almost red-hot +funnels up which the steam blast was rushing mingled with the flare of +the funnels below. + +After continuing his restless walk for a minute or two, the skipper +stopped by the binnacle, looking at the compass card, which moved about +as restlessly as the old barquey and himself, oscillating in every +direction. + +"We ought to have come up with her by now, Haldane," he said, addressing +me, as I stood with Spokeshave on the other side of the wheel-house. +"Don't you think so from the course she was going when you sighted her?" + +"Yes, sir," I answered, "if she hasn't gone down!" + +"I hope not, my boy," said he; "but I'm very much afraid she has, or +else we've passed ahead of her." + +"That's not likely, sir," I replied. "She looked as if crossing our +track when I last saw her; and, though we were going slower then, we +must be gaining on her now, I should think." + +"We ought to be," said he. "We must be going seventeen knots at the +least with wind and steam." + +"Aye, aye, sir, all that," corroborated old Masters, the boatswain, who +had come up on the bridge unnoticed. "Beg pardon, sir, but we can't +carry on much longer with all that sail forrad. The fore-topmast is a- +complainin' like anythink, I can tell ye, sir. Chirvell, the carpenter, +and me's examinin' it and we thinks it's got sprung at the cap, sir." + +"If that's the case, my man," said Captain Applegarth to this, "we'd +better take in sail at once. It's a pity, too, with such a fine wind. +I was just going to spare the engines and ease down for a bit, trusting +to our sails alone, but if there's any risk of the spars going, as you +say, wrong, we must reduce our canvas instead." + +"There's no help for it, sir," returned the boatswain quickly. "Either +one or t'other must go! Shall I pass the word, sir, to take in sail?" + +"Aye, take in the rags!" + +"Fo'c's'le, ahoy there!" yelled Masters instantly, taking advantage of +the long-desired permission. "All hands take in sail!" + +We had hauled the trysails and other fore and aft canvas, which was +comparatively useless to a steamer when running before the wind at the +time we had altered course towards the south, in quest of the ship in +distress, the _Star of the North_ speeding along with only her fore- +topsail and fore-topgallantsail set in addition to her fore-topmast +staysail and mizzen staysail and jib. + +The gale, however, had increased so much, the wind freshening as it +shifted more and more to the north that this sail was too much for her, +the canvas bellying out, and the upper spars "buckling" as the vessel +laboured in the heavy sea, the stays taut as fiddle-strings and +everything at the utmost tension. + +The skipper perceived this now, when almost too late. + +"Let go your topgallant bowline, and lee sheet and halliards," he roared +out, holding on with both hands to the rail and bending over the bridge +cloth as he shouted to the men forward who had tumbled out of the +forecastle on the boatswain's warning hail. "Stand by your clewlines +and by your boat lines!" + +The men sprang to the ropes with a will, but ere they had begun to cast +them off from the cleats an ominous sound was heard from aloft, and, +splitting from clew to earring, our poor topgallantsail blew clean out +of the boltropes with a loud crack as if a gun had been fired off, the +fragments floating away ahead of us, borne on the wings of the wind like +a huge kite, until it disappeared in the dark _chiaraoscura_ of the +distant horizon, where heaven and sea met amid the shadows of night. + +Just then a most wonderful thing happened to startle us further! + +While all of us gazed at the wreck aloft, expecting the topsail to +follow suit before it could be pulled, though the hands were racing up +rigging for the purpose, the halliards having been at once let go and +the yard lowered, a strange light over the topsail made us look aft, +when we saw a huge ball of fire pass slowly across the zenith from the +east to the west, illuminating not only the northern arc of the sky, but +the surface of the water also, immediately beneath its path, and making +the faces of the men in the rigging and indeed any object on board, +stand out in relief, shining with that corpse-like glare or reflection +produced by the electric light, the effect being weird and unearthly in +the extreme! + +At the same instant one of the lookouts in the bows who had still +remained at his post and had probably been awakened from a quiet "caulk" +by the awful portent, suddenly shouted out in a ringing voice, that +thrilled through every heart on board-- + +"Sail ho!" + +Captain Applegarth and the rest of us on the bridge faced round again at +once. + +"Where away, where away, my man?" cried the skipper excitedly. "Where +away?" + +"Right ahead of us, sir," replied the man in an equally eager tone. +"And not half a cable's length away!" + +"My God!" exclaimed old Masters, the boatswain, whose grey hair seemed +to stand on end with terror as we all now looked in the new direction +indicated and saw a queer ghost-like craft gliding along mysteriously in +the same direction as ourselves, and so close alongside that I could +have chucked a biscuit aboard her without any difficulty. "That there +be no mortal vessel that ever sailed the seas. Mark my words, Cap'en +Applegarth, that there craft be either _The Flying Dutchman_, as I've +often heard tell on, but never seen meself, or a ghost-ship; and--Lord +help us--we be all doomed men!" + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS. + +"Nonsense, man!" cried Captain Applegarth. "Don't make such an ass of +yourself! _Flying Dutchman_ indeed! Why, that cock and bull yarn was +exploded years ago, and I didn't think there was a sailor afloat in the +present day ass enough to believe in this story!" + +"I may be a hass, sir; I know I am sometimes," retorted old Masters, +evidently aggrieved by the skipper speaking to him like this before the +men. "But, sir, seein' is believin'. There's this ship an' there's +that there craft a-sailin' alongside in the teeth o' the gale. Hass or +no hass, I sees that, captain!" + +"Hang it all, man, can't you see that it is only the mirage or +reflection of our own vessel, produced by the light of the meteor +throwing her shadow on to the mass of cloud leeward? Look, there are +our two old sticks and the funnels between, with the smoke rushing out +of them! Aye, and there, too, you can see this very bridge here we're +standing on, and all of us, as large as life. Why, bo'sun, you can see +your own ugly mug reflected now opposite us, just as it would be in a +looking glass. Look, man!" + +"Aye, I sees, sir, plain enuff, though I'm a hass," said Masters at +length. "But it ain't nat'rel, sir, anyhow; an' I misdoubts sich skeary +things. I ain't been to sea forty years for nothin', Captain +Applegarth, an' I fears sich a sight as that betokens some danger ahead +as 'ill happen to us some time or other this voyage. Even started on a +Friday, sir, as you knows on, sir!" + +"Rubbish!" cried the skipper, angry at his obstinacy. "See, the mirage +has disappeared now that the meteor light has become dispersed. Look +smart there, aloft, and furl that topsail! It's just seven bells and +I'm going to ease down the engines and bear up on our course again. Up +with you, men, and lay out on the yard!" + +The hands who had stopped half-way up the fore-rigging, spell-bound at +the sight of the mirage, now bestirred themselves, shaking off their +superstitious fears; old Masters, in the presence of something to be +done, also working, and soon the sail was furled, the bunt stowed, and +the gaskets passed. + +"It's no use our keeping on any longer after that ship of yours, +Haldane," observed the skipper, turning to me when the men had all come +in from the topsail yard and scrambled down on deck again after making +everything snug aloft. "If she were still afloat we must have +overhauled her before this. I really think, youngster, she must have +been only a sort of will-o'-the-wisp, like that we saw just now--an +optical illusion, as I told you at the time, recollect, caused by some +cross light from the afterglow of the sunset thrown upon the white mist +which we noticed subsequently rising off the water. Eh, my boy?" + +"Ah, no, captain," I replied earnestly. "The ship I saw presented a +very different appearance to that reflection of ours! _She_ was full- +rigged, I told you, sir, and though her canvas was torn and she looked a +bit knocked about in the matter of her tophamper, she was as unlike our +old _Star of the North_ as a sailing vessel is unlike a steamer!" + +"She might have been a derelict." + +"I saw a girl on her deck aft, sir, with a dog beside her, as distinctly +as I see you, sir, now!" + +"Well, well, be that as it may, my lad, though I'm very sorry for the +poor young thing, if she is still in the land of the living, I can't +carry on like this for ever! If she were anywhere in sight it would be +quite another matter; but, as it is, not knowing whether we're on her +right track or not, we might scud on to the Equator without running +across her again. No, no; it wouldn't be fair to the owners or to +ourselves, indeed, to risk the ship as well as the lives of all on board +by continuing any longer on such a wild-goose chase." + +"Very good, sir," said I, on his pausing here, as if waiting for me to +say something. "We've tried our best to come up with her, at any rate." + +"We have that, and I daresay a good many would call us foolhardy for +carrying on as we've done so long. However, I'm going to abandon the +chase now and bear up again on our proper course, my boy, and the devil +of a job that will be, I know, in the teeth of this gale!" + +So saying, the skipper, grasping the handle of the engine-room +telegraph, which led up through a tube at the end of the bridge, +signalled to those in charge below to slow down to half speed. + +"Down with the helm, quartermaster!" he cried to the man at the wheel, +and, at the same moment holding up his hand to attract the attention of +old Masters, who had returned to his station on the fo'c's'le, greatly +exercised in his mind by what had recently occurred, he sang out in a +voice of thunder that reached the knightheads and made the boatswain +skip: "Haul in your jib sheet and flatten those staysails sharp! I want +to bring her round to the wind handsomely, to prevent taking in another +of those green seas aboard when we get broadside-on. Look smart, +bo'sun, and keep your eye on her. Keep your eye on her, d'you hear? +It's ticklish work, you know. Look-out sharp or she'll broach to!" + +Far as the eye could reach, the storm-tossed surface of the deep was +white with foam, white as a snowfield, and boiling with rage and fury. + +The bank of blue-black cloud that had rested along the horizon to +leeward had now melted away in some mysterious fashion or other, and the +sky became as clear as a bell, only some wind-driven scrap of semi- +transparent white vapour sweeping occasionally across the face of the +pale, sickly-looking moon that looked down on the weird scene in a sort +of menacing way; while, in lieu of the two or three odd sentinels that +had previously peeped out from the firmament, all the galaxies of heaven +were, at this moment, in their myriads above, spangling the empyrean +from zenith to pole. + +But the gale! + +While running before the wind, the wind, although it had ballooned our +sails out to bursting point, brushing us along at a wild, mad-cap rate, +and buffeting the boisterous billows on either hand, scooping them up +from the depths of the ocean and piling them in immense waves of angry +water that rolled after us, striving to overwhelm us, we could hardly, +even while taking advantage of it, appreciate its awful and tremendous +force. + +On coming about, however, and facing it, the case was vastly different, +the wind increasing tenfold in its intensity. + +Where it had sung through the rigging it now shrieked and howled, as if +the air were peopled with demons, while the waves, lashed into fury, +dashed against our bows like battering rams, rising almost to the level +of our masthead where their towering crests met overhead. + +Round came the old barquey's head slowly, and more slowly still as she +staggered against the heavy sea, until, all at once, she stopped in +stays, unable apparently, though struggling all she could, to face her +remorseless foe. + +"Luff up, quartermaster!" roared the skipper to the top of his voice and +dancing up and down the bridge in his excitement. "Luff, you beggar, +luff!" + +"I can't, sir," yelled the man in desperation--a fresh hand who had come +on duty to relieve Atkins at six bells. "The steam steering gear has +broken-down, sir, and I can't make her move." + +"By Jingo, that's a bad job," cried the skipper, but he was not long at +a nonplus. "Run aft, Haldane, and you too, Spokeshave. Loosen the bunt +of the mizzen-trysail and haul at the clew. That'll bring her up to the +wind fast enough, if the sail only stands it!" + +To hear was to obey, and both Spokeshave and I scuttled down the bridge- +ladder as quickly as we could and away along the waist of the ship aft, +the urgency of our errand hastening our movements if we had needed any +spur beyond the skipper's sharp, imperative mandate. + +But, speedily as we had hurried, on mounting the poop-ladder and rushing +towards the bitts at the foot of the mizzenmast to cast off the bunt- +lines and clewlines of the trysail we found we had been already +forestalled by an earlier arrival on the scene of action. + +This was Mr O'Neil, the second officer, whom I had left below asleep in +his cabin when I came up at two bells from the saloon, he having been on +duty all the afternoon and his services not being required again until +night, when he would have to go on the bridge to take the first watch +from eight to midnight. + +Feeling the bucketing-about we were having in the trough of the sea when +we came about, and probably awakened by the change of motion, just as a +miller is supposed to be instantaneously roused by his mill stopping, +though he may be able to sleep through all the noise of its grinding +when at work, Garry O'Neil had at once shoved himself into his boots and +monkey jacket and rushed up on the poop through the companion and booby- +hatch that led up directly on deck from the saloon. + +Arrived here, he had evidently noted the vessel's insecurity, and, +seamanlike, had hit upon the very same way out of the difficulty that +had suggested itself to the skipper, having, ere we reached his side, +cast off the ropes confining the folds of the trysail and trying +singlehanded to haul out the clew. + +"Begorrah, me bhoys, ye've come in the very nick o' time!" he exclaimed +on seeing us. "Here, Spoke, me darlint, hang on to the end of this +sheet and you, Dick, step on to the tail of it, whilst I take a turn of +the slack round that bollard! Faith, it's blo'in' like the dievle, and +we'll have our work cut out for us, me bhoys, to git a purchase on it +anyhow. Now, all together, yo-heave-ho! Pull baker, pull dievle!" + +With that, bending our backs to it, we all hauled away at the sheet, +succeeding by a great endeavour in stretching the clew of the sail to +the end of the boom, which we then secured amidships as best we could, +though the spar and sail combined jerked to such an extent that it +seemed as if the mizzenmast would be wrenched out of the ship each +instant, the heavy fold of the canvas that hung loosely under the jaws +of the gaff shaking and banging about with a noise like thunder. + +Even the small amount of canvas exposed to the wind, however, was +sufficient to supply the additional leverage required aft; and the +engines working at half speed, with the headsails flattened, the ship's +bows were presently brought up to the wind, when we lay-to under easy +steam. + +"Well done, my lads!" sang out the skipper from the bridge, when the +ship's head was round and the peril of her broaching-to in the heavy +seaway been fortunately averted; the wind was blowing aft, of course, +and bringing his voice to us as if he stood by, and shouting in our very +ears, "Now look sharp and come here under the bridge; I want you to cast +off the lashings of the big wheel amidships and see that the yolk lines +run clear. We shall have to manhandle the helm and steer from below, as +the steam gear up here in the wheel-house is hopelessly jammed and will +take a month of Sundays to get right!" + +"Aye, aye, sir," we made answer, under his nose, having been scurrying +forwards while he was speaking, the Irish mate adding in his native +vernacular, "Begorrah, we'll rig up the whole, sir, in the twinkling of +a bedpost, sure!" + +"Hullo!" exclaimed the skipper, "is that you, O'Neil?" + +"Faith, all that's lift of me, sir!" + +"How's that?--I was just going to send down to your cabin to rouse you +out." + +"Begorrah, its moighty little rousin' I want, sor! The ould barquey's +that lively that she'd wake a man who'd been d'id for a wake, sure! +I've been so rowled about in me burth and banged agin' the bulkheads +that my bones fell loike jelly and I'm blue-mouldy all over. But what +d'ye want, cap'en? Sure, I'm helping the youngster with this whale +here." + +"By jingo!" cried the skipper, "you're the right man in the right +place!" + +"Faith, that's what the gaolor s'id to the burghlor, sor, when he fixed +him up noicely on the treadmill!" + +The skipper laughed. + +"Well, you fix up your job all right, and you'll be as good as your +friend the gaoler," he said. "When we have the helm all alaunto again, +we can bear up on our course and jog along comfortably. I think we are +lucky to have got off so lightly, considering the wind and sea, with +this steering gear breaking down at such an awkward moment!" + +"Ah, we ain't seed the worse on it yet, and you'd better not holler till +ye're out o' the wood!" muttered old Masters under his breath, in reply +to this expression of opinion of the skipper, the boatswain having come +to our assistance with all the hands he could muster, so as to get the +wheel below the bridge in working order as soon as possible. "I knowed +that this ghost-ship meant sumkin' and we ain't come to the end o' the +log yet!" + +Almost as he uttered the words, Mr Fosset came up the engine-room +hatchway and made his way hurriedly towards us. + +"By jingo, Fosset, here you are at last!" exclaimed the skipper on +seeing him. "I thought you were never coming up again, finding it so +jolly warm and comfortable below! Are things all right there now, and +are the bilge-pumps working?" + +Captain Applegarth spoke jocosely enough, everything being pretty easy +on deck and the ship breasting the gale like a duck, but Mr Fosset's +face, I noticed, looked grave and he answered the other in a more +serious fashion than his general wont, his mouth working nervously in +the pale moonlight that lent him a more pallid air as the words dropped +from his lips, making his countenance, indeed, almost like that of a +corpse. + +"But what, man!" exclaimed the skipper impatiently, interrupting his +slow speech before Mr Fosset could get any further. "Anything wrong, +eh?" + +"Yes, sir, I'm sorry to say something is very wrong, I fear--very wrong +below," replied the other sadly. "There has been a sad accident in the +stoke-hole!" + +Old Masters, whose ears had been wide open to the conversation, here +nudged me with his elbow as I stood beside him, and at the same time +giving forth a grunt of deep and heartfelt significance. + +"I knowed summet 'ud happen," he whispered in a sepulchral voice that +sounded all the more gruesome from the attendant circumstances, the +shrieking wind tearing through the riggings, the melancholy wash of the +waves alongside, the moaning and groaning of the poor old barquey's +timbers as if she were in grievous pain, while at that very moment the +bell under the break of the fo'c's'le struck eight bells slowly, as if +tolling for a passing soul. "_You_ seed the ghost-ship, Mr Haldane, +the same as me, for _I_ saw it, that I did!" + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +DISASTER ON DISASTER. + +"Accident in the stoke-hold!" repeated the skipper, who of course did +not overhear the old boatswain's aside to me. "Accident in the stoke- +hold!" again repeated the skipper; "anybody hurt?" + +"Yes, sir," replied the first mate in the same grave tone of voice. +"Mr Stokes and two of the firemen." + +"Seriously?" + +"Not all, sir," said the other, glancing round as if looking for some +one specially. "The chief engineer has one of his arms broken and a few +scratches, but the firemen are both injured, and one so badly hurt that +I fear he won't get over it, for his ribs have been crushed in and his +lower extremities seem paralysed!" + +"Good heavens!" exclaimed the skipper. "How did the accident happen?" + +"They were searching under the stoke-hold plates to get out some cotton +waste that had got entangled about the rosebox of the suctions, which, +as we found out, prevented the bilge-pumps from acting, when, all in a +moment, just when all the stray dunnage had been cleared out, the ship +gave a lurch and the plates buckled up, catching the lot of them, Mr +Stokes and all, in a sort of rat trap. Mr Stokes tumbled forwards on +his face in the water and was nearly drowned before Stoddart and I could +pull him out, the poor old chap was so heavy to lift, and he nearly +squashed Blanchard, the stoker, by falling on top of him as we were +trying to raise him up, cutting his head open besides, against the fire +bars. Poor Jackson, however, the other fireman, was gripped tight +between two of the plates and it was all we could do to release him, +Stoddart having to use a jack-saw to force the edges of the plates +back." + +"My God! horrible, horrible!" ejaculated the skipper, terribly upset and +concerned. "Poor fellows; Jackson, too, was the best hand Stokes had +below!" + +"Aye, sir, and as good a mechanic, too, I've heard them say, as any of +the engineers," agreed Mr Fosset, with equal feeling. "But, sir, I'm +losing time talking like this! I only came up for assistance for the +poor fellows and the others who are wounded. Where's Garry O'Neil?" + +"Why, he was here under the bridge a moment ago," cried the skipper +eagerly. "Hullo, O'Neil? Pass the word up, men, for Mr O'Neil. He's +wanted at once! Sharp, look alive!" + +Our second officer, it should be explained, was not only a sailor but a +surgeon as well. He had run away to sea as a boy, and, after working +his way up before the mast until he had acquired sufficient seamanship +to obtain a mate's certificate, he had, at his mother's entreaty, she +having a holy horror of salt water, abandoned his native element and +studied for the medical profession at Trinity College, Dublin. Here, +after four years' practice in walking the hospitals, he graduated with +full honours, much to his mother's delight. The old lady, however, +dying some little time after, he, feeling no longer bound by any tie at +home, and having indeed sacrificed his own wishes for her sake, +incontinently gave up his newly-fledged dignity of "Doctor" Garry +O'Neil, returning to his old love and embracing once more a sea-faring +life, which he has stuck to ever since. He had sailed with us in the +_Star of the North_ now for over a twelvemonth, in the first instance as +third officer and for the last two voyages as second mate, the fact of +his being a qualified surgeon standing him in good stead and making him +even a more important personage on board than his position warranted, +cargo steamers not being in the habit of carrying a medical man like +passenger ships, and sailorly qualities and surgical skill +interchangeable characteristics! + +Hitherto we had been fortunate enough to have no necessity for availing +ourselves of his professional services, but now they came in handy +enough in good sooth. + +"Mr O'Neil?" sang out the men on the lower deck, passing on his name in +obedience to the skipper's orders from hand to hand, till the hail +reached the after hatchway, down which Spokeshave roared with all the +power of his lungs, being anxious on his own account to be heard and so +released from his watch so that he could go below. "Mr O'Neil?" he +again yelled out. + +Spokeshave must have shouted down the Irishman's throat, for the next +instant he poked his head up the hatchway. + +"Here I am, bedad!" he exclaimed, shoving past Master "Conky," to whom +he had a strong dislike, though "Garry," as we all called him, was +friendly with every one with whom he was brought in contact, and was, +himself, a great favourite with all the hands on board. Now, as he made +his way towards the bridge, where some of the men were still singing out +his name, he cried out, "Who wants me, sure? Now, don't ye be all +spaking at once; one at a time, me darlints, as we all came into the +wurrld!" + +"Why, where did you get to, man?" said the skipper, somewhat crossly. +"We've been hunting all over the ship for you!" + +"Sure, I wint down into the stowage to say if the yolklines and chains +for the wheel were all clear, and to disconnect the shtame stayrin' +gear," replied our friend Garry. "But you'll find it all right now, +with the helm amidships, and you can steer her wheriver you like; only +you'll want four hands at least to hauld the spokes steady if she breaks +off, as I fear she will, in this say!" + +"That's all right," cried the skipper, appeased at once, for he +evidently thought that Garry had gone back to his cabin and left us in +the lurch. "But I've bad news, and sorry to say, O'Neil, we want your +services as a doctor now. There's been a bad accident in the stoke-hold +and some of the poor fellows are sadly hurt." + +"Indade, now!" ejaculated the other, all attention. "What's the matter? +Any one scalded by the shtame, sure?" + +"No, not that," said Mr Fosset, taking up the tale. "Mr Stokes has +had his arm broken and another poor fellow been almost crushed to death. +He's now insensible, or was when I came on deck so you'd better take +some stimulant as well as splints with you." + +"Faith, I understand all right and will follow your advice in a brace of +shakes," replied the second mate, as he rushed off towards the saloon. +"You'd better go on ahead, Fosset, and say I'm coming!" + +With these parting words both he and the first officer disappeared from +view, the latter hastening back to the engine-room, while the captain +slowly mounted the bridge-ladder again and resumed his post there by the +binnacle, after placing four of the best hands at the wheel amidships +with old Masters, the boatswain, in charge. + +"Ah, what d'ye think o' that now?" observed the latter to me, as I stood +there awaiting my orders from the skipper, or to hear anything he might +have to say to me. "I said as how summut was sure to happen. That +there ship--the ghost-ship--didn't come athwart our hawser for nothink, +I knowed!" + +Just then there was a call up the voicepipe communicating between the +wheel-house on the bridge and the engine-room. + +The skipper bent his ear to the pipe, listening to what those below had +to say, and then came to the top of the ladder. + +"Below there!" he sang out. "Is Mr Spokeshave anywhere about?" + +"No, sir," I answered. "He went off duty at eight bells." + +"The devil he did, and me in such a plight, too, with that awful +accident below!" cried Captain Applegarth angrily. "I suppose he's +thinking of his belly again, the gourmandising little beast! He isn't +half a sailor or worth a purser's parings! I'll make him pay for his +skulking presently, by Jingo! However, I can't waste the time now to +send after him, and you'll do as well, Haldane--better, indeed, I +think!" + +"All right, sir," said I, eager for action. "I'm ready to do anything." + +"That's a willing lad," cried the skipper. "Now run down into Garry +O'Neil's cabin and get some lint bandages he says he forgot to take with +him in his hurry, leaving them on the top of his bunk by the doorway; +and tell Weston, the steward, to have a couple of spare bunks ready for +the injured men--in one of the state rooms aft will be best." + +"All right, sir," said I, adding, as he seemed to hesitate, "anything +else, sir?" + +"Yes, my boy; take down a loose hammock with you, and some lashings, so +as to make a sort of net with which to lift and carry poor Jackson. +He's the only chap badly hurt and unable to shift for himself, so O'Neil +says. Look sharp, Haldane, there's no time to lose; the poor fellow's +in a very ticklish state and they want to get him up on deck in order to +examine his injuries better than they can below in the stoke-hold!" + +"Aye, aye, sir!" I answered, darting aft immediately, to avoid further +debation, towards the saloon door under the poop. "I'm _off_, sir, at +once!" + +Here I soon got what the Irishman had asked for out of his cabin, and, +giving Weston his order about the state room, unslinging the while my +own hammock from its hooks and rolling it up, blankets and all, in a +roll, I kicked it before me as I made my way down the engine-room +hatchway as quickly as I could. + +The machinery, I noticed when passing through the flat to the stoke- +hold, which was, of course, on a still lower level, was working away +pretty easily, the piston in the cylinder moving steadily up and down, +and the eccentric, which always appeared to me as a sort of bandy-legged +giant, executing its extraordinary double-shuffle in a more graceful +fashion than when we were going at full speed, as it performed its +allotted task of curvetting the up-and-down motion of the piston into a +circular one, thus making the shaft revolve; while Grummet, the third +engineer, who was still watching the throttle valve, hand on lever, had +a far easier job than previously, when we were running with full power +before wind and sea, and rolling and pitching at every angle every +minute. + +But even in the fleeting glance I had passing by, the screw still went +round in a dangerous way when the stern of the vessel lifted, as some +big wave passed under her keel, in spite of all Grummet's precautions in +turning off steam and I could not help wondering how long the engines +would stand the strain, which was all the more perilous from being +intermittent. + +On reaching my destination below, however, all thought of the machinery +and any possible damage to the ship was instantly banished from my mind +by the sight that met my gaze. + +In the narrow stoke-hold, lit up by the ruddy glare of the furnace +fires, the light from which enabled me to see the brackish bilge water +washing about beneath the hole in the flooring and gurgling up through +the broken portplates there, I saw that a group of half-naked firemen, +and others, were bending over a pile of empty coal sacks heaped up +against the further bulkhead, dividing the occupied apartments from the +main hold, as far away as possible from the blazing fires, on which one +of the stokers on duty pitched occasionally a shovelful of fuel, or +smoothed the surface of the glowing embers with a long-toothed rake. + +I couldn't distinguish at first any one in particular, the backs of all +being towards me as I came down the slippery steel ladder, carrying the +hammock, for I had taken the precaution of hoisting it on my shoulders +on leaving the engine-flat above, in order to prevent its getting wet, +while the noise of the machinery overhead and the roar of the furnaces, +coupled with the washing of the water, prevented my hearing any distant +sound. + +Presently however, I recognised Garry O'Neil's voice above the general +din. + +"Clear off, ye murthorin' divvles!" he cried, waving his arms above the +heads of the crowd of onlookers, as I could now see. "The poor chap +wants air, and ye're stayling the viry br'ith out of his nosshrils! +Away wid ye all, ye spalpeens! or by the powers, it's a-pizening the +howl batch of ye I'll be doin' the next toime ye comes to me for pill or +powdher!" + +The men clustering round him spread out, moving nearer to me; and they +laughed at his comical threat--which sounded all the more humorous from +the Irishman's racy brogue, which became all the more prominent when +Garry was at all excited. God knows, though, their merriment, untimely +as it might have sounded to outside ears, betrayed no want of sympathy +with their comrade. They laughed, as sailors will do sometimes, holding +their lives in their hands, as is the practice of those who have to +brave the manifold dangers of the deep below and aloft on shipboard, +even when standing on the brink of eternity. + +As they moved away, the fierce light from one of the open furnace doors +was beating on their bare bodies and making them look, indeed, the very +devils to whom the Irishman had jocularly likened them; the latter +looked up quickly, saw me, and beckoned me to approach nearer. + +"Arrah, come along, man, with those bandages!" he said. "Sure ye moight +have made 'em in the toime since I called up to the skipper. Where are +they now, me darlint?" + +I produced the roll of lint at once from the pocket of my monkey jacket. + +"Hullo!" said he as he took and deftly proceeded to unroll the bundle of +bandages, "what's that you've got on your shoulders--a rick?" + +"A hammock, sir," I replied. "Cap'en Applegarth told me to bring one +down for lifting the poor chap who's so hurt, and so I took my own, +which had blankets already in it, thinking it would be warmer for him, +sir." + +"Begorrah, the skipper's got his head screwed on straight, and you the +same, too, Haldane," said he approvingly, with a sagacious nod as he +bent over the pile of sacks in the corner. "Come and see the poor +fellow, me bhoy. There doesn't seem much loife lift in him, sure, hay?" + +There certainly did not; to me he looked already dead. + +Stretched out on the pile of dirty sacking, in a half-sitting, half- +reclining position, lay the recumbent figure, or rather form, of the +unfortunate fireman Jackson, his face as ghastly as that of a corpse, +while his rigid limbs and the absence of all appearance of respiration +tended to confirm the belief that the spark of life had fled. + +Stoddart, the second engineer, was kneeling beside the poor fellow, +rubbing his hands and holding every now and then to his nose what seemed +to me a bottle of ammonia or some very pungent restorative, the powerful +fumes of which overcame the foetid atmosphere of the stoke-hold, Mr +Stokes, looking almost as pale as the unconscious man, assisting with +his unwounded arm, with which he lifted Jackson's head, his broken one +being already set in splints by our doctor-mate. + +Blanchard, the other sufferer from the accident, was sitting down on a +bench near by, evidently recovering from the shock he had experienced, +which really was not so serious as at first anticipated, a rather stiff +glass of brandy and water which Garry had given him, having pretty soon +brought him to himself. + +All our attention, therefore, concentrated on Jackson, who, as yet, made +no sign of amendment, in spite of every remedy tried by O'Neil. + +"By George!" exclaimed Mr Stokes, a few minutes later when we all began +to despair of ever bringing him back to life again. "I'm sure I felt +his head move then!" + +"Aye, sir," corroborated Stoddart, pressing his hand gently on Jackson's +chest, to feel his heart, where a slight convulsive movement became +perceptible, at first feeble and uncertain enough, as you may suppose, +but then more and more sustained and regular, as if the lungs were +getting to work again. "Look alive! he's beginning to breathe again-- +and--yes--his heart beats, I declare, quite plain!" + +"Hurray!" shouted Garry O'Neil, hastily putting to his patient's lips a +medicine glass, into which he dropped something out of a small vial, +filling up the glass with water. "I've got something here shtrang +enough, begorrah, to make a dead man spake!" + +The effect of the drug, whatever it was, seemed magical. In an instant +the previously motionless figure moved about uneasily, the pulsation of +his chest grew more rapid and pronounced, and then, stretching out his +clenched hands with a jerk, as if he were suddenly galvanised into life, +thereby displaying the magnificent proportions of his torso, he being +stripped to the waist, Jackson opened his eyes, drawing a deep breath +the while, a breath something between a sob and a sigh! + +"Where--where am I?" he said, looking round with a sort of far-away, +dreamy stare, but meeting Mr Stokes' sympathetic gaze, he at once +seemed to recover his consciousness. "Ah, I know, sir. I found out +what was the matter with the suction before that plate buckled and +gripped me. I have cleared the rose box, too, sir, and you can connect +the bilge-pumps again as soon as you like, sir." + +Of course all this took him some time to get out. + +"All right, my man," answered the old chief, greatly overcome at the +fact of the old sailor, wounded to the death, thinking of his duty in +the first moment of his recovery. "Never mind that, man! How do you +feel now, my poor fellow--better, I trust?" + +"Why, just a little pain here, sir," said Jackson, pressing his hand to +his right side. "I'm thankful, though, my legs escaped, sir. I've no +pain there." + +Garry O'Neil looked grave and shook his head at this, and looking too as +he cast down his eyes over the lower part of the unfortunate man's body, +I saw that the cruel edges of the iron plates had torn away part of his +canvas overalls from the thigh to the knee of one leg, peeling off with +the covering, the flesh from the bone; while the foot of the other--boot +and all--was crushed into a shapeless bloody mass horrible to behold, +the sight making one feel sick. + +"It's a bad sign his having no fayling there, Haldane," whispered the +Irishman to me very low, so that Jackson could not hear. "It's jost +what I thought, sure. God may help him, but I can't. He'll niver +recover, do what we moight for him, niver in this worruld. The poor +misfortunate fellow has his spoine injured, and he can't live forty- +eight hours, if as long as that, sure!" + +He did not tell him this, however; nor did he lead any of the others to +understand, either, that Jackson's case was hopeless! + +On the contrary, when he spoke aloud, as he did immediately afterwards, +he seemed in the best of spirits, as if everything was going on as well +as possible, though I noticed a tear in his eye and a quiver in his +voice that touched me to the heart, making me turn away my head. + +"Now you mustn't talk now, old fellow, for we want you to husband all +your strength to get up the hatchway to a foine cabin of yer own on the +upper deck, where we're goin' to nurse ye, me darlint, till ye're all +roight, sure!" he said cheerfully. "Here, now, just dhrink another drop +of the craythur, me bhoy, to kape yer spirits up, and you, Master +Haldane, jist hand over that hammock ye've got storved away on ye +shulder, so that we can fix up Jackson comfortable like for his trip to +the upper reggins!" + +So saying, the good-hearted Irishman busied himself, with the help of +Stoddart, who was equally gentle in handling the poor fellow, getting +him ready for removal; and when he had been carefully placed in the +hammock and covered with the blanket, the two of them, both being strong +and powerful men, they lifted their burden with the utmost tenderness +and carried him upward to the main deck, where he was put into a berth +in one of the state rooms that the steward had prepared, and every +attention paid him. + +Mr Fosset and I helped up Blanchard, the other fireman, he, luckily, +not requiring to be carried; and we then went down for Mr Stokes, who +had refused to leave the stoke-hold until his men had been attended to. + +Propping up the stout old chap behind so that he could not slip back +down the slippery steel ladder, as he only had the one arm now to hold +on by, the three of us reached the level of the engine-room all right, +the chief, resting here a moment to give a look round and a word to +Grummet, who of course was still in charge, telling him to slow down +still further and use all his spare steam for clearing the bilge, as the +sluice valves had been opened to prevent the fires being flooded out, +and the pumps were in good working order again. + +Grummet promised to attend carefully to these directions, and a host of +others I cannot now recollect, poor Mr Stokes being as fussy and +fidgetty as he was fat, and in the habit of unintentionally worrying his +subordinates a good deal in this way, and the three of us again started +on our way upwards, the old chief leading, as before, and Mr Fosset and +I bringing up the rear very slowly, so as to prevent accident, when all +at once there was a fearful crash that echoed through my brain, followed +by a violent concussion of the air which nearly threw us all down the +engine-room ladder, though Mr Fosset and I were both hanging on to it +like grim death and supporting the whole weight of Mr Stokes between +us. + +At the same instant, too, the crank shaft stopped revolving, all motion +of the machinery ceased, and the hatchway, with all the space around us, +was filled by a dense cloud of hot steam! + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +ANCHORED. + +Nor was this the worst, for hardly had we begun to draw breath again in +the stifling vapour-bath-like atmosphere surrounding us, ere we could +utter a cry, indeed, or exchange a word of speech with reference to what +had just occurred, there arose a sudden and violent oscillation of the +vessel, which pitched and rolled, and then heeled over suddenly to port, +while an avalanche of water came thundering down the hatchway on top of +our heads. + +"Good Lord, we're lost!" gulped out Mr Stokes as we all floundered +together on the grating forming the floor of the engine-room, where +fortunately the flood had washed us, instead of hustling us down the +stoke-hold below, where all three of us would most inevitably have been +killed by the fall. "A boiler's burst and the ship broached-to!" + +"Not quite so bad as that, sir," sang out the voice of Grummet in the +distance, the thick vapour lending it a far-away sound. "The vessel is +recovering herself again, and the cylinder cover's blown off, sir-- +that's all!" + +"_All_, indeed!" exclaimed the old chief in a despairing tone as he +staggered to his feet, enabling Mr Fosset and myself to rise up too--an +impossibility before, as he was right on top of us, and had served us +out worse than the water had done. "Quite enough damage for me, and all +of us, I think!" + +"How's your arm, Mr Stokes?" asked Mr Fosset as the atmosphere cleared +a little and the engine-room lights glimmered through the misty darkness +that now enveloped the place. "I hope it hasn't been hurt by your +tumble?" + +"Oh, damn my arm!" cried the other impatiently, evidently more anxious +about the machinery than his arm. "Have you shut off the steam?" + +"Yes, sir," replied his subordinate calmly. "I closed all the stop +valves up here the moment I knew what had happened; and the men below in +the stoke-hold have cut off the supply from the main pipe, while Mr +Links has gone into the screw well to disconnect the propeller." + +"Very good, Grummet. So they be all right down below?" + +"All right, sir." + +"Thank God for that! How about the fires?" + +"Drowned out, sir, all but the one under the fire boiler on the +starboard side." + +"You'd better look after that, to keep the bilge-pumps going, or else +it'll be all drowned out, with this lot of water coming down the +hatchway every time the ship rolls! I do hope the skipper will lie-to +and keep her head to sea until we can get the engines going again, +though I'm afraid that'll be a long job!" + +Before Grummet could reply to this, Stoddart, the second officer, or +rather engineer, came scrambling down from the saloon, where he had been +assisting Garry O'Neil in making poor Jackson comfortable, the escape of +the steam having evidently told its own tale to an expert like himself. + +Although a younger man than Mr Stokes, his brains were considerably +sharper and he was a better mechanic in every way; so now, when, after +examining the damage done to the cylinder, he made light of the +accident, instead of groaning over it like the old chief. Mr Fosset, I +could see, and with him myself also, who shared his belief, saw that the +injury was not irreparable and that it might certainly have been worse. + +"Of course it can't be done in a day!" Stoddart said; "still it can be +patched up." + +"That's all very well," interposed Mr Stokes, holding to his despondent +view of the situation. "But I'd like to know how you're going to get +that cracked cover off the cylinder with the vessel rolling like this!" + +"Oh, I'll manage that easy enough," said the energetic fellow in his +confident way. "I've done worse jobs than that in a heavy sea. Why, +I'll lash myself to the cylinder if it comes to the worse and unscrew +the cover nut by nut, shifting my berth round till I have it off. Then +if Grummet will see to getting the portable forge ready, and some old +sheet iron or boiler plates for working and making into a patch, and if +Links will turn out some new bolts and screws with the lathe, we'll have +everything in working order before we know where we are!" + +"Bravo, my hearty!" cried Mr Fosset, lending Stoddart a hand to lash +himself to the cylinder, while Grummet held a screw-wrench and other +tools up to him. "You ought to be a sailor, you're so smart!" + +"I prefer my own billet," retorted the other with an air of conscious +power. "I am an engineer!" + +Mr Fosset laughed. + +"All right!" said he good-humouredly. "Every one to his trade!" + +"Humph!" groaned Mr Stokes, who was leaning against the bulkhead, +"looking very white about the gills," as Grummet whispered to me. The +steam gradually dispersing and the lights burning more brightly, enabled +us to see his face better. "I suppose there's nothing I can do?" + +"No, nothing, sir," answered Stoddart, busy at the moment with the first +nut of the cylinder cover. "You can very safely leave matters to +Grummet and me! And Mr O'Neil told me as I left the maindeck that you +ought to go to your cabin and lie down, so as to rest your arm, or it +might mortify, he says, when he would not answer for the consequences, +you understand, sir?" + +"Ah, that settles the matter; I won't give our amateur sawbones a chance +of lopping it off, as I daresay he'd like!" said poor Mr Stokes, with a +feeble attempt at a joke. "Yes, I'd better go to my cabin, for I see +I'm not wanted here; and, to tell the truth, I've an aching all over me, +and feel rather tired and faint." + +"Then off you go to the doctor at once," cried Mr Fosset, catching hold +of him by his uninjured arm and leading him towards the hatchway again, +the ship being pretty steady for the moment. + +"You and I, too, Haldane, ought to be on deck helping the skipper and +the rest, instead of stopping here, hindering these smart fellows at +their work. Come along with me, my lad!" + +Leaving Mr Stokes at the door of the saloon in charge of Weston, the +steward, the first mate and I proceeded along the waist to the bridge, +where we found Captain Applegarth pacing up and down in his customary +jerky, impatient way, like the Polar bear in the Zoological Gardens, as +I always thought. + +"Well," he said to Mr Fosset, bringing himself up short in front of the +rail on our approach, "how are matters getting on below--badly, I'm +afraid?" + +The first mate explained. Spokeshave, who was at the other end of the +bridge, coming up to listen, as usual, to the conversation. + +"That's good news, indeed!" said the skipper on hearing how Stoddart had +set to work to repair the damage. "I thought the engines were +completely broken-down. If it weren't for poor Jackson, who, O'Neil +told me just now, was in a bad way, I think we'd got out of the scrape +pretty well, for the old barquey is comfortable enough now, and, though +there's a heavy sea running and it is still blowing stiff from the +north'ard and the west'ard, the sky is clearer than it was, and I fancy +we've seen the worst of the gale, eh?" + +"I'm sure I hope so, sir," replied Mr Fosset, not committing himself to +any definite expression of opinion in the matter. "It has given us a +rare good doing all round while it was about it, at an rate!" + +"Aye, it has that," said the skipper. "The old barquey, though, has +come through it better than any one would have supposed, with all that +deadweight amidships, considering that she broached-to awhile ago and +got caught in the trough of the sea the very moment the machinery below +gave out. By George, Fosset, we had a narrow squeak then, I can tell +you!" + +"I can quite believe that, sir," said the other, looking round about and +aloft, sailor-like, as he spoke. "For my part I feared the worst, I'm +sure. However, all's well that ends well, and the old barquey looks +first rate, as you say, sir, in spite of all she's gone through. She +rides like a cork." + +She certainly was a capital seaboat and lay-to now as easily as if she +were at anchor in the Mersey, though the wind was whistling through the +rigging and the ocean far and wide white with foam, bowing and scraping +to the big waves that rolled in after her like an old dowager duchess in +a ball room, curtseying to her partner. + +During the long time the first mate and I had been down below in the +stoke-hold, the skipper had lowered the upper yards and housed her top- +masts, getting her also under snugger canvas, the fore and mizzen +topsails being set "scandalised," as we call it aboard ship, that is, +with the heads of the sails hauled up, and their sheets flattened taut +as boards, so as to expose as little surface as possible to the wind, +only just sufficient to keep the vessel with her head to sea, like a +stag at bay. + +Opportunity had also been taken, I noticed, to secure the broken engine- +room skylight in a more substantial way than formerly, and so prevent +any more green seas from flooding the hold, the opening having been +planked over by the carpenter, and heavy bars of railroad iron, which +formed part of our cargo, laid across, instead of the tarpaulin that was +deemed good enough before and had given way when Mr Stokes--poor man-- +and the first mate and myself got washed down the hatchway by a wave +that came over the side, crumpling the flimsy covering as if it were +tissue paper. + +Altogether, the outlook was more reassuring than when I had gone below; +for although a fierce northerly gale was howling over the deep, making +it heave and fret and lashing it up into wild mountainous billows, the +heaven overhead was clear of all cloud, and the complaisant moon, which +was at the full, but shining with a pale, peaceful light, while numerous +stars were twinkling everywhere in the endless expanse of the firmament +above, gazing down serenely at the riot of the elements below. + +It was now close on midnight and Garry O'Neil came on deck to take the +middle watch, it being his turn of duty. + +"Well, doctor," said the skipper, anxious to hear something about the +invalids, "how're your patients?" + +"Both going on capitally; Jackson sleeping quietly, sir, though he can't +last out long, poor fellow!" + +"And Mr Stokes?" + +"Faith, he's drivin' his pigs to market in foine stoil; you should only +hear him, cap'en!" answered the Irishman, looking out to windward. +"Begorrah, ain't it blowin', though, sir! Sure, as we used to say at +ould Trinity, _de gustibus non est disputandum_, which means, Mister +Spokeshave, as yo're cockin' up your nose to hear what I'm after sayin', +it's moighty gusty, an' there's no denyin' it!" + +The skipper laughed, as he generally did at Garry's nonsensical, queer +sayings. + +"By George, O'Neil! I must go down and have a glass of grog to wash the +taste of that awful pun out of my mouth!" he cried, turning to leave the +bridge for the first time since he had come up there at sunset. "You +can call me if anything happens or should it come to blow worse, but I +shall be up and down all night to see how you're getting on." + +"Och! the divvle dout ye!" muttered the Irishman in his quizzing way, as +the skipper went down the ladder, giving a word to the boatswain and man +at the wheel below as he passed them on his way up. "Ye niver give a +chap the cridit of keeping a watch to himself!" + +Soon after this I, too, left the deck and turned in, Garry O'Neil +telling me he did not want me on the bridge and that I had better sleep +while I could, a permission I readily availed myself of, tired out with +all I had gone through and the various exciting episodes of the evening. + +There was no change in the weather the following morning, the wind even +blowing with greater force and the sea such as I had never seen it +before, and such a sea as I hope never to experience again; so, in order +that the ship might ride the more easily and those below in the engine- +room better able to go on with the repair of the cylinder than they +could with the old barquey pitching her bows under and then kicking up +her heels sky high, varying her performances by rolling side to side +violently, like a pendulum gone mad, the skipper had all our spare spars +lashed together, and attaching a stout steel wire hawser to them, +launched the lot overboard through a hole in the bulwarks, where one of +the waves had made a convenient clean sweep, veering the hawser ahead +with this "jetsam" to serve as a floating anchor for us, and moor the +ship. + +By this means we all had a more comfortable time of it, the old barquey +no longer shipping water in any considerable quantity and there being +less work below in the way of clearing it, all of the bilge-pumps, +fortunately for us all, Stoddart and the engine-room staff were able to +keep going; otherwise we must have foundered long since! + +The gale continued without abatement all that day and the next, the +second since our mishap, when, late in the afternoon the wind began to +go down, veering from the north-west to the north, and so on, back to +the eastern quadrant. + +Soon after this, just before it got dark, an English man-of-war hove in +sight, and, seeing our disabled condition, signalled to ask whether we +required any assistance. + +Through the clumsiness of Mr Spokeshave, who had charge of our signal +department and showed his cleverness by hoisting the very numbers of the +flags giving the skipper's reply, that, though our engines were +temporarily broken-down, they were fast being repaired, the captain of +the man-of-war could not understand him; and so, fearing the worst, +ranged up under our stern to see what help he could render, in what he +evidently considered, from Spokeshave's "hoist," to be a pressing +emergency. + +"Ship ahoy!" he shouted through a speaking trumpet from his quarter-deck +aft, which was on a level with our bridge, the vessel, a splendid +cruiser of the first-class, towering over the comparatively puny +dimensions of the poor, broken-down _Star of the North_. "Shall I send +a boat aboard with assistance?" + +"No, thank you very much," replied our skipper, taking off his cap and +returning the greeting of the naval officer. "We've got over the worst +of it now, sir, and will be soon under weigh again, as the weather is +breaking." + +"Glad to hear it," returned the other, who could read our name astern as +she lay athwart us. "Where are you bound to?" + +"New York, sir," sang out the skipper. "Twelve days out from England. +We've been disabled forty-eight hours." + +"Hope your engines will soon be in working order," sang out the handsome +officer from the deck of the man-of-war, giving some other order at the +same minute, for I heard the shrill sound of a boatswain's pipe and the +rattle of feet along her deck. "Please report us when you reach your +destination." + +"What name, sir?" + +"Her Majesty's ship _Aurora_, on passage from Bermuda to Halifax." + +With that he waved his hand, and her white ensign, whose blood-red cross +of Saint George stood out in bold relief, dipped in parting salute to +our vessel, which reciprocated the compliment as the man-of-war bore +away on her course to the northward, a group of officers rollicking +round their captain on her deck aft and gazing at us as she moved off +rapidly under a full pressure of steam, evidently admiring our skipper's +wonderful sea anchor. + +As the noble ship glided away through the still tempestuous sea against +a strong headwind, a thing of beauty and of might--such a contrast to us +lying there, almost at the mercy of the seas--I could not help thinking +of the wondrous power of mind over matter displayed in our grand ocean +steamers, and what a responsibility rests upon their engineers! + +How little do the thousands of passengers who yearly go to and fro +across the Atlantic know, or, indeed, care to know, that their comfort +and the rate at which they travel through the water--they who talk so +glibly of making the passage in such and such a time, be the sea smooth +or rough, and the wind fine or contrary--that all this depends on the +unceasing vigilance of the officers in charge of the vessel, in which +they voyage! + +Do they even think, I wondered, that while they are sleeping, eating, +enjoying themselves and doing what they please on board, even grumbling +at some little petty defect or shortcoming which they think might be +prevented, the engineers below, in an atmosphere in which _they_ could +not breathe, are incessantly watching the movements of the machinery and +oiling each part at almost every instant of time, moving this slide and +that, adjusting a valve here and tightening a nut there, ever cooling +the bearings and raking at the furnaces and putting on fresh coal, this +being done every hour of the day and night through the passage from land +to land? Have any of them realised the fact that these same engineers +and their able assistants, the firemen and oilmen and trimmers, the +whole stoke-hold staff, so to speak, run a greater risk of their lives, +in the event of an accident happening, than any one else in the ship, +as, should a boiler or cylinder burst they may be scalded to death +before the noise of the explosion could reach those above? Or again, +should the vessel strike on a rock, the compartment below in which +perforce they are compelled to work deep down in the vessel's bowels +will fill, from the very weight of the engines, quicker than any other +part of the ship, most probably, when those confined below must +necessarily be liable to be drowned, like rats in a hole, without the +chances of escape possessed by the passengers and hands on board. + +"No, I don't suppose any one even thinks of such things," said I to +myself as I left the bridge and went towards the saloon to ask how poor +Jackson was, uttering my thoughts unconsciously aloud as I reflected, +and now that I considered their responsibility, thought how much poor +old Mr Stokes, with his broken arm, and Stoddart and the others must +have on their minds! "Hullo, who is that?" + +It was Weston, the steward, who spoke. + +"I wish you'd come and look at Jackson, sir," he said. "The poor chap +wore all right when Mr O'Neil comed down jist now, and a sleepin' still +as when you seed him awhile ago. But all of a suddink he starts up as +he hears you a comin' down the companion-way, sir, and is jabbering away +like anythink!" + +"Oh, but," I exclaimed, "why did you leave him?" + +"I wor afeard he'd jump overboard, or try to do somethink awful!" + +"Nonsense! the very thing you are there for to prevent," said I, going +into the cabin, where I saw the poor fellow trying to get out of the +cot. Turning angrily to Weston I repeated again, "You shouldn't have +left him for one moment in this state!" + +"But, sir, I wanted to hail Mr O'Neil or somebody; I thought I oughter +'ave summun by to 'elp me, in case he becomed desperate-like, and I +couldn't make no one hear on deck, and that's why I comed when I knowed +you was a-passing along, sir." + +This was unanswerable logic, though Weston always had an answer for +anything and everything. + +Poor Jackson, though, did not look as if he would be "desperate" again +in any shape or form. + +That he was delirious I could see at a glance, for his eyes, great wild +eyes, were wide open, staring at vacancy, fixed on the bulkhead that +divided the cabin from the captain's, which was just beyond; and he was +very much excited, sitting up in the cot and, gesticulating violently +with both his hands, and waving his arms about as he repeated some +unintelligible gibberish over and over again, that I could not make out. + +Presently he looked at me very straight as if he recognised me, and +afterwards spoke a little more coherently. + +"Ah, yes, sir, I recollect now," he said at last. "You're Mr Haldane, +I know; but--where's the little girl and the--the--dog?" + +"Why, Jackson, old man," I said, speaking soothingly to him, "what's the +matter with you? There's no girl or dog, you know, here. Don't you +know where you are, my poor fellow?" + +He got quite savage at this. There's no reason in delirium! + +"Of course I know where I am," he screamed out, making a grab at Weston, +as he writhed in torture from the internal and violent inflammation +which must have set up. "I'm in--hell. I--can--feel--I--am--I am-- +burning--all over--inside me--here. And you? Oh, yes--I know you!" + +This paroxysm left him again after a moment, and he lay back on his +pillows, only to sit up the next minute again, however. + +He now pointed his finger in the direction of the sea through the +porthole, gazing earnestly as if he saw something there. + +"The ship has come for me again--as--it did t'other night--you know--you +know?" he said in agonised whispers. "There--there,--can't you see it +now? sailing--along--as--Mister--Haldane--said,--there with a--a-- +signal--of--distress--flying--the--flag--half-mast high! Why,--there it +is,--now, as plain as--plain--can be; and, see--see they're--lowering-- +a--boat,--look,--for me,--to take me aboard. Lend us a hand,--mate. I +wants to halloo--to 'em and I--feels so bad--and--I can't, I can't--move +myself. Hi,--there!--Ship ahoy! Wait--a--minute--can't you? Ship +ahoy!--I'm--coming--I'm--comi-ing. I'm--" + +Then, raising his eyes to heaven, and drawing a long deep breath, +something between a sob and a sigh, a breath that was his last, poor +Jackson fell back on the pile of pillows behind him, stone dead! + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +WE SIGHT THE STRANGE CRAFT AGAIN. + +"That's number one!" said old Masters, the boatswain, meeting me at the +door of the saloon as I came out on deck, Weston having already told him +the sad news. "Master Stokes'll foller next, and then you or hi, Master +Haldane, for we be all doomed men, I know, arter seein' that there +ghost-ship!" + +I made no reply to the superstitious old seaman's ominous prediction, +but as I made my way forward to the bridge, to inform Captain Applegarth +and the others of what had happened, I could not help thinking how +strange it was that poor Jackson should have recalled, at the very +moment the spirit was quitting his crippled body, the fact of my +sighting the ship in distress, and the account I had given the skipper +of what I had seen on board that mysterious craft! + +Mr Fosset, or some of the hands who accompanied him, must have taken +down the yarn to the stoke-hold, only just before the unfortunate man +met with his terrible accident, though I had no doubt that he must have +seen the man-of-war through the port hole of the cabin, which was right +opposite his bunk, as she brought up under our stern to speak to us +earlier in the afternoon, and the sight of _HMS Aurora_ had, somehow or +other, amid the wanderings of his unconscious brain, got mixed up with +the remembrance of what he had previously heard concerning the vessel I +had seen at sunset the two days prior. + +It was now getting dark, the evening closing in quickly, and, what with +the dying man's queer talk and the boatswain harping on the same theme +immediately afterwards, I confess I felt far from comfortable, my nerves +being in a state of constant tension from the painful scene in the cabin +that I had just witnessed, while the gloomy shades of the night that +were fast enwrapping us, the dull roar of the ever-breaking sea and the +groaning of the ship as she rolled, like a living creature in pain, all +worked on my overtried fancy and made me almost afraid of my own shadow +as I slipped and stumbled along the sloppy deck, my mind being in a +complete whirl till I reached my goal--the bridge. + +"What's the matther, me bhoy?" asked Garry O'Neil, who was speaking to +the skipper, the two examining a chart in the wheel-house, the light +from the doorway of which fell on my face. "Faith, ye look quite +skeared, Haldane, jist as if ye'd sane a ghoast, sure!" + +I mentioned what had happened, however, and he at once dropped his +chaffing manner, looking as grave as a judge. + +"Begorrah, it's moighty sorry I am to hear that, now!" said he in a more +serious tone. "Sure, and he was a foine, h'ilthy man entirely, barrin' +that accident, bad cess to it! He moight have lived till a hundred, an' +then aunly died of auld age; for he'd the constitution of an illiphent. +Faith, I never saw such a chist and thorax on a chap in me loife +before!" + +"Poor fellow!" observed the skipper. "He seems to have gone off awfully +sudden at the last. I thought you said he was getting on well when you +went down to see him awhile ago?" + +"Bedad, I did that, sir; father's no denyin' it," answered the Irishman, +off-hand. "But I niver s'id he'd git over it, cap'en. I tuld ye from +the first he couldn't reciver, for he was paralysed, poor craytur', from +the waist downwards, and had a lot of internal injury besides. It was +aunly bekase he was sich a shtrang man that he's lasted so long, sir. +Any one else would have died directly outright afther the accident, for +he was pretty well smashed to pieces!" + +"Strange!" muttered Captain Applegarth, who, although hasty of temper +sometimes, was a man of deep feeling. "Sunday night again and that man +dead! Only a week ago, this very evening, he came up to me here as I +was standing by the binnacle to ask about some carpenter's stores that +were wanted in the engine-room. He and I then got talking, I recollect, +it being Sunday, I suppose, of religious matters. He imagined himself-- +poor chap--a `materialist,' as they call themselves, but his arguments +on the point were very weak. He argued that there was no hereafter, no +future state; the heaven and hell spoken of in Scripture, he suggested, +being the happiness or punishment we meet with below here, while living, +in accordance with our own lives." + +"Faith!" said Garry O'Neil, who was not a deep thinker, not troubling +himself much about anything beyond the present. "That's a puzzling +question; but I, for one, wouldn't care to be of that way of thinkin', +sure, sir." + +"That question however, poor Jackson has solved, long ere this!" + +As Captain Applegarth uttered these words, solemnly enough, the +fireman's ravings, when in the agonies of death, came back to me, and I +thought that, if confident in his materialism when in health and +strength, his creed had not altogether eased his mind at the last, when +I saw him raise his eyes, for a few minutes, to heaven in prayer. + +That night the gale, which had moderated considerably during the +afternoon, assailed us again with renewed vigour, as if old Boreas had +put a fresh hand to the bellows, as sailor folk say. + +It began in the middle watch, when the wind suddenly veered to the +southwards, and it came on to blow great guns, causing the skipper the +utmost uneasiness, as he feared we would break away from our spar +anchor, when, disabled as we were, a steamer in a storm without the use +of the engines being no better off than a baby in arms deprived of its +nurse, it seemed almost impossible to prevent the vessel from broaching- +to, in which case she would more than likely founder with all hands. + +Consequently, not a soul turned in the livelong night, the port and +starboard watches both remaining on duty, with Captain Applegarth and +Mr Fosset on the bridge, while Garry O'Neil relieved the boatswain, who +now had eight men under him in charge of the wheel, where the utmost +caution and the greatest vigilance were necessary to keep the old +barquey's head to the sea. I had fearfully hard work, too, for the big +waves ever and anon leapt up over her bows, burying the fo'c's'le in +clouds of spray and spent water that came pouring down into the waist +and rushing aft, flooding the whole deck almost up to the gunwhales +taking everything movable overboard, the boats being lifted off the +chocks amidships even and swept away, and the cook's galley in the +forward part of the deckhouse got badly damaged. + +This was in the height of the storm, just before daybreak, about two +bells in the morning watch, or five o'clock AM. + +Our poor old barquey then rolled so much that the skipper thought the +wire hawser attached to the spars had parted and that we were at the +very mercy of the tempest. So certain, indeed, was he, that he yelled +out for all hands to make sail, with the idea of trying one last +desperate venture and beard the winds with our puny canvas. + +Fortunately, however, there was no need for us to essay this futile +expedient, breaking the force of the billows as they reared up in their +colossal grandeur to annihilate us and keeping us steadily facing their +attack; and presently, shortly after six bells, when we really +experienced pretty nearly the worst of it, there was a muttered growl of +thunder, accompanied by a lightning flash that illuminated the whole of +the heavens from pole to pole, and then rain came down in a deluge, the +wind dropping, as suddenly, with a wild, weird shrill shriek of +disappointed rage that wailed and whistled through the rigging, and then +quietly died away. + +Of course the sea did not quiet down all at once, old Neptune not being +easily pacified after being stirred up to so great an extent, and the +waves ran high most of the day, while the sky was overcast and the ocean +of a dull leaden colour; but towards evening it cleared up and, the +water being a bit calmer, the captain thought it a fitting time to bury +poor Jackson. + +All the hands were mustered on deck, the engineers and stokers stopping +their busy repairing work below, which they had kept at night and day +without intermission ever since our breakdown, and coming up with the +rest of the crew to pay the last tribute of respect to their departed +comrade, even Mr Stokes, though he was still in a very weak state of +health and had his head and broken arm bandaged up, insisting on being +present, Garry O'Neil and Stoddart supporting him between them for the +purpose. + +Then the body of the unfortunate fireman, enclosed in a hammock covered +by the ship's ensign and having a pig of ballast tied to the feet to +ensure its submersion, was brought up from the cabin where he had died, +and placed on a plank by the gangway where the waves had washed away our +bulwarks, leaving a wide open space. + +Captain Applegarth read over the remains the beautiful prayers of the +Church Service appointed for the burial of those who die at sea, all of +us standing bareheaded around. + +A faint gleam of light from the setting sun, away on our port bow, shone +through a mist of cloud that obscured the horizon to windward; and, as +this disappeared, the skipper came to the end of the viaticum, when, at +a signal from the boatswain, the plank was tipped and poor Jackson's +body was committed to the deep with a sigh of regret at his untimely +end, and the devout hope that though his earthly voyage had been cut +short, he might yet reach that haven where there are no accidents nor +shipwrecks, and where seas swallow not up, or stormy winds blow! + +Some little while after this a slight breeze sprang up from the +southward and westward, bringing a cool feeling with it, and I shivered +as I stood on the bridge looking out over the dark waste of waters, +feeling rather melancholy, if the truth be told. + +"That's a bad sign, Master Haldane," said old Masters close to my ear, +making me jump, for I did not know he was there. "They say that when a +ship chap shivers like that there, it be meaning that somebody or summit +be a-walking over his grave!" + +"Stave that, bo'sun!" I cried impatiently. "You're a regular old +Jonah, and enough to give a fellow the creeps!" + +"Ah, you may try to laugh it off, Mister Haldane," he retorted in his +lugubrious way. "But, as I says to ye last night, says I, when that +poor chap kicked the bucket as we've just been a-burying on, we ain't +seen the end on it yet. I misdoubts the weather, too, sir. There's a +great bank of cloud now rising up to win'ard, and I fancies I heard jist +now the sound o' thunder ag'in." + +"Thunder?" I exclaimed. "Nonsense!" + +"No, Mister Haldane, it ain't no nonsense," said the old fellow +solemnly. "You ain't known me to croak afore without re'sin, and I +tells ye I don't likes the look o' things to-night. There's summit a- +brewin' up over there, or I'm a Dutchman!" + +"What's that, bo'sun?" cried the skipper, coming up on the bridge at the +moment to look for the chart of the North Atlantic, which he had left in +the wheel-house the night before, and overheard the old growler's +remark. "Got the _Flying Dutchman_ on the brain again?" + +"No, sir, I weren't talking o' that," replied Masters. "I was a-saying +to Master Haldane that it were precious misty and thick to win'ard and I +feared thunder over there." + +"Thunder! thunder your grandmother!" cried the skipper testily. "I've +pretty sharp ears, bo'sun, and I have heard none to-night. Have you, +Haldane?" + +"N-n-o, sir, not thunder," I answered, listening attentively for a +moment. "Stay, sir, though. I do hear something now, but the sound +seems more like firing in the distance." + +"What, guns?" + +"No sir, more like rifle shots, or the discharge of a revolver firing +quickly at intervals." + +Captain Applegarth thereupon listened attentively, too, in his turn, +while Masters went out to the end of the bridge and peered out over the +side to windward with rapt gaze. + +"By George, yes, you're right, boy!" cried the skipper the next moment. +"I can hear the shots quite plainly, I do believe. Hullo, there! What +the deuce is going on over there, I wonder?" + +There was reason for exclamation. + +At that instant the dark mass of cloud on the horizon, towards which we +were all looking, was rent by a flash, and we could see, standing +against the black background in vivid relief, the masts and spars of a +large full-rigged ship. + +She was evidently burning a "flare-up" to attract attention, and, ere +the light waned, I noticed that her yards were all a cock-bill and her +sails and rigging torn and disordered; while, stranger still, she had +her flag astern hoisted half-mast high--the French tricolour, too! + +Both the boatswain and I, simultaneously, involuntarily, uttered a cry +of dismay. + +The vessel in sight was the very identical ship I had seen three nights +before, flying the same signal of distress; and here she was now, +sailing, as then, four points off our weather bows and eight before the +wind, which was, as I've already said, blowing a light breeze from the +southward and westward. + +What new calamity did this second appearance of the "ghost-ship," as the +old boatswain called her, portend to all of us? + +Aye, what, indeed! + +Time alone could tell. + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +MYSTIFICATION. + +Old Masters turned his face towards me as the fleeting vision became +swallowed up in the darkness that now obscured the sky to the westwards, +and I saw that he looked horror-struck, staring into space spell-bound. + +As for me, I cannot express what I felt, because I am unable to describe +it fully. + +"There, there!" I exclaimed, clutching Captain Applegarth's arm in +nervous horror. "There she is again!" + +But the skipper, although startled by the sudden appearance of the +mysterious vessel in the first instance, as his ejaculation on catching +sight of her showed, evidently did not regard her in the same light as +the boatswain and myself. + +"Why, Haldane, what's the matter with you, my lad?" he said in a joking +way, "You seem all of a tremble; and, by George, you grip tight!" + +"I beg your pardon, sir, I'm sure," I stammered out, trying to pull +myself together as I released his arm. "But--but--did you--did you--see +her, sir?" + +"See that ship just now? Yes, of course I did. I suppose she sighted +us lying here like a log and wanted us to report her or something, +though why they lit that flare-up over her stern I am sure I can't +imagine. They couldn't expect us to read her name at that distance. +She must have been close on five miles off!" + +"But, sir," I cried out quickly. "She's the same!" + +"The same what, Haldane?" + +"Why, the ship in distress, sir, that I sighted at sunset on Friday +night just before our breakdown." + +Captain Applegarth whistled through his teeth. + +"My good lad," he said incredulously, "that's simply impossible!" + +"Well, sir, you may not believe me," I urged, rather nettled that he +should put me down in this way, "but I declare to you she is the +identical vessel I saw that evening, as I told you at the time, and of +which we went in chase till the gale stopped us and our machinery gave +out! I cannot doubt the evidence of my own eyes, sir." + +"My dear boy," replied the skipper, in kinder tones than I expected to +this outburst, for he was a hot-tempered man generally, and disliked +anything like argument from his officers when he had once said his say, +being of the opinion that his word should be last. "Just reflect a +moment and let your own natural good sense decide the point. How can it +be likely that the vessel you asserted you saw on Friday night, hundreds +of miles away from here, should come across us now under precisely +similar circumstances, considering all that has happened since?" + +"She's the same ship, sir, nevertheless," I maintained stubbornly, +though I was a bit puzzled on my own account, mind, by his putting the +case so strongly. "The vessel I saw on Friday night was a full-rigged +ship, with her sails knocked about and had her ensign hoisted half-mast +high at the peak, and this one seemed the same in every particular. I +did not notice all that when she burnt the flare-up just now. The light +only lasted an instant." + +"There is something in that, certainly, Haldane," answered the skipper, +wavering a little, I thought, in his ideas. "Still, when one is +inclined to believe in a thing, the imagination is often a great aid in +turning a wish into a certainty." + +"Besides, sir," I continued, wishing to clench my argument, "if we were +driven out of our course by the gale, she might have been similarly +affected, and the winds and currents might have brought us together +again." + +"That's possible, but not probable," he rejoined. "I've known two +bottles of the same weight dropped overboard from the same ship at the +same hour, and--" + +"Well, sir?" + +"One was found landed on the Lofoden Isles, off the coast of Norway: the +other came ashore at Sandy Point, in the Straits of Magellan!" + +He laughed when he said this, apparently thinking he had utterly settled +the matter, but I checkmated him with his own theory. + +"The very uncertainty of the action of the currents of the Atlantic +which you instance, sir," I said, "shows that what you think impossible +might be very possible, and the strange, weird vessel that I saw three +nights ago might have come within sight of us again." + +"That's one for you, Haldane," acknowledged the skipper very good- +naturedly, for he was a fair man when anything was laid clearly before +him. "But, recollect, no one saw this ship distinctly but yourself. I +couldn't say of my own knowledge what rig she was, and I certainly +didn't see any flag or sign of distress. I only saw something that +looked like a ship burning a flare-up in the distance--that's all." + +"Beg pardon, sir," whispered old Masters, stepping up and touching his +cap ere he addressed the skipper, "but I seed the ghost-ship, too, sir, +the same as Master Haldane, sir." + +The skipper wheeled round and stared at him. + +"Ghost-ship, man! What do you mean?" + +"I means that there ghost-ship that hove in sight jist now and which +have passed us afore, sir. She be sent as a warning to us, I knows, and +as a Christian man, Cap'en Applegarth, I takes it as sich!" + +The old seaman spoke so earnestly that the skipper, although he had hard +work to keep himself in, answered him without ridiculing his +extraordinary delusion, as he held it to be. + +"I am a Christian man, too, I hope, bo'sun," he said. "I believe in a +divine power above, and put my trust in a merciful providence; but I +can't believe in any of your queer supernatural visitations, whether as +warnings or what not!" + +"Not if you seed the same blessed thing three times?" + +"No; not if I saw it a hundred times!" he roared out impatiently. + +"Ah, seein' is believin', I says," whined old Masters, not a whit shaken +on the point, in spite of the skipper's scepticism. "Master Haldane +seed it, and I seed it, and poor Jackson seed it." + +"Indeed?" cried the skipper. "I did not know he had been on deck before +the accident." + +"It wore arter that, sir, that he seed the ghost-ship," said the old +boatswain in reply to the implied question. "It were jist afore he +died." + +"Just before he died!" repeated Captain Applegarth indignantly, as if he +thought he was being made a fool of. "Why, man, the poor fellow was out +of his mind then, and besides, never stirred out of his cabin!" + +"Ah, but he had the warnin' jist the same, for Weston, it was, told me +as how Jackson seed the ship and cried out when he lay there a-dyin'. +Bulkheads can't keep sperrits out, sir." + +"Nor in, either, as I know to my cost," returned the skipper drily. +"Your friend Weston is pretty familiar with them, if they come in his +way, I fancy! Stuff and nonsense, bo'sun; how can you believe such +rubbish? The other night you imagined the reflection of our own vessel, +when that meteor came by, to be a ghost-ship, as you call it in your +absurd folly; and to-night, when that craft to win'rd passed and lit a +flare-up, hanged if you aren't at it again with your ghost-ship! By +George, it makes me sick, Masters, to think that a grown man and a good +seaman like yourself should be such a confounded ass!" + +"Hass or no hass, there she wer'," said the old fellow doggedly. "But +here comes Mr Fosset, sir. He were on the poop aft when that vessel +passed as I speaks on. Ax him what he thinks of her and if she weren't +the same full-rigged ship as Master Haldane and all of us seed?" + +"I will," replied Captain Applegarth promptly; and on the first mate +approaching nearer, he hailed him. "I say, Fosset, what did you think +of that ship just now?" + +The other's answer, however, bewildered the skipper more than Masters +and I had done previously. + +"Ship!" said the first mate. "What ship?" + +"That vessel that lit the flare-up awhile ago." + +"I didn't see any flare-up!" replied Mr Fosset, "and certainly no ship +has passed us to my knowledge since I've been on deck." + +"By George, I don't know who or what to believe," exclaimed Captain +Applegarth, looking from the one to the other of us. "You've set my +very brains wool-gathering between you, with your `vessels in distress' +and `ghost-ships'; I'm hanged if I won't go down to the engine-room and +have a little practical common sense knocked into me, as well as see how +they're getting on with the repairs to the machinery!" + +So saying, the skipper went below, and, as there was nothing particular +for me to do on deck, I followed his example. Instead of proceeding +down to the engine-room, however, I only went as far as my bunk and +turned in, wondering what the morrow would bring forth. I was haunted, +though, by strange dreams all through the night, continually waking up +and then getting to sleep again in snatches, only to wake up again +immediately after I had dropped off. + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +IN THE GULF STREAM. + +"It's a dead calm, sir!" I heard Mr Fosset sing out next morning +outside the door of the skipper's state room, which opened out of the +saloon, close to my berth, when he went to call him at four bells, in +obedience to orders given overnight. "The gale has completely blown +itself out, and there's only a little cat's-paw of a breeze from the +south'ard." + +"Humph!" yawned the skipper from within. "That's a good job, Fosset. I +think we've had enough wind to last us for a blue moon!" + +"So say I, sir," agreed the other with much heartiness. "I wouldn't +like to go through the same experiences again, by Jingo!" + +"Nor I," came from the other, evidently about to turn out from his bunk. +"I'll be on deck in five minutes or so, Fosset." + +The first mate, however, would not take this for a dismissal, having +apparently further important information to give and which he at once +proceeded to disclose. + +"Do you know, sir, I think we're in the Gulf Stream," he said in an +impressive tone. "There's a lot of the weed knocking about round the +ship." + +"Gulf-weed?" exclaimed the skipper's voice again from the cabin, +sounding a bit muffled as if he were in the act of pulling his shirt +over his head. "Are you certain?" + +"Aye," affirmed the other. "There's not the slightest doubt about it. +It's as plain as a pike staff, sir." + +"The deuce it is!" said the skipper in a louder key, showing that my +surmise had been correct as to the progress of his toilet, and that his +head was now unloosed from its bag-like envelope. "By George, I can't +make it out at all!" + +"There's no getting over the fact, sir," persisted the first mate. +"We're quite surrounded by the weed. I saw it well the first streak of +light at two bells, on suddenly looking over the side, sir. There's Mr +O'Neil up on the bridge now, and he has noticed it too!" + +The skipper, to judge from the voice that came from his cabin and the +way he was banging his boots and other things about, was as much +mystified by Mr Fosset's unexpected announcement as he had been the +previous evening by the sight he and I and the boatswain had seen. + +He was also angry, I know, so I thought it good for me to turn out +likewise from my bunk as speedily as possible, it not being advisable +under the circumstances to be "caught napping." + +"By George, I can't understand it!" repeated Captain Applegarth crossly. +"If we're in the Gulf Stream, all I can say is, we must have drifted a +wonderful distance in the last two or three days. Why, man, the current +is seldom perceptible above the fortieth parallel!" + +"I know that, sir," replied the first mate; "but if you recollect, sir, +from the lunar observation Mr O'Neil took on the night of the +breakdown, we were then as far south as 41 deg. 30 minutes, and we've been +drifting south-east by east ever since." + +"Well, Fosset, I'm hanged if I know where we are, after the bucketting- +about we've had since last Friday!" said the skipper, who now came into +the saloon, where I, already dressed, was hurriedly having a cup of +cocoa and bite of biscuit Weston had just brought me in from the pantry. +"I feel half inclined to believe now in the old superstition about it +being an unlucky day, though I always used to laugh at the notion!" + +"There are plenty aboard who believe queerer things than that!" said Mr +Fosset drily, with a meaning glance in my direction, eyeing my cocoa as +if he rather fancied a cup himself. "I say, Haldane, that cocoa smells +good!" + +"It's not half bad, sir," I replied grinning. "Perhaps you would like +some too, sir. Weston's got a lot more inside here, hot, just fetched +from the galley!" + +"I don't mind if I do have a cup," said he. "Will you join me, cap'en?" + +"No, thanks; I'm too worried. I'll wait till breakfast," said the +skipper, turning to go up on deck by the companion-way and hitching his +cap off the hook by his cabin door. "You won't be long, I hope, eh?" + +"I'll follow you up in a jiffey, sir, as soon as I have swallowed a +toothful of this warm stuff to keep out the cold. Hi, steward?" + +"Aye, aye, sir?" answered Weston, promptly putting his head out of his +pantry, where he had been listening. "Cup of cocoa, sir?--yezzir." + +"I say, Fosset," said the captain, who had lingered near awhile, as if +in deep thought, as he stood with one foot on the lower step of the +companion as if he were trying to recollect something, "I say, we must +make some points to-day on the chart, you know!" + +"Yes, sir. I don't think there'll be any difficulty about that. Do +you?" + +"No; the sun ought to be pretty clear at noon with a morning like this-- +clear enough, at all events, for us to find out the latitude and +longitude." + +"Just what I said to Spokeshave, sir, before I came down to call you +awhile ago." + +"Quite so." + +"Aye, `quite so,' sir." + +Whereupon both sniggered at the skipper's apt mimicry of Master Conky's +pet phrase, which Captain Applegarth pronounced in the little beggar's +exact tone of voice, so like indeed being the imitation that I nearly +choked myself while swallowing the balance of my cocoa, as I hastily +drained my cup and rose to follow the skipper up the companion-ladder to +the deck. + +As Mr Fosset had said, there was a dead calm on the bosom of the deep, +for the slight swell that remained after the gale on the previous +evening, even up to the time of my going down below, had quite +disappeared, the surface of the water being as smooth as glass as far as +the horizon line and all aflash now with the rosy hue of sunrise to the +eastward. The sky still preserved, however, the pale neutral tints of +night in the west, and up to the zenith, where it merged into a faint +and beautiful seagreen that lost itself imperceptibly in the warm +colouring of the orient, which each moment became more and more intense +in hue, heralding the approach of morn. + +At last, up jumped the glorious orb of day, proudly, from his ocean bed, +came with one bound as it were, a veritable globe of liquid fire, +flooding the vast distant heaven and sea with a wealth of light and +radiance that seemed to give life to everything around. + +"There, Haldane," said Captain Applegarth, pointing over the taffrail at +a lot of straggling masses of quasi-looking stringy stuff that came +floating on top of the water close by the ship, resembling vegetable +refuse discarded from Neptune's kitchen garden. "That's the gulf-weed +Mr Fosset was just speaking about to me." + +"Indeed, sir, I can't say much for its appearance. It looks more like a +parcel of cauliflowers run to seed than anything else, sir!" + +"Yes, that's not a bad simile of yours, my lad," he replied, moving +nearer to the side and sending his keen sailorly glance alow and aloft, +examining our old barquey to see how she fared after the storm. "If I +can remember rightly, I think one of our best naturalists has given a +similar description of it. Yes, that's the gulf-weed, or sargassum, or +_fucus natans_, as the big guns variously call it in their Latin lingo. +A rum sort of tackle, isn't it?" + +"Yes, it does look funny, queer stuff, sir," said I, for I had never had +the opportunity of noticing it before, all my voyages hitherto backwards +and forwards across the Atlantic having been outside the limits of the +uncanny looking gulf-weed. "Does it grow in the sea, sir? It looks so +fresh and green." + +"Well, that depends how you take it, my lad," returned the skipper +rather absently, his attention being fixed on something forward, about +which he evidently could not quite make up his mind, as there was a +slight puzzled expression on his face. "You see, it is all through +those long-winded chaps, who won't be content with what the Creator +gives them, but must put a cause and reason for everything beyond God's +own will and pleasure, and who lay down arbitrary rules of their own for +the guidance of Dame Nature, though, between you and I and the binnacle, +Haldane, the old lady got on well enough for a good many scores of +years--I'd be sorry to say how many--without their precious help! Now +these gentlemen, who know everything, will have it that the gulf-weed +grows deep down at the bottom of the sea and that only the branches and +tendrils, or leaves, so to speak, float on the top and are visible to +us." + +"How strange, sir," said I. "Just like an aquarium plant. It is +strange!" + +"It would be, if true, for they would have to possess uncommonly long +stems, as, in the Sagossa Sea, in the centre of the Gulf Stream, where +the weed is most plentiful and to be seen at its freshest and most +luxuriant growth, the recorded depth of the water is over four miles!" + +"That is not likely, then," I observed in reply to this--"I mean, sir, +the fact of its growing up from the bottom of the sea." + +"Certainly not, my boy. Another wise man, of the same kidney as the +long-winded chap of the theory I've just explained, says that the gulf- +weed in its natural and original state grows on the rocky islets and +promontories of the Florida coast and that it is torn thence by the +action of the great Atlantic current that bears it many miles from its +home; though, strangely enough, I have never seen any gulf-weed growing +on rocks in the Gulf of Florida or in any of the adjacent seas, nor has +any one else to my knowledge!" + +"Then you do not believe it grows to anything at all, do you, sir?" + +"No, I don't. My opinion is that it is a surface plant of old Neptune's +rearing and that the warm water of the Gulf Stream breeds it and +nourishes it, for at certain times it seems partly withered, and this +could not be due to accident. The weed, I believe, is a sailor, like +you and I, my lad, and lives and has its being on the sea, no matter +what your longshore naturalists, who don't know much about it from +personal observation, may say to the contrary. Hullo! though, my boy, +look forrad there! Where has our spar anchor gone? I thought I noticed +something and could not make out at first what it was. Look, youngster, +and see whether you can see it!" + +I was equally puzzled for the moment, for although our good ship rested +as peacefully on the bosom of the deep as if she were moored, the +raftlike bundle of spars, to which she had been made fast the night +before, was now no longer to be seen bobbing up ahead, athwart our +hawser as then. + +Where could our wonderful floating anchor have gone? + +The next moment, however, I saw what had happened, the mystery being +easily explained by the calm. + +"They've floated alongside, sir," I said. "I can see them under the +counter on the port side, sir." + +"Yes, of course, there they are, exemplifying the attraction of +gravitation or some other long-winded theory of your scientific +gentlemen," replied the skipper, who seemed to have got science on the +brain this morning, being violently antagonistic to it, somehow or +other. "Ah, Fosset, see, our anchor's come home without weighing. I +think you'd better have the spars hauled on board and rig up the sticks +again, now that they've served our time in another way--aye, and served +it well, too." + +"Aye, aye, sir," said the first mate, who had come up after us on the +poop, looking, I couldn't help noticing, all the better for the good and +early breakfast he had just finished. "I thought of getting them in +just now, but waited to call you first." + +"Well, you needn't wait any longer, Fosset," rejoined the skipper. +"Pass the word for the bo'sun forrad." + +"Yes, yes, sir. Quartermaster, call Masters!" + +"Bo'sun, pipe all hands to hoist spars aboard!" These orders were +roared out by Mr Fosset in rapid succession, and then in equally rapid +sequences came the boatswain's whistle and hail to the men down the +hatchway just along the deck. + +All had a rare time of it, and an amount of "yoho-hoes-hoing" went round +that it would have done anybody's heart good to hear; the first mate was +bellowing out his orders and old Masters seeing to their proper +execution by the busy hands and active feet, the skipper meanwhile +standing on the poop, superintending matters with his keen eye, and woe +to the lubber who bungled at a hitch or left a rope's end loose or brace +slack! + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +BOAT AHOY! + +By the time the sun was near the meridian our top-masts were up and the +upper yards swayed aloft and crossed, making the old barquey all ataunto +again and pretty nearly her old self, our broken bulwarks and smashed +skylight betraying the only damage done by the storm, on deck, at all +events. + +"I `calculate,' Fosset, as our Yankee friends would say, we may now cry +spell O!" observed the skipper, who was highly pleased with the progress +made in refitting the ship. "Tell the bo'sun to pipe the hands to +dinner, and you and I had better go up on the bridge and see what we can +do in the way of determining our position on the chart. That gulf-weed +must have lost its bearings, I'm sure. It seems impossible to me that +we could have drifted so far to the south as to bring us in the Stream!" + +"An observation will soon settle the point, sir," replied the first +mate, passing the word to Masters to knock off work. "Run down, +Haldane, and get my sextant for me, there's a good chap! I left it on +the cabin table, all ready. You'll find it there!" + +"Belay, there!" sang out the skipper, as I started off towards the +companion-way. "You may as well bring mine, too, while you're about it. +Two heads are better than one, eh, Fosset?" + +"Yes, sir, perhaps so," rejoined the other, before I got out of earshot. +"It seems, though, as if we're going to have three on the job; for here +comes Mr O'Neil with his sextant under his arm, evidently bent on the +same errand!" + +I soon was back with the instruments for the other two, and presently +all three were at work taking the sun's altitude and measuring off the +angle made by the luminary with the horizon. + +A short delay ensued from our clocks being fast on account of our having +drifted to the eastward, of where they had last been set. + +Then all at once Mr Fosset sang out. + +"It's just noon, sir, now. The sun's crossing the meridian!" + +"All right, make it so," replied the skipper. "Bos'un, strike eight +bells." + +"Aye, aye, sir," came back from old Masters away forward, and then +followed the melodious chime of the ship's bell that hung immediately +under the beak of the fo'c's'le. "Ting-ting, ting-ting, ting-ting, +ting-ting." + +"Now," going into the wheel-house, "let us look at the chronometer and +see what Greenwich time says, and then tot up our reckonings!" + +The two others followed him into the little room on the bridge, sitting +down to a table in which the track chart of the ship's course lay, and +all were busy for some few moments calculating and working out our +latitude and longitude. + +I was standing by the doorway after bringing up the correct time of the +chronometers, which the skipper kept locked up in his own cabin to +prevent their being meddled with, and I could see he looked puzzled, +adding up and subtracting his figures over and over again, as if he +thought he must have made some error, though he found that he invariably +came to the same result. + +"Well, Fosset," he cried at length, unable to restrain himself any +longer. "What do you make it?" + +"39 deg. 20 minutes north latitude sir, and 47 deg. 15 minutes west longitude." + +"Faith, an' I make it the same, sir," also put in Garry O'Neil, the +twain having worked out the reckoning long before the poor skipper. +"Both of us agree to the virry minnit, sure, lavin' out the sicconds, +sir!" + +"By George!" exclaimed the skipper. "It's even worse than I thought." + +"How, sir?" asked Mr Fosset with a smile on his face, no doubt +chuckling to himself at being cleverer and wiser than Captain +Applegarth, who would not believe we were in the Gulf Stream. "Don't +you think us right, sir?" + +"Oh, yes, Fosset; I agree with you myself. The _reckoning_ is right +enough, but father's the devil to pay!" + +The skipper couldn't sacrifice the joke, though he was terribly put out. + +"See here," he continued, "jabbing," with great noise and force the +compasses with which he was measuring off our position, into the chart, +as if that was in fault, while Fosset and O'Neil laughed. "Look where +we are! I shouldn't have thought it possible for us to have been driven +so far south, right into the Gulf Stream, as we are, for the current +generally runs to the nor'-east'ards below the Banks." + +"The stream has done it, though, sure enough," said Mr Fosset; "that +and the gale, for the one has drifted us to the coast and the other +pressed us down southwards; and between the two we're just fetched where +we are, sir!" + +"Well," replied the skipper, shrugging his shoulders, "you were right, +Fosset, and I was wrong this morning. Let me see, though, how we have +fetched here, if we can trace our course so far, from when we last took +the sun." + +"Sure, an' that was Friday, that baste of a day!" interposed Garry +O'Neil, pointing to a place on the chart. "I worked at the rickonin' +and I put it down meself, marking it with a red pencil." + +"Yes; here it is, 42 deg. 35 minutes north latitude, and longitude 50 deg. 10 +minutes west," said the skipper. "I worked it out also, on my own hook, +and you and I tallied, if you recollect?" + +"Of course we did, the divvil doubt it, sir," answered the second mate +in his usual Irish fashion. "Thin, sor, we ran for five hours from that +p'int on a west by south course, going between ten and twelve knots; +for, though I didn't say it meself, Mister Fosset tould me the wind was +freshinin' all the toime, so that we must have travelled about sixty +miles, more or less." + +"So that brings us to this blue mark here?" + +"Yes, sor, to 42 deg. 28 minutes north, and 51 deg. 12 minutes west." + +"Then we sailed right before the wind, due south?" + +"Sure, an' we did that same afther Mister Haldane's will-o'-the-wisp for +three hours, bedad!" + +"Oh, Mr O'Neil," I pleaded, "please leave me out of it. I'm sure I've +seen and heard enough of the ship already!" + +"Be aisy, me darlint! It's only me fun, sure; and I mean ye no harrum," +said he in his jocular way. "Arrah how can I lave ye out of the story +when ye're the howl h'id and tail of it, sure, and without ye there'd be +none to tile. Yes, cap'en, dear, sure, an' as I was a-saying when +Haldane broke in upon me yarn, thray hours on this southerly course +brought us here right where ye see me little finger, now!" + +"About 51 deg. 5 minutes west longitude and 41 deg. 40 minutes north latitude. +How did you get this, eh?" + +"Faith, sor, the ould moon looked so moighty plisint that night that I +took a lunar or two, jist to divart mesilf with, when Spokeshave wint +below and there was nobody lift to poke fun at, sure!" + +"A very useful sort of amusement," said the skipper drily. "And I see, +too, you've put in the distance we've run, by dead reckoning, as about +another fifty miles or so?" + +"Yes, sor. The bo'sun hove the log ivery half hour till the engines +stopped, an' he made out we were going sixteen knots an' more, bedad, so +he s'id, whin we were running before the wind with full shtame on." + +"That was very likely, O'Neil," replied the skipper, "but, after that, +we altered course again, you know!" + +"In course we did, sor, an' you'll say it marked roight down there on +that line! We thin sailed west, a quarter south by compass, close- +hauled on the starboard track, for two hours longer after you altered +course ag'in an' bore up to the west'ard, keeping on till the ingines +bhroke down, bad cess to 'em!" + +"When was that?" asked the skipper slowly. "I was so worried and +flurried at the moment that I forgot to take the time." + +"Four bells in the first watch, sor," replied the Irishman quickly. "It +was after we'd brought up poor Jackson from below, as Stoddart, the +engineer, faith, was a sittin' near, jist before me, attindin' on the +poor chap in the cabin, whin the rush of shtame came flyin' up the +hatchway, faith, an' the sekrew stopped. We both of us looked at the +saloon clock on the instant, sure, an' saw the toime, sor." + +"That is the last mark on the chart, then?" said the old skipper +meaningly, pencil and compass in hand, and still bending over the tell- +tale track map spread out on the wheel-house table. "Since that, nobody +knows how we've drifted!" + +"Faith, no one, sor," returned Garry O'Neil, thinking the question was +addressed to him. "Only, perhaps, the Pope, God bless him, or the +Imporor of Chainy!" + +All laughed at this, Captain Applegarth now losing his preoccupied air +as if there were nothing to be gained, he thought, by dwelling any +longer on the past. + +It was wonderful, though, how we _had_ drifted in the short interval, +comparatively, that had elapsed since we became disabled! + +As Mr Fosset had been the first to find out in the morning the Gulf +Stream--that great river that runs a course of some two thousand miles +in the middle of the ocean, keeping itself perfectly distinct from the +surrounding water through which it flows, from its inception as a +current in the Caribbean Sea to its final disposal in the North +Atlantic--had first carried us in an easterly direction after we had +broken-down so utterly; while the strong nor'-westerly gale, aided +probably by the Arctic current, running due south from the Polar regions +and which disputes the right of way with the Gulf Stream some little +distance to the southwards of the great Banks of Newfoundland, had +pressed upon the helpless hull of the _Star of the North_, bearing her +away whither they pleased. + +So, unable to resist either the winds or the waves, these combined +forces had driven her off her course at an oblique angle, thus +converting the nor'-easterly, or easterly drift proper, of the Gulf +Stream into a true sou'-westerly one, taking us from latitude 41 deg. 30 +minutes north and longitude 51 deg. 40 minutes west, where we were on the +previous Friday night, when we were forced to lie-to, to our present +position on the chart. + +To put the case more concisely, the _Star of the North_ had been carried +for the distance of _four degrees and a half_ exactly of longitude +backward on her outward track to New York and some _two degrees_ or +thereabouts to the southwards, placing us as nearly as possible in the +position the skipper had already indicated, a direction of some five +hundred miles more or less from our proper course and about midway +between Bermuda and the Azores, or Western Islands. + +While Captain Applegarth was explaining this, as much for my benefit and +instruction, I believe, as anything, a thought occurred to me. + +"Are we not now, sir, in the track of all the homeward-bound ships +sailing on the great circle from the West Indies and South American +ports?" + +The skipper looked at me steadily, "smelling a rat" at once. + +"I suppose, Haldane," he said somewhat sternly, "you want to get me back +to that infernal ship again? Not if I know it, my lad. As you told Mr +O'Neil just now, we've all had enough and to spare of that vessel and +the wild-goose chase she has led us from first to last. I won't hear +another word about her, by Jingo!" + +Just then old Masters, who had gone up in the foretop to set something +right which had struck his sailor eye as not being altogether as it +should be aboard the _Star of the North_, raised his arm to attract the +attention of those on deck below him. + +"Hullo, there, bo'sun!" called out the skipper, seeing him, for he +seldom kept his glasses away from the rigging of the ship and things +aloft. "What's the row, eh?" + +"I sees summit to win'ard, sir." + +"By George!" exclaimed the skipper in a tone that made every one laugh +who heard, all but Masters; the coincidence was so comical after what +Captain Applegarth had said only a minute before. "Not another `ghost- +ship,' I hope!" + +"No, sir," growled the boatswain rather savagely. "It bean't no ghost- +ship this time, though _she_ ain't far off, I knows, to my thinkin'!" + +He added the last words as if speaking to himself, but I heard him, and +his remark stopped my mirth instanter. + +"What is it, bo'sun, that you _do_ see, then?" cried the skipper +impatiently; "that is, if you see anything at all beyond some vision of +your own imagination!" + +"I ain't dreaming," hailed back old Masters, not quite catching what he +said. "I sees summit as plain as possible out to win'ard. Aye, it be +a-driftin' down athawt our hawser, too, cap'en. Why, hullo! I'm +blessed. Boat ahoy!" + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +IN THE NICK OF TIME. + +"A boat!" exclaimed Captain Applegarth, his jesting manner changing +instantly to one of earnest attention. "Where away?" + +"On our starboard beam, sir," sang out Masters from the foretop. "About +two points off, I fancies, sir." + +"I can't see her," said the skipper, looking in the direction the +boatswain had indicated. "I thought she was close-to from your hailing +her." + +"She's further away now than I thought, sir!" shouted old Masters in +reply to this, after having another squirm over the topsail yard. "I'm +blessed, though, if I ain't lost her, with the ship's head bobbing all +round the compass. No; there she be ag'in, sir. No--yes--yes. There +she is, about a mile or so off, sir, I'm thinkin'." + +"By George, Masters, you think too much, I think!" the skipper retorted +angrily. "You don't seem to know what you're saying, and I believe +you've gone off your chump since you saw that `ghost-ship,' as you +called it! Go aloft, Haldane, and see what you can make of this blessed +boat he says he sighted!" + +I was already in the weather shrouds before the skipper gave me this +order, and in another minute I was on the top beside the boatswain, who +pointed out silently to me a little black speck in the distance +apparently dancing about amid the waves, which were beginning to curl +before an approaching breeze that was evidently springing up from the +westwards. Fortunately, I had a pair of binoculars in my jacket pocket, +and I immediately levelled the glasses at the object in view. + +"Well, Haldane!" at last sang out the skipper impatiently from the end +of the bridge, where he still stood, looking up at me with his chin +cocked in the air. "What do you make it out to be, eh, my lad?" + +"It's a boat sure enough, sir," I shouted down to him, without taking my +eyes off it. "She's a long way off, though, sir, and I think she's +drifting further away, too." + +"The deuce!" exclaimed Captain Applegarth. "Can you see any one in the +boat?" + +"No--no--not distinctly, sir," I replied after another searching look. +"Stay; I do--I do think there's a figure at one end! and, yes--yes--I'm +sure I noticed something that appeared like a movement, but it might +have been caused by the rocking of the sea." + +"But don't you see anybody, or can't you make anything else out?" + +"Only the boat, sir, and that a breeze seems coming up from the +westward. I see a white line on the water along the horizon. That's +all I can see, sir!" + +"Well, that's not much use to us," he growled below, beginning his +customary "quarter-deck walk" up and down the bridge. "I wish some one +would come up from the engine-room to say they had repaired the cylinder +and that we could go ahead again!" + +Almost as soon as he spoke thus I noticed Mr Stokes, who I thought was +lying down in his cabin, coming towards the forepart of the ship where +we were, from the direction of the engine-room hatchway. + +"Hullo, Stokes," said the skipper, catching sight of him at once with +his eagle eye that seemed to take in everything that went on, whether +his back was turned or not. "I thought you were on the sick list still, +and ill. You oughtn't to be bustling about so soon after your accident, +my dear fellow!" + +"No, but I feel better!" replied the old chief, who, although he was +still pale and shaky, had a more cheerful look on his face than the day +before, when he appeared decidedly ill. "I've been down below and I'm +glad to say Stoddart and the other artificers, who I must say have +worked well without me, you will be glad to know, have got the cylinder +cover on again. They've made a splendid job of it!" + +"Stoddart himself is a splendid fellow," said the skipper +enthusiastically. "Aye, and the rest of your staff, too, my dear +Stokes. By George, you've brought us good news!" + +"But that isn't all, cap'en," cried the old fellow, beaming over with a +broad smile of quiet enjoyment at the surprise the skipper showed. +"They say below that they'll be able to start the engines as soon as +there's a full head of steam on! Now what do you think of that, sir? +Isn't that good news?" + +The skipper looked ready to embrace our fat chief, and I believe only +refrained from giving this expression of his joy by the sight of poor +Mr Stokes' bandaged arm, which was still in a sling. + +He contented himself, therefore, with patting him tenderly on the back +and walking round him admiringly, like a cat purring round a saucer of +cream. + +"By George!" he cried. "I feel as pleased as if my grandmother had left +me five thousand pounds!" + +"I wish she had," laughed the old chief. "I would ask to go shares!" + +"And so you should, my boy; so you should," repeated the skipper with +much heartiness, and as if he really meant it. "How soon do you think +we shall be able to start, eh?" + +"Very soon, I think, sir. The after-boiler fires were lit early this +morning and they've been getting up steam ever since." + +"That's good!" cried the skipper, stopping in his excited walk up and +down the bridge, which he had again resumed, being unable to keep still, +when he looked up, caught sight of me and hailed me. + +"I say, Haldane?" + +"Aye, aye, sir?" I sang out from the top, where I had remained with the +boatswain on the look-out, and hearing likewise all that transpired +beneath. "What do you want, sir?" + +"I hope you're keeping your eye on that boat, my lad. If she is there +we may be able to overhaul her yet, if you don't lose sight of her!" + +"No fear of that, sir," I shouted back, pointing with my finger in the +distance. "There she is, still to win'ard, pretty nearly flush with the +water." + +"Then she really is there all right, my lad. Keep your eye on her." + +The funnels had been emitting smoke for some time without our having +paid much attention to the fact, the fires of the fore-boilers having +been kept in and banked ever since our breakdown, in order to work the +pumps and capstan gear when required; but now steam, I noticed, came out +as well as smoke, and I could hear it plainly roaring up the waste pipe, +besides making a fearful row. + +Presently another sound greeted my ears and made me jump. + +It was that of the electric bell in the wheel-house, giving warning that +those below in the emporium wished to make some communication. + +Mr Stokes went to the voice-tube that led down thither from the bridge. + +"What's the matter?" he roared into the mouthpiece so loud that I heard +every word he uttered, although a-top of the mast. "Anything wrong?" + +I couldn't of course catch the reply that came up the pipe; and it +certainly was not a satisfactory one, for Mr Stokes turned round at +once to the skipper, who immediately stopped his quarter-deck walk to +hear what the chief had to say. + +"They've corrected the propeller, sir," he exclaimed with a chuckle that +made his fat form shake all over; "and Stoddart says he's only waiting +for your signal to close the stop valves and let the steam into the +cylinder." + +"By George, he shan't wait a minute longer!" cried Captain Applegarth, +moving the engine-room telegraph. "Go ahead, my hearties, as soon as +you please! Hullo, there, forrad, I want a hand here at the wheel. I +suppose the steam steering gear is all right again now?" + +"Oh, yes, sir," replied Mr Stokes to this. "Grummet fixed that up on +Sunday afternoon, he told me. I am sure it was done. I remember he was +doing it when that man-of-war came alongside and spoke you." + +"Strange I didn't see him at the job; he must have been pretty smart +over it!" replied the skipper. "But I'm very glad it is done, though." + +In answer to the skipper's signal a sudden blast of steam rushed up the +funnel abaft the wheel-house, and I could feel the ship tremble as the +shaft began to revolve and the propeller blades splashed the water +astern with the familiar "thump-thump, thump-thump." + +All hands joined in a hearty cheer, to which Masters and I in the top +lent what aid our lungs could give. + +"Steady amidship, there," sang out the skipper as the old barquey forged +ahead once more. "Steady, my man." + +"Aye, aye, sir," answered the foremost hand, Parrell, who had come from +the fo'c's'le to take the first "trick" at the steering wheel on the +bridge. "Steady it is." + +"How does the boat bear now, Haldane?" + +"Two points off our starboard bow, sir," I replied to this hail of the +skipper. "She's about three miles off, I think, sir." + +"All right," he shouted back to me. "Port your helm, there!" + +"Aye, aye, sir," repeated Parrell. "Port, sir, it is." + +"We're rising her fast now, sir," I called out after a short interval. +"There's a man in the boat; yes, a man, sir. I can see him quite +plainly now, and I'm sure I'm not mistaken!" + +"Are you quite sure, my lad?" + +"Quite sure, sir. And he's alive, too, I'm certain. Yes, sir; he moved +then distinctly. I could see him plainly. Why, the boat is so near now +that you ought to see it from the deck." + +"And so I can, by Jingo, Haldane!" replied the captain, peering out +ahead himself with a telescope from the end of the bridge. "I fancy I +can see a second figure, and it looks like another man, too, lying down +in the bows of the boat, as well as the figure at the stern, who seems +to me to be holding up an oar or something!" + +"Yes, there is, sir," I called out, stopping on my way down the rigging +to have another look. After a pause I exclaimed, "I can see both of +them, and with my naked eye. I can see them now!" + +"Well, then, you'd better come down from aloft. Tell your friend, the +boatswain, to come down as well. He'll be wanted at the fo'c's'le when +we presently come up to the boat, as I trust we shall!" + +"Lucky Masters saw the boat, sir," said I when I reached the deck and up +to the skipper's side again. "But even more fortunate it is for the +poor fellows that our engines are working again, sir, for otherwise we +could not have been able to get up to the boat and save them." + +"It isn't luck, my boy," observed Mr Stokes, whom the death of poor +Jackson and his own narrow escape from a like fate had led to think of +other matters besides those connected with his mundane profession. +"It's Providence!" + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +AN APPEAL FOR AID. + +"Aye, that's the better way of looking at it," chimed in the skipper, +raising his arm at the same time from his station at the end of the +bridge, where he was conning the ship. He then called out sharply, to +enforce the signal. + +"Luff up, you lubber, luff!" + +"Luff it is, sir," rejoined the helmsman, rapidly turning round the +spokes of the little steam steering wheel. "It's hard over now, sir." + +"Steady there," next sang out the captain. "Steady, my man!" + +"Aye, aye, sir," repeated the parrot-like Tom Parrell, bringing the helm +amidships again. "Steady it is!" + +"By George, we're nearing the boat fast!" cried the skipper after +another short pause, during which we had been going ahead full speed, +with a quick "thump-thump, thump-thump" of the propeller and the water +foaming past our bows. "Starboard, Parrell! Starboard a bit now!" + +"Aye, aye, sir," came again the helmsman's answering cry from the wheel- +house. "Starboard it is, sir!" + +"Keep her so. A trifle more off. Steady!" + +"Steady it is, sir!" + +"Now down with it, Parrell!" sang out the skipper, bringing his hand +instanter on the handle of the engine-room gong, which he sounded twice, +directing those in charge below to reduce speed, while he hailed old +Masters on the fo'c's'le. "Hi, bo'sun! Look-out there forrad with your +rope's end to heave to the poor fellows! We're just coming alongside +the boat." + +"Aye, aye, sir!" replied Masters promptly, keeping one eye on the +skipper on the bridge and the other directed to the little craft we were +approaching, and now close to our port bow. "We're all ready forrad, +sir. Mind you don't run her down, sir. She's nearly under our +forefoot." + +"All right, bo'sun," returned the skipper. "Port, Parrell!" + +"Port it is, sir," repeated Tom Parrell. "Two points off." + +"Steady, man, steady," continued the skipper, holding his hand up again. +"Boat ahoy! Stand by. We're going to throw you a rope!" + +At the same instant Captain Applegarth sounded the engine-room gong +again, bringing the _Star of the North_ to a dead stop as we steamed up +to the boat slanting-wise, the steamer having just sufficient way on her +when the screw shaft ceased revolving, to glide gently up to the very +spot where the little floating waif was gently bobbing up and down on +the wave right ahead of us, and barely half a dozen yards away, +drifting, at the will of the wind, without any guidance from its +occupants, who seemingly were unaware of our approach. + +"Boat ahoy!" shouted the skipper once more, raising his voice to a +louder key. "Look-out, there!" + +The men in the bows of the boat still remained in the same attitude, as +if unconscious or dead; but the other in the stern-sheets appeared to +hear the skipper's hail, for he half-turned his head and uttered a +feeble sort of noise and made a feeble motion with one of his hands. + +"Now's your time, bo'sun!" cried Captain Applegarth. "Heave that line, +sharp!" + +"Aye, aye, sir," roared out Masters in his gruff tones. "Stand by, +below there!" + +With that the coil of half-inch rope which he held looped on his arm +made a circling whirl through the air, the end falling right across the +gunwales of the boat, close to the after thwart, where sat the second of +the castaways, who eagerly stretched out his hand to clutch at it. + +But, unfortunately, he failed to grasp it, and the exertion evidently +being too much for him, for he tumbled forward on his face at the bottom +of the boat, while the rope slipped over the side into the water, coming +back home to us alongside the old barquey on the next send of the sea, +the heavy roll of our ship when she brought up broadside-on, as well as +the weight of the line saturated with water, fetching it in to us all +the sooner. + +"Poor fellows; they can't help themselves!" cried the skipper, who had +watched the boatswain's throw and its unsatisfactory result with the +deepest interest. "Bear a hand there, some one forrad, and have another +try to reach them. The boat's drifting past, and we'll have to go +astern to board her in another minute, if you don't look sharp!" + +Having climbed into the fore-rigging, however, so as to have a good look +at the boat and its occupants as we neared them, I was quite as quick as +the skipper to notice what had happened, having, indeed, foreseen the +contingency before it occurred. + +So, ere Masters or any of the other men could stir a hand, having made +up my mind what to do, I had seized hold of part of the slack of the +line that remained inboard and, plunging into the sea, swam towards the +boat. + +A couple of strokes, combined with the forward impetus of my leap +overboard, took me up to the little craft, and in a jiffey I had grasped +the gunwale aft and clambered within her, securing the end of the line I +had round one of the thwarts at once, amid the ringing cheers of the +skipper and my shipmates in the old barquey, who proceeded to haul us up +alongside without further delay, tugging away at the tar rope I had +hitched on, yo-heave-hoing and hurrahing in one and the same breath +right lustily! + +So smart were they, so instantaneous had been the action of the moment +during the episode, that we were close in to the ship's side and under +her conning, immediately below the port end of the bridge, where the +skipper stood leaning over the rail and surveying operations, before I +had time actually to look round so as to have a nearer view of the +unfortunate men whom we had so providentially rescued. + +When I did though, one glance was enough. + +I was horror stricken at the sight that met my eyes. + +The man whom I had observed when we were yet some distance off to be +lying huddled up in the bows motionless, as if dying or already dead, I +now saw had received a horrible wound on the top of his head that had +very nearly smashed in the skull, besides almost severing one of his +ears which was hanging from the cheek bone, attached by a mere scrap of +skin, the bottom boards of the boat near him being stained with blood +that had flowed from the cut, and his hair likewise matted together with +gore. Oh, it was horrible to see! He was not dead, however, as I had +thought, but only in a state of stupor, breathing heavily and making a +strange stertorous sound as if snoring. + +His fellow-sufferer aft, who did not appear to have suffered so much as +his comrade, had seemingly swooned from exhaustion or exposure; as, on +my putting my arm round him and lifting up his bent head, the man opened +his eyes and murmured something faintly in some foreign lingo--Spanish, +I think it was; at any rate a language I did not understand. + +But I was unable to notice anything beyond these details, which I +grasped in that one hurried glance; for as I was in the act of raising +up the poor chap in the stern-sheets, the skipper hailed me from the +bridge above. + +"Below there!" he sang out. "How are the poor fellows? Are they alive, +Haldane?" + +"They are in a bad way, sir," I replied. "They've got the life left in +them and that's all, I'm afraid!" + +"Neither dead, then?" + +"No, sir." + +"Bravo! `whilst there's life there's hope,'" cried the skipper in a +cheery tone. "Are they quite helpless, do you think, Haldane--I mean +quite unable to climb up the side?" + +"Quite unable, sir," I answered. "One's unconscious, and I don't think +the other could move an inch if he tried!" + +"Then we must haul 'em up," said Captain Applegarth, turning to Masters, +who had popped his head over the bulwarks and was now looking down into +the boat, like the rest of the hands on board. "I say, bo'sun, can't +you rig up a chair or something that we can lower down for the poor +fellows?" + +"Aye, aye, sir," responded old Masters, drawing in his head from the +bulwarks and disappearing from my view as I looked upwards from the +stern-sheets, where I was still holding up the slowly-recovering man. +"I'll rig up a whip from the foreyard and we can let down a hammock for +'em, tricing up one at a time." + +"Stay, cap'en," cried Mr Fosset as the boatswain went bustling off, I +suppose, though of course from my position I could not see him, to carry +out this plan of his. "The davits here amidship are all right, as well +as the tackle of our cutter that had got washed away in the gale. +Wouldn't it be easier to let down the falls, sir, and run up the boat +all standing with the poor fellows in her as they are?" + +"By George, the very thing, Fosset!" exclaimed the skipper, accepting +the suggestion with alacrity. "It will save the poor fellows a lot of +jolting, and be all the easier for us, as you say. Besides, the little +craft will come in handy for us, as we're rather short of boats just +now!" + +"Short of boats, sir!" repeated the first mate ironically as he set to +work at once, with the help of a couple of the hands who jumped to his +side to assist him the moment he spoke, casting off the lashings of the +davits so as to rig them outwards, letting go at the same time the hooks +of the fall blocks and overhauling the running gear. "Why, sir, we +haven't even the dinghy left intact after that clean sweep we had from +the wave that pooped us!" + +"Oh, aye, I know that well enough," said the skipper drily. "But, look +alive now, Fosset, with that tackle, and don't be a month of Sundays +over the job! Send down two of the cutter's crew to overrun the falls +and drop down into the boat. They can help Haldane in holding up that +poor chap astern and also bear a hand in hoisting up." + +"All right, sir; we're just ready," shouted back the first mate as he +gave the word to let go. "Lower away there with the slack of those +falls. Easy, my man, gently does it!" + +In another instant down came the fall blocks, with one of the hands +hanging on to each, the men alighting "gingerly" on the thwarts of the +boat in the bow and stern of the little craft, which became immersed +almost up to the gunwales with the additional weight. + +This was only for a moment, for the next minute Mr Fosset gave the +signal to "hoist away," the falls having been hooked on beneath the +thwarts in a jiffey, and up we all went in mid air, "between the devil +and the deep sea," as we say afloat sometimes! + +"Bravo!" cried the skipper when we reached the level of the gangway and +were all able to step out on to the deck. "That's very handsomely done, +my lads! Now let us see about lifting the poor fellows out. That chap +there in the bows seems in a very bad way! You'd better carry him into +the cuddy at once and let Mr O'Neil look after him." + +"Indade, I will, sor," said our doctor-mate, who was standing near by +with a spirit flask in one hand and a medicine glass in the other, ready +to give immediate succour to the rescued men. "Carry the poor beggar +along an' I'll be afther ye in a minnit; for this other misfortunate +gossoon here looks as if he wouldn't be the worst for a dhrop of good +brandy, an' faith, I'll say to him fourst, avic!" + +So saying the Irishman poured some of the contents of the spirit flask +into the glass, which he held to the lips of the man. Mr Fosset and I +were supporting him in our arms against the side of the boat, whence we +had just removed him. + +The poor fellow's strength returned to him almost as soon as he had +sipped a drop or two of the brandy, and, starting away from the first +mate and myself, as if no longer needing our aid, he stood erect on the +deck. + +"_Mil gracias, amigos_," he said, with a polite inclination of his head, +in apology like for shaking himself free from us. "_Estoy major_!" + +Captain Applegarth stepped up to him. + +"I am sorry I can't speak Spanish, sir, though I understand you to say +you're better. We're Englishmen all on board this ship, sir, and I'm +glad we've been able to pick you up." + +The eyes of the man glistened and a pleased expression stole over his +face. + +"What! You are English! he exclaimed excitedly. But--but I'm an +American! Only I've been so long in Venezuela amongst Spaniards that I +sometimes forget my own language." + +Our skipper was equally delighted. + +"By George!" he said. "I was sure you were no blessed foreigner, in +spite of your lingo, sir! Welcome on board _the Star of the North_." + +The stranger looked round and his manner changed at once, and he pointed +towards our funnels anxiously and their escaping steam. + +"A steam vessel, eh!" + +"Yes, sir," said the skipper. "I command her, sir. Cap'en Applegarth, +at your service!" + +"The deuce! I was forgetting. We passed you last night, I remember +now! and you're the captain?" + +"Aye!" replied the skipper, not quite making out what the other was +driving at. "I'm captain of this ship!" + +"Merciful Heavens!" cried the rescued man, falling on his knees on the +deck and bursting into a passion of sobs. "Thanks be to God! Yes, +thanks be to God! You will save her, captain. You will save her?" + +The skipper thought the evident suffering he had gone through had turned +his brain. + +"Save who?" he asked, adding in a kinder tone: "Of course, we'll do +anything and everything we can for you, but I must know my bearings +first, my friend." + +The man was on his feet at once. + +"I am not mad, captain, as you appear to think. I can see from your +manner you think so," he said. "I want you to save my Elsie, my only +child, my little daughter, whom those villains, those black devils, are +carrying off!" + +"Your only child, your daughter--black devils," echoed Captain +Applegarth, astonished at the poor man's speech and at his wild and +agonised look. "What do you mean, sir?" + +"Heavens! We're losing time while those scoundrels are getting away +with the ship!" exclaimed the other frantically and walking to and fro +in a most excited state. "Fire up the engines, pile on the coals and +steam like the devil! and go in chase of her, my good captain, you will? +For Heaven's sake, captain, for the love of God, start at once in chase +of her!" + +"In chase of whom?" asked Captain Applegarth, still believing him to be +out of his mind. "In chase of whom?" + +The man uttered a heart-rending cry, in which anger, grief and piteous +appeal were alike blended. + +"In chase of a band of black miscreants who have committed murder and +piracy on the high seas!" he ejaculated in broken accents. "The blood +of a number of white men massacred by treacherous negroes calls for +vengeance, the safety of a young girl and the lives of your brother +sailors still on board the ship calls to you for help and rescue! Great +Heaven! Will you stand idly by and not render the aid you can? Think, +captain, a little girl like your own daughter--my Elsie, my little one! +Yes, and white men, your brothers, and sailors, too, like yourselves, at +the mercy of a gang of black ruffians! Sir, will you help them or not?" + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +WE START IN CHASE OF THE SHIP. + +The effect of this appeal was electrical, not only on the skipper, but +on all of us standing by. + +"Great heavens, man!" cried the captain, staring at the other in wild +astonishment. "What do you mean? I cannot understand you, sir. Your +ship, you say--" + +"My words are plain enough, captain," said the stranger, interrupting +the skipper. "Our ship, the _Saint Pierre_, is in the possession of a +gang of Haytian negroes who rose on us while we were on the high seas +and murdered most of the officers and the crew. They then threw poor +Captain Alphonse, who commanded her, overboard, after they had half +killed him, and the rest of the unfortunate sailors and passengers, +amongst them my little daughter, are now at the mercy of the black +devils!" + +"My God!" exclaimed the skipper, confounded by this lucid statement. +"And you, sir?" + +"I am an American!" said the other with a proud air, drawing himself up +to his full height of six feet and more, and with his eyes flashing, +while a red flush mounted to his cheeks, which had formerly been deadly +pale. "I'm a white man, captain, and it's not likely I would stand by +and see people of my own colour butchered! Of course, sir, I went to +the poor captain's assistance, but then the murderers served me almost +as badly as they did him, chucking me overboard after him." + +"I beg your pardon, sir, I'm sure, for appearing to doubt your story," +cried the skipper, stretching forward his hand, which the other eagerly +grasped. "The fact is, sir, I thought at first your sufferings had set +your head wrong; but now I need hardly say I believe thoroughly every +word you've told us, and you may rely on my aid and that of every man +aboard here to help you and yours. There's my hand on it, sir, and my +word you'll find as good as my bond, so sure as my name is Jack +Applegarth!" + +"And mine, captain, is Vereker, Colonel Vereker, at your service," +returned the other, reciprocating the skipper's cordiality as he looked +him straight in the face, holding his hand the while in a firm grip. He +let go the skipper's fist, however, the next moment and a puzzled +expression came into his eyes as he glanced round occasionally, +apparently in search of some one or other. "Heavens! Where's my +unfortunate comrade who was in the boat with me--poor Captain Alphonse? +Alas, I had forgotten him!" + +"We have not forgotten him, though, colonel," said the skipper smiling. +"He has been carried below to the saloon on the maindeck, where my +second mate, Mr O'Neil, who is a qualified surgeon, is now attending to +his injuries. He has been terribly mauled, poor fellow; we could see +that!" + +"Aye, terribly!" repeated the other with a shudder, as if the +recollection of all he and his fellow-sufferers had gone through +suddenly came back to him at the moment. "But, great Heavens! captain, +we're losing time and that accursed ship with those scoundrels and our +remaining comrades, and with my darling child on board, is speeding away +while we're talking here. You will, will you not, Senor Applegarth, go +in pursuit of her, my friend?" + +"By George I will, colonel; I will at once--immediately--if you'll tell +me her bearings," cried the skipper excitedly. "When was it this +terrible affair happened? When did you leave the ship, and where?" + +"The revolt of the blacks, or mutiny, I should call it, captain, broke +out four days ago, on last Friday, indeed, sir," said the American +promptly in his deep musical voice, and whose foreign accent obliterated +all trace of the unmelodious Yankee twang. "But we kept the rascals at +bay until last night, soon after sundown, when they made an ugly rush +and overpowered us. Captain Alphonse had just sighted your vessel in +the distance and was burning a blue light over the stern to attract your +attention, so as to get assistance at the time this happened." + +"Was yours a large, full-rigged ship?" + +"Yes, sir, the _Saint Pierre_ is of good size and had all her sails +set," replied the other to the skipper's question. "We were running +before the wind with our helm lashed amidship, as it had been since the +previous Friday, for we were all too busy defending our lives to think +of attending to the ship." + +"Steering about nor'-east, I suppose?" + +"Confound it, captain!" said the colonel impatiently. "We were +drifting, I tell you, sir, at the mercy of the elements, and heaven only +knows how we were going! Fortunately, the weather was pretty fair, save +the very day the mutiny broke out, when it blew heavily and our canvas +got split to pieces as there was no one to go aloft and take it in. +Otherwise we must have gone to the bottom!" + +"By George!" exclaimed the skipper, turning round to old Masters and +myself, who were still standing by with the hands who had come aft to +haul up the boat. "Then my bo'sun here, and this young officer were +right when they declared they saw a large full-rigged ship to the +westward of us, though I only noticed the light of your flare-up. You +were too far off for me to make you out." + +"_Ojala_!" ejaculated the American, reverting again to the familiar +Spanish tongue in his emotion. "Would to God, captain, you _had_ seen +us!" + +"It would have been useless if I had, my friend," said the skipper +soothingly. "We couldn't move to come to your assistance if every soul +on board had seen you and known your peril, sir; for our engines were +broken-down and we were not able to get up steam again until late this +afternoon, when we ran down to pick you up!" + +"But, sir," hastily whispered the colonel, suppressing a sob of emotion, +"you can and will steam now?" + +"Why ask?" replied the skipper. "The moment we know where to go in +search of your ship, that very moment we'll start and try to overhaul +her. You say you quitted her last night?" + +"Quitted her? We were _thrown_ overboard, sir, by the black devils!" + +Captain Applegarth in reply said calmly, "Yes, yes, of course," +accepting the correction and trying by his manner to soothe the +infuriated man. "But what time was that?" + +"I can't say the exact hour," replied the American, whose vexed tone +showed that the captain's methodical mode of setting to work did not +quite harmonise with the excited state of his feelings. "I think, +however, it must have been nearly seven o'clock, as well, sir, as I can +remember." + +Then I chimed in. "Ah!" I exclaimed quickly, "that was just the _very +time_ that Masters and I heard the shooting in the distance to win'ard, +and it was six bells in the second dog watch!" + +"So it were, Master Haldane; so it were," agreed the old boatswain, +looking from me to the skipper and then at Colonel Vereker. "Well, I'm +blowed! and I'm glad, then, for that there ghost-ship wor a rael ship +arter all said and done. Now who was right, I'd like to know?" + +"Of course it was a real ship, you old dotard!" said the skipper gruffly +and looking angrily at him. "Of course it was," he added, while our new +acquaintance looked at us, unable, naturally, to understand the mystical +allusion; but Captain Applegarth soon turned his roving thoughts into +another direction by asking him a second question. "How long did you +keep in sight of your vessel after leaving her, colonel, do you think?" + +"She was in full view of us at sunrise this morning," replied the +American. "The boat in which we were adrift kept near her all night as +there was very little wind, if any. A slight breeze sprang up shortly +after the sun rose and she then steadily increased her distance from us +as the day wore on, finally disappearing from my gaze about noon, and +taking with her my little darling, my pet, my Elsie." + +The poor fellow broke down again at this point throwing up his hands +passionately and burying his face in them, his whole frame convulsed +with sobs, though not a man present thought his emotion a thing to be +ashamed of, all of us being deeply interested in his narrative, and as +anxious as himself for the skipper to start off in pursuit of the black +mutineers and pirates. + +We were not long kept in suspense, the colonel's last words and violent +burst of emotion apparently touching our "old man's" feelings deeply, +and hastening his decision. + +"Cheer up, sir, cheer up," said he to the other, whose shoulders still +shook with his deep hysterical sobs. "And we'll find your little girl +yet for you all right, and restore her to you, and we'll settle matters +too, with those scoundrels, I promise. Now tell me how far off do you +think the ship must have drifted from us by now, Mr Fosset." + +"Between twenty and thirty miles, sir," replied the first mate. "She +was lighter than us, and of course she had the advantage of what wind +there has been, though, thank goodness, that has been little enough!" + +"Away to the nor'-east, I suppose?" + +"Aye, aye, sir," said Mr Fosset. "The breeze, what there was, has been +from the sou'-east and the current trends in the same direction." + +"Then if we steer east-nor'-east we ought to pick her up soon?" + +"Not a doubt of it, sir. We have four good hours of daylight left yet!" + +"Precisely my opinion," cried the skipper. "Mr Stokes, will the +engines stand full speed now, do you think?" + +"Oh, yes, sir," replied the old chief, who with the rest of us was all +agog to be after the strange ship again, now that he had heard the +colonel's explanation of her true character, "if you'll send some one +below to tell Stoddart what you want. I would go myself, but I'm rather +shaky in getting down the hatchway as yet. I twisted my arm just now +when I went down." + +"That's all right. Stoddart, I am sure, will excuse you," said the +skipper kindly, and turning to me he added: "You, Haldane, run down and +tell Stoddart we want all the steam we can get. He won't spare the +engines, I know, when he knows the circumstances of the case, and you +will explain matters!" + +So saying, the skipper started off forwards in the direction of the +bridge, while I dived down the engine-room hatchway, reaching the +machinery-flat just as the "old man" sounded the gong to put on full +speed ahead, the telegraph working quick as if he were in a great hurry! + +Ere I could tell my story Stoddart sent an answering blast up the steam +pipe to let the skipper know his signal was being attended to; and then, +pulling back the lever of the throttle valve, the piston began to go up +and down, the cylinder oscillated from side to side and the crank shaft +revolved at first slowly, but presently faster and faster until we were +now going to the utmost of our pace. + +All this while I was yarning away, though I had to shout to the top of +my voice in order to overcome the noise of the machinery, as I described +all that had occurred. + +I did not speak to unheeding ears. + +"By Jove, Haldane!" cried Stoddart, who was a man of action if ever +there was one. "The cylinder is all right again and will bear any +pressure now, and I tell you what it is, the old barquey shall steam +along in pursuit of those demons faster than she ever went in her life +since she was launched and engined!" + +"I am with you there, old fellow," said Grummet, our third engineer, +hastening towards the stoke-hold. "I'll go down and see the firemen and +stir them up and put some more oilers to work in the screw well, to +lubricate the shaft so as to prevent the bearings from overheating." + +"That's your sort, my hearty," said Stoddart. "So you can return on +deck, Haldane, and tell the skipper and Mr Stokes that everything shall +be done down here by us to overhaul your `ghost-ship.'" + +He laughed as he uttered this little piece of chaff at my expense, the +story being now the common property of everybody on board, and I +laughed, too, as I ran up the hatchway with my clothes nearly dry again, +even drying in the short space of time I had been in the hot atmosphere +below, although, goodness knows, they had been wet enough when I had +gone down, having had no time or opportunity to shift them after my dip +overboard when taking the line to the drifting boat. + +On reaching the main deck I met Spokeshave. + +He was coming out from the saloon, and from his puffy face and corpulent +appearance generally, he looked as if he had been making a haul on the +steward's pantry, although he had not long had his dinner and it was a +good way off tea time. + +"Hullo!" he cried out on seeing me. "I say, that chap O'Neil is having +a fine go of it playing at doctoring. He has got a lot of ugly long +knives and saws laid out on the cuddy table and I think he's going to +cut off the chap's leg!" + +"Which chap do you mean?" I asked; "not the colonel?" + +"Aye," said he. "The chap with the moustache and long hair, like +Hamlet, you know!" + +"My good chap," said I, "you seem to know a good deal about other chaps, +or think you do, but I never heard before of Hamlet having a moustache +like a life-guardsman! Irving doesn't wear one when he takes the part, +if I recollect right, my joker. You think yourself mighty knowing!" + +"Quite so," replied Master Spokeshave, using his favourite phrase as +usual. "But you don't call Irving Shakespeare, Haldane, do ye?" + +"I don't know anything of the matter, old boy. I am not so well +informed as you are concerning the dramatic world, Spokeshave. I know +you're a regular authority or `toffer,' if you like, on the subject. +Don't you think, however, you're a bit hard on poor Irving, who, I've no +doubt, would take a word of advice from you if you spoke kindly to him +and without that cruel sarcasm which you're apt to use?" + +The little beggar actually sniggered over this, being of the opinion +that I was paying a just tribute to his histrionic acumen and judgement +in things theatrical, on which he prided himself on account of his +having appeared once behind the footlights in a theatre in Liverpool, as +a "super," I believe, and in a part where he had nothing to say! + +"Quite so, Haldane; quite so," chuckled Spokeshave, as pleased as Punch +at the imaginary compliment. "_I do_ believe I could teach Irving a +thing or two if I had the mind to!" + +"Yes, you donkey, if you _had_ the mind to," said I witheringly, by +giving an emphasis he did not mean to his own words. "`Very like a +whale,' as our old friend Polonius says in the play, the real _Hamlet_, +I mean, my boy, not your version of it. `Very like a whale,' indeed!" + +"I'm sure, Mr Haldane," he answered loftily, cocking his long nose in +the air with a supercilious sniff, "I don't know what ye mean." + +"And I've no time to waste telling you now," returned I. + +At that moment we emerged on the open deck from under the back of the +poop, where we had been losing our time and talking nonsense; and, +looking towards the bridge forward, I saw Colonel Vereker, the very +person about whom we had been speaking, standing by the side of the +skipper. + +"O, Lor', Spokeshave, what a crammer!" I cried. "You said not a moment +ago that Garry O'Neil was about to cut off the colonel's leg, while +there he is standing there, all right!" + +"I didn't say he had cut it off yet," he retorted; "I said he was going +to cut it off. O'Neil told me so himself." + +"Then," said I, "instead of cutting off the poor colonel's leg, he was +only `pulling your leg,' my joker!" + +The cross-grained little beggar, however, did not seem to quite +understand the term I employed thus in joke, though it was used at sea +to express the fact of "taking a rise" out of any one, and a common +enough saying. + +"I'm not the only fellow who tells crammers," he grimly muttered. "How +about that yarn of yours of the blessed `ghost-ship' you saw the other +night, I'd like to know. I believe, too, that the colonel, as you call +him, is only an impostor and that the skipper is going on just such a +wild-goose chase after this ship of his, which he says was captured by +pirates, as he did that Friday hunting your _Flying Dutchman_! wasting +our time with your idiotic story. Pirates and niggers, indeed! Why, +this chap, I'll bet, is a nigger himself, and more of a pirate than any +one we'll come across if we steam from here to the North Pole. Put that +in your pipe and smoke it, Dick Haldane; you and your confounded `ghost- +ship' together! Such utter humbug and nonsense, and thinking you take +people in with such yarns in these days!" + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +FULL SPEED AHEAD. + +I was so indignant at what the spiteful little brute said that I +incontinently turned on my heel and left him without another word, going +forwards towards the bridge to give the skipper Stoddart's message. + +Here, the sight of Colonel Vereker's grand figure--one that would be +remarkable anywhere, towering above the rail and almost herculean in its +massive proportions, coupled with the sad look in his noble face, and +which reminded me somehow or other of one of the pictures of the old +Cavaliers of the Stuart days, made me resent the more the baseless +imputation of his being an imposter. + +The idea of such a thing being possible could only have occurred to an +ignoble mind like that of Spokeshave; for one single glance at the +distinguished-looking gentleman's speaking countenance, with its finely- +chiselled features and lofty open brow, would have satisfied any +unprejudiced person that his was a nature incompatible with deceit and +meanness, even in the most remote degree. + +"Well, young Haldane!" exclaimed old Mr Stokes, whom I found with +Captain Applegarth and the colonel when I reached the wheel-house. + +"What do those smart chaps of mine down below say, hey, my boy?" + +His face beamed as he spoke and he looked as if he would have liked to +have rubbed his hands together in his old way when he felt particularly +jolly, but unfortunately his crippled arm, which was still in a sling, +prevented that! + +"Oh, that's all right, sir," I replied in an equally cheery tone, the +old chief's genial address making me forget at once my anger at +Spokeshave's contemptible nonsense. "Mr Stoddart directed me to tell +the cap'en that he may go on ahead as usual, as he likes, for everything +has been made taut and secure below and there need be no fear of another +mishap. He says he intends driving the engines as they were never +driven before, and he has put every fireman and oiler in the stoke-hold +on the job." + +"Bravo!" cried the skipper, sounding the gong again and yelling down the +voice-tube that led below like one possessed. "Fire up, below there, +and let her rip!" + +"Dear, dear," panted Mr Stokes, whose fears for his engines, which he +regarded with the affection which a young mother might bestow on her +first baby, began to overcome his interest in the chase after the black +pirates. "I hope you and Stoddart, between you, won't be rash, cap'en. +I hope--I do hope you won't!" + +"Nonsense, Stokes, you old croker; just you shut up!" said the skipper. +"Keep her steady, east-nor'-east, helmsman! Now, my dear colonel, at +last we really are after those infernal rascals in earnest; and, sir, +between you and me and the binnacle, we'll be up to them before long +before nightfall, I'll wager!" + +"I hope to heaven we will, Senor Applegarth," replied the other sadly, +but eagerly. "But, alas! the ocean is wide, and we may miss the ship. +I cannot bear to think of it!" + +"Oh, but we won't miss her!" said the skipper confidently, and he was +the last man to give up hope. "Take my davy for that, sir. She must be +within a radius of from twenty to thirty miles of our present bearings +on the chart, somewhere here away to the eastwards, sir; and if we make +a long leg to leeward and then bear up to the north'ard and west'ard +again, we'll overhaul her--I'm sure of it--yes, sure of it, in no time. +Look, colonel, look how we're going now. By George, ain't that a bow +wave for you, sir, and just see our wake astern!" + +The old barquey was certainly steaming ahead at a great rate, the sea +coming up before her in a high ridge that nearly topped the fo'c's'le, +and welling under her counter on either hand in undulating furrows that +spread out beneath her stern in the form of a broad arrow, widening +their distance apart as she moved onward, while the space between was +frosted as if with silver by the white foam churned up by the ever- +whirling propeller blades, beating the water with their rhythmical +iteration, thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump! + +There was no "racing" of the screw now, for Neptune was in one of his +quiet moods and there were no big rollers to surmount, or deep wave +valleys to descend into; consequently the old barquey had no excuse for +giving way to any gambolling propensities in the water of pitching and +tossing, steaming away on an even keel and using every inch of power of +her engines, with not an ounce to waste in the way of mis-spent force! + +And so on we went, tearing through the water, a blue sky overhead +unflecked by a single cloud, a blue sea around that sparkled in sunshine +and reflected harmonies of azure and gold, save where the bright fresh +western breeze rippled its surface with laughing wavelets that chuckled +as they splashed the spray into each other's faces, or where we passed a +stray scrap of gulf-weed with its long yellow filaments spread out like +fingers vainly clutching at the wavelets, as if imploring them to be +still, or where again the dense black smoke from our funnels made a +canopy in the sky athwart our track, obscuring the shimmering surface of +the deep with a grim path of shadow that checked the mirth of the +lisping young wavelets and even awed the sunshine when it came in closer +contact anon, as the wind waved it this way and that at its will. + +"Hi, bo'sun!" shouted out the skipper presently, after carrying on like +this for a goodish spell, the deck working beneath our feet and the +_Star of the North_ seeming to be flying through water and air alike by +a series of leaps and bounds, quivering down to her very kelson with the +sustained motion and the ever-driving impulse of her masterful engines +spurring her onward. "How is she going now, eh?" + +Old Masters was away aft on the poop hauling in the patent log, which +had been hove over the side on our beginning the run, and the next +minute, as soon as he was able to look at the index of the instrument, +he answered the skipper's question. + +"Sixteen knots, sir!" he sang out, and then we could hear the old sea +dog add his customary comment, whether of approval or discontent, "Well, +I'm blowed!" + +"By George, colonel!" cried Captain Applegarth to our melancholy-looking +guest at his side. "We're going sixteen knots, sir; just think of that! +I didn't believe the dear old barquey had it in her!" + +"It is a good, wonderful speed, captain," replied the other, who, I +noticed, was looking even more exhausted now than when we removed him +from the boat. "Remember, though, sir, the _Saint Pierre_ is sailing on +all this time before the wind, as she was this morning, and must be +miles ahead of us!" + +"Aye, I know she's going; or at least, I suppose so, and I've made every +allowance for that in my calculation of her whereabouts," returned our +skipper, in nowise daunted by the colonel's argument. "But if she had +every rag set that she could carry, she couldn't go more than three or +four knots at the most, in this light breeze; and for every foot she +covers we're going five!" + +"That is true," said the American, with a very weary and absent look on +his face. "But--but I'm afraid we may be too late after all! I--I'm-- +God protect--my--my--" + +"The fact is, my dear sir," cried the skipper abruptly, interrupting him +as the other hesitated in his speech, turning a deadly white and +clutching at the bridge rail in front of him, as if to save himself from +falling or fainting. "You're completely worn out and your nerves +shaken! Why, you can't have had much, if any, sleep the last three or +four days--not since that rumpus broke out aboard your ship, eh?" + +"Heavens!" ejaculated the other. "I don't think I have closed my eyes, +senor, since Friday, excepting when I was drifting in the boat, part of +which time I must have been senseless; for though I recollect seeing +your vessel, and trying to signal her by holding up a piece of the +bottom planking of the boat, as we hadn't oar or sail in her, I have no +remembrance of seeing your vessel steaming up to help us, or of this +brave young gentleman here jumping into the water and swimming to our +assistance, as you tell me, captain, that he gallantly did. Believe me, +sir, I shall never forget you, and I shall be ever and eternally +grateful to you for that noble act of yours!" + +He half-turned and bowed to me politely as he said this, but I was too +much confused, by his exaggerated estimate of what I had done to say +anything at the moment in reply. And, after all, it was only a very +simple thing to do, to swim with a line to a boat; any other fellow +could have done the same, and would have done it under the same +circumstances. + +The skipper, however, spoke for me. + +"Come, come, sir," he said. "Haldane only did his duty, like the brave +lad he is; and I'm sure you only make him uncomfortable by your thanks. +I want you, colonel, to go below and have a little rest and some +refreshment. Besides, I promised Mr O'Neil to send you down to have +your wounded leg dressed and seen to, more than half an hour ago, when +he came up on deck after attending to that other poor chap, and yet here +you are still, talking and exciting yourself. How is your leg now, +colonel? Easier?" + +"Confound it! No, no!" replied the other, with a writhe of torture as +he changed his position so as to relieve the strain on the wounded limb, +which I had quite forgotten about, the brave follow having stoically +repressed all indication of pain while urging on the pursuit of the +black mutineers. "It's hurting me like the devil! But, sir, I cannot +rest or leave the deck till we come up to that accursed ship and save my +poor child, my little darling--if we be not too late, too late!" + +"This is nonsense, sir," said the skipper bluntly, and rather angrily, I +thought, and he continued: + +"The ship, we know, must be a goodish bit ahead of us still, and we +can't possibly overhaul her for an hour or more at the earliest. So +come, cheer up, and come along with me and have your leg attended to at +once. I insist, colonel; come." + +"But," persisted Colonel Vereker, evidently trying to make out the time +in arguing, and loth to leave the scene of action, though apparently +ready to drop now from sheer pain and exhaustion combined, "Who will-- +who will--" + +"My first officer here, Mr Fosset, will remain on the bridge during our +absence below," interposed Captain Applegarth, anticipating his last, +unuttered objection. "He's quite competent to take charge, and I'm sure +will let us know the moment the ship comes in sight, if she appears +before we return on deck." + +"Aye, that I will, sir," cried out Mr Fosset. "I'll keep a sharp look- +out, and I'll hail you, sir, sharp enough, as soon as she heaves in +sight on the horizon." + +"There!" exclaimed the skipper in an exultant tone, taking hold of the +colonel's reluctant arm and placing it within his own, so as to lead him +away and to give him the benefit of his support down the bridge-ladder. +"Won't that satisfy you now, sir, and you see you'll lose nothing by +going below for a spell? Come, come, my good friend, have the leg seen +to and eat something, for you must require it. Why, colonel, unless you +keep up your strength and spur yourself up a bit, you won't be able to +tackle those black scoundrels when we get up to the ship and catch them, +and it comes to a fight, as I expect it will. So come along, my hearty; +rouse yourself and come!" + +This concluding remark of the old skipper affected more than all his +previous persuasion, the colonel at once allowing himself to be helped +down the laddering without further demur, and so along the gangway on +the upper deck, towards the lower entrance to the saloon under the beak +of the poop, I lending the aid of my shoulder for the crippled man to +lean on as he limped painfully onward, having to pause at almost every +step, his wounded leg dragging now so much, now that excitement no +longer sustained his flagging frame; the skipper gave aid too, his arm +propping him up on the other side. + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. + +DOCTOR AND PATIENT. + +"Faith, it's moighty glad I am, sor, to say you at last!" cried Garry +O'Neil, starting up from his seat at the cuddy table, on our ultimately +reaching the saloon, where the Irish mate was having a rather late lunch +with Mr Stokes, who had preceded us below. "I was jist comin' after ye +ag'in, colonel, whin I had snatched a bit mouthful to kape the divvil +out of me stomach, sure. I want to inspict that game leg o' yours, sor, +now that I've sittled your poor f'ind's h'id. Begorrah, colonel, +somebody gave him a tidy rap on the skull whin they were about it!" + +"It was done with a hand-spike," explained the other, groaning with pain +as we assisted him to a seat at the further end of the table, where the +skipper's armchair was drawn out for him to fix him up more comfortably. +"One of those treacherous niggers came behind his back and dealt him a +terrific blow that landed on the side of his head partly, nearly cutting +his ear off!" + +"Aye, I saw that, sor, of course," put in Garry, pouring out some brandy +into a tumbler which he proceeded to fill up with water--"_aqua pura_," +he called it. "I've shtrapped it on ag'in now, and it looks as nate as +ninepins. But jist dhrink this, colonel, dear. It'll warrm the cockles +of your heart, sure, an' put frish loife into you!" + +The American took a sip first at the glass proffered him, and then +drained off the contents with a deep sigh of satisfaction. + +"Ah!" he exclaimed, "I feel a little better. But how is poor Captain +Alphonse now?" + +"Bedad, he's gitting on illegantly," replied Garry, sniffing at a soup +plate containing some steaming compound which Weston, the steward, had +just brought in, and directing that worthy to place it in front of our +poor invalid guest. "There was a nasty paice of bone sphlinter sticking +in the crayture's brainpan; but, first, I trepanned him an' raymoved the +impiddimint, an' the poor chap's now slayping as swately as a babby, +slayping in the cap'en's cot over yonder! But come, colonel, I want ye +to take some of this pay soup here afore I set to work carving ye about. +Begorrah, it's foine stuff, an'll set ye up a bit to roights!" + +"Thank you a thousand times," returned he, taking a mouthful or two of +the soup which Weston had placed before him, eating very sparingly at +first like one who had been deprived of food for some time. "I'm not +afraid of your handling me, sir. I have undergone too many operations +for that!" + +"Faith, colonel," cried the Irishman, laughing in his usual good- +tempered racy manner, "you'd best spake well of the craft or I'll be +afther payin' you out, sure, alannah, whin I get your leg in me grip! +Jist you stow some more o' that illigint soup inside your belt, sor, +before I start on the job, an' while ye're aitin' I'll tell you how I +once sarved out an old woman whom I was called in to docther, whin I was +at ould Trinity, larnin' the profession, in faith!" + +"That's right, O'Neil," said the skipper, seeing his motive in trying to +set our sad guest at his ease and to try and distract his thoughts from +the awful anxiety and grief, under which he was labouring. "Have I +heard the yarn before, eh?" + +"Faith, not that I know of, cap'en," returned the doctor _pro tem_ in +his free and easy manner. "Begorrah, the joke's too much ag'inst +meself, sor, for me to be afther tillin' the story too often!" + +"Never mind that; it will make it all the more interesting to us," said +the skipper with a knowing wink to Mr Stokes, both of them knowing +Garry's old stories only too well, but at such a time as this they would +have listened to anything if it would only serve to distract the poor +colonel's thoughts for a few minutes, and they chuckled in recollection +of the many jokes against himself that Garry had perpetrated. "Fire +away with your yarn." + +"Bedad, then, here goes," began O'Neil with a grin. "Ye must know, +colonel, if you will have it, that I was only a `sucking sawbones,' so +to spake, at the toime. Faith, I was a medical studint in my first +year, having barely mastered the bones." + +"The bones!" interrupted the skipper. "What the deuce do you mean, +man?" + +"Sure, the inthroductory study of anatomy, sor," explained Garry rather +grandiloquently, going on with his yarn. "Well, one foine day whin I +an' another fellow who'd kept the same terms as mesilf were walking the +hospital, wonderin' whin we'd be able to pass the college, sure the hall +porter comes into the ward we were in an' axes if we knew where +Professor Lancett, the house surgeon, was to be found, as he was wanted +at once. + +"`Faix,' says Terence Mahony, my chum, the other medical studint who was +with me. `He's gone to say the Lord Lieutenant, who's been struck down +with the maysles, an' the divvle only knows whin he'll get back from the +castle, sure! What's the matter, O'Dowd? Who wants ould Lancett at +this outlandish toime of day?' + +"The hall porter took Mahony's chaff, faith, in all sober sayriousness. +`It's moighty sorry I am,' says he; `Master Lancett's gone to the +castle, though proud I am for ould Trinity's sake, sayin' as how the +Lord Lieutenant has for to send to us, sure, bekase them murtheren' +'sassa docthers that he brought from over the say with him from Inkland +ain't a patch on our chaps! But, faix, sor, a poor woman as the +professor knows is took moighty bad in her inside, some of her +neighbours says, an' wants help at onst!' + +"`Who is it, O'Dowd?' I asks. `Do you know where she lives?' + +"`Mistress Flannagan's her name,' says the porter. `She's Mistress +Lancett's ould la'ndress, sor; a cantankerous ould woman, too, an' wid +the divvle of a temper! She lives jist out of Dame Strate, sure, in +Abbey Lane. Any one'll till ye the place, sure!' + +"`What say you to goin' to say the poor crayture?' says I to Terence +Mahony. `We'll lave word where we're gone, an' I'm sure Mr Lancett +will be plaised to hear we're looking afther the ould lady!' + +"`Begorrah, that he will, sor,' agreed O'Dowd, the porter. `It's +moighty kind of you two young gintlemen going for to say her, an' I'll +make a p'int of lettin' the docther know whin he comes back from the +Lord Liftinnint!' + +"`All right, O'Dowd,' says I. `Mind you till the professor, an' he can +thin follow us up on his return to the college--that is, if he loikes!' + +"With that off the two of us wint on our errind of mercy, though it was +lucky I lift that message with O'Dowd, as ye'll larn prisintly! + +"It didn't take us long to find the house where the sick woman was, for +as we turned into the strate, a dirty ould hag, smoking a short pipe, +came up to us with a smirk on her ugly phiz. + +"`God save Ireland!' says she, addressing Terence. `Be yez the docther +jintlemen from the hospital, avic?' + +"`Faix, we're that,' says my companion; `the pair of us!' + +"`Thin come along,' says she. `Mistress Flannagan is dyin' to say you, +sure. The soight of yez is good for sore eyes!' + +"`Begorrah!' says Terence, `I wouldn't have come at all at all if she +hadn't been dyin', the poor crayture! Where is she?' + +"`In the corner there,' returns the old hag, removing her dirty little +black dhudeen of a pipe for a minnit from between her teeth, in order to +spake the bether. `She's a-sottin' in that cheir there, as she hav' +been since the mornin', widout sayin' a worrd to mortial saol afther she +tould us to sind for the docther. May the divvle fly away with me, but +Peggy Flannagan can be obstinate in foith, whin she likes!' + +"Terence Mahony and I then poked our noses into the corner of the room, +the old hag stirrin' the turf fire on the hearth to give us a bit of +loight; an' then we saw the ould crayture, who looked as broad as she +was long, sittin' in a big armchere, an' starin' at us with large, open +eyes. But though she was breythin' hard loike a grampus, she didn't +spake nothin'! + +"`What's the mather, my good woman?' says Mahony, going up to her an' +spaking kindly to the poor crayture. `Let me feel your pulse.' + +"He caught hold of her hand, which hung down the side of the chere and +fumbled at the wrist for some toime, the ould woman starin' an' sayin' +nothin' at all at all! + +"`Faith, Garry O'Neil, I can't foind any pulse on her at all at all. +She must be di'd, worse luck!' + +"`Och, you omahdaun; can't ye say her eyes open?' says I. `Git out o' +the way an' let me thry!' + +"Begorrah, though, I couldn't fale any pulse at all aythar. + +"`She's in a faint, I think,' says Terence, pretendin' for to know all +about it. `We had jist sich a case in hospital t'other day. It's oine +of suspended animation.' + +"`Blatheration, Terence,' I cried at hearing this. `You'll be a case of +suspended animation yoursilf by-and-bye.' + +"`Faith, how's that?' says he. `What do you mean?' + +"`Why, whin you're hung, me bhoy! for your ignorance of your profession. +Sure, one can say with half an eye the poor crayture is sufferin' from +lumbago or peritonitas on the craynium, faith!' + +"As we were arguin' the p'int, the ould hag who had introduced us +brought our discussion to an end jist as Terence made up his mind that +the case was cholera or elephantiasis or something else equally +ridiculous! + +"`Bad cess to the obstinate cantankerous ould crayture,' cried she, +catching the poor sick woman by the scruff of the neck an' shakin' her +violently backwards an' forrads, afther which she banged the poor thing +violently on the sate of the chere. `Will ye now spake to their +honours, or will ye not? Won't ye now? She be that stubborn!' said +she, turnin' to us; `did ye ivver see anythin' loike it afore?' + +"Mahony then tould her to put out her tongue, but the divvle a bit of +her tongue saw we! Nor would she say a worrd as to her ailment, to give +us a clue, though I believe on me oath, colonel, we mintioned ivery +complaint known in the Pharmacopaia, Terence even axin' civilly if she +had chilblames in the throat, for it was the depth of winter at the +toime, to prevent her talkin'! + +"But our coaxin' was all in vain, loike the ould hag's shaking! + +"Faith, not a worrd moved our patient. She was that in all conscience, +sure. + +"`Begorrah, I'll sind a bucket of could wather over her an' say if +that'll tach her manners!' said the ould hag, who tould us her own name +was Biddy Flynne, on our giving her an odd sixthpence for a dhrop of +drink. `It's a shame to bring yez honours out for nothin'!' + +"She was jist going to do what she had threatened, sure enough whin, +providentially, in walked the professor from the college. + +"He'd been listenin' outside the door, I believe, all the toime Terence +an' mesilf were talkin' an' arguin' about the ould dame's complaint, +puzzlin' our brains to find out what was the mather with her, for the +baste of a man had a broad grin on his face, loike that you say on a +mealy petaty whin the jacket pales off of it, whin he toorned round to +us afther examinin' poor Mistress Flannagan, now all a heap on her +chere. + +"`Faith, I must complimint you, jintlemin, on the profound skill an' +knowledge you have shown in your profession,' says he. `I don't think I +ivver heard a more ignorant or illeterate diagnosis of a case since I've +been professor at Trinity College!' + +"He was a moighty polite man was Professor Lancett. Terence an' I both +agrayed on his sayin' this, an' thought our fortunes were made an' we'd +git our diplomas at once, without any examination, sure! + +"But his nixt remark purty soon took the consate out of both of us. + +"`It's lucky for you two dunder-headed ignoramases!' he went on to say +in a nasty sneerin' way the baste had with him whin he was angry and was +any way put out. `Preshous lucky for you, Misther Terence Mahony, an' +you, too, Garry O'Neil, that I chanced to come afther you, thinkin' ye'd +be up to some mischief, or else ye'd have put your foot in it with a +vengeance an' murthered between you this poor, harmless ould woman lying +here. I am ashamed and disgusted with you!' + +"He thin prosayded to till what the poor crayture was sufferin' from, +an' what d'ye think her complaint was, colonel? Jist give a guess, now, +jist to oblige me, sure." + +"Great Scot!" cried the American, smiling at O'Neil's naive manner and +the happy and roguish expression on his face, our guest's appearance +having been much improved, by the food of which he had partaken as well +as the stimulant, which had put some little colour into his pale cheeks. +"I'm sure I can't guess. But what was it, sir, for you have excited my +curiosity?" + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. + +A BLACK BUSINESS. + +"Be jabers, sor!" exclaimed the Irishman in his very broadest brogue and +with a comical grin on his face that certainly must have eclipsed that +of which he complained in the professor of his college who had caught +him and his fellow-student trespassing on his medical preserves. "To +till the truth an' shame the divvle, colonel, the poor ould crayture, +whose complaint we couldn't underconstumble at all at all, sure, was +sufferin' from a fit of apoplexy--a thing aisy enough to recognise by +any docther of experience, though, faith, it moight have been Grake to +us!" + +We were all very much amused and had a good laugh at this naive +confession, even Colonel Vereker sharing in the general mirth, in spite +of his profound melancholy and the pain he felt from his wounded leg, +which made him wince every now and again, I noticed, during the +narration of the story Garry O'Neil had thus told, with the utmost good +humour, it must be confessed, at his own expense, as, indeed, he had +made us understand beforehand that it would be. + +"By George!" cried the skipper, after having his laugh out, "you'll be +the death of me some day with your queer yarns, if you can't manage to +do for me with your professional skill, or by the aid of your drugs and +lotions, poisons, most of 'em, and all your murderous-looking +instruments, besides!" + +"No fear of that, cap'en; you're too tough a customer," rejoined the +doctor with a knowing look in the direction of Mr Stokes, who had made +himself purple in the face and was panting and puffing on his seat, +trying to recover his breath. "Faith, though, sor, talkin' of medical +skill, the sooner I say afther that leg of our fri'nd here, the better, +I'm thinkin'." + +"With the best of wills," assented the colonel, who had finished his +luncheon by this time and certainly presented a much improved appearance +to that he had worn when entering the saloon. "I am quite at your +service, doctor, and promise to be as quiet as that first patient of +yours of whom you've just told us!" + +"Belay that, colonel; none o' your chaff about the ould leddy, if you +love me, sure!" growled Garry, pretending to be indignant as he knelt +down on the cabin floor and slit up the leg of the colonel's trousers so +as to inspect the wound. His nonsensical, quizzing manner changed +instantly, however, on seeing the serious state of the injured limb, and +he ejaculated in a subdued tone of voice, "Holy Moses!" + +"Why, sir," said the patient quietly, "what's the matter now?" + +"Ah, an' ye are axin' what's the mather?" cried Garry in a still more +astonished tone. "Faith, it's wantin' to know I am how the divvle +you've iver been able to move about at all, at all, colonel, with that +thing there. Look at it now, an' till me what ye think of it yoursilf, +me darlint. May the saints presairve us, but did any one iver say such +a leg?" + +It was, in truth, a fearful-looking object, being swollen to the most +abnormal proportions from the ankle joint to the thigh, while the skin +was of a dark hue, save where some extravasated blood clustered about a +small punctured orifice just above the knee. + +Colonel Vereker laughed and shrugged his shoulders. + +"The fortune of war," he explained. "One of those brutes shot me where +that mark is, but I think the bullet travelled all round my thigh and +lodged somewhere in the groin, I fancy, for I feel a lump there." + +"Sure, I wonder you can fale anythin'!" cried Garry, who was probing for +the missile all the time. "A man that can walk about, faith, loike an +opera dancer, with a blue-mouldy leg loike that, can't have much faling +at all, at all, I'm thinkin'!" + +"Ah!" groaned his patient at last, on his touching the obnoxious bullet +near the spot the colonel had indicated. "Whew! that hurts at any rate, +doctor!" + +"Just be aisy a minnit, me darlint," said the other soothingly, +exchanging his probe for a pair of forceps and proceeding deftly to +extract the leaden messenger. "An' if ye can't be aisy, faith, try an' +be as aisy as ye can!" + +In another second he had it out with a triumphant and gleeful shout. + +"Ah!" ejaculated the colonel, the excessive pain causing him to clench +his teeth with an audible snap. + +"Faith, you may say `ah' now as much as you please," said Garry, as he +held out the villainous-looking bullet gripped in his forceps. "For +there's the baste that did you all the damage, an' we'll soon pull you +up, alannah, with that ugly paice of mischief out of the way, sure!" + +"Oh! dear me!" the poor colonel exclaimed as the doctor went on dressing +the wound and afterwards set-to to bandage the whole leg, swathing it +round like a mummy with lint, and then saturating it with some liniment +to allay the swelling. "Would to God all the mischief could be as +easily made good! Oh, my little Elsie, my darling little girl!" + +"Cheer up, colonel, cheer up," whispered the skipper, coming in from the +state room on the starboard side of the saloon, whither he had gone to +hunt up some special cigars while Garry O'Neil was accomplishing his +surgical operation. "We're going ahead as fast as steam and a good ship +can carry us, and we'll rescue your child, I'll wager, before nightfall. +Have a smoke now, my friend; and while you're trying one of the +Havanah's, which never paid duty and are none the worse for that, you +can tell us how it all happened from the beginning to the end. I should +like to hear the account of your voyage right through, colonel, and how +those blacks came to board you." + +"Certainly!" said Colonel Vereker, leaning back in his easy chair when +Garry O'Neil had made an end of bandaging his leg, and accepting one of +the choice cigars the skipper offered him. "I will tell you willingly, +captain, and you, gentlemen, turning round and bowing to us, the sad +story of our thrice ill-fated voyage." + +"Thrice ill-fated?" repeated Mr Stokes inquiringly, the chief being +rather argumentative by nature and possessing what he called a strictly +logical turn of mind. "But how's that, sir?" + +The colonel had his answer quite ready. + +"I said `thrice ill-fated' advisedly, sir," he replied, removing his +cigar from his lips to emit a cloud of perfumed smoke, and then +restoring the fragrant roll of tobacco to the mouth again. "In the +first place, sir, from my having been unlucky enough ever to start upon +the voyage at all. Secondly, from the fact of a calm delaying us when +passing between Puerto Rico and San Domingo, thereby enabling those +treacherous negro scoundrels to see our ship in time to put out for us +from the shore; and thirdly, because Captain Alphonse would not take my +advice and use strong measures when the mutiny originally broke out, +which might have prevented the terrible events that afterwards occurred! +But, sir, if you will allow me, I shall get along better by telling you +what happened, just in my own way!" + +"Certainly, sir," immediately replied Mr Stokes, profuse in his +apologies. "Pray pardon my interruption!" + +The colonel bowed in token of his forgiveness and then resumed his yarn. + +"Our ship, the _Saint Pierre_, of Marseilles, Jacques Alphonse master +and part owner, sailed from La Guayra on October 25, barely a fortnight +ago!" said he. "In addition to her captain, of course, she carried two +mates and a crew of twenty-five hands all told, and she was bound for +Liverpool, with a general cargo of cocoa, coffee and hides, besides a +mixed assortment of indigo, orris root, sarsaparilla and other raw drugs +for the English market." + +"Were you and your little daughter the only passengers?" + +"No, Senor Applegarth," replied the other. "There were also on board +Monsieur and Madame Boisson, from Caracas, returning home to Europe +after a lengthened residence in the Venezuelan capital, where they had +carried on a large millinery business, supplying the dusky _senoritas_ +of the hybrid Spanish and native republic with the latest Parisian +modes; Don Miguel, the proprietor of an extensive estancia in the +interior; and little Mr Johnson, a Britisher, of not much account in +your country, I guess, not a gentleman--at all events, in my humble +opinion. He was travelling for some mercantile house in London +connected with the manufactory of chocolates or sweets, or something of +that sort. I cannot say I cared much for the lot, as they were not +people of my class, so I did not allow my Elsie, my darling, my pet, to +associate with them more than could be helped, save with Madame Boisson, +who was a kind, good-natured sort of woman, though decidedly vulgar. Oh +dear me! It was a thousand pities we ever started on that disastrous +voyage. It was unlucky from the very first!" + +"Faith!" interposed Garry O'Neil. "But how was that, sor?" + +"We were too late in reaching La Guayra in the first instance," replied +Colonel Vereker. "I had planned, my friend, to take the French steamer +for Brest, but on arriving at the port I found she had already left, and +while deliberating about what I should do under the circumstances--for +there would not be another mail boat for a fortnight at least--I met +Captain Alphonse. He was an old friend of mine, a friend of long +standing, so, on his telling me that his vessel was going to sail on the +following day, and would probably convey me to Brest, where he said he +would have to report himself prior to proceeding to Liverpool with his +cargo, quite as soon as I should arrive if I waited for the next +steamer, I made up my mind to accompany him." + +"But, colonel," suggested Captain Applegarth, "you might have gone +direct to England by one of the West India mail steamers which touch at +La Guayra on their route homeward from Colon." + +"I know that, my friend," said the other. "I could have caught one of +them the following week. This would not have suited my purpose, +however, sir. I wished to proceed direct to Brest, for I could get +easily on to Paris, where I intended placing my little Elsie at school +in the convent of L'enfant Jesu, at Neuilly, under the guardianship of +some good nuns, by whom her poor mother was educated and brought up. It +was a promise, my friend, to the dead." + +"I see, colonel," rejoined the skipper apologetically, lighting his +cigar again, having allowed it to go out while listening to the other; +"I see, sir. Go on; I'm all attention." + +"Well, then," continued the colonel, "these preliminaries being all +arranged, Elsie and I went aboard the _Saint Pierre_, a full-rigged +sailing ship of some eight hundred tons, the morning of the twenty- +eighth of last month; and on the evening of the same day, as I have +already told you, we made sail and quitted the anchorage where the ship +had been loading--abreast of San Miguel, a port that guards the +roadstead to the eastward, where it is open to the sea." + +"Aye, I know La Guayra well, colonel," put in the skipper at this point, +showing that he was following every detail. "I was in the Royal Mail +Line when I was a nipper, before joining my present company." + +"I recollect the night we sailed," resumed the other, paying no +attention to Captain Applegarth's remark, but speaking with his eyes +fixed, as if in a dream and seeing mentally before him the scenes he +described. "The moon was shining brightly when we got under way, +lighting up the Trinchera bastion and making the mountains in the +background seem higher than they were, from the deep shadows they cast +over the town lying below. This latter lay embosomed amid a mass of +tall cocoanut trees and gorgeous palms, with other tropical foliage, and +had a shining beach of white sand immediately in its front, stretching +round the curling bay, on which the surf broke in the moonlight, with a +phosphorescent glow and a hollow sound as if beating over a grave. +Heavens! It was the grave of all my dearest hopes and plans, for that, +sir, was one of the few last peaceful nights I have of late known, and +very probably ever shall know again!" + +"Faith, don't say that now, sir," cried out Garry at this. "You'll have +a peaceful one to-night, sure, or I'm no prophet. Begorrah, though, I +niver was, so far as that goes!" + +The skipper grinned at this sympathetic interpolation, and the colonel's +sombre face lighted up a bit as he turned his pathetic eyes on the +speaker, as if wishing to share his hopefulness. + +"Ah, doctor, you do not know what grief and anguish are like!" he said +mournfully. "But to go on with my story. I may tell you that, had our +voyage progressed like our start, I should have nothing to deplore, for, +the land breeze filling our sails, we bore away buoyantly from the +Venezuelan coast, the ship shaping a course north by west towards the +Mona passage, as the channel way is called, from a rock in its centre, +lying between Hayti and Puerto Rico. This route is held to be the best, +I believe, for passing out into the open Atlantic from the labyrinthine +groups of islands and innumerable islets that gem the blue waters of the +Caribbean Sea. It is a course, too, which by its directness and the +northerly current and westerly wind there to be met, saves a lot of +useless tacking about and beating to windward, as you, no doubt, +captain, very well know." + +The skipper nodded his head. + +"You're quite a sailor, colonel," he said approvingly. "Where did you +manage to pick up your knowledge of navigation and sea-faring matters, +if I may ask the question, sir?" + +"In the many voyages I have made during a somewhat adventurous life," +replied the other. "I have invariably kept my ears and eyes open, +captain. There are many things thus to be learnt, I have found out from +experience, which, although seemingly unimportant in themselves, +frequently turn out afterwards to be of very great use to us, sometimes, +indeed, almost unexpectedly so!" + +"Aye, aye, colonel. My opinion, sir, right down to the ground," said +the skipper, looking towards me. "Just you put that in your pipe, Dick +Haldane, and smoke it!" + +"Yes, young sir," added Colonel Vereker, emphasising this piece of +advice. "That rule of life has stood me in good stead on more than one +occasion, both on land and on shipboard. Had I not learnt something of +the ways of your sailors, for instance, I might not have thought of +lashing the _Saint Pierre's_ helm amidships on the breaking out of the +mutiny, and so prevented all our going to the bottom subsequently, when +it came on to blow; for all of us were then fighting for our lives and +no one had time to attend to the ship, save in the way of letting go +what ropes were handiest." + +"Aye, that may be well enough, colonel," observed the skipper in his dry +fashion. "But your argument cuts both ways. If your helm hadn't been +lashed down, remember, the ship would have been yawing about and +drifting in this direction and that, and we should probably have come +across her long ago, like that boat from which we picked you up, instead +of her bearing away right before the wind and our having to go in chase +of her, sir, as we are now doing." + +"It is true! I did not think of that!" returned the colonel +impulsively, half-starting from his seat in his excitement. "We must be +near her now, captain, though, surely. We must find them, and I must +see my little girl again!" + +"Kape aisy, me darlint; kape aisy," here interposed Garry O'Neil, before +Captain Applegarth could answer the question. "Sure, Mr Fosset +promised to give us the worrd whin she hove in sight, an' you're only +distarbin' yoursilf for nothing, colonel! More's the pity, too, +mabruchal, whin your leg is progressin' so illigantly an' the swillin' +goin' down as swately as possible. Now kape aisy, if only to oblige me. +Faith, colonel, me profissional reputation's at shtake!" + +The Irishman, all the time he was talking, was carefully attending to +the injured limb, loosening a bandage here, tightening another there, +and keeping the lint dressing moist the while with a lotion which he +applied gently to the surface by means of a sponge. So, impressed alike +by his tender solicitude thus practically shown on his behalf as much as +by his opportune admonition, the colonel was forced to remain quiet. + +"I wish he'd be quick about it!" he muttered to himself. "Well, doctor, +as you will not let me move, I suppose you will let me go on with my +tale; that is, if it interests you!" + +"Aye, aye; I want to hear everything," said the skipper. "And fire +away, colonel; there's plenty of time for you to reel off your yarn +before we overhaul the chase." + +"All right,--then, I will proceed," replied the other. "All went well +with us on the voyage until the afternoon of the third day after sailing +from La Guayra, when, unfortunately, the weather changed and the +westerly wind, which had favoured us so far, suddenly failed us after +wafting us through the Mona Passage, and we became becalmed off Cap San +Engano, to the northward of Hayti." + +"Hayti!" exclaimed old Mr Stokes, waking up from a short nap he had +been having on the sly, and pretending to be keenly alive to the +conversation. "That's the famous black republic, ain't it?" + +"Famous black pandemonium, you mean!" retorted the colonel fiercely, his +eyes flashing at once with fire. "Excuse me, sir, but I have seen so +much of these negro brutes, who ape the airs of civilisation and yet +after a century of freedom are more uncivilised in their habits and mode +of life than the African slaves, their forefathers whom Toussaint- +L'Overture, as he styled himself, their leader, freed from the yoke of +their French masters a hundred years ago, that I feel the glorious name +`republic' to be dishonoured when associated with such vile wretches, +wretches a thousand times worse than the Fantees of the West Coast, from +whom they originally sprang!" + +"My dear sir," said Mr Stokes, aghast at the tempest he had raised by +his innocent remark, "you surprise me!" + +"Heavens! you would be surprised, sir, if you knew these Haytians as I +know them to be," continued the colonel, his indignation still +struggling for the mastery--"a race of devil worshippers and cannibals, +who confound liberty with license, and have added all the vices of +civilisation to the inherent savagery of their innate animal nature. +Ah, sir, I should like to tell you a great deal more, but have not the +time now. I am afraid I am forgetting myself. Where was I?" + +"Becalmed off Cape San Engano," promptly replied the skipper, sailor +fashion--"at least, so you said, colonel; but I fancy you must have had +a little rougher weather in that latitude than you mentioned at first!" + +"We had," said Colonel Vereker meaningly. "Towards nightfall we drifted +with the current more inshore, Captain Alphonse not dropping our anchor, +as we expected the land breeze would spring up at sunset. This did not +come for an hour later, however, for already darkness had begun to +surround us and we could see the fireflies illuminating the brush beyond +the beach. But this wasn't all observed, sir. Just as our sails filled +again and the ship slowly drew out into the offing, we heard the splash +of oars in the water astern. It was a boat coming after us, propelled +by a dozen oars at least, pulling as hard as those handling them knew +how, a shot or two from the shore and the sound of musket balls ripping +the water explaining, in some way, the reason for their anxiety to get +beyond the range of the firing, on which account they sought the shelter +of the _Saint Pierre_, of course--at least, so we thought! + +"`Who goes there?' shouted out Captain Alphonse, who was standing alone +with me, close to the taffrail. `Poor devils! there is probably another +insurrection at Port au Prince, and President Salomon up or down again. +He is always one or the other every year or so, and these poor fellows +may be flying to save their miserable necks. Who goes there? Who goes +there?' But, whether wanting all their energy for their oars or for +some other reason known to themselves, those in the boat made no reply +to our hail, and the next moment, ere the ship gathered way sufficient +to gain on them, they were alongside, their long unwieldy craft grating +against the ship's timbers beneath her counter. + +"`Look-out there, forrads!' cried Captain Alphonse, seeing the boat +making apparently for our bows, but before a hand could be raised to +prevent them, without asking permission in any way or offering the +slightest apology or excuse in advance for their conduct, a number of +negroes jumped out of her and began climbing aboard the _Saint Pierre_. + +"Heavens! gentlemen, clad in little beyond Nature's own covering, as the +majority of the intruders were, and looking in the dim light as black as +the ace of spades, they seemed like so many demons, come to take +possession of our unfortunate ship--as indeed they were. Oh dear me!" + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN. + +THE "MARQUIS DE POMME-ROSE." + +"A pretty kettle of fish that!" exclaimed the skipper, pitching the +butt-end of his cigar through one of the stern ports as he got up from +his seat and began to pace up and down the saloon in his usual quarter- +deck fashion. "You must have been mad, colonel, to let them come aboard +so quietly and in such a manner, too!" + +"Stay, you have not heard all," said the other. "As the black rascals +tumbled over the side, one of them called out something in the French +tongue. This, sir, at once disarmed Captain Alphonse, who had prevented +me from teaching them good manners, which I otherwise should have done, +for I had my six-shooter ready, with the barrels all loaded, being +always prepared for any such little unpleasantness by my experiences in +Venezuela, where a man often carries his life in his own hands! + +"But Captain Alphonse would not let me fire, though, by heavens! I +would have accounted for half a dozen of them, I know, before they had +advanced beyond the precincts of the ship! + +"`No, no, be quiet!' cried he, knocking my arm up to prevent my taking +aim at the leader of the gang, whom I had spotted dead in the eye. +`These are my countrymen!' + +"It was no use my talking after that, sir. The sound of the French +tongue, which these blacks of Hayti speak with a better accent than the +gamins of Paris, gained over Captain Alphonse; while Madame Boisson +declared the whole episode truly charming, her fat husband, who was +entirely under her thumb, shrugging his shoulders and giving them both +encouragement and a welcome. + +"These charming compatriots of theirs, therefore, being allowed to take +us by storm without let or hindrance, now advanced aft, when their +ringleader, a plausible scoundrel who described himself as the `Marquis +de Pomme-Rose,' or some other similar shoddy title belonging to the +black peerage of Hayti, to which I did not give heed at the time, beyond +in my own mind thinking it ridiculous and that it was probably a name +made up for the occasion, this man came up to Captain Alphonse with a +smile on his black face and told a wonderful story which he had +calculated would excite our pity while allaying our fears. + +"There had been another revolution at Port au Prince, he said, as +Captain Alphonse had surmised. A band of patriots, of whom he, the +speaker, had the honour to be the chief, had attempted to depose the +reigning despot Salomon from his post of president, but that that astute +gentleman got wind of the conspiracy in time, and as he had a very +efficacious mode of quickly dealing with those opposed to him in +political matters, the nigger marquis and his fellow-plotters thought it +best to seek refuge in flight. + +"Salomon, of course, at once despatched his myrmidons after them, but +having a few hours' start of the pursuers the runaway revolutionists +contrived to clear off from Port au Prince, concealing themselves in the +mountain fastnesses at the eastern end of the island. + +"Here, while in hiding, they saw the _Saint Pierre_ rounding Cape San +Engano. Subsequently observing that she was becalmed, they waited for +nightfall, when they stole a boat that lay on the shore and pulled out +towards our ship, just avoiding capture in the nick of time; the +regiment of black soldiers Salomon had sent after them having hit upon +their trail and being so close up behind that they were able to open +fire on them ere the boat got into deep water, two of the fugitive +patriots being struck by the bullets that came whistling in their rear. + +"The `marquis' was of the belief that we were bound for Cuba, so he +declared at all events at the moment, and he asked Captain Alphonse with +the utmost indifference to give him and his companions a passage +thither, assuring him that he would be handsomely rewarded for so doing +by some of their friends belonging to the Haytian revolutionary party, +who had established their headquarters at Havana. + +"In reply to this request Captain Alphonse declared he was `desolated,' +but that, unfortunately, the _Saint Pierre_ was bound for Europe and not +to the greater Antilles; but, strange to say, for I was watching him +keenly the while, our friend the `marquis' did not appear either +surprised or dismayed at his supposition as to our destination turning +out to be so erroneous, as he would have been, so I thought, had he been +speaking the truth in his original narrative, and acting in good faith +towards us! + +"From that moment, sir, something in my mind seemed to warn me against +the black villain, though I had been previously rather prepossessed in +his favour by his manner and bearing, in spite of a strong antipathy to +republicans of his complexion!" + +"Ah, colonel," whispered the skipper. "I suppose it comes from living +amongst them too much, but I see you don't like negroes." + +"No; you mistake my meaning greatly if you think that, Senor Applegarth. +Black, white or yellow, the colour makes no difference to me, providing +the individual I may have to deal with be a man in the true sense of the +word! In the old days, before our war, I had a good deal to do with +niggers, for my father and his father before him owned a large +plantation in Louisiana, and long before President Lincoln issued his +proclamation of emancipation every hand on our estate was a free man; +so, you see, sir, I do not advocate slavery at all events. But between +slavery and unbridled liberty there is, Senor Applegarth, a wide margin; +and though I do not look upon a nigger in the abstract as either a brute +beast or a human chattel, still I do not consider him quite fit to +govern himself, nor do I regard him in the light of my brother, sir, nor +even as my equal in any way!" + +The skipper laughed. + +"`What's bred in the bone,' colonel--you know the rest!" said he. "Your +old experience in the Southern States prejudices you against the race." + +"Pardon me," rejoined Colonel Vereker warmly, "I don't dislike them at +all. On the contrary, I have found some negroes more faithful than any +white man of my acquaintance, being true to the death; and I know that +if I came across, to-morrow, any of the old hands on our Louisianian +plantation whom my father made free, I should be as glad to see them as +they would be to meet me. But, sir, at the same time, allowing all +this, I cannot admit the negro to be on an equality with the white +races. They are inferior, I am certain, alike in intelligence, +disposition and nature, and I hold him as little qualified for self- +government on the European system as a child is fit to be entrusted with +a case of razors for playthings. Hayti is an illustration of this, +sir!" + +"All right, my dear sir," said the skipper good-humouredly, glad to see +the colonel taken out of himself and forgetting his grief about his +little daughter for the moment in the discussion. "Carry on; we're +listening to you!" + +His enthusiasm, however, did not last very long. + +"Heavens! Senor Applegarth, and you, too, gentlemen," he went on in a +changed tone. "I have cause to love those Haytian scoundrels well, I +tell you! Well, sirs, to proceed with my story, the terrible end of +which I have nearly reached, this dog of a black rascal, the so-called +marquis, seemed quite content, much to my surprise, when Captain +Alphonse told him we were not bound for Cuba, but for Liverpool. + +"It was all the same to him, he said, and as they were going the longer +voyage, perhaps Captain Alphonse would allow him and his companions to +work out their passage by assisting the crew in the navigation of the +ship. + +"Captain Alphonse was delighted at this, for we had only half a dozen +good seamen on board, the rest of the hands being a lot of half-bred +mulattoes and niggers--some of the scourings of South America whom he +had picked up at La Guayra, most of whom knew how to handle a cutlass +better than a rope--so the proposed addition to the strength of our +ship's company was a very acceptable one, particularly as the `Marquis' +pointed out two of his companions as being expert sailors and qualified +pilots and navigators." + +"Ha! You kept your eye on those gentry, colonel, I bet you did?" + +"Yes, sir. They were the first I spotted when the row began; but I'm +anticipating matters." + +"The divvle a bit, sor," interposed Garry O'Neil. "Let me jist change +the dressin' of your leg, an' ye can polish off the rist of the rascals +as soon as ye plaize." + +"A thousand thanks," returned the other, shifting his position to allow +his leg to be attended to. "They did not disclose their purpose, +though, or `show their hand,' as they say at the game of monte, all at +once; for, moved by their voluntary offer to help work the ship, Captain +Alphonse promised the `marquis,' who when making this offer had urged a +request to that effect, calculating on the captain's generosity to put +in and leave the lot at Bermuda, should they make a fair passage up to +the parallel of that island, but in the event of their being delayed by +foul winds or the voyage appearing as if it must be a long one, the +Haytians must be contented to cross the ocean. + +"The bargain was struck at once, this proviso being accepted with +alacrity as it just suited their purpose, and never saw I men work as +those Haytians worked in the way of tumbling up at all hours and pulling +and hauling, shaking out reefs and setting fresh sail, the next day or +two when the weather was contrary, and we had to tack about a good deal +to windward in getting out into the open Atlantic. + +"Heavens! How they exerted themselves; so much so that I quite shared +Captain Alphonse's admiration for them, but, unlike him, I watched them, +and I noticed that they and the coloured men of our crew who had been +picked up at La Guayra seemed on a more friendly footing than was +altogether warranted by the short time they had been on board. Captain +Alphonse and the other passengers, however, would not see this. + +"But, sir, I had an old negro servant on board with me, who had followed +my fortunes from the States to Venezuela after the war, Louisiana then +being no longer a fit place for a white man to live in. Poor old Cato; +he was the most faithful soul the Almighty ever put breath into! + +"Him I acquainted with my suspicions, and sent amongst the blacks, to +gather what information he could of their designs, for I was confident, +sirs, they had not boarded us for nothing, and were hatching some deep +plot with a view, very probably, of getting possession of our ship in +order the better to further the interests of the revolutionary party, to +which they belonged, that was opposed to Salomon, the president in +power. + +"Whatever their object might be, however, I distrusted them in every +way, believing them, indeed, actuated by other motives than such as +might be prompted by their political aspirations, my suspicions being +confirmed by the looks and bearing of the gang, who seemed capable of +any atrocity, judging them by their villainous faces and generally hang- +dog appearance, besides which they were continually whispering together +amongst themselves, and consorting and confabbing with the mulattoes and +other coloured men belonging to the crew. + +"In addition to that, Senor Applegarth, and you too, gentlemen, I +noticed that our friend `the marquis,' although he gave himself great +airs, on account of the aristocratic blood and descent to which he lay +claim, pretending to think himself much superior in position to both +Captain Alphonse and myself, and regarding poor Cato, my servant, as +mere dirt under his feet, albeit the faithful negro was of a like colour +to himself--did not esteem it beneath his high dignity to associate with +the scum of the forecastle and bandy ribald obscenities, when he +believed himself unobserved, with his fellow scoundrels. + +"Aye, I watched my gentleman carefully, and so, too, did my poor +faithful Cato!" + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY. + +THE SEVENTH OF NOVEMBER. + +"My faithful negro, however," continued the colonel, pausing at this +point to puff out another cloud of smoke from his fragrant +cigar,--"well, he was unable to learn anything of the Haytians, though +he tried to make friends of them, for they always stopped their talk +amongst themselves on his approach, and would only reply to his +overtures in monosyllables expressive of distrust, accompanied by +contemptuous gestures that angered poor Cato greatly, for, as he +considered that he belonged to me, he felt the insult to be directed not +only at himself but at the whole family. + +"`Golly, massa!' he said to me after a couple or so of attempts that +proved fruitless to ingratiate himself into the confidence of the gang, +`you just wait; I catch dem black raskils nappin' by-an'-bye, you see, +massa. You see, "speshly dat tarn markiss!"' + +"He managed this sooner than he thought, and pretty smartly too, for the +very next day he caught the noble scoundrel, who was his particular +aversion, walking off with a pair of pistols from Captain Alphonse's +cabin. On Cato coming up and stopping him in the very act, the +`marquis' put down the pistols quickly, saying in his off-hand manner +that he was merely examining the locks, remarking how well they were +made. `But,' said Cato, `guess he no bamboozle dis chile!' + +"The following day, sirs, was the seventh of November, last Friday, that +awful, that terrible day! + +"Cato, who had been away forward early in the morning to see about our +breakfast, came back aft with a terrified face. + +"`Yay, massa,' said he, `guess dose tam niggars up to sumfin'! I'se +hear um say dey smell de lan' an' de time was 'rive to settle de white +trash, dat what dey say, an' take ship. One ob de tam raskel see me +come out of gully, an' say cut um tongue out if I'se tell youse, massa!' + +"Of course on hearing this I put Captain Alphonse immediately on his +guard, and we locked up all the spare arms and ammunition until we +should require the same, excepting our own revolvers and three other +pistols, which we served out to the two mates and the boatswain, all of +whom were good men and brave Frenchmen. Monsieur Boisson, when he was +asked if he would have one, shrugged his shoulders and said he was a +simple passenger, he did not understand fighting--it was not his affair; +while little Mr Johnson said he was an Englishman and preferred using +his fists. Don Miguel had a pistol of his own. + +"Jingo! The emergency we dreaded came soon enough, sir; indeed, sooner +than we expected, and it was fortunate we had been forewarned! + +"It was just after the noontide hour, I recollect that well, for Captain +Alphonse had just taken the altitude of the sun to ascertain our +position, when, as he came up from his cabin where he had gone to +consult his chronometers and work out `the reckoning,' as you sailors +call it, that that black devil the `marquis' mounted the poop with a +simpering and fawning air. + +"`Ah well, captain,' said he, with a very polite bow, `where do you make +us out to be, monsieur? Near the Bermudas yet?' + +"`My word, yes,' replied Captain Alphonse. `We are some ten leagues or +so the westward of the islands, but we're bearing up now, as you see, to +reach them.' + +"`And what time, monsieur,' said the `marquis,' speaking louder so that +some of the other niggers who were on the deck below could hear what he +said. `Do you think it will be possible for us to land? My companions +and myself, monsieur, as you can well imagine, are most anxious to get +ashore as soon as possible, so that we may procure a ship to take us on +to Havana.' + +"`But, yes, your anxiety is natural enough,' responded poor Captain +Alphonse, suspecting nothing from this. `I hope to approach near enough +to Port Saint George to put you ashore some time in the afternoon.' + +"`_Ohe_, below there!' cried out the Haytian in reply to this, +addressing his companions in the waist, who, I noticed, were gradually +edging themselves more and more aft. `Do you hear that, my brave boys? +We are going to land at last. Get the boat ready!' + +"This was evidently a signal, for he shouted out the last words in a +still higher key than that in which he had been speaking. + +"`You need not hurry, my friend!' said the captain, surprised at this +order and smiling at the Haytian's impulsiveness, as he thought it. +`There will be plenty of time for lowering the boat when we come in +sight of land.' + +"`I think differently, monsieur,' rejoined the other, scowling and +assuming an arrogant tone for the first time. `I say the time is +_Now_!' + +"This he yelled out at the top of his voice. + +"Instantly the gang of blacks made a rush at the poop on both sides at +once, and Captain Alphonse clutched at his revolver, which he had in his +pocket, but was unable to get it out in time. + +"Mine, however, was in my hand and ready cocked." + +"Houly Moses!" ejaculated Garry O'Neil, his Irish blood making him all +attention now at the mere mention of fighting. "I hope ye let 'em have +it hot, sor! + +"Guess I did!" replied Colonel Vereker grimly, dropping unconsciously +into his native vernacular, which up to now he had almost seemed to have +forgotten from his long residence amongst a Spanish-speaking race. "You +may bet your bottom dollar on that, sir! I aimed at that scoundrel the +`marquis,' but he jumped backward in his fright and his foot catching in +one of the ringbolts, he tumbled right over the poop-rail on to the deck +below; the shot I had intended for him dropping the black pilot, his +constant companion, and who was invariably behind him. _He_ dropped +down as dead as a herring! + +"Don Miguel, who luckily had just come up from the saloon, being handy +with his revolver from the rough times he had experienced, like myself, +in Venezuela, settled another darkie; while little Johnson, the +Englishman, caught up a long hand-spike, bigger than himself, and with +it knocked down two of the Haytians to his own cheek. + +"Madame Boisson, meanwhile, was screaming for her husband, her brave +Hercules, to come to the rescue; but the `brave Hercules' had locked +himself in his cabin, as my little Elsie told me afterwards; for +fortunately the poor child was not feeling well and I had desired her to +remain below during the hot noontide heat of the sun; and, she also +said, she could hear him crying and sobbing and calling down +imprecations on everybody, including `my wife' and himself for both +being in such a position, Madame Boisson hammering at the door all the +time, and, after finding he would not reopen to her appeal for help, +apostrophising him as a coward! a pig! + +"During this time we were pretty busy on deck, the second mate, +Basseterre, and another French seaman, who was with him in the crossjack +yard, having come down from aloft to our assistance. Captain Alphonse +got his revolver out, when he and Don Miguel and I giving them a volley +altogether, and the others supporting us with what weapons they had, we +rushed the rascals off the poop quicker than they came up, the lot +returning to the forecastle along with the `marquis,' who, I was very +glad to see, had cut his face considerably by his tumble. + +"Captain Alphonse thereupon, seeing the coast clear, sang out for Housi, +his second officer, and the boatswain, who he thought were away forward, +to come up aft and join us, so that we might all be together, but +instead of these men, Cato, my own black servant ran up the poop-ladder +and told us in much trepidation that Monsieur Housi, with the boatswain +Rigault and one of the French sailors, were imprisoned in the forepeak, +while the two white sailors and the steward were hard and fast in the +main hold, whither they had descended to get some provisions, the +mutineers slipping on the hatchway cover over them, on the `marquis,' +that devil, giving the signal!" + +"Ah, my poor fellows!" cried Captain Alphonse. "That, then, means there +are only ourselves left. Good heavens! What shall we do?" + +"Why, hoist a signal of distress," I suggested at once. "We are near +Bermuda, on the cruising ground of the English men-of-war; and as these +scoundrels have no friends or assistance, I daresay we'll be able to +hold out here until some vessel bears up to our aid!" + +"`Good, my friend,' replied Captain Alphonse, who with Basseterre, the +second mate, and Don Miguel, remained to keep guard with their +revolvers, both seated on top of the skylight hatchway, which commanded +the approaches to the poop by way of the ladders, while I, with the last +of the white sailors, ran aft. Then I called out, `Hoist the French +flag!' + +"I knew that the locker with the flags was in the wheel-house, close to +the taffrail, and there being no one to interfere with us, the negro who +had been attending the helm having bolted the moment I pulled out my +revolver at the first alarm, the traitor flying to join the other +mutineers, my sailor and I soon ferretted out an old ensign, the +Tricolour; when, binding it on to the signal halliards, we hoisted it +about half-way up the peak of our spanker, whence it could best be seen +by a passing ship." + +"Did you know what that signal meant, colonel?" said Captain Applegarth +in an inquiring tone, "that you had a death aboard, eh?" + +"Si, senor. Oh yes, of course," repeated the colonel, correcting +himself almost as soon as he spoke for his lapse again into the Spanish +tongue. "There were half a dozen dead Haytians there, whom, by the way, +Captain Alphonse and I presently pitched over the side! But, beyond +that, sir, I believe all sailors regard a flag hoisted in that way, +`half-mast high,' as it is termed, to be a signal of distress! + +"Without doubt, sir," answered the skipper. "I was only testing your +nautical experience, that's all!" + +"I am glad then, I did not make a blunder about it, as I thought I had +done from your question," returned Colonel Vereker, quite seriously, not +noticing that the skipper was only poking fun at him in his way and did +not mean anything beyond a bit of chaff. "Well, sir, after hoisting the +flag the French sailor and I seized the opportunity to lash the helm +amidships so as to keep the _Saint Pierre_ on her course, for we could +not spare him to do the steering, and Captain Alphonse and Don Miguel, +with the plucky little Englishman and myself, had all our work to do +watching the mutineers with our revolvers! + +"After a time, as the rascals kept pretty quiet in their part of the +ship, and as my poor little daughter Elsie had been a long time now shut +up below, I thought she might come up on the poop to get a breath of +fresh air while it was still light; there being no fear of the blacks +assailing us again so long as they knew we could see to shoot straight +and had our weapons handy! + +"So I sent Cato down to fetch her on deck, and she came up the next +moment, all full of curiosity and alarm, as you may imagine, the little +one wanting to know what had occurred; for the reports of my revolver +and the subsequent stillness had occasioned her great fright, Madame +Boisson and her husband, the `brave Hercules,' being but poor +comforters. + +"All at once, while I was explaining to her about the flag, telling her +that we had hoisted it in order to summon any passing ship to our +assistance, she suddenly went to the side and looked over the bulwarks +towards the north. + +"The next moment she gave vent to a cry of joy. + +"`Oh, my father,' she suddenly exclaimed. `You have only just hoisted +the flag in time. There's a big steamer! Look, look! there it is, and +coming up to help us!' + +"`Where? where? Where is it? I cannot see it. Nonsense, Elsie; you +are dreaming, my child!' I said, looking out eagerly to where she +pointed, but could see nothing. `There's no ship there, little one!' +and I felt angry at the false alarm. + +"`But, my father, you are wrong,' still insisted the child, as positive +as you please. `I can see the vessel there in the distance quite +plainly. See how the black smoke comes puffing out of the chimneys.' + +"I laughed at this. + +"`Little darling,' said I, `there was no ship, and there are no +"chimneys" on board ships at sea. Sailors call them funnels, my dearest +one.' + +"She pretended to pout on my thus catching her tripping in her talk. + +"`Well, my father,' said she, with a shrug of her shoulders, as is her +habit sometimes, `I may be wrong about the chimneys, but I am not wrong +about seeing a ship. Why, my father, there she is now, coming closer +and closer, and quite near; so near that I can see--yes, I can see--I am +quite sure--a big boy there. Look, look, father, dear! There he is in +front of the smoke. He has quite a pleasant face.' + +"Elsie turned in my direction as she spoke, and, though I was still +gazing all the while, I could see nothing, and I was vexed, very vexed +with my little girl for her persistency in the matter. + +"`Why, it has gone--quite disappeared!' she cried out the instant after, +on rushing to the side and looking over. `What does it mean? Why did +she not come and help if she saw the flag?' + +"`You have dreamt it, little one,' I replied shortly, as I had done +before. `It's a freak of the imagination, and you fancied it, you funny +little woman.' + +"But it was a curious incident, though, sir, was it not, at such a time, +with our hearts all full of expectancy and hope?" + +Captain Applegarth was greatly excited by the narrative, and so, it may +readily be believed, was I. + +He asked abruptly, "When did this happen? Tell me, colonel, at once. +It is strange--very so!" + +The other looked up with surprise, while Mr Stokes stared at him with +wonder, and the Irishman opened his big blue eyes wide to the full. + +"I have already told you, sir," replied Colonel Vereker very quickly. +"As I told you before, it was the seventh of November--last Friday." + +"Yes; but I mean what time of the day, sir?" + +"Oh, I should think about five o'clock in the afternoon. Perhaps a +little later, as the sun was going down, I recollect, at the time." + +I could not restrain my astonishment at this. + +"It must be the very ship I saw!" I thought to myself. + +"Is the young lady slight in figure, and has she long golden-coloured +hair hanging loose about her head, sir?" I eagerly asked, almost +breathless in my excitement. "And, tell me too, did she have a large +black Newfoundland or retriever dog by her side that same evening, sir?" + +Colonel Vereker seemed even more astonished by this question of mine +than I had been by his reply to Captain Applegarth the moment before. + +"My brave young sir," said he, using this somewhat grandiloquent form of +addressing me, I suppose, in remembrance of the slight service I had +done him by swimming with the line to the drifting boat when we picked +up him and his companion. "My little Elsie is tall and slight for her +age, and her hair is assuredly of a golden hue, ah, yes! like liquid +sunshine; though, how you, my good young gentleman, who, to my +knowledge, can _never_ have seen her face to face in this life, can know +the colour of her hair or what she is like, I must confess that passes +my comprehension!" + +"But the dog, sir?" + +"That is stranger still," remarked Colonel Vereker. "I had forgotten to +mention that I brought with me on board the _Saint Pierre_ from my old +home at Caracas a splendid Russian wolf-hound, as faithful a creature as +my poor negro servant Cato. His name is Ivan, and he is now, I +sincerely hope and trust, guarding my little darling girl, as I would +have done if I had remained with her, for not a living soul would dare +to touch her with him there. Ivan would tear them limb from limb first. +He is a large greyish-black dog, with a rough shaggy coat, and in reply +to your enquiry, I must tell you he _was_ on the poop of the ship, by +the side of my child, at the very time that she declared she saw that +steamer, which I, myself, could not see anywhere!" + +For the moment I was unable to speak. I was so overcome at this +unexpected confirmation of the sight I had seen on that eventful Friday +night, though I had afterwards been inclined to disbelieve the evidence +of my own senses, as everybody else had done, even the skipper at last +joining in with the opinion of Mr Fosset and all the rest, save the +boatswain, old Masters. Yes, yes; every one them imagined that I had +dreamt of "the ghost-ship" as they called my vision, and that I had not +seen it at all! + +But this statement from the colonel absolutely staggered the skipper, +and he looked from me to the American and back again at me in the most +bewildering manner possible; the old chief, Mr Stokes, and Garry O'Neil +staring at the pair of us with equal amazement. + +"By George, the girl and the dog, the girl and the dog. Why, it's the +very same ship, as you say, Haldane; it must be so, and, by George, my +boy, you were right after all! By George, you were!" at length +exclaimed the skipper in a voice, the genuineness of whose astonishment +could not be doubted. "Colonel Vereker, I would not have credited this +had any one told it me and sworn to the truth of it on oath, but the +proof is so strong that I cannot possibly disbelieve it, sir, though it +is to my mind a downright impossibility according to every argument of +common sense. It is certainly the most wonderful thing that has ever +happened to me, and the most wonderful thing that I have ever heard of +since I have been at sea!" + +"Heavens!" cried the other. "But why? You surprise me, sir." + +"Aye, colonel," rejoined the skipper. "But I am going to surprise you +more. Now don't laugh at me, and don't think me an idiot and gone off +my head, sir, when I tell you that this lad, Dick Haldane, here, whether +by reason of some mirage or other I cannot tell, for it's beyond my +understanding altogether, distinctly saw your ship with her signal of +distress, and says he saw your little daughter with the dog by her side, +aboard her, last Friday night at sunset. More than that, sir, he +described to me at the time, exactly as you have done now, colonel, +everything he saw, even to the very hue of the young girl's hair and the +colour and texture of the dog's coat! It is altogether marvellous and, +indeed, incredible!" + +"Well, but--" said Colonel Vereker slowly, and pausing between every +word as if trying to comprehend it all. "Why, how is that, sir?" + +"Your ship, colonel, must have been more than five hundred miles away +from ours at the time--that is all!" + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. + +BUTCHERED. + +"Dios!" exclaimed Colonel Vereker. "Are you--certain of this, sir?" + +Captain Applegarth shrugged his shoulders. + +"Ask Mr Stokes here and your doctor there, Mr O'Neil, whether they did +not hear Haldane's yarn about your ship five days ago, sir, before we +ever clapped eyes on you," said he in a slightly aggrieved tone, as if +he thought his word was being doubted. "Why, colonel, this poor lad was +becoming the butt for everybody's chaff on board on account of it!" + +"Gracious!" cried the other. "This is indeed really wonderful!" + +"Aye, colonel, and more than that! But for the lad seeing this mirage, +or whatever else it was, and telling me about it, we would not have gone +off our course in search of you to render what assistance we could-- +yours being the `ship in distress' Haldane reported having sighted to +the southward. This divergence from our track, sir, took us into the +very teeth of the gale which we encountered later on, that same evening, +and conduced to our breaking down." + +"Faith," put in Garry O'Neil, "that's thrue for sure, sor!" + +"This breakdown of ours, colonel, led to our drifting to the southward +into the trail of the Gulf Stream," continued the skipper, following up +the strange sequence of events as they occurred, one by one. "Your +ship--the real ship, I mean--was drifting north and east meanwhile, +carried along by the same current, and then it came about that, although +apparently going in opposite directions and acted on by different +causes, our tracks _crossed each other on the chart last night_--at +least, that is my opinion." + +"I see, I see," cried Colonel Vereker quickly, interrupting him, and in +a state of great excitement. "Thank God! But for that you would never +have sighted our drifting boat and picked up myself and poor Captain +Alphonse! Thank God, Senor Haldane saw us in that mysterious way. It +seems to have been an interposition of heaven to warn you of our peril +and bring you to our aid!" + +"Just so, colonel; that's what I think myself now," said the skipper +impressively, taking off his cap and looking upward with a grave +reflective air. "Aye, and I thank God, too, for putting us in the way +of helping you, with all my heart, sir!" + +"Ah!" observed old Mr Stokes, who had remained silent the while. "The +ways of Providence are as wonderful as they are mysterious!" + +There was a pause after this in our conversation which no one seemed +anxious to break till Garry O'Neil spoke. + +"Faith, sor, you haven't tould us yit how ye come by this wound in your +leg, an' about that poor chap in yander," he said to the colonel, +nodding his head in the direction of Captain Applegarth's inner state +cabin, where the French captain was lying in his cot. "Sure, we're +dyin' to hear the end of your scrimmage with those black divvles!" + +Colonel Vereker heaved a sigh. + +"Well, I ought not to doubt that the good God is watching over my +little, darling daughter after what I have just learnt, my friends," +said he in a more hopeful tone than his depressed manner indicated, +looking round at us with his large, melancholy, dark eyes. "I ought not +to despair!" + +"Certainly not, sir; I dare say we'll soon overhaul the ship now, for +we're more than an hour and a half in chase of her at full speed," +remarked the skipper, recovering himself from his fit of abstraction and +looking at his watch to see the time. "Go on, colonel; go on, please, +and tell us the end of your story." + +"There is little more for you to hear, sir," replied the other, settling +himself back in his seat again, after Mr O'Neil had once more dressed +the wound in his leg. "Before it was dark that terrible night I sent +Elsie below, while Captain Alphonse with myself stayed up on the poop +for the first watch, each of us with a loaded revolver, besides having a +box of cartridges handy on the skylight near by, should we want to +replenish our ammunition. But the Haytians, sir, had evidently had +enough of us for that evening, making no further attempts to attack us +as the hours wore on. + +"They were as watchful as ourselves, though, for as Cato, anon, trying +to creep forwards so as to release the French sailors confined under the +main hatchway, had a narrow escape of his life, a heavy spar being +suddenly let down by the run almost on top of his head when he ventured +out on the exposed deck. This was at midnight, when the second mate, +Basseterre, and Don Miguel, with the French sailor Duval, relieved +Captain Alphonse and me, taking the middle watch. + +"Next morning, however, soon after Captain Alphonse and I, with the +little Englishman, had resumed charge of the poop and the others were +resting--alas, my friends, without my knowledge or sanction, poor Cato +made another attempt to reach the hatchway, which, unfortunately +resulted in his death! + +"Hearing Ivan growl and my little daughter cry out as if something had +frightened her, I had gone down to the cabin shortly after daylight to +see what was the matter, cautioning Captain Alphonse, who hardly needed +my caution, not to leave his post for a moment, and not thinking of +Cato, who had disappeared from the top of the companion-way and had gone +below to Elsie--heard her cry, I thought, and gone to her even before +myself. + +"He was not in the cabin, however; nor did I find anything much the +matter with my child, who had evidently unconsciously cried out in some +dream she had, Ivan, of course, gushing in sympathy and waking her up. +So, telling Elsie to compose herself and go off to sleep again, as +everything was going on all right and there was nothing to be alarmed +about, beyond the snoring of Monsieur and Madame Boisson at the further +end of the cabin, I, feeling greatly relieved, returned on deck. + +"I looked round for Cato at once, naturally, for our forces were not so +strong that one would not be missed, especially such a one as he! + +"But my faithful negro was nowhere in sight! Captain Alphonse said, +too, he had not seen him during my absence below, nor indeed, for some +time prior to my going down to the cabin. + +"I then searched the wheel-house aft without discovering him. + +"`Cato!' I called out, `where are you? Come here immediately!' + +"My poor servant did not answer, but that black fiend, the pseudo +`marquis' advanced from the forepart of the deck, sheltering himself, +you may be sure, from my aim in the rear of the windlass bitts, which +were in a line between us. + +"`You will have to call louder,' he cried with a mocking laugh like that +of a hyena, and full of devilish glee. `I assure you, much louder, my +friend, before that spy slave of yours will ever be able to answer you +again!' + +"Heavens! I feared the worst then. Poor Cato! They had caught him +reconnoitring. + +"`What have you done with him, you son of Satan?' I yelled out, full of +rage and anger, and with a terrible foreboding. `If you have hurt a +hair of his head I will make you pay dearly for it, I can tell you, you +fiend!' + +"The malicious, murdering wretch only replied to my threat with another +mocking laugh, which his companions echoed, as if enjoying a joke, while +I noticed them dragging at a shapeless mass from the forecastle +forwards. + +"`Kick the carrion aft!' I heard the inhuman brute say to his +followers. `Let the "white trash" see the dog's carcass! He will then +believe what I have said, Name of God! and know what is in store for +himself!' + +"My God! Senor Applegarth and you, gentlemen, I can hardly tell you +what followed. It is all too horrible. + +"The sight of what I saw will haunt me to my grave! + +"For the shapeless mass I had observed slowly raised itself up from the +deck, and I saw that it was my poor Cato. The savages had hacked the +unfortunate man to pieces with their knives! + +"He recognised me, poor creature, and appeared to try to speak, but only +made an inarticulate noise between a sob and a groan that rings in my +ears now, while the blood gushed from his mouth as he fell forwards, +facing me, dead, huddled up in a heap again upon the deck! + +"Those devils incarnate, besides mutilating his limbs, had, would you +believe it, cut out his tongue as they had before threatened, for +warning us of their treachery!" + +"God in heaven!" exclaimed Captain Applegarth, stopping in his quick +walk up and down the saloon and bringing his fist down on the table with +a bang that made the glasses in the swinging tray above jump and rattle, +two of them indeed falling over and smashing into fragments on the +floor. "The infernal demons! Can such things be? It is dreadful!" + +All of us were equally horror stricken and indignant at the colonel's +terrible recital, even old Mr Stokes waking up and stretching out his +hand to the skipper, as if pledging himself to what he wished to urge +before he spoke. + +"Horrible, horrible, sir!" he panted out, his anger taking away his +breath and affecting his voice. "But we'll avenge the poor fellow and +kill the rascals when we come up with them, won't we, sir? There's my +hand on it, anyway!" + +I did not and could not say anything; no, I couldn't; but you can pretty +well imagine the oath I mentally registered. + +Not so Garry O'Neil, though. + +The Irishman's face flamed with rage and anger. "Kill them, sor!" cried +he, springing to his feet from the chair in which he had been seated +alongside the colonel, whose injured limb he had been carefully +attending to again all the while, his reddish beard and moustache +bristling, and his steel-blue eyes flashing out veritable sparks, it +seemed of fire. "Faith, killin's too good for 'em, sure, the haythen +miscreants! I'd boil 'em alive, sor, or roast 'em in the stoke-hold, +begorrah, if I had me own way with 'em. I would, sor, so hilp me Moses, +if all the howly saints, whose names be praised, an' the blessed ould +Pope, too, prayed me to spare 'em. Och, the murtherin' bastes, the +daymans, the divvles!" + +He was almost beside himself in his rage and passionate invective. So +much so, indeed, that Mr Stokes, despite his own hearty sympathy with +the like cause, looked at the infuriated Irishman in great trepidation, +for his face was flushed, and his hair seemed actually to stand on end, +while his words tumbled out of his mouth pell-mell, jostling each other +in their eagerness to find utterance. + +The chief really fancied, I believe, that he had suddenly gone mad, as +he literally fumed with fury. + +After a few moments, however, Garry cooled down a bit, restraining +himself by a violent effort, and he turned to his whilom patient with an +apologetic air. + +"Faith, sor, I fancied I had that divvle, your fri'nd, the markiss, +sure, be the throat," said he, with a feeble attempt at a grin and +biting his lips to keep in his feelings while he dropped his arms, which +he had been whirling round his head like a maniac only just before. "By +the powers, wouldn't I throttle the baste swately, if I had hould of him +once in these two hands of mine!" + +Colonel Vereker stretched out both his impulsively, and gripped those of +Garry O'Neil. + +"Heavens!" he cried, with tears in his eyes. "You are a white man, sir. +I can't say more than that, and I am proud to know you!" + +"Och, niver moind that, colonel," said the Irishman, putting aside the +compliment, the highest the colonel thought he could give. "Till us +what you did, sure, afther the poor maimed crayture was murthered by +that Haytian divvle. Faith, I loathe the baste. I hate him like pizen, +though I haven't sane him yit, more's the pity; but it'll be a bad job +for him when I do clap my peepers on him!" + +"I could not do much," said the other, proceeding with his account of +the struggle with the mutineers on board the _Saint Pierre_, "but +Captain Alphonse and myself emptied our revolvers at the scoundrels and +floored three of them before they retreated back into the forecastle; +but the `marquis,' the greatest scoundrel of the whole lot, escaped scot +free, though I fired four shots at him point blank as he dodged behind +the mainmast and windlass bits, keeping well under cover, and mocking my +efforts to get a straight aim. The villain, I think, bears a charmed +life!" + +"Niver you fear, sor," put in Garry, in answer to this remark. "His +father, ould Nick, is keepin' him for somethin' warm whin I git hould of +him. Faith, sor, you can bet your boots on that, sure!" + +Colonel Vereker smiled sadly at the impulsive Irishman's remark. He +could see that he had moved every fibre of his feeling heart and warm +nature and that he was following every incident of his terrible story of +atrocities and sufferings with an all-engrossing interest. + +"I rushed to the poop-ladder to make for the mocking brute, intending to +grip him by the neck, as you have suggested, sir," said he, "when, by +heavens, I would have choked the life out of his vile carcass! + +"But Captain Alphonse prevented me. + +"`My God! dear friend,' he cried, catching hold of me round the body in +his powerful arms, so that I could not move a step. `Remember the +little one, your little daughter, who would have no one to protect her +should these rabble kill you. Besides, my friend, the good Cato is dead +now, and the useless sacrifice of your life, of both our lives probably, +if you go forwards, and perhaps too the life of the little one, who +cannot even help herself, will never bring back the breath to the brave +lad's body! No, no, colonel, I promise you,' said he, at the same time +kissing the tips of his fingers and elevating his shoulders, in his +French fashion, `We will do something better than that. Only wait; be +patient. We will avenge him, you will see, but I pray you do nothing +rash, for the sake of the little one.'" + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. + +ALL ADRIFT. + +"Aye, colonel," sang out the skipper, as if in response to these words +of the French captain, "to avenge him; that's what all of us here have +sworn to do, I know, for I can answer for them as if I were speaking for +myself. Yes, and so we will, too. We'll avenge him--the poor fellow +whom they butchered. We will, by George!" + +"Begorrah!" exclaimed Garry O'Neil. "You can count on me for one on +that job, as I tould ye before, and I don't care how soon we begin it, +cap'en!" + +"And me too," put in old Mr Stokes, again becoming very enthusiastic. +"The whole lot must be punished, sir, when we catch them!" + +"I thought so," said the skipper, looking round at us and then turning +to the colonel with a proud air. "You see, sir, we're all unanimous; +for I can answer for this lad Haldane, here, though the poor chap's too +bashful to speak for himself!" + +"I know what the gallant youth can do already," said the other, looking +at me kindly as I held up my head like the rest, but with a very red +face. "Thank you, gentlemen all, for your promises. Well, then, on my +friend Captain Alphonse putting the matter in the way he did, to make an +end of my story, I held back, and all that day--it was last Saturday--we +remained on the defensive, we five holding the after part of the ship, +and the Haytians and mutineers of our crew the forecastle. All of us, +though, kept on the watch; they looking out for land, we for help in +response to our signal flag half-mast high. + +"But neither party saw what they looked out and longed for; no corner of +land on the horizon gratified the desire of their eyes, no ship hove in +sight to bless ours with the promise of relief! + +"The next morning, Sunday, it came on to blow, and our vessel was taken +aback and nearly foundered. Fortunately, though, the mutineers not +interfering, most of them being seasick forwards, Captain Alphonse and +Basseterre started down into the waist to cast off all the sheets and +halliards they could reach, letting everything fly; whereupon we drove +before the wind and so escaped any mishap from this source, at all +events! + +"Probably on account of their prostration from the effects of sea- +sickness, our enemies did not molest us in any way throughout the day; +but towards the morning my little Elsie came up the companion-way in a +state of great terror, saying she heard a sort of scratching in the hold +below, and that Ivan, her dog, was growling as if he smelt somebody +trying to get in, though we could not hear the dog on deck from the +noise of the wind and sea, and a lot of loose ropes and swinging spars +which were making a terrible row aloft. + +"I went down at once with her, and without even taking the trouble to +listen I could clearly distinguish the sound of tapping beneath the +cabin deck, despite the confused jabbering of Monsieur Boisson, and the +shrill tones of his wife. + +"I knelt down then and put my ear to the planking, Monsieur Boisson +watching me with his bottle-brush sort of hair standing straight up on +end with fright, and Madame, who I thought had more courage than he, +though such, evidently, I now saw was not the case--well, she was +rolling on one of the saloon settees in a fit of hysterics, screaming +and yelling at the top of her voice. + +"`Who's there?' I called out in French. `Are you one of those +Haytians, or a friend and one of us? Answer! I will know who it is +when you speak!' + +"`I am a friend!' came back instantly in Spanish. `Let me out, sir; I +am nearly stifled down here. The three of us who were locked in the +main hatch have worked through the cargo and broken the after bulkhead, +making our way here, but we can't get out of this, for the trap is +fastened down, sir!' + +"It was Pedro Gomez, the steward, who had gone down into the hold with +two of the white sailors just before the outbreak of the mutiny to +obtain some salt pork and other food for the use of the very scoundrels +who had imprisoned them, and who, probably, believed they had all three +died by this time, like poor Cato, only through suffocation, instead of +being murdered as he was! + +"Needless to say, I immediately drew back the bolts of the hatchway +cover leading down into the after-hold, which was just under the +flooring of little Elsie's cabin, and released the three, overjoyed not +only at finding alive those whom we had thought dead, but doubly so at +having such a welcome addition to our small force of five--I couldn't +rely upon that coward Boisson--opposed as we were to the thirty, whom +the enemy still mustered, after deducting those we shot. + +"Why, with this adventitious aid, we could now attack the cursed +wretches in their stronghold, instead of our merely remaining on the +defensive, waiting for them to assail us, as we had been forced to do +all along! + +"I thought it best, however, not to let the Haytian scoundrels know of +this increase to our strength until the morrow, believing that if we +waited till daylight we might be able to take them more completely then +by surprise and ensure a victory; for in the dark we might get mixed up +and, firing at random, hit our friends as well as our foes. So I went +up above and spoke to Captain Alphonse, who agreed with me about it, and +we planned a pleasant little fete for the morning. + +"This broke auspiciously enough, the sun rising on a tolerably calm sea, +while the strong wind of the previous evening had graduated down to a +gentle breeze from the south-west. + +"But hardly had we made all our arrangements as to the distribution of +arms and settling our form of attack, when our plans were upset by the +villainous `marquis' advancing aft with a pistol in his hand, supported +by another of the scoundrels, a negro like himself from Port au Prince, +and black as a coal, but a regular giant in size, and who likewise held +a revolver. + +"Heavens! They had previously been without firearms, wherein lay our +superiority in spite of numbers; but these weapons now put us almost on +level terms, notwithstanding the reinforcement we had received. + +"`Where could they have got 'em, sir?' said little Mr Johnson to me, he +and Captain Alphonse and myself being in counsel together at the time, +it being the watch below of Don Miguel and Basseterre and the sailor +Duval, all three of whom were asleep in the wheel-house, recruiting for +their night duty. `They didn't have no firearms yesterday, colonel, +I'll swear. Do you think they've murdered the mate and bo'sun forrads, +and robbed 'em?' + +"As a similar idea flashed through my mind, that devil, the `marquis,' +answered the little Englishman's question as I, too, had feared! + +"`Oh! my friend,' he called out, as I covered him with my revolver from +my rampart behind the poop-rail on the top of the ladder, where a roll +of tarpaulin served us for shelter. `Don't be too handy with your +pistol. We have got firearms too, now. Stop a minute. I have got +something to say to you.' + +"`You had better make haste with your speech, then,' said I. `My finger +is itching to pull the trigger, and you know, to your cost, I'm a dead +shot!' + +"`You will not do much good by killing me,' he retorted with that +mocking hyena laugh of his, which always exasperated me so much. `I +want to tell you that we know you have got three more men with you now +than you had yesterday, for we searched the hold this morning and found +the nest empty and the birds flown. But recollect, my friend, we can +get to you aft through the cargo, in the same way as those white-livered +wretches have done!' + +"`Bah! I'm not afraid of your threats, you black devil,' I replied, +although my heart went down to my boots at the thought of my darling +child being caught unawares and being left to the mercy of such demons. +`We have scuttled the after part of the ship, and at the least noise +being heard in the hold we will let in the water and drown you all like +rats in a hole, and see how you like that!' + +"This idea, which occurred to me on the spur of the instant, evidently +impressed the scoundrel, for I could see a change come over his ugly +face. + +"`Let us make a compromise,' he suggested after a pause, during which he +whispered to his companion, the giant negro, both keeping much behind +the mainmast. `You can take that boat you have there at the stern, the +lot of you, if you like, and leave us the ship.' + +"`My word, that's a very good proposal, marquis,' said Captain Alphonse, +coming to my side. `You won't interfere with us, I suppose, if we go +away and give you absolute power to do what you please with the _Saint +Pierre_, eh?' + +"`Assuredly not, my friend; we promise that,' eagerly replied the +scoundrel, deceived by the manner of my poor friend. `You can take +anything you like of your personal effects too; you and the other +whites.' + +"`Ah, but my friend, you are too good!' said Captain Alphonse, firing +quickly as he spoke at the `marquis,' who had incautiously exposed +himself, thinking we had been gulled by his proposal and were ready to +fall into the trap he had cunningly prepared for us. `Take that, you +pig, for my answer!' + +"His revolver gave out a sharp crack, and simultaneously with the +report, the other's pistol fell from his hand, the scoundrel's elbow +being shattered by the shot. + +"Ere I could send a shot in the same direction to finish him off, the +big negro, who had accompanied him to the front, instantly dragged back +the `marquis,' howling with rage and pain, behind the shelter of the +mainmast; and then, picking up his revolver for him, the two of them +blazed amongst us pretty securely from that retreat, without, however, +doing any damage to our side. A bullet of mine, though, flattened the +big negro's nose a little more than Nature had already done for him, and +which did not improve his beauty, as you can well believe. + +"We kept on popping away at them whenever we saw we had a shot, the +whole of this day; well, that was only yesterday, but appears ages ago +to me, sirs! We kept on firing without materially diminishing their +strength, but they only replied feebly to our fire, with an occasional +shot fired at intervals, making up by their shouting and demoniacal +yells for their failure to harm us more effectively. + +"From this we became convinced that they were obliged to husband their +ammunition, having no more cartridges beyond those still remaining in +the chambers of the revolvers they were using, which had been loaded +when served out to Monsieur Henri and the boatswain, to whom the weapons +originally belonged. There was, likewise, little doubt but that the +mutineers had robbed those poor fellows, after murdering them like poor +Cato, in the forecastle, as the little Englishman had surmised. + +"Towards sunset, later on in the afternoon--last night that was--Senor +Applegarth, remember, we sighted your vessel in the distance. + +"Heavens! She looked to us in our desperate strait as an angel of mercy +might appear to the spirits of the damned in hell; and, at once, the +thought of abandoning our accursed ship, which that fiend of a black +`marquis' unwillingly suggested, rapidly matured itself into a resolve. + +"But our intentions in carrying out this determination were very +different to his, for we believed that, with your help, we should the +sooner be able to overcome the rascally gang, and re-conquer the vessel +we might be compelled, ere long, to surrender, all of us now being +pretty well worn out with the struggle! + +"`This is grand! this is magnificent!' cried Captain Alphonse, when I +unfolded this scheme to him; for, sirs, I may say with pardonable pride, +it was my plan entirely. `It is good tactique to beat the retreat +sometimes in war. They retreat that they may the more easily advance!' + +"Don Miguel was also of a like opinion, and so was the little +Englishman, Mr Johnson, whose snobbishness had by this time been +completely put in the shade by his manly pluck and straightforwardness; +while, as for Basseterre, the mate, and the French sailors, they +implicitly believed all that Captain Alphonse approved of must +infallibly be right! + +"Our first idea was to attract your attention without letting the +Haytians see what we were up to, as, to the best of our belief, they had +no inkling of your proximity; so we were puzzling our brains how to let +you learn our need in some quiet way, when little Mr Johnson suggested +our burning a devil, composed of wet gunpowder piled up in the form of a +cone. This was accordingly done, and the `devil,' when lit, placed on +the top of the wheel-house, all the rest of those around discharging +their revolvers in rapid succession at the rascals on the forecastle to +take off their attention while the firework fizzed and flared up. + +"This signal, however, sirs, did not appear to be observed by your +vessel." + +"It was, though," interposed the skipper. "We thought you were burning +a blue light to let us read your name astern, but you were too far off +for that!" + +"Ah! we did not know that, and the failure discouraged us," replied the +colonel. "Still, whether we were observed or not, we noticed your +steamer was lying-to, and we made up our minds to try and reach her if +possible, should we be able to get out of the _Saint Pierre_ before +those rascally blacks got wind of our scheme and tried to prevent our +leaving. + +"So we set about our preparations forthwith. + +"The four French sailors were ordered to prepare the boat which hung +from the stern davits and to get it ready for lowering, it being now +dark enough to conceal their movements, while Captain Alphonse and +Basseterre kept guard over the approach to the poop on our side, and Don +Miguel and the Englishman defended the other ladder leading up from the +lower deck. + +"Leaving these at their respective stations, I went down into the +saloon, accompanied by Pedro Gomez, the steward, to procure some tinned +meats and biscuits, with some barricoes of water and other things to +provision the boat, intending also to warn Monsieur and Madame Boisson +of our contemplated departure; not forgetting also, you may be sure, to +make every arrangement for the safety of my child, who, with the dog, +her constant companion, had remained below with the ex-milliner and her +husband, though these two had retired to their cabin, whence I could not +get them to stir, either by threat of being left behind or any entreaty. +No, they were both as obstinate as mules in their cowardice and foolish +fears! + +"Madame declared they had been `betrayed,' and asserted they could `die +but once'; while monsieur, `le brave Hercule,' on his part, said he +`washed his hands of all responsibility.' It was not his affair, he +considered himself perfectly satisfied, and gave me to understand he +would not interfere on either side, except, I expect, the victorious +one! + +"Finding all remonstrances in vain, I was just going to force them away +against their will, when suddenly there came a loud shout from the deck +above, and the hasty tramp of feet overhead, which was at once responded +to by Madame Boisson with a shriek at the top of her voice, while +monsieur cursed everybody in a whining voice. + +"Telling Elsie to stop where she was until I returned for her, I rushed +up the companion-way, followed by Pedro Gomez, only to find everything +all but lost! + +"The French sailors, it seems, so Mr Johnson told me afterwards in a +few hurried words of explanation, had `got into a fog' over the falls of +the boat they had been sent to lower, and seeing the clumsy way they +were setting to work at the job, both Basseterre and Captain Alphonse +thoughtlessly left their post to show the men the proper way to do the +task ordered. Alas! though, in a second, while the whole lot of them +all had their backs turned to the Haytians, these demons, grasping the +opportunity in a moment, rushed up on the poop by the port-ladder way, +now unguarded! + +"Captain Alphonse, hearing the noise of their approach, faced about, +fronting his foes like a tiger at bay, and drew his revolver from his +belt. + +"But, sir, he was too late! + +"Ere he could put up his hand to guard himself, for I could see it all +in an instant, as I emerged from the companion-hatchway, the giant +negro, who had abandoned his pistol for a hand-spike, brought down this +fearful weapon with a tremendous thwack on the side of my poor friend's +head with the result you have seen." + +"Aye, faith," said Garry O'Neil. "It must have been a terrible blow, +sure, sor!" + +"It was," replied the colonel grimly. "It knocked him down like a +bullock, and then, before I could interfere, the big brute took up +Captain Alphonse, all bleeding and senseless as he was, but still +breathing, and chucked him into the sea. + +"That was the negro's last act, however; for, as he broke into a huge +guffaw of triumph over the ghastly deed, I fired my revolver, the barrel +of which I shoved almost into his mouth and blew his brains out!" + +"Hooray!" exclaimed the impulsive Garry O'Neil on hearing this. "Faith, +I ounly wish, colonel, I had been there with ye. Begorrah, I'd have +made 'em hop at it, sure, I bet, sor! + +"After that," continued the narrator, we had some stiff work for five +minutes or so, but by keeping the skylight between us, the continuous +fire of our four revolvers at such short range proved too much for them, +and we succeeded in driving the blacks off the poop. The whole lot of +them retreated back to the forecastle, leaving five of their number dead +about the decks, besides half a dozen or so of the others badly wounded; +all of us, fortunately, escaping with only a few slight bruises from +blows from the Haytian's clubs and hand-spikes--the only weapons they +used. + +"All save poor Captain Alphonse, that is; for it was only when the coast +was clear of the scoundrels and the poop safe again that I had time to +think of him. + +"Pedro Gomez, remaining with Basseterre and one of the sailors, to guard +the port-ladder way with their six-shooters loaded and levelled in +front, commanding all approach aft, in the same way as the mate and poor +Captain Alphonse had done in the first instance, I went off with all +haste to the stern gallery to see what had become of my unfortunate +friend, taking the other three sailors with me, for though taking part +in the general scrimmage when the blacks invaded the poop so +unexpectedly, Don Miguel and Johnson had stuck valiantly to their post +by the starboard rail, and so I had no fear of another surprise on now +proceeding aft. + +"It was still light enough to distinguish objects near, and as I looked +over the side, what was my astonishment to see his body yet afloat, not +far from the ship. Aye, sir, there he was; and, stranger still, as my +eye caught sight of him, the poor fellow, unconsciously, no doubt, +raised one hand out of the dark water with a quick, convulsive action, +just as though he were beckoning to me and imploring me to save him! + +"On noticing this--a fact, of course, which showed plainly enough that he +was still alive--without thinking of what I was doing, I jumped on a +projecting bollard and dived from the deck of the ship into the sea. + +"I soon rose to the surface, when, swimming up to the almost lifeless +body in a few strokes, I caught hold of a portion of the poor fellow's +clothing and commenced turning it towards the stern of the vessel just +underneath the davits, whence the boat we had been preparing for our +flight was suspended all ready for lowering, and with the French sailors +standing by above. + +"`Look sharp!' I sang out to them from the water. `Look sharp, there! +Lower away!' + +"In their haste and flurry, however, the men mistook my order, and +thinking I had said `cut away,' instead of `lower away,' one of the +fools, who held a cutlass he had caught up to defend himself with when +those infernal niggers rushed at us, the confounded idiot made a +sweeping cut at the falls from which the boat hung, severing them at one +blow! + +"Down came the little craft at once with a splash, almost on the top of +me; and though she managed to ship some water through her sudden +immersion, she quickly righted herself on an even keel, right side up." + +"By George, I'd have keel-hauled 'em wrong side down!" cried the +skipper, out of all patience at hearing of this piece of gross +stupidity. "The damned awkward lubbers!" + +"Yes, sir; French sailors are not like English ones, nor do they +resemble our American shellbacks, who do know a thing or two!" replied +the colonel. "Well, gentlemen, to make an end of my story, I may tell +you that I had some difficulty in lifting the body of poor Captain +Alphonse into the boat when I had clutched hold of the gunwale; but +after a time I succeeded in getting him into the bows, rolling him over +the side anyhow. + +"Then I tried to get in myself by the stern, and had just flung one of +my legs over when that villain the black `marquis,' catching sight of me +from the forecastle, ahead of which the boat somehow or other had +drifted by this time, fired at me with probably the last cartridge he +had left in his pistol, and which the devil no doubt had reserved for +me." + +"Be jabers!" exclaimed Garry O'Neil, unable to keep silent any longer. +"The baste! An', sure, that's how you came by that wound in the groin, +faith?" + +"Yes, sir, doctor. The shot struck me when I was all of a heap, and +where it went heaven only knows, till you probed the wound and extracted +the bullet. + +"I must have tumbled into the boat while in a state of insensibility, +like poor Captain Alphonse, for I do not recollect anything that +occurred immediately after I felt the sting of the shot as I was hit, +and when I came to myself again I was horrified to find I was far away +from the ship, which I could only dimly discern in the distance. + +"But this did not daunt me at first, for I thought I should be able to +row alongside again and get taken aboard through one of the stern ports; +but, will you believe it, when I came to search the boat for the oars, +which Basseterre had expressly told those clumsy sailors in my hearing +to be sure to put into the boat the very first thing of all, can you +credit it? lo and behold, not a scull nor oar was in her; not a stick of +any sort or kind whatever!" + +"The lubbers!" said Captain Applegarth, indignant again as he paced +backwards and forwards impatiently, casting an occasional hurried glance +at the "tell-tale" suspended from the deck above the saloon table, the +shifting dial of which showed we were now changing course to the +westward. "The damned lubbers; the damn--" + +The colonel here broke in with-- "This discovery, I think, broke my +heart," cried he, heaving a heavy sigh. "It took the last flickering +gleam of hope away from me, and I sank back again to the bottom of the +boat, appalled and terrified in my mind by the reflections and thoughts, +of what might happen to my darling child and those others whom I had +left on board the _Saint Pierre_, deprived at one fell blow of both +Captain Alphonse and myself. + +"When daylight dawned after a night that seemed a century long, so full +of pain and awful thought it was to me, I saw the _Saint Pierre_ low +down on the horizon, to the westward of where I and my poor friend, +Captain Alphonse, were drifting on the desert sea. The sight of the +ship again, even in the distance, and the warmth of the sun's bright +beams, which made the stagnant blood circulate in my veins once more, +gave me hope and renewed courage, for I recollected and thought that +after all, there were eight white men still left on board the ill-fated +vessel to keep possession of her and defend my little one--eight good +men and true, not counting that dastardly coward Boisson, who was +skulking below! + +"But, sir, the wind and tide wafted the _Saint Pierre_ away beyond my +vision; and--and--sirs, the--the end of it all you all know better than +I can tell you!" + +"Aye," put in the skipper, "we saw your boat adrift--at least, old +Masters did--I'll give him the credit for that. Then we picked you up, +and here you are!" + +Hardly had the skipper uttered these words, completing the colonel's +story, when Mr Fosset suddenly poked his head through the skylight over +the after end of the saloon, the hatch of which opened out on the deck +of the poop above. + +Nor was the first mate merely satisfied with the abrupt intrusion of his +figurehead into our midst, for he rattled the glass of the skylight in +no very gentle fashion at the same time, the better, I suppose, to +attract our attention, though we were all staring open-mouthed at him +already, all startled by his unexpected appearance on the scene. + +But he rattled the glass all the same as he looked down upon us, none +the less; aye, all the more, rattled it with a will, frightening us all! + +"Hi! Cap'en, Cap'en Applegarth!" he sang out at the very top of his +voice, as excited as you please. "That ship's in sight! the ship's in +sight, at last, sir. She's hull down to leeward about seven miles off! +But we're overhauling her fast now, sir, hand over hand!" + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. + +WITHIN HAIL. + +"By George! is that so?" ejaculated the skipper, starting off with a mad +clutch at his cap, which he had thrown off on to a locker close by in +the heat of his excitement during the colonel's yarn. "I'll be on the +bridge in a jiffey! Thank God for that news!" + +"Hooray!" shouted Garry O'Neil, as we all immediately jumped from our +seats on hearing this joyful intelligence, long though it had been in +coming, even the poor colonel, sliding his bandaged leg off its +supporting chair and standing on his feet, prepared to follow the +skipper on deck without a moment's delay. "Be the powers! I knew we'd +overhaul them divvles before sundown! Faith, an' I tould ye so, +colonel; I tould ye so, you know I did!" + +But just then an unexpected interruption arrested us as we all moved +towards the companion-way to regain the deck above. + +"Look here, colonel," cried a voice from the skipper's state room aft, +where the commander of the _Saint Pierre_ was supposed to be reposing in +an almost insensible condition. "Get out of here! you are not worth +being angry with." + +"Begorrah, it's your poor fri'nd in there!" said Garry O'Neil to the +colonel. "What's the poor crayture parleyvooing about, instid of +slaypin' loike a Christian whin he's got the chance? Sure, I'll have to +stop his jaundering there, or he'll niver git betther!" + +"Stay a moment; he's beginning again, poor fellow," remarked the +colonel, holding up his hand. + +"Listen!" + +"You villains! take that!" called out the Frenchman in a louder key and +in a tone of anger, as if battling with the blacks on board the _Saint +Pierre_ over again; and then, after a pause we heard a piteous cry. "My +God! they are going to shoot me! Look! Look! To the rescue, colonel, +quickly, quickly, to the rescue." + +"Bedad, he's in a bad way entoirely!" said Garry, as he and the colonel, +with myself at their heels, entered the after cabin, where we saw +Captain Alphonse sitting up in the skipper's cot, and gesticulating +frantically. "What can he be after sayin' now, sor?" + +"He is going over the boat scene on the poop of our unfortunate vessel, +when the Haytian blacks, as I told you, made at him and the other sailor +before I rushed up from below, too late to save him, poor fellow!" +explained the colonel. "He's calling out for help, as I suppose he did +then, though I didn't hear him!" + +"It sounds moighty queer, anyhow," continued the Irishman. "Whisht! +There, he's at it again! What does that extraordinary lingo mean now? +I can't make h'id nor tale of it, sor!" + +"Hoist the flag immediately! Close furl the main topsail!" exclaimed +the poor wounded man in short jerky sentences, as he sat up there in the +swinging cot, with his hands tearing at the bandage that was bound round +his head, looking as if he had just risen from the dead, and reminding +me of a picture I once saw depicting the raising of Lazarus. His eyes +were rolling, too, in wild delirium, and after gazing at us fixedly for +a second or two without a sign of recognition on his pallid face, he +fell back prostrate again on the mattress, crying out in a pitiful wail, +"Alas, for the ship! Too late, too late, too late." + +"Heavens!" said the colonel, turning to Garry. "Can't you do anything +for him?" + +"I'll put somethin' coolin' on the dressin', an' that'll make the poor +chap's h'id aisier," replied the other, suiting the action to the word. +"Ice, sure, 'ud be betther; but, faith, there isn't a morsel aboard!" + +Whatever he did apply, however, had a quieting influence, and presently, +after tossing from side to side convulsively, Captain Alphonse closed +his great staring eyes and began to snore stertorously. + +"Heaven be praised!" cried Colonel Vereker. "He's sleeping again, now!" + +"Faith, an' a good job, too, for him, poor crayture," said Garry. "He's +in a bad way, I till you, sor! an' he'd betther die aisy whin he's about +it, sure, than kickin' up a row that won't help him." + +"What!" returned the colonel. "Do you think he's going to die?" + +"Begorrah, all the docthers in the worrld wouldn't save him!" + +"My poor friend, my poor friend!" cried the colonel. "I will stay with +him then, to the end, so as to soothe his last moments!" + +There was evidently a struggle going on in Colonel Vereker's mind +between his desire to do his duty, as he thought, to the dying man, and +his natural anxiety to be on deck participating in all the excitement of +the chase after the runaway ship and the coming fight with the Haytians, +when the black rascals would be called to a final account for all the +misery and bloodshed they had caused. + +Garry O'Neil saw this, and pooh-poohed the idea of the colonel remaining +below. + +"Faith, there ain't the laste bit of good, sor, in yer stoppin' down +here at all, at all," said he in his brisk, energetic way. "The poor +chap won't be afther stirrin' ag'in for the next two hours or more; an' +if he does, bedad, he won't ricognise ye, or any one ilse for that +matther!" + +"But, sir doctor--" + +"Houly Moses! I till you, colonel, there ain't no use in your stoppin' +another minnit!" impatiently cried the good-natured Irishman, +interrupting his half-hearted expostulator. "Jist you clear out of this +at once, an' go on deck an' say the foightin' with those murtherin' +bleyguards. I'll moind my paychant now till that old thaife Weston's +finished all the schraps lift in the plates an' bottles from lunch; an' +thin, faith, he shall take charge of him an' I'll come up too, to say +the foon. Now, be off wid ye, colonel, dear; you'll say the poor chap +ag'in afther the rumpus is over. Dick Haldane, me darlint, hind the +colonel the loan of yer arrum, alannah. There, now off ye both go. +Away wid ye!" + +So saying, he fairly pushed us out of the cabin; and, the colonel +limping by my side and using my shoulder as a crutch, as he had +previously done, we both went up the companion-ladder, and gained the +poop. + +The scene here presented a striking contrast to that we had just left, +the fresh air, bright sun, and sparkling sea all speaking of life and +movement, in exchange for the stuffy atmosphere of the darkened saloon +and its association of illness and approaching death. + +A stiff breeze was blowing now from the southward, and running, as we +were, to the northward, right before it, the skipper had ordered all our +square sails forward to be set so as to take every advantage of the +wind, in addition to our steam-power, the old barquey prancing away full +speed ahead, with her topsails and fore canvas bellied out to their +utmost extent, their leech lifting occasionally with a flicker as she +outran the breeze and the clew-gallant blocks rattling as the sheets +slackened and grew taut again, while the wind hummed through the canvas +aloft like a thousand bees buzzing about the rigging. + +The black smoke, too, was rushing up the funnel and whirling in the air +overhead, uncertain which direction to take, from the speed of the +vessel inclining it to trail away aft, while the stiff southerly breeze +blew it forwards; so we carried it all along with us, hung up above our +dog vane like an awning as we careered onwards, raising a deep furrow of +swelling water on either side as we cut through the dancing sunlit +waves, and leaving a long white wake astern that shone through the blue, +far away behind in the distance, to where sea and sky melted into one, +far away on the horizon line. + +Old Masters, the boatswain, was on the poop when the colonel and I came +up from below, in the very act of hauling in the patent log to ascertain +our speed. + +"Well," said I, as he looked at the index of the ungainly thing, which +is something of a cross between a shark hook and a miniature screw +propeller. "What's she doing, bo'sun?" + +"Doing? Wot she's a-doing on, sir?" he replied, repeating my own words +and mouthing them over with much gusto. "Why, sir, she's going sixteen +knots still, and the bloomin' old grampus has been keeping it up since +four bells. She carries the wind with her, too; for jist as we bore up +north awhile ago, astern the chase, I'm blessed if the breeze didn't +shift round likewise to the south'ard, keepin' astern of us as before!" + +"Where is the chase?" I asked, not being able to see forwards on +account of the swelling foresail and other intervening objects. "I +suppose she's right ahead, eh?" + +"No, sir. Jist come here alongside o' me at the taffrail," said he. +"Now foller my finger, sir. Look, there she is, two points off our +starboard bow. She was hull down jist now, but we're rising her fast, +sir. See, there she be right under the foreyard there!" + +I looked in the direction he indicated, and could very faintly in the +distance see something white like a sail, almost out of sight on the +ocean ahead. + +"But, Masters," said I, having no glass with me to bring her nearer, and +seeing she was too far off for me to distinguish her with the naked eye, +"are you certain she's the same craft?" + +"As sartin, Master Haldane," he answered solemnly, "aye, as sartin as +that when we goes aboard her, as go aboard her we must, we shall both be +a-goin' to our death! That's the `ghost-ship,' Master Haldane, as you +and I've seed three times afore. May I die this minute if she ain't!" + +"Die! don't talk such nonsense, Masters." + +"It ain't no nonsense, Master Haldane," he retorted, and looking the +picture of misery and unhappiness. "That there ship means no good to +you nor me, nor to none of them as seed her afore, I knows. It's her, +sure enuff. No mortal ship could sail on like that continually since +Friday, right afore the wind, and still allers be a-crossin' our hawser, +though her canvas be tore to ribbings and never a man aboard, as we've +seed. It ain't nat'ral, nohow. Aye, she be the `ghost-ship' and no +mistake,--and God help us all!" + +I noticed at the moment a telescope lying on the top of the saloon +skylight, which Mr Fosset must have left behind him in his haste, when +he came from the bridge to hail the skipper and then hurried back to his +post; so, quickly catching up the glass, I scanned the distant sail, +which grew more perceptible every minute. + +Yes, there was no doubt about it. + +She was a full-rigged ship running before the wind, but going a bit +every now and then off her course as if under no proper guidance or +management, while all her sails were torn and hanging anyhow, and her +spars and rigging apparently at sixes and sevens, as though she had been +terribly mauled by the weather. + +"For Heaven's sake, tell me!" cried the colonel, who had approached me +unobserved while I was looking through the telescope. "Tell me, is she +there? Can you see her?" + +"Yes, sir," said I. "I can see her, and it's the same ship I saw the +other night. It is the _Saint Pierre_!" + +"Ha!" he exclaimed, his black eyes flashing into a passion that made him +forget his lameness, as he strode to the side of the vessel, where, +resting one hand on the rail, he shook the other menacingly at the ill- +fated craft, now with her hull well above the horizon. "Ah, you black +devils, we'll settle you at last!" + +Meanwhile, the skipper, who had gone up to join Mr Fosset on the bridge +after leaving us below so suddenly, was making his way aft again; and on +the colonel turning round from the rail he found him at his back, +looking over his shoulder at the ship we were approaching. + +The skipper was all agog with excitement. + +"By George!" he exclaimed. "We're closing on her fast now, colonel!" + +"How soon, Senor Applegarth, do you think we'll be before we're +alongside her?" + +"In about half an hour at the outside, sir, unless something gives way. +We would have been up to her before if she had been lying-to; but she's +going ahead too, like ourselves, and not making bad way either, +considering the state she's in aloft, and her yawing this way and that. +It is wonderful how she keeps on!" + +"Oh dear! oh dear! she's possessed, as your companion here said just now +to the young Senor Haldane." + +"Oh, you mustn't mind what the bo'sun says," observed the skipper. +"He's chock full of the old superstitions of the sea, and makes +mountains out of molehills." + +"The deuce! he's not far wrong about the _Saint Pierre_, though, for if +ever a ship had the devil aboard, I'm sure she has, in the shape of that +villainous black `marquis'!" + +"Then the sooner the better for us to see about `Scotching' your de'il," +cried the skipper with a laugh that meant business, I knew. "I'm now +going to call the hands aft and prepare for the fight, and they shall +have it hot, I can tell you," said he. + +"Have you got arms enough for them, sir? Those rascals will make a +stubborn resistance, and there's a big lot of them still left in the +ship, remember!" + +The skipper laughed outright at this. + +"Lord bless you, colonel!" said he, "the steamers of our line are fitted +out in their way very like men-of-war; and I have enough rifles and +cutlasses in the arm chest below to rig out more than twice the number +of the crew we carry, besides revolvers for all the officers. This, +however, will be short and sharp work, as we're going to run your black +devils by the beard; so I shall only serve out cutlasses." + +"But you'll spare me a revolver, Senor Applegarth? I left mine, as you +are aware, behind me," said he with a smile, "and I should like to have +another shot or two at my friend, the `marquis'!" + +"Aye, aye, colonel, you shall have one, and a good one too, and so shall +all those who know how to use a pistol properly; but, for close hand-to- +hand fighting, I prefer cold steel myself." + +Colonel Vereker joined in the skipper's grim chuckle, which suited his +mood well. + +"Yes, sir, that's true," he rejoined; "but a revolver isn't to be +sneezed at, all the same!" + +"No colonel, your leg'll bear witness to that," said the skipper as he +turned to me. "Run down quickly, Haldane, to the arm chest in my state +room--here are the keys--and pick out a dozen or so cutlasses and +boarding-pikes, with a revolver apiece for all on the quarter-deck, and +half a dozen rounds of ammunition. You can get Weston to help you to +bring the lot up here. Look smart; I want to serve them out at once, as +we're now coming up with the chase, and there's no time to lose." + +Down I scuttled into the saloon with the skipper's bunch of keys; and, +calling the steward to help me, went into the after cabin, where Garry +O'Neil still remained, wetting the bandage round the head of the French +captain, and doing it too with greater delicacy of touch than the most +experienced and flippant of hospital nurses. + +Garry was delighted when I told him what I came about. + +"Houly Moses!" he ejaculated; "why that's the virry job for me, sure. +Here, Weston, you ugly thaife of a son of a gun, come here! There's +going to be some rare foightin' on deck prisintly; an' as I know ye +don't loike to be afther spoilin' that beautiful mug o' yours, you jist +sit down there, alannah, an' moind this poor chap here till I come below +ag'in, whilst I help Musther Haldane, too, with thim murtherin' arms +that give one a could chill, faith, to look at, bad cess to 'em." + +He gave me a sly wink as he said this, which was unperceived by Weston, +who accepted the proposed change of duty with an alacrity that showed he +had no stomach for warfare procedure, and Garry and I very speedily took +up a bundle of weapons each on to the poop, laying them down close +beside the skipper, who stood against the rail. + +"Ah, doctor," said the colonel, who was sitting down near by on the +skylight hatchway, resting himself before the battle should begin, on +seeing Garry come up the companion, "how's my poor friend now?" + +"Faith, he's still unconshus," replied he, handing him a big revolver +with a cartridge belt attached; "ah, sure, I 'spect he'll remain so, +too, colonel, till you've had toime to polish off the rest of thim +schoindrels we're afther. Indade, it's going off loike that the poor +crayture will be, I'm afeard, whin it comes to the ind. I don't think +he'll ayther spake or move ag'in in this loife." + +But Garry was mistaken in this diagnosis of his, as events turned out; +but, ere he could say another word, just then as the colonel was going +to make a reply to him, the skipper hammered on the deck with a marling- +spike to attract attention and give a hail at the very top of his voice +that made us all jump, it was so loud and unexpected. + +"Ahoy there, forrad!" he shouted in stentorian tones that rang fore and +aft like a trumpet. "Bo'sun, send the hands aft." + +"Say, cap'en," sang out Mr Fosset from the bridge, "shall I call up the +fellows down below in the stoke-hold, sir?" + +"Aye. Ring the engine-room gong. I want every man-jack on deck that +Mr Stokes can spare; tell him so." + +While old Masters was sounding his boatswain's pipe and while busy feet +were tramping aft, the men were beginning to cluster in the waist +immediately below the back of the poop. And here Captain Applegarth +stood stern and erect like an old lion, his cap off and his wavy grey +hair fluffed out over his head by the wind. While this was happening we +could hear the distant sound of the engine-room bell, and then there +came a hail from Mr Fosset. + +"Mr Stokes is sending up every one from below, sir," yelled out the +first mate. "He says he can manage by himself now that we're nearly up +to the chase, with the help of a couple of the other firemen; and the +engineers and stokers, the whole lot of them in a batch, have +volunteered to come on deck and join the boarding party." + +"That's your sort, my hearty," cried the skipper enthusiastically, +looking down at the sea of excited faces below gazing up expectantly at +his, awaiting the stirring words they knew to be coming, all having got +wind of the approaching fray. "Now, men, I have summoned the lot of you +aft because--well, because I've got something to say to you." + +"Bully for you, old man," exclaimed one of the men, amidst a grand roar, +while I could distinguish, distinctly above the other voices of the +crew, Accra Prout, the mulatto cook's laugh as he called out +approvingly, "Golly, dat so, sonny!" + +"Heavens!" ejaculated Colonel Vereker, seemingly, like myself, to +recognise the voice at once, "who's that?" said he sharply. + +Accra Prout, who stood a head taller than any other of the men clustered +round him, caught sight of the colonel as the latter cast his eyes +downwards, rising from his seat and coming to the side of the skipper; +and the mulatto's eyes grew as large as saucers, while his eyeballs +rolled in delight and his wide mouth extended itself from ear to ear. + +"Bress de Lor'!" he cried out, with all a darkey's emphatic enthusiasm, +breaking into a huge guffaw that was almost hysterical--"bress de Lor'! +it's de massa; it's Mass' Vereker from de plantation, for surh!" + +"Yes, it's me, myself, sure enough, Prout; and I'm right glad to see +you," said the colonel, equally delighted. "There, Senor Applegarth, +didn't I tell you any of my old Louisianian hands would like to see me +again, in spite of what I said about those infernal niggers who seized +our ship?" + +"Aye, you did, colonel, you did," replied the skipper, waving his hand +in the air; "but never mind that now--I'm going to speak to the crew." + +"Now, me bhoys, altogether," cried Garry O'Neil, looking over the top of +the booby-hatch over the companion-way, "three cheers for the cap'en, +horray!" + +"Horray!" roared the lot below with a kindred enthusiasm, "Horray! +Horray!" + +"We're almost within hail now of the chase, sir," sang out Mr Fosset +from the bridge when the echo of the last deafening cheer had died away; +"I'm going to slow down, so that we can sheer up alongside." + +"That's just what I was waiting for," said the skipper in answer to +this. "Now, men, you see that ship ahead of us?" + +"Aye," called out the foremost hand, who had before spoken--the usual +leader, and the wit of the fo'c's'le--"the ghost-ship, cap'en." + +"Well, ghost-ship, devil-ship, or whatever she may be, my lads, we're +going to board her and rescue a young lady, a child in age, the daughter +of my friend, Colonel Vereker here, and a lot of white men like +yourselves, who are now at the mercy of a gang of black demons who have +murdered the rest of the passengers and crew and taken possession of the +vessel. Are you going to stand by me, lads?" + +His answer was another deafening cheer, heartier and louder even than +the first. + +"Ah, I thought I could reckon on your help," cried the skipper in a tone +of proud satisfaction, glancing round at the colonel. "I have got your +tools handy for you, too, my lads; and if you will come up to the poop +in single file by the port-ladder, going down again by the starboard +gangway, each shall be supplied in turn. Mr O'Neil, please serve out +the cutlasses and boarding-pikes. Now, my men, way aloft there! Single +file, and no crushing, mind, and we'll get the job done all the +quicker!" + +Ere he had finished speaking the arming of the men had already begun, +and within a very few minutes the cutlasses and long boarding-pikes had +all been distributed, every man having some weapon. + +"Now, bo'sun, pipe the men to their stations," sang out the skipper, who +appeared to have already matured his plan of action. "Starboard watch +forrad, port watch aft, and all the stokers and firemen amidships, under +the bridge. Have a couple of hands, too, in the forechains, with a +hawser and grapnel, ready to make fast to the ship when we come +alongside her." + +"Aye, aye, sir," hailed back Masters. "Starboard watch ahoy! Away +forrads with you along o' me!" + +Our engines had already slackened speed; and, the helm being put down, +we came up to the wind, to leeward of the ship and not a half cable's +length away from her, broadside-on. + +"Stand by there, forrad," shouted the skipper. "Ship ahoy there! +Surrender, or we'll run you aboard." + +A wild savage yell came back in reply from a number of half-naked +negroes who were mustered on the after part of the vessel, as well as on +the forecastle, not a single white man being visible, while her +Tricolour flag--so conspicuous before, and which I fancied having seen +but half an hour or so previously when looking at her through the +telescope--was now no longer to be seen. + +Could our worst fears have been realised? + +Another savage yell almost confirmed the thought. "Heavens!" exclaimed +Colonel Vereker, rendered almost frantic with grief and excitement, and +noticing the appalling evidences of the Haytians' triumph, while we +stared aghast at each other. "My poor darling child, and those brave +fellows I left behind, where are they all; where are they? For God's +sake find them! Alas! alas! those black devils have murdered them all." + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR. + +A FREE FIGHT. + +But hardly had the colonel given vent to his despairing exclamation, +expressive alike of his own dismay and ours also, when the bitter +feeling of disappointment at being too late, that had for the moment +weighed down upon us, crushing our enthusiasm, was suddenly banished and +the hearts of all filled with renewed hope and fierce determination. + +We were not too late after all! + +No. + +For as we gazed in blank surprise at the howling mob of Haytians, who +appeared to have gained complete possession of the _Saint Pierre_, and +were dancing about and gesticulating in their wild, devilish fashion, +calling out to us with wild derisive cries, as if mocking at our efforts +to save those whom they had already butchered, a bright flame of fire +flashed out from the skylight hatch of the doomed ship, followed by the +sharp crack of a revolver; and at the same instant one of the half-naked +devils massed on the poop leaped into the air and then fell on his face +flat on the deck, uttering a yell of agony as he writhed his limbs in +the throes of death. + +An exulting cheer broke from all of us in the _Star of the North_ on +seeing this, every man gripping his weapon tightly, and setting his +teeth hard, ready for action, as the two vessels sidled up nearer and +nearer. + +Then if word were wanted to spur us on, the skipper gave that word with +a vengeance! + +"By George! my lads, we're in time yet to save the child and our other +white comrades!" he cried out loudly, at the same time jumping into the +mizzen rigging, where he hung on the shrouds with one hand, while in the +other he held a cutlass which he had hastily clutched up, whirling it +round his lionlike old grey head. "See, men, they've retreated to the +cabin below, where they're fighting for their lives to the last. Tumble +up, my lads, and save them, like the British sailors that you are! +Boarders, away!" + +As he said this, Mr Fosset, who was still on the bridge conning the old +barquey, having at once ported our helm, on the skipper holding up his +cutlass, taking this for a signal, we came broadside-on, slap against +the hull of the other ship with a jolt that shook her down to her very +kelson, rolling a lot of the darkies, who were grouped aft, off their +legs like so many ninepins. At the same moment, before the two craft +had time to glide apart, both having way upon them, old Masters forward, +and Parrell, the quartermaster, who was stationed in the waist of our +vessel, just under the break of the poop, hooked on grapnels, with +hawsers attached, to the weather rigging of the _Saint Pierre_; and ere +the skipper's rallying cry and our answering cheer had died away, +drowned by the voice of our escaping steam rushing up the funnels on the +engines coming to a stop, now that their duty for the nonce was done, +there we were moored hard and fast together, alongside the whilom +dreaded "ghost-ship!" + +Then with another wild hurrah that made the ringbolts in the deck +jingle, and swamped the sound of the rushing steam and everything, the +men, closing up behind the skipper, who led us so gallantly over the +side, far in advance, brave-hearted old sea dog that he was, bounded +across the intervening bulwarks, and were the next instant engaged in +all the maddening excitement of a hand-to-hand tussle with the black +villains, pistol shot, sword cut and pike thrust coming in turn into +play, amid a babel of hoarse shouts of rage and cheers and savage +yells--mingled with the swish of blows from capstan bars, the loud +reports of revolvers fired off at close range and the heavy thud of +falling bodies as they tumbled headlong on the deck ever and anon, +accompanied by some cry of agony or groan of pain too deep for +utterance. + +Aye, it was a discord of devilry that must have appeared a veritable +pandemonium to the spirits of the air, were any such looking down on the +wrathful, sanguinary scene from the clear blue heavens above, all +radiant now with a golden glow that came from the west, where the +declining sun was just beginning to sink below the horizon! + +"Fuaghaballah, may the divvle take the hindmost!" cried Garry O'Neil, +leaping after the skipper on to the poop of the _Saint Pierre_, a +revolver in his right fist and a cutlass in his left, laying about him +with a will amongst the mass of infuriated negroes who tried to resist +his rush, clutching at his legs and arms in vain, for he seemed +bewitched. "Come on wid ye, me darlints, an' let us make mincemate of +'em, faith!" + +I followed in his wake, but a crowd of our men, some of whom had served +in the navy and were accustomed to the work, pushed me on one side, +going into the thick of the fight themselves, and all was such a jumble +of confusion that I hardly knew where I was until "a pretty tidy tap on +the top of my head," as Garry would have said, brought back my +recollection in a very effective manner, when I found myself right in +front of an extremely ugly-looking negro, whose appearance was not +improved by a slice having been taken off the side of his face, and from +which blood was streaming down all over his black body, and that +destitute of clothing. + +I noticed that this gentleman had a long piece of wood like a boat +stretcher in his hands, with which he had evidently given me the gentle +reminder I have mentioned, being brought to this conclusion by the fact +that the rascal had it raised ready to deal another blow. + +Putting up my arm instinctively to ward off the impending stroke that I +saw coming, I cocked and levelled my revolver at him in an instant. + +Before I could fire, however, some one behind me shoved me aside again, +and crash came a heavy capstan bar down upon the negro's skull, which I +heard crack like a walnut shell as he dropped dead on his face. + +"Golly, Mass' Hald'n," exclaimed Accra Prout, our stalwart mulatto cook, +whose sinuous arm had thus incontinently settled the dispute between my +sable opponent and myself. "I'se guess dis chile gib dat black debble +goss, noh ow!" + +But ere I could say a word to him for his timely aid, Accra Prout had +bounded onward in front, and I then saw he was following Colonel +Vereker, who had managed somehow or other, in spite of his lameness, to +gain the deck of his old ship along with the rest of us. + +Crack, crack, crack, went his revolver with venomous iteration from the +other side of the vessel, where he was standing by the bulwarks, close +to the hatchway of the companion-ladder leading to the cabin below, +which he was apparently endeavouring to reach, while a crowd of Haytians +barred his further progress towards those imprisoned in the cabin, whom +they thus prevented his releasing, a fresh foe starting up for every one +he disposed of, and a rough and terrible fight going on all round him +all the time. + +"'Top a minnit, Mass' V'reker!" shouted Accra Prout, darting into the +middle of the throng, clearing a pathway for himself with the capstan +bar. "I'se here; I'se come help you soon!" + +"A thousand devils!" hissed a tall black near by--a man with a large, +crinkly, ink-black moustache, and certainly with the most satanic visage +I had ever beheld before. "A thousand devils!" repeated he, giving him +a thrust with a large knife that pierced poor Accra's arm, and making +him drop the capstan bar. "Take care of yourself--beast!" + +A cry from the colonel told me who this was. + +"Ah, villain, villain!" he sang out, looking him full in the face and +grinding his teeth and trying with all his might, but vainly, to get at +him through the press of struggling figures by whom he was surrounded. +"I've been looking for you, _Marquis des Coupgorges_!" + +The black scoundrel gave out a shrill laugh like that of a hyena, as +Colonel Vereker had described it to us when telling his yarn. + +"Pardon me, sir, I am here," he yelled out mockingly. "I am here. I do +not run away like your white trash! Why don't you come and fight me? +Bah! I spit on you, my fine plantation colonel. When I get at you I +will serve you just as I did your sly slave the other day, whom you sent +to betray us, though you, yourself, were too great a coward to come +amongst us, yes, to come amongst us yourself. Aha! colonel." + +He said this in plain English, which language he spoke as fluently as he +did French, the native language of Hayti, uttering his abusive threats +loud enough for us to hear every syllable; but though I aimed at him +while he was speaking twice point blank, and my revolver spoke out quite +as loudly as he, while the colonel likewise shot at him and the skipper +made a slash in his direction with his cutlass, the miscreant escaped +all our attacks without a single wound, dodging away from us amongst his +dusky compatriots, who were now pretty thickly mixed up with our men in +a fierce _melee_, at the further end of the poop, overlooking the waist +below. + +In the midst of this awful scrimmage there came a wild rush aft of all +the remaining blacks who had been engaged with some of the hands +amidships, pursued by our second boarding party, led by Mr Fosset and +Stoddart, who had made their way over the bows and cleared the +fo'c's'le, fighting onward step by step along the upper deck; and hemmed +in fast thus, between two fires, the black desperadoes made a last +stand, refusing to surrender, or throw down their arms in spite of all +promises of quarter on our part. + +All of them could see for themselves how completely overmatched they +were, and must have known the utter uselessness of attempting any +further resistance to us; but the mutineers of the negro portion of the +_Saint Pierre's_ crew, who were now in the majority, feared to give in +owing to the fact of their believing they would be ultimately hanged if +taken alive after the atrocities they had committed; so being of the +opinion they were bound to be killed in any case, they determined +apparently, if die they must, they would die fighting. + +Whatever might be their motive or conviction, I will give them the +credit of being plucky, and must say that they fought bravely, though +with a ferocity that was more than savage, to the bitter end, their last +rally on the break of the poop being the fiercest episode of the fray, +several hand-to-hand combats going on at one and the same time with hand +pikes and capstan bars whirling about over the heads of those engaged, +where cutlass cuts were met with knife-thrusts from the formidable long- +bladed weapons the negroes carried in their hands only to sheathe them +in the bodies of their white antagonists. + +My brain got dizzy as I watched the mad turmoil and my blood was at +fever heat, taking part in the fight too, you may be sure, whenever I +saw an opening, and dealing a blow here or parrying one there, as chance +arose, with the best of them, young though I was, and totally +inexperienced in such matters! + +It was coming near to the finish, being too warm work to continue much +longer, and I think all of us had had pretty well enough of it, when, +looking round for Colonel Vereker, whom I suddenly missed from among the +combatants, I saw him struggling with one of the blacks in a regular +rough and tumble tussle on the deck. + +The two were rolling about close to the after skylight from whence we +had observed the flash of the pistol shot as we approached the ship, and +which the colonel had been trying to get near to ever since he boarded +her, but had been prevented from reaching by one obstacle or another +until now, when this negro clutched hold of him and forced him back +again. + +He and the Haytian were tightly locked in a deadly embrace, the negro +gripping him with both arms round the body, and the colonel endeavouring +to release his revolver hand, the two rolling over and over on the deck +towards the rail forward. + +"Ha!" muttered the colonel, who was hard pressed, through his set teeth. +"Only let me get free." + +Strangely enough, the glass of the skylight above the spot where the +pair were struggling was instantly shattered from within, as if in +response to his muttered cry; and with a loud bark that could have been +heard a mile off, a big dog burst forth from the opening, making +straight for the colonel and his relentless foe. + +Then there came a startled yell from the negro, who, releasing his late +antagonist, staggered to his feet. + +"Holy name of--" he screamed out in wild affright, but he had not time +to reach the concluding word of his sentence--the name of his patron +saint, no doubt--"the devil!" + +For before he could get so far, giving a fierce growl, the dog at once +sprang up at him, his fangs meeting in the Haytian's throat, whereupon +the latter, toppling backwards over the poop-rail, fell into the waist +below, with the dog hanging on to him; and I noticed presently that both +were dead, the brave animal who had come so opportunely to the rescue of +the colonel, his master, being stabbed to the heart by a knife which the +negro still held in his lifeless hand, while his own neck had been torn +to pieces by the dog whom death could not force to relinquish his grip! + +Immediately running up to the colonel, who was feebly trying to rise, +his wrestle with the black having crippled his wounded leg and arm, I +helped him to his feet as quickly as I could, while others clustered +round to shelter us. + +"Poor Ivan, true as steel in death as in life!" he faintly muttered, +glancing from the break of the poop on the two bodies huddled together +below, the blood of the faithful dog flowing with that of his ruthless +foe into a crimson pool that was gradually extending its borders from +the middle of the deck to the lee scuppers. "He has defended my little +Elsie, I am sure, to the last, likewise, even as he defended me. I hope +and trust my child is still safe in the cabin. Help me aft, my lad, to +see; quick, quick!" + +Of course I assisted him as well as I could under the circumstances, but +as he limped along towards the companion-hatchway, the leader of the +desperadoes, that villainous "marquis," who I thought had met with his +just deserts long since, not having seen him for some little time among +the other fighters, most unexpectedly jumped from the rigging in front +of the colonel and aimed a vindictive blow at him with a marline-spike. + +This must have settled the colonel if it had fallen on his uncovered +head. Fortunately though, dropping quickly the colonel's arm, I fended +off the blow with the revolver I held in my hand, while at the same time +I gave the scoundrel a drive in the face that must have astonished his +black lordship a good deal, for my clenched fist met him square on the +mouth and shook his teeth, making them rattle, as well as disarranging +the twist of his crinkly moustache! + +He came at me with a snarl like an angry tiger, and then, hugging me +tight, with his hideous black face thrust close against mine, and his +muscular arms pressed tightly around my ribs, he squeezed every ounce of +breath out of my body. + +I thought my last hour had come. + +But help came to my aid from a most unlooked-for quarter. + +"Ah! you blackguard," cried a voice that sounded dimly in my ears, my +head at the time seeming to be whirling round like the arms of a +windmill from the sense of suffocation and the rush of blood to the +brain. "Coward! miscreant! you are here again." + +Breathless though I was, I was so surprised, and indeed frightened at +the voice and accent of the speaker, which I immediately recognised, +that I at once came to myself and opened wide my half-closed eyes. + +Good heavens! Shall I ever forget the sight? Yes; it was Captain +Alphonse, whom I had last seen only half an hour or so previously in the +skipper's cot on board the _Star of the North_, when Garry O'Neil said +he would probably never wake to consciousness again in this life, or +move out of the skipper's state room! + +Here he was though, all the same, looking like an apparition from the +dead, wild, ghastly, awful, but quite sufficiently in his senses to +recognise his terrible enemy, the pseudo "marquis." + +It is a scene I shall never forget, as I remarked before. + +Like poor Ivan, and with equal ferocity, the Frenchman sprang at the +ugly villain's throat, the whole lot of us tumbling headlong on the deck +together, which caused the wretch to release me in order to protect +himself from Captain Alphonse, who, kneeling on the top of him, hammered +him against the bulwarks as though trying to beat the life out of him. + +Making a last desperate effort, the Haytian "marquis" gripped his +antagonist round the waist as he previously gripped me, dragging him +down beside him again; and then, as the two came with all their might +against the side of the ship where the port flap was loose, the whole of +the planking gave way, and poor Captain Alphonse, with that scoundrel +the black "marquis," crashed through the splintering wood together, +falling with a heavy splash overboard into the sea beneath, going to the +bottom locked in each other's arms--a terrible ending to the terrible +episode of this, their last meeting. + +For the minute the colonel seemed overwhelmed with grief at this awful +and sudden termination of poor Captain Alphonse's life, and we would all +sooner have seen him die unconsciously if not quietly, in his bed; but +such are the ways of Providence, and we cannot control them! + +But this day certainly witnessed a series of surprises, so it seemed to +me, the most wonderful things happening every moment. + +Colonel Vereker had dragged himself as well as he could, up to where I +lay on the deck, after being set free from the bearlike hug of the +negro, helping me up on my legs in the same Good Samaritan way in the +which I had saved him shortly before; and we were both looking over the +side, talking excitedly of the dreadful catastrophe that had just +happened, and wondering whether the poor captain's body would rise to +the surface again, when all of a sudden, something bright crossing the +deck caught my eye like a flash of light, and I heard the sound of light +and hurried footsteps. + +Wheeling round hastily I was amazed at the beautiful object that met my +gaze, for I saw standing there, only a pace or two off, a lovely young +girl, with a profusion of long silky hair of a bright golden hue, that +streamed in a tangled mass over her shoulders, and reaching down almost +to her feet. + +"My father, my dear father!" she exclaimed in broken and ecstatic tones, +her voice sounding to me like the soft cooing of a dove, as she flew and +nestled herself into the outstretched arms of the colonel, who had also +turned round at her approach, some sympathetic feeling having warned him +of her coming, telling him who it was even before he saw her. + +"Oh, my father! my father! At last, at last!" + +And then, unable to control herself longer, she burst into a passion of +tears and sobs. + +Colonel Vereker, on his part, was equally overcome. + +"God be thanked!" cried he, raising his face to heaven, clasping her at +the same time fondly to his heart and kissing her trembling lips again +and again. "My darling one, my own little daughter, whom I thought I +had lost for ever, but whom the good God has preserved to be the delight +of my eyes again, my little one, my precious!" + +For a few minutes I too had a lump in my throat, but turned aside, and +then, not wishing to appear to be observing them, I left them alone and +went off to another part of the ship. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. + +HORS DE COMBAT. + +A grand hurrah just then burst forth from the deck below us, where the +skipper and most of the men were massed, telling as plainly as +triumphant cheer could tell, that the fight was ended, and that victory +had crowned our arms with success. I rushed back to tell the colonel. + +On hearing my footsteps, however, little Elsie turned round and caught +sight of me. + +"Oh, my father!" said she, untwining herself from the colonel's embrace, +though she still nestled up close to him, as she stared at me shyly, +with a puzzled look on her mignonne face. "Why, who is this young sir, +my father? I seem to know him, and yet I do not remember having ever +seen him before!" + +"Look at him again, darling one," said her father, petting her +caressingly, while another hearty cheer went up from the hands in the +waist. "He is Senor Dick Haldane, a gallant young gentleman whom you +must thank, my little daughter, for having saved my life." + +At this the graceful young girl advanced a step or two towards me, and +catching hold of my hand, before I could prevent her, kissed it, greatly +to my confusion; as albeit it was an act expressive amongst the Spanish, +with whom she had been brought up, of deferential courtesy and +gratitude, but it made me blush up to my eyes and feel hot all over. + +"A thousand thanks, sir," she began; but as she raised her eyes to my +face in thus giving utterance to her thanks for having, as the colonel +had told her, saved her father's life, a flood of recollection seemed to +come upon her, and she exclaimed: + +"Ah, I remember now! My father, yes, he is like the gentleman whom I +saw on the deck of the steamer that awful night when the negroes rose up +against us--last Friday, was it not? But it seems so long ago to me! +You, you naughty papa, would not believe that your little girl had seen +anything at all, not even a ship, but that I only fancied it in my +foolishness. However, there is the same steamer that I saw (pointing +with her finger to the _Star of the North_), and here is the same, for I +am sure he is the same, the very same young officer. Am I not right?" +And looking up at her father, she exclaimed, "Your little girl told the +truth after all." + +"And you, young lady," said I, smiling at her recognition of me, strange +coincidence as it was, corroborating my own experience of the same +eventful night, "yes; you are the same little girl I saw on board the +`ghost-ship,' as all the men here called your vessel, not believing, +likewise, my story that I had seen her or you either. Yes, I would have +known you anywhere. You are the girl whom I saw with the dog!" + +The next moment I could have bitten my tongue out, though, for my +thoughtlessness in alluding to the poor dog; for at the bare mention of +him Elsie's face, which had a sort of absent, wandering look about it +still, at once lighted up, and she glanced round in all directions. + +"Ah, I declare I had quite forgotten Ivan in the joy and happiness of +seeing you again, my father," she exclaimed excitedly. "Where is he, +the brave fellow? Ivan, Ivan, you dear old dog. Come here; come here, +sir, directly!" + +She looked round again, with a half smile playing about the corners of +her pretty rosebud of a mouth and a joyous light in her eyes, expecting +her faithful friend and companion would come bounding up to her side; +but she now waited and watched and listened in vain, there being no +response to her summons either by bark or bound or wag of poor Ivan's +bushy tail. + +Nor would there be any more, for his ringing bark was hushed, his body +and tail alike stiff and cold, while his noble heart which only throbbed +with affection for those whom he loved when living, had stopped beating +for aye. + +"My dear child, poor Ivan is dead!" said Colonel Vereker tenderly after +a short pause, drawing the young girl up to him so that she might not +see the gruesome sight on the deck below. "The brave dog sacrificed his +life for mine, and but for his help, little one, I should not now be by +your side." + +This account of the poor animal's heroic end, however, did not comfort +little Elsie, who gave a startled glance at her father's face; where, +seeing something there that made her comprehend her loss, she buried her +golden head on his breast, sobbing as though her heart would break. + +"Poor, poor, dear Ivan; he never left me once, never, my father, since +you--you went out of the cabin that last night and told him to watch +me!" she exclaimed presently, in halting accents between her convulsive +sobs, neither the colonel or myself dry-eyed as we listened to her tale, +you may be sure. "But--but all at once, after all the noise and that +dreadful firing that seems now to go through my ears, I--I heard your +voice quite distinctly on the deck; and so, too, did poor Ivan, for I +saw him instantly put up his ears, while he whined and looked +beseechingly at us." + +"Well, after that, my child," said the colonel, on her stopping for the +moment, overcome with emotion, "what happened next?" + +"He made a dash at the cabin table and jumped up on it, and then the +poor fellow growled savagely at some one outside. Then--then before I +could hold him back he made a most desperate spring and sprung right up +through the glass roof on the top of the sky--skylight, and he must have +cut himself very very much. Poor, poor doggie! And now you say my poor +Ivan is dead, and that I shall never see the dear good faithful creature +again. Oh, my father!" + +At this point the young girl again broke down. + +Nor were her tears a mere passing tribute of grief. For, though dead, +Ivan is not forgotten, like some people, the remembrance of whom is as +evanescent as the scent of the flowers that hypocritical mourners may +ostentatiously scatter upon their graves; his little mistress, little no +longer, preserving his memory yet green in her heart of hearts, close to +which she wears always a small locket containing likenesses of her +father and mother, together with a miniature of Ivan--her father's +preserver--with a tiny lock added from the brave dog's curly black coat. + +Some ultra-sanctimonious persons may feel inclined to cavil with this +association on Elsie's part of "immortal beings," as they would style +her parents, and the recollection she cherishes of a "dead brute," +because, forsooth, they hold that her four-footed favourite had no soul; +but were these gentry to broach the subject before her, being a somewhat +outspoken young lady from her foreign bringing up, which puts her beyond +the pale of boarding-school punctiliousness, she would probably urge +that she estimated poor Ivan's sagacious instinct combined with his +courage and noble self-sacrifice, at a far higher level than the paltry +apology for a soul that passes current for the genuine article with +matter-of-fact religionists of the stamp of her questioner. + +But Elsie was "little Elsie" still, at the time of which I am speaking, +and too young, perhaps, for such thoughts to occur to her mind, which at +the moment was too full of her loss. + +The cheering that had followed the last tussle of our men with the black +mutineers had now ceased, and all these things happening, you must +understand, much more rapidly than I can talk or attempt to chronicle +them, the skipper, with Mr Fosset and Garry O'Neil, came hurriedly up +on the poop. + +Both expressed their unbounded delight at seeing the child was safe and +in the care of her father. + +Sure, an' what's the little colleen cryin' for? eagerly inquired Garry, +his smoke-begrimed face, which bore ample evidence of the desperate +struggle in which he had been so gallantly engaged, wearing a look of +deep commiseration as he gazed from her father to me, and then again at +her. "Faith, I hope she's not been hurt or frightened?" + +"No, thank God!" replied the colonel huskily. "Grieving for her poor +dog Ivan, who--" + +"Och yes, I saw the noble baste," interrupted Garry in his quick, +enthusiastic way. "Begorrah, colonel, he fought betther than any two- +legged Christian amongst us, an' I can't say more than that for him, +sure, paice to his name!" + +Before he could say anything further, and you know he was a rare one to +talk when once he commenced, the skipper advanced again, holding out his +hand to the colonel exclaiming-- "Yes, thank God you are all right and +that your little child is safe, and escaped any harm from those +scoundrels, except her nerves probably being much shaken, but that she +will soon recover at her age--and I told you she should be restored to +you, you know. By George! Though, we've paid them out at last for +demon's work aboard here!" + +"The devils!" ejaculated Colonel Vereker savagely, his mood changing as +he recollected all he had seen and suffered at their hands. "Have you +killed them all?" + +"All but half a dozen of the rascals, whom we had a rare hunt after +through the hold and fo'c's'le before we could collar them. They are +fast bound now, though, lashed head and feet to the mainmast bitts; and +it will puzzle them to wriggle themselves loose from old Masters' double +hitches, I know. Besides which, two of our men are guarding there, with +boarding-pikes in their hands and orders to run 'em through the gizzard +if they offer to stir." + +"Faith," observed Garry O'Neil reflectively, "It was as purty a bit of +foighting as I ivver took a hand in, whilst it lasted!" + +"But let us go and see what has become of all those chaps below--all +those you mentioned as belonging to the French crew, whom you left on +board with your daughter," went on the skipper. "We saw the flash of a +pistol, you remember, when we came up alongside, and somebody must have +prevented those villains from getting into the cabin, or else--" + +He stopped here and looked meaningly at Elsie. + +"Heavens!" exclaimed the colonel, attempting to rise, but falling back +on the hen-coop along the side of the bulwarks he had been using for a +temporary seat, he seemed so utterly exhausted. "Ah, those brave +fellows, I was almost forgetting them; but I can't move, Senor +Applegarth, or I should have gone down before this to see what had +become of my old comrades; but I'm helpless, as you see." + +Elsie now lifted her head, looked up and turned towards the skipper. + +"They are all wounded," said she, clasping her hands together and with a +look of fright on her face. "Two of the men--the French sailors, I +mean--and the English gentleman." + +"That's the little Britisher I told you about, who was so plucky," +explained the colonel--"Mr Johnson." + +"Well, my father," continued the young girl, "these three rushed down +the stairs into the cabin, shortly before the steamer thumped against +the side of our ship, when I thought we were all going down to the +bottom of the sea." + +"Yes, my child," said the colonel encouragingly, "go on and tell us what +happened next." + +"The English gentleman spoke to me and said that the terrible negroes +had conquered them all on deck, but that he and the two Frenchmen had +escaped from them in time, and were going to barricade the doorway +leading down from above to prevent the black men from coming below and +murdering us all. + +"He told me, though, did the kind English gentleman, that I must not be +frightened and all would come right in the end, for that they had seen a +very large steamer approaching, coming quite close to us, and that they +would be able, he thought, to hold out until we were all rescued. They +then piled up heaps and heaps of things against the door at the foot of +the stairs where the sailors remained; then the Englishman stood on the +table, under the skylight, to keep the negroes from getting through +there. It was the Englishman who fired at them through the glass, for +he was the only one who had a pistol, and he made a hole and then +through that we heard all the shrieks and the noise of the pistols; and +your voice, my father, Ivan heard, and then he jumped up through the +hole, making a much bigger one, and ran to your rescue, my dear, dear +father." + +"But what has become of Monsieur Boisson, and Madame all this time; +where were they?" asked the colonel, on Elsie thus concluding the +account of what had occurred under her immediate notice, a little sob +escaping her involuntarily at the mention of her poor dog's name, and at +the recollection of what she had just witnessed. "Did they do anything, +my dear child to help themselves, or you?" + +"No, my father," she replied, apparently surprised at the question. +"They are still in the big cabin at the end of the saloon where you left +them when you went away, and, I'm afraid they are very ill indeed, for +all the time the firing was going on overhead Madame was screeching and +screaming, and I am sure I heard Monsieur groaning a good deal. He was +doing so again just now, before I found my way upstairs to you, to find +you, and to see what had happened, everything had become so suddenly +still after all the noise, and--and--those--awful horrible yells of the +negroes--oh! I--I--can hear them still!" + +She turned quite pale when uttering the last words, words spoken with +visible effort, shuddering all over and hiding her face again on her +father's shoulder. + +"Faith, sor, don't ask her any more questions," cried Garry, "but we'd +betther be sayin' afther those poor fellows ourselves, an' at once, +too!" + +"Do quickly, sir doctor," said the colonel, "and I only wish I could +come with you! but--" + +"Now jist you shtop where ye are, me friend," rejoined Garry, putting +out his hand to prevent his stirring from his seat. "Sure the cap'en +an' me, with Dick Haldane here, will be enough to look afther 'em all." + +With this he made for the companion-way and descended the "stairs," as +Elsie, ignorant of nautical nomenclature, called the ladder, the skipper +following close behind him. + +On getting to the bottom we found the panels of the door smashed in, +though of hard oak, strengthened with cross battens of the same stout +wood, which showed to what fierce assault it had been subjected, the +furniture piled up against it from within having duly prevented the +negroes from finally forcing an entrance, as well, no doubt, as our +appearance on the scene. + +This barricade had, however, been now partly removed, probably to allow +of little Elsie's exit, and, quickly pitching the remaining obstacles +aside, the three of us managed to squeeze ourselves inside the cabin, +which was in such a state of confusion, with the long table overturned +to serve as a breastwork for the gallant defenders and the settees and +lockers turned away from the deck, as well as the glass of the skylight +all smashed, that it looked like a veritable "Hurrah's vest" as we +sailors say. + +On a pile of cushions belonging to the lounge aft--the only piece of +furniture that was left intact in the place, I believe--lay the brave +men who had stubbornly held the ship to the last against the mutineers. + +All were covered with blood and blackened by powder and so utterly worn +out from fatigue in battling throughout the night and day that had +almost elapsed since the colonel had left them, besides being crippled +by the injuries they had received in the fray, that they hardly moved on +our entrance, though one--a little chap whom I judged to be the +Englishman spoken of by the colonel and Elsie--brightened up as we bent +over him, a look of satisfaction and content stealing over his drawn and +haggard face, as we cauld see from the rays of the setting sun streaming +down through the broken skylight, exposing the utter desolation around. + +He was the first to speak. + +"I'm afeard you've come too late for us, sirs," said he slowly, with a +deep groan of pain. "Those damned niggers have done for me, one of them +giving me a dig of his knife in the ribs--did it through the doorway +just now, when the fight were nearly over. You might do summat, though, +for my companions here, who stood up to the darkies like Britons, in +spite of them being only Frenchmen, though that ain't their fault. But +how's the little girl? I hope she's all right. Tell her father, if +he's alive--and I feel almost sure I heard his voice awhile ago up on +deck--tell him that I kept my word, sirs, and fought for her to the +last. I think I'm dying now, and--I--must--leave--off. But listen +while I've a little breath, for I want to say something. My name is +Robert Johnson, and my old mother, God bless her, lives at Camberwell, +near London. You'll find all my papers in my pocket and a letter with +the address, and if any of you chances to be going back to England as I +were, worse luck, you'd be doing a favour by seein' her and letting her +know why I didn't turn up home this Christmas as I promised her. I know +you will. I'm going now, I'm so tired. Good-night to you all--good- +night--good--" + +As he said this he gradually fell back on the cushion he was resting +against, and his eyes closed. + +Captain Applegarth and I both thought him dead. + +Not so, however, Garry O'Neil. + +"Sure, he's ounly fainted," exclaimed the Irishman; "run, Dick, me bhoy, +an' say if there's sich a thing as a stooard's pantry knockin' about +anywheres in those latituodes, wid a dhrop of water convanient. That +an' a taste of this _aqua vitae_ here, which, the saints be praised, I +took the precawshin to put in me pocket afore we shtarted on this +blissid and excoitin' skermoish, this will very soon fetch back a little +loife into the plucky little beggar ag'in!" + +I had no difficulty in finding the steward's pantry and a breaker of +water, with a tin dipper attached, speedily carrying some back and, by +our joint ministrations, and with it bathing his face and hands and +pouring some between his lips, little Mr Johnson at last opened his +eyes and began to breathe. + +After a time and a certain amount of patience he opened his eyes wider, +and became conscious, and later on was induced to swallow down a mixture +out of his own special bottle that Garry carried, and we were at last +delighted to see quite a broad grin spread over his round good-natured +and somewhat comical face. + +"By Jingo, sir!" said he, after a pause and rather long silence, and +after he had drained off the last drop of the elixir, with a sigh of +gratitude that evidently came from his heart, "you've saved my life this +time, and no mistake. I never thought I should taste a drop of good +brandy again in this world." + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. + +WE PART COMPANY. + +While Garry O'Neil and I were attending to the two French sailors who, +though they had been a good bit knocked about in the course of the +protracted struggle, were not seemingly very seriously hurt, suffering +more, indeed, from want of proper food and rest than from the slight +wounds they had received, we heard loud cries and a sort of dull moaning +that appeared to proceed from the after part of the saloon. + +Going thither at once, Captain Applegarth knocked with his knuckles on +the panel of the closed door of one of the larger state rooms, running +athwart the ship from whence the sounds proceeded. + +"Hullo, within there!" he shouted, "what's the matter? What's the row? +Come out!" + +A shrill scream was the only response to his inquiries. + +"What's the matter?" repeated the skipper, speaking in a gentler tone. +"You have nothing to fear. We're all friends here!" + +The cries and confused noises continued, however, and the skipper +thereupon resumed his knocking, this time more forcibly, and with his +fists aided by a kick from his heavy boot against the lower part of the +still closed door. + +At this imperative summons the shrieking ceased, and we heard a feeble +voice within, calling out in French-- "Mercy! for the love of God!" we +could distinguish amidst a plentitude of sobs and violent groans in a +deeper key. "Ah! brave Haytians! Have pity, and spare our lives!" + +"Hang it all, you cowards, we're _not_ those cursed Haytians, and I wish +you could have been left to their mercy! It is only what you deserve!" +roared the skipper, infuriated and out of all patience at the +Frenchwoman's mistake and her appealing in such terms to the murderous +scoundrels, of whom we had made so summary an end. "We're Englishmen; +we're your friends, I tell you, true-hearted British sailors, who have +come to rescue you, so open the door!" + +But Madame Boisson, who, of course, was his interlocutrice behind the +door, remained obdurate. + +"Ah! the false English," she cried, "down with the pigs!" + +At this the skipper laughed grimly, and all standing near him were much +amused. + +"She's a good specimen of her race," cried the captain. "They always +abuse other nations and cry out that they are betrayed when ill luck +comes to them, instead of trying to help themselves, as we perfidious +Englishmen do." + +Finding it impossible to persuade her, though, to open the door of the +cabin, which was bolted and barred within, the skipper sang out to me to +go on deck and ask Elsie Vereker to come down and try what she could do, +thinking that the obstinate prisoner would doubtless recognise the +girl's voice and so, through her means, be made more amenable to reason. + +No sooner said than done. + +Up I went and down the companion-way. I returned anon accompanied not +only by Miss Elsie, but by the colonel as well, Garry O'Neil, who +hurried up the ladder after me with that intent, insisting on his coming +below so that he could the better attend to his wounded leg, which had +broken out again and needed fresh dressing, and after some little +difficulty Garry got him down in safety. + +Thanks to Elsie's pleadings, Madame Boisson at length capitulated, +promising to come out of her retreat as soon as she had had time, "to +make her toilet." + +"By George!" exclaimed the skipper, overhearing this and turning with an +ironical grin to the colonel, who had his leg upon a chair, and Garry +bustling about him, busy with bandages, "she's a true Frenchwoman, as I +said at the first. Fancy, after being imprisoned there in that stuffy +cabin for four and twenty hours and imagining herself and husband might +be murdered every minute by a lot of pirate scoundrels, thinking of +nothing but titifying herself, instead of thanking God for their escape +and rushing out at the very first opportunity, eager to be free. +Strange creatures!" + +"Heavens!" exclaimed the colonel, smiling at the other's outburst. "It +is true, but they're all alike, and I've seen a good many of them, my +friend." + +Presently out sailed Madame Boisson, who I noticed was a middle-aged and +well-preserved woman, attired in an elaborate dressing gown with a +profusion of bows and ribbons fluttering about it, and with a good deal +of pearl powder or some other cosmetic of that sort on her face, and her +cheeks tinted here and there with--well, colour. + +Despite her screams and hysterics, however, there was no trace of a tear +in her twinkling black eyes, although her fat little husband, who ambled +meekly in her train, betrayed signs of great emotion, his red face all +swollen from crying, and otherwise looking like a whipped cur. + +Madame made a most gracious salute to us all, and, glancing at me with a +spice of coquetry, to which she was evidently not unaccustomed, was +pleased to observe, that I was "_un beau garcon_." + +In returning the skipper's polite bow she happened to notice the poor +wounded sailors lying on the cushions by the companion, and the blood +all sprinkled about--a sight at which she turned up her nose, declaring +very volubly that the place was like a "pigsty," unfit for any lady to +enter, and expressing her surprise at those "common seamen" being +attended to and allowed to remain in the saloon, she having always +understood that that apartment was only for "the use of the first-class +passengers." + +The skipper, who understood her well enough, as I did too, having learnt +the language at a French school near Rouen, was very angry at her +remarks. + +"Those men," said he in his best Parisian, "are your own countrymen, all +that are left of those who died to preserve the lives of you and your +husband there, who ought to be ashamed of himself for skulking below +while they were fighting on deck." + +Monsieur looked foolish, but said nothing in reply to this. Madame +sniffed, and flashed her glittering black eyes, as if she could +annihilate him at a glance. + +"My brave Hercules!" she cried indignantly, "be easy. You have been out +in the Bois and have established your reputation as a hero and have no +need to notice the insulting remarks of this Englishman. But for you," +she added, turning angrily to the colonel, "this would not have +happened." + +"I? Good Heavens!" exclaimed Colonel Vereker, greatly astonished at her +turning on him thus. "Why, it was I who did all in my power to prevent +Captain Alphonse from allowing those cursed blacks on board the ship in +the first instance, but you and Monsieur Boisson, both of you, persuaded +him to the contrary." + +"My God! dear Hercules, see how we are calumniated," said the irate +Frenchwoman, rather illogically, turning to her miserable atom of a +husband, who gesticulated and shrugged his shoulders in response, and +looking over the skipper and Colonel Vereker as if neither existed, she +went on to remark to Elsie, who, however, did not appear to relish very +much her conversation or endearments, that, "some persons whom she would +not condescend to name, were, of monsters, the most infamous and +ungrateful--men, indeed, of the gutter--but that she, the little one, +was an angel." + +Here the skipper put an end to the interview. He had evidently seen and +had enough of the Boissons, husband and wife, and, ascending the +companion-ladder at the same time as Garry and myself, I heard him +muttering to himself as he went along and just caught the following +words: "To think--brave men--lose--valuable--save such--theirs--too +dreadful. She frivolous--he--a--damned coward!" laying a rather strong +emphasis on the last words. + +We afterwards went down again, Garry and I, and managed between us to +bring up little Mr Johnson, the brave fellow having picked up +wonderfully after the attention we had given him, and the knife-thrust +he had received from the negro was found to have only grazed his ribs, +and he was anxious for fresh air, after his long imprisonment below, and +to see and judge for himself how things were looking on deck after our +scrimmage. + +Here the light was waning and there was a good deal to be done. + +"I think, Fosset," said the skipper to our worthy first mate, who had +been ordering matters forward while the former had come aft, "we had +better muster the hands first so as to know who's missing. I'm afraid +several of our poor fellows have lost the number of their mess in the +fight." + +"Aye, sir, they have," replied Mr Fosset. "Poor Stoddart's gone, for +one!" + +"Poor fellow, I am sorry," exclaimed the captain with much feeling. "We +couldn't have lost a better man, for he was about the best we had on +board, poor fellow--a good engineer, a good mess-mate, and good at +everything he handled, besides being the finest fellow that ever wore +shoe leather. How did it happen?" + +"He was knifed by one of those black devils, sir, as he led the boarders +forrad!" + +"Poor Stoddart! I am sorry to lose you! Well, there's no use crying +over spilt milk, and all my words will never bring him back again. Mr +O'Neil, just muster the men in the waist and let us know the worst at +once!" + +"Faith, ye're roight, sor; we'd betther count noses an' have the job +over," returned Garry, _sotto voce_, singing out in a louder key to the +survivors of the fray, who were grouped in the waist about the mainmast, +where the remaining Haytians who had not been killed outright were tied +up feet to the wrists, as the skipper had told Colonel Vereker when he +came up. "Now all you _Star of the Norths_ that are still alive, come +over here to starboard; the chaps that are d'id, sure, can shtop where +they are!" + +The hands laughed at this Hibernian way of putting the matter to them, +and answered their names readily on Garry proceeding to read out the +muster roll from a paper he had drawn out of his pocket--all, that is, +save those that had fallen, eight in number, including poor Stoddart, +our energetic second engineer, and one of his firemen who had +volunteered to swell the boarding party, as well as six of our best +sailors amongst the foremast hands. + +Of the rest of the crew four were badly hurt and a few slightly wounded. +Spokeshave was one of these latter, having, unfortunately, the end of +his nose--that prominent feature of his--cut clean off by a slash from a +cutlass; but the majority, we were glad to find, mostly escaped +unscathed. + +Seeing old Masters all right, I thought of his morbid forebodings before +we came up with the ship, and determined to take a rise out of him. + +"I'm awfully sorry about the old bo'sun," I said with a wink to Garry, +right behind his back. "He wasn't a bad seaman, but an awful old +grumbler, and so superstitious that he funked his own shadow and daren't +walk up a hatchway in the dark. Poor old chap, though, it's a pity he's +dead; I shall miss him if only from not hearing his continued growling +over things that _might_ happen." + +"Well I'm blessed!" cried old Masters, completely flabbergasted at this +exordium of mine; "I never thought, Mister Haldane, to hear you speak +ag'in me like that. I allays believed you was a friend, that I did." + +I pretended not to see him, and so too did Garry O'Neil, "tumbling to my +game," as the saying goes, while I went on with my chaff. + +"How did he die?" I asked. "Was he killed at the first rush?" + +"Faith, I can't say corrictly," replied Garry in a very melancholy tone +of voice. "I'm afeard care carried him off, somehow or other, as it +killed the cat, for he war the most disconsolate, doleful, down-hearted +chap I ivver saw piping the hands to dinner. An' so he's d'id! Poor +old bo'sun! we'll nivver see his loike ag'in." + +"Lord bless you!" cried old Masters angrily, stepping up nearer and +confronting us, "I'm not dead at all, I tell you--I tell you I'm not-- +I'm blessed if I am. Can't you see me here alive and hearty afore you? +Look at me." + +"Ah, it's his ghost!" I said, with an affected and tremulous start. +"He told me, poor fellow, he felt himself doomed, and nothing could save +him; and I suppose his spirit wants to prove to me he wasn't a liar, as +I always thought he was, the old sinner!" + +This was too much for Garry, and he couldn't hold in any longer, and +both of us roared at Masters, who looked scared; and, though angry and +highly incensed with us at first, was only too glad at its being but a +joke, and not a fact that he was dead, to bear us any ill-feeling long. + +We were horrified when we were told later on, while we were committing +to the deep the corpses of those slain--negroes and white men +impartially sharing the same grave beneath the placid sea, at rest like +themselves, the breeze having died away again soon after sunset--that +Etienne Brago and Francois Terne, the two wounded sailors we had left +below with the Boissons, and little Mr Johnson and the colonel and +Elsie of course, that _these_ were the only ones left of the thirty odd +souls on board the _Saint Pierre_ when she sailed from La Guayra a +fortnight before! + +After all the bodies had been buried in their watery tomb, not +forgetting that of poor Ivan, who we all thought merited an honoured +place by the side of his biped brethren of valour--well, after all this +had been done the skipper had the pumps rigged and the decks sluiced +down to wash away all traces of the fray. + +A council of war was then held between us all on the poop, the skipper +of course presiding, and the colonel coming up from the cabin to take +part in the proceedings, as well as old Mr Stokes from our ship, where +he had remained attending singlehanded to the duties of the engine-room, +denying himself, as Garry O'Neil remarked, "all the foin of the +foighting!" + +This conclave had been called for the purpose of deciding what was to be +done with the _Saint Pierre_ and the captured black pirates, from whom +we had salvaged her, and without much deliberation it was pretty soon +decided, on the colonel's suggestion, to send the ship to her destined +port, Liverpool, taking the negroes in her, so that they could be tried +before a proper court in England for the offence they had committed. +"It's of no use your fetching them up to New York," said the colonel, +"for though I'm an American myself and am proud of my nationality, I +must confess those Yanks of the north mix up dollars and justice in a +way that puzzles folk that are not accustomed to their way of holding +the scales." + +The skipper was of the same opinion as Colonel Vereker; so, the matter +having been settled, a navigating party was selected to work the _Saint +Pierre_ across the Atlantic, with Garry O'Neil as chief officer. The +skipper was unable to spare Mr Fosset, and Garry was all the more fit +in every way for the part, as he would be able to look after the wounded +French sailors, who would naturally go in the ship as they were the +principal witnesses against the blacks on the charges that would be +brought against them of "piracy on the high seas." + +It was dark when all these details were finally arranged, and all of +them went back aboard on our vessel for rest and refreshment, the +colonel and his daughter, of course, accompanying us. + +Madame and Monsieur Boisson, however, could not be made to leave the +ship, saying they would not do so--Madame, that is, said it, and the +_brave Hercule_, following her lead as usual, "would not leave," said +she repeatedly, "until they once more touched _terra firma_," and not +wishing they should be starved for their obstinacy, the skipper ordered +Weston to look after the happy pair and provide them with food at the +same time as he did the wounded and prisoners. + +The two vessels remained for the night, still lashed alongside for +better security, all hands being too tired out besides to be able to do +anything further beyond "turning in" and getting as much rest and sleep +as they could after the fatigue and excitement of the day. + +Next morning at sunrise Garry O'Neil went back to his ship with his crew +of eight men--all the skipper was able to spare him--and by breakfast +time they had made her all atauto, bending new sails, which they found +below in the forepeak, in place of the tattered rags that hung from some +of the yards, and otherwise making good defects, preparing the vessel +for her passage home. + +We were all sorry to part with Garry even for the short period that +would elapse before he would rejoin the old barquey, for he was the life +of all us aboard; but the same regret was not felt for Master Spokeshave +when we saw him go over the side to accompany the Irishman, the skipper +having so decreed, as his assistant navigator, the damage to his nose +not necessarily affecting his "taking the sun," though it might +interfere with the little beggar's altitudes of another character. + +By eight bells all the details necessary under the circumstances were +satisfactorily arranged, including the transfer of the effects belonging +to the colonel and Miss Elsie, these two preferring to voyage with us, +unlike their whilom passengers, the Boissons, who remained in their old +quarters, going with "Captain Garry," as we all dubbed our mess-mate on +his promotion to a separate command; and half an hour or so later a +splendid breeze just then springing up from the westwards and flecking +the still blue water with buoyant life, the two ships parted company +amid a round of enthusiastic cheers that only grew faint as the distance +widened them apart, the _Saint Pierre_ sailing off right before the +wind, with everything set below, and aloft, across the ocean on her +course for Saint George's Channel, while we braced our yards sharp up +and bore away full speed ahead in the opposite direction, bound for New +York, which port we safely reached without further mishap four days +later. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN. + +I GO TO VENEZUELA. + +"You'd better stick to us," said the skipper to Colonel Vereker, who +talked of taking the next Cunard steamer, which was advertised to leave +on the morrow, as the _Star of the North_ was being berthed in our +company's dock on the East River. "I'm only going to stop here long +enough to discharge our cargo and ship a fresh one; which is all ready +and waiting for us; and then, sir, we'll `make tracks,' as our friends +the Yankees say, right away over the `herring-pond' to Liverpool as fast +as steam and sail can carry the old barquey. Better stick to us, +colonel, and see the voyage out." + +"All right, Senor Applegarth," replied the colonel, who could not drop +his Spanish phraseology all at once, though otherwise gradually +returning to his and our own native tongue and becoming less of a +foreigner in every way, "I will return with you." + +Both were as good as their word, he and little Elsie coming home with +us, and the skipper making the passage from Sandy Hook to the Mersey in +eight days from land to land, the fastest run we had ever yet achieved +across the Atlantic, whether outward or homeward-bound. + +But, quick as we were, the _Saint Pierre_ managed to reach Liverpool +before we did, the pilot who boarded us off the Skerries bringing the +news that she had gone up the river a tide ahead of us. + +This piece of intelligence was confirmed beyond question by Garry O'Neil +coming off in the company's tug that sheered alongside as we dropped +anchor in the stream later on, midway between the Prince's landing-stage +and the Birkenhead shore, the manager of our line being anxious to +compliment the skipper on his successful rescue of the French ship, the +percentage on whose valuable cargo for bringing her safely to port, and +thus saving all loss to the underwriters, would more than repay any +damage done for the detention of our vessel when engaged on the errand +of mercy and justice that took her off her course. + +In addition likewise to the thanks of the company and the underwriters, +the skipper was also presented with a handsome gold chronometer watch by +the committee of Lloyds, besides participating in the amount awarded by +the charterers of the _Saint Pierre_ for the salvage of the ship, though +in this latter apportionment it was only fair to mention that we all +shared, officers and crew alike, I for my part coming into the sudden +possession of such a tidy little sum of ready money that I felt myself a +comparative millionaire. + +When talking with Garry, whom it is almost needless to say all hands +were glad to see again, the men cheering him lustily as he crossed the +gangway from the tug, he told us that though otherwise they had had a +fairly pleasant voyage after parting company with us off the Azores, the +Boissons gave him a good deal of trouble. + +Madame, he said, worried his life out by "making eyes" at him when he +went below at meal-times, while on deck he was never safe for a moment +from her embarrassing attentions unless, in desperation, as he was often +forced to do, he went aloft to get out of her way. + +"Faith, an' sure, that warn't the worst of it nayther," complained Garry +in his humorous way. "Though the vain, silly ould crayture bate +Banagher for flirtin'--an', indade, bates ivviry other of her sex, God +bless 'em, that I've ivver clapt eyes on yet--that quare little Frenchy +chap, her husband, he, the little sparrow, must neades git jallous, an' +makes out it's all my fault, an', belave me, a nice toime I had o' it +altogether. At last I said to him, afther havin' been more than usual +exasperated by him, `If you want to foight me, begorrah, ye can begin as +soon as you loike,' at the same toime showin' him me fists." + +"_Ah, non, non, mon Dieu, non_, note yat vay!" sez he, joompin' away +from me whin he caught soight o' me fists. "I was mean ze duel and ze +rapiere." + +"Not me, faith," sez I. "If it's duellin' ye want you'll have to go to +another shop, Monsieur Parleyvoo, for it ain't in my line. Allow me to +till ye too, Monsieur Boisson, that if ye dare to hint at sich a thing +ag'in whilst I'm in command of this ship, the ounly satisfaction ye'll +ivver have out of me in the rap-here way will be a rap on the h'id wid +this shtick of moine here, you recollict, joist to thry the stringth of +y'r craynium, begorrah! Faith, that sittled the matther, the little +beggar turnin' as pale as a codfish and goin' below at onst, lookin' +very dejecthed an' crestfallin. He nivver s'id another word afther that +to me as long as he remained aboard, nor did Madame trouble me very much +more wid her attenshions. On the contrary, bedad, from the day this +happened till yestherday, whin she wor set ashore at the landing-stage +yonder, she'd look moighty saur at me if we chanced to mate on deck-- +aye, faith, as saur as a babby that's been weaned on butthermilk." + +"Why," inquired the skipper, when we had both a good laugh at Garry and +his account of the Boisson episode, "have they left, then, the ship for +good?" + +"Faith, yis, sor, bag an' baggage, the blissid pair of 'em, an' moighty +pleased I wor to say the backs of 'em!" + +"But how about the trial of those black devils, those pirates, then; +won't they be required as witnesses against the murderers?" + +"No, sor," replied Garry. "The polis officers that came aboard whin we +got into dock sid they didn't want monsieur nor madame neither, as they +didn't know a ha'porth of the jambolle, worse luck, they bein' below all +the toime. The magistrates think the two French sailors, who're goin' +on foine by the same token, and the colonel, all of whom were on deck +an' saw everything that went on, would be sufficient witnisses aga'n the +Haytian scoundrels." + +"Oh!" said the skipper, "have these men been brought up before the +magistrates?" + +"Aye, yestherday afthernoon, sor, an' they've been raymanded, whativer +that may mane--it ought to have been rayprimanded, I'm thinkin', an' a +cat-o'-nine-tails, if they had their desarts--till next Tuesday! The +magisthrates belayvin' the ould _Star of the North_ wid you, cap'en, wid +the colonel aboard, to give ividence ag'st the mutineers, that they +wouldn't be in from New York afore then, not knowin' what the ould +barquey could do in the way of stayming as you an' I do, sor, an' that +she'd arrive, faith, to-day!" + +All happened as Garry O'Neil informed us, the Haytians and mutineer +blacks of the _Saint Pierre's_ crew being brought up again before the +magistrates the week following our arrival home, when, after hearing the +additional evidence against them given by Colonel Vereker and the +skipper, the six black and mahogany-coloured rascals were committed for +trial at the next assizes, which we were told would not be held for +another month, on the charge of "piracy and murder on the high seas." + +The colonel took advantage of the interval that would necessarily have +to elapse before his presence would again be required in court to escort +Miss Elsie to Paris, and place her under the care of the sisters at the +convent at Neuilly, where, I think I told you before, he said her mother +had been brought up and educated; while the skipper and others of us +belonging to the _Star of the North_, being compelled to remain within +handy reach of the authorities, in case our presence at the trial might +be required, the opportunity was seized to lay the old barquey up in dry +dock and give her a thorough overhaul within and without, though the +engines, as proved by our rapid passage here, were none the worse for +our breakdown in mid-Atlantic, thanks to the skill and exertions of poor +Stoddart and the rest of old Mr Stokes' staff. + +Most of us in this way got a short holiday while awaiting the assizes, +which I spent with my mother and sister, taking home with me the money I +had been awarded as my share of the _Saint Pierre's_ salvage, which had +made me fancy myself a temporary Croesus. + +Alas, though, the sum, large though it was for a young fellow to find +unexpectedly in his pocket, went but a very short step in satisfying the +rapacious wolf I found at my mother's door when I reached the little +cottage, where she lived with my sister Janet, in one of the suburbs of +Liverpool. + +A bubble company, whose directors had all been selected for their +religious bias rather than their business qualifications, burst at one +fell coup, almost in the very hour of my return home, dissipating into +thin air, as the Latin poet has it, all the savings of a lifetime which +my mother had invested in the swindle--the provision left behind by my +father, when he died, for her use, and the subsequent benefit of my +sister and myself. The devout rogue who had "managed" the concern to +his own worldly interest and that of his fellow religionists, carried on +the same, so they said, in a pious and eminently "Christian way," no +doubt, respected alike in the eyes of God and men, according to the +loudly-voiced tenets of the particular sect, to which he and his co- +directors mostly belonged; but he managed, all the same, to carry off to +a remote and friendly land outside the pale of international law, and +where dividends need no longer be paid to clamorous creditors, a +considerable amount of portable property of a valuable nature, amongst +which, probably, was our inheritance, my mother's capital! + +Under these circumstances it behoved me to consider how I could best aid +my poor mother and sister, then left suddenly destitute through no fault +of their own. + +Fortunately, I had the means ready at hand. + +In our constant association on board the _Star of the North_ after his +rescue from the drifting boat, in which he greatly exaggerated the help +I was able to render him, Colonel Vereker was kind enough to notice me +much more than my subordinate position on board would have seemed to +warrant; and in a conversation we had together during the voyage home +from New York, after asking me what my prospects were, he made me an +offer to accompany him back to Venezuela on his return, promising me, +should I accept, a good salary to start with, and a fair chance of +ultimately making my fortune. + +Loving the sea and my profession, however, with all a sailor's love, +besides being attached to my old ship and her officers, I felt no +inclination then to give up what I had learnt to look upon as my +legitimate calling, and turn landsman; so, although I had the highest +admiration for the colonel, coupled with more than a liking for his +young daughter, between whom and myself there seemed such a mysterious +sympathy on the evening of my sighting the _Saint Pierre_, when the +captain declared we were some hundreds of miles apart, I reluctantly +and, so it seemed to me, ungraciously, declined his proposal, telling +him I preferred "sticking" to the skipper and the old barquey! + +But the colonel very kindly would not take my refusal at first as final; +and, when setting out for Paris to take Elsie to her convent school, she +taking leave of me with many tears and assurances that under any +circumstances she would always remain _mio amiquito_ (my little friend) +pledging herself, too, to be, if allowed at the school, a constant +correspondent if I would write to her sometimes to let her know where I +was. Well, the kind, good-hearted man, taking, as he said, a deep +interest in my welfare for Elsie's sake as well as for my own, assured +me that he would keep his generous offer open until the period arrived +for his ultimate departure for South America, on the termination of the +trial of the Haytian pirates and their mutineer accomplices. + +So, recollecting all this, in my hour of need, I naturally turned to the +colonel and told him of my trouble on his return to Liverpool for the +assizes, at which, by the way, the black scoundrels and their allies +were sentenced to five years' penal servitude, the judge regretting his +inability to impose a heavier punishment from the fact of proof being +wanted of the active participation of the prisoners in the atrociously +cruel murder of Cato and the other diabolical work perpetrated on board +the ill-fated ship. + +We were all glad when this matter, with the examination and sickening +details that it entailed, was finally settled, and we were at liberty to +go where we liked. + +Colonel Vereker more than justified my confidence in him. + +"Heavens! my boy, you must and shall be as my son," he said, wringing my +hand in a grip that I knew would be faithful unto death. "Come with me +and I will make a man of you, and a rich one, too, Dick Haldane!" + +"But how shall I manage about my mother and sister, sir?" said I +hesitatingly. "How shall I manage about them during my absence?" + +"You can make over your salary to them, for you will not want anything +while at Caracas, as you will live with me as my private secretary," he +replied, with another hearty shake of my hand. "The money shall be paid +to your mother regularly by my agent here, so that you need have no +fears on that score as to her support. But I do not want you to decide +such an important change in your life without proper consideration, and +the advice of your friends, my boy. Go and consult Senor Applegarth, +who I know is an old friend of yours as well as being your captain; and +then, if he and your other friends advise your acceptance of my offer, +and your mother and sister are willing to part with you--why then, Dick, +you may consider the matter settled, and you, some day, will be very +thankful you accepted my offer." + +The skipper did not hesitate for one moment in giving his opinion, +though, like most of my mess-mates, he was good enough to say how sorry +he would be to part with me, and how he would miss me. + +"Go by all means, my lad," said he. "By George! it's a chance that +doesn't come twice in a fellow's lifetime, and you may consider your +fortune as good as made!" + +Mr Fosset and Garry O'Neil were equally enthusiastic. + +"Faith, now, sor!" observed the latter, with a comical air of assured +deference at my future dignified position, as he imagined it would be, +"I hope ye'll remember ye'r humble ould fri'nd Garry whim ye're +Prisidint of the Venezuelan Raypublic, mid a lot of yaller divvles for +lackeys, an' so many dollars that ye won't know what to do wid 'em. +Begorrah, it's wishin' I am, I stood in ye'r shoes, alannah, an' I +wouldn't care for to call the Pope me ouncle, God bless him!" + +Spokeshave, though, sneered at my success in gaining so good a friend as +the colonel; but owing to the accident to the top of his nose, which +being still bandaged, or rather court-plastered up, and not tending to +add to his beauty, he was not able to turn it up and sniff in his former +irritating way that always exasperated me so much. + +As for old Masters, his face became the picture of woe when I informed +him I was leaving the ship and the company's service. + +"You mark my words, Master Haldane," said he in his most sepulchral +manner, "many a one afore you has throwed up the sea, and what good has +it done 'em? No good! Them that goes to sea oughter stick to the sea, +that's what I says; and if they throws it up, though I hopes you won't, +they allus live to repent it. I be truly sorry you be goin', and ah, +Master Haldane, I sed as how summet 'ud come of our seein' that there +blessed ghost-ship!" + +"And so something _has_ happened, bo'sun, and a precious lot too, my +hearty!" said I, jokingly, as I stood on the gangway preparatory to +going over the side. "But never mind that now, old shipmate! Good-bye +to you, men, and thank you all for your kindness to me from the time I +first sailed with you as a youngster." + +I really believe I could see a tear in the old bo'sun's eye as he wished +me farewell with the rest of them, the crew manning the rigging to give +me a hearty cheer and "send off" that could be heard across the Mersey. + +Thus it was that I took leave of the old barquey, and, my mother's +consent having been obtained before I finally settled with the colonel, +no further arrangements had to be perfected beyond obtaining and +preparing my kit, and a hasty run to the cottage to pay a last visit to +my old mother and sister Janet, and wish them farewell for a few years, +when I looked forward to returning to England and finding them both well +and happy, and in more comfortable and prosperous circumstances. + +That same afternoon Colonel Vereker and I started off by train from +Liverpool for Southampton, at which latter port we embarked in the +outward bound West India mail steamer, sailing for Colon, _en route_ to +Venezuela. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT. + +DURING SEVEN YEARS. + +We reached La Guayra, and from thence Caracas, safely enough, in spite +of the country just then passing through the acute stage of one of its +periodical revolutions that had supervened on the top of an earthquake; +which convulsions of nature and society are characteristic features of +Venezuela, like as the chief products of its fertile soil are cocoa and +"patriots," the latter being almost as great an article of export as the +former, especially after a political crisis, and consisting of all sorts +and conditions of men who, whether born subjects or alien intriguers, +are all desirous of serving their natural or adopted mother country for +a consideration! + +Colonel Vereker was largely interested in an extensive gold mine in the +interior, where he put me as his overseer. + +This was not an unwise measure for his own sake, apart from any motive +he had in advancing my welfare--his real reason for appointing me to the +post; for, with the exception of the captain of the mine, a Frenchman, +the majority of those employed were half-caste Spaniards and Portuguese, +all of whom studied their several individual pockets rather than the +interest of their employer, while the main body of workers were peons +and mezites, bastard mulattoes, with a large intermixture of negro +blood, who valued their own lives as little as they did the lives of +those, with whom they had to deal. + +I had plenty of work to do here, looking after all these scoundrels, +having to keep my eyes open as much as possible in order to prevent +wholesale robbery as far as I could, although it was utterly impossible +to prevent petty pilfering of the ore on its way from the mine to Puerto +Cabello, its general port for transhipment to Europe, to swell the +treasure chest of the exiled. + +However, by adopting the old Latin maxim, _Suaviter in modo, fortiter in +re_, treating all without hauteur, which some of the insolent half-caste +Spanish creoles affected, and yet keeping my revolver ready, with "my +powder dry," so as to be prepared for any emergency, I managed to get +along very well with the mixed lot I was set over, winning golden +opinions from every one but a few of the worst characters. + +It sounds as if I were boasting, but this is something for a young +Englishman to be able to say in a country which, though it is the +veritable El Dorado of poor Drake's dreams, and has possibly a future of +wealth and prosperity before it when it comes under the rule of the +Anglo-Saxon race--whether of ourselves, or of our cousins in Yankee land +it does not much matter, for we are all of the same race and +enterprising spirit--can be better described in respect of its present +condition by a shorter and far more expressive word. + +Amongst my other duties I had charge of all the colonel's voluminous +correspondence, he having a mortal hatred to all letter writing in any +shape or form, and in addition to my good patron's business +communications, was entrusted with the task of despatching a lengthy +epistle every other mail--they went fortnightly from La Guayra to +France--informing Miss Elsie of our doings, the colonel himself adding +the briefest of postscripts to his _pequina nina_, as he invariably +termed her and always enclosing some remembrance for his little +daughter, to show that his love exceeded any epistolary proof of the +same, as well as a more substantial token of a handsome cheque for her +maintenance and education, forwarded to the care of the mother superior +of the convent. + +Of all my manifold duties this was the pleasantest I had to perform, +being as grateful as water poured on the parched soil of my exile +amongst an alien people, antagonistic to me in everything, and with whom +I had to shape a steady course, and preserve a "stiff weather helm," as +sailors say, to avoid open rupture and assassination, the Venezuelese +"sticking at nothing," especially when that "nothing" happened to be one +whom, for some sufficient reason to their minds, they deemed an enemy +and they chanced to be behind his back--and as I told you before, I +steered clear of many enemies, but I could never learn to trust them as +a people. + +Yes, my happiest hours at San Felipe were spent in writing to little +Elsie, who answered my own letters, as well as those I despatched on +behalf of the colonel, with unvarying punctuality, holding to the +promise she spontaneously gave in England when we parted on her going to +school, at which time she had no idea of my ever accompanying her father +to South America. + +Similarly, the saddest task that could have been laid on my shoulders +fell to my lot five years later, when the mysterious attraction by which +I had been drawn towards her as a boy had grown into the most absorbing +affection--a love that filled my heart. + +And I had to write and tell her--I, who would cheerfully have laid down +my life to save her a pang--to tell her of her dear father's death. + +This occurred just as poor Colonel Vereker had arranged for my returning +with him to the capital of the State, where another revolution--the +sixth, I believe, since I had been in the country--had broken out, with +the object, as the object of all these explosions of the mob invariably +was, to depose the reigning party in power, and put the leaders of "the +popular movement" for the time being, in the power of the deposed +authorities. + +The colonel, who had a good deal staked on the issue of the struggle, +took up arms on the side of the cause he esteemed just--that to which +the most respectable of the inhabitants to a man adhered--as he had +taken up arms before for the party of law and order, amongst whom he was +looked up to, not only as a skilled soldier and tactician, but a +stalwart partisan, his very name being a tower of strength. + +Alas! though, no opportunity was afforded him now to display his valour +on the battlefield and lead his hosts to victory; for while we were _en +route_ for Caracas, a dastardly hound of a creole, whose blood was a +mixture of the beast elements--part Spaniard, part Portuguese, part +negro--well, this treacherous brute assassinated Colonel Vereker in the +most cowardly fashion. + +I was by and saw it all. + +The vile murderer came up to my poor friend as we were resting in a +_posada_ on the road from San Felipe; and, while engaging him in an +apparently friendly conversation respecting the political points of the +rising, he suddenly stabbed the dear old man in the back with a long +stiletto which he had hidden up his wide shirt sleeves. + +Fortunately, I was there, and I had time to send a bullet through his +brain from my revolver before the wretch could stir a yard from the +spot; but this could not save my noble-hearted, kind, generous +protector, a man who had been more than a father to me, and for whom I +had the utmost affection and respect. No; the death of the scoundrel +could not save him, for the wound the cowardly scoundrel had inflicted +was mortal. + +My dear friend and companion only survived long enough to confide his +daughter to my care and give me his blessing ere he died, drawing his +last breath in my arms, a smile on his face and dauntless to the end, as +he pressed my hand and uttered the usual parting phrase he had learnt +from his Spanish associates--"_Hasta la manana_--Good-bye till to- +morrow!" + +It was a long to-morrow, indeed! + +After seeing the last tribute of respect paid to the colonel's remains, +the gallant fellow being buried close to the _posada_ where he had met +with his untimely end, and a cross which I carved myself placed above +his lonely grave, sheltered by a noble palm that stood erect, as he had +done when living, a monument of nature's handiwork, I resumed my journey +to Caracas, in order to carry out my lost friend's last directions. + +The _alcalde_, who acted as the colonel's agent and was largely in his +confidence, being an acquaintance of many years' standing, produced a +copy of Colonel Vereker's will for my inspection, assuring me that this +had been drawn up during his last visit to the State capital, while all +his affairs were in the most perfect order, "the poor gentleman," as the +_alcalde_ expressed it, "being under the opinion that he would not have +long to live," a presentiment of death I have often found many people to +have had. + +Generous and thoughtful for others to the end, he had not forgotten me +in this his last testament, showing that the regard he had already +displayed for my welfare was no mere temporary fancy! + +On the contrary, much to my astonishment, he had bequeathed to me quite +half his fortune--all his share, indeed, in the Gondifera mine--while +all his realised property, which was invested in good English and +American securities, out of the reach of the grasping hand of the +hungerful Venezuelan patriots--all this he left to his daughter Elsie. + +From a codicil, too, appended to the document, more in the form of a +sacred charge than a legal instrument, "reading between the lines," I +could perceive that the large-hearted man had fathomed the secret desire +of my heart, though secret it evidently was not to him, loving Elsie as +he did, albeit in a different fashion; for after enjoining upon me to +regard his little daughter's interests even as he had studied mine, he +added that, should fate bring us together in the future, as had happened +so strangely in the past, his dearest wish would be gratified, for he +had already learnt to care for me and to look upon me as his son! + +Of course nothing of this was mentioned when writing to tell Elsie of +the awful event and dreadful calamity that had befallen her, although +later on, before I was able to return to England, when her education was +completed and the good nuns wrote to me, as her father's executor, to +say the time had arrived for taking her away from the convent unless she +wished to change her religion and join the sisterhood, to both of which +courses I was, of course, bitterly opposed, and, as you may imagine, was +delighted when Elsie herself requested to be allowed to leave. + +I must, however, have accidentally have shown my feelings towards her +and have "let the cat out of the bag" in the letter I sent home to my +mother, in answer to the last communication from Neuilly, asking her to +take charge of my darling Elsie until I came home to win and claim her. + +I imagined this from something that leaked out afterwards, and from the +somewhat altered tone of Elsie's letters to me from the date of her +leaving France to live with my mother; for, though affectionate enough, +they had a certain little air of constraint about them, and though she +spoke of various objects of interest to both of us, and of different +persons whom she and I knew, and places she went to, she never by any +chance ever mentioned herself, never after the letters she sent me +containing the passionate outpouring of her inmost heart on receiving +the news of her father's death, albeit all this she would feel perfectly +certain was to me a sacred confidence. + +Slight as the change was in her subsequent correspondence, I noticed it +and it worried me, and determined me to have the matter cleared up as +soon as I possibly could. + +Meanwhile, however, I had to fulfil the colonel's last trust, and as I +knew what his intentions had been in regard to the crisis in Venezuelan +affairs at the time when an assassin's hand prevented him from acting +the part he intended to play in the existing revolution, I thought I +should be only carrying out his wishes in putting myself in his place, +as far as it lay in my power to do so. + +So, soon after coming to Caracas and settling the details of the +colonel's last depositions, making my own will in my turn in case of +accidents, though in what way is best known to myself, I went to the +headquarters of the Government troops and joined the army of General +Gomez. + +Under this able leader I fought in several engagements that were fierce +and sanguinary as all such fratricidal contests are, and ever have been +in the annals of civil war, at San Sebastien, Carapana, Tarasca, and +elsewhere, our guerilla struggle extending over the whole extensive +country in almost every direction, where there was a town to sack or +property to plunder, until at last the insurgent "patriots" were +conquered and peace restored. + +All this took a long time; and then, having had enough and to spare of +fighting and bloodshed, and tired of mining too, I disposed of my +interest in the Gondifera mine, and at last sailed for Europe, bidding a +long adieu to Venezuela and everything belonging to it, my journey home +being hastened by a somewhat tenderer letter than usual from Elsie, who +had read a paragraph in the papers about my having been wounded at the +battle of San Sebastien, though, of course, I had not mentioned anything +about the affair to her or my mother, as it was a mere flea bite and of +no consequence, and I feared to have alarmed them needlessly had I said +anything about it in my letters to them at home. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY NINE. + +HOME AT LAST! + +Fellows who knock about the world sailoring and so on, cannot help +coming to the conclusion that its compass is narrower than stay-at-home +folk might be inclined to believe, for you can hardly stir a step +without knocking across some one whom you previously imagined to have +been miles and miles away, separated, perhaps, by an ocean from +yourself. + +I had scarcely stepped into the train from Southampton, bound +Londonwards, _en route_ for Liverpool, having only landed from the mail +steamer that brought me direct all the way from Colon that very morning, +when whom should I see looking at me from the opposite corner of the +railway carriage but a big, bushy-haired, brown-bearded man whom I did +not know from Adam. + +"Faith," exclaimed this gentleman, after a moment's scrutiny, a broad +grin lighting up his face and his eyes twinkling with a comical +expression that would alone have made me recognise him, had I not heard +his delightful, to me at any rate, Irish brogue, "ye're ayther Dick +Haldane or the divvle!" stretching out both hands to grasp mine. + +I was as pleased to see him, as may readily be believed, as the genial +Irishman was to see me, I was sure, even without his telling me so. + +"Well," said I, after we had pretty nigh wrung each other's hands off in +friendly greeting, "and how are you all getting on aboard the dear old +barquey? I want to hear about everybody." + +"Begorrah, Dick, give me toime to recover me bre'th, me bhoy, an' thin +I'll till ye ivverythin'," and then he continued in a bashful sort of +way, unlike his usual off-hand manner, "I've lift the say for good, an' +sit up for a docther ashore on me own hook, faith." + +"Why!" I exclaimed in great surprise, "how's that?" + +"Bedad, you'd betther axe y'r sister." + +"What! my sister Janet?" + +"Faith, yis; the very same little darlint of a colleen. Dick, ye +spalpeen, jist lit me shake y'r fist agin, lad. I'm the happiest man in +the wurrld!" + +"Whee-e-e-e-eew," I whistled through my teeth. "This is indeed a +surprise!" + +Then it all came out, Garry telling a long yarn about his calling at my +mother's house to ask about me some few months back, and meeting there +Elsie, whom he had no difficulty in identifying, he said, as "the little +girl of the ghost-ship," though she had grown a bit taller and was more +good-looking than he remembered her at the time he saw her on board the +_Saint Pierre_. But, good-looking as she was, he did not think her to +be compared to my sister Janet, with whom he had evidently fallen in +love at first sight and very deeply so, too! + +On his subsequently declaring his passion, impetuous as usual, after a +very short acquaintance, my mother insisted as a first step to +entertaining his suit that he should leave the sea, as he had another +profession by which he was quite capable of supporting a wife as well as +himself, if he so pleased. + +"Faith, and I wint an' bought a practis' at onst, havin' a snig little +sum stowed away in the bank," continued Garry, "the savin's of me pay +for the last five year an' more, besides that money we all got for +salvagin' the French ship, sure, of which I nivver spint a ha'poth. But +aven thin, Dick, ould chap, yer dear ould mother wern't satisfied, bless +her ould heart. She sid that yer sisther an' mesilf wu'ld have to wait +to git marri'd till you came home, ye spalpeen; an' not thin aven, if so +be as how ye'd turn nasty an' disagreyable, an' refuse yer consint. +Faith, ye won't now, will ye? or, bedad, I'll be afther breakin' ivvrey +bone in y'r body, avic, an' thin have to plasther ye up ag'in." + +To avoid such a terrible contingency I there and then gave my hearty +consent to the arrangement he and Janet, with my mother's concurrence, +had thus planned without my knowledge; although, really, if I had been +inclined to grumble at not being informed previously of what now so +unexpectedly transpired, I had only time and distance to blame, not the +parties concerned, for the engagement was of so recent a date that the +news of it, though on the way through the post, had not reached +Venezuela when I left. + +After I had answered a lot of Garry O'Neil's questions concerning myself +and the time I had passed in South America, speaking, too, of poor +Colonel Vereker, whose death he had learnt from my mother, I began +again, asking in my turn all about my old shipmates, and, of course, his +own also. + +"Faith, the skipper is foine and flourishin'," he informed me, "an' the +ould barquey as good an' as sound as ivver she was. Do you ricollict +ould Stokes?" + +"Of course I do," I said. "Is he still chief?" + +"No, no; he retired a year ago or more on a pinsion which the company +gave him for his long service; an' little Grummet--ye rimimber him?-- +well, he's promoted, sure, to ould Stokes' billet. The ould chap, +though, is alive an' hearty, an' as asthamataky as ivver!" + +"What's become of Mr Fosset?" + +"Och, be jabbers! he's a big man now. He's a skipper on his own hook, +jist loike Cap'en Applegarth. He's got the ould _Fairi Quane_, the +sicond best boat but one to the line. D'ye ricollict that ould thaife +of a bo'sun we had on the _Star of the North_?" + +"Why, you must mean poor old Masters! I should think I did." + +"That same, alannah. He wasn't a bad sort of chap, an' a good sayman, +ivvry inch of him, though I used for to call him an ould thaife just +`for fun an' fancy'--as the old song says--well, he's lift the ould +barquey an' gone with Cap'en Fosset in the _Fairi Quane_. But ye +haven't axed me onst afther yer ould fri'nd Spokeshave! Sure, now, ye +haven't forgot little `Conky,' faith!" + +"No, indeed," said I, amused at his query and the funny wink that +accompanied it. "What has become of that spiteful little beggar?" + +"Begorrah, ye'll laugh an' be amused, but he's marri'd to a wife as big +as one of thim grannydeers we onst took in the ould barquey to Bermuda, +d'ye rimimber? Faith, she's saix feet hoigh, an' broad in the b'ame in +proporshi'n. They make a purty couple, bedad! an' they do say she kapes +him in order. Do ye rickolict what an argufyin' chap Spokeshave was +aboard?" + +"I should think I did, indeed," replied I. "I think he was the most +cantankerous little beast I ever came across in my life, either afloat +or ashore!" + +"Faith, ye wouldn't say that same now, Dick," rejoined Garry with much +earnestness. "The poor little beggar's as make as a cat, for he daren't +call his sowl his own!" + +I asked after some of the other men belonging to my old ship, including +Accra Prout, whom the colonel wished to accompany us to Venezuela, the +mulatto refusing on the plea that, though he should always love his "old +massa," he could not go with him for one insurmountable reason. + +"Guess I'd hav' 'sociate wid dem tam black raskels daan thaar, massa, +an' dis chile no like dat nohow. I'se nebbah 'sparrage my famerly by +'sociatin' wid niggahs, massa, nebbah. De Prouts 'long good old +plantation stock, an' raise in Lousianner!" + +This supercilious autocrat, it must be borne in mind, all the time being +more than half a negro himself, though, for that matter, his heart was +better and his disposition braver than many a white man who would have +despised his coloured skin. + +Some of the other hands about whom I inquired had left the old barquey +and shipped aboard other vessels, so Garry told me; but at this I was +not much surprised, sailors as a rule being fond of change and very +unconservative in their habits. + +With suchlike conversation my old mess-mate and I beguiled our long +railway journey to Liverpool, which we reached the same evening, but +before we had quite exhausted our respective questions and answers +respecting everybody we had ever met or known during the time he and I +had been to sea together. + +My meeting with my dear mother and sister after so long an absence +abroad can be well imagined, and so too my first interview with Elsie, +whom I should hardly have known again, for how can I describe her beauty +and grace, and though I had been prepared in some measure from accounts +my mother had sent me, still they exceeded my expectations. + +It would be impossible if I tried to picture her for "a month of +Sundays," as Captain Applegarth used to say on board the old barquey +when he thought a fellow spent too much time over a job. + +So to make a long story short and to avoid all further explanation, it +need only be added that one fine day last summer, when the trees were +all green and leafy, and the flowers abloom, and happy birds filling the +air with song, Elsie and I were married. + +Garry O'Neil joined his lot with that of my sister at the same time, the +two brides being given away respectively by the skipper, who managed to +run the _Star of the North_ home in time for the wedding, and old Mr +Stokes, the chief engineer of the old barquey, who had only to cross the +road, instead of the Atlantic, to get to our house, as he lived near to +us now--he also was present. Captain Applegarth, who was a very old +friend of my mother's and a kind one too, likewise, lived in a good +substantial house surrounded by a lovely garden in our pretty, +picturesque, old village. + +To all whom it may concern, it may, in conclusion, be mentioned that +this double-barrelled affair took place in the quaint, old-fashioned, +non-ritualistic, semi-Gothic, and many-galleried old village church, of +which so few remain now in England, situated close to our cottage, and +where our widowed mother had, in our childhood, taught us to lisp our +first prayers to heaven, our dead father resting in the ivy-grown and +flower-adorned graveyard adjoining. The nuptial knot was tied by Parson +Goldwire, as everybody called him in the neighbourhood, assisted by +Matthew Jacon, the equally elderly parish clerk, without whose joint +ministration on the occasion neither Janet nor myself would have +believed the marriage ceremony had been properly solemnised, both my +sister and myself standing in much awe of the learned divine and his +inseparable "double," and holding to the creed that the austere pair +represented the very quintessence of orthodoxy. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY. + +A PRESENTMENT OF THE PAST. + +After Elsie and I got "spliced," to use the old familiar language of my +boyhood, the expressive _argot_ of the sea, for which I shall always +retain a passionate love, only second to that I bear towards my dear +wife, we set off for the Continent, having determined to spend the happy +period of our honeymoon abroad, like the fine folk of the fashionable +world with whom, though, there is little in common between us, their +ways otherwise not being our ways, nor their thoughts, ambitions, hopes +or desires in any respect akin to ours. + +First we went up the Seine to Rouen, where I had passed a couple of +years of my school life, studying French and teaching the young scions +of the Gallic race, with whom I was associated for the time the +exigencies of football, as we play the game in Lancashire, varied by an +occasional illustrative exhibition explanatory of the merits of _la boxe +Anglaise_. + +Time passed swiftly with so sweet and sympathetic a companion; our +tastes were similar, both taking the greatest delight in ancient +buildings and lovely scenery; the weather, too, was charming, and +altogether we were as happy as two mortals can be on this earth. + +Elsie and I saw all that was to be seen in the old city we first +visited, which, in addition to its architectural beauties, should have a +special charm for all Englishmen from the fact of the dauntless Richard +Coeur de Lion having such an affection for the town that he bequeathed +it his lion heart, and then we journeyed on through _la belle +Normandie_, loitering here and there at those historic spots, woven into +the life of our country, spots where artists of all nations love to +linger. + +We stayed anon at slow, sedate Caen, as still as the stone for which it +is celebrated, and that furnished the building material of Winchester +Cathedral; Bayeux, boastful of its antique tapestry; and Dol and Saint +Servan, and away beyond, Sainte Michel, so like and yet unlike the like- +named Saint Michael's Mount of Cornwall, in our own sea-girt isle that +it might have been chipped out of the same block by its grand +handycraftsman to serve as a replica; until, entering brighter +Bretaigne, in the sunny south of France, where the landmarks of the past +seem to stand out in bolder relief, we visited Nantes and other places +of interest, and jogging on thence through Angouleme and Poictiers, +halting a day at Poictiers to fight our Plantagenet battles o'er again, +we finally ended our pilgrimage at Bordeaux. + +At this wonderfully picturesque port, whose semi-ancient, quaintly +modern aspect strangely attracted us both, we anchored awhile, remaining +many weeks in excess of the customary limit of the traditional +honeymoon, ours being an indefinite one and only to be completed we +trust, when Elsie and I cease to breathe. + +Late in the autumn, when the leaves had begun to turn russet and brown, +and the air of a morning assumed a crisper and more bracing tone, +telling us plainly as these signs tell that summer had fled for good and +aye, and winter was coming by-and-by, we bade adieu to dear old +Bordeaux, and taking a steamer there bound for the Thames, having had +enough of railways and land travel, we started to voyage home by sea, my +native element. + +On the evening of the second day that had elapsed since losing sight of +Pointe de Graves at the mouth of the Garonne, towards sunset, we had +weathered Ushant and were shaping a course up Channel, north east, so as +to clear the dangerous Casquettes rocks of Guernsey, when I noticed a +large ship, close-hauled on the starboard tack, steaming inwards for the +French coast, as if heading for Brest, her nearest port. + +At that moment the tired sun, which previously appeared to linger above +the horizon, uncertain whether to go or to stay, dipped suddenly as we +were looking at him, a pale, yellow radiance succeeding the dazzling +beams that had well-nigh blinded us, shining straight in our eyes, while +the afterglow, mounting rapidly into the western sky, became more and +more vivid each moment, two purple islands of cloud which floated across +this refulgent background having the lower edges dyed of a rich crimson +that seemed to set the sea on fire and tipped the spars and sails of the +passing ship with flame. + +She was flying the French Tricolor, and as our steamer went by, saluting +her with a couple of blasts from her steam whistle in friendly greeting, +the stranger vessel as a return, in accordance with the time-honoured +rule of nautical etiquette always observed on such occasions, dipped her +ensign. + +This action, coupled with the similarity of the scene and its +surroundings, the ship in the distance with her flag half on the hoist, +the sunset glow, and the fact of my being on board a steamer then as +now, brought back to my mind at once the incidents of that memorable +evening of the past, more than seven years ago now, the _vraisemblance_ +between the two being simply astounding! + +"Elsie, dearest Elsie!" I cried with a start, as the strange +coincidence of the presentment struck me, the date being even identical. +"Do you remember what day of the month this is, _querida mia_?" + +"Why, of course, Dick, I do," she answered, nestling up to my side as if +for protection, for we were sitting in a warm corner by the taffrail, +just abaft the wheel-house, and screened from the observation of the +rest of the passengers who were walking up and down the deck as usual +after dinner. "Why, Dick, dear, it's the seventh of November, your +birthday, you know; surely you have not already forgotten the little +present I gave you this morning, my likeness in a locket for your watch +chain, a miniature done by that clever artist at Orleans, and you told +me you would always wear it for my sake. Dick, my husband, where is +your memory?" + +"No, my little one, I have not forgotten it," said I, kissing her, +thinking she was going to cry at what she thought was forgetfulness on +my part. "Here it is next my heart, like yourself," said I laughingly. +"But, Elsie, _alma mia_, I was thinking of another anniversary, and a +Friday evening too, to make it all the more wonderful! Don't you +recollect now?" + +"Oh Dick, my dear husband," she whispered, seizing my arm and gazing out +over the taffrail at the ship, all ablaze now from the reflection of the +sky, and nearly hull down to leeward. "I see, I see. What a strange +coincidence. It is really wonderful!" + +"It is, my darling," said I. "But it was more extraordinary still that +you should have seen me that memorable evening, now more than seven +years ago, and when I too saw the _Saint Pierre_ with you on her deck, +and more wonderful still, when the captain and some of the crew even to +_this_ day insist we were actually several hundreds of miles apart!" + +"Ah, but you are near me now, though, thank God!" she cried, looking up +into my face with the most charming expression of delight, causing me to +be foolish in bestowing another little kiss on her upturned face. "I +don't know how it was, but whether the ships were as far apart as the +captain and the others say, or whether they were not, I did see your +ship and you on her, as I told my dear, dear father at the time, and he +himself did not believe it. Dick, dear, it must have been the gift of +`second sight,' as the Scotch people call it. There was a nun at the +convent who had it, and could tell, so she said, when anything was about +to happen to any of her family, though she couldn't predict events +concerning persons who were not `blood relations,' as she termed them. +Don't be frightened, Dick, but I do think that I must really possess the +same faculty!" + +"Well, if that is the case, sweetheart," said I, "there must be some +psychological affinity between us, and we are both endowed with the same +weird gift, although the possession of the same has never been brought +to the knowledge of us except on that one memorable occasion. That +cannot be otherwise explained; but the fact of the two ships meeting +afterwards may very readily be accounted for under the circumstances. +The winds and currents of the ocean drifted them together, like as they +did us, dear. Don't you think so?" + +She did not answer for a moment, and, as our steamer speeded on her way, +the glow in the sky gradually faded and darkness crept over the face of +the sea, the flashing light of Ushant whirling its luminous arms round +in rapid rotation, like some spectral windmill, away in the distance +over our lee, where the French ship had long since disappeared. + +Presently my Elsie, who had been looking down into the now gloomy depths +alongside, musing over the bitter-sweet memories of the past, lifted her +eyes to mine, glancing heavenwards. + +"No, Dick, my dearest," said she, speaking at last, a certain hesitation +and catch in her throat and a tear in the broken intonation of her +voice, "Dick, I've been thinking and--and--it was a power greater than +that of the winds and seas that brought us together. It was God!" + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ghost Ship, by John C. 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