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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jack Tier or The Florida Reef
+by James Fenimore Cooper
+(#10 in our series by James Fenimore Cooper)
+
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+
+Title: Jack Tier or The Florida Reef
+
+Author: James Fenimore Cooper
+
+Release Date: December, 2003  [EBook #4796]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on March 22, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, JACK TIER OR THE FLORIDA REEF ***
+
+
+
+
+Edited by Charles Aldarondo (aldarondo@yahoo.com)
+
+
+
+JACK TIER;
+
+OR
+
+THE FLORIDA REEF.
+
+BY THE AUTHOR OF
+"THE PILOT," "RED ROVER," "TWO ADMIRALS," "WING AND
+WING," "MILES WALLINGFORD," ETC.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+
+
+
+This work has already appeared in Graham's Magazine, under the title
+of "Rose Budd." The change of name is solely the act of the author,
+and arises from a conviction that the appellation given in this
+publication is more appropriate than the one laid aside. The
+necessity of writing to a name, instead of getting it from the
+incidents of the book itself, has been the cause of this departure
+from the ordinary rules.
+
+When this book was commenced, it was generally supposed that the
+Mexican war would end, after a few months of hostilities. Such was
+never the opinion of the writer. He has ever looked forward to a
+protracted struggle; and, now that Congress has begun to interfere,
+sees as little probability of its termination, as on the day it
+commenced. Whence honourable gentlemen have derived their notions of
+the constitution, when they advance the doctrine that Congress is an
+American Aulic council, empowered to encumber the movements of
+armies, and, as old Blucher expressed it in reference to the
+diplomacy of Europe, "to spoil with the pen the work achieved by the
+sword," it is difficult to say more than this, that they do not get
+them from the constitution itself. It has generally been supposed
+that the present executive was created in order to avoid the very
+evils of a distracted and divided council, which this new
+construction has a direct tendency to revive. But a presidential
+election has ever proved, and probably will ever prove, stronger
+than any written fundamental law.
+
+We have had occasion to refer often to Mexico in these pages. It has
+been our aim to do so in a kind spirit; for, while we have never
+doubted that the factions which have possessed themselves of the
+government in that country have done us great wrong, wrong that
+would have justified a much earlier appeal to arms, we have always
+regarded the class of Mexicans who alone can properly be termed the
+`people,' as mild, amiable, and disposed to be on friendly terms
+with us. Providence, however, directs all to the completion of its
+own wise ends. If the crust which has so long encircled that nation,
+enclosing it in bigotry and ignorance, shall now be irretrievably
+broken, letting in light, even Mexico herself may have cause
+hereafter to rejoice in her present disasters. It was in this way
+that Italy has been, in a manner, regenerated; the conquests of the
+French carrying in their train the means and agencies which have, at
+length, aroused that glorious portion of the earth to some of its
+ancient spirit. Mexico, in certain senses, is the Italy of this
+continent; and war, however ruthless and much to be deplored, may
+yet confer on her the inestimable blessings of real liberty, and a
+religion released from "feux d'artifice," as well as all other
+artifices.
+
+A word on the facts of our legend. The attentive observer of men and
+things has many occasions to note the manner in which ordinary
+lookers on deceive themselves, as well as others. The species of
+treason portrayed in these pages is no uncommon occurrence; and it
+will often be found that the traitor is the loudest in his
+protestations of patriotism. It is a pretty safe rule to suspect the
+man of hypocrisy who makes a parade of his religion, and the
+partisan of corruption and selfishness, who is clamorous about the
+rights of the people. Captain Spike was altogether above the first
+vice; though fairly on level, as respects the second, with divers
+patriots who live by their deity.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Pros.
+
+ Why, that's my spirit!
+But was not this nigh shore?
+
+Ariel.
+
+ Close by, my master.
+
+Pros.
+
+ But are they, Ariel, safe?
+
+Ariel.
+
+ Not a hair perished:
+
+Tempest.
+
+
+
+
+"D'ye here there, Mr. Mulford?" called out Capt. Stephen Spike, of
+the half-rigged, brigantine Swash, or Molly Swash, as was her
+registered name, to his mate--"we shall be dropping out as soon as
+the tide makes, and I intend to get through the Gate, at least, on
+the next flood. Waiting for a wind in port is lubberly seamanship,
+for he that wants one should go outside and look for it."
+
+This call was uttered from a wharf of the renowned city of
+Manhattan, to one who was in the trunk-cabin of a clipper-looking
+craft, of the name mentioned, and on the deck of which not a soul
+was visible. Nor was the wharf, though one of those wooden piers
+that line the arm of the sea that is called the East River, such a
+spot as ordinarily presents itself to the mind of the reader, or
+listener, when an allusion is made to a wharf of that town which it
+is the fashion of the times to call the Commercial Emporium of
+America--as if there might very well be an emporium of any other
+character. The wharf in question had not a single vessel of any sort
+lying at, or indeed very near it, with the exception of the Molly
+Swash. As it actually stood on the eastern side of the town, it is
+scarcely necessary to say that such a wharf could only be found high
+up, and at a considerable distance from the usual haunts of
+commerce. The brig lay more than a mile above the Hook (Corlaer's,
+of course, is meant--not Sandy Hook) and quite near to the old Alms
+House--far above the ship-yards, in fact. It was a solitary place
+for a vessel, in the midst of a crowd. The grum top-chain voice of
+Captain Spike had nothing there to mingle with, or interrupt its
+harsh tones, and it instantly brought on deck Harry Mulford, the
+mate in question, apparently eager to receive his orders.
+
+"Did you hail, Captain Spike?" called out the mate, a tight,
+well-grown, straight-built, handsome sailor-lad of two or
+three-and-twenty--one full of health, strength and manliness.
+
+"Hail! If you call straining a man's throat until he's hoarse,
+hailing, I believe I did. I flatter myself, there is not a man north
+of Hatteras that can make himself heard further in gale of wind than
+a certain gentleman who is to be found within a foot of the spot
+where I stand. Yet, sir, I've been hailing the Swash these five
+minutes, and thankful am I to find some one at last who is on board
+to answer me."
+
+"What are your orders, Capt. Spike?"
+
+"To see all clear for a start as soon as the flood makes. I shall go
+through the Gate on the next young flood, and I hope you'll have all
+the hands aboard in time. I see two or three of them up at that
+Dutch beer-house, this moment, and can tell'em; in plain language,
+if they come here with their beer aboard them, they'll have to go
+ashore again."
+
+"You have an uncommonly sober crew, Capt. Spike," answered the young
+man, with great calmness. "During the whole time I have been with
+them, I have not seen a man among them the least in the wind."
+
+"Well, I hope it will turn out that I've an uncommonly sober mate in
+the bargain. Drunkenness I abominate, Mr. Mulford, and I can tell
+you, short metre, that I will not stand it."
+
+"May I inquire if you ever saw me, the least in the world, under the
+influence of liquor, Capt. Spike?" demanded the mate, rather than
+asked, with a very fixed meaning in his manner.
+
+"I keep no log-book of trifles, Mr. Mulford, and cannot say. No man
+is the worse for bowsing out his jib when off duty, though a
+drunkard's a thing I despise. Well, well--remember, sir, that the
+Molly Swash casts off on the young flood, and that Rose Budd and the
+good lady, her aunt, take passage in her, this v'y'ge."
+
+"Is it possible that you have persuaded them into that, at last!"
+exclaimed the handsome mate.
+
+"Persuaded! It takes no great persuasion, sir, to get the ladies to
+try their luck in that brig. Lady Washington herself, if she was
+alive and disposed to a sea-v'y'ge, might be glad of the chance.
+We've a ladies' cabin, you know, and it's suitable that it should
+have some one to occupy it. Old Mrs. Budd is a sensible woman, and
+takes time by the forelock. Rose is ailin'--pulmonary they call it,
+I believe, and her aunt wishes to try the sea for her
+constitution--"
+
+"Rose Budd has no more of a pulmonary constitution than I have
+myself," interrupted the mate.
+
+"Well, that's as people fancy. You must know, Mr. Mulford, they've
+got all sorts of diseases now-a-days, and all sorts of cures for'em.
+One sort of a cure for consumption is what they tarm the
+Hyder-Ally--"
+
+"I think you must mean hydropathy, sir--"
+
+"Well it's something of the sort, no matter what--but cold water is
+at the bottom of it, and they do say it's a good remedy. Now Rose's
+aunt thinks if cold water is what is wanted, there is no place where
+it can be so plenty as out on the ocean. Sea-air is good, too, and
+by taking a v'y'ge her niece will get both requisites together, and
+cheap."
+
+"Does Rose Budd think herself consumptive, Capt. Spike?" asked
+Mulford, with interest.
+
+"Not she--you know it will never do to alarm a pulmonary, so Mrs.
+Budd has held her tongue carefully on the subject before the young
+woman. Rose fancies that her aunt is out of sorts, and that the
+v'y'ge is tried on her account--but the aunt, the cunning thing,
+knows all about it."
+
+Mulford almost nauseated the expression of his commander's
+countenance while Spike uttered the last words. At no time was that
+countenance very inviting, the features being coarse and vulgar,
+while the color of the entire face was of an ambiguous red, in which
+liquor and the seasons would seem to be blended in very equal
+quantities. Such a countenance, lighted up by a gleam of successful
+management, not to say with hopes and wishes that it will hardly do
+to dwell on, could not but be revolting to a youth of Harry
+Mulford's generous feelings, and most of all to one who entertained
+the sentiments which he was quite conscious of entertaining for Rose
+Budd. The young man made no reply, but turned his face toward the
+water, in order to conceal the expression of disgust that he was
+sensible must be strongly depicted on it.
+
+The river, as the well-known arm of the sea in which the Swash was
+lying is erroneously termed, was just at that moment unusually clear
+of craft, and not a sail, larger than that of a boat, was to be seen
+between the end of Blackwell's Island and Corlaer's Hook, a distance
+of about a league. This stagnation in the movement of the port, at
+that particular point, was owing to the state of wind and tide. Of
+the first, there was little more than a southerly air, while the
+last was about two-thirds ebb. Nearly everything that was expected
+on that tide, coast-wise, and by the way of the Sound, had already
+arrived, and nothing could go eastward, with that light breeze and
+under canvas, until the flood made. Of course it was different with
+the steamers, who were paddling about like so many ducks, steering
+in all directions, though mostly crossing and re-crossing at the
+ferries. Just as Mulford turned away from his commander, however, a
+large vessel of that class shoved her bows into the view, doubling
+the Hook, and going eastward. The first glance at this vessel
+sufficed to drive even Rose Budd momentarily out of the minds of
+both master and mate, and to give a new current to their thoughts.
+Spike had been on the point of walking up the wharf, but he now so
+far changed his purpose as actually to jump on board of the brig and
+spring up alongside of his mate, on the taffrail, in order to get a
+better look at the steamer. Mulford, who loathed so much in his
+commander, was actually glad of this, Spike's rare merit as a seaman
+forming a sort of attraction that held him, as it might be against
+his own will, bound to his service.
+
+"What will they do next, Harry?" exclaimed the master, his manner
+and voice actually humanized, in air and sound at least, by this
+unexpected view of something new in his calling--"What will they do
+next?"
+
+"I see no wheels, sir, nor any movement in the water astern, as if
+she were a propeller," returned the young man.
+
+"She's an out-of-the-way sort of a hussy! She's a man-of-war,
+too--one of Uncle Sam's new efforts."
+
+"That can hardly be, sir. Uncle Sam has but three steamers, of any
+size or force, now the Missouri is burned; and yonder is one of
+them, lying at the Navy Yard, while another is, or was lately, laid
+up at Boston. The third is in the Gulf. This must be an entirely new
+vessel, if she belong to Uncle Sam."
+
+"New! She's as new as a Governor, and they tell me they've got so
+now that they choose five or six of them, up at Albany, every fall.
+That craft is sea-going, Mr. Mulford, as any one can tell at a
+glance. She's none of your passenger-hoys."
+
+"That's plain enough, sir--and she's armed. Perhaps she's English,
+and they've brought her here into this open spot to try some new
+machinery. Ay, ay! she's about to set her ensign to the navy men at
+the yard, and we shall see to whom she belongs."
+
+A long, low, expressive whistle from Spike succeeded this remark,
+the colours of the steamer going up to the end of a gaff on the
+sternmost of her schooner-rigged masts, just as Mulford ceased
+speaking. There was just air enough, aided by the steamer's motion,
+to open the bunting, and let the spectators see the design. There
+were the stars and stripes, as usual, but the last ran
+perpendicularly, instead of in a horizontal direction.
+
+"Revenue, by George!" exclaimed the master, as soon as his breath
+was exhausted in the whistle. "Who would have believed they could
+screw themselves up to doing such a thing in that bloody service?"
+
+"I now remember to have heard that Uncle Sam was building some large
+steamers for the revenue service, and, if I mistake not, with some
+new invention to get along with, that is neither wheel nor
+propeller. This must be one of these new craft, brought out here,
+into open water, just to try her, sir."
+
+"You're right, sir, you're right. As to the natur' of the beast, you
+see her buntin', and no honest man can want more. If there's
+anything I do hate, it is that flag, with its unnat'ral stripes, up
+and down, instead of running in the true old way. I have heard a
+lawyer say, that the revenue flag of this country is
+onconstitutional, and that a vessel carrying it on the high seas
+might be sent in for piracy."
+
+Although Harry Mulford was neither Puffendorf, nor Grotius, he had
+too much common sense, and too little prejudice in favour of even
+his own vocation, to swallow such a theory, had fifty Cherry Street
+lawyers sworn to its justice. A smile crossed his fine, firm-looking
+mouth, and something very like a reflection of that smile, if smiles
+can be reflected in one's own countenance, gleamed in his fine,
+large, dark eye.
+
+"It would be somewhat singular, Capt, Spike," he said, "if a vessel
+belonging to any nation should be seized as a pirate. The fact that
+she is national in character would clear her."
+
+"Then let her carry a national flag, and be d--d to her," answered
+Spike fiercely. "I can show you law for what I say, Mr. Mulford. The
+American flag has its stripes fore and aft by law, and this chap
+carries his stripes parpendic'lar. If I commanded a cruiser, and
+fell in with one of these up and down gentry, blast me if I wouldn't
+just send him into port, and try the question in the old
+Alms-House."
+
+Mulford probably did not think it worth while to argue the point any
+further, understanding the dogmatism and stolidity of his commander
+too well to deem it necessary. He preferred to turn to the
+consideration of the qualities of the steamer in sight, a subject on
+which, as seamen, they might better sympathize.
+
+"That's a droll-looking revenue cutter, after all, Capt. Spike," he
+said--"a craft better fitted to go in a fleet, as a look-out vessel,
+than to chase a smuggler in-shore."
+
+"And no goer in the bargain! I do not see how she gets along, for
+she keeps all snug under water; but, unless she can travel faster
+than she does just now, the Molly Swash would soon lend her the
+Mother Carey's Chickens of her own wake to amuse her."
+
+"She has the tide against her, just here, sir; no doubt she would do
+better in still water."
+
+Spike muttered something between his teeth, and jumped down on deck,
+seemingly dismissing the subject of the revenue entirely from his
+mind. His old, coarse, authoritative manner returned, and he again
+spoke to his mate about Rose Budd, her aunt, the "ladies' cabin,"
+the "young flood," and "casting off," as soon as the last made.
+Mulford listened respectfully, though with a manifest distaste for
+the instructions he was receiving. He knew his man, and a feeling of
+dark distrust came over him, as he listened to his orders concerning
+the famous accommodations he intended to give to Rose Budd and that
+"capital old lady, her aunt;" his opinion of "the immense deal of
+good sea-air and a v'y'ge would do Rose," and how "comfortable they
+both would be on board the Molly Swash."
+
+"I honour and respect, Mrs. Budd, as my captain's lady, you see, Mr.
+Mulford, and intend to treat her accordin'ly. She knows it--and Rose
+knows it--and they both declare they'd rather sail with me, since
+sail they must, than with any other ship-master out of America."
+
+"You sailed once with Capt. Budd yourself, I think I have heard you
+say, sir?"
+
+"The old fellow brought me up. I was with him from my tenth to my
+twentieth year, and then broke adrift to see fashions. We all do
+that, you know, Mr. Mulford, when we are young and ambitious, and my
+turn came as well as another's."
+
+"Capt. Budd must have been a good deal older than his wife, sir, if
+you sailed with him when a boy," Mulford observed a little drily.
+
+"Yes; I own to forty-eight, though no one would think me more than
+five or six-and-thirty, to look at me. There was a great difference
+between old Dick Budd and his wife, as you say, he being about
+fifty, when he married, and she less than twenty. Fifty is a good
+age for matrimony, in a man, Mulford; as is twenty in a young
+woman."
+
+"Rose Budd is not yet nineteen, I have heard her say," returned the
+mate, with emphasis.
+
+"Youngish, I will own, but that's a fault a liberal-minded man can
+overlook. Every day, too, will lessen it. Well, look to the cabins,
+and see all clear for a start. Josh will be down presently with a
+cart-load of stores, and you'll take 'em aboard without delay."
+
+As Spike uttered this order, his foot was on the plank-sheer of the
+bulwarks, in the act of passing to the wharf again. On reaching the
+shore, he turned and looked intently at the revenue steamer, and his
+lips moved, as if he were secretly uttering maledictions on her. We
+say maledictions, as the expression of his fierce ill-favoured
+countenance too plainly showed that they could not be blessings. As
+for Mulford, there was still something on his mind, and he followed
+to the gangway ladder and ascended it, waiting for a moment when the
+mind of his commander might be less occupied to speak. The
+opportunity soon occurred, Spike having satisfied himself with the
+second look at the steamer.
+
+"I hope you don't mean to sail again without a second mate, Capt.
+Spike?" he said.
+
+"I do though, I can tell you. I hate Dickies--they are always in the
+way, and the captain has to keep just as much of a watch with one as
+without one."
+
+"That will depend on his quality. You and I have both been Dickies
+in our time, sir; and my time was not long ago."
+
+"Ay--ay--I know all about it--but you didn't stick to it long enough
+to get spoiled. I would have no man aboard the Swash who made more
+than two v'y'ges as second officer. As I want no spies aboard my
+craft, I'll try it once more without a Dicky."
+
+Saying this in a sufficiently positive manner, Capt. Stephen Spike
+rolled up the wharf, much as a ship goes off before the wind, now
+inclining to the right, and then again to the left. The gait of the
+man would have proclaimed him a sea-dog, to any one acquainted with
+that animal, as far as he could be seen. The short squab figure, the
+arms bent nearly at right angles at the elbow, and working like two
+fins with each roll of the body, the stumpy, solid legs, with the
+feet looking in the line of his course and kept wide apart, would
+all have contributed to the making up of such an opinion. Accustomed
+as he was to this beautiful sight, Harry Mulford kept his eyes
+riveted on the retiring person of his commander, until it
+disappeared behind a pile of lumber, waddling always in the
+direction of the more thickly peopled parts of the town. Then he
+turned and gazed at the steamer, which, by this time, had fairly
+passed the brig, and seemed to be actually bound through the Gate.
+That steamer was certainly a noble-looking craft, but our young man
+fancied she struggled along through the water heavily. She might be
+quick at need, but she did not promise as much by her present rate
+of moving. Still, she was a noble-looking craft, and, as Mulford
+descended to the deck again, he almost regretted he did not belong
+to her; or, at least, to anything but the Molly Swash.
+
+Two hours produced a sensible change in and around that brigantine.
+Her people had all come back to duty, and what was very remarkable
+among seafaring folk, sober to a man. But, as has been said, Spike
+was a temperance man, as respects all under his orders at least, if
+not strictly so in practice himself. The crew of the Swash was large
+for a half-rigged brig of only two hundred tons, but, as her spars
+were very square, and all her gear as well as her mould seemed
+constructed for speed, it was probable more hands than common were
+necessary to work her with facility and expedition. After all, there
+were not many persons to be enumerated among the "people of the
+Molly Swash," as they called themselves; not more than a dozen,
+including those aft, as well as those forward. A peculiar feature of
+this crew, however, was the circumstance that they were all
+middle-aged men, with the exception of the mate, and all
+thorough-bred sea-dogs. Even Josh, the cabin-boy, as he was called,
+was an old, wrinkled, gray-headed negro, of near sixty. If the crew
+wanted a little in the elasticity of youth, it possessed the
+steadiness and experience of their time of life, every man appearing
+to know exactly what to do, and when to do it. This, indeed,
+composed their great merit; an advantage that Spike well knew how to
+appreciate.
+
+The stores had been brought alongside of the brig in a cart, and
+were already showed in their places. Josh had brushed and swept,
+until the ladies' cabin could be made no neater. This ladies' cabin
+was a small apartment beneath a trunk, which was, ingeniously
+enough, separated from the main cabin by pantries and double doors.
+The arrangement was unusual, and Spike had several times hinted that
+there was a history connected with that cabin; though what the
+history was Mulford never could induce him to relate. The latter
+knew that the brig had been used for a forced trade on the Spanish
+Main, and had heard something of her deeds in bringing off specie,
+and proscribed persons, at different epochs in the revolutions of
+that part of the world, and he had always understood that her
+present commander and owner had sailed in her, as mate, for many
+years before he had risen to his present station. Now, all was
+regular in the way of records, bills of sale, and other documents;
+Stephen Spike appearing in both the capacities just named. The
+register proved that the brig had been built as far back as the last
+English war, as a private cruiser, but recent and extensive repairs
+had made her "better than new," as her owner insisted, and there was
+no question as to her sea-worthiness. It is true the insurance
+offices blew upon her, and would have nothing to do with a craft
+that had seen her two score years and ten; but this gave none who
+belonged to her any concern, inasmuch as they could scarcely have
+been underwritten in their trade, let the age of the vessel be what
+it might. It was enough for them that the brig was safe and
+exceedingly fast, insurances never saving the lives of the people,
+whatever else might be their advantages. With Mulford it was an
+additional recommendation, that the Swash was usually thought to be
+of uncommonly just proportions.
+
+By half-past two, P. M., everything was ready for getting the
+brigantine under way. Her fore-topsail--or foretawsail as Spike
+called it--was loose, the fasts were singled, and a spring had been
+carried to a post in the wharf, that was well forward of the
+starboard bow, and the brig's head turned to the southwest, or down
+the stream, and consequently facing the young flood. Nothing seemed
+to connect the vessel with the land but a broad gangway plank, to
+which Mulford had attached life-lines, with more care than it is
+usual to meet with on board of vessels employed in short voyages.
+The men stood about the decks with their arms thrust into the bosoms
+of their shirts, and the whole picture was one of silent, and
+possibly of somewhat uneasy expectation. Nothing was said, however;
+Mulford walking the quarter-deck alone, occasionally looking up the
+still little tenanted streets of that quarter of the suburbs, as if
+to search for a carriage. As for the revenue-steamer, she had long
+before gone through the southern passage of Blackwell's, steering
+for the Gate.
+
+"Dat's dem, Mr. Mulford," Josh at length cried, from the look-out he
+had taken in a stern-port, where he could see over the low bulwarks
+of the vessel. "Yes, dat's dem, sir. I know dat old gray horse dat
+carries his head so low and sorrowful like, as a horse has a right
+to do dat has to drag a cab about this big town. My eye! what a
+horse it is, sir!"
+
+Josh was right, not only as to the gray horse that carried his head
+"sorrowful like," but as to the cab and its contents. The vehicle
+was soon on the wharf, and in its door soon appeared the short,
+sturdy figure of Capt. Spike, backing out, much as a bear descends a
+tree. On top of the vehicle were several light articles of female
+appliances, in the shape of bandboxes, bags, &c., the trunks having
+previously arrived in a cart. Well might that over-driven gray horse
+appear sorrowful, and travel with a lowered head. The cab, when it
+gave up its contents, discovered a load of no less than four persons
+besides the driver, all of weight, and of dimensions in proportion,
+with the exception of the pretty and youthful Rose Budd. Even she
+was plump, and of a well-rounded person; though still light and
+slender. But her aunt was a fair picture of a ship-master's widow;
+solid, comfortable and buxom. Neither was she old, nor ugly. On the
+contrary, her years did not exceed forty, and being well preserved,
+in consequence of never having been a mother, she might even have
+passed for thirty-five. The great objection to her appearance was
+the somewhat indefinite character of her shape, which seemed to
+blend too many of its charms into one. The fourth person, in the
+fare, was Biddy Noon, the Irish servant and factotum of Mrs. Budd,
+who was a pock-marked, red-faced, and red-armed single woman, about
+her mistress's own age and weight, though less stout to the eye.
+
+Of Rose we shall not stop to say much here. Her deep-blue eye, which
+was equally spirited and gentle, if one can use such contradictory
+terms, seemed alive with interest and curiosity, running over the
+brig, the wharf, the arm of the sea, the two islands, and all near
+her, including the Alms-House, with such a devouring rapidity as
+might be expected in a town-bred girl, who was setting out on her
+travels for the first time. Let us be understood; we say town-bred,
+because such was the fact; for Rose Budd had been both born and
+educated in Manhattan, though we are far from wishing to be
+understood that she was either very well-born, or highly educated.
+Her station in life may be inferred from that of her aunt, and her
+education from her station. Of the two, the last was, perhaps, a
+trifle the highest.
+
+We have said that the fine blue eye of Rose passed swiftly over the
+various objects near her, as she alighted from the cab, and it
+naturally took in the form of Harry Mulford, as he stood in the
+gangway, offering his arm to aid her aunt and herself in passing the
+brig's side. A smile of recognition was exchanged between the young
+people, as their eyes met, and the colour, which formed so bright a
+charm in Rose's sweet face, deepened, in a way to prove that that
+colour spoke with a tongue and eloquence of its own. Nor was
+Mulford's cheek mute on the occasion, though he helped the
+hesitating, half-doubting, half-bold girl along the plank with a
+steady hand and rigid muscles. As for the aunt, as a captain's
+widow, she had not felt it necessary to betray any extraordinary
+emotions in ascending the plank, unless, indeed, it might be those
+of delight on finding her foot once more on the deck of a vessel!
+
+Something of the same feeling governed Biddy, too, for, as Mulford
+civilly extended his hand to her also, she exclaimed--"No fear of
+me, Mr. Mate--I came from Ireland by wather, and knows all about
+ships and brigs, I do. If you could have seen the times we had, and
+the saas we crossed, you'd not think it nadeful to say much to the
+likes iv me."
+
+Spike had tact enough to understand he would be out of his element
+in assisting females along that plank, and he was busy in sending
+what he called "the old lady's dunnage" on board, and in discharging
+the cabman. As soon as this was done, he sprang into the
+main-channels, and thence vid the bulwarks, on deck, ordering the
+plank to be hauled aboard. A solitary labourer was paid a quarter to
+throw off the fasts from the ring-bolts and posts, and everything
+was instantly in motion to cast the brig loose. Work went on as if
+the vessel were in haste, and it consequently went on with activity.
+Spike bestirred himself, giving his orders in a way to denote he had
+been long accustomed to exercise authority on the deck of a vessel,
+and knew his calling to its minutiae. The only ostensible difference
+between his deportment to-day and on any ordinary occasion, perhaps,
+was in the circumstance that he now seemed anxious to get clear of
+the wharf, and that in a way which might have attracted notice in
+any suspicious and attentive observer. It is possible that such a
+one was not very distant, and that Spike was aware of his presence,
+for a respectable-looking, well-dressed, middle-aged man had come
+down one of the adjacent streets, to a spot within a hundred yards
+of the wharf, and stood silently watching the movements of the brig,
+as he leaned against a fence. The want of houses in that quarter
+enabled any person to see this stranger from the deck of the Swash,
+but no one on board her seemed to regard him at all, unless it might
+be the master.
+
+"Come, bear a hand, my hearty, and toss that bow-fast clear," cried
+the captain, whose impatience to be off seemed to increase as the
+time to do so approached nearer and nearer. "Off with it, at once,
+and let her go."
+
+The man on the wharf threw the turns of the hawser clear of the
+post, and the Swash was released forward. A smaller line, for a
+spring, had been run some distance along the wharves, ahead of the
+vessel, and brought in aft. Her people clapped on this, and gave way
+to their craft, which, being comparatively light, was easily moved,
+and was very manageable. As this was done, the distant spectator who
+had been leaning on the fence moved toward the wharf with a step a
+little quicker than common. Almost at the same instant, a short,
+stout, sailor-like looking little person, waddled down the nearest
+street, seeming to be in somewhat of a hurry, and presently he
+joined the other stranger, and appeared to enter into conversation
+with him; pointing toward the Swash as he did so. All this time,
+both continued to advance toward the wharf.
+
+In the meanwhile, Spike and his people were not idle. The tide did
+not run very strong near the wharves and in the sort of a bight in
+which the vessel had lain; but, such as it was, it soon took the
+brig on her inner bow, and began to cast her head off shore. The
+people at the spring pulled away with all their force, and got
+sufficient motion on their vessel to overcome the tide, and to give
+the rudder an influence. The latter was put hard a-starboard, and
+helped to cast the brig's head to the southward.
+
+Down to this moment, the only sail that was loose on board the Swash
+was the fore-topsail, as mentioned. This still hung in the gear, but
+a hand had been sent aloft to overhaul the buntlines and clewlines,
+and men were also at the sheets. In a minute the sail was ready for
+hoisting. The Swash carried a wapper of a fore-and-aft mainsail,
+and, what is more, it was fitted with a standing gaff, for
+appearance in port. At sea, Spike knew better than to trust to this
+arrangement; but in fine weather, and close in with the land, he
+found it convenient to have this sail haul out and brail like a
+ship's spanker. As the gaff was now aloft, it was only necessary to
+let go the brails to loosen this broad sheet of canvas, and to clap
+on the out-hauler, to set it. This was probably the reason why the
+brig was so unceremoniously cast into the stream, without showing
+more of her cloth. The jib and flying-jibs, however, did at that
+moment drop beneath their booms, ready for hoisting.
+
+Such was the state of things as the two strangers came first upon
+the wharf. Spike was on the taffrail, overhauling the main-sheet,
+and Mulford was near him, casting the foretopsail braces from the
+pins, preparatory to clapping on the halyards.
+
+"I say, Mr. Mulford," asked the captain, "did you ever see either of
+them chaps afore? These jokers on the wharf, I mean."
+
+"Not to my recollection, sir," answered the mate, looking over the
+taffrail to examine the parties. "The little one is a burster! The
+funniest-looking little fat old fellow I've seen in many a day."
+
+"Ay, ay, them fat little bursters, as you call 'em, are sometimes
+full of the devil. I do n't like either of the chaps, and am right
+glad we are well cast, before they got here."
+
+"I do not think either would be likely to do us much harm, Capt.
+Spike."
+
+"There's no knowing sir. The biggest fellow looks as if he might lug
+out a silver oar at any moment."
+
+"I believe the silver oar is no longer used, in this country at
+least," answered Mulford, smiling. "And if it were, what have we to
+fear from it? I fancy the brig has paid her reckoning."
+
+"She do n't owe a cent, nor ever shall for twenty-four hours after
+the bill is made out, while I own her. They call me ready-money
+Stephen, round among the ship-chandlers and caulkers. But I do n't
+like them chaps, and what I do n't relish I never swallow, you
+know."
+
+"They 'll hardly try to get aboard us, sir; you see we are quite
+clear of the wharf, and the mainsail will take now, if we set it."
+
+Spike ordered the mate to clap on the outhauler, and spread that
+broad sheet of canvas at once to the little breeze there was. This
+was almost immediately done, when the sail filled, and began to be
+felt on the movement of the vessel. Still, that movement was very
+slow, the wind being so light, and the vis inertioe of so large a
+body remaining to be overcome. The brig receded from the wharf,
+almost in a line at right angles to its face, inch by inch, as it
+might be, dropping slowly up with the tide at the same time. Mulford
+now passed forward to set the jibs, and to get the topsail on the
+craft, leaving Spike on the taffrail, keenly eyeing the strangers,
+who, by this time, had got down nearly to the end of the wharf, at
+the berth so lately occupied by the Swash. That the captain was
+uneasy was evident enough, that feeling being exhibited in his
+countenance, blended with a malignant ferocity.
+
+"Has that brig any pilot?" asked the larger and better-looking of
+the two strangers.
+
+"What's that to you, friend?" demanded Spike, in return. "Have you a
+Hell-Gate branch?"
+
+"I may have one, or I may not. It is not usual for so large a craft
+to run the Gate without a pilot."
+
+"Oh! my gentleman's below, brushing up his logarithms. We shall have
+him on deck to take his departure before long, when I'll let him
+know your kind inquiries after his health."
+
+The man on the wharf seemed to be familiar with this sort of
+sea-wit, and he made no answer, but continued that close scrutiny of
+the brig, by turning his eyes in all directions, now looking below,
+and now aloft, which had in truth occasioned Spike's principal cause
+for uneasiness.
+
+"Is not that Capt. Stephen Spike, of the brigantine Molly Swash?"
+called out the little, dumpling-looking person, in a cracked,
+dwarfish sort of a voice, that was admirably adapted to his
+appearance. Our captain fairly started; turned full toward the
+speaker; regarded him intently for a moment; and gulped the words he
+was about to utter, like one confounded. As he gazed, however, at
+little dumpy, examining his bow-legs, red broad cheeks, and coarse
+snub nose, he seemed to regain his self-command, as if satisfied the
+dead had not really returned to life.
+
+"Are you acquainted with the gentleman you have named?" he asked, by
+way of answer. "You speak of him like one who ought to know him."
+
+"A body is apt to know a shipmate. Stephen Spike and I sailed
+together twenty years since, and I hope to live to sail with him
+again."
+
+"You sail with Stephen Spike? when and where, may I ask, and in what
+v'y'ge, pray?"
+
+"The last time was twenty years since. Have you forgotten little
+Jack Tier, Capt. Spike?"
+
+Spike looked astonished, and well he might, for he had supposed Jack
+to be dead fully fifteen years. Time and hard service had greatly
+altered him, but the general resemblance in figure, stature, and
+waddle, certainly remained. Notwithstanding, the Jack Tier that
+Spike remembered was quite a different person from this Jack Tier.
+That Jack had worn his intensely black hair clubbed and curled,
+whereas this Jack had cut his locks into short bristles, which time
+had turned into an intense gray. That Jack was short and thick, but
+he was flat and square; whereas this Jack was just as short, a good
+deal thicker, and as round as a dumpling. In one thing, however, the
+likeness still remained perfect. Both Jacks chewed tobacco, to a
+degree that became a distinct feature in their appearance.
+
+Spike had many reasons for wishing Jack Tier were not resuscitated
+in this extraordinary manner, and some for being glad to see him.
+The fellow had once been largely in his confidence, and knew more
+than was quite safe for any one to remember but himself, while he
+might be of great use to him in his future, operations. It is always
+convenient to have one at your elbow who thoroughly understands you,
+and Spike would have lowered a boat and sent it to the wharf to
+bring Jack off, were it not for the gentleman who was so inquisitive
+about pilots. Under the circumstances, he determined to forego the
+advantages of Jack's presence, reserving the right to hunt him up on
+his return.
+
+The reader will readily enough comprehend, that the Molly Swash was
+not absolutely standing still while the dialogue related was going
+on, and the thoughts we have recorded were passing through her
+master's mind. On the contrary, she was not only in motion, but that
+motion was gradually increasing, and by the time all was said that
+has been related, it had become necessary for those who spoke to
+raise their voices to an inconvenient pitch in order to be heard.
+This circumstance alone would soon have put an end to the
+conversation, had not Spike's pausing to reflect brought about the
+same result, as mentioned.
+
+In the mean time, Mulford had got the canvas spread. Forward, the
+Swash showed all the cloth of a full-rigged brig, even to royals and
+flying jib; while aft, her mast was the raking, tall, naked pole of
+an American schooner. There was a taunt topmast, too, to which a
+gaff-topsail was set, and the gear proved that she could also show,
+at need, a staysail in this part of her, if necessary. As the Gate
+was before them, however, the people had set none but the plain,
+manageable canvas.
+
+The Molly Swash kept close on a wind, luffing athwar the broad reach
+she was in, until far enough to weather Blackwell's, when she edged
+off to her course, and went through the southern passage. Although
+the wind remained light, and a little baffling, the brig was so
+easily impelled, and was so very handy, that there was no difficulty
+in keeping her perfectly in command. The tide, too, was fast
+increasing in strength and volocity, and the movement from this
+cause alone was getting to be sufficiently rapid.
+
+As for the passengers, of whom we have lost sight in order to get
+the brig under way, they were now on deck again. At first, they had
+all gone below, under the care of Josh, a somewhat rough groom of
+the chambers, to take possession of their apartment, a sufficiently
+neat, and exceedingly comfortable cabin, supplied with everything
+that could be wanted at sea, and, what was more, lined on two of its
+sides with state-rooms. It is true, all these apartments were small,
+and the state-rooms were very low, but no fault could be found with
+their neatness and general arrangements, when it was recollected
+that one was on board a vessel.
+
+"Here ebbery t'ing heart can wish," said Josh, exultingly, who,
+being an old-school black, did not disdain to use some of the
+old-school dialect of his caste. "Yes, ladies, ebbery t'ing. Let
+Cap'n Spike alone for dat! He won'erful at accommodation! Not a
+bed-bug aft--know better dan come here; jest like de people, in dat
+respects, and keep deir place forrard. You nebber see a pig come on
+de quarter-deck, nudder."
+
+"You must maintain excellent discipline, Josh," cried Rose, in one
+of the sweetest voices in the world, which was easily attuned to
+merriment--"and we are delighted to learn what you tell us. How do
+you manage to keep up these distinctions, and make such creatures
+know their places so well?"
+
+"Nuttin easier, if you begin right, miss. As for de pig, I teach dem
+wid scaldin' water. Wheneber I sees a pig come aft, I gets a little
+water from de copper, and just scald him wid it. You can't t'ink,
+miss, how dat mend his manners, and make him squeel fuss, and t'ink
+arter. In dat fashion I soon get de ole ones in good trainin', and
+den I has no more trouble with dem as comes fresh aboard; for de ole
+hog tell de young one, and 'em won'erful cunnin', and know how to
+take care of 'emself."
+
+Rose Budd's sweet eyes were full of fun and expectation, and she
+could no more repress her laugh than youth and spirits can always be
+discreet.
+
+"Yes, with the pigs," she cried, "that might do very well; but how
+is it with those--other creatures?"
+
+"Rosy, dear," interrupted the aunt, "I wish you would say no more
+about such shocking things. It's enough for us that Capt. Spike has
+ordered them all to stay forward among the men, which is always done
+on board well disciplined vessels. I've heard your uncle say, a
+hundred times, that the quarter-deck was sacred, and that might be
+enough to keep such animals off it."
+
+It was barely necessary to look at Mrs. Budd in the face to get a
+very accurate general notion of her character. She was one of those
+inane, uncultivated beings who seem to be protected by a benevolent
+Providence in their pilgrimage on earth, for they do not seem to
+possess the power to protect themselves. Her very countenance
+expressed imbecility and mental dependence, credulity and a love of
+gossip. Notwithstanding these radical weaknesses, the good woman had
+some of the better instincts of her sex, and was never guilty of
+anything that could properly convey reproach.
+
+She was no monitress for Rose, however, the niece much oftener
+influencing the aunt, than the aunt influencing the niece. The
+latter had been fortunate in having had an excellent instructress,
+who, though incapable of teaching her much in the way of
+accomplishments, had imparted a great deal that was respectable and
+useful. Rose had character, and strong character, too, as the course
+of our narrative will show; but her worthy aunt was a pure picture
+of as much mental imbecility as at all comported with the privileges
+of self-government.
+
+The conversation about "those other creatures" was effectually
+checked by Mrs. Budd's horror of the "animals," and Josh was called
+on deck so shortly after as to prevent its being renewed. The
+females staid below a few minutes, to take possession, and then they
+re-appeared on deck, to gaze at the horrors of the Hell Gate
+passage. Rose was all eyes, wonder and admiration of everything she
+saw. This was actually the first time she had ever been on the
+water, in any sort of craft, though born and brought up in sight of
+one of the most thronged havens in the world. But there must be a
+beginning to everything, and this was Rose Budd's beginning on the
+water. It is true the brigantine was a very beautiful, as well as an
+exceedingly swift vessel; but all this was lost on Rose, who would
+have admired a horse-jockey bound to the West Indies, in this the
+incipient state of her nautical knowledge. Perhaps the exquisite
+neatness that Mulford maintained about everything that came under
+his care, and that included everything on deck, or above-board, and
+about which neatness Spike occasionally muttered an oath, as so much
+senseless trouble, contributed somewhat to Rose's pleasure; but her
+admiration would scarcely have been less with anything that had
+sails, and seemed to move through the water with a power approaching
+that of volition.
+
+It was very different with Mrs. Budd, She, good woman, had actually
+made one voyage with her late husband, and she fancied that she knew
+all about a vessel. It was her delight to talk on nautical subjects,
+and never did she really feel her great superiority over her niece,
+so very unequivocally, as when the subject of the ocean was
+introduced, about which she did know something, and touching which
+Rose was profoundly ignorant, or as ignorant as a girl of lively
+imagination could remain with the information gleaned from others.
+
+"I am not surprised you are astonished at the sight of the vessel,
+Rosy," observed the self-complacent aunt at one of her niece's
+exclamations of admiration. "A vessel is a very wonderful thing, and
+we are told what extr'orny beings they are that `go down to the sea
+in ships.' But you are to know this is not a ship at all, but only a
+half-jigger rigged, which is altogether a different thing."
+
+"Was my uncle's vessel, The Rose In Bloom, then, very different from
+the Swash?"
+
+"Very different indeed, child! Why, The Rose In Bloom was a
+full-jiggered ship, and had twelve masts--and this is only a
+half-jiggered brig, and has but two masts. See, you may count
+them--one--two!"
+
+Harry Mulford was coiling away a top-gallant-brace, directly in
+front of Mrs. Budd and Rose, and, at hearing this account of the
+wonderful equipment of The Rose In Bloom, he suddenly looked up,
+with a lurking expression about his eye that the niece very well
+comprehended, while he exclaimed, without much reflection, under the
+impulse of surprise--"Twelve masts! Did I understand you to say,
+ma'am, that Capt. Budd's ship had twelve masts?"
+
+"Yes, sir, twelve! and I can tell you all their names, for I learnt
+them by heart--it appearing to me proper that a ship-master's wife
+should know the names of all the masts in her husband's vessel. Do
+you wish to hear their names, Mr. Mulford?"
+
+Harry Mulford would have enjoyed this conversation to the top of his
+bent, had it not been for Rose. She well knew her aunt's general
+weakness of intellect, and especially its weakness on this
+particular subject, but she would suffer no one to manifest contempt
+for either, if in her power to prevent it. It is seldom one so
+young, so mirthful, so ingenuous and innocent in the expression of
+her countenance, assumed so significant and rebuking a frown as did
+pretty Rose Budd when she heard the mate's involuntary exclamation
+about the "twelve masts." Harry, who was not easily checked by his
+equals, or any of his own sex, submitted to that rebuking frown with
+the meekness of a child, and stammered out, in answer to the
+well-meaning, but weak-minded widow's question--"If you please,
+Mrs. Budd--just as you please, ma'am--only twelve is a good many
+masts--" Rose frowned again--"that is--more than I'm used to
+seeing--that's all."
+
+"I dare say, Mr. Mulford--for you sail in only a half-jigger; but
+Capt. Budd always sailed in a full-jigger--and his full-jiggered
+ship had just twelve masts, and, to prove it to you, I'll give you
+the names--first then, there were the fore, main, and mizen masts--"
+
+"Yes--yes--ma'am," stammered Harry, who wished the twelve masts and
+The Rose In Bloom at the bottom of the ocean, since her owner's
+niece still continued to look coldly displeased--"that's right, I
+can swear!"
+
+"Very true, sir, and you'll find I am right as to all the rest.
+Then, there were the fore, main, and mizen top-masts--they make six,
+if I can count, Mr. Mulford?"
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed the mate, laughing, in spite of Rose's frowns, as
+the manner in which the old sea-dog had quizzed his wife became
+apparent to him. "I see how it is--you are quite right, ma'am--I
+dare say The Rose In Bloom had all these masts, and some to spare."
+
+"Yes, sir--I knew you would be satisfied. The fore, main and mizen
+top-gallant-masts make nine--and the fore, main and mizen royals
+make just twelve. Oh, I'm never wrong in anything about a vessel,
+especially if she is a full-jiggered ship."
+
+Mulford had some difficulty in restraining his smiles each time the
+full-jigger was mentioned, but Rose's expression of countenance kept
+him in excellent order--and she, innocent creature, saw nothing
+ridiculous in the term, though the twelve masts had given her a
+little alarm. Delighted that the old lady had got through her
+enumeration of the spars with so much success, Rose cried, in the
+exuberance of her spirits--"Well, aunty, for my part, I find a
+half-jigger vessel, so very, very beautiful, that I do not know how
+I should behave were I to go on board a full-jigger."
+
+Mulford turned abruptly away, the circumstance of Rose's making
+herself ridiculous giving him sudden pain, though he could have
+laughed at her aunt by the hour.
+
+"Ah, my dear, that is on account of your youth and inexperience--but
+you will learn better in time. I was just so, myself, when I was of
+your age, and thought the fore-rafters were as handsome as the
+squared-jiggers, but soon after I married Capt. Budd I felt the
+necessity of knowing more than I did about ships, and I got him to
+teach me. He did n't like the business, at first, and pretended I
+would never learn; but, at last, it came all at once like, and then
+he used to be delighted to hear me `talk ship,' as he called it.
+I've known him laugh, with his cronies, as if ready to die, at my
+expertness in sea-terms, for half an hour together--and then he
+would swear--that was the worst fault your uncle had, Rosy--he would
+swear, sometimes, in a way that frightened me, I do declare!"
+
+"But he never swore at you, aunty?"
+
+"I can't say that he did exactly do that, but he would swear all
+round me, even if he did n't actually touch me, when things went
+wrong--but it would have done your heart good to hear him laugh! he
+had a most excellent heart, just like your own, Rosy dear; but, for
+that matter, all the Budds have excellent hearts, and one of the
+commonest ways your uncle had of showing it was to laugh,
+particularly when we were together and talking. Oh, he used to
+delight in hearing me converse, especially about vessels, and never
+failed to get me at it when he had company. I see his good-natured,
+excellent-hearted countenance at this moment, with the tears running
+down his fat, manly cheeks, as he shook his very sides with
+laughter. I may live a hundred years, Rosy, before I meet again with
+your uncle's equal."
+
+This was a subject that invariably silenced Rose. She remembered her
+uncle, herself, and remembered his affectionate manner of laughing
+at her aunt, and she always wished the latter to get through her
+eulogiums on her married happiness, as soon as possible, whenever
+the subject was introduced.
+
+All this time the Molly Swash kept in motion. Spike never took a
+pilot when he could avoid it, and his mind was too much occupied
+with his duty, in that critical navigation, to share at all in the
+conversation of his passengers, though he did endeavour to make
+himself agreeable to Rose, by an occasional remark, when a
+favourable opportunity offered.
+
+As soon as he had worked his brig over into the south or weather
+passage of Blackwell's, however, there remained little for him to
+do, until she had drifted through it, a distance of a mile or more;
+and this gave him leisure to do the honours. He pointed out the
+castellated edifice on Blackwell's as the new penitentiary, and the
+hamlet of villas, on the other shore, as Ravenswood, though there is
+neither wood nor ravens to authorize the name. But the "Sunswick,"
+which satisfied the Delafields and Gibbses of the olden, time, and
+which distinguished their lofty halls and broad lawns, was not
+elegant enough for the cockney tastes of these latter days, so
+"wood" must be made to usurp the place of cherries and apples, and
+"ravens" that of gulls, in order to satisfy its cravings. But all
+this was lost on Spike. He remembered the shore as it had been
+twenty years before, and he saw what it was now, but little did he
+care for the change. On the whole, he rather preferred the Grecian
+Temples, over which the ravens would have been compelled to fly, had
+there been any ravens in that neighbourhood, to the old-fashioned
+and highly respectable residence that once alone occupied the spot.
+The point he did understand, however, and on the merits of which he
+had something to say, was a little farther ahead. That, too, had
+been re-christened--the Hallet's Cove of the mariner being converted
+into Astoria--not that bloody-minded place at the mouth of the
+Oregon, which has come so near bringing us to blows with our
+"ancestors in England," as the worthy denizens of that quarter
+choose to consider themselves still, if one can judge by their
+language. This Astoria was a very different place, and is one of the
+many suburban villages that are shooting up, like mushrooms in a
+night, around the great Commercial Emporium. This spot Spike
+understood perfectly, and it was not likely that he should pass it
+without communicating a portion of his knowledge to Rose.
+
+"There, Miss Rose," he said, with a didactic sort of air, pointing
+with his short, thick finger at the little bay which was just
+opening to their view; "there's as neat a cove as a craft need bring
+up in. That used to be a capital place to lie in, to wait for a wind
+to pass the Gate; but it has got to be most too public for my taste.
+I'm rural, I tell Mulford, and love to get in out-of-the-way berths
+with my brig, where she can see salt-meadows, and smell the clover.
+You never catch me down in any of the crowded slips, around the
+markets, or anywhere in that part of the town, for I do love country
+air. That's Hallet's Cove, Miss Rose, and a pretty anchorage it
+would be for us, if the wind and tide didn't sarve to take us
+through the Gate."
+
+"Are we near the Gate, Capt. Spike?" asked Rose, the fine bloom on
+her cheek lessening a little, under the apprehension that formidable
+name is apt to awaken in the breasts of the inexperienced.
+
+"Half a mile, or so. It begins just at the other end of this island
+on our larboard hand, and will be all over in about another half
+mile, or so. It's no such bad place, a'ter all, is Hell-Gate, to
+them that's used to it. I call myself a pilot in Hell-Gate, though I
+have no branch."
+
+"I wish, Capt. Spike, I could teach you to give that place its
+proper and polite name. We call it Whirl-Gate altogether now," said
+the relict.
+
+"Well, that's new to me," cried Spike. "I have heard some
+chicken-mouthed folk say Hurl-Gate, but this is the first time I
+ever heard it called Whirl-Gate--they'll get it to Whirligig-Gate
+next. I do n't think that my old commander, Capt. Budd, called the
+passage anything but honest up and down Hell-Gate."
+
+"That he did--that he did--and all my arguments and reading could
+not teach him any better. I proved to him that it was Whirl-Gate, as
+any one can see that it ought to be. It is full of whirlpools, they
+say, and that shows what Nature meant the name to be."
+
+"But, aunty," put in Rose, half reluctantly, half anxious to speak,
+"what has gate to do with whirlpools? You will remember it is called
+a gate--the gate to that wicked place I suppose is meant."
+
+"Rose, you amaze me! How can you, a young woman of only nineteen,
+stand up for so vulgar a name as Hell-Gate!"
+
+"Do you think it as vulgar as Hurl-Gate, aunty?" To me it always
+seems the most vulgar to be straining at gnats."
+
+"Yes," said Spike sentimentally, "I'm quite of Miss Rose's way of
+thinking--straining at gnats is very ill-manners, especially at
+table. I once knew a man who strained in this way, until I thought
+he would have choked, though it was with a fly to be sure; but gnats
+are nothing but small flies, you know, Miss Rose. Yes, I'm quite of
+your way of thinking, Miss Rose; it is very vulgar to be straining
+at gnats and flies, more particularly at table. But you'll find no
+flies or gnats aboard here, to be straining at, or brushing away, or
+to annoy you. Stand by there, my hearties, and see all clear to run
+through Hell-Gate. Do n't let me catch you straining at anything,
+though it should be the fin of a whale!"
+
+The people forward looked at each other, as they listened to this
+novel admonition, though they called out the customary "ay, ay,
+sir," as they went to the sheets, braces and bowlines. To them the
+passage of no Hell-Gate conveyed the idea of any particular terror,
+and with the one they were about to enter, they were much too
+familiar to care anything about it.
+
+The brig was now floating fast, with the tide, up abreast of the
+east end of Blackwell's, and in two or three more minutes she would
+be fairly in the Gate. Spike was aft, where he could command a view
+of everything forward, and Mulford stood on the quarter-deck, to
+look after the head-braces. An old and trustworthy seaman, who acted
+as a sort of boatswain, had the charge on the forecastle, and was to
+tend the sheets and tack. His name was Rove.
+
+"See all clear," called out Spike. "D'ye hear there, for'ard! I
+shall make a half-board in the Gate, if the wind favour us, and the
+tide prove strong enough to hawse us to wind'ard sufficiently to
+clear the Pot--so mind your--"
+
+The captain breaking off in the middle of this harangue, Mulford
+turned his head, in order to see what might be the matter. There was
+Spike, levelling a spy-glass at a boat that was pulling swiftly out
+of the north channel, and shooting like an arrow directly athwart
+the brig's bows into the main passage of the Gate. He stepped to the
+captain's elbow.
+
+"Just take a look at them chaps, Mr. Mulford," said Spike, handing
+his mate the glass.
+
+"They seem in a hurry," answered Harry, as he adjusted the glass to
+his eye, "and will go through the Gate in less time than it will
+take to mention the circumstance."
+
+"What do you make of them, sir?"
+
+"The little man who called himself Jack Tier is in the stern-sheets
+of the boat, for one," answered Mulford.
+
+"And the other, Harry--what do you make of the other?"
+
+"It seems to be the chap who hailed to know if we had a pilot. He
+means to board us at Riker's Island, and make us pay pilotage,
+whether we want his services or not."
+
+"Blast him and his pilotage too! Give me the glass"--taking another
+long look at the boat, which by this time was glancing, rather than
+pulling, nearly at right angles across his bows. "I want no such
+pilot aboard here, Mr. Mulford. Take another look at him--here, you
+can see him, away on our weather bow, already."
+
+Mulford did take another look at him, and this time his examination
+was longer and more scrutinizing than before.
+
+"It is not easy to cover him with the glass," observed the young
+man--"the boat seems fairly to fly."
+
+"We're forereaching too near the Hog's Back, Capt. Spike," roared
+the boatswain, from forward.
+
+"Ready about--hard a lee," shouted Spike. "Let all fly,
+for'ard--help her round, boys, all you can, and wait for no orders!
+Bestir yourselves--bestir yourselves."
+
+It was time the crew should be in earnest. While Spike's attention
+had been thus diverted by the boat, the brig had got into the
+strongest of the current, which, by setting her fast to windward,
+had trebled the power of the air, and this was shooting her over
+toward one of the greatest dangers of the passage on a flood tide.
+As everybody bestirred themselves, however, she was got round and
+filled on the opposite tack, just in time to clear the rocks. Spike
+breathed again, but his head was still full of the boat. The danger
+he had just escaped as Scylla met him as Charybdis. The boatswain
+again roared to go about. The order was given as the vessel began to
+pitch in a heavy swell. At the next instant she rolled until the
+water came on deck, whirled with her stern down the tide, and her
+bows rose as if she were about to leap out of water. The Swash had
+hit the Pot Rock.
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+"Watch. If we know him to be a thief, shall we not lay hands on
+him?
+
+Dogb. Truly, by your office, you may; but I think they that touch
+pitch will be defiled; the most peaceable way for you, if you do take
+a thief, is, to let him show himself what he is, and steal out of your
+company."
+
+Much Ado About Nothing.
+
+
+
+
+We left the brigantine of Capt. Spike in a very critical situation,
+and the master himself in great confusion of mind.
+
+A thorough seaman, this accident would never have happened, but for
+the sudden appearance of the boat and its passengers; one of whom
+appeared to be a source of great uneasiness to him. As might be
+expected, the circumstance of striking a place as dangerous as the
+Pot Rock in Hell-Gate, produced a great sensation on board the
+vessel. This sensation betrayed itself in various ways, and
+according to the characters, habits, and native firmness of the
+parties. As for the ship-master's relict, she seized hold of the
+main-mast, and screamed so loud and perseveringly, as to cause the
+sensation to extend itself into the adjacent and thriving village of
+Astoria, where it was distinctly heard by divers of those who dwelt
+near the water. Biddy Noon had her share in this clamour, lying down
+on the deck in order to prevent rolling over, and possibly to scream
+more at her leisure, while Rose had sufficient self-command to be
+silent, though her cheeks lost their colour.
+
+Nor was there anything extraordinary in females betraying this
+alarm, when one remembers the somewhat astounding signs of danger by
+which these persons were surrounded. There is always something
+imposing in the swift movement of a considerable body of water. When
+this movement is aided by whirlpools and the other similar
+accessories of an interrupted current, it frequently becomes
+startling, more especially to those who happen to be on the element
+itself. This is peculiarly the case with the Pot Rock, where, not
+only does the water roll and roar as if agitated by a mighty wind,
+but where it even breaks, the foam seeming to glance up stream, in
+the rapid succession of wave to wave. Had the Swash remained in her
+terrific berth more than a second or two, she would have proved what
+is termed a "total loss;" but she did not. Happily, the Pot Rock
+lies so low that it is not apt to fetch up anything of a light
+draught of water, and the brigantine's fore-foot had just settled on
+its summit, long enough to cause the vessel to whirl round and make
+her obeisance to the place, when a succeeding swell lifted her
+clear, and away she went down stream, rolling as if scudding in a
+gale, and, for a moment, under no command whatever. There lay
+another danger ahead, or it would be better to say astern, for the
+brig was drifting stern foremost; and that was in an eddy under a
+bluff, which bluff lies at an angle in the reach, where it is no
+uncommon thing for craft to be cast ashore, after they have passed
+all the more imposing and more visible dangers above. It was in
+escaping this danger, and in recovering the command of his vessel,
+that Spike now manifested the sort of stuff of which he was really
+made, in emergencies of this sort. The yards were all sharp up when
+the accident occurred, and springing to the lee braces, just as a
+man winks when his eye is menaced, he seized the weather fore-brace
+with his own hands, and began to round in the yard, shouting out to
+the man at the wheel to "port his helm" at the same time. Some of
+the people flew to his assistance, and the yards were not only
+squared, but braced a little up on the other tack, in much less time
+than we have taken to relate the evolution. Mulford attended to the
+main-sheet, and succeeded in getting the boom out in the right
+direction. Although the wind was in truth very light, the velocity
+of the drift filled the canvas, and taking the arrow-like current on
+her lee bow, the Swash, like a frantic steed that is alarmed with
+the wreck made by his own madness, came under command, and sheered
+out into the stream again, where she could drift clear of the
+apprehended danger astern.
+
+"Sound the pumps!" called out Spike to Mulford, the instant he saw
+he had regained his seat in the saddle. Harry sprang amidships to
+obey, and the eye of every mariner in that vessel was on the young
+man, as, in the midst of a death-like silence, he performed this
+all-important duty. It was like the physician's feeling the pulse of
+his patient before he pronounces on the degree of his danger.
+
+"Well, sir?" cried out Spike, impatiently, as the rod reappeared.
+
+"All right, sir," answered Harry, cheerfully--"the well is nearly
+empty."
+
+"Hold on a moment longer, and give the water time to find its way
+amidships, if there be any."
+
+The mate remained perched up on the pump, in order to comply, while
+Spike and his people, who now breathed more freely again, improved
+the leisure to brace up and haul aft, to the new course.
+
+"Biddy," said Mrs. Budd considerately, during this pause in the
+incidents, "you need n't scream any longer. The danger seems to be
+past, and you may get up off the deck now. See, I have let go of the
+mast. The pumps have been sounded, and are found tight."
+
+Biddy, like an obedient and respectful servant, did as directed,
+quite satisfied if the pumps were tight. It was some little time, to
+be sure, before she was perfectly certain whether she were alive or
+not--but, once certain of this circumstance, her alarm very sensibly
+abated, and she became reasonable. As for Mulford, he dropped the
+sounding rod again, and had the same cheering report to make.
+
+"The brig is as tight as a bottle, sir."
+
+"So much the better," answered Spike. "I never had such a whirl in
+her before in my life, and I thought she was going to stop and pass
+the night there. That's the very spot on which `The Hussar' frigate
+was wrecked."
+
+"So I have heard, sir. But she drew so much water that she hit slap
+against the rock, and started a butt. We merely touched on its top
+with our fore-foot, and slid off."
+
+This was the simple explanation of the Swash's escape, and,
+everybody being now well assured that no harm had been done, things
+fell into their old and regular train again. As for Spike, his
+gallantry, notwithstanding, was upset for some hours, and glad
+enough was he when he saw all three of his passengers quit the deck
+to go below. Mrs. Budd's spirits had been so much agitated that she
+told Rose she would go down into the cabin and rest a few minutes on
+its sofa. We say sofa, for that article of furniture, now-a-days, is
+far more common in vessels than it was thirty years ago in the
+dwellings of the country.
+
+"There, Mulford," growled Spike, pointing ahead of the brig, to an
+object on the water that was about half a mile ahead of them,
+"there's that bloody boat--d'ye see? I should like of all things to
+give it the slip. There's a chap in that boat I do n't like."
+
+"I do n't see how that can be very well done, sir, unless we anchor,
+repass the Gate at the turn of the tide, and go to sea by the way of
+Sandy Hook."
+
+"That will never do. I've no wish to be parading the brig before the
+town. You see, Mulford, nothing can be more innocent and proper than
+the Molly Swash, as you know from having sailed in her these twelve
+months. You'll give her that character, I'll be sworn?"
+
+"I know no harm of her, Capt. Spike, and hope I never shall."
+
+"No, sir--you know no harm of her, nor does any one else. A nursing
+infant is not more innocent than the Molly Swash, or could have a
+clearer character if nothing but truth was said of her. But the
+world is so much given to lying, that one of the old saints, of whom
+we read in the good book, such as Calvin and John Rogers, would be
+vilified if he lived in these times. Then, it must be owned, Mr.
+Mulford, whatever may be the raal innocence of the brig, she has a
+most desperate wicked look."
+
+"Why, yes, sir--it must be owned she is what we sailors call a
+wicked-looking craft. But some of Uncle Sam's cruisers have that
+appearance, also."
+
+"I know it--I know it, sir, and think nothing of looks myself. Men
+are often deceived in me, by my looks, which have none of your
+long-shore softness about 'em, perhaps; but my mother used to say I
+was one of the most tender-hearted boys she had ever heard spoken
+of--like one of the babes in the woods, as it might be. But mankind
+go so much by appearances that I do n't like to trust the brig too
+much afore their eyes. Now, should we be seen in the lower bay,
+waiting for a wind, or for the ebb tide to make, to carry us over
+the bar, ten to one but some philotropic or other would be off with
+a complaint to the District Attorney that we looked like a slaver,
+and have us all fetched up to be tried for our lives as pirates. No,
+no--I like to keep the brig in out-of-the-way places, where she can
+give no offence to your 'tropics, whether they be philos, or of any
+other sort."
+
+"Well, sir, we are to the eastward of the Gate, and all's safe. That
+boat cannot bring us up."
+
+"You forget, Mr. Mulford, the revenue-craft that steamed up, on the
+ebb. That vessel must be off Sands' Point by this time, and she may
+hear something to our disparagement from the feller in the boat, and
+take it into her smoky head to walk us back to town. I wish we were
+well to the eastward of that steamer! But there's no use in
+lamentations. If there is really any danger, it's some distance
+ahead yet, thank Heaven!"
+
+"You have no fears of the man who calls himself Jack Tier, Capt.
+Spike?"
+
+"None in the world. That feller, as I remember him, was a little
+bustlin' chap that I kept in the cabin, as a sort of steward's mate.
+There was neither good nor harm in him, to the best of my
+recollection. But Josh can tell us all about him--just give Josh a
+call."
+
+The best thing in the known history of Spike was the fact that his
+steward had sailed with him for more than twenty years. Where he had
+picked up Josh no one could say, but Josh and himself, and neither
+chose to be very communicative on the subject. But Josh had
+certainly been with him as long as he had sailed the Swash, and that
+was from a time actually anterior to the birth of Mulford. The mate
+soon had the negro in the council.
+
+"I say, Josh," asked Spike, "do you happen to remember such a hand
+aboard here as one Jack Tier?"
+
+"Lor' bless you, yes sir--'members he as well as I do the pea soup
+that was burnt, and which you t'rowed all over him, to scald him for
+punishment."
+
+"I've had to do that so often, to one careless fellow or other, that
+the circumstance does n't recall the man. I remember him--but not as
+clear as I could wish. How long did he sail with us?"
+
+"Sebberal v'y'ge, sir, and got left ashore down on the main, one
+night, when'e boat were obliged to shove off in a hurry. Yes,
+'members little Jack, right well I does."
+
+"Did you see the man that spoke us from the wharf, and hailed for
+this very Jack Tier?"
+
+"I see'd a man, sir, dat was won'erful Jack Tier built like, sir,
+but I did n't hear the conwersation, habbin' the ladies to 'tend to.
+But Jack was oncommon short in his floor timbers, sir, and had no
+length of keel at all. His beam was won'erful for his length,
+altogedder--what you call jolly-boat, or bum-boat build, and was
+only good afore'e wind, Cap'n Spike."
+
+"Was he good for anything aboard ship, Josh? Worth heaving-to for,
+should he try to get aboard of us again?"
+
+"Why, sir, can't say much for him in dat fashion. Jack was handy in
+the cabin, and capital feller to carry soup from the gally, aft. You
+see, sir, he was so low-rigged that the brig's lurchin' and pitchin'
+could n't get him off his pins, and he stood up like a church in the
+heaviest wea'der. Yes, sir, Jack was right good for dat."
+
+Spike mused a moment--then he rolled the tobacco over in his mouth,
+and added, in the way a man speaks when his mind is made up--"Ay
+ay! I see into the fellow. He'll make a handy lady's maid, and we
+want such a chap just now. It's better to have an old friend aboard,
+than to be pickin' up strangers, 'long shore. So, should this Jack
+Tier come off to us, from any of the islands or points ahead, Mr.
+Mulford, you'll round to and take him aboard. As for the steamer, if
+she will only pass out into the Sound where there's room, it shall
+go hard with us but I get to the eastward of her, without speaking.
+On the other hand, should she anchor this side of the fort, I'll not
+attempt to pass her. There is deep water inside of most of the
+islands, I know, and we'll try and dodge her in that way, if no
+better offer. I've no more reason than another craft to fear a
+government vessel, but the sight of one of them makes me
+oncomfortable; that's all."
+
+Mulford shrugged his shoulders and remained silent, perceiving that
+his commander was not disposed to pursue the subject any further. In
+the mean time, the brig had passed beyond the influence of the
+bluff, and was beginning to feel a stronger breeze, that was coming
+down the wide opening of Flushing Bay. As the tide still continued
+strong in her favour, and her motion through the water was getting
+to be four or five knots, there was every prospect of her soon
+reaching Whitestone, the point where the tides meet, and where it
+would become necessary to anchor; unless, indeed, the wind, which
+was now getting to the southward and eastward, should come round
+more to the south. All this Spike and his mate discussed together,
+while the people were clearing the decks, and making the
+preparations that are customary on board a vessel before she gets
+into rough water.
+
+By this time it was ascertained that the brig had received no damage
+by her salute of the Pot Rock, and every trace of uneasiness on that
+account was removed. But Spike kept harping on the boat, and "the
+pilot-looking chap who was in her." As they passed Riker's Island,
+all hands expected a boat would put off with a pilot, or to demand
+pilotage; but none came, and the Swash now seemed released from all
+her present dangers, unless some might still be connected with the
+revenue steamer. To retard her advance, however, the wind came out a
+smart working breeze from the southward and eastward, compelling her
+to make "long legs and short ones" on her way towards Whitestone.
+
+"This is beating the wind, Rosy dear," said Mrs. Budd, complacently,
+she and her niece having returned to the deck a few minutes after
+this change had taken place. "Your respected uncle did a great deal
+of this in his time, and was very successful in it. I have heard him
+say, that in one of his voyages between Liverpool and New York, he
+beat the wind by a whole fortnight, everybody talking of it in the
+insurance offices, as if it was a miracle."
+
+"Ay, ay, Madam Budd," put in Spike, "I'll answer for that. They're
+desperate talkers in and about them there insurance offices in Wall
+street. Great gossips be they, and they think they know everything.
+Now just because this brig is a little old or so, and was built for
+a privateer in the last war, they'd refuse to rate her as even B,
+No. 2, and my blessing on 'em."
+
+"Yes, B, No. 2, that's just what your dear uncle used to call me,
+Rosy--his charming B, No. 2, or Betsy, No. 2; particularly when he
+was in a loving mood. Captain Spike, did you ever beat the wind in a
+long voyage?"
+
+"I can't say I ever did, Mrs. Budd," answered Spike, looking grimly
+around, to ascertain if any one dared to smile at his passenger's
+mistake; "especially for so long a pull as from New York to
+Liverpool."
+
+"Then your uncle used to boast of the Rose In Bloom's wearing and
+attacking. She would attack anything that came in her way, no matter
+who, and as for wearing, I think he once told me she would wear just
+what she had a mind to, like any human being."
+
+Rose was a little mystified, but she looked vexed at the same time,
+as if she distrusted all was not right.
+
+"I remember all my sea education," continued the unsuspecting widow,
+"as if it had been learnt yesterday. Beating the wind and attacking
+ship, my poor Mr. Budd used to say, were nice manoeuvres, and
+required most of his tactics, especially in heavy weather. Did you
+know, Rosy dear, that sailors weigh the weather, and know when it is
+heavy and when it is light?"
+
+"I did not, aunt; nor do I understand now how it can very well be
+done."
+
+"Oh! child, before you have been at sea a week, you will learn so
+many things that are new, and get so many ideas of which you never
+had any notion before, that you'll not be the same person. My
+captain had an instrument he called a thermometer, and with that he
+used to weigh the weather, and then he would write down in the
+log-book `today, heavy weather, or to-morrow, light weather,' just
+as it happened, and that helped him mightily along in his voyages."
+
+"Mrs. Budd has merely mistaken the name of the instrument--the
+`barometer' is what she wished to say," put in Mulford, opportunely.
+
+Rose looked grateful, as well as relieved. Though profoundly
+ignorant on these subjects herself, she had always suspected her
+aunt's knowledge. It was, consequently, grateful to her to ascertain
+that, in this instance, the old lady's mistake had been so trifling.
+
+"Well, it may have been the barometer, for I know he had them both,"
+resumed the aunt. "Barometer, or thermometer, it do n't make any
+great difference; or quadrant, or sextant. They are all instruments,
+and sometimes he used one, and sometimes another. Sailors take on
+board the sun, too, and have an instrument for that, as well as one
+to weigh the weather with. Sometimes they take on board the stars,
+and the moon, and `fill their ships with the heavenly bodies,' as
+I've heard my dear husband say, again and again! But the most
+curious thing at sea, as all sailors tell me, is crossing the line,
+and I do hope we shall cross the line, Rosy, that you and I may see
+it."
+
+"What is the line, aunty, and how do vessels cross it."
+
+"The line, my dear, is a place in the ocean where the earth is
+divided into two parts, one part being called the North Pole, and
+the other part the South Pole. Neptune lives near this line, and he
+allows no vessel to go out of one pole into the other, without
+paying it a visit. Never! never!--he would as soon think of living
+on dry land as think of letting even a canoe pass, without visiting
+it."
+
+"Do you suppose there is such a being, really, as Neptune, aunty?"
+
+"To be sure I do; he is king of the sea. Why should n't there be?
+The sea must have a king, as well as the land."
+
+"The sea may be a republic, aunty, like this country; then, no king
+is necessary. I have always supposed Neptune to be an imaginary
+being."
+
+"Oh that's impossible--the sea is no republic; there are but two
+republics, America and Texas. I've heard that the sea is a highway,
+it is true--the `highway of nations,' I believe it is called, and
+that must mean something particular. But my poor Mr. Budd always
+told me that Neptune was king of the seas, and he was always so
+accurate, you might depend on everything he said. Why, he called his
+last Newfoundland dog Neptune; and do you think, Rosy, that your
+dear uncle would call his dog after an imaginary being?--and he a
+man to beat the wind, and attack ship, and take the sun, moon and
+stars aboard! No, no, child; fanciful folk may see imaginary beings,
+but solid folk see solid beings."
+
+Even Spike was dumfounded at this, and there is no knowing what he
+might have said, had not an old sea-dog, who had just come out of
+the fore-topmast cross-trees, come aft, and, hitching up his
+trowsers with one hand while he touched his hat with the other, said
+with immoveable gravity,
+
+"The revenue-steamer has brought up just under the fort, Capt.
+Spike."
+
+"How do you know that, Bill?" demanded the captain, with a rapidity
+that showed how completely Mrs. Budd and all her absurdities were
+momentarily forgotten.
+
+"I was up on the fore-topgallant yard, sir, a bit ago, just to look
+to the strap of the jewel-block, which wants some sarvice on it, and
+I see'd her over the land, blowin' off steam and takin' in her
+kites. Afore I got out of the cross-trees, she was head to wind
+under bare-poles, and if she had n't anchored, she was about to do
+so. I'm sartin 't was she, sir, and that she was about to bring up."
+
+Spike gave a long, low whistle, after his fashion, and he walked
+away from the females, with the air of a man who wanted room to
+think in. Half a minute later, he called out--"Stand by to shorten
+sail, boys. Man fore-clew-garnets, flying jib down haul, topgallant
+sheets, and gaff-topsail gear. In with 'em all, my lads--in with
+everything, with a will."
+
+An order to deal with the canvas in any way, on board ship,
+immediately commands the whole attention of all whose duty it is to
+attend to such matters, and there was an end of all discourse while
+the Swash was shortening sail. Everybody understood, too, that it
+was to gain time, and prevent the brig from reaching Throg's Neck
+sooner than was desirable.
+
+"Keep the brig off," called out Spike, "and let her ware--we're too
+busy to tack just now."
+
+The man at the wheel knew very well what was wanted, and he put his
+helm up, instead of putting it down, as he might have done without
+this injunction. As this change brought the brig before the wind,
+and Spike was in no hurry to luff up on the other tack, the Swash
+soon ran over a mile of the distance she had already made, putting
+her back that much on her way to the Neck. It is out of our power to
+say what the people of the different craft in sight thought of all
+this, but an opportunity soon offered of putting them on a wrong
+scent. A large coasting schooner, carrying everything that would
+draw on a wind, came sweeping under the stern of the Swash, and
+hailed.
+
+"Has anything happened, on board that brig?" demanded her master.
+
+"Man overboard," answered Spike--"you hav'nt seen his hat, have
+you?"
+
+"No--no," came back, just as the schooner, in her onward course,
+swept beyond the reach of the voice. Her people collected together,
+and one or two ran up the rigging a short distance, stretching their
+necks, on the look-out for the "poor fellow," but they were soon
+called down to "'bout ship." In less than five minutes, another
+vessel, a rakish coasting sloop, came within hail.
+
+"Did n't that brig strike the Pot Rock, in passing the Gate?"
+demanded her captain.
+
+"Ay, ay!--and a devil of a rap she got, too."
+
+This satisfied him; there being nothing remarkable in a vessel's
+acting strangely that had hit the Pot Rock in passing Hell Gate.
+
+"I think we may get in our mainsail on the strength of this, Mr.
+Mulford," said Spike. "There can be nothing oncommon in a craft's
+shortening sail, that has a man overboard, and which has hit the Pot
+Rock. I wonder I never thought of all this before."
+
+`Here is a skiff trying to get alongside of us, Capt. Spike," called
+out the boatswain.
+
+"Skiff be d--d! I want no skiff here."
+
+"The man that called himself Jack Tier is in her, sir."
+
+"The d--l he is!" cried Spike, springing over to the opposite side
+of the deck to take a look for himself. To his infinite satisfaction
+he perceived that Tier was alone in the skiff, with the exception of
+a negro, who pulled its sculls, and that this was a very different
+boat from that which had glanced through Hell Gate, like an arrow
+darting from its bow.
+
+"Luff, and shake your topsail," called out Spike. "Get a rope there
+to throw to this skiff."
+
+The orders were obeyed, and Jack Tier, with his clothes-bag, was
+soon on the deck of the Swash. As for the skiff and the negro, they
+were cast adrift the instant the latter had received his quarter.
+The meeting between Spike and his quondam steward's mate was a
+little remarkable. Each stood looking intently at the other, as if
+to note the changes which time had made. We cannot say that Spike's
+hard, red, selfish countenance betrayed any great feeling, though
+such was not the case with Jack Tier's. The last, a lymphatic, puffy
+sort of a person at the best, seemed really a little touched, and he
+either actually brushed a tear from his eye, or he affected so to
+do.
+
+"So, you are my old shipmate, Jack Tier, are ye?" exclaimed Spike,
+in a half-patronizing, half-hesitating way--"and you want to try the
+old craft ag'in. Give us a leaf of your log, and let me know where
+you have been this many a day, and what you have been about? Keep
+the brig off, Mr. Mulford. We are in no particular hurry to reach
+Throg's, you'll remember, sir."
+
+Tier gave an account of his proceedings, which could have no
+interest with the reader. His narrative was anything but very clear,
+and it was delivered in a cracked, octave sort of a voice, such as
+little dapper people not unfrequently enjoy--tones between those of
+a man and a boy. The substance of the whole story was this. Tier had
+been left ashore, as sometimes happens to sailors, and, by necessary
+connection, was left to shift for himself. After making some vain
+endeavours to rejoin his brig, he had shipped in one vessel after
+another, until he accidentally found himself in the port of New
+York, at the same time as the Swash. He know'd he never should be
+truly happy ag'in until he could once more get aboard the old hussy,
+and had hurried up to the wharf, where he understood the brig was
+lying. As he came in sight, he saw she was about to cast off, and,
+dropping his clothes-bag, he had made the best of his way to the
+wharf, where the conversation passed that has been related.
+
+"The gentleman on the wharf was about to take boat, to go through
+the Gate," concluded Tier, "and so I begs a passage of him. He was
+good-natured enough to wait until I could find my bag, and as soon
+a'terwards as the men could get their grog we shoved off. The Molly
+was just getting in behind Blackwell's as we left the wharf, and,
+having four good oars, and the shortest road, we come out into the
+Gate just ahead on you. My eye! what a place that is to go through
+in a boat, and on a strong flood! The gentleman, who watched the
+brig as a cat watches a mouse, says you struck on the Pot, as he
+called it, but I says `no,' for the Molly Swash was never know'd to
+hit rock or shoal in my time aboard her."
+
+"And where did you quit that gentleman, and what has become of him?"
+asked Spike.
+
+"He put me ashore on that point above us, where I see'd a nigger
+with his skiff, who I thought would be willin' to 'arn his quarter
+by giving me a cast alongside. So here I am, and a long pull I've
+had to get here."
+
+As this was said, Jack removed his hat and wiped his brow with a
+handkerchief, which, if it had never seen better days, had doubtless
+been cleaner. After this, he looked about him, with an air not
+entirely free from exultation.
+
+This conversation had taken place in the gangway, a somewhat public
+place, and Spike beckoned to his recruit to walk aft, where he might
+be questioned without being overheard.
+
+"What became of the gentleman in the boat, as you call him?"
+demanded Spike.
+
+"He pulled ahead, seeming to be in a hurry."
+
+"Do you know who he was?"
+
+"Not a bit of it. I never saw the man before, and he did n't tell me
+his business, sir."
+
+"Had he anything like a silver oar about him."
+
+"I saw nothing of the sort, Capt. Spike, and knows nothing
+consarning him."
+
+"What sort of a boat was he in, and where did he get it?"
+
+"Well, as to the boat, sir, I can say a word, seein' it was so much
+to my mind, and pulled so wonderful smart. It was a light ship's
+yawl, with four oars, and came round the Hook just a'ter you had got
+the brig's head round to the eastward. You must have seen it, I
+should think, though it kept close in with the wharves, as if it
+wished to be snug."
+
+"Then the gentleman, as you call him, expected that very boat to
+come and take him off?"
+
+"I suppose so, sir, because it did come and take him off. That's all
+I knows about it."
+
+"Had you no jaw with the gentleman? You was n't mnm the whole time
+you was in the boat with him?"
+
+"Not a bit of it, sir. Silence and I does n't agree together long,
+and so we talked most of the time."
+
+"And what did the stranger say of the brig?"
+
+"Lord, sir, he catechised me like as if I had been a child at
+Sunday-school. He asked me how long I had sailed in her; what ports
+we'd visited, and what trade we'd been in. You can't think the sight
+of questions he put, and how cur'ous he was for the answers."
+
+"And what did you tell him in your answers? You said nothin' about
+our call down on the Spanish Main, the time you were left ashore, I
+hope, Jack?"
+
+"Not I, sir. I played him off surprisin'ly. He got nothin' to count
+upon out of me. Though I do owe the Molly Swash a grudge, I'm not
+goin' to betray her."
+
+"You owe the Molly Swash a grudge! Have I taken an enemy on board
+her, then?"
+
+Jack started, and seemed sorry he had said so much; while Spike eyed
+him keenly. But the answer set all right. It was not given, however,
+without a moment for recollection.
+
+"Oh, you knows what I mean, sir. I owe the old hussy a grudge for
+having desarted me like; but it's only a love quarrel atween us. The
+old Molly will never come to harm by my means."
+
+"I hope not, Jack. The man that wrongs the craft he sails in can
+never be a true-hearted sailor. Stick by your ship in all weathers
+is my rule, and a good rule it is to go by. But what did you tell
+the stranger?"
+
+"Oh! I told him I'd been six v'y'ges in the brig. The first was to
+Madagascar--"
+
+"The d--l you did? Was he soft enough to believe that?"
+
+"That's more than I knows, sir. I can only tell you what I said; I
+do n't pretend to know how much he believed."
+
+"Heave ahead--what next?"
+
+"Then I told him we went to Kamschatka for gold dust and ivory."
+
+"Whe-e-ew! What did the man say to that?"
+
+"Why, he smiled a bit, and a'ter that he seemed more cur'ous than
+ever to hear all about it. I told him my third v'y'ge was to Canton,
+with a cargo of broom-corn, where we took in salmon and dun-fish for
+home. A'ter that we went to Norway with ice, and brought back silks
+and money. Our next run was to the Havana, with salt and 'nips--"
+
+"'Nips! what the devil be they?"
+
+"Turnips, you knows, sir. We always calls 'em 'nips in cargo. At the
+Havana I told him we took in leather and jerked beef, and came home.
+Oh! he got nothin' from me, Capt. Spike, that'll ever do the brig a
+morsel of harm!"
+
+"I am glad of that, Jack. You must know enough of the seas to
+understand that a close mouth is sometimes better for a vessel than
+a clean bill of health. Was there nothing said about the
+revenue-steamer?"
+
+"Now you name her, sir, I believe there was--ay, ay, sir, the
+gentleman did say, if the steamer fetched up to the westward of the
+fort, that he should overhaul her without difficulty, on this flood.
+
+"That'll do, Jack; that'll do, my honest fellow. Go below, and tell
+Josh to take you into the cabin again, as steward's mate. You're
+rather too Dutch built, in your old age, to do much aloft."
+
+One can hardly say whether Jack received this remark as
+complimentary, or not. He looked a little glum, for a man may be as
+round as a barrel, and wish to be thought genteel and slender; but
+he went below, in quest of Josh, without making any reply.
+
+The succeeding movements of Spike appeared to be much influenced by
+what he had just heard. He kept the brig under short canvas for near
+two hours, sheering about in the same place, taking care to tell
+everything which spoke him that he had lost a man overboard. In this
+way, not only the tide, but the day itself, was nearly spent. About
+the time the former began to lose its strength, however, the
+fore-course and the main-sail were got on the brigantine, with the
+intention of working her up toward Whitestone, where the tides meet,
+and near which the revenue-steamer was known to be anchored. We say
+near, though it was, in fact, a mile or two more to the eastward,
+and close to the extremity of the Point.
+
+Notwithstanding these demonstrations of a wish to work to windward,
+Spike was really in no hurry. He had made up his mind to pass the
+steamer in the dark, if possible, and the night promised to favour
+him; but, in order to do this, it might be necessary not to come in
+sight of her at all; or, at least, not until the obscurity should in
+some measure conceal his rig and character. In consequence of this
+plan, the Swash made no great progress, even after she had got sail
+on her, on her old course. The wind lessened, too, after the sun
+went down, though it still hung to the eastward, or nearly ahead. As
+the tide gradually lost its force, moreover, the set to windward
+became less and less, until it finally disappeared altogether.
+
+There is necessarily a short reach in this passage, where it is
+always slack water, so far as current is concerned. This is
+precisely where the tides meet, or, as has been intimated, at
+Whitestone, which is somewhat more than a mile to the westward of
+Throgmorton's Neck, near the point of which stands Fort Schuyler,
+one of the works recently erected for the defence of New York. Off
+the pitch of the point, nearly mid-channel, had the steamer
+anchored, a fact of which Spike had made certain, by going aloft
+himself, and reconnoitering her over the land, before it had got to
+be too dark to do so. He entertained no manner of doubt that this
+vessel was in waiting for him, and he well knew there was good
+reason for it; but he would not return and attempt the passage to
+sea by way of Sandy Hook. His manner of regarding the whole matter
+was cool and judicious. The distance to the Hook was too great to be
+made in such short nights ere the return of day, and he had no
+manner of doubt he was watched for in that direction, as well as in
+this. Then he was particularly unwilling to show his craft at all in
+front of the town, even in the night. Moreover, he had ways of his
+own for effecting his purposes, and this was the very spot and time
+to put them in execution.
+
+While these things were floating in his mind, Mrs. Budd and her
+handsome niece were making preparations for passing the night, aided
+by Biddy Noon. The old lady was factotum, or factota, as it might be
+most classical to call her, though we are entirely without
+authorities on the subject, and was just as self-complacent and
+ambitious of seawomanship below decks, as she had been above board.
+The effect, however, gave Spike great satisfaction, since it kept
+her out of sight, and left him more at liberty to carry out his own
+plans. About nine, however, the good woman came on deck, intending
+to take a look at the weather, like a skilful marineress as she was,
+before she turned in. Not a little was she astonished at what she
+then and there beheld, as she whispered to Rose and Biddy, both of
+whom stuck close to her side, feeling the want of good pilotage, no
+doubt, in strange waters.
+
+The Molly Swash was still under her canvas, though very little
+sufficed for her present purposes. She was directly off Whitestone,
+and was making easy stretches across the passage, or river, as it is
+called, having nothing set but her huge fore-and-aft mainsail and
+the jib. Under this sail she worked like a top, and Spike sometimes
+fancied she travelled too fast for his purposes, the night air
+having thickened the canvas as usual, until it "held the wind as a
+bottle holds water." There was nothing in this, however, to attract
+the particular attention of the ship-master's widow, a sail, more or
+less, being connected with observation much too critical for her
+schooling, nice as the last had been. She was surprised to find the
+men stripping the brig forward, and converting her into a schooner.
+Nor was this done in a loose and slovenly manner, under favour of
+the obscurity. On the contrary, it was so well executed that it
+might have deceived even a seaman under a noon-day sun, provided the
+vessel were a mile or two distant. The manner in which the
+metamorphosis was made was as follows: the studding-sail booms had
+been taken off the topsail-yard, in order to shorten it to the eye,
+and the yard itself was swayed up about half-mast, to give it the
+appearance of a schooner's fore-yard. The brig's real lower yard was
+lowered on the bulwarks, while her royal yard was sent down
+altogether, and the topgallant-mast was lowered until the heel
+rested on the topsail yard, all of which, in the night, gave the
+gear forward very much the appearance of that of a fore-topsail
+schooner, instead of that of a half-rigged brig, as the craft really
+was. As the vessel carried a try-sail on her foremast, it answered
+very well, in the dark, to represent a schooner's foresail. Several
+other little dispositions of this nature were made, about which it
+might weary the uninitiated to read, but which will readily suggest
+themselves to the mind of a sailor.
+
+These alterations were far advanced when the females re-appeared on
+deck. They at once attracted their attention, and the captain's
+widow felt the imperative necessity, as connected with her
+professional character, of proving the same. She soon found Spike,
+who was bustling around the deck, now looking around to see that his
+brig was kept in the channel, now and then issuing an order to
+complete her disguise.
+
+"Captain Spike, what can be the meaning of all these changes? The
+tamper of your vessel is so much altered that I declare I should not
+have known her!"
+
+"Is it, by George! Then she is just in the state I want her to be
+in."
+
+"But why have you done it--and what does it all mean?"
+
+"Oh, Molly's going to bed for the night, and she's only undressing
+herself--that's all."
+
+"Yes, Rosy dear, Captain Spike is right. I remember that my poor Mr.
+Budd used to talk about The Rose In Bloom having her clothes on, and
+her clothes off, just as if she was a born woman! But do n't you
+mean to navigate at all in the night, Captain Spike? Or will the
+brig navigate without sails?"
+
+"That's it--she's just as good in the dark, under one sort of
+canvas, as under another. So, Mr. Mulford, we'll take a reef in that
+mainsail; it will bring it nearer to the size of our new foresail,
+and seem more ship-shape and Brister fashion--then I think she'll
+do, as the night is getting to be rather darkish."
+
+"Captain Spike," said the boatswain, who had been set to look-out
+for that particular change--"the brig begins to feel the new tide,
+and sets to windward."
+
+"Let her go, then--now is as good a time as another. We've got to
+run the gantlet, and the sooner it is done the better."
+
+As the moment seemed propitious, not only Mulford, but all the
+people, heard this order with satisfaction. The night was
+star-light, though not very clear at that. Objects on the water,
+however, were more visible than those on the land, while those on
+the last could be seen well enough, even from the brig, though in
+confused and somewhat shapeless piles. When the Swash was brought
+close by the wind, she had just got into the last reach of the
+"river," or that which runs parallel with the Neck for near a mile,
+doubling where the Sound expands itself, gradually, to a breadth of
+many leagues. Still the navigation at the entrance of this end of
+the Sound was intricate and somewhat dangerous, rendering it
+indispensable for a vessel of any size to make a crooked course. The
+wind stood at south-east, and was very scant to lay through the
+reach with, while the tide was so slack as barely to possess a
+visible current at that place. The steamer lay directly off the
+Point, mid-channel, as mentioned, showing lights, to mark her
+position to anything which might be passing in or out. The great
+thing was to get by her without exciting her suspicion. As all on
+board, the females excepted, knew what their captain was at, the
+attempt was made amid an anxious and profound silence; or, if any
+one spoke at all, it was only to give an order in a low tone, or its
+answer in a simple monosyllable.
+
+Although her aunt assured her that everything which had been done
+already, and which was now doing, was quite in rule, the quick-eyed
+and quick-witted Rose noted these unusual proceedings, and had an
+opinion of her own on the subject. Spike had gone forward, and
+posted himself on the weather-side of the forecastle, where he could
+get the clearest look ahead, and there he remained most of the time,
+leaving Mulford on the quarter-deck, to work the vessel, Perceiving
+this, she managed to get near the mate, without attracting her
+aunt's attention, and at the same time out of ear-shot.
+
+"Why is everybody so still and seemingly so anxious, Harry Mulford?"
+she asked, speaking in a low tone herself, as if desirous of
+conforming to a common necessity. "Is there any new danger here? I
+thought the Gate had been passed altogether, some hours ago?"
+
+"So it has. D'ye see that large dark mass on the water, off the
+Point, which seems almost as huge as the fort, with lights above it?
+That is a revenue-steamer which came out of York a few hours before
+us. We wish to get past her without being troubled by any of her
+questions."
+
+"And what do any in this brig care about her questions? They can be
+answered, surely."
+
+"Ay, ay, Rose--they may be answered, as you say, but the answers
+sometimes are unsatisfactory. Captain Spike, for some reason or
+other, is uneasy, and would rather not have anything to say to her.
+He has the greatest aversion to speaking the smallest craft when on
+a coast."
+
+"And that's the reason he has undressed his Molly, as he calls her,
+that he might not be known."
+
+Mulford turned his head quickly toward his companion, as if
+surprised by her quickness of apprehension, but he had too just a
+sense of his duty to make any reply. Instead of pursuing the
+discourse, he adroitly contrived to change it, by pointing out to
+Rose the manner in which they were getting on, which seemed to be
+very successfully.
+
+Although the Swash was under much reduced canvas, she glided along
+with great ease and with considerable rapidity of motion. The heavy
+night air kept her canvas distended, and the weatherly set of the
+tide, trifling as it yet was, pressed her up against the breeze, so
+as to turn all to account. It was apparent enough, by the manner in
+which objects on the land were passed, that the crisis was fast
+approaching. Rose rejoined her aunt, in order to await the result,
+in nearly breathless expectation. At that moment, she would have
+given the world to be safe on shore. This wish was not the
+consequence of any constitutional timidity, for Rose was much the
+reverse from timid, but it was the fruit of a newly-awakened and
+painful, though still vague, suspicion. Happy, thrice happy was it
+for one of her naturally confiding and guileless nature, that
+distrust was thus opportunely awakened, for she was without a
+guardian competent to advise and guide her youth, as circumstances
+required.
+
+The brig was not long in reaching the passage that opened to the
+Sound. It is probable she did this so much the sooner because Spike
+kept her a little off the wind, with a view of not passing too near
+the steamer. At this point, the direction of the passage changes at
+nearly a right angle, the revenue-steamer lying on a line with the
+Neck, and leaving a sort of bay, in the angle, for the Swash to
+enter. The land was somewhat low in all directions but one, and that
+was by drawing a straight line from the Point, through the steamer,
+to the Long Island shore. On the latter, and in that quarter, rose a
+bluff of considerable elevation, with deep water quite near it; and,
+under the shadows of that bluff, Spike intended to perform his
+nicest evolutions. He saw that the revenue vessel had let her fires
+go down, and that she was entirely without steam. Under canvas, he
+had no doubt of beating her hand over hand, could he once fairly get
+to windward; and then she was at anchor, and would lose some time in
+getting under way, should she even commence a pursuit. It was all
+important, therefore, to gain as much to windward as possible,
+before the people of the government vessel took the alarm.
+
+There can be no doubt that the alterations made on board the Swash
+served her a very good turn on this occasion. Although the night
+could not be called positively dark, there was sufficient obscurity
+to render her hull confused and indistinct at any distance, and this
+so much the more when seen from the steamer outside, or between her
+and the land. All this Spike very well understood, and largely
+calculated on. In effect he was not deceived; the look-outs on board
+the revenue craft could trace little of the vessel that was
+approaching beyond the spars and sails which rose above the shores,
+and these seemed to be the spars and sails of a common foretopsail
+schooner. As this was not the sort of craft for which they were on
+the watch, no suspicion was awakened, nor did any reports go from
+the quarter-deck to the cabin. The steamer had her quarter watches,
+and officers of the deck, like a vessel of war, the discipline of
+which was fairly enough imitated, but even a man-of-war may be
+overreached on an occasion.
+
+Spike was only great in a crisis, and then merely as a seaman. He
+understood his calling to its minutiae, and he understood the Molly
+Swash better than he understood any other craft that floated. For
+more than twenty years had he sailed her, and the careful parent
+does not better understand the humours of the child, than he
+understood exactly what might be expected from his brig. His
+satisfaction sensibly increased, therefore, as she stole along the
+land, toward the angle mentioned, without a sound audible but the
+gentle gurgling of the water, stirred by the stem, and which sounded
+like the ripple of the gentlest wave, as it washes the shingle of
+some placid beach.
+
+As the brig drew nearer to the bluff, the latter brought the wind
+more ahead, as respected the desired course. This was unfavourable,
+but it did not disconcert her watchful commander.
+
+"Let her come round, Mr. Mulford," said this pilot-captain, in a low
+voice--"we are as near in as we ought to go."
+
+The helm was put down, the head sheets started, and away into the
+wind shot the Molly Swash, fore-reaching famously in stays, and, of
+course, gaining so much on her true course. In a minute she was
+round, and filled on the other tack. Spike was now so near the land,
+that he could perceive the tide was beginning to aid him, and that
+his weatherly set was getting to be considerable. Delighted at this,
+he walked aft, and told Mulford to go about again as soon as the
+vessel had sufficient way to make sure of her in stays. The mate
+inquired if he did not think the revenue people might suspect
+something, unless they stood further out toward mid-channel, but
+Spike reminded him that they would be apt to think the schooner was
+working up under the southern shore, because the ebb first made
+there. This reason satisfied Mulford, and, as soon as they were
+half-way between the bluff and the steamer, the Swash was again
+tacked, with her head to the former. This manoeuvre was executed
+when the brig was about two hundred yards from the steamer, a
+distance that was sufficient to preserve, under all the
+circumstances, the disguise she had assumed.
+
+"They do not suspect us, Harry!" whispered Spike to his mate. "We
+shall get to windward of 'em, as sartain as the breeze stands. That
+boatin' gentleman might as well have staid at home, as for any good
+his hurry done him or his employers!"
+
+"Whom do you suppose him to be, Captain Spike?"
+
+"Who,--a feller that lives by his own wicked deeds. No matter who he
+is. An informer, perhaps. At any rate, he is not the man to outwit
+the Molly Swash, and her old, stupid, foolish master and owner,
+Stephen Spike. Luff, Mr. Mulford, luff. Now's the time to make the
+most of your leg--Luff her up and shake her. She is setting to
+windward fast, the ebb is sucking along that bluff like a boy at a
+molasses hogshead. All she can drift on this tack is clear gain;
+there is no hurry, so long as they are asleep aboard the steamer.
+That's it--make a half-board at once, but take care and not come
+round. As soon as we are fairly clear of the bluff, and open the bay
+that makes up behind it, we shall get the wind more to the
+southward, and have a fine long leg for the next stretch."
+
+Of course Mulford obeyed, throwing the brig up into the wind, and
+allowing her to set to windward, but filling again on the same tack,
+as ordered. This, of course, delayed her progress toward the land,
+and protracted the agony, but it carried the vessel in the direction
+she most wished to go, while it kept her not only end on to the
+steamer, but in a line with the bluff, and consequently in the
+position most favourable to conceal her true character. Presently,
+the bay mentioned, which was several miles deep, opened darkly
+toward the south, and the wind came directly out of it, or more to
+the southward. At this moment the Swash was near a quarter of a mile
+from the steamer, and all that distance dead to windward of her, as
+the breeze came out of the bay. Spike tacked his vessel himself now,
+and got her head up so high that she brought the steamer on her lee
+quarter, and looked away toward the island which lies northwardly
+from the Point, and quite near to which all vessels of any draught
+of water are compelled to pass, even with the fairest winds.
+
+"Shake the reef out of the mainsail, Mr. Mulford," said Spike, when
+the Swash was fairly in motion again on this advantageous tack. "We
+shall pass well to windward of the steamer, and may as well begin to
+open our cloth again."
+
+"Is it not a little too soon, sir?" Mulford ventured to remonstrate;
+"the reef is a large one, and will make a great difference in the
+size of the sail."
+
+"They'll not see it at this distance. No, no, sir, shake out the
+reef, and sway away on the topgallant-mast rope; I'm for bringing
+the Molly Swash into her old shape again, and make her look handsome
+once more."
+
+"Do you dress the brig, as well as undress her, o'mights; Captain
+Spike?" inquired the ship-master's reliet, a little puzzled with
+this fickleness of purpose. "I do not believe my poor Mr. Budd ever
+did that."
+
+"Fashions change, madam, with the times--ay, ay, sir--shake out the
+reef, and sway away on that mast-rope, boys, as soon as you have
+manned it. We'll convart our schooner into a brig again."
+
+As these orders were obeyed, of course, a general bustle now took
+place. Mulford soon had the reef out, and the sail distended to the
+utmost, while the topgallant-mast was soon up and fidded. The next
+thing was to sway upon the fore-yard, and get that into its place.
+The people were busied at this duty, when a hoarse hail came across
+the water on the heavy night air.
+
+"Brig ahoy!" was the call.
+
+"Sway upon that fore-yard," said Spike, unmoved by this
+summons--"start it, start it at once."
+
+"The steamer hails us, sir," said the mate.
+
+"Not she. She is hailing a brig; we are a schooner yet."
+
+A moment of active exertion succeeded, during which the fore-yard
+went into its place. Then came a second hail.
+
+"Schooner, ahoy!" was the summons this time.
+
+"The steamer hails us again, Captain Spike."
+
+"The devil a bit. We're a brig now, and she hails a schooner. Come
+boys, bestir yourselves, and get the canvas on Molly for'ard. Loose
+the fore-course before you quit the yard there, then up aloft and
+loosen everything you can find."
+
+All was done as ordered, and done rapidly, as is ever the case on
+board a well-ordered vessel when there is occasion for exertion.
+That occasion now appeared to exist in earnest, for while the men
+were sheeting home the topsail, a flash of light illuminated the
+scene, when the roar of a gun came booming across the water,
+succeeded by the very distinct whistling of its shot. We regret that
+the relict of the late Captain Budd did not behave exactly as became
+a shipmaster's widow, under fire. Instead of remaining silent and
+passive, even while frightened, as was the case with Rose, she
+screamed quite as loud as she had previously done that very day in
+Hell-Gate. It appeared to Spike, indeed, that practice was making
+her perfect; and, as for Biddy, the spirit of emulation became so
+powerful in her bosom, that, if anything, she actually outshrieked
+her mistress. Hearing this, the widow made a second effort, and
+fairly recovered the ground some might have fancied she had lost.
+
+"Oh! Captain Spike," exclaimed the agitated widow, "do not--do not,
+if you love me, do not let them fire again!"
+
+"How am I to help it!" asked the captain, a good deal to the point,
+though he overlooked the essential fact, that, by heaving-to, and
+waiting for the steamer's boat to board him, he might have prevented
+a second shot, as completely as if he had the ordering of the whole
+affair. No second shot was fired, however. As it afterward appeared,
+the screams of Mrs. Budd and Biddy were heard on board the steamer,
+the captain of which, naturally enough, supposing that the slaughter
+must be terrible where such cries had arisen, was satisfied with the
+mischief he had already done, and directed his people to secure
+their gun and go to the capstan-bars, in order to help lift the
+anchor. In a word, the revenue vessel was getting under way,
+man-of-war fashion, which means somewhat expeditiously.
+
+Spike understood the sounds that reached him, among which was the
+call of the boatswain, and he bestirred himself accordingly.
+Experienced as he was in chases and all sorts of nautical artifices,
+he very well knew that his situation was sufficiently critical. It
+would have been so, with a steamer at his heels, in the open ocean;
+but, situated as he was, he was compelled to steer but one course,
+and to accept the wind on that course as it might offer. If he
+varied at all in his direction it was only in a trifling way, though
+he did make some of these variations. Every moment was now precious,
+however, and he endeavoured to improve the time to the utmost. He
+knew that he could greatly outsail the revenue vessel, under canvas,
+and some time would be necessary to enable her to get up her steam;
+half an hour at the very least. On that half hour, then, depended
+the fate of the Molly Swash.
+
+"Send the booms on the yards, and set stun'sails at once, Mr.
+Mulford," said Spike, the instant the more regular canvas was spread
+forward. "This wind will be free enough for all but the lower
+stun'sail, and we must drive the brig on."
+
+"Are we not looking up too high, Captain Spike? The Stepping-Stones
+are ahead of us, sir."
+
+"I know that very well, Mulford. But it's nearly high water, and the
+brig's in light trim, and we may rub and go. By making a short cut
+here, we shall gain a full mile on the steamer; that mile may save
+us."
+
+"Do you really think it possible to get away from that craft, which
+can always make a fair wind of it, in these narrow waters, Captain
+Spike?"
+
+"One don't know, sir. Nothin' is done without tryin', and by tryin'
+more is often done than was hoped for. I have a scheme in my head,
+and Providence may favour me in bringing it about."
+
+Providence! The religionist quarrels with the philosopher if the
+latter happen to remove this interposition of a higher power, even
+so triflingly as by the intervention of secondary agencies, while
+the biggest rascal dignifies even his success by such phrases as
+Providential aid! But it is not surprising men should misunderstand
+terms, when they make such sad confusion in the acts which these
+terms are merely meant to represent. Spike had his Providence as
+well as a priest, and we dare say he often counted on its succour,
+with quite as rational grounds of dependence as many of the
+pharisees who are constantly exclaiming, "The Temple of the Lord,
+the Temple of the Lord are these."
+
+Sail was made on board the Swash with great rapidity, and the brig
+made a bold push at the Stepping-Stones. Spike was a capital pilot.
+He insisted if he could once gain sight of the spar that was moored
+on those rocks for a buoy, he should run with great confidence. The
+two lights were of great assistance, of course; but the revenue
+vessel could see these lights as well as the brig, and she,
+doubtless, had an excellent pilot on board. By the time the
+studding-sails were set on board the Swash, the steamer was aweigh,
+and her long line of peculiar sails became visible. Unfortunately
+for men who were in a hurry, she lay so much within the bluff as to
+get the wind scant, and her commander thought it necessary to make a
+stretch over to the southern shore, before he attempted to lay his
+course. When he was ready to tack, an operation of some time with a
+vessel of her great length, the Swash was barely visible in the
+obscurity, gliding off upon a slack bowline, at a rate which nothing
+but the damp night air, the ballast-trim of the vessel, united to
+her excellent sailing qualities, could have produced with so light a
+breeze.
+
+The first half hour took the Swash completely out of sight of the
+steamer. In that time, in truth, by actual superiority in sailing,
+by her greater state of preparation, and by the distance saved by a
+bold navigation, she had gained fully a league on her pursuer. But,
+while the steamer had lost sight of the Swash, the latter kept the
+former in view, and that by means of a signal that was very
+portentous. She saw the light of the steamer's chimneys, and could
+form some opinion of her distance and position.
+
+It was about eleven o'clock when the Swash passed the light at
+Sands' Point, close in with the land. The wind stood much as it had
+been. If there was a change at all, it was half a point more to the
+southward, and it was a little fresher. Such as it was, Spike saw he
+was getting, in that smooth water, quite eight knots out of his
+craft, and he made his calculations thereon. As yet, and possibly
+for half an hour longer, he was gaining, and might hope to continue
+to gain on the steamer. Then her turn would come. Though no great
+traveller, it was not to be expected that, favoured by smooth water
+and the breeze, her speed would be less than ten knots, while there
+was no hope of increasing his own without an increase of the wind.
+He might be five miles in advance, or six at the most; these six
+miles would be overcome in three hours of steaming, to a dead
+certainty, and they might possibly be overcome much sooner. It was
+obviously necessary to resort to some other experiment than that of
+dead sailing, if an escape was to be effected.
+
+The Sound was now several miles in width, and Spike, at first,
+proposed to his mate, to keep off dead before the wind, and by
+crossing over to the north shore, let the steamer pass ahead, and
+continue a bootless chase to the eastward. Several vessels, however,
+were visible in the middle of the passage, at distances varying from
+one to three miles, and Mulford pointed out the hopelessness of
+attempting to cross the sheet of open water, and expect to go unseen
+by the watchful eyes of the revenue people.
+
+"What you say is true enough, Mr. Mulford," answered Spike, after a
+moment of profound reflection, "and every foot that they come
+nearer, the less will be our chance. But here is Hempstead Harbour a
+few leagues ahead; if we can reach that before the blackguards
+close, we may do well enough. It is a deep bay, and has high land to
+darken the view. I don't think the brig could be seen at midnight by
+anything outside; if she was once fairly up that water a mile or
+two."
+
+"That is our chance, sir!" exclaimed Mulford cheerfully. "Ay, ay, I
+know the spot; and everything is favourable--try that, Captain
+Spike; I'll answer for it that we go clear."
+
+Spike did try it. For a considerable time longer he stood on,
+keeping as close to the land as he thought it safe to run, and
+carrying everything that would draw. But the steamer was on his
+heels, evidently gaining fast. Her chimneys gave out flames, and
+there was every sign that her people were in earnest. To those on
+board the Swash these flames seemed to draw nearer each instant, as
+indeed was the fact, and just as the breeze came fresher out of the
+opening in the hills, or the low mountains, which surround the place
+of refuge in which they designed to enter, Mulford announced that by
+aid of the night-glass he could distinguish both sails and hull of
+their pursuer. Spike took a look, and throwing down the instrument,
+in a way to endanger it, he ordered the studding-sails taken in. The
+men went aloft like cats, and worked as if they could stand in air.
+In a minute or two the Swash was under what Mrs. Budd might have
+called her "attacking" canvas, and was close by the wind, looking on
+a good leg well up the harbour. The brig seemed to be conscious of
+the emergency, and glided ahead at capital speed. In five minutes
+she had shut in the flaming chimneys of the steamer. In five minutes
+more Spike tacked, to keep under the western side of the harbour,
+and out of sight as long as possible, and because he thought the
+breeze drew down fresher where he was than more out in the bay.
+
+All now depended on the single fact whether the brig had been seen
+from the steamer or not, before she hauled into the bay. If seen,
+she had probably been watched; if not seen, there were strong
+grounds for hoping that she might still escape. About a quarter of
+an hour after Spike hauled up, the burning chimneys came again into
+view. The brig was then half a league within the bay, with a fine
+dark background of hills to throw her into shadow. Spike ordered
+everything taken in but the trysail, under which the brig was left
+to set slowly over toward the western side of the harbour. He now
+rubbed his hands with delight, and pointed out to Mulford the
+circumstance that the steamer kept on her course directly athwart
+the harbour's mouth! Had she seen the Swash, no doubt she would have
+turned into the bay also. Nevertheless, an anxious ten minutes
+succeeded, during which the revenue vessel steamed fairly past, and
+shut in her flaming chimneys again by the eastern headlands of the
+estuary.
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  The western wave was all a flame,
+  The day was well nigh done,
+  Almost upon the western wave
+  Rested the broad bright sun;
+  When that strange ship drove suddenly
+  Betwixt us and the sun.
+
+The Ancient Mariner.
+
+At that hour, on the succeeding morning, when the light of day is
+just beginning to chase away the shadows of night, the Molly Swash
+became visible within the gloom of the high land which surrounds so
+much of the bay of Hempstead, under easy sail, backing and filling,
+in order to keep within her hiding-place, until a look could be had
+at the state of things without. Half an hour later, she was so near
+the entrance of the estuary, as to enable the look-outs aloft to
+ascertain that the coast was clear, when Spike ordered the helm to
+be put up, and the brig to be kept away to her course. At this
+precise moment, Rose appeared on deck, refreshed by the sleep of a
+quiet night; and with cheeks tinged with a colour even more delicate
+than that which was now glowing in the eastern sky, and which was
+almost as brilliant.
+
+"We stopped in this bit of a harbour for the night, Miss Rose, that
+is all;" said Spike, observing that his fair passenger was looking
+about her, in some little surprise, at finding the vessel so near
+the land, and seemingly so much out of her proper position. "Yes, we
+always do that, when we first start on a v'y'ge, and before the brig
+gets used to travelling--do n't we, Mr. Mulford?"
+
+Mr. Mulford, who knew how hopeless was the attempt to mystify Rose,
+as one might mystify her credulous and weak-minded aunt, and who had
+no disposition to deal any way but fairly by the beautiful, and in
+one sense now helpless young creature before him, did not see fit to
+make any reply. Offend Spike he did not dare to do, more especially
+under present circumstances; and mislead Rose he would not do. He
+affected not to hear the question, therefore, but issuing an order
+about the head-sails, he walked forward as if to see it executed.
+Rose herself was not under as much restraint as the young mate.
+
+"It is convenient, Captain Spike," she coolly answered for Mulford,
+"to have stopping-places, for vessels that are wearied, and I
+remember the time when my uncle used to tell me of such matters,
+very much in the same vein; but, it was before I was twelve years
+old."
+
+Spike hemmed, and he looked a little foolish, but Clench, the
+boatswain, coming aft to say something to him in confidence, just at
+that moment, he was enabled to avoid the awkwardness of attempting
+to explain. This man Clench, or Clinch, as the name was pronounced,
+was deep in the captain's secrets; far more so than was his mate,
+and would have been filling Mulford's station at that very time, had
+he not been hopelessly ignorant of navigation. On the present
+occasion, his business was to point out to the captain, two or three
+lines of smoke, that were visible above the water of the Sound, in
+the eastern board; one of which he was apprehensive might turn out
+to be the smoke of the revenue craft, from which they had so
+recently escaped.
+
+"Steamers are no rarities in Long Island Sound, Clench," observed
+the captain, levelling his glass at the most suspected of the
+smokes. "That must be a Providence, or Stonington chap, coming west
+with the Boston train."
+
+"Either of them would have been further west, by this time, Captain
+Spike," returned the doubting, but watchful boatswain. "It's a large
+smoke, and I fear it is the revenue fellow coming back, after having
+had a look well to the eastward, and satisfying himself that we are
+not to be had in that quarter."
+
+Spike growled out his assent to the possibility of such a
+conjecture, and promised vigilance. This satisfied his subordinate
+for the moment, and he walked forward, or to the place where he
+belonged. In the mean time, the widow came on deck, smiling, and
+snuffing the salt air, and ready to be delighted with anything that
+was maritime.
+
+"Good morning, Captain Spike," she cried--"Are we in the offing,
+yet?--you know I desired to be told when we are in the offing, for I
+intend to write a letter to my poor Mr. Budd's sister, Mrs. Sprague,
+as soon as we get to the offing."
+
+"What is the offing, aunt?" inquired the handsome niece.
+
+"Why you have hardly been at sea long enough to understand me,
+child, should I attempt to explain. The offing, however, is the
+place where the last letters are always written to the owners, and
+to friends ashore. The term comes, I suppose, from the circumstance
+that the vessel is about to be off, and it is natural to think of
+those we leave behind, at such a moment. I intend to write to your
+aunt Sprague, my dear, the instant I hear we are in the offing; and
+what is more, I intend to make you my amanuensis."
+
+"But how will the letter be sent, aunty?--I have no more objections
+to writing than any one else, but I do not see how the letter is to
+be sent. Really, the sea is a curious region, with its
+stopping-places for the night, and its offings to write letters at!"
+
+"Yes, it's all as you say, Rose--a most remarkable region is the
+sea! You'll admire it, as I admire it, when you come to know it
+better; and as your poor uncle admired it, and as Captain Spike
+admires it, too. As for the letters, they can be sent ashore by the
+pilot, as letters are always sent."
+
+"But, aunty, there is no pilot in the Swash--for Captain Spike
+refused to take one on board."
+
+"Rose!--you don't understand what you are talking about! No vessel
+ever yet sailed without a pilot, if indeed any can. It's opposed to
+the law, not to have a pilot; and now I remember to have heard your
+dear uncle say it wasn't a voyage if a vessel didn't take away a
+pilot."
+
+"But if they take them away, aunty, how can they send the letters
+ashore by them?"
+
+"Poh! poh! child; you don't know what you're saying; but you'll
+overlook it, I hope, Captain Spike, for Rose is quick, and will soon
+learn to know better. As if letters couldn't be sent ashore by the
+pilot, though he was a hundred thousand miles from land! But,
+Captain Spike, you must let me know when we are about to get off the
+Sound, for I know that the pilot is always sent ashore with his
+letters, before the vessel gets off the Sound."
+
+"Yes, yes," returned the captain, a little mystified by the widow,
+though he knew her so well, and understood her so well--"you shall
+know, ma'am, when we get off soundings, for I suppose that is what
+you mean."
+
+"What is the difference? Off the Sound, or off the soundings, of
+course, must mean the same thing. But, Rosy, we will go below and
+write to your aunt at once, for I see a light-house yonder, and
+light-houses are always put just off the soundings."
+
+Rose, who always suspected her aunt's nautical talk, though she did
+not know how to correct it, and was not sorry to put an end to it,
+now, by going below, and spreading her own writing materials, in
+readiness to write, as the other dictated. Biddy Noon was present,
+sewing on some of her own finery.
+
+"Now write, as I tell you, Rose," commenced the widow--"My dear
+sister Sprague--Here we are, at last, just off the soundings, with
+light-houses all round us, and so many capes and islands in sight,
+that it does seem as if the vessel never could find its way through
+them all. Some of these islands must be the West Indies"--"Aunty,
+that can never be!" exclaimed Rose--"we left New York only
+yesterday."
+
+"What of that? Had it been old times, I grant you several days might
+be necessary to get a sight of the West Indies, but, now, when a
+letter can be written to a friend in Boston, and an answer received
+in half an hour, it requires no such time to go to the West Indies.
+Besides, what other islands are there in this part of the
+world?--they can't be England--"
+
+"No--no,"--said Rose, at once seeing it would be preferable to admit
+they were the West Indies; so the letter went on:--"Some of these
+islands must be the West Indies, and it is high time we saw some of
+them, for we are nearly off the Sound, and the light-houses are
+getting to be quite numerous. I think we have already seen four
+since we left the wharf. But, my dear sister Sprague, you will be
+delighted to hear how much better Rose's health is already
+becoming--"
+
+"My health, aunty! Why, I never knew an ill day in my life!"
+
+"Don't tell me that, my darling; I know too well what all these
+deceptive appearances of health amount to. I would not alarm you for
+the world, Rosy dear, but a careful parent--and I'm your parent in
+affection, if not by nature--but a careful parent's eye is not to be
+deceived. I know you look well, but you are ill, my child; though,
+Heaven be praised, the sea air and hydropathy are already doing you
+a monstrous deal of good."
+
+As Mrs. Budd concluded, she wiped her eyes, and appeared really glad
+that her niece had a less consumptive look than when she embarked.
+Rose sat, gazing at her aunt, in mute astonishment. She knew how
+much and truly she was beloved, and that induced her to be more
+tolerant of her connection's foibles than even duty demanded.
+Feeling was blended with her respect, but it was almost too much for
+her, to learn that this long, and in some respects painful voyage,
+was undertaken on her account, and without the smallest necessity
+for it. The vexation, however, would have been largely increased,
+but for certain free communications that had occasionally occurred
+between her and the handsome mate, since the moment of her coming on
+board the brig. Rose knew that Harry Mulford loved her, too, for he
+had told her as much with a seaman's frankness; and though she had
+never let him know that his partiality was returned, her woman's
+heart was fast inclining toward him, with all her sex's tenderness.
+This made the mistake of her aunt tolerable, though Rose was
+exceedingly vexed it should ever have occurred.
+
+"Why, my dearest aunt," she cried, "they told me it was on your
+account that this voyage was undertaken!"
+
+"I know they did, poor, dear Rosy, and that was in order not to
+alarm you. Some persons of delicate constitutions--"
+
+"But my constitution is not in the least delicate, aunt; on the
+contrary, it is as good as possible; a blessing for which, I trust,
+I am truly grateful, I did not know but you might be suffering,
+though you do look so well, for they all agreed in telling me you
+had need of a sea-voyage."
+
+"I, a subject for hydropathy! Why, child, water is no more necessary
+to me than it is to a cat."
+
+"But going to sea, aunty, is not hydropathy--"
+
+"Don't say that, Rosy; do not say that, my dear. It is hydropathy on
+a large scale, as Captain Spike says; and when he gets us into blue
+water, he has promised that you shall have all the benefits of the
+treatment."
+
+Rose was silent and thoughtful; after which she spoke quickly, like
+one to whom an important thought had suddenly occurred.
+
+"And Captain Spike, then, was consulted in my case?" she asked.
+
+"He was, my dear, and you have every reason to be grateful to him.
+He was the first to discover a change in your appearance, and to
+suggest a sea voyage. Marine Hydropathy, he said, he was sure would
+get you up again; for Captain Spike thinks your constitution good at
+the bottom, though the high colour you have proves too high a state
+of habitual excitement."
+
+"Was Dr. Monson consulted at all, aunt?"
+
+"Not at all. You know the doctors are all against hydropathy, and
+mesmerism, and the magnetic telegraph, and everything that is new;
+so we thought it best not to consult him."
+
+"And my aunt Sprague?"
+
+"Yes, she was consulted after everything was settled, and when I
+knew her notions could not undo what had been already done. But she
+is a seaman's widow, as well as myself, and has a great notion of
+the virtue of sea air."
+
+"Then it would seem that Doctor Spike was the principal adviser in
+my case!"
+
+"I own that he was, Rosy dear. Captain Spike was brought up by your
+uncle, who has often told me what a thorough seaman he was. `There's
+Spike, now,' he said to me one day, `he can almost make his brig
+talk'--this very brig too, your uncle meant, Rosy, and, of course,
+one of the best vessels in the world to take hydropathy in."
+
+"Yes, aunty," returned Rose, playing with the pen, while her air
+proved how little her mind was in her words. "Well, what shall I say
+next to my aunt Sprague?"
+
+"Rose's health is already becoming confirmed," resumed the widow,
+who thought it best to encourage her niece by as strong terms as she
+could employ, "and I shall extol hydropathy to the skies, as long as
+I live. As soon as we reach our port of destination, my dear sister
+Sprague, I shall write you a line to let you know it, by the
+magnetic telegraph--"
+
+"But there is no magnetic telegraph on the sea, aunty," interrupted
+Rose, looking up from the paper, with her clear, serene, blue eyes,
+expressing even her surprise, at this touch of the relict's
+ignorance.
+
+"Don't tell me that, Rosy, child, when everybody says the sparks
+will fly round the whole earth, just as soon as they will fly from
+New York to Philadelphia."
+
+"But they must have something to fly on, aunty; and the ocean will
+not sustain wires, or posts."
+
+"Well, there is no need of being so particular; if there is no
+telegraph, the letter must come by mail. You can say telegraph,
+here, and when your aunt gets the letter, the postmark will tell her
+how it came. It looks better to talk about telegraphic
+communications, child."
+
+Rose resumed her pen, and wrote at her aunt's dictation, as
+follows:--"By the magnetic telegraph, when I hope to be able to tell
+you that our dear Rose is well. As yet, we both enjoy the ocean
+exceedingly; but when we get off the Sound, into blue water, and
+have sent the pilot ashore, or discharged him, I ought to say, which
+puts me in mind of telling you that a cannon was discharged at us
+only last night, and that the ball whistled so near me, that I heard
+it as plain as ever you heard Rose's piano."
+
+"Had I not better first tell my aunt Sprague what is to be done when
+the pilot is discharged?"
+
+"No; tell her about the cannon that was discharged, first, and about
+the ball that I heard. I had almost forgot that adventure, which was
+a very remarkable one, was it not, Biddy?"
+
+"Indeed, Missus, and it was! and Miss Rose might put in the letter
+how we both screamed at that cannon, and might have been heard as
+plainly, every bit of it, as the ball."
+
+"Say nothing on the subject, Rose, or we shall never hear the last
+of it. So, darling, you may conclude in your own way, for I believe
+I have told your aunt all that comes to mind."
+
+Rose did as desired, finishing the epistle in a very few words, for,
+rightly enough, she had taken it into her head there was no pilot to
+be discharged, and consequently that the letter would never be sent.
+Her short but frequent conferences with Mulford were fast opening
+her eyes, not to say her heart, and she was beginning to see Captain
+Spike in his true character, which was that of a great scoundrel. It
+is true, that the mate had not long judged his commander quite so
+harshly; but had rather seen his beautiful brig, and her rare
+qualities, in her owner and commander, than the man himself; but
+jealousy had quickened his observation of late, and Stephen Spike
+had lost ground sensibly with Harry Mulford, within the last week.
+Two or three times before, the young man had thought of seeking
+another berth, on account of certain distrusts of Spike's
+occupations; but he was poor, and so long as he remained in the
+Swash, Harry's opportunities of meeting Rose were greatly increased.
+This circumstance, indeed, was the secret of his still being in the
+"Molly," as Spike usually called his craft; the last voyage having
+excited suspicions that were rather of a delicate nature. Then the
+young man really loved the brig, which, if she could not be
+literally made to talk, could be made to do almost everything else.
+A vessel, and a small vessel, too, is rather contracted as to space,
+but those who wish to converse can contrive to speak together often,
+even in such narrow limits. Such had been the fact with Rose Budd
+and the handsome mate. Twenty times since they sailed, short as that
+time was, had Mulford contrived to get so near to Rose, as to talk
+with her, unheard by others. It is true, that he seldom ventured to
+do this, so long as the captain was in sight, but Spike was often
+below, and opportunities were constantly occurring. It was in the
+course of these frequent but brief conversations, that Harry had
+made certain dark hints touching the character of his commander, and
+the known recklessness of his proceedings. Rose had taken the alarm,
+and fully comprehending her aunt's mental imbecility, her situation
+was already giving her great uneasiness. She had some undefined
+hopes from the revenue steamer; though, strangely enough as it
+appeared to her, her youngest and most approved suitor betrayed a
+strong desire to escape from that craft, at the very moment he was
+expressing his apprehensions on account of her presence in the brig.
+This contradiction arose from a certain esprit de corps, which
+seldom fails, more or less, to identify the mariner with his ship.
+
+But the writing was finished, and the letter sealed with wax, Mrs.
+Budd being quite as particular in that ceremony as Lord Nelson, when
+the females again repaired on deck. They found Spike and his mate
+sweeping the eastern part of the Sound with their glasses, with a
+view to look out for enemies; or, what to them, just then, was much
+the same thing, government craft. In this occupation, Rose was a
+little vexed to see that Mulford was almost as much interested as
+Spike himself, the love of his vessel seemingly overcoming his love
+for her, if not his love of the right--she knew of no reason,
+however, why the captain should dread any other vessel, and felt
+sufficiently provoked to question him a little on the subject, if it
+were only to let him see that the niece was not as completely his
+dupe as the aunt. She had not been on deck five minutes, therefore,
+during which time several expressions had escaped the two sailors
+touching their apprehensions of vessels seen in the distance, ere
+she commenced her inquiries.
+
+"And why should we fear meeting with other vessels?" Rose plainly
+demanded--"here in Long Island Sound, and within the power of the
+laws of the country?"
+
+"Fear?" exclaimed Spike, a little startled, and a good deal
+surprised at this straight-forward question--"Fear, Miss Rose! You
+do not think we are afraid, though there are many reasons why we do
+not wish to be spoken by certain craft that are hovering about. In
+the first place, you know it is war time--I suppose you know, Madam
+Budd, that America is at war with Mexico?"
+
+"Certainly," answered the widow, with dignity--"and that is a
+sufficient reason, Rose, why one vessel should chase, and another
+should run. If you had heard your poor uncle relate, as I have done,
+all his chasings and runnings away, in the war times, child, you
+would understand these things better. Why, I've heard your uncle say
+that, in some of his long voyages, he has run thousands and
+thousands of miles, with sails set on both sides, and all over his
+ship!"
+
+"Yes, aunty, and so have I, but that was `running before the wind,'
+as he used to call it."
+
+"I s'pose, however, Miss Rose," put in Spike, who saw that the niece
+would soon get the better of the aunt;--"I s'pose, Miss Rose, that
+you'll acknowledge that America is at war with Mexico?"
+
+"I am sorry to say that such is the fact, but I remember to have
+heard you say, yourself, Captain Spike, when my aunt was induced to
+undertake this voyage, that you did not consider there was the
+smallest danger from any Mexicans."
+
+"Yes, you did, Captain Spike," added the aunt--"you did say there
+was no danger from Mexicans."
+
+"Nor is there a bit, Madam Budd, if Miss Rose, and your honoured
+self, will only hear me. There is no danger, because the brig has
+the heels of anything Mexico can send to sea. She has sold her
+steamers, and, as for anything else under her flag, I would not care
+a straw."
+
+"The steamer from which we ran, last evening, and which actually
+fired off a cannon at us, was not Mexican, but American," said Rose,
+with a pointed manner that put Spike to his trumps.
+
+"Oh! that steamer--" he stammered--"that was a race--only a race,
+Miss Rose, and I wouldn't let her come near me, for the world. I
+should never hear the last of it, in the insurance offices, and on
+'change, did I let her overhaul us. You see, Miss Rose--you see,
+Madam Budd--" Spike ever found it most convenient to address his
+mystifying discourse to the aunt, in preference to addressing it to
+the niece--"You see, Madam Budd, the master of that craft and I are
+old cronies--sailed together when boys, and set great store by each
+other. We met only last evening, just a'ter I had left your own
+agreeable mansion, Madam Budd, and says he, `Spike, when do you
+sail?' `To-morrow's flood, Jones,' says I--his name is Jones;--Peter
+Jones, and as good a fellow as ever lived. `Do you go by the Hook,
+or by Hell-Gate--'"
+
+"Hurl-Gate, Captain Spike, if you please--or Whirl-Gate, which some
+people think is the true sound; but the other way of saying it is
+awful."
+
+"Well, the captain, my old master, always called it Hell-Gate, and I
+learned the trick from him--"
+
+"I know he did, and so do all sailors; but genteel people,
+now-a-days, say nothing but Hurl-Gate, or Whirl-Gate."
+
+Rose smiled at this; as did Mulford; but neither said anything, the
+subject having once before been up between them. As for ourselves,
+we are still so old-fashioned as to say, and write, Hell-Gate, and
+intend so to do, in spite of all the Yankees that have yet passed
+through it, or who ever shall pass through it, and that is saying a
+great deal. We do not like changing names to suit their uneasy
+spirits.
+
+"Call the place Hurl-Gate, and go on with your story," said the
+widow, complacently.
+
+"Yes, Madam Budd--`Do you go by the Hook, or by Whirl-Gate?' said
+Jones. `By Whirl-a-Gig-Gate,' says I. `Well,' says he, `I shall go
+through the Gate myself, in the course of the morning. We may meet
+somewhere to the eastward, and, if we do, I'll bet you a beaver,'
+says he, `that I show you my stern.' `Agreed,' says I, and we shook
+hands upon it. That's the whole history of our giving the steamer
+the slip, last night, and of my not wishing to let her speak me."
+
+"But you went into a bay, and let her go past you," said Rose,
+coolly enough as to manner, but with great point as to substance.
+"Was not that a singular way of winning a race?"
+
+"It does seem so, Miss Rose, but it's all plain enough, when
+understood. I found that steam was too much for sails, and I stood
+up into the bay to let them run past us, in hopes they would never
+find out the trick. I care as little for a hat as any man, but I do
+care a good deal about having it reported on 'change that the Molly
+was beat, by even a steamer."
+
+This ended the discourse for the moment, Clench again having
+something to say to his captain in private.
+
+"How much of that explanation am I to believe, and how much
+disbelieve?" asked Rose, the instant she was left alone with Harry.
+"If it be all invention, it was a ready and ingenious story."
+
+"No part of it is true. He no more expected that the steamer would
+pass through Hell-Gate, than I expected it myself. There was no bet,
+or race, therefore; but it was our wish to avoid Uncle Sam's
+cruiser, that was all."
+
+"And why should you wish any such thing?"
+
+"On my honour, I can give you no better reason, so far as I am
+concerned, than the fact that, wishing to keep clear of her, I do
+not like to be overhauled. Nor can I tell you why Spike is so much
+in earnest in holding the revenue vessel at arm's length; I know he
+dislikes all such craft, as a matter of course, but I can see no
+particular reason for it just now. A more innocent cargo was never
+stuck into a vessel's hold."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Flour; and no great matter of that. The brig is not half full,
+being just in beautiful ballast trim, as if ready for a race. I can
+see no sufficient reason, beyond native antipathy, why Captain Spike
+should wish to avoid any craft, for it is humbug his dread of a
+Mexican, and least of all, here, in Long Island Sound. All that
+story about Jones is a tub for whales."
+
+"Thank you for the allusion; my aunt and myself being the whales."
+
+"You know I do mean--can mean nothing, Rose, that is disrespectful
+to either yourself or your aunt."
+
+Rose looked up, and she looked pleased. Then she mused in silence,
+for some time, when she again spoke.
+
+"Why have you remained another voyage with such a man, Harry?" she
+asked, earnestly.
+
+"Because, as his first officer, I have had access to your house,
+when I could not have had it otherwise; and because I have
+apprehended that he might persuade Mrs. Budd, as he had boasted to
+me it was his intention to do, to make this voyage."
+
+Rose now looked grateful; and deeply grateful did she feel, and had
+reason to feel. Harry had concealed no portion of his history from
+her. Like herself, he was a shipmaster's child, but one better
+educated and better connected than was customary for the class. His
+father had paid a good deal of attention to the youth's early years,
+but had made a seaman of him, out of choice. The father had lost his
+all, however, with his life, in a shipwreck; and Harry was thrown
+upon his own resources, at the early age of twenty. He had made one
+or two voyages as a second mate, when chance threw him in Spike's
+way, who, pleased with some evidences of coolness and skill, that he
+had shown in a foreign port, on the occasion of another loss, took
+him as his first officer; in which situation he had remained ever
+since, partly from choice and partly from necessity. On the other
+hand, Rose had a fortune; by no means a large one, but several
+thousands in possession, from her own father, and as many more in
+reversion from her uncle. It was this money, taken in connection
+with the credulous imbecility of the aunt, that had awakened the
+cupidity, and excited the hopes of Spike. After a life of lawless
+adventure, one that had been chequered by every shade of luck, he
+found himself growing old, with his brig growing old with him, and
+little left beside his vessel and the sort of half cargo that was in
+her hold. Want of means, indeed, was the reason that the
+flour-barrels were not more numerous.
+
+Rose heard Mulford's explanation favourably, as indeed she heard
+most of that which came from him, but did not renew the discourse,
+Spike's conference with the boatswain just then terminating. The
+captain now came aft, and began to speak of the performances of his
+vessel in a way to show that he took great pride in them.
+
+"We are travelling at the rate of ten knots, Madam Budd," he said
+exultingly, "and that will take us clear of the land, before night
+shuts in ag'in. Montauk is a good place for an offing; I ask for no
+better."
+
+"Shall we then have two offings, this voyage, Captain Spike?" asked
+Rose, a little sarcastically. "If we are in the offing now, and are
+to be in the offing when we reach Montauk, there must be two such
+places."
+
+"Rosy, dear, you amaze me!" put in the aunt. "There is no offing
+until the pilot is discharged, and when he's discharged there is
+nothing but offing. It's all offing. On the Sound, is the first
+great change that befalls a vessel as she goes to sea; then comes
+the offing; next the pilot is discharged--then--then--what comes
+next, Captain Spike?"
+
+"Then the vessel takes her departure--an old navigator like
+yourself, Madam Budd, ought not to forget the departure."
+
+"Quite true, sir. The departure is a very important portion of a
+seaman's life. Often and often have I heard my poor dear Mr. Budd
+talk about his departures. His departures, and his offings and
+his--"
+
+"Land-falls," added Spike, perceiving that the shipmaster's relict
+was a little at fault.
+
+"Thank you, sir; the hint is quite welcome. His landfalls, also,
+were often in his mouth."
+
+"What is a land-fall, aunty?" inquired Rose--"It appears a strange
+term to be used by one who lives on the water."
+
+"Oh! there is no end to the curiosities of sailors! A `land-fall,'
+my dear, means a shipwreck, of course. To fall on the land, and a
+very unpleasant fall it is, when a vessel should keep on the water.
+I've heard of dreadful land-falls in my day, in which hundreds of
+souls have been swept into eternity, in an instant."
+
+"Yes; yes, Madam Budd--there are such accidents truly, and serious
+things be they to encounter," answered Spike, hemming a little to
+clear his throat, as was much his practice whenever the widow ran
+into any unusually extravagant blunder; "yes, serious things to
+encounter. But the land-fall that I mean is a different sort of
+thing; being, as you well know, what we say when we come in sight of
+land, a'ter a v'y'ge; or, meaning the land we may happen first to
+see. The departure is the beginning of our calculation when we lose
+sight of the last cape or headland, and the land-fall closes it, by
+letting us know where we are, at the other end of our journey, as
+you probably remember."
+
+"Is there not such a thing as clearing out in navigation?" asked
+Rose, quickly, willing to cover a little confusion that was manifest
+in her aunt's manner.
+
+"Not exactly in navigation, Miss Rose, but clearing out, with honest
+folk, ought to come first, and navigation a'terwards. Clearing out
+means going through the Custom-House, accordin' to law."
+
+"And the Molly Swash has cleared out, I hope?"
+
+"Sartain--a more lawful clearance was never given in Wall Street;
+it's for Key West and a market. I did think of making it Havana and
+a market, but port-charges are lightest at Key West."
+
+"Then Key West is the place to which we are bound?"
+
+"It ought to be, agreeable to papers; though vessels sometimes miss
+the ports for which they clear."
+
+Rose put no more questions; and her aunt, being conscious that she
+had not appeared to advantage in the affair of the "land-fall," was
+also disposed to be silent. Spike and Mulford had their attention
+drawn to the vessel, and the conversation dropped.
+
+The reader can readily suppose that the Molly Swash had not been
+standing still all this time. So far from this, she was running
+"down Sound," with the wind on her quarter, or at south-west, making
+great head-way, as she was close under the south shore, or on the
+island side of the water she was in. The vessel had no other motion
+than that of her speed, and the females escaped everything like
+sea-sickness, for the time being. This enabled them to attend to
+making certain arrangements necessary to their comforts below,
+previously to getting into rough water. In acquitting herself of
+this task, Rose received much useful advice from Josh, though his
+new assistant, Jack Tier, turned out to be a prize indeed, in the
+cabins. The first was only a steward; but the last proved himself
+not only a handy person of his calling, but one full of resources--a
+genius, in his way. Josh soon became so sensible of his own
+inferiority, in contributing to the comforts of females, that he
+yielded the entire management of the "ladies' cabin," as a little
+place that might have been ten feet square, was called, to his
+uncouth-looking, but really expert deputy. Jack waddled about below,
+as if born and brought up in such a place, and seemed every way
+fitted for his office. In height, and in build generally, there was
+a surprising conformity between the widow and the steward's deputy,
+a circumstance which might induce one to think they must often have
+been in each other's way, in a space so small; though, in point of
+fact, Jack never ran foul of any one. He seemed to avoid this
+inconvenience by a species of nautical instinct.
+
+Towards the turn of the day, Rose had everything arranged, and was
+surprised to find how much room she had made for her aunt and
+herself, by means of Jack's hints, and how much more comfortable it
+was possible to be, in that small cabin, than she had at first
+supposed.
+
+After dinner, Spike took his siesta. He slept in a little state-room
+that stood on the starboard side of the quarter-deck, quite aft; as
+Mulford did in one on the larboard. These two state-rooms were
+fixtures; but a light deck overhead, which connected them, shipped
+and unshipped, forming a shelter for the man at the wheel, when in
+its place, as well as for the officer of the watch, should he see
+fit to use it, in bad weather. This sort of cuddy, Spike termed his
+"coach-house."
+
+The captain had no sooner gone into his state-room, and closed its
+window, movements that were understood by Mulford, than the latter
+took occasion to intimate to Rose, by means of Jack Tier, the state
+of things on deck, when the young man was favoured with the young
+lady's company.
+
+"He has turned in for his afternoon's nap, and will sleep for just
+one hour, blow high, or blow low," said the mate, placing himself at
+Rose's side on the trunk, which formed the usual seat for those who
+could presume to take the liberty of sitting down on the
+quarter-deck. "It's a habit with him, and we can count on it, with
+perfect security."
+
+"His doing so, now, is a sign that he has no immediate fears of the
+revenue steamer?"
+
+"The coast is quite clear of her. We have taken good looks at every
+smoke, but can see nothing that appears like our late companion. She
+has doubtless gone to the eastward, on duty, and merely chased us,
+on her road."
+
+"But why should she chase us, at all?"
+
+"Because we ran. Let a dog run, or a man run, or a cat run, ten to
+one but something starts in chase. It is human nature, I believe, to
+give chase; though I will admit there was something suspicious about
+that steamer's movements--her anchoring off the Fort, for instance.
+But let her go, for the present; are you getting things right, and
+to your mind, below decks?"
+
+"Very much so. The cabin is small, and the two state-rooms the
+merest drawers that ever were used, but, by putting everything in
+its place, we have made sufficient room, and no doubt shall be
+comfortable."
+
+"I am sorry you did not call on me for assistance. The mate has a
+prescriptive right to help stow away."
+
+"We made out without your services," returned Rose, slightly
+blushing--"Jack Tier, as he is called, Josh's assistant, is a very
+useful person, and has been our adviser and manager. I want no
+better for such services."
+
+"He is a queer fellow, all round. Take him altogether, I hardly ever
+saw so droll a being! As thick as he's long, with a waddle like a
+duck, a voice that is cracked, hair like bristles, and knee high;
+the man might make a fortune as a show. Tom Thumb is scarcely a
+greater curiosity."
+
+"He is singular in `build,' as you call it," returned Rose,
+laughing, "but, I can assure you that he is a most excellent fellow
+in his way--worth a dozen of Josh. Do you know, Harry, that I
+suspect he has strong feelings towards Captain Spike; though whether
+of like or dislike, friendship or enmity, I am at a loss to say."
+
+"And why do you think that he has any feeling at all? I have heard
+Spike say he left the fellow ashore, somewhere down on the Spanish
+Main, or in the Islands, quite twenty years since; but a sailor
+would scarce carry a grudge so long a time, for such a thing as
+that."
+
+"I do not know--but feeling there is, and much of it, too; though,
+whether hostile or friendly, I will not undertake to say."
+
+"I'll look to the chap, now you tell me this. It is a little odd,
+the manner in which he got on board us, taken in connection with the
+company he was in, and a discovery may be made. Here he is, however;
+and, as I keep the keys of the magazine, he can do us no great harm,
+unless he scuttles the brig."
+
+"Magazine! Is there such a thing here?"
+
+"To be sure there is, and ammunition enough in it to keep eight
+carronades in lively conversation for a couple of hours."
+
+"A carronade is what you call a gun, is it not?"
+
+"A piece of a one--being somewhat short, like your friend, Jack
+Tier, who is shaped a good deal like a carronade."
+
+Rose smiled--nay, half laughed, for Harry's pleasantries almost took
+the character of wit in her eyes, but she did not the less pursue
+her inquiries.
+
+"Guns! And where are they, if they be on this vessel?"
+
+"Do not use such a lubberly expression, my dear Rose, if you respect
+your father's profession. On a vessel, is a new-fangled Americanism,
+that is neither fish, flesh, nor red-herring, as we sailors
+say--neither English nor Greek."
+
+"What should I say, then? My wish is not to parade sea-talk, but to
+use it correctly, when I use it at all."
+
+"The expression is hardly `sea-talk,' as you call it, but every-day
+English--that is, when rightly used. On a vessel is no more English
+than it is nautical--no sailor ever used such an expression."
+
+"Tell me what I ought to say, and you will find me a willing, if not
+an apt scholar. I am certain of having often read it, in the
+newspapers, and that quite lately."
+
+"I'll answer for that, and it's another proof of its being wrong. In
+a vessel is as correct as in a coach, and on a vessel as wrong as
+can be; but you can say on board a vessel, though not `on the boards
+of a vessel;' as Mrs. Budd has it."
+
+"Mr. Mulford!"
+
+"I beg a thousand pardons, Rose, and will offend no more--though she
+does make some very queer mistakes!"
+
+"My aunt thinks it an honour to my uncle's memory, to be able to use
+the language of his professional life, and if she does sometimes
+make mistakes that are absurd, it is with motives so respectable
+that no sailor should deride them."
+
+"I am rebuked for ever. Mrs. Budd may call the anchor a silver
+spoon, hereafter, without my even smiling. But if the aunt has this
+kind remembrance of a seaman's life, why cannot the niece think
+equally well of it?"
+
+"Perhaps she does," returned Rose, smiling again--"seeing all its
+attractions through the claims of Captain Spike."
+
+"I think half the danger from him gone, now that you seem so much on
+your guard. What an odious piece of deception, to persuade Mrs. Budd
+that you were fast falling into a decline!"
+
+"One so odious that I shall surely quit the brig at the first port
+we enter, or even in the first suitable vessel that we may speak."
+
+"And Mrs. Budd--could you persuade her to such a course?"
+
+"You scarce know us, Harry Mulford. My aunt commands, when there is
+no serious duty to perform, but we change places when there is. I
+can persuade her to anything that is right, in ten minutes."
+
+"You might persuade a world!" cried Harry, with strong admiration
+expressed in his countenance; after which he began to converse with
+Rose, on a subject so interesting to themselves, that we do not
+think it prudent to relate any more of the discourse, forgetting all
+about the guns.
+
+About four o'clock, of a fine summer's afternoon, the Swash went
+through the Race, on the best of the ebb, and with a staggering
+south-west wind. Her movement by the land, just at that point, could
+not have been less than at the rate of fifteen miles in the hour.
+Spike was in high spirits, for his brig had got on famously that
+day, and there was nothing in sight to the eastward. He made no
+doubt, as he had told his mate, that the steamer had gone into the
+Vineyard Sound, and that she was bound over the shoals.
+
+"They want to make political capital out of her," he added, using
+one of the slang phrases, that the "business habits" of the American
+people are so rapidly incorporating with the common language of the
+country--"They want to make political capital out of her, Harry, and
+must show her off to the Boston folk, who are full of notions. Well,
+let them turn her to as much account in that way as they please, so
+long as they keep her clear of the Molly. Your sarvant, Madam
+Budd"--addressing the widow, who just at that moment came on
+deck--"a fine a'ternoon, and likely to be a clear night to run off
+the coast in."
+
+"Clear nights are desirable, and most of all at sea, Captain Spike,"
+returned the relict, in her best, complacent manner, "whether it be
+to run off a coast, or to run on a coast. In either case, a clear
+night, or a bright moon must be useful."
+
+Captain Spike rolled his tobacco over in his mouth, and cast a
+furtive glance at the mate, but he did not presume to hazard any
+further manifestations of his disposition to laugh.
+
+"Yes, Madam Budd," he answered, "it is quite as you say, and I am
+only surprised where you have picked up so much of what I call
+useful nautical knowledge."
+
+"We live and learn, sir. You will recollect that this is not my
+first voyage, having made one before, and that I passed a happy,
+happy, thirty years, in the society of my poor, dear husband, Rose's
+uncle. One must have been dull, indeed, not to have picked up, from
+such a companion, much of a calling that was so dear to him, and the
+particulars of which were so very dear to him. He actually gave me
+lessons in the `sea dialect,' as he called it, which probably is the
+true reason I am so accurate and general in my acquisitions."
+
+"Yes, Madam Budd--yes--hem--you are--yes, you are wonderful in that
+way. We shall soon get an offing, now, Madam Budd--yes, soon get an
+offing, now."
+
+"And take in our departure, Captain Spike--" added the widow, with a
+very intelligent smile.
+
+"Yes, take our departure. Montauk is yonder, just coming in sight;
+only some three hours' run from this spot. When we get there, the
+open ocean will lie before us; and give me the open sea, and I'll
+not call the king my uncle."
+
+"Was he your uncle, Captain Spike?"
+
+"Only in a philanthropic way, Madam Budd. Yes, let us get a good
+offing, and a rapping to'gallant breeze, and I do not think I should
+care much for two of Uncle Sam's new-fashioned revenue craft, one on
+each side of me."
+
+"How delightful do I find such conversation, Rose! It's as much like
+your poor, dear uncle's, as one pea is like another. `Yes,' he used
+to say, too, `let me only have one on each side of me, and a wrapper
+round the topgallant sail to hold the breeze, and I'd not call the
+king my uncle.' Now I think of it, he used to talk about the king as
+his uncle, too."
+
+"It was all talk, aunty. He had no uncle, and, what is more, he had
+no king."
+
+"That's quite true, Miss Rose," rejoined Spike, attempting a bow,
+which ended in a sort of jerk. "It is not very becoming in us
+republicans to be talking of kings, but a habit is a habit. Our
+forefathers had kings, and we drop into their ways without thinking
+of what we are doing. Fore-topgallant yard, there?"
+
+"Sir."
+
+"Keep a bright look-out, ahead. Let me know the instant you make
+anything in the neighbourhood of Montauk."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"As I was saying, Madam Budd, we seamen drop into our forefathers'
+ways. Now, when I was a youngster, I remember, one day, that we fell
+in with a ketch--you know, Miss Rose, what a ketch is, I suppose?"
+
+"I have not the least notion of it, sir."
+
+"Rosy, you amaze me!" exclaimed the aunt--"and you a ship-master's
+niece, and a ship-master's daughter! A catch is a trick that sailors
+have, when they quiz landsmen."
+
+"Yes, Madam Budd, yes; we have them sort of catches, too; but I now
+mean the vessel with a peculiar rig, which we call a ketch, you
+know."
+
+"Is it the full-jigger, or the half-jigger sort, that you mean?"
+
+Spike could hardly stand this, and he had to hail the
+topgallant-yard again, in order to keep the command of his muscles,
+for he saw by the pretty frown that was gathering on the brow of
+Rose, that she was regarding the matter a little seriously. Luckily,
+the answer of the man on the yard diverted the mind of the widow
+from the subject, and prevented the necessity of any reply.
+
+"There's a light, of course, sir, on Montauk, is there not, Captain
+Spike?" demanded the seaman who was aloft.
+
+"To be sure there is--every head-land, hereabouts, has its light;
+and some have two."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir--it's that which puzzles me; I think I see one
+light-house, and I'm not certain but I see two."
+
+"If there is anything like a second, it must be a sail. Montauk has
+but one light."
+
+Mulford sprang into the fore-rigging, and in a minute was on the
+yard. He soon came down, and reported the lighthouse in sight, with
+the afternoon's sun shining on it, but no sail near.
+
+"My poor, dear Mr. Budd used to tell a story of his being cast away
+on a light-house, in the East Indies," put in the relict, as soon as
+the mate had ended his report, "which always affected me. It seems
+there were three ships of them together, in an awful tempest
+directly off the land--"
+
+"That was comfortable, any how," cried Spike;--"if it must blow
+hard, let it come off the land, say I."
+
+"Yes, sir, it was directly off the land, as my poor husband always
+said, which made it so much the worse you must know, Rosy; though
+Captain Spike's gallant spirit would rather encounter danger than
+not. It blew what they call a Hyson, in the Chinese seas--"
+
+"A what, aunty?--Hyson is the name of a tea, you know."
+
+"A Hyson, I'm pretty sure it was; and I suppose the wind is named
+after the tea, or the tea after the wind."
+
+"The ladies do get in a gale, sometimes, over their tea," said Spike
+gallantly. "But I rather think Madam Budd must mean a Typhoon."
+
+"That's it--a Typhoon, or a Hyson--there is not much difference
+between them, you see. Well, it blew a Typhoon, and they are always
+mortal to somebody. This my poor Mr. Budd well knew, and he had set
+his chronometer for that Typhoon--"
+
+"Excuse me, aunty, it was the barometer that he was watching--the
+chronometer was his watch."
+
+"So it was--his watch on deck was his chronometer, I declare. I am
+forgetting a part of my education. Do you know the use of a
+chronometer, now, Rose? You have seen your uncle's often, but do you
+know how he used it?"
+
+"Not in the least, aunty. My uncle often tried to explain it, but I
+never could understand him."
+
+"It must have been, then, because Captain Budd did not try to make
+himself comprehended," said Mulford, "for I feel certain nothing
+would be easier than to make you understand the uses of the
+chronometer."
+
+"I should like to learn it from you, Mr. Mulford," answered the
+charming girl, with an emphasis so slight on the `you,' that no one
+observed it but the mate, but which was clear enough to him, and
+caused every nerve to thrill.
+
+"I can attempt it," answered the young man, "if it be agreeable to
+Mrs. Budd, who would probably like to hear it herself."
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Mulford; though I fancy you can say little on such a
+subject that I have not often heard already, from my poor, dear Mr.
+Budd."
+
+"This was not very encouraging, truly; but Rose continuing to look
+interested, the mate proceeded.
+
+"The use of the chronometer is to ascertain the longitude," said
+Harry, "and the manner of doing it is, simply this: A chronometer is
+nothing more nor less than a watch, made with more care than usual,
+so as to keep the most accurate time. They are of all sizes, from
+that of a clock, down to this which I wear in my fob, and which is a
+watch in size and appearance. Now, the nautical almanacs are all
+calculated to some particular meridian--"
+
+"Yes," interrupted the relict, "Mr. Budd had a great deal to say
+about meridians."
+
+"That of London, or Greenwich, being the meridian used by those who
+use the English Almanacs, and those of Paris or St. Petersburg, by
+the French and Russians. Each of these places has an observatory,
+and chronometers that are kept carefully regulated, the year round.
+Every chronometer is set by the regulator of the particular
+observatory or place to which the almanac used is calculated."
+
+"How wonderfully like my poor, dear Mr. Budd, all this is, Rosy!
+Meridians, and calculated, and almanacs! I could almost think I
+heard your uncle entertaining me with one of his nautical
+discussions, I declare!"
+
+"Now the sun rises earlier in places east, than in places west of
+us."
+
+"It rises earlier in the summer, but later in the winter,
+everywhere, Mr. Mulford."
+
+"Yes, my dear Madam; but the sun rises earlier every day, in London,
+than it does in New York."
+
+"That is impossible," said the widow, dogmatically--"Why should not
+the sun rise at the same time in England and America?"
+
+"Because England is east of America, aunty. The sun does not move,
+you know, but only appears to us to move, because the earth turns
+round from west to east, which causes those who are farthest east to
+see it first. That is what Mr. Mulford means."
+
+"Rose has explained it perfectly well," continued the mate. "Now the
+earth is divided into 360 degrees, and the day is divided into 24
+hours. If 360 be divided by 24, the quotient will be 15. If follows
+that, for each fifteen degrees of longitude, there is a difference
+of just one hour in the rising of the sun, all over the earth, where
+it rises at all. New York is near five times 15 degrees west of
+Greenwich, and the sun consequently rises five hours later at New
+York than at London."
+
+"There must be a mistake in this, Rosy," said the relict, in a tone
+of desperate resignation, in which the desire to break out in
+dissent, was struggling oddly enough with an assumed dignity of
+deportment. "I've always heard that the people of London are some of
+the latest in the world. Then, I've been in London, and know that
+the sun rises in New York, in December, a good deal earlier than it
+does in London, by the clock--yes, by the clock."
+
+"True enough, by the clock, Mrs. Budd, for London is more than ten
+degrees north of New York, and the farther north you go, the later
+the sun rises in winter, and the earlier in summer."
+
+The relict merely shrugged her shoulders, as much as to say that she
+knew no such thing; but Rose, who had been well taught, raised her
+serene eyes to her aunt's face, and mildly said--"All true, aunty,
+and that is owing to the fact that the earth is smaller at each end
+than in the middle."
+
+"Fiddle faddle with your middles and ends, Rose--I've been in
+London, dear, and know that the sun rises later there than in New
+York, in the month of December, and that I know by the clock, I tell
+you."
+
+"The reason of which is," resumed Mulford, "because the clocks of
+each place keep the time of that place. Now, it is different with
+the chronometers; they are set in the observatory of Greenwich, and
+keep the time of Greenwich. This watch chronometer was set there,
+only six months since; and this time, as you see, is near nine
+o'clock, when in truth it is only about four o'clock here, where we
+are."
+
+"I wonder you keep such a watch, Mr. Mulford!"
+
+"I keep it," returned the mate, smiling, "because I know it to keep
+good time. It has the Greenwich time; and, as your watch has the New
+York time, by comparing them together, it is quite easy to find the
+longitude of New York."
+
+"Do you, then, keep watches to compare with your chronometers?"
+asked Rose, with interest.
+
+"Certainly not; as that would require a watch for every separate
+part of the ocean, and then we should only get known longitudes. It
+would be impracticable, and load a ship with nothing but watches.
+What we do is this: We set our chronometers at Greenwich, and thus
+keep the Greenwich true time wherever we go. The greatest attention
+is paid to the chronometers, to see that they receive no injuries;
+and usually there are two, and often more of them, to compare one
+with another, in order to see that they go well. When in the middle
+of the ocean, for instance, we find the true time of the day at that
+spot, by ascertaining the height of the sun. This we do by means of
+our quadrants, or sextants; for, as the sun is always in the zenith
+at twelve o'clock, nothing is easier than to do this, when the sun
+can be seen, and an arc of the heavens measured. At the instant the
+height of the sun is ascertained by one observer, he calls to
+another, who notes the time on the chronometer. The difference in
+these two times, or that of the chronometer and that of the sun,
+gives the distance in degrees and minutes, between the longitude of
+Greenwich and that of the place on the ocean where the observer is;
+and that gives him his longitude. If the difference is three hours
+and twenty minutes, in time, the distance from Greenwich is fifty
+degrees of longitude, because the sun rises three hours and twenty
+minutes sooner in London, than in the fiftieth degree of west
+longitude."
+
+"A watch is a watch, Rosy," put in the aunt, doggedly--"and time is
+time.--When it's four o'clock at our house, it's four o'clock at
+your aunt Sprague's, and it's so all over the world. The world may
+turn round--I'll not deny it, for your uncle often said as much as
+that, but it cannot turn in the way Mr. Mulford says, or we should
+all fall off it, at night, when it was bottom upwards. No, sir, no;
+you've started wrong. My poor, dear, late Mr. Budd, always admitted
+that the world turned round, as the books say; but when I suggested
+to him the difficulty of keeping things in their places, with the
+earth upside down, he acknowledged candidly--for he was all candour,
+I must say that for him--and owned that he had made a discovery by
+means of his barometer, which showed that the world did not turn
+round in the way you describe, or by rolling over, but by whirling
+about, as one turns in a dance. You must remember your uncle's
+telling me this, Rose?"
+
+Rose did remember her uncle's telling her aunt this, as well as a
+great many other similar prodigies. Captain Budd had married his
+silly wife on account of her pretty face, and when the novelty of
+that was over, he often amused himself by inventing all sorts of
+absurdities, to amuse both her and himself. Among other things, Rose
+well remembered his quieting her aunt's scruples about falling off
+the earth, by laying down the theory that the world did not "roll
+over," but "whirl round." But Rose did not answer the question.
+
+"Objects are kept in their places on the earth by means of
+attraction," Mulford ventured to say, with a great deal of humility
+of manner. "I believe it is thought there is no up or down, except
+as we go from or towards the earth; and that would make the position
+of the last a matter of indifference, as respects objects keeping on
+it."
+
+"Attractions are great advantages, I will own, sir, especially to
+our sex. I think it will be acknowledged there has been no want of
+them in our family, any more than there has been of sense and
+information. Sense and information we pride ourselves on;
+attractions being gifts from God, we try to think less of them. But
+all the attractions in the world could not keep Rosy, here, from
+falling off the earth, did it ever come bottom upwards. And, mercy
+on me, where would she fall to!"
+
+Mulford saw that argument was useless, and he confined his remarks,
+during the rest of the conversation, to showing Rose the manner in
+which the longitude of a place might be ascertained, with the aid of
+the chronometer, and by means of observations to get the true time
+of day, at the particular place itself. Rose was so quick-witted,
+and already so well instructed, as easily to comprehend the
+principles; the details being matters of no great moment to one of
+her sex and habits. But Mrs. Budd remained antagonist to the last.
+She obstinately maintained that twelve o'clock was twelve o'clock;
+or, if there was any difference, "London hours were notoriously
+later than those of New York."
+
+Against such assertions arguments were obviously useless, and
+Mulford, perceiving that Rose began to fidget, had sufficient tact
+to change the conversation altogether.
+
+And still the Molly Swash kept in swift motion. Montauk was by this
+time abeam, and the little brigantine began to rise and fall, on the
+long swells of the Atlantic, which now opened before her, in one
+vast sheet of green and rolling waters. On her right lay the
+termination of Long Island; a low, rocky cape, with its light, and a
+few fields in tillage, for the uses of those who tended it. It was
+the "land's end" of New York, while the island that was heaving up
+out of the sea, at a distance of about twenty miles to the eastward,
+was the property of Rhode Island, being called Blok Island. Between
+the two, the Swash shaped her course for the ocean.
+
+Spike had betrayed uneasiness, as his brig came up with Montauk; but
+the coast seemed clear, with not even a distant sail in sight, and
+he came aft, rubbing his hands with delight, speaking cheerfully.
+
+"All right, Mr. Mulford," he cried--"everything ship-shape and
+brister-fashion--not even a smack fishing here-away, which is a
+little remarkable. Ha!--what are you staring at, over the quarter,
+there?"
+
+"Look here, sir, directly in the wake of the setting sun, which we
+are now opening from the land--is not that a sail?"
+
+"Sail! Impossible, sir. What should a sail be doing in there, so
+near Montauk--no man ever saw a sail there in his life. It's a spot
+in the sun, Madam Budd, that my mate has got a glimpse at, and,
+sailor-like, he mistakes it for a sail! Ha--ha--ha--yes, Harry, it's
+a spot in the sun."
+
+"It is a spot on the sun, as you say, but it's a spot made by a
+vessel--and here is a boat pulling towards her, might and main;
+going from the light, as if carrying news."
+
+It was no longer possible for Spike's hopes to deceive him. There
+was a vessel, sure enough; though, when first seen, it was so
+directly in a line with the fiery orb of the setting sun, as to
+escape common observation. As the brig went foaming on towards the
+ocean, however, the black speck was soon brought out of the range of
+the orb of day, and Spike's glass was instantly levelled at it.
+
+"Just as one might expect, Mr. Mulford," cried the captain, lowering
+his glass, and looking aloft to see what could be done to help his
+craft along; "a bloody revenue cutter, as I'm a wicked sinner! There
+she lies, sir, within musket shot of the shore, hid behind the
+point, as it might be in waiting for us, with her head to the
+southward, her helm hard down, topsail aback, and foresail brailed;
+as wicked looking a thing as Free Trade and Sailor's Rights ever ran
+from. My life on it, sir, she's been put in that precise spot, in
+waiting for the Molly to arrive. You see, as we stand on, it places
+her as handsomely to windward of us, as the heart of man could
+desire."
+
+"It is a revenue cutter, sir; now she's out of the sun's wake, that
+is plain enough. And that is her boat, which has been sent to the
+light to keep a look-out for us. Well, sir, she's to windward; but
+we have everything set for our course, and as we are fairly abeam,
+she must be a great traveller to overhaul us."
+
+"I thought these bloody cutters were all down in the Gulf," growled
+the captain, casting his eyes aloft again, to see that everything
+drew. "I'm sure the newspapers have mentioned as many as twenty that
+are down there, and here is one, lying behind Montauk, like a snake
+in the grass!"
+
+"At any rate, by the time he gets his boat up we shall get the start
+of him--ay, there he fills and falls off, to go and meet her. He'll
+soon be after us, Captain Spike, at racing speed."
+
+Everything occurred as those two mariners had foreseen. The revenue
+cutter, one of the usual fore-top-sail schooners that are employed
+in that service, up and down the coast, had no sooner hoisted up her
+boat, than she made sail, a little off the wind, on a line to close
+with the Swash. As for the brig, she had hauled up to an easy
+bowline, as she came round Montauk, and was now standing off south
+southeast, still having the wind at south-west. The weatherly
+position of the cutter enabled her to steer rather more than one
+point freer. At the commencement of this chase, the vessels were
+about a mile and a half apart, a distance too great to enable the
+cutter to render the light guns she carried available, and it was
+obvious from the first, that everything depended on speed. And speed
+it was, truly; both vessels fairly flying; the Molly Swash having at
+last met with something very like her match. Half an hour satisfied
+both Spike and Mulford that, by giving the cutter the advantage of
+one point in a freer wind, she would certainly get alongside of
+them, and the alternative was therefore to keep off.
+
+"A starn chase is a long chase, all the world over," cried
+Spike--"edge away, sir; edge away, sir, and bring the cutter well on
+our quarter."
+
+This order was obeyed; but to the surprise of those in the Swash,
+the cutter did not exactly follow, though she kept off a little
+more. Her object seemed to be to maintain her weatherly position,
+and in this manner the two vessels ran on for an hour longer, until
+the Swash had made most of the distance between Montauk and Blok
+Island. Objects were even becoming dimly visible on the last, and
+the light on the point was just becoming visible, a lone star above
+a waste of desert, the sun having been down now fully a quarter of
+an hour, and twilight beginning to draw the curtain of night over
+the waters.
+
+"A craft under Blok," shouted the look-out, that was still kept
+aloft as a necessary precaution.
+
+"What sort of a craft?" demanded Spike, fiercely; for the very
+mention of a sail, at that moment, aroused all his ire. "Arn't you
+making a frigate out of an apple-orchard?"
+
+"It's the steamer, sir. I can now see her smoke. She's just clearing
+the land, on the south side of the island, and seems to be coming
+round to meet us."
+
+A long, low, eloquent whistle from the captain, succeeded this
+announcement. The man aloft was right. It was the steamer, sure
+enough; and she had been lying hid behind Blok Island, exactly as
+her consort had been placed behind Montauk, in waiting for their
+chase to arrive. The result was, to put the Molly Swash in exceeding
+jeopardy, and the reason why the cutter kept so well to windward was
+fully explained. To pass out to sea between these two craft was
+hopeless. There remained but a single alternative from capture by
+one or by the other,--and that Spike adopted instantly. He kept his
+brig dead away, setting studding-sails on both sides. This change of
+course brought the cutter nearly aft, or somewhat on the other
+quarter, and laid the brig's head in a direction to carry her close
+to the northern coast of the island. But the principal advantage was
+gained over the steamer, which could not keep off, without first
+standing a mile or two, or even more, to the westward, in order to
+clear the land. This was so much clear gain to the Swash, which was
+running off at racing speed, on a north-east course, while her most
+dangerous enemy was still heading to the westward. As for the
+cutter, she kept away; but it was soon apparent that the brig had
+the heels of her, dead before the wind.
+
+Darkness now began to close around the three vessels; the brig and
+the schooner soon becoming visible to each other principally by
+means of their night-glasses; though the steamer's position could be
+easily distinguished by means of her flaming chimney. This latter
+vessel stood to the westward for a quarter of an hour, when her
+commander appeared to become suddenly conscious of the ground he was
+losing, and he wore short round, and went off before the wind, under
+steam and canvas; intending to meet the chase off the northern side
+of the island. The very person who had hailed the Swash, as she was
+leaving the wharf, who had passed her in Hell-Gate, with Jack Tier
+in his boat, and who had joined her off Throgmorton's, was now on
+her deck, urging her commander by every consideration not to let the
+brig escape. It was at his suggestion that the course was changed.
+Nervous, and eager to seize the brig, he prevailed on the commander
+of the steamer to alter his course. Had he done no more than this,
+all might have been well; but so exaggerated were his notions of the
+Swash's sailing, that, instead of suffering the steamer to keep
+close along the eastern side of the island, he persuaded her
+commander of the necessity of standing off a long distance to the
+northward and eastward, with a view to get ahead of the chase. This
+was not bad advice, were there any certainly that Spike would stand
+on, of which, however, he had no intention.
+
+The night set in dark and cloudy; and, the instant that Spike saw,
+by means of the flaming chimney, that the steamer had wore, and was
+going to the eastward of Blok, his plan was laid. Calling to
+Mulford, he communicated it to him, and was glad to find that his
+intelligent mate was of his own way of thinking. The necessary
+orders were given, accordingly, and everything was got ready for its
+execution.
+
+In the meantime, the two revenue craft were much in earnest. The
+schooner was one of the fastest in the service, and had been placed
+under Montauk, as described, in the confident expectation of her
+being able to compete with even the Molly Swash successfully, more
+especially if brought upon a bowline. Her commander watched the
+receding form of the brig with the closest attention, until it was
+entirely swallowed up in the darkness, under the land, towards which
+he then sheered himself, in order to prevent the Swash from hauling
+up, and turning to windward, close in under the shadow of the
+island. Against this manoeuvre, however, the cutter had now taken an
+effectual precaution, and her people were satisfied that escape in
+that way was impossible.
+
+On the other hand, the steamer was doing very well. Driven by the
+breeze, and propelled by her wheels, away she went, edging further
+and further from the island, as the person from the Custom-House
+succeeded, as it might be, inch by inch, in persuading the captain
+of the necessity of his so doing. At length a sail was dimly seen
+ahead, and then no doubt was entertained that the brig had got to
+the northward and eastward of them. Half an hour brought the steamer
+alongside of this sail, which turned out to be a brig that had come
+over the shoals, and was beating into the ocean, on her way to one
+of the southern ports. Her captain said there had nothing passed to
+the eastward.
+
+Round went the steamer, and in went all her canvas. Ten minutes
+later the look-out saw a sail to the westward, standing before the
+wind. Odd as it might seem, the steamer's people now fancied they
+were sure of the Swash. There she was, coming directly for them,
+with squared yards! The distance was short, or a vessel could not
+have been seen by that light, and the two craft were soon near each
+other. A gun was actually cleared on board the steamer, ere it was
+ascertained that the stranger was the schooner! It was now midnight,
+and nothing was in sight but the coasting brig. Reluctantly, the
+revenue people gave the matter up; the Molly Swash having again
+eluded them, though by means unknown.
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  "Leander dived for love, Leucadia's cliff
+  The Lesbian Sappho leap'd from in a miff,
+  To punish Phaon; Icarus went dead,
+  Because the wax did not continue stiff;
+  And, had he minded what his father said,
+  He had not given a name unto his watery bed."
+
+Sands.
+
+We must now advance the time several days, and change the scene to a
+distant part of the ocean; within the tropics indeed. The females
+had suffered slight attacks of sea-sickness, and recovered from
+them, and the brig was safe from all her pursuers. The manner of
+Spike's escape was simple enough, and without any necromancy. While
+the steamer, on the one hand, was standing away to the northward and
+eastward, in order to head him off, and the schooner was edging in
+with the island, in order to prevent his beating up to windward of
+it, within its shadows, the brig had run close round the northern
+margin of the land, and hauled up to leeward of the island, passing
+between it and the steamer. All this time, her movements were
+concealed from the schooner by the island itself, and from the
+steamer, by its shadow and dark back-ground, aided by the distance.
+By making short tacks, this expedient answered perfectly well; and,
+at the very moment when the two revenue vessels met, at midnight,
+about three leagues to leeward of Blok Island, the brigantine, Molly
+Swash, was just clearing its most weatherly point, on the larboard
+tack, and coming out exactly at the spot where the steamer was when
+first seen that afternoon. Spike stood to the westward, until he was
+certain of having the island fairly between him and his pursuers,
+when he went about, and filled away on his course, running out to
+sea again on an easy bowline. At sunrise the next day he was fifty
+miles to the southward and eastward of Montauk; the schooner was
+going into New London, her officers and people quite chop-fallen;
+and the steamer was paddling up the Sound, her captain being fully
+persuaded that the runaways had returned in the direction from which
+they had come, and might yet be picked up in that quarter.
+
+The weather was light, just a week after the events related in the
+close of the last chapter. By this time the brig had got within the
+influence of the trades; and, it being the intention of Spike to
+pass to the southward of Cuba, he had so far profited by the
+westerly winds, as to get well to the eastward of the Mona Passage,
+the strait through which he intended to shape his course on making
+the islands. Early on that morning Mrs. Budd had taken her seat on
+the trunk of the cabin, with a complacent air, and arranged her
+netting, some slight passages of gallantry, on the part of the
+captain, having induced her to propose netting him a purse. Biddy
+was going to and fro, in quest of silks and needles, her mistress
+having become slightly capricious in her tastes of late, and giving
+her, on all such occasions, at least a double allowance of
+occupation. As for Rose, she sat reading beneath the shade of the
+coach-house deck, while the handsome young mate was within three
+feet of her, working up his logarithms, but within the sanctuary of
+his own state-room; the open door and window of which, however, gave
+him every facility he could desire to relieve his mathematics, by
+gazing at the sweet countenance of his charming neighbor. Jack Tier
+and Josh were both passing to and fro, as is the wont of stewards,
+between the camboose and the cabin, the breakfast table being just
+then in the course of preparation. In all other respects, always
+excepting the man at the wheel, who stood within a fathom of Rose,
+Spike had the quarter-deck to himself, and did not fail to pace its
+weather-side with an air that denoted the master and owner. After
+exhibiting his sturdy, but short, person in this manner, to the
+admiring eyes of all beholders, for some time, the captain suddenly
+took a seat at the side of the relict, and dropped into the
+following discourse.
+
+"The weather is moderate, Madam Budd; quite moderate," observed
+Spike, a sentimental turn coming over him at the moment. "What I
+call moderate and agreeable."
+
+"So much the better for us; the ladies are fond of moderation, sir."
+
+"Not in admiration, Madam Budd--ha! ha! ha! no, not in admiration.
+Immoderation is what they like when it comes to that. I'm a single
+man, but I know that the ladies like admiration--mind where you're
+sheering to," the captain said, interrupting himself a little
+fiercely, considering the nature of the subject, in consequence of
+Jack Tier's having trodden on his toe in passing--"or I'll teach you
+the navigation of the quarter-deck, Mr. Burgoo!"
+
+"Moderation--moderation, my good captain," said the simpering
+relict. "As to admiration, I confess that it is agreeable to us
+ladies; more especially when it comes from gentlemen of sense, and
+intelligence, and experience."
+
+Rose fidgeted, having heard every word that was said, and her face
+flushed; for she doubted not that Harry's ears were as good as her
+own. As for the man at the wheel, he turned the tobacco over in his
+mouth, hitched up his trousers, and appeared interested, though
+somewhat mystified--the conversation was what he would have termed
+"talking dictionary," and he had some curiosity to learn how the
+captain would work his way out of it. It is probable that Spike
+himself had some similar gleamings of the difficulties of his
+position, for he looked a little troubled, though still resolute. It
+was the first time he had ever lain yard-arm and yard-arm with a
+widow, and he had long entertained a fancy that such a situation was
+trying to the best of men.
+
+"Yes, Madam Budd, yes," he said, "exper'ence and sense carry weight
+with 'em, wherever they go. I'm glad to find that you entertain
+these just notions of us gentlemen, and make a difference between
+boys and them that's seen and known exper'ence. For my part, I count
+youngsters under forty as so much lumber about decks, as to any
+comfort and calculations in keepin' a family, as a family ought to
+be kept."
+
+Mrs. Budd looked interested, but she remained silent on hearing this
+remark, as became her sex.
+
+"Every man ought to settle in life, some time or other, Madam Budd,
+accordin' to my notion, though no man ought to be in a boyish haste
+about it," continued the captain. "Now, in my own case, I've been so
+busy all my youth--not that I'm very old now, but I'm no boy--but
+all my younger days have been passed in trying to make things meet,
+in a way to put any lady who might take a fancy to me--"
+
+"Oh! captain--that is too strong! The ladies do not take fancies for
+gentlemen, but the gentlemen take fancies for ladies!"
+
+"Well, well, you know what I mean, Madam Budd; and so long as the
+parties understand each other, a word dropped, or a word put into a
+charter-party, makes it neither stronger nor weaker. There's a time,
+howsomever, in every man's life, when he begins to think of settling
+down, and of considerin' himself as a sort of mooring-chain, for
+children and the likes of them to make fast to. Such is my natur', I
+will own; and ever since I've got to be intimate in your family,
+Madam Budd, that sentiment has grown stronger and stronger in me,
+till it has got to be uppermost in all my idees. Bone of my bone,
+and flesh of my flesh, as a body might say."
+
+Mrs. Budd now looked more than interested, for she looked a little
+confused, and Rose began to tremble for her aunt. It was evident
+that the parties most conspicuous in this scene were not at all
+conscious that they were overheard, the intensity of their attention
+being too much concentrated on what was passing to allow of any
+observation without their own narrow circle. What may be thought
+still more extraordinary, but what in truth was the most natural of
+all, each of the parties was so intently bent on his, or her, own
+train of thought, that neither in the least suspected any mistake.
+
+"Grown with your growth, and strengthened with your strength,"
+rejoined the relict, smiling kindly enough on the captain to have
+encouraged a much more modest man than he happened to be.
+
+"Yes, Madam Budd--very just that remark; grown with my strength, and
+strengthened with my growth, as one might say; though I've not done
+much at growing for a good many years. Your late husband, Captain
+Budd, often remarked how very early I got my growth; and rated me as
+an `able-bodied' hand, when most lads think it an honour to be
+placed among the `or'naries.'"
+
+The relict looked grave; and she wondered at any man's being so
+singular as to allude to a first husband, at the very moment he was
+thinking of offering himself for a second. As for herself, she had
+not uttered as many words in the last four years, as she had uttered
+in that very conversation, without making some allusion to her "poor
+dear Mr. Budd." The reader is not to do injustice to the captain's
+widow, however, by supposing for a moment that she was actually so
+weak as to feel any tenderness for a man like Spike, which would be
+doing a great wrong to both her taste and her judgment, as Rose well
+knew, even while most annoyed by the conversation she could not but
+overhear. All that influenced the good relict was that besetting
+weakness of her sex, which renders admiration so universally
+acceptable; and predisposes a female, as it might be, to listen to a
+suitor with indulgence, and some little show of kindness, even when
+resolute to reject him. As for Rose, to own the truth, her aunt did
+not give her a thought, as yet, notwithstanding Spike was getting to
+be so sentimental.
+
+"Yes, your late excellent and honourable consort always said that I
+got my growth sooner than any youngster he ever fell in with,"
+resumed the captain, after a short pause; exciting fresh wonder in
+his companion, that he would persist in lugging in the "dear
+departed" so very unseasonably. "I am a great admirer of all the
+Budd family, my good lady, and only wish my connection with it had
+never tarminated; if tarminated it can be called."
+
+"It need not be terminated, Captain Spike, so long as friendship
+exists in the human heart."
+
+"Ay, so it is always with you ladies; when a man is bent on suthin'
+closer and more interestin' like, you're for putting it off on
+friendship. Now friendship is good enough in its way, Madam Budd,
+but friendship is n't love."
+
+"Love!" echoed the widow, fairly starting, though she looked down at
+her netting, and looked as confused as she knew how. "That is a very
+decided word, Captain Spike, and should never be mentioned to a
+woman's ear lightly."
+
+So the captain now appeared to think, too, for no sooner had he
+delivered himself of the important monosyllable, than he left the
+widow's side, and began to pace the deck, as it might be to moderate
+his own ardour. As for Rose, she blushed, if her more practised aunt
+did not; while Harry Mulford laughed heartily, taking good care,
+however, not to be heard. The man at the wheel turned the tobacco
+again, gave his trousers another hitch, and wondered anew whither
+the skipper was bound. But the drollest manifestation of surprise
+came from Josh, the steward, who was passing along the lee-side of
+the quarter-deck, with a tea-pot in his hand, when the energetic
+manner of the captain sent the words "friendship is n't love" to his
+ears. This induced him to stop for a single instant, and to cast a
+wondering glance behind him; after which he moved on toward the
+galley, mumbling as he went--"Lub! what he want of lub, or what lub
+want of him! Well, I do t'ink Captain Spike bowse his jib out pretty
+'arly dis mornin'."
+
+Captain Spike soon got over the effects of his effort, and the
+confusion of the relict did not last any material length of time. As
+the former had gone so far, however, he thought the present an
+occasion as good as another to bring matters to a crisis.
+
+"Our sentiments sometimes get to be so strong, Madam Budd," resumed
+the lover, as he took his seat again on the trunk, "that they run
+away with us. Men is liable to be run away with as well as ladies. I
+once had a ship run away with me, and a pretty time we had of it.
+Did you ever hear of a ship's running away with her people, Madam
+Budd, just as your horse ran away with your buggy?"
+
+"I suppose I must have heard of such things, sir, my education
+having been so maritime, though just at this moment I cannot recall
+an instance. When my horse ran away, the buggy was cap-asided. Did
+your vessel cap-aside on the occasion you mention?"
+
+"No, Madam Budd, no. The ship was off the wind at the time I mean,
+and vessels do not capsize when off the wind. I'll tell you how it
+happened. We was a scuddin' under a goose-wing foresail--"
+
+"Yes, yes," interrupted the relict, eagerly. "I've often heard of
+that sail, which is small, and used only in tempests."
+
+"Heavy weather, Madam Budd--only in heavy weather."
+
+"It is amazing to me, captain, how you seamen manage to weigh the
+weather. I have often heard of light weather and heavy weather, but
+never fairly understood the manner of weighing it."
+
+"Why we do make out to ascertain the difference," replied the
+captain, a little puzzled for an answer; "and I suppose it must be
+by means of the barometer, which goes up and down like a pair of
+scales. But the time I mean, we was a scuddin' under a goose-wing
+foresail--"
+
+"A sail made of goose's wings, and a beautiful object it must be;
+like some of the caps and cloaks that come from the islands, which
+are all of feathers, and charming objects are they. I beg
+pardon--you had your goose's wings spread--"
+
+"Yes, Madam Budd, yes; we was steering for a Mediterranean port,
+intending to clear a mole-head, when a sea took us under the
+larboard-quarter, gave us such a sheer to-port as sent our cat-head
+ag'in a spile, and raked away the chain-plates of the top-mast
+back-stays, bringing down all the forrard hamper about our ears."
+
+This description produced such a confusion in the mind of the widow,
+that she was glad when it came to an end. As for the captain,
+fearful that the "goose's wings" might be touched upon again, he
+thought it wisest to attempt another flight on those of Cupid.
+
+"As I was sayin', Madam Budd, friendship is n't love; no, not a bit
+of it! Friendship is a common sort of feelin': but love, as you must
+know by exper'ence, Madam Budd, is an uncommon sort of feelin'."
+
+"Fie, Captain Spike, gentlemen should never allude to ladies knowing
+any thing about love. Ladies respect, and admire, and esteem, and
+have a regard for gentlemen; but it is almost too strong to talk
+about their love."
+
+"Yes, Madam Budd, yes; I dare say it is so, and ought to be so; and
+I ask pardon for having said as much as I did. But my love for your
+niece is of so animated and lastin' a natur', that I scarce know
+what I did say."
+
+"Captain Spike, you amaze me! I declare I can hardly breathe for
+astonishment. My niece! Surely you do not mean Rosy!"
+
+"Who else should I mean? My love for Miss Rose is so very decided
+and animated, I tell you, Madam Budd, that I will not answer for the
+consequences, should you not consent to her marryin' me."
+
+"I can scarce believe my ears! You, Stephen Spike, and an old friend
+of her uncle's, wishing to marry his niece!"
+
+"Just so, Madam Budd; that's it, to a shavin'. The regard I have for
+the whole family is so great, that nothin' less than the hand of
+Miss Rose in marriage can, what I call, mitigate my feelin's."
+
+Now the relict had not one spark of tenderness herself in behalf of
+Spike; while she did love Rose better than any human being, her own
+self excepted. But she had viewed all the sentiment of that morning,
+and all the fine speeches of the captain, very differently from what
+the present state of things told her she ought to have viewed them;
+and she felt the mortification natural to her situation. The captain
+was so much bent on the attainment of his own object, that he saw
+nothing else, and was even unconscious that his extraordinary and
+somewhat loud discourse had been overheard. Least of all did he
+suspect that his admiration had been mistaken; and that in what he
+called "courtin'" the niece, he had been all the while "courtin'"
+the aunt. But little apt as she was to discover any thing, Mrs. Budd
+had enough of her sex's discernment in a matter of this sort, to
+perceive that she had fallen into an awkward mistake, and enough of
+her sex's pride to resent it. Taking her work in her hand, she left
+her seat, and descended to the cabin, with quite as much dignity in
+her manner as it was in the power of one of her height and "build"
+to express. What is the most extraordinary, neither she nor Spike
+ever ascertained that their whole dialogue had been overheard. Spike
+continued to pace the quarter-deck for several minutes, scarce
+knowing what to think of the relict's manner, when his attention was
+suddenly drawn to other matters by the familiar cry of "sail-ho!"
+
+This was positively the first vessel with which the Molly Swash had
+fallen in since she lost sight of two or three craft that had passed
+her in the distance, as she left the American coast. As usual, this
+cry brought all hands on deck, and Mulford out of his state-room.
+
+It has been stated already that the brig was just beginning to feel
+the trades, and it might have been added, to see the mountains of
+San Domingo. The winds had been variable for the last day or two,
+and they still continued light, and disposed to be unsteady, ranging
+from north-east to south-east, with a preponderance in favour of the
+first point. At the cry of "sail-ho!" everybody looked in the
+indicated direction, which was west, a little northerly, but for a
+long time without success. The cry had come from aloft, and Mulford
+went up as high as the fore-top before he got any glimpse of the
+stranger at all. He had slung a glass, and Spike was unusually
+anxious to know the result of his examination.
+
+"Well, Mr. Mulford, what do you make of her?" he called out as soon
+as the mate announced that he saw the strange vessel.
+
+"Wait a moment, sir, till I get a look,--she's a long way off, and
+hardly visible."
+
+"Well, sir, well?"
+
+"I can only see the heads of her top-gallant sails. She seems a ship
+steering to the southward, with as many kites flying as an Indiaman
+in the trades. She looks as if she were carrying royal stun'-sails,
+sir."
+
+"The devil she does! Such a chap must not only be in a hurry, but he
+must be strong-handed to give himself all this trouble in such light
+and var'able winds. Are his yards square?--Is he man-of-war-ish?"
+
+"There's no telling, sir, at this distance; though I rather think
+its stun'-sails that I see. Go down and get your breakfast, and in
+half an hour I'll give a better account of him."
+
+This was done, Mrs. Budd appearing at the table with great dignity
+in her manner. Although she had so naturally supposed that Spike's
+attentions had been intended for herself, she was rather mortified
+than hurt on discovering her mistake. Her appetite, consequently,
+was not impaired, though her stomach might have been said to be very
+full. The meal passed off without any scene, notwithstanding, and
+Spike soon re-appeared on deck, still masticating the last mouthful
+like a man in a hurry, and a good deal a l' Americaine. Mulford saw
+his arrival, and immediately levelled his glass again.
+
+"Well, what news now, sir?" called out the captain. "You must have a
+better chance at him by this time, for I can see the chap from off
+the coach-house here."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir; he's a bit nearer, certainly. I should say that craft
+is a ship under stun'-sails, looking to the eastward of south, and
+that there are caps with gold bands on her quarter-deck."
+
+"How low down can you see her?" demanded Spike, in a voice of
+thunder.
+
+So emphatic and remarkable was the captain's manner in putting this
+question, that the mate cast a look of surprise beneath him ere he
+answered it. A look with the glass succeeded, when the reply was
+given.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir; there can be no mistake--it's a cruiser, you may
+depend on it. I can see the heads of her topsails now, and they are
+so square and symmetrical, that gold bands are below beyond all
+doubt."
+
+"Perhaps he's a Frenchman--Johnny Crapaud keeps cruisers in these
+seas as well as the rest on'em."
+
+"Johnny Crapaud's craft don't spread such arms, sir. The ship is
+either English or American; and he's heading for the Mona Passage as
+well as ourselves."
+
+"Come down, sir, come down--there's work to be done as soon as you
+have breakfasted."
+
+Mulford did come down, and he was soon seated at the table, with
+both Josh and Jack Tier for attendants. The aunt and the niece were
+in their own cabin, a few yards distant, with the door open.
+
+"What a fuss'e cap'in make 'bout dat sail," grumbled Josh, who had
+been in the brig so long that he sometimes took liberties with even
+Spike himself. "What good he t'ink t'will do to measure him inch by
+inch? Bye'm by he get alongside, and den 'e ladies even can tell all
+about him."
+
+"He nat'rally wishes to know who gets alongside," put in Tier,
+somewhat apologetically.
+
+"What matter dat. All sort of folk get alongside of Molly Swash; and
+what good it do 'em? Yoh! yoh! yoh! I do remem'er sich times vid'e
+ole hussy!"
+
+"What old hussy do you mean?" demanded Jack Tier a little fiercely,
+and in a way to draw Mulford's eyes from the profile of Rose's face
+to the visages of his two attendants.
+
+"Come, come, gentlemen, if you please; recollect where you are,"
+interrupted the mate authoritatively. "You are not now squabbling in
+your galley, but are in the cabin. What is it to you, Tier, if Josh
+does call the brig an old hussy; she is old, as we all know, and
+years are respectable; and as for her being a `hussy,' that is a
+term of endearment sometimes. I've heard the captain himself call
+the Molly a `hussy,' fifty times, and he loves her as he does the
+apple of his eye."
+
+This interference put an end to the gathering storm as a matter of
+course, and the two disputants shortly after passed on deck. No
+sooner was the coast clear than Rose stood in the door of her own
+cabin.
+
+"Do you think the strange vessel is an American?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"It is impossible to say--English or American I make no doubt. But
+why do you inquire?"
+
+"But my aunt and myself desire to quit the brig, and if the stranger
+should prove to be an American vessel of war, might not the occasion
+be favourable?"
+
+"And what reason can you give for desiring to do so?"
+
+"What signifies a reason," answered Rose with spirit. "Spike is not
+our master, and we can come and go as we may see fit."
+
+"But a reason must be given to satisfy the commander of the vessel
+of war. Craft of that character are very particular about the
+passengers they receive; nor would it be altogether wise in two
+unprotected females to go on board a cruiser, unless in a case of
+the most obvious necessity."
+
+"Will not what has passed this morning be thought a sufficient
+reason," added Rose, drawing nearer to the mate, and dropping her
+voice so as not to be heard by her aunt.
+
+Mulford smiled as he gazed at the earnest but attractive countenance
+of his charming companion.
+
+"And who could tell it, or how could it be told? Would the commander
+of a vessel of war incur the risk of receiving such a person as
+yourself on board his vessel, for the reason that the master of the
+craft she was in when he fell in with her desired to marry her?"
+
+Rose appeared vexed, but she was at once made sensible that it was
+not quite as easy to change her vessel at sea, as to step into a
+strange door in a town. She drew slowly back into her own cabin
+silent and thoughtful; her aunt pursuing her netting the whole time
+with an air of dignified industry.
+
+"Well, Mr. Mulford, well," called out Spike at the head of the cabin
+stairs, "what news from the coffee?"
+
+"All ready, sir," answered the mate, exchanging significant glances
+with Rose. "I shall be up in a moment."
+
+That moment soon came, and Mulford was ready for duty. While below,
+Spike had caused certain purchases to be got aloft, and the
+main-hatch was open and the men collected around it, in readiness to
+proceed with the work. Harry asked no questions, for the
+preparations told him what was about to be done, but passing below,
+he took charge of the duty there, while the captain superintended
+the part that was conducted on deck. In the course of the next hour
+eight twelve-pound carronades were sent up out of the hold, and
+mounted in as many of the ports which lined the bulwarks of the
+brigantine. The men seemed to be accustomed to the sort of work in
+which they were now engaged, and soon had their light batteries in
+order, and ready for service. In the mean time the two vessels kept
+on their respective courses, and by the time the guns were mounted,
+there was a sensible difference in their relative positions. The
+stranger had drawn so near the brigantine as to be very obvious from
+the latter's deck, while the brigantine had drawn so much nearer to
+the islands of San Domingo and Porto Rico, as to render the opening
+between them, the well-known Mona Passage, distinctly visible.
+
+Of all this Spike appeared to be fully aware, for he quitted the
+work several times before it was finished, in order to take a look
+at the stranger, and at the land. When the batteries were arranged,
+he and Mulford, each provided with a glass, gave a few minutes to a
+more deliberate examination of the first.
+
+"That's the Mona ahead of us," said the captain; "of that there can
+be no question, and a very pretty land-fall you've made of it,
+Harry. I'll allow you to be as good a navigator as floats."
+
+"Nevertheless, sir, you have not seen fit to let me know whither the
+brig is really bound this voyage."
+
+"No matter for that, young man--no matter, as yet. All in good time.
+When I tell you to lay your course for the Mona, you can lay your
+course for the Mona; and, as soon as we are through the passage,
+I'll let you know what is wanted next--if that bloody chap, who is
+nearing us, will let me."
+
+"And why should any vessel wish to molest us on our passage, Captain
+Spike?"
+
+"Why, sure enough! It's war-times, you know, and war-times always
+bring trouble to the trader--though it sometimes brings profit,
+too."
+
+As Spike concluded, he gave his mate a knowing wink, which the other
+understood to mean that he expected himself some of the unusual
+profit to which he alluded. Mulford did not relish this secret
+communication, for the past had induced him to suspect the character
+of the trade in which his commander was accustomed to engage.
+Without making any sort of reply, or encouraging the confidence by
+even a smile, he levelled his glass at the stranger, as did Spike,
+the instant he ceased to grin.
+
+"That's one of Uncle Sam's fellows!" exclaimed the captain, dropping
+the glass. "I'd swear to the chap in any admiralty court on 'arth."
+
+"'T is a vessel of war, out of all doubt," returned the mate, "and
+under a cloud of canvas. I can make out the heads of her courses
+now, and see that she is carrying hard, for a craft that is almost
+close-hauled."
+
+"Ay, ay; no merchantmen keeps his light stun'-sails set, as near the
+wind as that fellow's going. He's a big chap, too--a frigate, at
+least, by his canvas."
+
+"I do not know, sir--they build such heavy corvettes now-a-days,
+that I should rather take her for one of them. They tell me ships
+are now sent to sea which mount only two-and-twenty guns, but which
+measure quite a thousand tons."
+
+"With thunderin' batteries, of course."
+
+"With short thirty-twos and a few rapping sixty-eight Paixhans--or
+Columbiads, as they ought in justice to be called."
+
+"And you think this chap likely to be a craft of that sort?"
+
+"Nothing is more probable, sir. Government has several, and, since
+this war has commenced, it has been sending off cruiser after
+cruiser into the Gulf. The Mexicans dare not send a vessel of war to
+sea, which would be sending them to Norfolk, or New York, at once;
+but no one can say when they may begin to make a prey of our
+commerce."
+
+"They have taken nothing as yet, Mr. Mulford, and, to tell you the
+truth, I'd much rather fall in with one of Don Montezuma's craft
+than one of Uncle Sam's."
+
+"That is a singular taste, for an American, Captain Spike, unless
+you think, now our guns are mounted, we can handle a Mexican,"
+returned Mulford coldly. "At all events, it is some answer to those
+who ask `What is the navy about?' that months of war have gone by,
+and not an American has been captured. Take away that navy, and the
+insurance offices in Wall-street would tumble like a New York
+party-wall in a fire."
+
+"Nevertheless, I'd rather take my chance, just now, with Don
+Montezuma than with Uncle Sam."
+
+Mulford did not reply, though the earnest manner in which Spike
+expressed himself, helped to increase his distrust touching the
+nature of the voyage. With him the captain had no further
+conference, but it was different as respects the boatswain. That
+worthy was called aft, and for half an hour he and Spike were
+conversing apart, keeping their eyes fastened on the strange vessel
+most of the time.
+
+It was noon before all uncertainly touching the character of the
+stranger ceased. By that time, however, both vessels were entering
+the Mona Passage; the brig well to windward, on the Porto Rico side;
+while the ship was so far to leeward as to be compelled to keep
+everything close-hauled, in order to weather the island. The hull of
+the last could now be seen, and no doubt was entertained about her
+being a cruiser, and one of some size, too. Spike thought she was a
+frigate; but Mulford still inclined to the opinion that she was one
+of the new ships; perhaps a real corvette, or with a light spar-deck
+over her batteries. Two or three of the new vessels were known to be
+thus fitted, and this might be one. At length all doubt on the
+subject ceased, the stranger setting an American ensign, and getting
+so near as to make it apparent that she had but a single line of
+guns. Still she was a large ship, and the manner that she ploughed
+through the brine, close-hauled as she was, extorted admiration even
+from Spike.
+
+"We had better begin to shorten sail, Mr. Mulford," the captain at
+length most reluctantly remarked. "We might give the chap the slip,
+perhaps, by keeping close in under Porto Rico, but he would give us
+a long chase, and might drive us away to windward, when I wish to
+keep off between Cuba and Jamaica. He's a traveller; look, how he
+stands up to it under that could of canvas!"
+
+Mulford was slow to commence on the studding-sails, and the cruiser
+was getting nearer and nearer. At length a gun was fired, and a
+heavy shot fell about two hundred yards short of the brig, and a
+little out of line with her. On this hint, Spike turned the hands
+up, and began to shorten sail. In ten minutes the Swash was under
+her topsail, mainsail and jib, with her light sails hanging in the
+gear, and all the steering canvas in. In ten minutes more the
+cruiser was so near as to admit of the faces of the three or four
+men whose heads were above the hammock-cloths being visible, when
+she too began to fold her wings. In went her royals,
+topgallant-sails, and various kites, as it might be by some common
+muscular agency; and up went her courses. Everything was done at
+once. By this time she was crossing the brig's wake, looking
+exceedingly beautiful, with her topsails lifting, her light sails
+blowing out, and even her heavy courses fluttering in the breeze.
+There flew the glorious stars and stripes also; of brief existence,
+but full of recollections! The moment she had room, her helm went
+up, her bows fell off, and down she came, on the weather quarter of
+the Swash, so near as to render a trumpet nearly useless.
+
+On board the brig everybody was on deck; even the relict having
+forgotten her mortification in curiosity. On board the cruiser no
+one was visible, with the exception of a few men in each top, and a
+group of gold-banded caps on the poop. Among these officers stood
+the captain, a red-faced, middle-aged man, with the usual signs of
+his rank about him; and at his side was his lynx-eyed first
+lieutenant. The surgeon and purser were also there, though they
+stood a little apart from the more nautical dignitaries. The hail
+that followed came out of a trumpet that was thrust through the
+mizzen-rigging; the officer who used it taking his cue from the
+poop.
+
+"What brig is that?" commenced the discourse.
+
+"The Molly Swash, of New York, Stephen Spike, master."
+
+"Where from, and whither bound?"
+
+"From New York, and bound to Key West and a market."
+
+A pause succeeded this answer, during which the officers on the poop
+of the cruiser held some discourse with him of the trumpet. During
+the interval the cruiser ranged fairly up abeam.
+
+"You are well to windward of your port, sir," observed he of the
+trumpet significantly.
+
+"I know it; but it's war times, and I didn't know but there might be
+piccaroons hovering about the Havanna."
+
+"The coast is clear, and our cruisers will keep it so. I see you
+have a battery, sir!"
+
+"Ay, ay; some old guns that I've had aboard these ten years: they're
+useful, sometimes, in these seas."
+
+"Very true. I'll range ahead of you, and as soon as you've room,
+I'll thank you to heave-to. I wish to send a boat on board you."
+
+Spike was sullen enough on receiving this order, but there was no
+help for it. He was now in the jaws of the lion, and his wisest
+course was to submit to the penalties of his position with the best
+grace he could. The necessary orders were consequently given, and
+the brig no sooner got room than she came by the wind and backed her
+topsail. The cruiser went about, and passing to windward, backed her
+main-topsail just forward of the Swash's beam. Then the latter
+lowered a boat, and sent it, with a lieutenant and a midshipman in
+its stern-sheets, on board the brigantine. As the cutter approached,
+Spike went to the gangway to receive the strangers.
+
+Although there will be frequent occasion to mention this cruiser,
+the circumstances are of so recent occurrence, that we do not choose
+to give either her name, or that of any one belonging to her. We
+shall, consequently, tell the curious, who may be disposed to turn
+to their navy-lists and blue-books, that the search will be of no
+use, as all the names we shall use, in reference to this cruiser,
+will be fictitious. As much of the rest of our story as the reader
+please may be taken for gospel; but we tell him frankly, that we
+have thought it most expedient to adopt assumed names, in connection
+with this vessel and all her officers. There are good reasons for so
+doing; and, among others, is that of abstaining from arming a clique
+to calumniate her commander, (who, by the way, like another
+commander in the Gulf that might be named, and who has actually been
+exposed to the sort of tracasserie to which there is allusion, is
+one of the very ablest men in the service,) in order to put another
+in his place.
+
+The officer who now came over the side of the Swash we shall call
+Wallace; he was the second lieutenant of the vessel of war. He was
+about thirty, and the midshipman who followed him was a well-grown
+lad of nineteen. Both had a decided man-of-war look, and both looked
+a little curiously at the vessel they had boarded.
+
+"Your servant, sir," said Wallace, touching his cap in reply to
+Spike's somewhat awkward bow. "Your brig is the Molly Swash, Stephen
+Spike, bound from New York to Key West and a market."
+
+"You've got it all as straight, lieutenant, as if you was a readin'
+it from the log."
+
+"The next thing, sir, is to know of what your cargo is composed?"
+
+"Flour; eight hundred barrels of flour."
+
+"Flour! Would you not do better to carry that to Liverpool? The
+Mississippi must be almost turned into paste by the quantity of
+flour it floats to market."
+
+"Notwithstanding that, lieutenant, I know Uncle Sam's economy so
+well, as to believe I shall part with every barrel of my flour to
+his contractors, at a handsome profit."
+
+"You read Whig newspapers principally, I rather think, Mr. Spike,"
+answered Wallace, in his cool, deliberate way, smiling, however, as
+he spoke.
+
+We may just as well say here, that nature intended this gentleman
+for a second lieutenant, the very place he filled. He was a capital
+second lieutenant, while he would not have earned his rations as
+first. So well was he assured of this peculiarity in his moral
+composition, that he did not wish to be the first lieutenant of
+anything in which he sailed. A respectable seaman, a well-read and
+intelligent man, a capital deck officer, or watch officer, he was
+too indolent to desire to be anything more, and was as happy as the
+day was long, in the easy berth he filled. The first lieutenant had
+been his messmate as a midshipman, and ranked him but two on the
+list in his present commission; but he did not envy him in the
+least. On the contrary, one of his greatest pleasures was to get.
+"Working Willy," as he called his senior, over a glass of wine, or a
+tumbler of "hot stuff," and make him recount the labours of the day.
+On such occasions, Wallace never failed to compare the situation of
+"Working Willy" with his own gentlemanlike ease and independence. As
+second lieutenant, his rank raised him above most of the unpleasant
+duty of the ship, while it did not raise him high enough to plunge
+him into the never-ending labours of his senior. He delighted to
+call himself the "ship's gentleman," a sobriquet he well deserved,
+on more accounts than one.
+
+"You read Whig newspapers principally, I rather think, Mr. Spike,"
+answered the lieutenant, as has been just mentioned, "while we on
+board the Poughkeepsie indulge in looking over the columns of the
+Union, as well as over those of the Intelligencer, when by good luck
+we can lay our hands on a stray number."
+
+"That ship, then, is called the Poughkeepsie, is she, sir?" inquired
+Spike.
+
+"Such is her name, thanks to a most beneficent and sage provision of
+Congress, which has extended its parental care over the navy so far
+as to imagine that a man chosen by the people to exercise so many of
+the functions of a sovereign, is not fit to name a ship. All our two
+and three deckers are to be called after states; the frigates after
+rivers; and the sloops after towns. Thus it is that our craft has
+the honour to be called the United States ship the `Poughkeepsie,'
+instead of the `Arrow,' or the `Wasp,' or the `Curlew,' or the
+`Petrel,' as might otherwise have been the case. But the wisdom of
+Congress is manifest, for the plan teaches us sailors geography."
+
+"Yes, sir, yes, one can pick up a bit of l'arnin' in that way cheap.
+The Poughkeepsie, Captain--?"
+
+"The United States' ship Poughkeepsie, 20, Captain Adam Mull, at
+your service. But, Mr. Spike, you will allow me to look at your
+papers. It is a duty I like, for it can be performed quietly, and
+without any fuss."
+
+Spike looked distrustfully at his new acquaintance, but went for his
+vessel's papers without any very apparent hesitation. Every thing
+was en regle, and Wallace soon got through with the clearance,
+manifest, &c. Indeed the cargo, on paper at least, was of the
+simplest and least complicated character, being composed of nothing
+but eight hundred barrels of flour.
+
+"It all looks very well on paper, Mr. Spike," added the boarding
+officer. "With your permission, we will next see how it looks in
+sober reality. I perceive your main hatch is open, and I suppose it
+will be no difficult matter just to take a glance at your hold."
+
+"Here is a ladder, sir, that will take us at once to the half-deck,
+for I have no proper 'twixt decks in this craft; she's too small for
+that sort of outfit."
+
+"No matter, she has a hold, I suppose, and that can contain cargo.
+Take me to it by the shortest road, Mr. Spike, for I am no great
+admirer of trouble."
+
+Spike now led the way below, Wallace following, leaving the
+midshipman on deck, who had fallen into conversation with the relict
+and her pretty niece. The half-deck of the brigantine contained
+spare sails, provisions, and water, as usual, while quantities of
+old canvas lay scattered over the cargo; more especially in the wake
+of the hatches, of which there were two besides that which led from
+the quarter-deck.
+
+"Flour to the number of eight hundred barrels," said Wallace,
+striking his foot against a barrel that lay within his reach. "The
+cargo is somewhat singular to come from New York, going to Key West,
+my dear Spike?"
+
+"I suppose you know what sort of a place Key West is, sir; a bit of
+an island in which there is scarce so much as a potatoe grows."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir; I know Key West very well, having been in and out a
+dozen times. All eatables are imported, turtle excepted. But flour
+can be brought down the Mississippi so much cheaper than it can be
+brought from New York."
+
+"Have you any idee, lieutenant, what Uncle Sam's men are paying for
+it at New Orleens, just to keep soul and bodies together among the
+so'gers?"
+
+"That may be true, sir--quite true, I dare say, Mr. Spike. Have n't
+you a bit of a chair that a fellow can sit down on--this half-deck
+of your's is none of the most comfortable places to stand in. Thank
+you, sir--thank you with all my heart. What lots of old sails you
+have scattered about the hold, especially in the wake of the
+hatches!"
+
+"Why, the craft being little more than in good ballast trim, I keep
+the hatches off to air her; and the spray might spit down upon the
+flour at odd times but for them 'ere sails."
+
+"Ay, a prudent caution. So you think Uncle Sam's people will be
+after this flour as soon as they learn you have got it snug in at
+Key West?"
+
+"What more likely, sir? You know how it is with our
+government--always wrong, whatever it does! and I can show you
+paragraphs in letters written from New Orleens, which tell us that
+Uncle Sam is paying seventy-five and eighty per cent. more for flour
+than anybody else."
+
+"He must be a flush old chap to be able to do that, Spike."
+
+"Flush! I rather think he is. Do you know that he is spendin',
+accordin' to approved accounts, at this blessed moment, as much as
+half a million a day? I own a wish to be pickin' up some of the
+coppers while they are scattered about so plentifully."
+
+"Half a million a day! why that is only at the rate of $187,000,000
+per annum; a mere trifle, Spike, that is scarce worth mentioning
+among us mariners."
+
+"It's so in the newspapers, I can swear, lieutenant."
+
+"Ay, ay, and the newspapers will swear to it, too, and they that
+gave the newspapers their cue. But no matter, our business is with
+this flour. Will you sell us a barrel or two for our mess? I heard
+the caterer say we should want flour in the course of a week or so."
+
+Spike seemed embarrassed, though not to a degree to awaken suspicion
+in his companion.
+
+"I never sold cargo at sea, long as I've sailed and owned a craft,"
+he answered, as if uncertain what to do. "If you'll pay the price I
+expect to get in the Gulf, and will take ten barrels, I do n't know
+but we may make a trade on't. I shall only ask expected prices."
+
+"Which will be--?"
+
+"Ten dollars a barrel. For one hundred silver dollars I will put
+into your boat ten barrels of the very best brand known in the
+western country."
+
+"This is dealing rather more extensively than I anticipated, but we
+will reflect on it."
+
+Wallance now indolently arose and ascended to the quarter-deck,
+followed by Spike, who continued to press the flour on him, as if
+anxious to make money. But the lieutenant hesitated about paying a
+price as high as ten dollars, or to take a quantity as large as ten
+barrels.
+
+"Our mess is no great matter after all," he said carelessly. "Four
+lieutenants, the purser, two doctors, the master, and a marine
+officer, and you get us all. Nine men could never eat ten barrels of
+flour, my dear Spike, you will see for yourself, with the quantity
+of excellent bread we carry. You forget the bread."
+
+"Not a bit of it, Mr. Wallace, since that is your name. But such
+flour as this of mine has not been seen in the Gulf this many a day.
+I ought in reason to ask twelve dollars for it, and insist on such a
+ship as your'n's taking twenty instead of the ten barrels."
+
+"I thank you, sir, the ten will more than suffice; unless, indeed,
+the captain wants some for the cabin. How is it with your steerage
+messes, Mr. Archer--do you want any flour?"
+
+"We draw a little from the ship, according to rule, sir, but we
+can't go as many puddings latterly as we could before we touched
+last at the Havanna," answered the laughing midshipman. "There is
+n't a fellow among us, sir, that could pay a shore-boat for landing
+him, should we go in again before the end of another month. I never
+knew such a place as Havanna. They say midshipmen's money melts
+there twice as soon as lieutenants' money."
+
+"It's clear, then, you'll not take any of the ten. I am afraid after
+all, Mr. Spike, we cannot trade, unless you will consent to let me
+have two barrels. I'll venture on two at ten dollars, high as the
+price is."
+
+"I should n't forgive myself in six months for making so had a
+bargain, lieutenant, so we'll say no more about it if you please."
+
+"Here is a lady that wishes to say a word to you, Mr. Wallace,
+before we go back to the ship, if you are at leisure to hear her, or
+them--for there are two of them," put in Archer.
+
+At this moment Mrs. Budd was approaching with a dignified step,
+while Rose followed timidly a little in the rear. Wallace was a good
+deal surprised at this application, and Spike was quite as much
+provoked. As for Mulford, he watched the interview from a distance,
+a great deal more interested in its result than he cared to have
+known, more especially to his commanding officer. Its object was to
+get a passage in the vessel of war.
+
+"You are an officer of that Uncle Sam vessel," commenced Mrs. Budd,
+who thought that she would so much the more command the respect and
+attention of her listener, by showing him early how familiar she was
+with even the slang dialect of the seas.
+
+"I have the honour, ma'am, to belong to that Uncle Sam craft,"
+answered Wallace gravely, though he bowed politely at the same time,
+looking intently at the beautiful girl in the back-ground as he so
+did.
+
+"So I've been told, sir. She's a beautiful vessel, lieutenant, and
+is full jiggered, I perceive."
+
+For the first time in his life, or at least for the first time since
+his first cruise, Wallace wore a mystified look, being absolutely at
+a loss to imagine what "full jiggered" could mean. He only looked,
+therefore, for he did not answer.
+
+"Mrs. Budd means that you've a full rigged craft," put in Spike,
+anxious to have a voice in the conference, "this vessel being only a
+half-rigged brig."
+
+"Oh! ay; yes, yes--the lady is quite right. We are full jiggered
+from our dead-eyes to our eye-bolts."
+
+"I thought as much, sir, from your ground hamper and top-tackles,"
+added the relict smiling. "For my part there is nothing in nature
+that I so much admire as a full jiggered ship, with her canvas out
+of the bolt-ropes, and her clew-lines and clew-garnets braced sharp,
+and her yards all abroad."
+
+"Yes, ma'am, it is just as you say, a very charming spectacle. Our
+baby was born full grown, and with all her hamper aloft just as you
+see her. Some persons refer vessels to art, but I think you are
+quite right in referring them to nature."
+
+"Nothing can be more natural to me, lieutenant, than a fine ship
+standing on her canvas. It's an object to improve the heart and to
+soften the understanding."
+
+"So I should think, ma'am," returned Wallace, a little quizzically,
+"judging from the effect on yourself."
+
+This speech, unfortunately timed as it was, wrought a complete
+change in Rose's feelings, and she no longer wished to exchange the
+Swash for the Poughkeepsie. She saw that her aunt was laughed at in
+secret, and that was a circumstance that never failed to grate on
+every nerve in her system. She had been prepared to second and
+sustain the intended application--she was now determined to oppose
+it.
+
+"Yes, sir," resumed the unconscious relict, "and to soften the
+understanding. Lieutenant, did you ever cross the Capricorn?"
+
+"No less than six times; three going and three returning, you know."
+
+"And did Neptune come on board you, and were you shaved?"
+
+"Everything was done secundem artem, ma'am. The razor was quite an
+example of what are called in poetry `thoughts too deep for tears.'
+"
+
+"That must have been delightful. As for me, I'm quite a devotee of
+Neptune's; but I'm losing time, for no doubt your ship is all ready
+to pull away and carry on sail--"
+
+"Aunt, may I say a word to you before you go any further," put in
+Rose in her quiet but very controlling way.
+
+The aunt complied, and Wallace, as soon as left alone, felt like a
+man who was released from a quick-sand, into which every effort to
+extricate himself only plunged him so much the deeper. At this
+moment the ship hailed, and the lieutenant took a hasty leave of
+Spike, motioned to the midshipman to precede him, and followed the
+latter into his boat. Spike saw his visiter off in person, tending
+the side and offering the man-ropes with his own hands. For this
+civility Wallace thanked him, calling out as his boat pulled him
+from the brig's side--"If we `pull away,'" accenting the "pull" in
+secret derision of the relict's mistake, "you can pull away; our
+filling the topsail being a sign for you to do the same."
+
+"There you go, and joy go with you," muttered Spike, as he descended
+from the gangway. "A pretty kettle of fish would there have been
+cooked had I let him have his two barrels of flour."
+
+The man-of-war's cutter was soon under the lee of the ship, where it
+discharged its freight, when it was immediately run up. During the
+whole time Wallace had been absent, Captain Mull and his officers
+remained on the poop, principally occupied in examining and
+discussing the merits of the Swash. No sooner had their officer
+returned, however, than an order was given to fill away, it being
+supposed that the Poughkeepsie had no further concern with the
+brigantine. As for Wallace, he ascended to the poop and made the
+customary report.
+
+"It's a queer cargo to be carrying to Key West from the Atlantic
+coast," observed the captain in a deliberating sort of manner, as if
+the circumstance excited suspicion; "Yet the Mexicans can hardly be
+in want of any such supplies."
+
+"Did you see the flour, Wallace?" inquired the first lieutenant, who
+was well aware of his messmate's indolence.
+
+"Yes, sir, and felt it too. The lower hold of the brig is full of
+flour, and of nothing else."
+
+"Ware round, sir--ware round and pass athwart the brig's wake,"
+interrupted the captain. "There's plenty of room now, and I wish to
+pass as near that craft as we can."
+
+This manoeuvre was executed. The sloop-of-war no sooner filled her
+maintop-sail than she drew ahead, leaving plenty of room for the
+brigantine to make sail on her course. Spike did not profit by this
+opening, however, but he sent several men aloft forward, where they
+appeared to be getting ready to send down the upper yards and the
+topgallant-mast. No sooner was the sloop-of-war's helm put up than
+that vessel passed close along the brigantine's weather side, and
+kept off across her stern on her course. As she did this the canvas
+was fluttering aboard her, in the process of making sail, and Mull
+held a short discourse with Spike.
+
+"Is anything the matter aloft?" demanded the man-of-war's man.
+
+"Ay, ay; I've sprung my topgallant-mast, and think this a good
+occasion to get another up in its place."
+
+"Shall I lend you a carpenter or two, Mr. Spike?"
+
+"Thank'ee, sir, thank'ee with all my heart; but we can do without
+them. It's an old stick, and it's high time a better stood where it
+does. Who knows but I may be chased and feel the want of reliable
+spars."
+
+Captain Mull smiled and raised his cap in the way of an adieu, when
+the conversation ended; the Poughkeepsie sliding off rapidly with a
+free wind, leaving the Swash nearly stationary. In ten minutes the
+two vessels were more than a mile apart; in twenty, beyond the reach
+of shot.
+
+Notwithstanding the natural and common-place manner in which this
+separation took place, there was much distrust on board each vessel,
+and a good deal of consummate management on the part of Spike. The
+latter knew that every foot the sloop-of-war went on her course,
+carried her just so far to leeward, placing his own brig,
+in-so-much, dead to windward of her. As the Swash's best point of
+sailing, relatively considered, was close-hauled, this was giving to
+Spike a great security against any change of purpose on the part of
+the vessel of war. Although his people were aloft and actually sent
+down the topgallant-mast, it was only to send it up again, the spar
+being of admirable toughness, and as sound as the day it was cut.
+
+"I don't think, Mr. Mulford," said the captain sarcastically, "that
+Uncle Sam's glasses are good enough to tell the difference in wood
+at two leagues' distance, so we'll trust to the old stick a little
+longer. Ay, ay, let 'em run off before it, we'll find another road
+by which to reach our port."
+
+"The sloop-of-war is going round the south side of Cuba, Captain
+Spike," answered the mate, "and I have understood you to say that
+you intended to go by the same passage."
+
+"A body may change his mind, and no murder. Only consider, Harry,
+how common it is for folks to change their minds. I did intend to
+pass between Cuba and Jamaica, but I intend it no longer. Our run
+from Montauk has been oncommon short, and I've time enough to spare
+to go to the southward of Jamaica too, if the notion takes me."
+
+"That would greatly prolong the passage, Captain Spike,--a week at
+least."
+
+"What if it does--I've a week to spare; we're nine days afore our
+time."
+
+"Our time for what, sir? Is there any particular time set for a
+vessel's going into Key West?"
+
+"Don't be womanish and over-cur'ous, Mulford. I sail with sealed
+orders, and when we get well to windward of Jamaica, 't will be time
+enough to open them."
+
+Spike was as good as his word. As soon as he thought the
+sloop-of-war was far enough to leeward, or when she was hull down,
+he filled away and made sail on the wind to get nearer to Porto
+Rico. Long ere it was dark he had lost sight of the sloop-of-war,
+when he altered his course to south-westerly, which was carrying him
+in the direction he named, or to windward of Jamaica.
+
+While this artifice was being practised on board the Molly Swash,
+the officers of the Poughkeepsie were not quite satisfied with their
+own mode of proceeding with the brigantine. The more they reasoned
+on the matter, the more unlikely it seemed to them that Spike could
+be really carrying a cargo of flour from New York to Key West, in
+the expectation of disposing of it to the United States'
+contractors, and the more out of the way did he seem to be in
+running through the Mona Passage.
+
+"His true course should have been by the Hole in the Wall, and so
+down along the north side of Cuba, before the wind," observed the
+first lieutenant. "I wonder that never struck you, Wallace; you, who
+so little like trouble."
+
+"Certainly I knew it, but we lazy people like running off before the
+wind, and I did not know but such were Mr. Spike's tastes," answered
+the "ship's gentleman." "In my judgment, the reluctance he showed to
+letting us have any of his flour, is much the most suspicious
+circumstance in the whole affair."
+
+These two speeches were made on the poop, in the presence of the
+captain, but in a sort of an aside that admitted of some of the
+ward-room familiarity exhibited. Captain Mull was not supposed to
+hear what passed, though hear it he in fact did, as was seen by his
+own remarks, which immediately succeeded.
+
+"I understood you to say, Mr. Wallace," observed the captain, a
+little drily, "that you saw the flour yourself?"
+
+"I saw the flour-barrels, sir; and as regularly built were they as
+any barrels that ever were branded. But a flour-barrel may have
+contained something beside flour."
+
+"Flour usually makes itself visible in the handling; were these
+barrels quite clean?"
+
+"Far from it, sir. They showed flour on their staves, like any other
+cargo. After all, the man may have more sense than we give him
+credit for, and find a high market for his cargo."
+
+Captain Mull seemed to muse, which was a hint for his juniors not to
+continue the conversation, but rather to seem to muse, too. After a
+short pause, the captain quietly remarked--"Well, gentlemen, he will
+be coming down after us, I suppose, as soon as he gets his new
+topgallant-mast on-end, and then we can keep a bright look-out for
+him. We shall cruise off Cape St. Antonio for a day or two, and no
+doubt shall get another look at him. I should like to have one
+baking from his flour."
+
+But Spike had no intention to give the Poughkeepsie the desired
+opportunity. As has been stated, he stood off to the southward on a
+wind, and completely doubled the eastern end of Jamaica, when he put
+his helm up, and went, with favouring wind and current, toward the
+northward and westward. The consequence was, that he did not fall in
+with the Poughkeepsie at all, which vessel was keeping a sharp
+look-out for him in the neighbourhood of Cape St. Antonio and the
+Isle of Pines, at the very moment he was running down the coast of
+Yucatan. Of all the large maritime countries of the world, Mexico,
+on the Atlantic, is that which is the most easily blockaded, by a
+superior naval power. By maintaining a proper force between Key West
+and the Havanna, and another squadron between Cape St. Antonio and
+Loggerhead Key, the whole country, the Bay of Honduras excepted, is
+shut up, as it might be in a band-box. It is true the Gulf would be
+left open to the Mexicans, were not squadrons kept nearer in; but,
+as for anything getting out into the broad Atlantic, it would be
+next to hopeless. The distance to be watched between the Havanna and
+Key West is only about sixty miles, while that in the other
+direction is not much greater.
+
+While the Swash was making the circuit of Jamaica, as described, her
+captain had little communication with his passengers. The
+misunderstanding with the relict embarrassed him as much as it
+embarrassed her; and he was quite willing to let time mitigate her
+resentment. Rose would be just as much in his power a fortnight
+hence as she was today. This cessation in the captain's attentions
+gave the females greater liberty, and they improved it, singularly
+enough as it seemed to Mulford, by cultivating a strange sort of
+intimacy with Jack Tier. The very day that succeeded the delicate
+conversation with Mrs. Budd, to a part of which Jack had been an
+auditor, the uncouth-looking steward's assistant was seen in close
+conference with the pretty Rose; the subject of their conversation
+being, apparently, of a most engrossing nature. From that hour, Jack
+got to be not only a confidant, but a favourite, to Mulford's great
+surprise. A less inviting subject for tete-a-tetes and confidential
+dialogues, thought the young man, could not well exist; but so it
+was; woman's caprices are inexplicable; and not only Rose and her
+aunt, but even the captious and somewhat distrustful Biddy,
+manifested on all occasions not only friendship, but kindness and
+consideration for Jack.
+
+"You quite put my nose out o' joint, you Jack Tier, with 'e lady,"
+grumbled Josh, the steward de jure, if not now de facto, of the
+craft, "and I neber see nuttin' like it! I s'pose you expect ten
+dollar, at least, from dem passenger, when we gets in. But I'd have
+you to know, Misser Jack, if you please, dat a steward be a steward,
+and he do n't like to hab trick played wid him, afore he own face."
+
+"Poh! poh! Joshua," answered Jack good-naturedly, "do n't distress
+yourself on a consail. In the first place, you've got no nose to be
+put out of joint; or, if you have really a nose, it has no joint.
+It's nat'ral for folks to like their own colour, and the ladies
+prefar me, because I'm white."
+
+"No so werry white as all dat, nudder," grumbled Josh. "I see great
+many whiter dan you. But, if dem lady like you so much as to gib you
+ten dollar, as I expects, when we gets in, I presumes you'll hand
+over half, or six dollar, of dat money to your superior officer, as
+is law in de case."
+
+"Do you call six the half of ten, Joshua, my scholar, eh?"
+
+"Well, den, seven, if you like dat better. I wants just half, and
+just half I means to git."
+
+"And half you shall have, maty. I only wish you would just tell me
+where we shall be, when we gets in."
+
+"How I know, white man? Dat belong to skipper, and better ask him.
+If he do n't gib you lick in de chop, p'rhaps he tell you."
+
+As Jack Tier had no taste for "licks in the chops," he did not
+follow Josh's advice. But his agreeing to give half of the ten
+dollars to the steward kept peace in the cabins. He was even so
+scrupulous of his word, as to hand to Josh a half-eagle that very
+day; money he had received from Rose; saying he would trust to
+Providence for his own half of the expected douceur. This concession
+placed Jack Tier on high grounds with his "superior officer," and
+from that time the former was left to do the whole of the customary
+service of the ladies' cabin.
+
+As respects the vessel, nothing worthy of notice occurred until she
+had passed Loggerhead Key, and was fairly launched in the Gulf of
+Mexico. Then, indeed, Spike took a step that greatly surprised his
+mate. The latter was directed to bring all his instruments, charts,
+&c., and place them in the captain's state-room, where it was
+understood they were to remain until the brig got into port. Spike
+was but an indifferent navigator, while Mulford was one of a higher
+order than common. So much had the former been accustomed to rely on
+the latter, indeed, as they approached a strange coast, that he
+could not possibly have taken any step, that was not positively
+criminal, which would have given his mate more uneasiness than this.
+
+At first, Mulford naturally enough suspected that Spike intended to
+push for some Mexican port, by thus blinding his eyes as to the
+position of the vessel. The direction steered, however, soon
+relieved the mate from this apprehension. From the eastern extremity
+of Yucatan, the Mexican coast trends to the westward, and even to
+the south of west, for a long distance, whereas the course steered
+by Spike was north, easterly. This was diverging from the enemy's
+coast instead of approaching it, and the circumstance greatly
+relieved the apprehensions of Mulford.
+
+Nor was the sequestration of the mate's instruments the only
+suspicious act of Spike. He caused the brig's paint to be entirely
+altered, and even went so far toward disguising her, as to make some
+changes aloft. All this was done as the vessel passed swiftly on her
+course, and everything had been effected, apparently to the
+captain's satisfaction, when the cry of "land-ho!" was once more
+heard. The land proved to be a cluster of low, small islands, part
+coral, part sand, that might have been eight or ten in number, and
+the largest of which did not possess a surface of more than a very
+few acres. Many were the merest islets imaginable, and on one of the
+largest of the cluster rose a tall, gaunt light-house, having the
+customary dwelling of its keeper at its base. Nothing else was
+visible; the broad expanse of the blue waters of the Gulf excepted.
+All the land in sight would not probably have made one field of
+twenty acres in extent, and that seemed cut off from the rest of the
+world, by a broad barrier of water. It was a spot of such singular
+situation and accessories, that Mulford gazed at it with a burning
+desire to know where he was, as the brig steered through a channel
+between two of the islets, into a capacious and perfectly safe
+basin, formed by the group, and dropped her anchor in its centre.
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+  "He sleeps; but dreams of massy gold,
+    And heaps of pearl. He stretch'd his hands--
+  He hears a voice--
+
+  "Ill man withhold!'
+    A pale one near him stands."
+
+Dana.
+
+It was near night-fall when the Swash anchored among the low and
+small islets mentioned. Rose had been on deck, as the vessel
+approached this singular and solitary haven, watching the movements
+of those on board, as well as the appearance of objects on the land,
+with the interest her situation would be-likely to awaken. She saw
+the light and manageable craft glide through the narrow and crooked
+passages that led into the port, the process of anchoring, and the
+scene of tranquil solitude that succeeded; each following the other
+as by a law of nature. The light-house next attracted her attention,
+and, as soon as the sun disappeared, her eyes were fastened on the
+lantern, in expectation of beholding the watchful and warning fires
+gleaming there, to give the mariner notice of the position of the
+dangers that surrounded the place. Minute went by after minute,
+however, and the customary illumination seemed to be forgotten.
+
+"Why is not this light shining?" Rose asked of Mulford, as the young
+man came near her, after having discharged his duty in helping to
+moor the vessel, and in clearing the decks. "All the light-houses we
+have passed, and they have been fifty, have shown bright lights at
+this hour, but this."
+
+"I cannot explain it; nor have I the smallest notion where we are. I
+have been aloft, and there was nothing in sight but this cluster of
+low islets, far or near. I did fancy, for a moment, I saw a speck
+like a distant sail, off here, to the northward and eastward, but I
+rather think it was a gull, or some other sea-bird glancing upward
+on the wing. I mentioned it to the captain when I came down, and he
+appeared to believe it a mistake. I have watched that light-house
+closely, too, ever since we came in, and I have not seen the
+smallest sign of life about it. It is altogether an extraordinary
+place!"
+
+"One suited to acts of villany, I fear, Harry!"
+
+"Of that we shall be better judges to-morrow. You, at least, have
+one vigilant friend, who will die sooner than harm shall come to
+you. I believe Spike to be thoroughly unprincipled; still he knows
+he can go so far and no further, and has a wholesome dread of the
+law. But the circumstance that there should be such a port as this,
+with a regular light-house, and no person near the last, is so much
+out of the common way, that I do not know what to make of it."
+
+"Perhaps the light-house keeper is afraid to show himself, in the
+presence of the Swash?"
+
+"That can hardly be, for vessels must often enter the port, if port
+it can be called. But Spike is as much concerned at the circumstance
+that the lamps are not lighted, as any of us can be. Look, he is
+about to visit the building in the boat, accompanied by two of his
+oldest sea-dogs."
+
+"Why might we not raise the anchor, and sail out of this place,
+leaving Spike ashore?" suggested Rose, with more decision and spirit
+than discretion.
+
+"For the simple reason that the act would be piracy, even if I could
+get the rest of the people to obey my orders, as certainly I could
+not. No, Rose: you, and your aunt, and Biddy, however, might land at
+these buildings, and refuse to return, Spike having no authority
+over his passengers."
+
+"Still he would have the power to make us come back to his brig.
+Look, he has left the vessel's side, and is going directly toward
+the light-house."
+
+Mulford made no immediate answer, but remained at Rose's side,
+watching the movements of the captain. The last pulled directly to
+the islet with the buildings, a distance of only a few hundred feet,
+the light-house being constructed on a rocky island that was nearly
+in the centre of the cluster, most probably to protect it from the
+ravages of the waves. The fact, however, proved, as Mulford did not
+fail to suggest to his companion, that the beacon had been erected
+less to guide vessels into the haven, than to warn mariners at a
+distance, of the position of the whole group.
+
+In less than five minutes after he had landed, Spike himself was
+seen in the lantern, in the act of lighting its lamps. In a very
+short time the place was in a brilliant blaze, reflectors and all
+the other parts of the machinery of the place performing their
+duties as regularly as if tended by the usual keeper. Soon after
+Spike returned on board, and the anchor-watch was set. Then
+everybody sought the rest that it was customary to take at that
+hour.
+
+Mulford was on deck with the appearance of the sun; but he found
+that Spike had preceded him, had gone ashore again, had extinguished
+the lamps, and was coming alongside of the brig on his return. A
+minute later the captain came over the side.
+
+"You were right about your sail, last night, a'ter all, Mr.
+Mulford," said Spike, on coming aft. "There she is, sure enough; and
+we shall have her alongside to strike cargo out and in, by the time
+the people have got their breakfasts."
+
+As Spike pointed toward the light-house while speaking, the mate
+changed his position a little, and saw that a schooner was coming
+down toward the islets before the wind. Mulford now began to
+understand the motives of the captain's proceedings, though a good
+deal yet remained veiled in mystery. He could not tell where the
+brig was, nor did he know precisely why so many expedients were
+adopted to conceal the transfer of a cargo as simple as that of
+flour. But he who was in the secret left but little time for
+reflection; for swallowing a hasty breakfast on deck, he issued
+orders enough to his mate to give him quite as much duty as he could
+perform, when he again entered the yawl, and pulled toward the
+stranger.
+
+Rose soon appeared on deck, and she naturally began to question
+Harry concerning their position and prospects. He was confessing his
+ignorance, as well as lamenting it, when his companion's sweet face
+suddenly flushed. She advanced a step eagerly toward the open window
+of Spike's state-room, then compressed her full, rich under-lip with
+the ivory of her upper teeth, and stood a single instant, a
+beautiful statue of irresolution instigated by spirit. The last
+quality prevailed; and Mulford was really startled when he saw Rose
+advance quite to the window, thrust in an arm, and turn toward him
+with his own sextant in her hand. During the course of the passage
+out, the young man had taught Rose to assist him in observing the
+longitude; and she was now ready to repeat the practice. Not a
+moment was lost in executing her intention. Sights were had, and the
+instrument was returned to its place without attracting the
+attention of the men, who were all busy in getting up purchases, and
+in making the other necessary dispositions for discharging the
+flour. The observations answered the purpose, though somewhat
+imperfectly made. Mulford had a tolerable notion of their latitude,
+having kept the brig's run in his head since quitting Yutacan; and
+he now found that their longitude was about 83 o west from
+Greenwich. After ascertaining this fact, a glance at the open chart,
+which lay on Spike's desk, satisfied him that the vessel was
+anchored within the group of the Dry Tortugas, or at the western
+termination of the well-known, formidable, and extensive Florida
+Reef. He had never been in that part of the world before, but had
+heard enough in sea-gossip, and had read enough in books, to be at
+once apprised of the true character of their situation. The islets
+were American; the light-house was American; and the haven in which
+the Swash lay was the very spot in the contemplation of government
+for an outer man-of-war harbour, where fleets might rendezvous in
+the future wars of that portion of the world. He now saw plainly
+enough the signs of the existence of a vast reef, a short distance
+to the southward of the vessel, that formed a species of sea-wall,
+or mole, to protect the port against the waves of the gulf in that
+direction. This reef he knew to be miles in width.
+
+There was little time for speculation, Spike soon bringing the
+strange schooner directly alongside of the brig. The two vessels
+immediately became a scene of activity, one discharging, and the
+other receiving the flour as fast as it could be struck out of the
+hold of the Swash and lowered upon the deck of the schooner.
+Mulford, however, had practised a little artifice, as the stranger
+entered the haven, which drew down upon him an anathema or two from
+Spike, as soon as they were alone. The mate had set the brig's
+ensign, and this compelled the stranger to be markedly rude, or to
+answer the compliment. Accordingly he had shown the ancient flag of
+Spain. For thus extorting a national symbol from the schooner, the
+mate was sharply rebuked at a suitable moment, though nothing could
+have been more forbearing than the deportment of his commander when
+they first met.
+
+When Spike returned to his own vessel, he was accompanied by a
+dark-looking, well-dressed, and decidedly gentleman-like personage,
+whom he addressed indifferently, in his very imperfect Spanish, as
+Don Wan, (Don Juan, or John,) or Senor Montefalderon. By the latter
+appellation he even saw fit to introduce the very
+respectable-looking stranger to his mate. This stranger spoke
+English well, though with an accent.
+
+"Don Wan has taken all the flour, Mr. Mulford, and intends shoving
+it over into Cuba, without troubling the custom-house, I believe;
+but that is not a matter to give us any concern, you know."
+
+The wink, and the knowing look by which this speech was accompanied,
+seemed particularly disagreeable to Don Juan, who now paid his
+compliments to Rose, with no little surprise betrayed in his
+countenance, but with the ease and reserve of a gentleman. Mulford
+thought it strange that a smuggler of flour should be so polished a
+personage, though his duty did not admit of his bestowing much
+attention on the little trifling of the interview that succeeded.
+
+For about an hour the work went steadily and rapidly on. During that
+time Mulford was several times on board the schooner, as, indeed,
+was Josh, Jack Tier, and others belonging to the Swash. The Spanish
+vessel was Baltimore, or clipper built, with a trunk-cabin, and had
+every appearance of sailing fast. Mulford was struck with her model,
+and, while on board of her, he passed both forward and aft to
+examine it. This was so natural in a seaman, that Spike, while he
+noted the proceeding, took it in good part. He even called out to
+his mate, from his own quarter-deck, to admire this or that point in
+the schooner's construction. As is customary with the vessels of
+southern nations, this stranger was full of men, but they continued
+at their work, some half dozen of brawny negroes among them,
+shouting their songs as they swayed at the falls, no one appearing
+to manifest jealousy or concern. At length Tier came near the mate,
+and said,
+
+"Uncle Sam will not be pleased when he hears the reason that the
+keeper is not in his light-house."
+
+"And what is that reason, Jack? If you know it, tell it to me."
+
+"Go aft and look down the companion-way, maty, and see it for
+yourself."
+
+Mulford did go aft, and he made an occasion to look down into the
+schooner's cabin, where he caught a glimpse of the persons of a man
+and a boy, whom he at once supposed had been taken from the
+light-house. This one fact of itself doubled his distrust of the
+character of Spike's proceedings. There was no sufficient apparent
+reason why a mere smuggler should care about the presence of an
+individual more or less in a foreign port. Everything that had
+occurred, looked like pre-concert between the brig and the schooner;
+and the mate was just beginning to entertain the strongest distrust
+that their vessel was holding treasonable communication with the
+enemy, when an accident removed all doubt on the subject, from his
+own mind at least. Spike had, once or twice, given his opinion that
+the weather was treacherous, and urged the people of both crafts to
+extraordinary exertions, in order that the vessels might get clear
+of each other as soon as possible. This appeal had set various
+expedients in motion to second the more regular work of the
+purchases. Among other things, planks had been laid from one vessel
+to the other, and barrels were rolled along them with very little
+attention to the speed or the direction. Several had fallen on the
+schooner's deck with rude shocks, but no damage was done, until one,
+of which the hoops had not been properly secured, met with a fall,
+and burst nearly at Mulford's feet. It was at the precise moment
+when the mate was returning, from taking his glance into the cabin,
+toward the side of the Swash. A white cloud arose, and half a dozen
+of the schooner's people sprang for buckets, kids, or dishes, in
+order to secure enough of the contents of the broken barrel to
+furnish them with a meal. At first nothing was visible but the white
+cloud that succeeded the fall, and the scrambling sailors in its
+midst. No sooner, however, had the air got to be a little clear,
+than Mulford saw an object lying in centre of the wreck, that he at
+once recognised for a keg of the gunpowder! The captain of the
+schooner seized this keg, gave a knowing look at Mulford, and
+disappeared in the hold of his own vessel, carrying with him, what
+was out of all question, a most material part of the true cargo of
+the Swash.
+
+At the moment when the flour-barrel burst, Spike was below, in close
+conference with his Spanish, or Mexican guest; and the wreck being
+so soon cleared away, it is probable that he never heard of the
+accident. As for the two crews, they laughed a little among
+themselves at the revelation which had been made, as well as at the
+manner; but to old sea-dogs like them, it was a matter of very
+little moment, whether the cargo was, in reality, flour or
+gunpowder. In a few minutes the affair seemed to be forgotten. In
+the course of another hour the Swash was light, having nothing in
+her but some pig-lead, which she used for ballast, while the
+schooner was loaded to her hatches, and full. Spike now sent a boat,
+with orders to drop a kedge about a hundred yards from the place
+where his own brig lay. The schooner warped up to this kedge, and
+dropped an anchor of her own, leaving a very short range of cable
+out, it being a flat calm. Ordinarily, the trades prevail at the Dry
+Tortugas, and all along the Florida Reef. Sometimes, indeed, this
+breeze sweeps across the whole width of the Gulf of Mexico, blowing
+home, as it is called--reaching even to the coast of Texas. It is
+subject, however, to occasional interruptions everywhere, varying
+many points in its direction, and occasionally ceasing entirely. The
+latter was the condition of the weather about noon on this day, or
+when the schooner hauled off from the brig, and was secured at her
+own anchor.
+
+"Mr. Mulford," said Spike, "I do not like the state of the
+atmosphere. D'ye see that fiery streak along the western
+horizon--well, sir, as the sun gets nearer to that streak, there'll
+be trouble, or I'm no judge of weather."
+
+"You surely do not imagine, Captain Spike, that the sun will be any
+nearer to that fiery streak, as you call it, when he is about to
+set, than he is at this moment?" answered the mate, smiling.
+
+"I'm sure of one thing, young man, and that is, that old heads are
+better than young ones. What a man has once seen, he may expect to
+see again, if the same leading signs offer. Man the boat, sir, and
+carry out the kedge, which is still in it, and lay it off here,
+about three p'ints on our larboard bow."
+
+Mulford had a profound respect for Spike's seamanship, whatever he
+might think of his principles. The order was consequently obeyed.
+The mate was then directed to send down various articles out of the
+top, and to get the top-gallant and royal yards on deck. Spike
+carried his precautions so far, as to have the mainsail lowered, it
+ordinarily brailing at that season of the year, with a standing
+gaff. With this disposition completed, the captain seemed more at
+his ease, and went below to join Senor Montefalderon in a siesta.
+The Mexican, for such, in truth, was the national character of the
+owner of the schooner, had preceded him in this indulgence; and most
+of the people of the brig having laid themselves down to sleep under
+the heat of the hour, Mulford soon enjoyed another favourable
+opportunity for a private conference with Rose.
+
+"Harry," commenced the latter, as soon as they were alone; "I have
+much to tell you. While you have been absent I have overheard a
+conversation between this Spanish gentleman and Spike, that shows
+the last is in treaty with the other for the sale of the brig. Spike
+extolled his vessel to the skies, while Don Wan, as he calls him,
+complains that the brig is old, and cannot last long; to which Spike
+answered `to be sure she is old, Senor Montefalderon, but she will
+last as long as your war, and under a bold captain might be made to
+return her cost a hundred fold!' What war can he mean, and to what
+does such a discourse tend?"
+
+"The war alludes to the war now existing between America and Mexico,
+and the money to be made is to be plundered at sea, from our own
+merchant-vessels. If Don Juan Montefalderon is really in treaty for
+the purchase of the brig, it is to convert her into a Mexican
+cruiser, either public or private."
+
+"But this would be treason on the part of Spike!"
+
+"Not more so than supplying the enemy with gunpowder, as he has just
+been doing. I have ascertained the reason he was so unwilling to be
+overhauled by the revenue steamer, as well as the reason why the
+revenue steamer wished so earnestly to overhaul us. Each barrel of
+flour contains another of gunpowder, and that has been sold to this
+Senor Montefalderon, who is doubtless an officer of the Mexican
+government, and no smuggler."
+
+"He has been at New York, this very summer, I know," continued Rose,
+"for he spoke of his visit, and made such other remarks, as leaves
+no doubt that Spike expected to find him here, on this very day of
+the month. He also paid Spike a large sum of money in doubloons, and
+took back the bag to his schooner, when he had done so, after
+showing the captain enough was left to pay for the brig could they
+only agree on the terms of their bargain."
+
+"Ay, ay; it is all plain enough now, Spike has determined on a
+desperate push for fortune, and foreseeing it might not soon be in
+his power to return to New York in safety, he has included his
+designs on you and your fortune, in the plot."
+
+"My fortune! the trifle I possess can scarcely be called a fortune,
+Harry!"
+
+"It would be a fortune to Spike, Rose; and I shall be honest enough
+to own it would be a fortune to me. I say this frankly, for I do
+believe you think too well of me to suppose that I seek you for any
+other reason than the ardent love I bear your person and character;
+but a fact is not to be denied because it may lead certain persons
+to distrust our motives. Spike is poor, like myself; and the brig is
+not only getting to be very old, but she has been losing money for
+the last twelve months."
+
+Mulford and Rose now conversed long and confidentially, on their
+situation and prospects. The mate neither magnified nor concealed
+the dangers of both; but freely pointed out the risk to himself, in
+being on board a vessel that was aiding and comforting the enemy. It
+was determined between there that both would quit the brig the
+moment an opportunity offered; and the mate even went so far as to
+propose an attempt to escape in one of the boats, although he might
+incur the hazards of a double accusation, those of mutiny and
+larceny, for making the experiment. Unfortunately, neither Rose, nor
+her aunt, nor Biddy, nor Jack Tier had seen the barrel of powder,
+and neither could testify as to the true character of Spike's
+connection with the schooner. It was manifestly necessary,
+therefore, independently of the risks that might be run by "bearding
+the lion in his den," to proceed with great intelligence and
+caution.
+
+This dialogue between Harry and Rose, occurred just after the turn
+in the day, and lasted fully an hour. Each had been too much
+interested to observe the heavens, but, as they were on the point of
+separating, Rose pointed out to her companion the unusual and most
+menacing aspect of the sky in the western horizon. It appeared as if
+a fiery heat was glowing there, behind a curtain of black vapour;
+and what rendered it more remarkable, was the circumstance that an
+extraordinary degree of placidity prevailed in all other parts of
+the heavens. Mulford scarce knew what to make of it; his experience
+not going so far as to enable him to explain the novel and alarming
+appearance. He stepped on a gun, and gazed around him for a moment.
+There lay the schooner, without a being visible on board of her, and
+there stood the light-house, gloomy in its desertion and solitude.
+The birds alone seemed to be alive and conscious of what was
+approaching. They were all on the wing, wheeling wildly in the air,
+and screaming discordantly, as belonged to their habits. The young
+man leaped off the gun, gave a loud call to Spike, at the
+companion-way, and sprang forward to call all hands.
+
+One minute only was lost, when every seaman on board the Swash, from
+the captain to Jack Tier, was on deck. Mulford met Spike at the
+cabin door, and pointed toward the fiery column, that was booming
+down upon the anchorage, with a velocity and direction that would
+now admit of no misinterpretation. For one instant that sturdy old
+seaman stood aghast; gazing at the enemy as one conscious of his
+impotency might have been supposed to quail before an assault that
+he foresaw must prove irresistible. Then his native spirit, and most
+of all the effects of training, began to show themselves in him, and
+he became at once, not only the man again, but the resolute,
+practised, and ready commander.
+
+"Come aft to the spring, men--" he shouted--"clap on the spring, Mr.
+Mulford, and bring the brig head to wind."
+
+This order was obeyed as seamen best obey, in cases of sudden and
+extreme emergency; or with intelligence, aptitude and power. The
+brig had swung nearly round, in the desired direction, when the
+tornado struck her. It will be difficult, we do not know but it is
+impossible, to give a clear and accurate account of what followed.
+As most of our readers have doubtless felt how great is the power of
+the wind, whiffling and pressing different ways, in sudden and
+passing gusts, they have only to imagine this power increased many,
+many fold, and the baffling currents made furious, as it might be,
+by meeting with resistance, to form some notion of the appalling
+strength and frightful inconstancy with which it blew for about a
+minute.
+
+Notwithstanding the circumstance of Spike's precaution had greatly
+lessened the danger, every man on the deck of the Swash believed the
+brig was gone when the gust struck her. Over she went, in fact,
+until the water came pouring in above her half-ports, like so many
+little cascades, and spouting up through her scupper-holes,
+resembling the blowing of young whales. It was the whiffling energy
+of the tornado that alone saved her. As if disappointed in not
+destroying its intended victim at one swoop, the tornado "let up" in
+its pressure, like a dexterous wrestler, making a fresh and
+desperate effort to overturn the vessel, by a slight variation in
+its course. That change saved the Swash. She righted, and even
+rolled in the other direction, or what might be called to windward,
+with her decks full of water. For a minute longer these baffling,
+changing gusts continued, each causing the brig to bow like a reed
+to their power, one lifting as another pressed her down, and then
+the weight, or the more dangerous part of the tornado was passed,
+though it continued to blow heavily, always in whiffling blasts,
+several minutes longer.
+
+During the weight of the gust, no one had leisure, or indeed
+inclination to look to aught beyond its effect on the brig. Had one
+been otherwise disposed, the attempt would have been useless, for
+the wind had filled the air with spray, and near the islets even
+with sand. The lurid but fiery tinge, too, interposed a veil that no
+human eye could penetrate. As the tornado passed onward, however,
+and the winds lulled, the air again became clear, and in five
+minutes after the moment when the Swash lay nearly on her side, with
+her lower yard-arm actually within a few feet of the water, all was
+still and placid around her, as one is accustomed to see the ocean
+in a calm, of a summer's afternoon. Then it was that those who had
+been in such extreme jeopardy could breathe freely and look about
+them. On board the Swash all was well--not a rope-yarn had parted,
+or an eyebolt drawn. The timely precautions of Spike had saved his
+brig, and great was his joy thereat.
+
+In the midst of the infernal din of the tornado, screams had
+ascended from the cabin, and the instant he could quit the deck with
+propriety, Mulford sprang below, in order to ascertain their cause.
+He apprehended that some of the females had been driven to leeward
+when the brig went over, and that part of the luggage or furniture
+had fallen on them. In the main cabin, the mate found Senor
+Montefalderon just quitting his berth, composed, gentleman-like, and
+collected. Josh was braced in a corner nearly grey with fear, while
+Jack Tier still lay on the cabin floor, at the last point to which
+he had rolled. One word sufficed to let Don Juan know that the gust
+had passed, and the brig was safe, when Mulford tapped at the deor
+of the inner cabin. Rose appeared, pale, but calm and unhurt.
+
+"Is any one injured?" asked the young man, his mind relieved at
+once, as soon as he saw that she who most occupied his thoughts was
+safe; "we heard screams from this cabin."
+
+"My aunt and Biddy have been frightened," answered Rose, "but
+neither has been hurt. Oh, Harry, what terrible thing has happened
+to us? I heard the roaring of--"
+
+" 'T was a tornado," interrupted Mulford eagerly, "but 't is over.
+'T was one of those sudden and tremendous gusts that sometimes occur
+within the tropics, in which the danger is usually in the first
+shock. If no one is injured in this cabin, no one is injured at
+all."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Mulford--dear Mr. Mulford!" exclaimed the relict, from the
+corner into which she had been followed and jammed by Biddy, "Oh,
+Mr. Mulford, are we foundered or not?"
+
+"Heaven be praised, not, my dear ma'am, though we came nearer to it
+than I ever was before."
+
+"Are we cap-asided?"
+
+"Nor that, Mrs. Budd; the brig is as upright as a church."
+
+"Upright!" repeated Biddy, in her customary accent,--"is it as a
+church? Sure, then, Mr. Mate, 't is a Presbyterian church that you
+mane, and that is always totterin'."
+
+"Catholic, or Dutch--no church in York is more completely up and
+down than the brig at this moment."
+
+"Get off of me--get off of me, Biddy, and let me rise," said the
+widow, with dignity. "The danger is over I see, and, as we return
+our thanks for it, we have the consolation of knowing that we have
+done our duty. It is incumbent on all, at such moments, to be at
+their posts, and to set examples of decision and prudence."
+
+As Mulford saw all was well in the cabin, he hastened on deck,
+followed by Senor Montefalderon. Just as they emerged from the
+companion-way, Spike was hailing the forecastle.
+
+"Forecastle, there," he cried, standing on the trunk himself as he
+did so, and moving from side to side, as if to catch a glimpse of
+some object ahead.
+
+"Sir," came back from an old salt, who was coiling up rigging in
+that seat of seamanship.
+
+"Where-away is the schooner? She ought to be dead ahead of us, as we
+tend now--but blast me if I can see as much as her mast-heads."
+
+At this suggestion, a dozen men sprang upon guns or other objects,
+to look for the vessel in question. The old salt forward, however,
+had much the best chance, for he stepped on the heel of the
+bowsprit, and walked as far out as the knight-heads, to command the
+whole view ahead of the brig. There he stood half a minute, looking
+first on one side of the head-gear, then the other, when he gave his
+trousers a hitch, put a fresh quid in his mouth, and called out in a
+voice almost as hoarse as the tempest, that had just gone by,
+
+"The schooner has gone down at her anchor, sir. There's her buoy
+watching still, as if nothing had happened; but as for the craft
+itself, there's not so much as a bloody yard-arm, or mast-head of
+her to be seen!"
+
+This news produced a sensation in the brig at once, as may be
+supposed. Even Senor Montefalderon, a quiet, gentleman-like person,
+altogether superior in deportment to the bustle and fuss that
+usually marks the manners of persons in trade, was disturbed; for to
+him the blow was heavy indeed. Whether he were acting for himself,
+or was an agent of the Mexican government, the loss was much the
+same.
+
+"Tom is right enough," put in Spike, rather coolly for the
+circumstances--"that there schooner of yourn has foundered, Don Wan,
+as any one can see. She must have cap-sized and filled, for I
+obsarved they had left the hatches off, meaning, no doubt, to make
+an end of the storage as soon as they had done sleeping."
+
+"And what has become of all her men, Don Esteban?" for so the
+Mexican politely called his companion. "Have all my poor countrymen
+perished in this disaster?"
+
+"I fear they have, Don Wan; for I see no head, as of any one
+swimming. The vessel lay so near that island next to it, that a poor
+swimmer would have no difficulty in reaching the place; but there is
+no living thing to be seen. But man the boat, men; we will go to the
+spot, Senor, and examine for ourselves."
+
+There were two boats in the water, and along-side of the brig. One
+was the Swash's yawl, a small but convenient craft, while the other
+was much larger, fitted with a sail, and had all the appearance of
+having been built to withstand breezes and seas. Mulford felt
+perfectly satisfied, the moment he saw this boat, which had come
+into the haven in tow of the schooner, that it had been originally
+in the service of the light-house keeper. As there was a very
+general desire among those on the quarter-deck to go to the
+assistance of the schooner, Spike ordered both boats manned, jumping
+into the yawl himself, accompanied by Don Juan Montefalderon, and
+telling Mulford to follow with the larger craft, bringing with him
+as many of the females as might choose to accompany him. As Mrs.
+Budd thought it incumbent on her to be active in such a scene, all
+did go, including Biddy, though with great reluctance on the part of
+Rose.
+
+With the buoy for a guide, Spike had no difficulty in finding the
+spot where the schooner lay. She had scarcely shifted her berth in
+the least, there having been no time for her even to swing to the
+gust, but she had probably cap-sized at the first blast, filled, and
+gone down instantly. The water was nearly as clear as the calm, mild
+atmosphere of the tropics; and it was almost as easy to discern the
+vessel, and all her hamper, as if she lay on a beach. She had sunk
+as she filled, or on her side, and still continued in that position.
+As the water was little more than three fathoms deep, the upper side
+was submerged but a few inches, and her yard-arms would have been
+out of the water, but for the circumstance that the yards had canted
+under the pressure.
+
+At first, no sign was seen of any of those who had been on board
+this ill-fated schooner when she went down. It was known that
+twenty-one souls were in her, including the man and the boy who had
+belonged to the light-house. As the boat moved slowly over this sad
+ruin, however, a horrible and startling spectacle came in view. Two
+bodies were seen, within a few feet of the surface of the water, one
+grasped in the arms of the other, in the gripe of despair. The man
+held in the grasp, was kept beneath the water solely by the
+death-lock of his companion, who was himself held where he floated,
+by the circumstance that one of his feet was entangled in a rope.
+The struggle could not have been long over, for the two bodies were
+slowly settling toward the bottom when first seen. It is probable
+that both these men had more than once risen to the surface in their
+dreadful struggle. Spike seized a boat-hook, and made an effort to
+catch the clothes of the nearest body, but ineffectually, both
+sinking to the sands beneath, lifeless, and without motion. There
+being no sharks in sight, Mulford volunteered to dive and fasten a
+line to one of these unfortunate men, whom Don Juan declared at once
+was the schooner's captain. Some little time was lost in procuring a
+lead-line from the brig, when the lead was dropped alongside of the
+drowned. Provided with another piece of the same sort of line, which
+had a small running bowline around that which was fastened to the
+lead, the mate made his plunge, and went down with great vigour of
+arm. It required resolution and steadiness to descend so far into
+salt water; but Harry succeeded, and rose with the bodies, which
+came up with the slightest impulse. All were immediately got into
+the boat, and away the latter went toward the light-house, which was
+nearer and more easy of access than the brig.
+
+It is probable that one of these unfortunate men might have been
+revived under judicious treatment; but he was not fated to receive
+it. Spike, who knew nothing of such matters, undertook to direct
+everything, and, instead of having recourse to warmth and gentle
+treatment, he ordered the bodies to be rolled on a cask, suspended
+them by the heels, and resorted to a sort of practice that might
+have destroyed well men, instead of resuscitating those in whom the
+vital spark was dormant, if not actually extinct.
+
+Two hours later, Rose, seated in her own cabin, unavoidably
+overheard the following dialogue, which passed in English, a
+language that Senor Montefalderon spoke perfectly well, as has been
+said.
+
+"Well, Senor," said Spike, "I hope this little accident will not
+prevent our final trade. You will want the brig now, to take the
+schooner's place."
+
+"And how am I to pay you for the brig, Senor Spike, even if I buy
+her?"
+
+"I'll ventur' to guess there is plenty of money in Mexico. Though
+they do say the government is so backward about paying, I have
+always found you punctual, and am not afraid to put faith in you
+ag'in."
+
+"But I have no longer any money to pay you half in hand, as I did
+for the powder, when last in New York."
+
+"The bag was pretty well lined with doubloons when I saw it last,
+Senor."
+
+"And do you know where that bag is; and where there is another that
+holds the same sum?"
+
+Spike started, and he mused in silence some little time, ere he
+again spoke.
+
+"I had forgotten," he at length answered. "The gold must have all
+gone down in the schooner, along with the powder!"
+
+"And the poor men!"
+
+"Why, as for the men, Senor, more may be had for the asking; but
+powder and doubloons will be hard to find, when most wanted. Then
+the men were poor men, accordin' to my idees of what an able seaman
+should be, or they never would have let their schooner turn turtle
+with them as she did."
+
+"We will talk of the money, Don Esteban, if you please," said the
+Mexican, with reserve.
+
+"With all my heart, Don Wan--nothing is more agreeable to me than
+money. How many of them doubloons shall fall to my share, if I raise
+the schooner and put you in possession of your craft again?"
+
+"Can that be done, Senor?" demanded Don Juan earnestly.
+
+"A seaman can do almost anything, in that way, Don Wan, if you will
+give him time and means. For one-half the doubloons I can find in
+the wrack, the job shall be done."
+
+"You can have them," answered Don Juan, quietly, a good deal
+surprised that Spike should deem it necessary to offer him any part
+of the sum he might find. "As for the powder, I suppose that is lost
+to my country."
+
+"Not at all, Don Wan. The flour is well packed around it, and I
+don't expect it would take any harm in a month. I shall not only
+turn over the flour to you, just as if nothing had happened, but I
+shall put four first-rate hands aboard your schooner, who will take
+her into port for you, with a good deal more sartainty than forty of
+the men you had. My mate is a prime navigator."
+
+This concluded the bargain, every word of which was heard by Rose,
+and every word of which she did not fail to communicate to Mulford,
+the moment there was an opportunity. The young man heard it with
+great interest, telling Rose that he should do all he could to
+assist in raising the schooner, in the hope that something might
+turn up to enable him to escape in her, taking off Rose and her
+aunt. As for his carrying her into a Mexican port, let them trust
+him for that! Agreeably to the arrangement, orders were given that
+afternoon to commence the necessary preparations for the work, and
+considerable progress was made in them by the time the Swash's
+people were ordered to knock off work for the night.
+
+After the sun had set, the reaction in the currents again commenced,
+and it blew for a few hours heavily, during the night. Toward
+morning, however, it moderated, and when the sun re-appeared it
+scarcely ever diffused its rays over a more peaceful or quiet day.
+Spike caused all hands to be called, and immediately set about the
+important business he had before him.
+
+In order that the vessel might be as free as possible, Jack Tier was
+directed to skull the females ashore, in the brig's yawl; Senor
+Montefalderon, a man of polished manners, as we maintain is very apt
+to be the case with Mexican gentlemen, whatever may be the opinion
+of this good republic on the subject just at this moment, asked
+permission to be of the party. Mulford found an opportunity to beg
+Rose, if they landed at the light, to reconnoitre the place well,
+with a view to ascertain what facilities it could afford in an
+attempt to escape. They did land at the light, and glad enough were
+Mrs. Budd, Rose and Biddy to place their feet on terra firmƒ after
+so long a confinement to the narrow limits of a vessel.
+
+"Well," said Jack Tier, as they walked up to the spot where the
+buildings stood, "this is a rum place for a light'us, Miss Rose, and
+I don't wonder the keeper and his mess-mates has cleared out."
+
+"I am very sorry to say," observed Senor Montefalderon, whose
+countenance expressed the concern he really felt, "that the keeper
+and his only companion, a boy, were on board the schooner, and have
+perished in her, in common with so many of my poor countrymen. There
+are the graves of two whom we buried here last evening, after vain
+efforts to restore them to life!"
+
+"What a dreadful catastrophe it has been, Senor," said Rose, whose
+sweet countenance eloquently expressed the horror and regret she so
+naturally felt--"Twenty fellow-beings hurried into eternity without
+even an instant for prayer!"
+
+"You feel for them, Senorita--it is natural you should, and it is
+natural that I, their countryman and leader, should feel for them,
+also. I do not know what God has in reserve for my unfortunate
+country! We may have cruel and unscrupulous men among us, Senorita,
+but we have thousands who are just, and brave, and honourable."
+
+"So Mr. Mulford tells me, Senor; and he has been much in your ports,
+on the west coast."
+
+"I like that young man, and wonder not a little at his and your
+situation in this brig--" rejoined the Mexican, dropping his voice
+so as not to be heard by their companions, as they walked a little
+ahead of Mrs. Budd and Biddy. "The Senor Spike is scarcely worthy to
+be his commander or your guardian."
+
+"Yet you find him worthy of your intercourse and trust, Don Juan?"
+
+The Mexican shrugged his shoulders, and smiled equivocally; still,
+in a melancholy manner. It would seem he did not deem it wise to
+push this branch of the subject further, since he turned to another.
+
+"I like the Senor Mulford," he resumed, "for his general deportment
+and principles, so far as I can judge of him on so short an
+acquaintance."
+
+"Excuse me, Senor," interrupted Rose, hurriedly--"but you never saw
+him until you met him here."
+
+"Never--I understand you, Senorita, and can do full justice to the
+young man's character. I am willing to think he did not know the
+errand of his vessel, or I should not have seen him now. But what I
+most like him for, is this: Last night, during the gale, he and I
+walked the deck together, for an hour. We talked of Mexico, and of
+this war, so unfortunate for my country already, and which may
+become still more so, when he uttered this noble sentiment--`My
+country is more powerful than yours, Senor Montefalderon,' he said,
+`and in this it has been more favoured by God. You have suffered
+from ambitious rulers, and from military rule, while we have been
+advancing under the arts of peace, favoured by a most beneficent
+Providence. As for this war, I know but little about it, though I
+dare say the Mexican government may have been wrong in some things
+that it might have controlled and some that it might not--but let
+right be where it will, I am sorry to see a nation that has taken so
+firm a stand in favour of popular government, pressed upon so hard
+by another that is supposed to be the great support of such
+principles. America and Mexico are neighbours, and ought to be
+friends; and while I do not, cannot blame my own country for
+pursuing the war with vigour, nothing would please me more than to
+hear peace proclaimed.'"
+
+"That is just like Harry Mulford," said Rose, thoughtfully, as soon
+as her companion ceased to speak. "I do wish, Senor, that there
+could be no use for this powder, that is now buried in the sea."
+
+Don Juan Montefalderon smiled, and seemed a little surprised that
+the fair young thing at his side should have known of the
+treacherous contents of the flour-barrels. No doubt he found it
+inexplicable, that persons like Rose and Mulford should, seemingly,
+be united with one like Spike; but he was too well bred, and,
+indeed, too effectually mystified, to push the subject further than
+might be discreet.
+
+By this time they were near the entrance of the lighthouse, into
+which the whole party entered, in a sort of mute awe at its silence
+and solitude. At Senor Montefalderon's invitation, they ascended to
+the lantern, whence they could command a wide and fair view of the
+surrounding waters. The reef was much more apparent from that
+elevation than from below; and Rose could see that numbers of its
+rocks were bare, while on other parts of it there was the appearance
+of many feet of water. Rose gazed at it with longing eyes, for, from
+a few remarks that had fallen from Mulford, she suspected he had
+hopes of escaping among its channels and coral.
+
+As they descended and walked through the buildings, Rose also took
+good heed of the supplies the place afforded. There were flour, and
+beef, and pork, and many other of the common articles of food, as
+well as water in a cistern, that caught it as it flowed from the
+roof of the dwelling. Water was also to be found in casks--nothing
+like a spring or a well existing among those islets. All these
+things Rose noted, putting them aside in her memory for ready
+reference hereafter.
+
+In the mean time the mariners were not idle. Spike moved his brig,
+and moored her, head and stern, alongside of the wreck, before the
+people got their breakfasts. As soon as that meal was ended, both
+captain and mate set about their duty in earnest. Mulford carried
+out an anchor on the off-side of the Swash, and dropped it at a
+distance of about eighty fathoms from the vessel's beam. Purchases
+were brought from both mast-heads of the brig to the chain of this
+anchor, and were hove upon until the vessel was given a heel of more
+than a streak, and the cable was tolerably taut. Other purchases
+were got up opposite, and overhauled down, in readiness to take hold
+of the schooner's masts. The anchor of the schooner was weighed by
+its buoy-rope, and the chain, after being rove through the upper or
+opposite hawse-hole, brought in on board the Swash. Another chain
+was dropped astern, in such a way, that when the schooner came
+upright, it would be sure to pass beneath her keel, some six or
+eight feet from the rudder. Slings were then sunk over the
+mast-heads, and the purchases were hooked on. Hours were consumed in
+these preliminary labours, and the people went to dinner as soon as
+they were completed.
+
+When the men had dined, Spike brought one of his purchases to the
+windlass, and the other to the capstan, though not until each was
+bowsed taut by hand; a few minutes having brought the strain so far
+on everything, as to enable a seaman, like Spike, to form some
+judgment of the likelihood that his preventers and purchases would
+stand. Some changes were found necessary to equalize the strain,
+but, on the whole, the captain was satisfied with his work, and the
+crew were soon ordered to "heave-away; the windlass best."
+
+In the course of half an hour the hull of the vessel, which lay on
+its bilge, began to turn on its keel, and the heads of the spars to
+rise above the water. This was the easiest part of the process, all
+that was required of the purchases being to turn over a mass which
+rested on the sands of the bay. Aided by the long levers afforded by
+the spars, the work advanced so rapidly, that, in just one hour's
+time after his people had begun to heave, Spike had the pleasure to
+see the schooner standing upright, alongside of his own brig, though
+still sunk to the bottom. The wreck was secured in this position, by
+means of guys and preventers, in order that it might not again cant,
+when the order was issued to hook on the slings that were to raise
+it to the surface. These slings were the chains of the schooner, one
+of which went under her keel, while for the other the captain
+trusted to the strength of the two hawse-holes, having passed the
+cable out of one and in at the other, in a way to serve his
+purposes, as has just been stated.
+
+When all was ready, Spike mustered his crew, and made a speech. He
+told the men that he was about a job that was out of the usual line
+of their duty, and that he knew they had a right to expect extra pay
+for such extra work. The schooner contained money, and his object
+was to get at it. If he succeeded, their reward would be a doubloon
+a man, which would be earning more than a month's wages by
+twenty-four hours' work. This was enough. The men wanted to hear no
+more; but they cheered their commander, and set about their task in
+the happiest disposition possible.
+
+The reader will understand that the object to be first achieved, was
+to raise a vessel, with a hold filled with flour and gunpowder, from
+off the bottom of the bay to its surface. As she stood, the deck of
+this vessel was about six feet under water, and every one will
+understand that her weight, so long as it was submerged in a fluid
+as dense as that of the sea, would be much more manageable than if
+suspended in air. The barrels, for instance, were not much heavier
+than the water they displaced, and the wood work of the vessel
+itself, was, on the whole, positively lighter than the element in
+which it had sunk. As for the water in the hold, that was of the
+same weight as the water on the outside of tne craft, and there had
+not been much to carry the schooner down, beside her iron, the spars
+that were out of water, and her ballast. This last, some ten or
+twelve tons in weight, was in fact the principal difficulty, and
+alone induced Spike to have any doubts about his eventual success.
+There was no foreseeing the result until he had made a trial,
+however; and the order was again given to "heave away."
+
+To the infinite satisfaction of the Swash's crew, the weight was
+found quite manageable, so long as the hull remained beneath the
+water. Mulford, with three or four assistants, was kept on board the
+schooner lightening her, by getting the other anchor off her bows,
+and throwing the different objects overboard, or on the decks of the
+brig. By the time the bulwarks reached the surface, as much was
+gained in this way, as was lost by having so much of the lighter
+woodwork rise above the water. As a matter of course, however, the
+weight increased as the vessel rose, and more especially as the
+lower portion of the spars, the bowsprit, boom, &c., from being
+buoyant assistants, became so much dead weight to be lifted.
+
+Spike kept a watchful eye on his spars, and the extra supports he
+had given them. He was moving, the whole time, from point to point,
+feeling shrouds and back-stays, and preventers, in order to
+ascertain the degree of strain on each, or examining how the
+purchases stood. As for the crew, they cheered at their toil,
+incessantly, passing from capstan bars to the handspikes, and vice
+versƒ. They, too, felt that their task was increasing in resistance
+as it advanced, and now found it more difficult to gain an inch,
+than it had been at first to gain a foot. They seemed, indeed, to be
+heaving their own vessel out, instead of heaving the other craft up,
+and it was not long before they had the Swash heeling over toward
+the wreck several streaks. The strain, moreover, on everything,
+became not only severe, but somewhat menacing. Every shroud,
+back-stay, and preventer was as taut as a bar of iron, and the
+chain-cable that led to the anchor planted off abeam, was as
+straight as if the brig were riding by it in a gale of wind. One or
+two ominous surges aloft, too, had been heard, and, though no more
+than straps and slings settling into their places under hard
+strains, they served to remind the crew that danger might come from
+that quarter. Such was the state of things, when Spike called out to
+"heave and pall," that he might take a look at the condition of the
+wreck.
+
+Although a great deal remained to be done, in order to get the
+schooner to float, a great deal had already been done. Her precise
+condition was as follows: Having no cabin windows, the water had
+entered her, when she capsized, by the only four apertures her
+construction possessed. These were the companion-way, or
+cabin-doors; the sky-light; the main-hatch, or the large inlet
+amid-ships, by which cargo went up and down; and the booby-hatch,
+which was the counterpart of the companion-way, forward; being
+intended to admit of ingress to the forecastle, the apartment of the
+crew. Each of these hatch-ways, or orifices, had the usual defences
+of "coamings," strong frame-work around their margins. These
+coamings rose six or eight inches above the deck, and answered the
+double purpose of strengthening the vessel, in a part, that without
+them would be weaker han common, and of preventing any water that
+might be washing about the decks from running below. As soon,
+therefore, as these three apertures, or their coamings, could be
+raised above the level of the water of the basin, all danger of the
+vessel's receiving any further tribute of that sort from the ocean
+would be over. It was to this end, consequently, that Spike's
+efforts had been latterly directed, though they had only in part
+succeeded. The schooner possessed a good deal of sheer, as it is
+termed; or, her two extremities rose nearly a foot above her centre,
+when on an even keel. This had brought her extremities first to the
+surface, and it was the additional weight which had consequently
+been brought into the air that had so much increased the strain, and
+induced Spike to pause. The deck forward, as far aft as the
+foremast, and aft as far forward as the centre of the trunk, or to
+the sky-light, was above the water, or at least awash; while all the
+rest of it was covered. In the vicinity of the main-hatch there were
+several inches of water; enough indeed to leave the upper edge of
+the coamings submerged by about an inch. To raise the keel that inch
+by means of the purchases, Spike well knew would cost him more
+labour, and would incur more risk than all that had been done
+previously, and he paused before he would attempt it.
+
+The men were now called from the brig and ordered to come on board
+the schooner. Spike ascertained by actual measurement how much was
+wanted to bring the coamings of the main-hatch above the water,
+until which, he knew, pumping and bailing would be useless. He found
+it was quite an inch, and was at a great loss to know how that inch
+should be obtained. Mulford advised another trial with the
+handspikes and bars, but to this Spike would not consent. He
+believed that the masts of the brig had already as much pressure on
+them as they would bear. The mate next proposed getting the main
+boom off the vessel, and to lighten the craft by cutting away her
+bowsprit and masts. The captain was well enough disposed to do this,
+but he doubted whether it would meet with the approbation of "Don
+Wan," who was still ashore with Rose and her aunt, and who probably
+looked forward to recovering his gunpowder by means of those very
+spars. At length the carpenter hit upon a plan that was adopted.
+
+This plan was very simple, though it had its own ingenuity. It will
+be remembered that water could now only enter the vessel's hold at
+the main-hatch, all the other hatchways having their coamings above
+the element. The carpenter proposed, therefore, that the
+main-hatches, which had been off when the tornado occurred, but
+which had been found on deck when the vessel righted, should now be
+put on, oakum being first laid along in their rabbetings, and that
+the cracks should be stuffed with additional oakum, to exclude as
+much water as possible. He thought that two or three men, by using
+caulking irons for ten minutes, would make the hatch-way so tight
+that very little water would penetrate. While this was doing, he
+himself would bore as many holes forward and aft as he could, with a
+two inch auger, out of which the water then in the vessel would be
+certain to run. Spike was delighted with this project, and gave the
+necessary orders on the spot.
+
+This much must be said of the crew of the Molly Swash--whatever they
+did in their own profession, they did intelligently and well. On the
+present occasion they maintained their claim to this character, and
+were both active and expert. The hatches were soon on, and, in an
+imperfect manner, caulked. While this was doing, the carpenter got
+into a boat, and going under the schooner's bows, where a whole
+plank was out of water, he chose a spot between two of the timbers,
+and bored a hole as near the surface of the water as he dared to do.
+Not satisfied with one hole, however, he bored many--choosing both
+sides of the vessel to make them, and putting some aft as well as
+forward. In a word, in the course of twenty minutes the schooner was
+tapped in at least a dozen places, and jets of water, two inches in
+diameter, were spouting from her on each bow, and under each
+quarter.
+
+Spike and Mulford noted the effect. Some water, doubtless, still
+worked itself into the vessel about the main-hatch, but that more
+flowed from her by means of the outlets just named, was quite
+apparent. After close watching at the outlets for some time, Spike
+was convinced that the schooner was slowly rising, the intense
+strain that still came from the brig producing that effect as the
+vessel gradually became lighter. By the end of half an hour, there
+could be no longer any doubt, the holes, which had been bored within
+an inch of the water, being now fully two inches above it. The auger
+was applied anew, still nearer to the surface of the sea, and as
+fresh outlets were made, those that began to manifest a dulness in
+their streams were carefully plugged.
+
+Spike now thought it was time to take a look at the state of things
+on deck. Here, to his joy, he ascertained that the coamings had
+actually risen a little above the water. The reader is not to
+suppose by this rising of the vessel, that she had become
+sufficiently buoyant, in consequence of the water that had run out
+of her, to float of herself. This was far from being the case; but
+the constant upward pressure from the brig, which, on mechanical
+principles, tended constantly to bring that craft upright, had the
+effect to lift the schooner as the latter was gradually relieved
+from the weight that pressed her toward the bottom.
+
+The hatches were next removed, when it was found that the water in
+the schooner's hold had so far lowered, as to leave a vacant space
+of quite a foot between the lowest part of the deck and its surface.
+Toward the two extremities of the vessel this space necessarily was
+much increased, in consequence of the sheer. Men were now sent into
+the hatchway with orders to hook on to the flour-barrels--a whip
+having been rigged in readiness to hoist them on deck. At the same
+time gangs were sent to the pumps, though Spike still depended for
+getting rid of the water somewhat on the auger--the carpenter
+continuing to bore and plug his holes as new opportunities offered,
+and the old outlets became useless. It was true this expedient would
+soon cease, for the water having found its level in the vessel's
+hold, was very nearly on a level also with that on the outside.
+Bailing also was commenced, both forward and aft.
+
+Spike's next material advantage was obtained by means of the cargo.
+By the time the sun had set, fully two hundred barrels had been
+rolled into the hatchway, and passed on deck, whence about half of
+them were sent in the lighthouse boat to the nearest islet, and the
+remainder were transferred to the deck of the brig. These last were
+placed on the off side of the Swash, and aided in bringing her
+nearer upright. A great deal was gained in getting rid of these
+barrels. The water in the schooner lowered just as much as the space
+they had occupied,-and the vessel was relieved at once of twenty
+tons in weight.
+
+Just after the sun had set, Senor Don Juan Montefalderon and his
+party returned on board. They had staid on the island to the last
+moment, at Rose's request, for she had taken as close an observation
+of everything as possible, in order to ascertain if any means of
+concealment existed, in the event of her aunt, Biddy, and herself
+quitting the brig. The islets were all too naked and too small,
+however; and she was compelled to return to the Swash, without any
+hopes derived from this quarter.
+
+Spike had just directed the people to get their suppers as the
+Mexican came on board. Together they descended to the schooner's
+deck, where they had a long but secret conference. Senor
+Montefalderon was a calm, quiet and reasonable man, and while he
+felt as one would be apt to feel who had recently seen so many
+associates swept suddenly out of existence, the late catastrophe did
+not in the least unman him. It is too much the habit of the American
+people to receive their impressions from newspapers, which throw off
+their articles unreflectingly, and often ignorantly, as crones in
+petticoats utter their gossip. In a word, the opinions thus obtained
+are very much on a level, in value, with the thoughts of those who
+are said to think aloud, and who give utterance to all the crudities
+and trivial rumours that may happen to reach their ears. In this
+manner, we apprehend, very false notions of our neighbours of Mexico
+have become circulated among us. That nation is a mixed race, and
+has necessarily the various characteristics of such an origin, and
+it is unfortunately little influenced by the diffusion of
+intelligence which certainly exists here. Although an enemy, it
+ought to be acknowledged, however, that even Mexico has her
+redeeming points. Anglo-Saxons as we are, we have no desire
+unnecessarily to illustrate that very marked feature in the
+Anglo-Saxon character, which prompts the mother stock to calumniate
+all who oppose it, but would rather adopt some of that chivalrous
+courtesy of which so much that is lofty and commendable is to be
+found among the descendants of Old Spain.
+
+The Senor Montefalderon was earnestly engaged in what he conceived
+to be the cause of his country. It was scarcely possible to bring
+together two men impelled by motives more distinct than Spike and
+this gentleman. The first was acting under impulses of the lowest
+and most grovelling nature; while the last was influenced by motives
+of the highest. However much Mexico may, and has, weakened her cause
+by her own punic faith, instability, military oppression, and
+political revolutions, giving to the Texans in particular ample
+justification for their revolt, it was not probable that Don Juan
+Montefalderon saw the force of all the arguments that a casuist of
+ordinary ingenuity could certainly adduce against his country; for
+it is a most unusual thing to find a man anywhere, who is willing to
+admit that the positions of an opponent are good. He saw in the
+events of the day, a province wrested from his nation; and, in his
+reasoning on the subject, entirely overlooking the numerous
+occasions on which his own fluctuating government had given
+sufficient justification, not to say motives, to their powerful
+neighbours to take the law into their own hands, and redress
+themselves, he fancied all that has occurred was previously planned;
+instead of regarding it, as it truly is, as merely the result of
+political events that no man could have foreseen, that no man had
+originally imagined, or that any man could control.
+
+Don Juan understood Spike completely, and quite justly appreciated
+not only his character, but his capabilities. Their acquaintance was
+not of a day, though it had ever been marked by that singular
+combination of caution and reliance that is apt to characterize the
+intercourse between the knave and the honest man, when circumstances
+compel not only communication, but, to a certain extent, confidence.
+They now paced the deck of the schooner, side by side, for fully an
+hour, during which time the price of the vessel, the means, and the
+mode of payment and transfer, were fully settled between them.
+
+"But what will you do with your passengers, Don Esteban?" asked the
+Mexican pleasantly, when the more material points were adjusted. "I
+feel a great interest in the young lady in particular, who is a
+charming senorita, and who tells me that her aunt brought her this
+voyage on account of her health. She looks much too blooming to be
+out of health, and if she were, this is a singular voyage for an
+invalid to make!"
+
+"You don't understand human natur' yet, altogether, I see, Don Wan,"
+answered Spike, chuckling and winking. "As you and I are not only
+good friends, but what a body may call old friends, I'll let you
+into a secret in this affair, well knowing that you'll not betray
+it. It's quite true that the old woman thinks her niece is a
+pulmonary, as they call it, and that this v'y'ge is recommended for
+her, but the gal is as healthy as she's handsom'."
+
+"Her constitution, then, must be very excellent, for it is seldom I
+have seen so charming a young woman. But if the aunt is misled in
+this matter, how has it been with the niece?"
+
+Spike did not answer in words, but he leered upon his companion, and
+he winked.
+
+"You mean to be understood that you are in intelligence with each
+other, I suppose, Don Esteban," returned the Senor Montefalderon,
+who did not like the captain's manner, and was willing to drop the
+discourse.
+
+Spike then informed his companion, in confidence, that he and Rose
+were affianced, though without the aunt's knowledge,--that he
+intended to marry the niece the moment he reached a Mexican port
+with the brig, and that it was their joint intention to settle in
+the country. He added that the affair required management, as his
+intended had property, and expected more, and he begged Don Juan to
+aid him, as things drew near to a crisis. The Mexican evaded an
+answer, and the discourse dropped.
+
+The moon was now shining, and would continue to throw its pale light
+over the scene for two or three hours longer. Spike profited by the
+circumstance to continue the work of lightening the schooner. One of
+the first things done next was to get up the dead, and to remove
+them to the boat. This melancholy office occupied an hour, the
+bodies being landed on the islet, near the powder, and there
+interred in the sands. Don Juan Montefalderon attended on this
+occasion, and repeated some prayers over the graves, as he had done
+in the morning, in the cases of the two who had been buried near the
+light-house.
+
+While this melancholy duty was in the course of performance, that of
+pumping and bailing was continued, under the immediate personal
+superintendence of Mulford. It would not be easy to define, with
+perfect clearness, the conflicting feelings by which the mate of the
+Swash was now impelled. He had no longer any doubt on the subject of
+Spike's treason, and had it not been for Rose, he would not have
+hesitated a moment about making off in the light-house boat for Key
+West, in order to report all that had passed to the authorities. But
+not only Rose was there, and to be cared for, but what was far more
+difficult to get along with, her aunt was with her. It is true, Mrs.
+Budd was no longer Spike's dupe; but under any circumstances she was
+a difficult subject to manage, and most especially so in all matters
+that related to the sea. Then the young man submitted, more or less,
+to the strange influence which a fine craft almost invariably
+obtains over those that belong to her. He did not like the idea of
+deserting the Swash, at the very moment he would not have hesitated
+about punishing her owner for his many misdeeds. In a word, Harry
+was too much of a tar not to feel a deep reluctance to turn against
+his cruise, or his voyage, however much either might be condemned by
+his judgment, or even by his principles.
+
+It was quite nine o'clock when the Senor Montefalderon and Spike
+returned from burying the dead. No sooner did the last put his foot
+on the deck of his own vessel, than he felt the fall of one of the
+purchases which had been employed in raising the schooner. It was so
+far slack as to satisfy him that the latter now floated by her own
+buoyancy, though it might be well to let all stand until morning,
+for the purposes of security. Thus apprised of the condition of the
+two vessels, he gave the welcome order to "knock off for the night."
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+  "At the piping of all hands,
+  When the judgment signal's spread--
+  When the islands and the land,
+  And the seas give up their dead,
+  And the south and the north shall come;
+  When the sinner is dismayed,
+  And the just man is afraid,
+  Then heaven be thy aid,
+  Poor Tom."
+
+Brainard.
+
+The people had now a cessation from their toil. Of all the labour
+known to sea-faring men, that of pumping is usually thought to be
+the most severe. Those who work at it have to be relieved every
+minute, and it is only by having gangs to succeed each other, that
+the duty can be done at all with anything like steadiness. In the
+present instance, it is true, that the people of the Swash were
+sustained by the love of gold, but glad enough were they when
+Mulford called out to them to "knock off, and turn in for the
+night." It was high time this summons should be made, for not only
+were the people excessively wearied, but the customary hours of
+labour were so far spent, that the light of the moon had some time
+before begun to blend with the little left by the parting sun. Glad
+enough were all hands to quit the toil; and two minutes were
+scarcely elapsed ere most of the crew had thrown themselves down,
+and were buried in deep sleep. Even Spike and Mulford took the rest
+they needed, the cook alone being left to look out for the changes
+in the weather. In a word, everybody but this idler was exhausted
+with pumping and bailing, and even gold had lost its power to charm,
+until nature was recruited by rest.
+
+The excitement produced by the scenes through which they had so
+lately passed, caused the females to sleep soundly, too. The
+death-like stillness which pervaded the vessel contributed to their
+rest, and Rose never woke, from the first few minutes after her head
+was on her pillow, until near four in the morning. The deep quiet
+seemed ominous to one who had so lately witnessed the calm which
+precedes the tornado, and she arose. In that low latitude and warm
+season, few clothes were necessary, and our heroine was on deck in a
+very few minutes. Here she found the same grave-like sleep pervading
+everything. There was not a breath of air, and the ocean seemed to
+be in one of its profoundest slumbers. The hard-breathing of Spike
+could be heard through the open windows of his state-room, and this
+was positively the only sound that was audible. The common men, who
+lay scattered about the decks, more especially from the mainmast
+forward, seemed to be so many logs, and from Mulford no breathing
+was heard.
+
+The morning was neither very dark nor very light, it being easy to
+distinguish objects that were near, while those at a distance were
+necessarily lost in obscurity. Availing herself of the circumstance,
+Rose went as far as the gangway, to ascertain if the cook were at
+his post. She saw him lying near his galley, in as profound a sleep
+as any of the crew. This she felt to be wrong, and she felt alarmed,
+though she knew not why. Perhaps it was the consciousness of being
+the only person up and awake at that hour of deepest night, in a
+vessel so situated as the Swash, and in a climate in which
+hurricanes seem to be the natural offspring of the air. Some one
+must be aroused, and her tastes, feelings, and judgment, all pointed
+to Harry Mulford as the person she ought to awaken. He slept
+habitually in his clothes--the lightest summer dress of the tropics;
+and the window of his little state-room was always open for air.
+Moving lightly to the place, Rose laid her own little, soft hand on
+the arm of the young man, when the latter was on his feet in an
+instant. A single moment only was necessary to regain his
+consciousness, when Mulford left the state-room and joined Rose on
+the quarter-deck.
+
+"Why am I called, Rose," the young man asked, attempering his voice
+to the calm that reigned around him; "and why am I called by you?"
+
+Rose explained the state of the brig, and the feeling which induced
+her to awaken him. With woman's gentleness she now expressed her
+regret for having robbed Harry of his rest; had she reflected a
+moment, she might have kept watch herself, and allowed him to obtain
+the sleep he must surely so much require.
+
+But Mulford laughed at this; protested he had never been awakened at
+a more favourable moment, and would have sworn, had it been proper,
+that a minute's further sleep would have been too much for him.
+After these first explanations, Mulford walked round the decks,
+carefully felt how much strain there was on the purchases, and
+rejoined Rose to report that all was right, and that he did not
+consider it necessary to call even the cook. The black was an idler
+in no sense but that of keeping watch, and he had toiled the past
+day as much as any of the men, though it was not exactly at the
+pumps.
+
+A long and semi-confidential conversation now occurred between Harry
+and Rose. They talked of Spike, the brig, and her cargo, and of the
+delusion of the captain's widow. It was scarcely possible that
+powder should be so much wanted at the Havanna as to render
+smuggling, at so much cost, a profitable adventure; and Mulford
+admitted his convictions that the pretended flour was originally
+intended for Mexico. Rose related the tenor of the conversation she
+had overheard between the two parties, Don Juan and Don Esteban, and
+the mate no longer doubted that it was Spike's intention to sell the
+brig to the enemy. She also alluded to what had passed between
+herself and the stranger.
+
+Mulford took this occasion to introduce the subject of Jack Tier's
+intimacy and favour with Rose. He even professed to feel some
+jealousy on account of it, little as there might be to alarm most
+men in the rivalry of such a competitor. Rose laughed, as girls will
+laugh when there is question of their power over the other sex, and
+she fairly shook her rich tresses as she declared her determination
+to continue to smile on Jack to the close of the voyage. Then, as if
+she had said more than she intended, she added with woman's
+generosity and tenderness,--"After all, Harry, you know how much I
+promised to you even before we sailed, and how much more since, and
+have no just cause to dread even Jack. There is another reason,
+however, that ought to set your mind entirely at case on his
+account. Jack is married, and has a partner living at this very
+moment, as he does not scruple to avow himself."
+
+A hissing noise, a bright light, and a slight explosion, interrupted
+the half-laughing girl, and Mulford, turning on his heel, quick as
+thought, saw that a rocket had shot into the air, from a point close
+under the bows of the brig. He was still in the act of moving toward
+the forecastle, when, at the distance of several leagues, he saw the
+explosion of another rocket high in the air. He knew enough of the
+practices of vessels of war, to feel certain that these were a
+signal and its answer from some one in the service of government.
+Not at all sorry to have the career of the Swash arrested, before
+she could pass into hostile hands, or before evil could befall Rose,
+Mulford reached the forecastle just in time to answer the inquiry
+that was immediately put to him, in the way of a hail. A gig,
+pulling four oars only, with two officers in its stern-sheets, was
+fairly under the vessel's bows, and the mate could almost
+distinguish the countenance of the officer who questioned him, the
+instant he showed his head and shoulders above the bulwarks.
+
+"What vessels are these?" demanded the stranger, speaking in the
+authoritative manner of one who acted for the state, but not
+speaking much above the usual conversational tone.
+
+"American and Spanish," was the answer. "This brig is American--the
+schooner alongside is a Spaniard, that turned turtle in a tornado,
+about six-and-thirty hours since, and on which we have been hard at
+work trying to raise her, since the gale which succeeded the tornado
+has blown its pipe out."
+
+"Ay, ay, that's the story, is it? I did not know what to make of
+you, lying cheek by jowl, in this fashion. Was anybody lost on board
+the schooner?"
+
+"All hands, including every soul aft and forward, the supercargo
+excepted, who happened to be aboard here. We buried seventeen bodies
+this afternoon on the smallest of the Keys that you see near at
+hand, and two this morning alongside of the light. But what boat is
+that, and where are you from, and whom are you signalling?"
+
+"The boat is a gig," answered the stranger, deliberately, "and she
+belongs to a cruiser of Uncle Sam's, that is off the reef, a short
+bit to the eastward, and we signalled our captain. But I'll come on
+board you, sir, if you please."
+
+Mulford walked aft to meet the stranger at the gangway, and was
+relieved, rather than otherwise, at finding that Spike was already
+on the quarter-deck. Should the vessel of war seize the brig, he
+could rejoice at it, but so strong were his professional ideas of
+duty to the craft he sailed in, that he did not find it in his heart
+to say aught against her. Were any mishap to befall it, or were
+justice to be done, he preferred that it might be done under Spike's
+own supervision, rather than under his.
+
+"Call all hands, Mr. Mulford," said Spike, as they met. "I see a
+streak of day coming yonder in the east--let all hands be called at
+once. What strange boat is this we have alongside?"
+
+This question was put to the strangers, Spike standing on his
+gangway-ladder to ask it, while the mate was summoning the crew. The
+officer saw that a new person was to be dealt with, and in his
+quiet, easy way, he answered, while stretching out his hands to take
+the man-rope--"Your servant, sir--we are man-of-war's men,
+belonging to one of Uncle Sam's craft, outside, and have just come
+in to pay you a visit of ceremony. I told one, whom I suppose was
+your mate, that I would just step on board of you."
+
+"Ay, ay--one at a time, if you please. It's war-time, and I cannot
+suffer armed boat's crews to board me at night, without knowing
+something about them. Come up yourself, if you please, but order
+your people to stay in the boat. Here, muster about this gangway,
+half a dozen of you, and keep an eye on the crew of this strange
+boat."
+
+These orders had no effect on the cool and deliberate lieutenant,
+who ascended the brig's side, and immediately stood on her deck. No
+sooner had he and Spike confronted each other, than each gave a
+little start, like that of recognition, and the lieutenant spoke.
+
+"Ay, ay--I believe I know this vessel now. It is the Molly Swash, of
+New York, bound to Key West, and a market; and I have the honour to
+see Captain Stephen Spike again."
+
+It was Mr. Wallace, the second lieutenant of the sloop-of-war that
+had boarded the brig in the Mona Passage, and to avoid whom Spike
+had gone to the southward of Jamaica. The meeting was very
+mal-a-propos, but it would not do to betray that the captain and
+owner of the vessel thought as much as this; on the contrary,
+Wallace was warmly welcomed, and received, not only as an old
+acquaintance, but as a very agreeable visiter. To have seen the two,
+as they walked aft together, one might have supposed that the
+meeting was conducive of nothing but a very mutual satisfaction, it
+was so much like that which happens between those who keep up a
+hearty acquaintance.
+
+"Well, I'm glad to see you again, Captain Spike," cried Wallace,
+after the greetings were passed, "if it be only to ask where you
+flew to, the day we left you in the Mona Passage? We looked out for
+you with all our eyes, expecting you would be down between San
+Domingo and Jamaica, but I hardly think you got by us in the night.
+Our master thinks you must have dove, and gone past loon-fashion. Do
+you ever perform that manoeuvre?"
+
+"No, we've kept above water the whole time, lieutenant," answered
+Spike, heartily; "and that is more than can be said of the poor
+fellow alongside of us. I was so much afraid of the Isle of Pines,
+that I went round Jamaica."
+
+"You might have given the Isle of Pines a berth, and still have
+passed to the northward of the Englishmen," said Wallace, a little
+drily. "However, that island is somewhat of a scarecrow, and we have
+been to take a look at it ourselves. All's right there, just now.
+But you seem light; what have you done with your flour?"
+
+"Parted with every barrel of it. You may remember I was bound to Key
+West, and a market. Well, I found my market here, in American
+waters."
+
+"You have been lucky, sir. This `emporium' does not seem to be
+exactly a commercial emporium."
+
+"The fact is, the flour is intended for the Havanna; and I fancy it
+is to be shipped for slavers. But I am to know nothing of all that,
+you'll understand, lieutenant. If I sell my flour in American
+waters, at two prices, it's no concern of mine what becomes of it
+a'terwards."
+
+"Unless it happen to pass into enemy's hands, certainly not; and you
+are too patriotic to deal with Mexico, just now, I'm sure. Pray, did
+that flour go down when the schooner turned turtle?"
+
+"Every barrel of it; but Don Wan, below there, thinks that most of
+it may yet be saved, by landing it on one of those Keys to dry.
+Flour, well packed, wets in slowly. You see we have some of it on
+deck."
+
+"And who may Don Wan be, sir, pray? We are sent here to look after
+Dons and Donas, you know."
+
+"Don Wan is a Cuban merchant, and deals in such articles as he
+wants. I fell in with him among the reefs here, where he was
+rummaging about in hopes of meeting with a wrack, he tells me, and
+thinking to purchase something profitable in that way; but finding I
+had flour, he agreed to take it out of me at this anchorage, and
+send me away in ballast at once. I have found Don Wan Montefalderon
+ready pay, and very honourable."
+
+Wallace then requested an explanation of the disaster, to the
+details of which he listened with a sailor's interest. He asked a
+great many questions, all of which bore on the more nautical
+features of the event; and, day having now fairly appeared, he
+examined the purchases and backings of the Swash with professional
+nicety. The schooner was no lower in the water than when the men had
+knocked off work the previous night; and Spike set the people at the
+pumps and their bailing again, as the most effectual method of
+preventing their making any indiscreet communications to the
+man-of-war's men.
+
+About this time the relict appeared on deck, when Spike gallantly
+introduced the lieutenant anew to his passengers. It is true he knew
+no name to use, but that was of little moment, as he called the
+officer "the lieutenant," and nothing else.
+
+Mrs. Budd was delighted with this occasion to show-off, and she soon
+broke out on the easy, indolent, but waggish Wallace, in a strain to
+surprise him, notwithstanding the specimen of the lady's skill from
+which he had formerly escaped.
+
+"Captain Spike is of opinion, lieutenant, that our cast-anchor here
+is excellent, and I know the value of a good cast-anchor place; for
+my poor Mr. Budd was a sea-faring man, and taught me almost as much
+of your noble profession as he knew himself."
+
+"And he taught you, ma'am," said Wallace, fairly opening his eyes,
+under the influence of astonishment, "to be very particular about
+cast-anchor places!"
+
+"Indeed he did. He used to say, that roads-instead were never as
+good, for such purposes, as land that's locked havens, for the
+anchors would return home, as he called it, in roads-instead."
+
+"Yes, ma'am," answered Wallace, looking very queer at first, as if
+disposed to laugh outright, then catching a glance of Rose, and
+changing his mind; "I perceive that Mr. Budd knew what he was about,
+and preferred an anchorage where he was well land-locked, and where
+there was no danger of his anchors coming home, as so often happens
+in your open roadsteads."
+
+"Yes, that's just it! That was just his notion! You cannot feel how
+delightful it is, Rose, to converse with one that thoroughly
+understands such subjects! My poor Mr. Budd did, indeed, denounce
+roads-instead, at all times calling them `savage.'"
+
+"Savage, aunt," put in Rose, hoping to stop the good relict by her
+own interposition--"that is a strange word to apply to an
+anchorage!"
+
+"Not at all, young lady," said Wallace gravely. "They are often wild
+berths, and wild berths are not essentially different from wild
+beasts. Each is savage, as a matter of course."
+
+"I knew I was right!" exclaimed the widow. "Savage cast-anchors come
+of wild births, as do savage Indians. Oh! the language of the ocean,
+as my poor Mr. Budd used to say, is eloquence tempered by common
+sense!"
+
+Wallace stared again, but his attention was called to other things,
+just at that moment. The appearance of Don Juan Montefalderon y
+Castro on deck, reminded him of his duty, and approaching that
+gentleman he condoled with him on the grave loss he had sustained.
+After a few civil expressions on both sides, Wallace made a delicate
+allusion to the character of the schooner.
+
+"Under other circumstances," he said, "it might be my duty to
+inquire a little particularly as to the nationality of your vessel,
+Senor, for we are at war with the Mexicans, as you doubtless know."
+
+"Certainly," answered Don Juan, with an unmoved air and great
+politeness of manner, "though it would be out of my power to satisfy
+you. Everything was lost in the schooner, and I have not a paper of
+any sort to show you. If it be your pleasure to make a prize of a
+vessel in this situation, certainly it is in your power to do it. A
+few barrels of wet flour are scarce worth disputing about."
+
+Wallace now seemed a little ashamed, the sang froid of the other
+throwing dust in his eyes, and he was in a hurry to change the
+subject. Senor Don Juan was very civilly condoled with again, and he
+was made to repeat the incidents of the loss, as if his auditor took
+a deep interest in what he said, but no further hint was given
+touching the nationality of the vessel. The lieutenant's tact let
+him see that Senor Montefalderon was a person of a very different
+calibre from Spike, as well as of different habits; and he did not
+choose to indulge in the quiet irony that formed so large an
+ingredient in his own character, with this new acquaintance. He
+spoke Spanish himself, with tolerable fluency, and a conversation
+now occurred between the two, which was maintained for some time
+with spirit and a very manifest courtesy.
+
+This dialogue between Wallace and the Spaniard gave Spike a little
+leisure for reflection. As the day advanced the cruiser came more
+and more plainly in view, and his first business was to take a good
+survey of her. She might have been three leagues distant, but
+approaching with a very light breeze, at the rate of something less
+than two knots in the hour. Unless there was some one on board her
+who was acquainted with the channels of the Dry Tortugas, Spike felt
+little apprehension of the ship's getting very near to him; but he
+very well understood that, with the sort of artillery that was in
+modern use among vessels of war, he would hardly be safe could the
+cruiser get within a league. That near Uncle Sam's craft might
+certainly come without encountering the hazards of the channels, and
+within that distance she would be likely to get in the course of the
+morning, should he have the complaisance to wait for her. He
+determined, therefore, not to be guilty of that act of folly.
+
+All this time the business of lightening the schooner proceeded.
+Although Mulford earnestly wished that the man-of-war might get an
+accurate notion of the true character and objects of the brig, he
+could not prevail on himself to become an informer. In order to
+avoid the temptation so to do, he exerted himself in keeping the men
+at their tasks, and never before had pumping and bailing been
+carried on with more spirit. The schooner soon floated of herself,
+and the purchases which led to the Swash were removed. Near a
+hundred more barrels of the flour had been taken out of the hold of
+the Spanish craft, and had been struck on the deck of the brig, or
+sent to the Key by means of the boats. This made a material change
+in the buoyancy of the vessel, and enabled the bailing to go on with
+greater facility. The pumps were never idle, but two small streams
+of water were running the whole time toward the scuppers, and
+through them into the sea.
+
+At length the men were ordered to knock off, and to get their
+breakfasts. This appeared to arouse Wallace, who had been chatting,
+quite agreeably to himself, with Rose, and seemed reluctant to
+depart, but who now became sensible that he was neglecting his duty.
+He called away his boat's crew, and took a civil leave of the
+passengers; after which he went over the side. The gig was some
+little distance from the Swash, when Wallace rose and asked to see
+Spike, with whom he had a word to say at parting.
+
+"I will soon return," he said, "and bring you forty or fifty fresh
+men, who will make light work with your wreck. I am certain our
+commander will consent to my doing so, and will gladly send on board
+you two or three boat's crews."
+
+"If I let him," muttered Spike between his teeth, "I shall be a
+poor, miserable cast-anchor devil, that's all."
+
+To Wallace, however, he expressed his hearty acknowledgments; begged
+him not to be in a hurry, as the worst was now over, and the row was
+still a long one. If he got back toward evening it would be all in
+good time. Wallace waved his hand, and the gig glided away. As for
+Spike, he sat down on the plank-sheer where he had stood, and
+remained there ruminating intently for two or three minutes. When he
+descended to the deck his mind was fully made up. His first act was
+to give some private orders to the boatswain, after which he
+withdrew to the cabin, whither he summoned Tier, without delay.
+
+"Jack," commenced the captain, using very little circumlocution in
+opening his mind, "you and I are old shipmates, and ought to be old
+friends, though I think your natur' has undergone some changes since
+we last met. Twenty years ago there was no man in the ship on whom I
+could so certainly depend as on Jack Tier; now, you seem given up
+altogether to the women. Your mind has changed even more than your
+body."
+
+"Time does that for all of us, Captain Spike," returned Tier coolly.
+"I am not what I used to be, I'll own, nor are you yourself, for
+that matter. When I saw you last, noble captain, you were a handsome
+man of forty, and could go aloft with any youngster in the brig;
+but, now, you're heavy, and not over-active."
+
+"I!--Not a bit of change has taken place in me for the last thirty
+years. I defy any man to show the contrary. But that's neither here
+nor there; you are no young woman, Jack, that I need be boasting of
+my health and beauty before you. I want a bit of real sarvice from
+you, and want it done in old-times fashion; and I mean to pay for it
+in old-times fashion, too."
+
+As Spike concluded, he put into Tier's hand one of the doubloons
+that he had received from Senor Montefalderon, in payment for the
+powder. The doubloons, for which so much pumping and bailing were
+then in process, were still beneath the waters of the gulf.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," returned Jack, smiling and pocketing the gold, with a
+wink of the eye, and a knowing look; "this does resemble old times
+sum'at. I now begin to know Captain Spike, my old commander again,
+and see that he's more like himself than I had just thought him.
+What am I to do for this, sir? speak plain, that I may be sartain to
+steer the true course."
+
+"Oh, just a trifle, Jack--nothing that will break up the ground-tier
+of your wits, my old shipmate. You see the state of the brig, and
+know that she is in no condition for ladies."
+
+"'T would have been better all round, sir, had they never come
+aboard at all," answered Jack, looking dark.
+
+Spike was surprised, but he was too much bent on his projects to
+heed trifles.
+
+"You know what sort of flour they're whipping out of the schooner,
+and must understand that the brig will soon be in a pretty litter. I
+do not intend to let them send a single barrel of it beneath my
+hatches again, but the deck and the islands must take it all. Now I
+wish to relieve my passengers from the confinement this will
+occasion, and I have ordered the boatswain to pitch a tent for them
+on the largest of these here Tortugas; and what I want of you, is to
+muster food and water, and other women's knicknacks, and go ashore
+with them, and make them as comfortable as you can for a few days,
+or until we can get this schooner loaded and off."
+
+Jack Tier looked at his commander as if he would penetrate his most
+secret thoughts. A short pause succeeded, during which the steward's
+mate was intently musing, then his countenance suddenly brightened;
+he gave the doubloon a fillip, and caught it on the palm of his hand
+as it descended, and he uttered the customary "Ay, ay, sir," with
+apparent cheerfulness. Nothing more passed between these two
+worthies, who now parted, Jack to make his arrangements, and Spike
+to "tell his yarn," as he termed the operation in his own mind, to
+Mrs. Budd, Rose, and Biddy. The widow listened complacently, though
+she seemed half doubting, half ready to comply. As for Rose, she
+received the proposal with delight--The confinement of the vessel
+having become irksome to her. The principal obstacle was in
+overcoming the difficulties made by the aunt, Biddy appearing to
+like the notion quite as much as "Miss Rosy." As for the
+light-house, Mrs. Budd had declared nothing would induce her to go
+there; for she did not doubt that the place would soon be, if it
+were not already, haunted. In this opinion she was sustained by
+Biddy; and it was the knowledge of this opinion that induced Spike
+to propose the tent.
+
+"Are you sure, Captain Spike, it is not a desert island?" asked the
+widow; "I remember that my poor Mr. Budd always spoke of desert
+islands as horrid places, and spots that every one should avoid."
+
+"What if it is, aunty," said Rose eagerly, "while we have the brig
+here, close at hand. We shall suffer none of the wants of such a
+place, so long as our friends can supply us."
+
+"And such friends, Miss Rose," exclaimed Spike, a little
+sentimentally for him, "friends that would undergo hunger and thirst
+themselves, before you should want for any comforts."
+
+"Do, now, Madam Budd," put in Biddy in her hearty way, "it's an
+island, ye'll remimber: and sure that's just what ould Ireland has
+ever been, God bless it! Islands make the pleasantest risidences."
+
+"Well I'll venture to oblige you and Biddy, Rosy, dear," returned
+the aunt, still half reluctant to yield; "but you'll remember, that
+if I find it at all a desert island, I'll not pass the night on it
+on any account whatever."
+
+With this understanding the party was transferred to the shore. The
+boatswain had already erected a sort of a tent, on a favourable
+spot, using some of the old sails that had covered the
+flour-barrels, not only for the walls, but for a carpet of some
+extent also. This tent was ingeniously enough contrived. In addition
+to the little room that was entirely enclosed, there was a sort of
+piazza, or open verandah, which would enable its tenants to enjoy
+the shade in the open air. Beneath this verandah, a barrel of fresh
+water was placed, as well as three or four ship's stools, all of
+which had been sent ashore with the materials for constructing the
+tent. The boat had been going and coming for some time, and the
+distance being short, the "desert island" was soon a desert no
+longer. It is true that the supplies necessary to support three
+women for as many days, were no great matter, and were soon landed,
+but Jack Tier had made a provision somewhat more ample. A capital
+caterer, he had forgotten nothing within the compass of his means,
+that could contribute to the comfort of those who had been put
+especially under his care. Long before the people "knocked off" for
+their dinners, the arrangements were completed, and the boatswain
+was ready to take his leave.
+
+"Well, ladies," said that grum old salt, "I can do no more for you,
+as I can see. This here island is now almost as comfortable as a
+ship that has been in blue water for a month, and I do n't know how
+it can be made more comfortabler."
+
+This was only according to the boatswain's notion of comfort; but
+Rose thanked him for his care in her winning way, while her aunt
+admitted that, "for a place that was almost a desert island, things
+did look somewhat promising." In a few minutes the men were all
+gone, and the islet was left to the sole possession of the three
+females, and their constant companion, Jack Tier. Rose was pleased
+with the novelty of her situation, though the islet certainly did
+deserve the opprobrium of being a "desert island." There was no
+shade but that of the tent, and its verandah-like covering, though
+the last, in particular, was quite extensive. There was no water,
+that in the barrel and that of the ocean excepted. Of herbage there
+was very little on this islet, and that was of the most meagre and
+coarse character, being a long wiry grass, with here and there a few
+stunted bushes. The sand was reasonably firm, however, more
+especially round the shore, and the walking was far from unpleasant.
+Little did Rose know it, but a week earlier, the spot would have
+been next to intolerable to her, on account of the musquitoes,
+gallinippers, and other similar insects of the family of tormentors;
+but everything of the sort had temporarily disappeared in the
+currents of the tornado. To do Spike justice, he was aware of this
+circumstance, or he might have hesitated about exposing females to
+the ordinary annoyances of one of these spots. Not a musquito, or
+anything of the sort was left, however, all having gone to leeward,
+in the vortex which had come so near sweeping off the Mexican
+schooner.
+
+"This place will do very well, aunty, for a day or two," cried Rose
+cheerfully, as she returned from a short excursion, and threw aside
+her hat, one made to shade her face from the sun of a warm climate,
+leaving the sea-breeze that was just beginning to blow, to fan her
+blooming and sunny cheeks. "It is better than the brig. The worst
+piece of land is better than the brig."
+
+"Do not say that, Rose--not if it's a desert island, dear; and this
+is desperately like a desert island; I am almost sorry I ventured on
+it."
+
+"It will not be deserted by us, aunty, until we shall see occasion
+to do so. Why not endeavour to get on board of yonder ship, and
+return to New York in her; or at least induce her captain to put us
+ashore somewhere near this, and go home by land. Your health never
+seemed better than it is at this moment; and as for mine, I do
+assure you, aunty, dear, I am as perfectly well as I ever was in my
+life."
+
+"All from this voyage. I knew it would set you up, and am delighted
+to hear you say as much. Biddy and I were talking of you this very
+morning, my child, and we both agreed that you were getting to be
+yourself again. Oh, ships, and brigs, and schooners, full-jigger or
+half-jigger, for pulmonary complaints, say I! My poor Mr. Budd
+always maintained that the ocean was the cure for all diseases, and
+I determined that to sea you should go, the moment I became alarmed
+for your health."
+
+The good widow loved Rose most tenderly, and she was obliged to use
+her handkerchief to dry the tears from her eyes as she concluded.
+Those tears sprung equally from a past feeling of apprehension, and
+a present feeling of gratitude. Rose saw this, and she took a seat
+at her aunt's side, touched herself, as she never failed to be on
+similar occasions with this proof of her relative's affection. At
+that moment even Harry Mulford would have lost a good deal in her
+kind feelings toward him, had he so much as smiled at one of the
+widow's nautical absurdities. At such times, Rose seemed to be her
+aunt's guardian and protectress, instead of reversing the relations,
+and she entirely forgot herself the many reasons which existed for
+wishing that she had been placed in childhood, under the care of one
+better qualified than the well-meaning relict of her uncle, for the
+performance of her duties.
+
+"Thank you, aunty--thank'ee, dear aunty," said Rose, kissing the
+widow affectionately. "I know that you mean the best for me, though
+you are a little mistaken in supposing me ill. I do assure you,
+dear," patting her aunt's cheek, as if she herself had been merely a
+playful child, "I never was better; and if I have been pulmonary, I
+am entirely cured, and am now ready to return home."
+
+"God be praised for this, Rosy. Under His divine providence, it is
+all owing to the sea. If you really feel so much restored, however,
+I do not wish to keep you a moment longer on a ship's board than is
+necessary. We owe something to Captain Spike's care, and cannot quit
+him too unceremoniously; but as soon as he is at liberty to go into
+a harbour, I will engage him to do so, and we can return home by
+land--unless, indeed, the brig intends to make the home voyage
+herself."
+
+"I do not like this brig, aunty, and now we are out of her, I wish
+we could keep out of her. Nor do I like your Captain Spike, who
+seems to me anything but an agreeable gentleman."
+
+"That's because you arn't accustomed to the sea. My poor Mr. Budd
+had his ways, like all the rest of them; it takes time to get
+acquainted with them. All sailors are so."
+
+Rose bent her face involuntarily, but so low as to conceal the
+increasing brightness of her native bloom, as she answered,
+
+"Harry Mulford is not so, aunty, dear--and he is every inch a
+sailor."
+
+"Well, there is a difference, I must acknowledge, though I dare say
+Harry will grow every day more and more like all the rest of them.
+In the end, he will resemble Captain Spike."
+
+"Never," said Rose, firmly.
+
+"You can't tell, child. I never saw your uncle when he was Harry's
+age, for I was n't born till he was thirty, but often and often has
+he pointed out to me some slender, genteel youth, and say, `just
+such a lad was I at twenty,' though nothing could be less alike, at
+the moment he was speaking, than they two. We all change with our
+years. Now I was once as slender, and almost--not quite, Rosy, for
+few there are that be--but almost as handsome as you yourself."
+
+"Yes, aunty, I've heard that before," said Rose, springing up, in
+order to change the discourse; "but Harry Mulford will never become
+like Stephen Spike. I wish we had never known the man, dearest
+aunty."
+
+"It was all your own doings, child. He's a cousin of your most
+intimate friend, and she brought him to the house; and one could n't
+offend Mary Mulford, by telling her we did n't like her cousin."
+
+Rose seemed vexed, and she kept her little foot in motion, patting
+the sail that formed the carpet, as girls will pat the ground with
+their feet when vexed. This gleam of displeasure was soon over,
+however, and her countenance became as placid as the clear, blue sky
+that formed the vault of the heavens above her head. As if to atone
+for the passing rebellion of her feelings, she threw her arms around
+her aunt's neck; after which she walked away, along the beach,
+ruminating on her present situation, and of the best means of
+extricating their party from the power of Spike.
+
+It requires great familiarity with vessels and the seas, for one to
+think, read, and pursue the customary train of reasoning on board a
+ship that one has practised ashore. Rose had felt this embarrassment
+during the past month, for the whole of which time she had scarcely
+been in a condition to act up to her true character, suffering her
+energies, and in some measure her faculties, to be drawn into the
+vortex produced by the bustle, novelties, and scenes of the vessel
+and the ocean. But, now she was once more on the land, diminutive
+and naked as was the islet that composed her present world, and she
+found leisure and solitude for reflection and decision. She was not
+ignorant of the nature of a vessel of war, or of the impropriety of
+unprotected females placing themselves on board of one; but
+gentlemen of character, like the officers of the ship in sight,
+could hardly be wanting in the feelings of their caste; and anything
+was better than to return voluntarily within the power of Spike. She
+determined within her own mind that voluntarily she would not. We
+shall leave this young girl, slowly wandering along the beach of her
+islet, musing on matters like these, while we return to the vessels
+and the mariners.
+
+A good breeze had come in over the reef from the Gulf, throwing the
+sloop-of-war dead to leeward of the brigantine's anchorage. This was
+the reason that the former had closed so slowly. Still the distance
+between the vessels was so small, that a swift cruiser, like the
+ship of war, would soon have been alongside of the wreckers, but for
+the intervening islets and the intricacies of their channels. She
+had made sail on the wind, however, and was evidently disposed to
+come as near to the danger as her lead showed would be safe, even if
+she did not venture among them.
+
+Spike noted all these movements, and he took his measures
+accordingly. The pumping and bailing had been going on since the
+appearance of light, and the flour had been quite half removed from
+the schooner's hold. That vessel consequently floated with
+sufficient buoyancy, and no further anxiety was felt on account of
+her sinking. Still, a great deal of water remained in her, the cabin
+itself being nearly half full. Spike's object was to reduce this
+water sufficiently to enable him to descend into the state-room
+which Senor Montefalderon had occupied, and bring away the doubloons
+that alone kept him in the vicinity of so ticklish a neighbour as
+the Poughkeepsie. Escape was easy enough to one who knew the
+passages of the reef and islets; more especially since the wind had
+so fortunately brought the cruiser to leeward. Spike most
+apprehended a movement upon him in the boats, and he had almost made
+up his mind, should such an enterprise be attempted, to try his hand
+in beating it off with his guns. A good deal of uncertainty on the
+subject of Mulford's consenting to resist the recognised authorities
+of the country, as well as some doubts of a similar nature in
+reference to two or three of the best of the foremast hands, alone
+left him at all in doubt as to the expediency of such a course. As
+no boats were lowered from the cruiser, however, the necessity of
+resorting to so desperate a measure, did not occur, and the duty of
+lightening the schooner had proceeded without interruption. As soon
+as the boatswain came off from the islet, he and the men with him
+were directed to take the hands and lift the anchors, of which it
+will be remembered the Swash had several down. Even Mulford was
+shortly after set at work on the same duty; and these expert and
+ready seamen soon had the brig clear of the ground. As the schooner
+was anchored, and floated without assistance, the Swash rode by her.
+
+Such was the state of things when the men turned to, after having
+had their dinners. By this time, the sloop-of-war was within half a
+league of the bay, her progress having been materially retarded by
+the set of the current, which was directly against her. Spike saw
+that a collision of some sort or other must speedily occur, and he
+determined to take the boatswain with him, and descend into the
+cabin of the schooner in quest of the gold. The boatswain was
+summoned, and Senor Montefalderon repeated in this man's presence
+the instructions that he thought it necessary for the adventurers to
+follow, in order to secure the prize. Knowing how little locks would
+avail on board a vessel, were the men disposed to rob him, that
+gentleman had trusted more to secreting his treasure, than to
+securing it in the more ordinary way. When the story had again been
+told, Spike and his boatswain went on board the schooner, and,
+undressing, they prepared to descend into the cabin. The captain
+paused a single instant to take a look at the sloop-of-war, and to
+examine the state of the weather. It is probable some new impression
+was made on him by this inquiry, for, hailing Mulford, he ordered
+him to loosen the sails, and to sheet home, and hoist the
+foretopsail. In a word, to "see all ready to cast off, and make sail
+on the brig at the shortest notice." With this command he
+disappeared by the schooner's companion-way.
+
+Spike and his companion found the water in the cabin very much
+deeper than they had supposed. With a view to comfort, the
+cabin-floor had been sunk much lower than is usual on board American
+vessels, and this brought the water up nearly to the arm-pits of two
+men as short as our captain and his sturdy little boatswain. The
+former grumbled a good deal, when he ascertained the fact, and said
+something about the mate's being better fitted to make a search in
+such a place, but concluding with the remark, that "the man who
+wants ticklish duty well done, must see to it himself."
+
+The gold-hunters groped their way cautiously about the cabin for
+some time, feeling for a drawer, in which they had been told they
+should find the key of Senor Montefalderon's state-room door. In
+this Spike himself finally succeeded, he being much better
+acquainted with cabins and their fixtures, than the boatswain.
+
+"Here it is, Ben," said the captain, "now for a dive among the Don's
+val'ables. Should you pick up anything worth speaking of, you can
+condemn it for salvage, as I mean to cast off, and quit the wrack
+the moment we've made sure of the doubloons."
+
+"And what will become of all the black flour that is lying about,
+sir?" asked the boatswain with a grin.
+
+"It may take care of itself. My agreement will be up as soon as the
+doubloons are found. If the Don will come down handsomely with his
+share of what will be left, I may be bought to put the kegs we have
+in the brig ashore for him somewhere in Mexico; but my wish is to
+get out of the neighbourhood of that bloody sloop-of-war, as soon as
+possible."
+
+"She makes but slow headway ag'in the current, sir; but a body would
+think she might send in her boats."
+
+"The boats might be glad to get back again," muttered Spike. "Ay,
+here is the door unlocked, and we can now fish for the money."
+
+Some object had rolled against the state-room door, when the vessel
+was capsized, and there was a good deal of difficulty in forcing it
+open. They succeeded at last, and Spike led the way by wading into
+the small apartment. Here they began to feel about beneath the
+water, and by a very insufficient light, in quest of the hidden
+treasure. Spike and his boatswain differed as to the place which had
+just been described to them, as men will differ even in the account
+of events that pass directly before their eyes. While thus employed,
+the report of a heavy gun came through the doors of the cabin,
+penetrating to the recess in which they were thus employed.
+
+"Ay, that's the beginning of it!" exclaimed Spike. "I wonder that
+the fool has put it off so long."
+
+"That gun was a heavy fellow, Captain Spike," returned the
+boatswain; "and it sounded in my ears as if't was shotted."
+
+"Ay, ay, I dare say you're right enough in both opinions. They put
+such guns on board their sloops-of-war, now-adays, as a fellow used
+to find in the lower batteries of a two-decker only in old times;
+and as for shot, why Uncle Sam pays, and they think it cheaper to
+fire one out of a gun, than to take the trouble of drawing it."
+
+"I believe here's one of the bags, Captain Spike," said the
+boatswain, making a dip, and coming up with one-half of the desired
+treasure in his fist. "By George, I've grabbed him, sir; and the
+other bag can't be far off."
+
+"Hand that over to me," said the captain, a little authoritatively,
+"and take a dive for the next."
+
+As the boatswain was obeying this order, a second gun was heard, and
+Spike thought that the noise made by the near passage of a large
+shot was audible also. He called out to Ben to "bear a hand, as the
+ship seems in 'arnest." But the head of the boatswain being under
+water at the time, the admonition was thrown away. The fellow soon
+came up, however, puffing like a porpoise that has risen to the
+surface to blow.
+
+"Hand it over to me at once," said Spike, stretching out his
+unoccupied hand to receive the prize; "we have little time to lose."
+
+"That's sooner said than done, sir," answered the boat-swain; "a box
+has driven down upon the bag, and there's a tight jam. I got hold of
+the neck of the bag, and pulled like a horse, but it wouldn't come
+no how."
+
+"Show me the place, and let me have a drag at it. There goes another
+of his bloody guns!"
+
+Down went Spike, and the length of time he was under water, proved
+how much he was in earnest. Up he came at length, and with no better
+luck than his companion. He had got hold of the bag, satisfied
+himself by feeling its outside that it contained the doubloons, and
+hauled with all his strength, but it would not come. The boatswain
+now proposed to take a jamming hitch with a rope around the neck of
+the bag, which was long enough to admit of such a fastening, and
+then to apply their united force. Spike assented, and the boatswain
+rummaged about for a piece of small rope to suit his purpose. At
+this moment Mulford appeared at the companion-way to announce the
+movements on the part of the sloop-of-war. He had been purposely
+tardy, in order to give the ship as much time as possible; but he
+saw by the looks of the men that a longer delay might excite
+suspicion.
+
+"Below there!" called out the mate.
+
+"What's wanting, sir?--what's wanting, sir?" answered Spike; "let's
+know at once."
+
+"Have you heard the guns, Captain Spike?"
+
+"Ay, ay, every grumbler of them. They've done no mischief, I trust,
+Mr. Mulford?"
+
+"None as yet, sir; though the last shot, and it was a heavy fellow,
+passed just above the schooner's deck. I've the topsail sheeted home
+and hoisted, and it's that which has set them at work. If I clewed
+up again, I dare say they'd not fire another gun."
+
+"Clew up nothing, sir, but see all clear for casting off and making
+sail through the South Pass. What do you say, Ben, are you ready for
+a drag?"
+
+"All ready, sir," answered the boatswain, once more coming up to
+breathe. "Now for it, sir; a steady pull, and a pull all together."
+
+They did pull, but the hitch slipped, and both went down beneath the
+water. In a moment they were up again, puffing a little and swearing
+a great deal. Just then another gun, and a clatter above their
+heads, brought them to a stand.
+
+"What means that, Mr. Mulford?" demanded Spike, a good deal
+startled.
+
+"It means that the sloop-of-war has shot away the head of this
+schooner's foremast, sir, and that the shot has chipp'd a small
+piece out of the heel of our maintop-mast--that's all."
+
+Though excessively provoked at the mate's cool manner of replying,
+Spike saw that he might lose all by being too tenacious about
+securing the remainder of the doubloons. Pronouncing in very
+energetic terms on Uncle Sam, and all his cruisers, an anathema that
+we do not care to repeat, he gave a surly order to Ben to
+"knock-off," and abandoned his late design. In a minute he was on
+deck and dressed.
+
+"Cast off, lads," cried the captain, as soon as on the deck of his
+own brig again, "and four of you man that boat. We have got half of
+your treasure, Senor Wan, but have been driven from the rest of it,
+as you see. There is the bag; when at leisure we'll divide it, and
+give the people their share. Mr. Mulford, keep the brig in motion,
+hauling up toward the South Pass, while I go ashore for the ladies.
+I'll meet you just in the throat of the passage."
+
+This said, Spike tumbled into his boat, and was pulled ashore. As
+for Mulford, though he cast many an anxious glance toward the islet,
+he obeyed his orders, keeping the brig standing off and on, under
+easy canvas, but working her up toward the indicated passage.
+
+Spike was met by Jack Tier on the beach of the little island.
+
+"Muster the women at once," ordered the captain, "we have no time to
+lose, for that fellow will soon be firing broad-sides, and his shot
+now range half a mile beyond us."
+
+"You'll no more move the widow and her maid, than you'll move the
+island," answered Jack, laconically.
+
+"Why should I not move them? Do they wish to stay here and starve?"
+
+"It's little that they think of that. The sloop-of-war no sooner
+begun to fire than down went Mrs. Budd on the canvas floor of the
+tent, and set up just such a screaming as you may remember she tried
+her hand at the night the revenue craft fired into us. Biddy lay
+down alongside of her mistress, and at every gun, they just scream
+as loud as they can, as if they fancied they might frighten off
+Uncle Sam's men from their duty."
+
+"Duty!--You little scamp, do you call tormenting honest traders in
+this fashion the duty of any man?"
+
+"Well, captain, I'm no ways partic'lar about a word or two. Their
+`ways,' if you like that better than duty, sir."
+
+"Where's Rose? Is she down too, screaming and squalling?"
+
+"No, Captain Spike, no. Miss Rose is endeavouring, like a handsome
+young Christian lady as she is, to pacify and mollify her aunt and
+Biddy; and right down sensible talk does she give them."
+
+"Then she at least can go aboard the brig," exclaimed Spike, with a
+sudden animation, and an expression of countenance that Jack did not
+at all like.
+
+"I ray-y-ther think she'll wish to hold on to the old lady,"
+observed the steward's-mate, a little emphatically.
+
+"You be d--d," cried Spike, fiercely; "when your opinion is wanted,
+I'll ask for it. If I find you've been setting that young woman's
+mind ag'in me, I'll toss you overboard, as I would the offals of a
+shark."
+
+"Young women's minds, when they are only nineteen, get set ag'in
+boys of fifty-six without much assistance."
+
+"Fifty-six yourself."
+
+"I'm fifty-three--that I'll own without making faces at it,"
+returned Jack, meekly; "and, Stephen Spike, you logged fifty-six
+your last birthday, or a false entry was made."
+
+This conversation did not take place in the presence of the boat's
+crew, but as the two walked together toward the tent. They were now
+in the verandah, as we have called the shaded opening in front, and
+actually within sound of the sweet voice of Rose, as she exhorted
+her aunt, in tones a little louder than usual for her to use, to
+manifest more fortitude. Under such circumstances Spike did not deem
+it expedient to utter that which was uppermost in his mind, but,
+turning short upon Tier, he directed a tremendous blow directly
+between his eyes. Jack saw the danger and dodged, falling backward
+to avoid a concussion which he knew would otherwise be fearful,
+coming as it would from one of the best forecastle boxers of his
+time. The full force of the blow was avoided, though Jack got enough
+of it to knock him down, and to give him a pair of black eyes. Spike
+did not stop to pick the assistant steward up, for another gun was
+fired at that very instant, and Mrs. Budd and Biddy renewed their
+screams. Instead of pausing to kick the prostrate Tier, as had just
+before been his intention, the captain entered the tent.
+
+A scene that was sufficiently absurd met the view of Spike, when he
+found himself in the presence of the females. The widow had thrown
+herself on the ground, and was grasping the cloth of the sail on
+which the tent had been erected with both her hands, and was
+screaming at the top of her voice. Biddy's imitation was not exactly
+literal, for she had taken a comfortable seat at the side of her
+mistress, but in the way of cries, she rather outdid her principal.
+
+"We must be off," cried Spike, somewhat unceremoniously. "The
+man-of-war is blazing away, as if she was a firin' minute-guns over
+our destruction, and I can wait no longer."
+
+"I'll not stir," answered the widow--"I can't stir--I shall be shot
+if I go out. No, no, no--I'll not stir an inch."
+
+"We'll be kilt!--we'll be kilt!" echoed Biddy, "and a wicket
+murther't will be in that same man, war or no war."
+
+The captain perceived the uselessness of remonstrance at such a
+moment, and perhaps he was secretly rejoiced thereat; but it is
+certain that he whipped Rose up under his arm, and walked away with
+her, as if she had been a child of two or three years of age. Rose
+did not scream, but she struggled and protested vehemently. It was
+in vain. Already the captain had carried her half the distance
+between the tent and the boat, in the last of which, a minute more
+would have deposited his victim, when a severe blow on the back of
+his head caused Spike to stumble, and he permitted Rose to escape
+from his grasp, in the effort to save himself from a fall. Turning
+fiercely toward his assailant, whom he suspected to be one of his
+boat's crew, he saw Tier standing within a few yards, levelling a
+pistol at him.
+
+"Advance a step, and you're a dead man, villain!" screamed Jack, his
+voice almost cracked with rage, and the effort he made to menace.
+
+Spike muttered an oath too revolting for our pages; but it was such
+a curse as none but an old salt could give vent to, and that in the
+bitterness of his fiercest wrath. At that critical moment, while
+Rose was swelling with indignation and wounded maiden pride, almost
+within reach of his arms, looking more lovely than ever, as the
+flush of anger deepened the colour in her cheeks, a fresh and deep
+report from one of the guns of the sloop-of-war drew all eyes in her
+direction. The belching of that gun seemed to be of double the power
+of those which had preceded it, and jets of water, that were twenty
+feet in height, marked the course of the formidable missile that was
+projected from the piece. The ship had, indeed, discharged one of
+those monster-cannons that bear the name of a distinguished French
+engineer, but which should more properly be called by the name of
+the ingenious officer who is at the head of our own ordnance, as
+they came originally from his inventive faculties, though somewhat
+improved by their European adopter. Spike suspected the truth, for
+he had heard of these "Pazans," as he called them, and he watched
+the booming, leaping progress of the eight-inch shell that this gun
+threw, with the apprehension that unknown danger is apt to excite.
+As jet succeeded jet, each rising nearer and nearer to his brig, the
+interval of time between them seeming fearfully to diminish, he
+muttered oath upon oath. The last leap that the shell made on the
+water was at about a quarter of a mile's distance of the islet on
+which his people had deposited at least a hundred and fifty barrels
+of his spurious flour:-thence it flew, as it might be without an
+effort, with a grand and stately bound into the very centre of the
+barrels, exploding at the moment it struck. All saw the scattering
+of flour, which was instantly succeeded by the heavy though slightly
+straggling explosion of all the powder on the island. A hundred kegs
+were lighted, as it might be, in a common flash, and a cloud of
+white smoke poured out and concealed the whole islet, and all near
+it.
+
+Rose stood confounded, nor was Jack Tier in a much better state of
+mind, though he still kept the pistol levelled, and menaced Spike.
+But the last was no longer dangerous to any there. He recollected
+that piles of the barrels encumbered the decks of his vessel, and he
+rushed to the boat, nearly frantic with haste, ordering the men to
+pull for their lives. In less than five minutes he was alongside,
+and on the deck of the Swash--his first order being to--"Tumble
+every barrel of this bloody powder into the sea, men. Over with it,
+Mr. Mulford, clear away the midship ports, and launch as much as you
+can through them."
+
+Remonstrance on the part of Senor Montefalderon would have been
+useless, had he been disposed to make it; but, sooth to say, he was
+as ready to get rid of the powder as any there, after the specimen
+he had just witnessed of the power of a Paixhan gun.
+
+Thus it is ever with men. Had two or three of those shells been
+first thrown without effect, as might very well have happened under
+the circumstances, none there would have cared for the risk they
+were running; but the chance explosion which had occurred, presented
+so vivid a picture of the danger, dormant and remote as it really
+was, as to throw the entire crew of the Swash into a frenzy of
+exertion.
+
+Nor was the vessel at all free from danger. On the contrary, she ran
+very serious risk of being destroyed, and in some degree, in the
+very manner apprehended. Perceiving that Spike was luffing up
+through one of the passages nearest the reef, which would carry him
+clear of the group, a long distance to windward of the point where
+he could only effect the same object, the commander of the
+sloop-of-war opened his fire in good earnest, hoping to shoot away
+something material on board the Swash, before she could get beyond
+the reach of his shot. The courses steered by the two vessels, just
+at that moment, favoured such an attempt, though they made it
+necessarily very short-lived. While the Swash was near the wind, the
+sloop-of-war was obliged to run off to avoid islets ahead of her, a
+circumstance which, while it brought the brig square with the ship's
+broadside, compelled the latter to steer on a diverging line to the
+course of her chase. It was in consequence of these facts, that the
+sloop-of-war now opened in earnest, and was soon canopied in the
+smoke of her own fire.
+
+Great and important changes, as has been already mentioned, have
+been made in the armaments of all the smaller cruisers within the
+last few years. Half a generation since, a ship of the rate--we do
+not say of the size--of the vessel which was in chase of Spike and
+his craft, would not have had it in her power to molest an enemy at
+the distance these two vessels were now apart. But recent
+improvements have made ships of this nominal force formidable at
+nearly a league's distance; more especially by means of their
+Paixhans and their shells.
+
+For some little time the range carried the shot directly over the
+islet of the tent; Jack Tier and Rose, both of whom were watching
+all that passed with intense interest, standing in the open air the
+whole time, seemingly with no concern for themselves, so absorbed
+was each, notwithstanding all that had passed, in the safety of the
+brig. As for Rose, she thought only of Harry Mulford, and of the
+danger he was in by those fearful explosions of the shells. Her
+quick intellect comprehended the peculiar nature of the risk that
+was incurred by having the flour-barrels on deck, and she could not
+but see the manner in which Spike and his men were tumbling them
+into the water, as the quickest manner of getting rid of them. After
+what had just passed between Jack Tier and his commander, it might
+not be so easy to account for his manifest, nay, intense interest in
+the escape of the Swash. This was apparent by his troubled
+countenance, by his exclamations, and occasionally by his openly
+expressed wishes for her safety. Perhaps it was no more than the
+interest the seaman is so apt to feel in the craft in which he has
+so long sailed, and which to him has been a home, and of which
+Mulford exhibited so much, in his struggles between feeling and
+conscience--between a true and a false duty.
+
+As for Spike and his people, we have already mentioned their efforts
+to get rid of the powder. Shell after shell exploded, though none
+very near the brig, the ship working her guns as if in action. At
+length the officers of the sloop-of-war detected a source of error
+in their aim, that is of very common occurrence in sea-gunnery.
+Their shot had been thrown to ricochet, quartering a low, but very
+regular succession of little waves. Each shot striking the water at
+an acute angle to its agitated surface, was deflected from a
+straight line, and described a regular curve toward the end of its
+career; or, it might be truer to say, an irregular curvature, for
+the deflection increased as the momentum of the missile diminished.
+
+No sooner did the commanding officer of the sloop-of-war discover
+this fact, and it was easy to trace the course of the shots by the
+jets of water they cast into the air, and to see as well as to hear
+the explosions of the shells, than he ordered the guns pointed more
+to windward, as a means of counteracting the departure from the
+straight lines. This expedient succeeded in part, the solid shot
+falling much nearer to the brig the moment the practice was resorted
+to. No shell was fired for some little time after the new order was
+issued, and Spike and his people began to hope these terrific
+missiles had ceased their annoyance. The men cheered, finding their
+voices for the first time since the danger had seemed so imminent,
+and Spike was heard animating them to their duty. As for Mulford, he
+was on the coach-house deck, working the brig, the captain having
+confided to him that delicate duty, the highest proof he could
+furnish of confidence in his seamanship. The handsome young mate had
+just made a half-board, in the neatest manner, shoving the brig by
+its means through a most difficult part of the passage, and had got
+her handsomely filled again on the same tack, looking right out into
+open water, by a channel through which she could now stand on a very
+easy bowline. Everything seemed propitious, and the sloop-of-war's
+solid shot began to drop into the water, a hundred yards short of
+the brig. In this state of things one of the Paixhans belched forth
+its angry flame and sullen roar again. There was no mistaking the
+gun. Then came its mass of iron, a globe that would have weighed
+just sixty-eight pounds, had not sufficient metal been left out of
+its interior to leave a cavity to contain a single pound of powder.
+Its course, as usual, was to be marked by its path along the sea, as
+it bounded, half a mile at a time, from wave to wave. Spike saw by
+its undeviating course that this shell was booming terrifically
+toward his brig, and a cry to "look out for the shell," caused the
+work to be suspended. That shell struck the water for the last time,
+within two hundred yards of the brig, rose dark and menacing in its
+furious leap, but exploded at the next instant. The fragments of the
+iron were scattered on each side, and ahead. Of the last, three or
+four fell into the water so near the vessel as to cast their spray
+on her decks.
+
+"Overboard with the rest of the powder!" shouted Spike. "Keep the
+brig off a little, Mr. Mulford--keep her off, sir; you luff too
+much, sir."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," answered the mate. "Keep her off, it is."
+
+"There comes the other shell!" cried Ben, but the men did not quit
+their toil to gaze this time. Each seaman worked as if life and
+death depended on his single exertions. Spike alone watched the
+course of the missile. On it came, booming and hurtling through the
+air, tossing high the jets, at each leap it made from the surface,
+striking the water for its last bound, seemingly in a line with the
+shell that had just preceded it. From that spot it made its final
+leap. Every hand in the brig was stayed and every eye was raised as
+the rushing tempest was heard advancing. The mass went muttering
+directly between the masts of the Swash. It had scarcely seemed to
+go by when the fierce flash of fire and the sharp explosion
+followed. Happily for those in the brig, the projectile force given
+by the gun carried the fragments from them, as in the other instance
+it had brought them forward; else would few have escaped mutilation,
+or death, among their crew.
+
+The flashing of fire so near the barrels of powder that still
+remained on their deck, caused the frantic efforts to be renewed,
+and barrel after barrel was tumbled overboard, amid the shouts that
+were now raised to animate the people to their duty.
+
+"Luff, Mr. Mulford--luff you may, sir," cried Spike. No answer was
+given.
+
+"D'ye hear there, Mr. Mulford?--it is luff you may, sir."
+
+"Mr. Mulford is not aft, sir," called out the man at the helm--"but
+luff it is, sir."
+
+"Mr. Mulford not aft! Where's the mate, man? Tell him he is wanted."
+
+No Mulford was to be found! A call passed round the decks, was sent
+below, and echoed through the entire brig, but no sign or tidings
+could be had of the handsome mate. At that exciting moment the
+sloop-of-war seemed to cease her firing, and appeared to be securing
+her guns.
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+  Thou art the same, eternal sea!
+  The earth has many shapes and forms,
+  Of hill and valley, flower and tree;
+  Fields that the fervid noontide warms,
+  Or winter's rugged grasp deforms,
+  Or bright with autumn's golden store;
+  Thou coverest up thy face with storms,
+  Or smilest serene,--but still thy roar
+  And dashing foam go up to vex the sea-beat shore:
+
+Lunt.
+
+We shall now advance the time eight-and-forty hours. The baffling
+winds and calms that succeeded the tornado had gone, and the trades
+blew in their stead. Both vessels had disappeared, the brig leading,
+doubling the western extremity of the reef, and going off before
+both wind and current, with flowing sheets, fully three hours before
+the sloop-of-war could beat up against the latter, to a point that
+enabled her to do the same thing. By that time, the Swash was
+five-and-twenty miles to the eastward, and consequently but just
+discernible in her loftiest sails, from the ship's royal yards.
+Still, the latter continued the chase; and that evening both vessels
+were beating down along the southern margin of the Florida Reef,
+against the trades, but favoured by a three or four knot current,
+the brig out of sight to windward. Our narrative leads us to lose
+sight of both these vessels, for a time, in order to return to the
+islets of the Gulf. Eight-and-forty hours had made some changes in
+and around the haven of the Dry Tortugas. The tent still stood, and
+a small fire that was boiling its pot and its kettle, at no great
+distance from it, proved that the tent was still inhabited. The
+schooner also rode at her anchors, very much as she had been
+abandoned by Spike. The bag of doubloons, however, had been found,
+and there it lay, tied but totally unguarded, in the canvas verandah
+of Rose Budd's habitation. Jack Tier passed and repassed it with
+apparent indifference, as he went to and fro, between his pantry and
+kitchen, busy as a bee in preparing his noontide meal for the day.
+This man seemed to have the islet all to himself, however, no one
+else being visible on any part of it. He sang his song, in a
+cracked, contre alto voice, and appeared to be happy in his
+solitude. Occasionally he talked to himself aloud, most probably
+because he had no one else to speak to. We shall record one of his
+recitatives, which came in between the strains of a very
+inharmonious air, the words of which treated of the seas, while the
+steward's assistant was stirring an exceedingly savoury mess that he
+had concocted of the ingredients to be found in the united larders
+of the Swash and the Mexican schooner.
+
+"Stephen Spike is a capital willian!" exclaimed Jack, smelling at a
+ladle filled with his soup--"a capital willian, I call him. To
+think, at his time of life, of such a handsome and pleasant young
+thing as this Rose Budd; and then to try to get her by underhand
+means, and by making a fool of her silly old aunt. It 's wonderful
+what fools some old aunts be! Quite wonderful! If I was as great a
+simpleton as this Mrs. Budd, I'd never cross my threshhold. Yes,
+Stephen Spike is a prodigious willian, as his best friend must own!
+Well, I gave him a thump on the head that he'll not forget this
+v'y'ge. To think of carryin' off that pretty Rose Budd in his very
+arms, in so indecent a manner! Yet, the man has his good p'ints, if
+a body could only forget his bad ones. He's a first-rate seaman. How
+he worked the brig till he doubled the reef, a'ter she got into open
+water; and how he made her walk off afore the wind, with stun'sails
+alow and aloft, as soon as ever he could make 'em draw! My life for
+it, he 'll tire the legs of Uncle Sam's man, afore he can fetch up
+with him. For running away, when hard chased, Stephen Spike has n't
+his equal on 'arth. But, he's a great willian--a prodigious willian!
+I cannot say I actually wish him hanged; but I would rather have him
+hanged than see him get pretty Rose in his power. What has he to do
+with girls of nineteen? If the rascal is one year old, he's
+fifty-six. I hope the sloop-of-war will find her match, and I think
+she will. The Molly's a great traveller, and not to be outdone
+easily. 'T would be a thousand pities so lovely a craft should be
+cut off in the flower of her days, as it might be, and I do hope
+she'll lead that bloody sloop on some sunken rock.
+
+"Well, there's the other bag of doubloons. It seems Stephen could
+not get it. That's odd, too, for he's great at grabbin' gold. The
+man bears his age well; but he's a willian! I wonder whether he or
+Mulford made that half-board in the narrow channel. It was well
+done, and Stephen is a perfect sailor; but he says Mulford is the
+same. Nice young man, that Mulford; just fit for Rose, and Rose for
+him. Pity to part them. Can find no great fault with him, except
+that he has too much conscience. There's such a thing as having too
+much, as well as too little conscience. Mulford has too much, and
+Spike has too little. For him to think of carryin' off a gal of
+nineteen! I say he's fifty-six, if he's a day. How fond he used to
+be of this very soup! If I've seen him eat a quart of it, I've seen
+him eat a puncheon full of it, in my time. What an appetite the man
+has when he's had a hard day's duty on 't! There 's a great deal to
+admire, and a great deal to like in Stephen Spike, but he's a
+reg'lar willian. I dare say he fancies himself a smart, jaunty youth
+ag'in, as I can remember him; a lad of twenty, which was about his
+years when I first saw him, by the sign that I was very little
+turned of fifteen myself. Spike was comely then, though I
+acknowledge he's a willian. I can see him now, with his deep blue
+roundabout, his bell-mouthed trowsers, both of fine cloth--too fine
+for such a willian--but fine it was, and much did it become him."
+
+Here Jack made a long pause, during which, though he may have
+thought much, he said nothing. Nevertheless, he was n't idle the
+while. On the contrary, he passed no less than three several times
+from the fire to the tent, and returned. Each time, in going and
+coming, he looked intently at the bag of doubloons, though he did
+not stop at it or touch it. Some associations connected with Spike's
+fruitless attempts to obtain it must have formed its principal
+interest with this singular being, as he muttered his captain's name
+each time in passing, though he said no more audibly. The concerns
+of the dinner carried him back and forth; and in his last visit to
+the tent, he began to set a small table--one that had been brought
+for the convenience of Mrs. Budd and her niece, from the brig, and
+which of course still remained on the islet. It was while thus
+occupied, that Jack Tier recommenced his soliloquy.
+
+"I hope that money may do some worthy fellow good yet. It's Mexican
+gold, and that's inemy's gold, and might be condemned by law, I do
+suppose. Stephen had a hankerin' a'ter it, but he did not get it. It
+come easy enough to the next man that tried. That Spike 's a
+willian, and the gold was too good for him. He has no conscience at
+all to think of a gal of nineteen! And one fit for his betters, in
+the bargain. The time has been when Stephen Spike might have
+pretended to Rose Budd's equal. That much I'll ever maintain, but
+that time's gone; and, what is more, it will never come again. I
+should like Mulford better if he had a little less conscience.
+Conscience may do for Uncle Sam's ships, but it is sometimes in the
+way aboard a trading craft. What can a fellow do with a conscience
+when dollars is to be smuggled off, or tobacco smuggled ashore? I do
+suppose I've about as much conscience as it is useful to have, and
+I've got ashore in my day twenty thousand dollars' worth of stuff,
+of one sort or another, if I've got ashore the valie of ten dollars.
+But Spike carries on business on too large a scale, and many's the
+time I've told him so. I could have forgiven him anything but this
+attempt on Rose Budd; and he's altogether too old for that, to say
+nothing of other people's rights. He's an up-and-down willian, and a
+body can make no more, nor any less of him. That soup must be near
+done, and I'll hoist the signal for grub."
+
+This signal was a blue-peter of which one had been brought ashore to
+signal the brig; and with which Jack now signalled the schooner. If
+the reader will turn his eyes toward the last named vessel, he will
+find the guests whom Tier expected to surround his table. Rose, her
+aunt, and Biddy were all seated, under an awning made by a sail, on
+the deck of the schooner, which now floated so buoyantly as to show
+that she had materially lightened since last seen. Such indeed was
+the fact, and he who had been the instrument of producing this
+change, appeared on deck in the person of Mulford, as soon as he was
+told that the blue-peter of Jack Tier was flying.
+
+The boat of the light-house, that in which Spike had landed in quest
+of Rose, was lying alongside of the schooner, and sufficiently
+explained the manner in which the mate had left the brig. This boat,
+in fact, had been fastened astern, in the hurry of getting from
+under the sloop-of-war's fire, and Mulford had taken the opportunity
+of the consternation and frantic efforts produced by the explosion
+of the last shell thrown, to descend from his station on the
+coach-house into this boat, to cut the painter, and to let the Swash
+glide away from him. This the vessel had done with great rapidity,
+leaving him unseen under the cover of her stern. As soon as in the
+boat, the mate had seized an oar, and sculled to an islet that was
+within fifty yards, concealing the boat behind a low hummock that
+formed a tiny bay. All this was done so rapidly, that united to the
+confusion on board the Swash, no one discovered the mate or the
+boat. Had he been seen, however, it is very little probable that
+Spike would have lost a moment of time, in the attempt to recover
+either. But he was not seen, and it was the general opinion on board
+the Swash, for quite an hour, that her handsome mate had been
+knocked overboard and killed, by a fragment of the shell that had
+seemed to explode almost in the ears of her people. When the reef
+was doubled, however, and Spike made his preparations for meeting
+the rough water, he hove to, and ordered his own yawl, which was
+also towing astern, to be hauled up alongside, in order to be
+hoisted in. Then, indeed, some glimmerings of the truth were shed on
+the crew, who missed the light-house boat. Though many contended
+that its painter must also have been cut by a fragment of the shell,
+and that the mate had died loyal to roguery and treason. Mulford was
+much liked by the crew, and he was highly valued by Spike, on
+account of his seamanship and integrity, this latter being a quality
+that is just as necessary for one of the captain's character to meet
+with in those he trusts as to any other man. But Spike thought
+differently of the cause of Mulford's disappearance, from his crew.
+He ascribed it altogether to love for Rose, when, in truth, it ought
+in justice to have been quite as much imputed to a determination to
+sail no longer with a man who was clearly guilty of treason. Of
+smuggling, Mulford had long suspected Spike, though he had no direct
+proof of the fact; but now he could not doubt that he was not only
+engaged in supplying the enemy with the munitions of war, but was
+actually bargaining to sell his brig for a hostile cruiser, and
+possibly to transfer himself and crew along with her.
+
+It is scarcely necessary to speak of the welcome Mulford received
+when he reached the islet of the tent. He and Rose had a long
+private conference, the result of which was to let the handsome mate
+into the secret of his pretty companion's true feelings toward
+himself. She had received him with tears, and a betrayal of emotion
+that gave him every encouragement, and now she did not deny her
+preference. In that interview the young people plighted to each
+other their troth. Rose never doubted of obtaining her aunt's
+consent in due time, all her prejudices being in favour of the sea
+and sailors; and should she not, she would soon be her own mistress,
+and at liberty to dispose of herself and her pretty little fortune
+as she might choose. But a cypher as she was, in all questions of
+real moment, Mrs. Budd was not a person likely to throw any real
+obstacle in the way of the young people's wishes; the true grounds
+of whose present apprehensions were all to be referred to Spike, his
+intentions, and his well-known perseverance. Mulford was convinced
+that the brig would be back in quest of the remaining doubloons, as
+soon as she could get clear of the sloop-of-war, though he was not
+altogether without a hope that the latter, when she found it
+impossible to overhaul her chase, might also return in order to
+ascertain what discoveries could be made in and about the schooner.
+The explosion of the powder, on the islet, must have put the
+man-of-war's men in possession of the secret of the real quality of
+the flour that had composed her cargo, and it doubtless had awakened
+all their distrust on the subject of the Swash's real business in
+the Gulf. Under all the circumstances, therefore, it did appear
+quite as probable that one of the parties should reappear at the
+scene of their recent interview as the other.
+
+Bearing all these things in mind, Mulford had lost no time in
+completing his own arrangements. He felt that he had some atonement
+to make to the country, for the part he had seemingly taken in the
+late events, and it occurred to him, could he put the schooner in a
+state to be moved, then place her in the hands of the authorities,
+his own peace would be made, and his character cleared. Rose no
+sooner understood his plans and motives, than she entered into them
+with all the ardour and self-devotion of her sex; for the single
+hour of confidential and frank communication which had just passed,
+doubled the interest she felt in Mulford and in all that belonged to
+him. Jack Tier was useful on board a vessel, though his want of
+stature and force rendered him less so than was common with
+sea-faring men. His proper sphere certainly had been the cabins,
+where his usefulness was beyond all cavil; but he was now very
+serviceable to Mulford on the deck of the schooner. The first two
+days, Mrs. Budd had been left on the islet, to look to the concerns
+of the kitchen, while Mulford, accompanied by Rose, Biddy and Jack
+Tier, had gone off to the schooner, and set her pumps in motion
+again. It was little that Rose could do, or indeed attempt to do, at
+this toil, but the pumps being small and easily worked, Biddy and
+Jack were of great service. By the end of the second day the pumps
+sucked; the cargo that remained in the schooner, as well as the form
+of her bottom, contributing greatly to lessen the quantity of the
+water that was to be got out of her.
+
+Then it was that the doubloons fell into Mulford's hands, along with
+everything else that remained below decks. It was perhaps fortunate
+that the vessel was thoroughly purified by her immersion, and the
+articles that were brought on deck to be dried were found in a
+condition to give no great offence to those who removed them. By
+leaving the hatches off, and the cabin doors open, the warm winds of
+the trades effectually dried the interior of the schooner in the
+course of a single night; and when Mulford repaired on board of her,
+on the morning of the third day, he found her in a condition to be
+fitted for his purposes. On this occasion Mrs. Budd had expressed a
+wish to go off to look at her future accommodations, and Jack was
+left on the islet to cook the dinner, which will explain the actual
+state of things as described in the opening of this chapter.
+
+As those who toil usually have a relish for their food, the
+appearance of the blue-peter was far from being unwelcome to those
+on board of the schooner. They got into the boat, and were sculled
+ashore by Mulford, who, seaman-like, used only one hand in
+performing this service. In a very few minutes they were all seated
+at the little table, which was brought out into the tent-verandah
+for the enjoyment of the breeze.
+
+"So far, well," said Mulford, after his appetite was mainly
+appeased; Rose picking crumbs, and affecting to eat, merely to have
+the air of keeping him company; one of the minor proofs of the
+little attentions that spring from the affections. "So far, well.
+The sails are bent, and though they might be never and better, they
+can be made to answer. It was fortunate to find anything like a
+second suit on board a Mexican craft of that size at all. As it is,
+we have foresail, mainsail, and jib, and with that canvas I think we
+might beat the schooner down to Key West in the course of a day and
+a night. If I dared to venture outside of the reef, it might be done
+sooner even, for they tell me there is a four-knot current sometimes
+in that track; but I do not like to venture outside, so
+short-handed. The current inside must serve our turn, and we shall
+get smooth water by keeping under the lee of the rocks. I only hope
+we shall not get into an eddy as we go further from the end of the
+reef, and into the bight of the coast."
+
+"Is there danger of that?" demanded Rose, whose quick intellect had
+taught her many of these things, since her acquaintance with
+vessels.
+
+"There may be, looking at the formation of the reef and islands,
+though I know nothing of the fact by actual observation. This is my
+first visit in this quarter."
+
+"Eddies are serious matters," put in Mrs. Budd, "and my poor husband
+could not abide them. Tides are good things; but eddies are very
+disagreeable."
+
+"Well, aunty, I should think eddies might sometimes be as welcome as
+tides. It must depend, however, very much on the way one wishes to
+go."
+
+"Rose, you surprise me! All that you have read, and all that you
+have heard, must have shown you the difference. Do they not say `a
+man is floating with the tide,' when things are prosperous with
+him--and don't ships drop down with the tide, and beat the wind with
+the tide? And don't vessels sometimes `tide it up to town,' as it is
+called, and is n't it thought an advantage to have the tide with
+you?"
+
+"All very true, aunty; but I do not see how that makes eddies any
+the worse."
+
+"Because eddies are the opposite of tides, child. When the tide goes
+one way, the eddy goes another--is n't it so, Harry Mulford? You
+never heard of one's floating in an eddy."
+
+"That's what we mean by an eddy, Mrs. Budd," answered the handsome
+mate, delighted to hear Rose's aunt call him by an appellation so
+kind and familiar,--a thing she had never done previously to the
+intercourse which had been the consequence of their present
+situation. "Though I agree with Rose in thinking an eddy may be a
+good or a bad thing, and very much like a tide, as one wishes to
+steer."
+
+"You amaze me, both of you! Tides are always spoken of favourably,
+but eddies never. If a ship gets ashore, the tide can float her off;
+that I've heard a thousand times. Then, what do the newspapers say
+of President--, and Governor--, and Congressman--? Why, that they
+all `float in the tide of public opinion,' and that must mean
+something particularly good, as they are always in office. No, no,
+Harry; I'll acknowledge that you do know something about ships; a
+good deal, considering how young you are; but you have something to
+learn about eddies. Never trust one as long as you live."
+
+Mulford was silent, and Rose took the occasion to change the
+discourse.
+
+"I hope we shall soon be able to quit this place," she said; "for I
+confess to some dread of Captain Spike's return."
+
+"Captain Stephen Spike has greatly disappointed me," observed the
+aunt, gravely. "I do not know that I was ever before deceived in
+judging a person. I could have sworn he was an honest, frank,
+well-meaning sailor--a character, of all others, that I love; but it
+has turned out otherwise."
+
+"He's a willian!" mutttered Jack Tier.
+
+Mulford smiled; at which speech we must leave to conjecture; but he
+answered Rose, as he ever did, promptly and with pleasure.
+
+"The schooner is ready, and this must be our last meal ashore," he
+said. "Our outfit will be no great matter; but if it will carry us
+down to Key West, I shall ask no more of it. As for the return of
+the Swash, I look upon it as certain. She could easily get clear of
+the sloop-of-war, with the start she had, and Spike is a man that
+never yet abandoned a doubloon, when he knew where one was to be
+found."
+
+"Stephen Spike is like all his fellow-creatures," put in Jack Tier,
+pointedly. "He has his faults, and he has his virtues."
+
+"Virtue is a term I should never think of applying to such a man,"
+returned Mulford, a little surprised at the fellow's earnestness.
+"The word is a big one, and belongs to quite another class of
+persons." Jack muttered a few syllables that were unintelligible,
+when again the conversation changed.
+
+Rose now inquired of Mulford as to their prospects of getting to Key
+West. He told her that the distance was about sixty miles; their
+route lying along the north or inner side of the Florida Reef. The
+whole distance was to be made against the trade-wind, which was then
+blowing about an eight-knot breeze, though, bating eddies, they
+might expect to be favoured with the current, which was less strong
+inside than outside of the reef. As for handling the schooner,
+Mulford saw no great difficulty in that. She was not large, and was
+both lightly sparred and lightly rigged. All her top-hamper had been
+taken down by Spike, and nothing remained but the plainest and most
+readily-managed gear. A fore-and-aft vessel, sailing close by the
+wind, is not difficult to steer; will almost steer herself, indeed,
+in smooth water. Jack Tier could take his trick at the helm, in any
+weather, even in running before the wind, the time when it is most
+difficult to guide a craft, and Rose might be made to understand the
+use of the tiller, and taught to govern the motions of a vessel so
+small and so simply rigged, when on a wind and in smooth water. On
+the score of managing the schooner, therefore, Mulford thought there
+would be little cause for apprehension. Should the weather continue
+settled, he had little doubt of safely landing the whole party at
+Key West, in the course of the next four-and-twenty hours. Short
+sail he should be obliged to carry, as well on account of the
+greater facility of managing it, as on account of the circumstance
+that the schooner was now in light ballast trim, and would not bear
+much canvas. He thought that the sooner they left the islets the
+better, as it could not be long ere the brig would be seen hovering
+around the spot. All these matters were discussed as the party still
+sat at table; and when they left it, which was a few minutes later,
+it was to remove the effects they intended to carry away to the
+boat. This was soon done, both Jack Tier and Biddy proving very
+serviceable, while Rose tripped backward and forward, with a step
+elastic as a gazelle's, carrying light burdens. In half an hour the
+boat was ready. "Here lies the bag of doubloons still," said
+Mulford, smiling. "Is it to be left, or shall we give it up to the
+admiralty court at Key West, and put in a claim for salvage?"
+
+"Better leave it for Spike," said Jack unexpectedly. "Should he come
+back, and find the doubloons, he may be satisfied, and not look for
+the schooner. On the other hand, when the vessel is missing, he will
+think that the money is in her. Better leave it for old Stephen."
+
+"I do not agree with you, Tier," said Rose, though she looked as
+amicably at the steward's assistant, as she thus opposed his
+opinion, as if anxious to persuade rather than coerce. "I do not
+quite agree with you. This money belongs to the Spanish merchant;
+and, as we take away with us his vessel, to give it up to the
+authorities at Key West, I do not think we have a right to put his
+gold on the shore and abandon it."
+
+This disposed of the question. Mulford took the bag, and carried it
+to the boat, without waiting to ascertain if Jack had any objection;
+while the whole party followed. In a few minutes everybody and
+everything in the boat were transferred to the deck of the schooner.
+As for the tent, the old sails of which it was made, the furniture
+it contained, and such articles of provisions as were not wanted,
+they were left on the islet, without regret. The schooner had
+several casks of fresh water, which were found in her hold, and she
+had also a cask or two of salted meats, besides several articles of
+food more delicate, that had been provided by Senor Montefalderon
+for his own use, and which had not been damaged by the water. A keg
+of Boston crackers were among these eatables, quite half of which
+were still in a state to be eaten. They were Biddy's delight; and it
+was seldom that she could be seen when not nibbling at one of them.
+The bread of the crew was hopelessly damaged. But Jack had made an
+ample provision of bread when sent ashore, and there was still a
+hundred barrels of the flour in the schooner's hold. One of these
+had been hoisted on deck by Mulford, and opened. The injured flour
+was easily removed, leaving a considerable quantity fit for the uses
+of the kitchen. As for the keg of gunpowder, it was incontinently
+committed to the deep.
+
+Thus provided for, Mulford decided that the time had arrived when he
+ought to quit his anchorage. He had been employed most of that
+morning in getting the schooner's anchor, a work of great toil to
+him, though everybody had assisted. He had succeeded, and the vessel
+now rode by a kedge, that he could easily weigh by means of a deck
+tackle. It remained now, therefore, to lift this kedge and to stand
+out of the bay of the islets. No sooner was the boat secured astern,
+and its freight disposed of, than the mate began to make sail. In
+order to hoist the mainsail well up, he was obliged to carry the
+halyards to the windlass. Thus aided, he succeeded without much
+difficulty. He and Jack Tier and Biddy got the jib hoisted by hand;
+and as for the fore-sail, that would almost set itself. Of course,
+it was not touched until the kedge was aweigh. Mulford found little
+difficulty in lifting the last, and he soon had the satisfaction of
+finding his craft clear of the ground. As Jack Tier was every way
+competent to take charge of the forecastle, Mulford now sprang aft,
+and took his own station at the helm; Rose acting as his pretty
+assistant on the quarter-deck.
+
+There is little mystery in getting a fore-and-aft vessel under way.
+Her sails fill almost as a matter of course, and motion follows as a
+necessary law. Thus did it prove with the Mexican schooner, which
+turned out to be a fast-sailing and an easily-worked craft. She was,
+indeed, an American bottom, as it is termed, having been originally
+built for the Chesapeake; and, though not absolutely what is
+understood by a Baltimore clipper, so nearly of that mould and
+nature as to possess some of the more essential qualities. As
+usually happens, however, when a foreigner gets hold of an American
+schooner, the Mexicans had shortened her masts and lessened her
+canvas. This circumstance was rather an advantage to Mulford, who
+would probably have had more to attend to than he wished under the
+original rig of the craft.
+
+Everybody, even to the fastidious Mrs. Budd, was delighted with the
+easy and swift movement of the schooner. Mulford, now he had got her
+under canvas, handled her without any difficulty, letting her stand
+toward the channel through which he intended to pass, with her
+sheets just taken in, though compelled to keep a little off, in
+order to enter between the islets. No difficulty occurred, however,
+and in less than ten minutes the vessel was clear of the channels,
+and in open water. The sheets were now flattened in, and the
+schooner brought close by the wind. A trial of the vessel on this
+mode of sailing was no sooner made, than Mulford was induced to
+regret he had taken so many precautions against any increasing power
+of the wind. To meet emergencies, and under the notion he should
+have his craft more under command, the young man had reefed his
+mainsail, and taken the bonnets off of the foresail and jib. As the
+schooner stood up better than he had anticipated, the mate felt as
+all seamen are so apt to feel, when they see that their vessels
+might be made to perform more than is actually got out of them. As
+the breeze was fresh, however, he determined not to let out the
+reef; and the labour of lacing on the bonnets again was too great to
+be thought of just at that moment.
+
+We all find relief on getting in motion, when pressed by
+circumstances. Mulford had been in great apprehension of the
+re-appearance of the Swash all that day; for it was about the time
+when Spike would be apt to return, in the event of his escaping from
+the sloop-of-war, and he dreaded Rose's again falling into the hands
+of a man so desperate. Nor is it imputing more than a very natural
+care to the young man, to say that he had some misgivings concerning
+himself. Spike, by this time, must be convinced that his business in
+the Gulf was known; and one who had openly thrown off his service,
+as his mate had done, would unquestionably be regarded as a traitor
+to his interests, whatever might be the relation in which he would
+stand to the laws of the country. It was probable such an alleged
+offender would not be allowed to appear before the tribunals of the
+land, to justify himself and to accuse the truly guilty, if it were
+in the power of the last to prevent it. Great, therefore, was the
+satisfaction of our handsome young mate when he found himself again
+fairly in motion, with a craft under him, that glided ahead in a way
+to prove that she might give even the Swash some trouble to catch
+her, in the event of a trial of speed.
+
+Everybody entered into the feelings of Mulford, as the schooner
+passed gallantly out from between the islets, and entered the open
+water. Fathom by fathom did her wake rapidly increase, until it
+could no longer be traced back as far as the sandy beaches that had
+just been left. In a quarter of an hour more, the vessel had drawn
+so far from the land, that some of the smaller and lowest of the
+islets were getting to be indistinct. At that instant everybody had
+come aft, the females taking their seats on the trunk, which, in
+this vessel as in the Swash herself, gave space and height to the
+cabin.
+
+"Well," exclaimed Mrs. Budd, who found the freshness of the sea air
+invigorating, as well as their speed exciting, "this is what I call
+maritime, Rosy, dear. This is what is meant by the Maritime States,
+about which we read so much, and which are commonly thought to be so
+important. We are now in a Maritime State, and I feel perfectly
+happy after all our dangers and adventures!"
+
+"Yes, aunty, and I am delighted that you are happy," answered Rose,
+with frank affection. "We are now rid of that infamous Spike, and
+may hope never to see his face more."
+
+"Stephen Spike has his good p'ints as well as another," said Jack
+Tier, abruptly.
+
+"I know that he is an old shipmate of yours, Tier, and that you
+cannot forget how he once stood connected with you, and am sorry I
+have said so much against him," answered Rose, expressing her
+concern even more by her looks and tones, than by her words.
+
+Jack was mollified by this, and he let his feeling be seen, though
+he said no more than to mutter, "He's a willian!" words that had
+frequently issued from his lips within the last day or two.
+
+"Stephen Spike is a capital seaman, and that is something in any
+man," observed the relict of Captain Budd. "He learned his trade
+from one who was every way qualified to teach him, and it's no
+wonder he should be expert. Do you expect, Mr. Mulford, to beat the
+wind the whole distance to Key West?"
+
+It was not possible for any one to look more grave than the mate did
+habitually, while the widow was floundering through her sea-terms.
+Rose had taught him that respect for her aunt was to be one of the
+conditions of her own regard, though Rose had never opened her lips
+to him on the subject.
+
+"Yes, ma'am," answered the mate, respectfully, "we are in the
+trades, and shall have to turn to windward, every inch of the way to
+Key West."
+
+"Of what lock is this place the key, Rosy?" asked the aunt,
+innocently enough. "I know that forts and towns are sometimes called
+keys, but they always have locks of some sort or other. Now,
+Gibraltar is the key of the Mediterranean, as your uncle has told me
+fifty times; and I have been there, and can understand why it should
+be,--but I do not know of what lock this West is the key."
+
+"It is not that sort of key which is meant, aunty, at all--but quite
+a different thing. The key meant is an island."
+
+"And why should any one be so silly as to call an island a key?"
+
+"The place where vessels unload is sometimes called a key," answered
+Mulford;--"the French calling it a quai, and the Dutch kaye. I
+suppose our English word is derived from these. Now, a low, sandy
+island, looking somewhat like keys, or wharves, seamen have given
+them this name. Key West is merely a low island."
+
+"Then there is no lock to it, or anything to be unfastened," said
+the widow, in her most simple manner.
+
+"It may turn out to be the key to the Gulf of Mexico, one of these
+days, ma'am. Uncle Sam is surveying the reef, and intends to do
+something here, I believe. When Uncle Sam is really in earnest, he
+is capable of performing great things."
+
+Mrs. Budd was satisfied with this explanation, though she told Biddy
+that evening, that "locks and keys go together, and that the person
+who christened the island to which they were going, must have been
+very weak in his upper story." But these reflections on the
+intellects of her fellow-creatures were by no means uncommon with
+the worthy relict; and we cannot say that her remarks made any
+particular impression on her Irish maid.
+
+In the mean time, the Mexican schooner behaved quite to Mulford's
+satisfaction. He thought her a little tender in the squalls, of
+which they had several that afternoon; but he remarked to Rose, who
+expressed her uneasiness at the manner in which the vessel lay over
+in one of them, that "she comes down quite easy to her bearings, but
+it is hard forcing her beyond them. The vessel needs more cargo to
+ballast her, though, on the whole, I find her as stiff as one could
+expect. I am now glad that I reefed, and reduced the head sails,
+though I was sorry at having done so when we first came out. At this
+rate of sailing, we ought to be up with Key West by morning."
+
+But that rate of sailing did not continue. Toward evening, the
+breeze lessened almost to a calm again, the late tornado appearing
+to have quite deranged the ordinary stability of the trades. When
+the sun set, and it went down into the broad waters of the Gulf a
+flood of flame, there was barely a two-knot breeze, and Mulford had
+no longer any anxiety on the subject of keeping his vessel on her
+legs. His solicitude, now, was confined to the probability of
+falling in with the Swash. As yet, nothing was visible, either in
+the shape of land or in that of a sail. Between the islets of the
+Dry Tortugas and the next nearest visible keys, there is a space of
+open water, of some forty miles in width. The reef extends across
+it, of course; but nowhere does the rock protrude itself above the
+surface of the sea. The depth of water on this reef varies
+essentially. In some places, a ship of size might pass on to it, if
+not across it; while in others a man could wade for miles. There is
+one deep and safe channel--safe to those who are acquainted with
+it--through the centre of this open space, and which is sometimes
+used by vessels that wish to pass from one side to the other; but it
+is ever better for those whose business does not call them in that
+direction, to give the rocks a good berth, more especially in the
+night.
+
+Mulford had gleaned many of the leading facts connected with the
+channels, and the navigation of those waters, from Spike and the
+older seamen of the brig, during the time they had been lying at the
+Tortugas. Such questions and answers are common enough on board
+ships, and, as they are usually put and given with intelligence, one
+of our mate's general knowledge of his profession, was likely to
+carry away much useful information. By conversations of this nature,
+and by consulting the charts, which Spike did not affect to conceal
+after the name of his port became known, the young man, in fact, had
+so far made himself master of the subject, as to have tolerably
+accurate notions of the courses, distances, and general
+peculiarities of the reef. When the sun went down, he supposed
+himself to be about half-way across the space of open water, and
+some five-and-twenty miles dead to windward of his port of
+departure. This was doing very well for the circumstances, and
+Mulford believed himself and his companions clear of spike, when, as
+night drew its veil over the tranquil sea, nothing was in sight.
+
+A very judicious arrangement was made for the watches on board the
+Mexican schooner, on this important night. Mrs. Budd had a great
+fancy to keep a watch, for once in her life, and, after the party
+had supped, and the subject came up in the natural course of things,
+a dialogue like this occurred:
+
+"Harry must be fatigued," said Rose, kindly, "and must want sleep.
+The wind is so light, and the weather appears to be so settled, that
+I think it would be better for him to `turn in,' as he calls
+it;"--here Rose laughed so prettily that the handsome mate wished
+she would repeat the words,--"better that he should `turn in' now,
+and we can call him, should there be need of his advice or
+assistance. I dare say Jack Tier and I can take very good care of
+the schooner until daylight."
+
+Mrs. Budd thought it would be no more than proper for one of her
+experience and years to rebuke this levity, as well as to enlighten
+the ignorance her niece had betrayed.
+
+"You should be cautious, my child, how you propose anything to be
+done on a ship's board," observed the aunt. "It requires great
+experience and a suitable knowledge of rigging to give maritime
+advice. Now, as might have been expected, considering your years,
+and the short time you have been at sea, you have made several
+serious mistakes in what you have proposed. In the first place,
+there should always be a mate on the deck, as I have heard your dear
+departed uncle say, again and again; and how can there be a mate on
+the deck if Mr. Mulford `turns in,' as you propose, seeing that he's
+the only mate we have. Then you should never laugh at any maritime
+expression, for each and all are, as a body might say, solemnized by
+storms and dangers. That Harry is fatigued I think is very probable;
+and he must set our watches, as they call it, when he can make his
+arrangements for the night, and take his rest as is usual. Here is
+my watch to begin with; and I'll engage he does not find it two
+minutes out of the way, though yours, Rosy dear, like most girl's
+time-pieces, is, I'll venture to say, dreadfully wrong. Where is
+your chronometer, Mr. Mulford? let us see how this excellent watch
+of mine, which was once my poor departed Mr. Budd's, will agree with
+that piece of your's, which I have heard you say is excellent."
+
+Here was a flight in science and nautical language that poor Mulford
+could not have anticipated, even in the captain's relict! That Mrs.
+Budd should mistake "setting the watch" for "setting our watches,"
+was not so very violent a blunder that one ought to be much
+astonished at it in her; but that she should expect to find a
+chronometer that was intended to keep the time of Greenwich,
+agreeing with a watch that was set for the time of New York,
+betrayed a degree of ignorance that the handsome mate was afraid
+Rose would resent on him, when the mistake was made to appear. As
+the widow held out her own watch for the comparison, however, he
+could not refuse to produce his own. By Mrs. Budd's watch it was
+past seven o'clock, while by his own, or the Greenwich-set
+chronometer, it was a little past twelve.
+
+"How very wrong your watch is, Mr. Mulford," cried the good lady,
+"notwithstanding all you have said in its favour. It's quite five
+hours too fast, I do declare; and now, Rosy dear, you see the
+importance of setting watches on a ship's board, as is done every
+evening, my departed husband has often told me."
+
+"Harry's must be what he calls a dog-watch, aunty," said Rose,
+laughing, though she scarce knew at what.
+
+"The watch goes, too," added the widow, raising the chronometer to
+her ear, "though it is so very wrong. Well, set it, Mr. Mulford;
+then we will set Rose's, which I'll engage is half an hour out of
+the way, though it can never be as wrong as yours."
+
+Mulford was a good deal embarrassed, but he gained courage by
+looking at Rose, who appeared to him to be quite as much mystified
+as her aunt. For once he hoped Rose was ignorant; for nothing would
+be so likely to diminish the feeling produced by the exposure of the
+aunt's mistake, as to include the niece in the same category.
+
+"My watch is a chronometer, you will recollect, Mrs. Budd," said the
+young man.
+
+"I know it; and they ought to keep the very best time--that I've
+always heard. My poor Mr. Budd had two, and they were as large as
+compasses, and sold for hundreds after his lamented decease."
+
+"They were ship's chronometers, but mine was made for the pocket. It
+is true, chronometers are intended to keep the most accurate time,
+and usually they do; this of mine, in particular, would not lose ten
+seconds in a twelvemonth, did I not carry it on my person."
+
+"No, no, it does not seem to lose any, Harry; it only gains," cried
+Rose, laughing.
+
+Mulford was now satisfied, notwithstanding all that had passed on a
+previous occasion, that the laughing, bright-eyed, and quick-witted
+girl at his elbow, knew no more of the uses of a chronometer than
+her unusually dull and ignorant aunt; and he felt himself relieved
+from all embarrassment at once. Though he dared not even seem to
+distrust Mrs. Budd's intellect or knowledge before Rose, he did not
+scruple to laugh at Rose herself, to Rose. With her there was no
+jealousy on the score of capacity, her quickness being almost as
+obvious to all who approached her as her beauty.
+
+"Rose Budd, you do not understand the uses of a chronometer, I see,"
+said the mate, firmly, "notwithstanding all I have told you
+concerning them."
+
+"It is to keep time, Harry Mulford, is it not?"
+
+"True, to keep time--but to keep the time of a particular meridian;
+you know what meridian means, I hope?"
+
+Rose looked intently at her lover, and she looked singularly lovely,
+for she blushed slightly, though her smile was as open and amicable
+as ingenuousness and affection could make it.
+
+"A meridian means a point over our heads--the spot where the sun is
+at noon," said Rose, doubtingly.
+
+"Quite right; but it also means longitude, in one sense. If you draw
+a line from one pole to the other, all the places it crosses are on
+the same meridian. As the sun first appears in the east, it follows
+that he rises sooner in places that are east, than in places that
+are further west. Thus it is, that at Greenwich, in England, where
+there is an observatory made for nautical purposes, the sun rises
+about five hours sooner than it does here. All this difference is
+subject to rules, and we know exactly how to measure it."
+
+"How can that be, Harry? You told me this but the other day, yet
+have I forgotten it."
+
+"Quite easily. As the earth turns round in just twenty-four hours,
+and its circumference is divided into three hundred and sixty equal
+parts, called degrees, we have only to divide 360 by 24, to know how
+many of these degrees are included in the difference produced by one
+hour of time. There are just fifteen of them, as you will find by
+multiplying 24 by 15. It follows that the sun rises just one hour
+later, each fifteen degrees of longitude, as you go west, or one
+hour earlier each fifteen degrees of longitude as you go east.
+Having ascertained the difference by the hour, it is easy enough to
+calculate for the minutes and seconds."
+
+"Yes, yes," said Rose, eagerly, "I see all that--go on."
+
+"Now a chronometer is nothing but a watch, made with great care, so
+as not to lose or gain more than a few seconds in a twelvemonth. Its
+whole merit is in keeping time accurately."
+
+"Still I do not see how that can be anything more than a very good
+watch."
+
+"You will see in a minute, Rose. For purposes that you will
+presently understand, books are calculated for certain meridians, or
+longitudes, as at Greenwich and Paris, and those who use the books
+calculated for Greenwich, get their chronometers set at Greenwich,
+and those who use the Paris, get their chronometers set to Paris
+time. When I was last in England, I took this watch to Greenwich,
+and had it set at the Observatory by the true solar time. Ever since
+it has been running by that time, and what you see here is the true
+Greenwich time, after allowing for a second or two that it may have
+lost or gained."
+
+"All that is plain enough," said the much interested Rose--"but of
+what use is it all?"
+
+"To help mariners to find their longitude at sea, and thus know
+where they are. As the sun passes so far north, and so far south of
+the equator each year, it is easy enough to find the latitude, by
+observing his position at noon-day; but for a long time seamen had
+great difficulty in ascertaining their longitudes. That, too, is
+done by observing the different heavenly bodies, and with greater
+accuracy than by any other process; but this thought of measuring
+the time is very simple, and so easily put in practice, that we all
+run by it now."
+
+"Still I cannot understand it," said Rose, looking so intently, so
+eagerly, and so intelligently into the handsome mate's eyes, that he
+found it was pleasant to teach her other things besides how to love.
+
+"I will explain it. Having the Greenwich time in the watch, we
+observe the sun, in order to ascertain the true time, wherever we
+may happen to be. It is a simple thing to ascertain the true time of
+day by an observation of the sun, which marks the hours in his
+track; and when we get our observation, we have some one to note the
+time at a particular instant on the chronometer. By noting the hour,
+minutes, and seconds, at Greenwich, at the very instant we observe
+here, when we have calculated from that observation the time here,
+we have only to add, or subtract, the time here from that of
+Greenwich, to know precisely how far east or west we are from
+Greenwich, which gives us our longitude."
+
+"I begin to comprehend it again," exclaimed Rose, delighted at the
+acquisition in knowledge she had just made. "How beautiful it is,
+yet how simple--but why do I forget it?"
+
+"Perfectly simple, and perfectly sure, too, when the chronometer is
+accurate, and the observations are nicely made. It is seldom we are
+more than eight or ten miles out of the way, and for them we keep a
+look-out. It is only to ascertain the time where you are, by means
+that are easily used, then look at your watch to learn the time of
+day at Greenwich, or any other meridian you may have selected, and
+to calculate your distance, east or west, from that meridian, by the
+difference in the two times."
+
+Rose could have listened all night, for her quick mind readily
+comprehended the principle which lies at the bottom of this useful
+process, though still ignorant of some of the details. This time she
+was determined to secure her acquisition, though it is quite
+probable that, woman-like, they were once more lost, almost as
+easily as made. Mulford, however, was obliged to leave her, to look
+at the vessel, before he stretched himself on the deck, in an old
+sail; it having been previously determined that he should sleep
+first, while the wind was light, and that Jack Tier, assisted by the
+females, should keep the first watch. Rose would not detain the
+mate, therefore, but let him go his way, in order to see that all
+was right before he took his rest.
+
+Mrs. Budd had listened to Mulford's second explanation of the common
+mode of ascertaining the longitude, with all the attention of which
+she was capable; but it far exceeded the powers of her mind to
+comprehend it. There are persons who accustom themselves to think so
+superficially, that it becomes a painful process to attempt to dive
+into any of the arcana of nature, and who ever turn from such
+investigations wearied and disgusted. Many of these persons, perhaps
+most of them, need only a little patience and perseverance to
+comprehend all the more familiar phenomena, but they cannot command
+even that much of the two qualities named to obtain the knowledge
+they would fain wish to possess. Mrs. Budd did not belong to a
+division as high in the intellectual scale as even this vapid class.
+Her intellect was unequal to embracing anything of an abstracted
+character, and only received the most obvious impressions, and those
+quite half the time it received wrong. The mate's reasoning,
+therefore, was not only inexplicable to her, but it sounded absurd
+and impossible.
+
+"Rosy, dear," said the worthy relict, as soon as she saw Mulford
+stretch his fine frame on his bed of canvas, speaking at the same
+time in a low, confidential tone to her niece, "what was it that
+Harry was telling you a little while ago? It sounded to me like rank
+nonsense; and men will talk nonsense to young girls, as I have so
+often warned you, child. You must never listen to their nonsense,
+Rosy; but remember your catechism and confirmation vow, and be a
+good girl."
+
+To how many of the feeble-minded and erring do those offices of the
+church prove a stay and support, when their own ordinary powers of
+resistance would fail them! Rose, however, viewed the matter just as
+it was, and answered accordingly.
+
+"But this was nothing of that nature, aunty," she said, "and only an
+account of the mode of finding out where a ship is, when out of
+sight of land, in the middle of the ocean. We had the same subject
+up the other day."
+
+"And how did Harry tell you, this time, that was done, my dear?"
+
+"By finding the difference in the time of day between two
+places--just as he did before."
+
+"But there is no difference in the time of day, child, when the
+clocks go well."
+
+"Yes, there is, aunty dear, as the sun rises in one place before it
+does in another."
+
+"Rose you've been listening to nonsense now! Remember what I have so
+often told you about young men, and their way of talking. I admit
+Harry Mulford is a respectable youth, and has respectable
+connections, and since you like one another, you may have him, with
+all my heart, as soon as he gets a full-jiggered ship, for I am
+resolved no niece of my poor dear husband's shall ever marry a mate,
+or a captain even, unless he has a full-jiggered ship under his
+feet. But do not talk nonsense with him. Nonsense is nonsense,
+though a sensible man talks it. As for all this stuff about the time
+of day, you can see it is nonsense, as the sun rises but once in
+twenty-four hours, and of course there cannot be two times, as you
+call it."
+
+"But, aunty dear, it is not always noon at London when it is noon at
+New York."
+
+"Fiddle-faddle, child; noon is noon, and there are no more two noons
+than two suns, or two times. Distrust what young men tell you, Rosy,
+if you would be safe, though they should tell you you are handsome."
+
+Poor Rose sighed, and gave up the explanation in despair. Then a
+smile played around her pretty mouth. It was not at her aunt that
+she smiled; this she never permitted herself to do, weak as was that
+person, and weak as she saw her to be; she smiled at the
+recollection how often Mulford had hinted at her good looks--for
+Rose was a female, and had her own weaknesses, as well as another.
+But the necessity of acting soon drove these thoughts from her mind,
+and Rose sought Jack Tier, to confer with him on the subject of
+their new duties.
+
+As for Harry Mulford, his head was no sooner laid on its bunch of
+sail than he fell into a profound sleep. There he lay, slumbering as
+the seaman slumbers, with no sense of surrounding things. The
+immense fatigues of that and of the two preceding days,--for he had
+toiled at the pumps even long after night had come, until the vessel
+was clear,--weighed him down, and nature was now claiming her
+influence, and taking a respite from exertion. Had he been left to
+himself, it is probable the mate would not have arisen until the sun
+had reappeared some hours.
+
+It is now necessary to explain more minutely the precise condition,
+as well as the situation of the schooner. On quitting his port,
+Mulford had made a stretch of some two leagues in length, toward the
+northward and eastward, when he tacked and stood to the southward.
+There was enough of southing in the wind, to make his last course
+nearly due south. As he neared the reef, he found that he fell in
+some miles to the eastward of the islets,--proof that he was doing
+very well, and that there was no current to do him any material
+harm, if, indeed, there were not actually a current in his favour.
+He next tacked to the northward again, and stood in that direction
+until near night, when he once more went about. The wind was now so
+light that he saw little prospect of getting in with the reef again,
+until the return of day; but as he had left orders with Jack Tier to
+be called at twelve o'clock, at all events, this gave him no
+uneasiness. At the time when the mate lay down to take his rest,
+therefore, the schooner was quite five-and-twenty miles to windward
+of the Dry Tortugas, and some twenty miles to the northward of the
+Florida Reef, with the wind quite light at east-south-east. Such,
+then, was the position or situation of the schooner.
+
+As respects her condition, it is easily described. She had but the
+three sails bent,--mainsail, foresail, and jib. Her topmasts had
+been struck, and all the hamper that belonged to them was below. The
+mainsail was single reefed, and the foresail and jib were without
+their bonnets, as has already been mentioned. This was somewhat
+short canvas, but Mulford knew that it would render his craft more
+manageable in the event of a blow. Usually, at that season and in
+that region, the east trades prevailed with great steadiness,
+sometimes diverging a little south of east, as at present, and
+generally blowing fresh. But, for a short time previously to, and
+ever since the tornado, the wind had been unsettled, the old
+currents appearing to regain their ascendancy by fits, and then
+losing it, in squalls, contrary currents, and even by short calms.
+
+The conference between Jack Tier and Rose was frank and
+confidential.
+
+"We must depend mainly on you," said the latter, turning to look
+toward the spot where Mulford lay, buried in the deepest sleep that
+had ever gained power over him. "Harry is so fatigued! It would be
+shameful to awaken him a moment sooner than is necessary."
+
+"Ay, ay; so it is always with young women, when they lets a young
+man gain their ears," answered Jack, without the least
+circumlocution; "so it is, and so it always will be, I'm afeard.
+Nevertheless, men is willians."
+
+Rose was not affronted at this plain allusion to the power that
+Mulford had obtained over her feelings. It would seem that Jack had
+got to be so intimate in the cabins, that his sex was, in a measure,
+forgotten; and it is certain that his recent services were not.
+Without a question, but for his interference, the pretty Rose Budd
+would, at that moment, have been the prisoner of Spike, and most
+probably the victim of his design to compel her to marry him.
+
+"All men are not Stephen Spikes," said Rose, earnestly, "and least
+of all is Harry Mulford to be reckoned as one of his sort. But, we
+must manage to take care of the schooner the whole night, and let
+Harry get his rest. He wished to be called at twelve, but we can
+easily let the hour go by, and not awaken him."
+
+"The commanding officer ought not to be sarved so, Miss Rose. What
+he says is to be done."
+
+"I know it, Jack, as to ordinary matters; but Harry left these
+orders that we might have our share of rest, and for no other reason
+at all. And what is to prevent our having it? We are four, and can
+divide ourselves into two watches; one watch can sleep while the
+other keeps a look-out."
+
+"Ay, ay, and pretty watches they would be! There's Madam Budd, now;
+why, she's quite a navigator, and knows all about weerin' and
+haulin', and I dares to say could put the schooner about, to keep
+her off the reef, on a pinch; though which way the craft would come
+round, could best be told a'ter it has been done. It's as much as
+I'd undertake myself, Miss Rose, to take care of the schooner,
+should it come on to blow; and as for you, Madam Budd, and that
+squalling Irishwoman, you'd be no better than so many housewives
+ashore."
+
+"We have strength, and we have courage, and we can pull, as you have
+seen. I know very well which way to put the helm now, and Biddy is
+as strong as you are yourself, and could help me all I wished. Then
+we could always call you, at need, and have your assistance. Nay,
+Harry himself can be called, if there should be a real necessity for
+it, and I do wish he may not be disturbed until there is that
+necessity."
+
+It was with a good deal of reluctance that Jack allowed himself to
+be persuaded into this scheme. He insisted, for a long time, that an
+officer should be called at the hour mentioned by himself, and
+declared he had never known such an order neglected, "marchant-man,
+privateer, or man-of-war." Rose prevailed over his scruples,
+however, and there was a meeting of the three females to make the
+final arrangements. Mrs. Budd, a kind-hearted woman, at the worst,
+gave her assent most cheerfully, though Rose was a little startled
+with the nature of the reasoning, with which it was accompanied.
+
+"You are quite right, Rosy dear," said the aunt, "and the thing is
+very easily done. I've long wanted to keep one watch, at sea; just
+one watch; to complete my maritime education. Your poor uncle used
+to say, `Give my wife but one night-watch, and you'd have as good a
+seaman in her as heart could wish.' I'm sure I've had night-watches
+enough with him and his ailings; but it seems that they were not the
+sort of watches he meant. Indeed, I did n't know till this evening
+there were so many watches in the world, at all. But this is just
+what I want, and just what I'm resolved to have. Tier shall command
+one watch and I'll command the other. Jack's shall be the
+`dog-watch,' as they call it, and mine shall be the `middle-watch,'
+and last till morning. You shall be in Jack's watch, Rose, and Biddy
+shall be in mine. You know a good deal that Jack do n't know, and
+Biddy can do a good deal I'm rather too stout to do. I do n't like
+pulling ropes, but as for ordering, I'll turn my back on no
+captain's widow out of York."
+
+Rose had her own misgivings on the subject of her aunt's issuing
+orders on such a subject to any one, but she made the best of
+necessity, and completed the arrangements without further
+discussion. Her great anxiety was to secure a good night's rest for
+Harry, already feeling a woman's care in the comfort and ease of the
+man she loved. And Rose did love Harry Mulford warmly and sincerely.
+If the very decided preference with which she regarded him before
+they sailed, had not absolutely amounted to passion, it had come so
+very near it as to render that access of feeling certain, under the
+influence of the association and events which succeeded. We have not
+thought it necessary to relate a tithe of the interviews and
+intercourse that had taken place between the handsome mate and the
+pretty Rose Budd, during the month they had now been shipmates,
+having left the reader to imagine the natural course of things,
+under such circumstances. Nevertheless, the plighted troth had not
+been actually given until Harry joined her on the islet, at a moment
+when she fancied herself abandoned to a fate almost as serious as
+death. Rose had seen Mulford quit the brig, had watched the mode and
+manner of his escape, and in almost breathless amazement, and felt
+how dear to her he had become, by the glow of delight which warmed
+her heart, when assured that he could not, would not, forsake her,
+even though he remained at the risk of life. She was now, true to
+the instinct of her sex, mostly occupied in making such a return for
+an attachment so devoted as became her tenderness and the habits of
+her mind.
+
+As Mrs. Budd chose what she was pleased to term the `middle-watch,'
+giving to Jack Tier and Rose her `dog-watch,' the two last were
+first on duty. It is scarcely necessary to say, the captain's widow
+got the names of the watches all wrong, as she got the names of
+everything else about a vessel; but the plan was to divide the night
+equally between these quasi mariners, giving the first half to those
+who were first on the look-out, and the remainder to their
+successors. It soon became so calm, that Jack left the helm, and
+came and sat by Rose, on the trunk, where they conversed
+confidentially for a long time. Although the reader will, hereafter,
+be enabled to form some plausible conjectures on the subject of this
+dialogue, we shall give him no part of it here. All that need now be
+said, is to add, that Jack did most of the talking, that his past
+life was the principal theme, and that the terrible Stephen Spike,
+he from whom they were now so desirous of escaping, was largely
+mixed up with the adventures recounted. Jack found in his companion
+a deeply interested listener, although this was by no means the
+first time they had gone over together the same story and discussed
+the same events. The conversation lasted until Tier, who watched the
+glass, seeing that its sands had run out for the last time,
+announced the hour of midnight. This was the moment when Mulford
+should have been called, but when Mrs. Budd and Biddy Noon were
+actually awakened in his stead.
+
+"Now, dear aunty," said Rose, as she parted from the new watch to go
+and catch a little sleep herself, "remember you are not to awaken
+Harry first, but to call Tier and myself. It would have done your
+heart good to have seen how sweetly he has been sleeping all this
+time. I do not think he has stirred once since his head was laid on
+that bunch of sails, and there he is, at this moment, sleeping like
+an infant!"
+
+"Yes," returned the relict, "it is always so with your true maritime
+people. I have been sleeping a great deal more soundly, the whole of
+the dog-watch, than I ever slept at home, in my own excellent bed.
+But it's your watch below, Rosy, and contrary to rule for you to
+stay on the deck, after you've been relieved. I've heard this a
+thousand times."
+
+Rose was not sorry to lie down; and her head was scarcely on its
+pillow, in the cabin, before she was fast asleep. As for Jack, he
+found a place among Mulford's sails, and was quickly in the same
+state.
+
+To own the truth, Mrs. Budd was not quite as much at ease, in her
+new station, for the first half hour, as she had fancied to herself
+might prove to be the case. It was a flat calm, it is true; but the
+widow felt oppressed with responsibility and the novelty of her
+situation. Time and again had she said, and even imagined, she
+should be delighted to fill the very station she then occupied, or
+to be in charge of a deck, in a "middle watch." In this instance,
+however, as in so many others, reality did not equal anticipation.
+She wished to be doing everything, but did not know how to do
+anything. As for Biddy, she was even worse off than her mistress. A
+month's experience, or for that matter a twelvemonth's, could not
+unravel to her the mysteries of even a schooner's rigging. Mrs. Budd
+had placed her "at the wheel," as she called it, though the vessel
+had no wheel, being steered by a tiller on deck, in the 'long-shore
+fashion. In stationing Biddy, the widow told her that she was to
+play "tricks at the wheel," leaving it to the astounded Irish
+woman's imagination to discover what those tricks were. Failing in
+ascertaining what might be the nature of her "tricks at the wheel,"
+Biddy was content to do nothing, and nothing, under the
+circumstances, was perhaps the very best thing she could have done.
+
+Little was required to be done for the first four hours of Mrs.
+Budd's watch. All that time, Rose slept in her berth, and Mulford
+and Jack Tier on their sail, while Biddy had played the wheel a
+"trick," indeed, by lying down on deck, and sleeping, too, as
+soundly as if she were in the county Down itself. But there was to
+be an end of this tranquillity. Suddenly the wind began to blow. At
+first, the breeze came in fitful puffs, which were neither very
+strong nor very lasting. This induced Mrs. Budd to awaken Biddy.
+Luckily, a schooner without a topsail could not very well be taken
+aback, especially as the head-sheets worked on travellers, and Mrs.
+Budd and her assistant contrived to manage the tiller very well for
+the first hour that these varying puffs of wind lasted. It is true,
+the tiller was lashed, and it is also true, the schooner ran in all
+directions, having actually headed to all the cardinal points of the
+compass, under her present management. At length, Mrs. Budd became
+alarmed. A puff of wind came so strong, as to cause the vessel to
+lie over so far as to bring the water into the lee scuppers. She
+called Jack Tier herself, therefore, and sent Biddy down to awaken
+Rose. In a minute, both these auxiliaries appeared on deck. The wind
+just then lulled, and Rose, supposing her aunt was frightened at
+trifles, insisted on it that Harry should be permitted to sleep on.
+He had turned over once, in the course of the night, but not once
+had he raised his head from his pillow.
+
+As soon as reinforced, Mrs. Budd began to bustle about, and to give
+commands, such as they were, in order to prove that she was
+unterrified. Jack Tier gaped at her elbow, and by way of something
+to do, he laid his hand on the painter of the Swash's boat, which
+boat was towing astern, and remarked that "some know-nothing had
+belayed it with three half-hitches." This was enough for the relict.
+She had often heard the saying that "three half-hitches lost the
+king's long-boat," and she busied herself, at once, in repairing so
+imminent an evil. It was far easier for the good woman to talk than
+to act; she became what is called "all fingers and thumbs," and in
+loosening the third half-hitch, she cast off the two others. At that
+instant, a puff of wind struck the schooner again, and the end of
+the painter got away from the widow, who had a last glimpse at the
+boat, as the vessel darted ahead, leaving its little tender to
+vanish in the gloom of the night.
+
+Jack was excessively provoked at this accident, for he had foreseen
+the possibility of having recourse to that boat yet, in order to
+escape from Spike. By abandoning the schooner, and pulling on to the
+reef, it might have been possible to get out of their pursuer's
+hands, when all other means should fail them. As he was at the
+tiller, he put his helm up, and ran off, until far enough to leeward
+to be to the westward of the boat, when he might tack, fetch and
+recover it. Nevertheless, it now blew much harder than he liked, for
+the schooner seemed to be unusually tender. Had he had the force to
+do it, he would have brailed the foresail. He desired Rose to call
+Mulford, but she hesitated about complying.
+
+"Call him--call the mate, I say," cried out Jack, in a voice that
+proved how much he was in earnest. "These puffs come heavy, I can
+tell you, and they come often, too. Call him--call him, at once,
+Miss Rose, for it is time to tack if we wish to recover the boat.
+Tell him, too, to brail the foresail, while we are in stays--that's
+right; another call will start him up."
+
+The other call was given, aided by a gentle shake from Rose's hand.
+Harry was on his feet in a moment. A passing instant was necessary
+to clear his faculties, and to recover the tenor of his thoughts.
+During that instant, the mate heard Jack Tier's shrill cry of "Hard
+a-lee--get in that foresail--bear a-hand--in with it, I say!"
+
+The wind came rushing and roaring, and the flaps of the canvas were
+violent and heavy.
+
+"In with the foresail, I say," shouted Jack Tier. "She files round
+like a top, and will be off the wind on the other tack presently.
+Bear a-hand!--bear a-hand! It looks black as night to windward."
+
+Mulford then regained all his powers. He sprang to the fore-sheet,
+calling on the others for aid. The violent surges produced by the
+wind prevented his grasping the sheet as soon as he could wish, and
+the vessel whirled round on her heel, like a steed that is
+frightened. At that critical and dangerous instant, when the
+schooner was nearly without motion through the water, a squall
+struck the flattened sails, and bowed her down as the willow bends
+to the gale. Mrs. Budd and Biddy screamed as usual, and Jack shouted
+until his voice seemed cracked, to "let go the head-sheets." Mulford
+did make one leap forward, to execute this necessary office, when
+the inclining plane of the deck told him it was too late. The wind
+fairly howled for a minute, and over went the schooner, the remains
+of her cargo shifting as she capsized, in a way to bring her very
+nearly bottom upward.
+
+1. We suppress the names used by Mrs. Budd, out of delicacy to the
+individuals mentioned, who are still living.
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  Ay, fare you well, fair gentleman.
+
+As You Like it.
+
+While the tyro believes the vessel is about to capsize at every puff
+of wind, the practised seaman alone knows when danger truly besets
+him in this particular form. Thus it was with Harry Mulford, when
+the Mexican schooner went over, as related in the close of the
+preceding chapter. He felt no alarm until the danger actually came.
+Then, indeed, no one there was so quickly, or so thoroughly apprized
+of what the result would be, and he directed all his exertions to
+meet the exigency. While there was the smallest hope of success, he
+did not lessen, in the least, his endeavours to save the vessel;
+making almost superhuman efforts to cast off the fore-sheet, so as
+to relieve the schooner from the pressure of one of her sails. But,
+no sooner did he hear the barrels in the hold surging to leeward,
+and feel by the inclination of the deck beneath his feet, that
+nothing could save the craft, than he abandoned the sheet, and
+sprang to the assistance of Rose. It was time he did; for, having
+followed him into the vessel's lee-waist, she was the first to be
+submerged in the sea, and would have been hopelessly drowned, but
+for Mulford's timely succour. Women might swim more readily than
+men, and do so swim, in those portions of the world where the laws
+of nature are not counteracted by human conventions. Rose Budd,
+however, had received the vicious education which civilized society
+inflicts on her sex, and, as a matter of course, was totally
+helpless in an element in which it was the design of Divine
+Providence she should possess the common means of sustaining
+herself, like every other being endued with animal life. Not so with
+Mulford: he swam with ease and force, and had no difficulty in
+sustaining Rose until the schooner had settled into her new berth,
+or in hauling her on the vessel's bottom immediately after.
+
+Luckily, there was no swell, or so little as not to endanger those
+who were on the schooner's bilge; and Mulford had no sooner placed
+her in momentary safety at least, whom he prized far higher than his
+own life, than he bethought him of his other companions. Jack Tier
+had hauled himself up to windward by the rope that steadied the
+tiller, and he had called on Mrs. Budd to imitate his example. It
+was so natural for even a woman to grasp anything like a rope at
+such a moment, that the widow instinctively obeyed, while Biddy
+seized, at random, the first thing of the sort that offered. Owing
+to these fortunate chances, Jack and Mrs. Budd succeeded in reaching
+the quarter of the schooner, the former actually getting up on the
+bottom of the wreck, on to which he was enabled to float the widow,
+who was almost as buoyant as cork, as indeed was the case with Jack
+himself. All the stern and bows of the vessel were under water, in
+consequence of her leanness forward and aft; but though submerged,
+she offered a precarious footing, even in these extremities, to such
+as could reach them. On the other hand, the place where Rose stood,
+or the bilge of the vessel, was two or three feet above the surface
+of the sea, though slippery and inclining in shape.
+
+It was not half a minute from the time that Mulford sprang to Rose's
+succour, ere he had her on the vessel's bottom. In another half
+minute, he had waded down on the schooner's counter, where Jack Tier
+was lustily calling to him for "help!" and assisted the widow to her
+feet, and supported her until she stood at Rose's side. Leaving the
+last in her aunt's arms, half distracted between dread and joy, he
+turned to the assistance of Biddy. The rope at which the Irish woman
+had caught, was a straggling end that had been made fast to the main
+channels of the schooner, for the support of a fender, and had been
+hauled partly in-board to keep it out of the water. Biddy had found
+no difficulty in dragging herself up to the chains, therefore; and
+had she been content to sustain herself by the rope, leaving as much
+of her body submerged as comported with breathing, her task would
+have been easy. But, like most persons who do not know how to swim,
+the good woman was fast exhausting her strength, by vain efforts to
+walk on the surface of an element that was never made to sustain
+her. Unpractised persons, in such situations, cannot be taught to
+believe that their greatest safety is in leaving as much of their
+bodies as possible beneath the water, keeping the mouth and nose
+alone free for breath. But we have seen even instances in which men,
+who were in danger of drowning, seemed to believe it might be
+possible for them to craw! over the waves on their hands and knees.
+The philosophy of the contrary course is so very simple, that one
+would fancy a very child might be made to comprehend it; yet, it is
+rare to find one unaccustomed to the water, and who is suddenly
+exposed to its dangers, that does not resort, under the pressure of
+present alarm, to the very reverse of the true means to save his or
+her life.
+
+Mulford had no difficulty in finding Bridget, whose exclamations of
+"murther!" "help!" "he-l-lup!" "Jasus!" and other similar cries, led
+him directly to the spot, where she was fast drowning herself by her
+own senseless struggles. Seizing her by the arm, the active young
+mate soon placed her on her feet, though her cries did not cease
+until she was ordered by her mistress to keep silence.
+
+Having thus rescued the whole of his companions from immediate
+danger, Mulford began to think of the future. He was seized with
+sudden surprise that the vessel did not sink, and for a minute he
+was unable to account for the unusual fact. On the former occasion,
+the schooner had gone down almost as soon as she fell over; but now
+she floated with so much buoyancy as to leave most of her keel and
+all of her bilge on one side quite clear of the water. As one of the
+main hatches was off, and the cabin-doors, and booby-hatch doors
+forward were open, and all were under water, it required a little
+reflection on the part of Mulford to understand on what circumstance
+all their lives now depended. The mate soon ascertained the truth,
+however, and we may as well explain it to the reader in our own
+fashion, in order to put him on a level with the young seaman.
+
+The puff of wind, or little squall, had struck the schooner at the
+most unfavourable moment for her safety. She had just lost her way
+in tacking, and the hull not moving ahead, as happens when a craft
+is thus assailed with the motion on her, all the power of the wind
+was expended in the direction necessary to capsize her. Another
+disadvantage arose from the want of motion. The rudder, which acts
+solely by pressing against the water as the vessel meets it, was
+useless, and it was not possible to luff, and throw the wind from
+the sails, as is usually practised by fore-and-aft rigged craft, in
+moments of such peril. In consequence of these united difficulties,
+the shifting of the cargo in the hold, the tenderness of the craft
+itself, and the force of the squall, the schooner had gone so far
+over as to carry all three of the openings to her interior suddenly
+under water, where they remained, held by the pressure of the cargo
+that had rolled to leeward. Had not the water completely covered
+these openings, or hatches, the schooner must have sunk in a minute
+or two, or by the time Mulford had got all his companions safe on
+her bilge. But they were completely submerged, and so continued to
+be, which circumstance alone prevented the vessel from sinking, as
+the following simple explanation will show.
+
+Any person who will put an empty tumbler, bottom upwards, into a
+bucket of water, will find that the water will not rise within the
+tumbler more than an inch at most. At that point it is arrested by
+the resistance of the air, which, unable to escape, and compressed
+into a narrow compass, forms a body that the other fluid cannot
+penetrate. It is on this simple and familiar principle, that the
+chemist keeps his gases, in inverted glasses, placing them on
+shelves, slightly submerged in water. Thus it was, then, that the
+schooner continued to float, though nearly bottom upward, and with
+three inlets open, by which the water could and did penetrate. A
+considerable quantity of the element had rushed in at the instant of
+capsizing, but meeting with resistance from the compressed and pent
+air, its progress had been arrested, and the wreck continued to
+float, sustained by the buoyancy that was imparted to it, in
+containing so large a body of a substance no heavier than
+atmospheric air. After displacing its weight of water, enough of
+buoyancy remained to raise the keel a few feet above the level of
+the sea.
+
+As soon as Mulford had ascertained the facts of their situation, he
+communicated them to his companions, encouraging them to hope for
+eventual safety. It was true, their situation was nearly desperate,
+admitting that the wreck should continue to float for ever, since
+they were almost without food, or anything to drink, and had no
+means of urging the hull through the water. They must float, too, at
+the mercy of the winds and waves, and should a sea get up, it might
+soon be impossible for Mulford himself to maintain his footing on
+the bottom of the wreck. All this the young man had dimly shadowed
+forth to him, through his professional experience; but the certainty
+of the vessel's not sinking immediately had so far revived his
+spirits, as to cause him to look on the bright side of the future,
+pale as that glimmering of hope was made to appear whenever reason
+cast one of its severe glances athwart it.
+
+Harry had no difficulty in making Rose comprehend their precise
+situation. Her active and clear mind understood at once the causes
+of their present preservation, and most of the hazards of the
+future. It was not so with Jack Tier. He was composed, even
+resigned; but he could not see the reason why the schooner still
+floated.
+
+"I know that the cabin-doors were open," he said, "and if they
+wasn't, of no great matter would it be, since the joints ar'n't
+caulked, and the water would run through them as through a sieve.
+I'm afeard, Mr. Mulford, we shall find the wreck going from under
+our feet afore long, and when we least wish it, perhaps."
+
+"I tell you the wreck will float so long as the air remains in its
+hold," returned the mate, cheerfully. "Do you not see how buoyant it
+is?--the certain proof that there is plenty of air within. So long
+as that remains, the hull must float."
+
+"I've always understood," said Jack, sticking to his opinion, "that
+wessels floats by vartue of water, and not by vartue of air; and,
+that when the water gets on the wrong side on 'em, there's little
+hope left of keepin' 'em up."
+
+"What has become of the boat?" suddenly cried the mate. "I have been
+so much occupied as to have forgotten the boat. In that boat we
+might all of us still reach Key West. I see nothing of the boat!"
+
+A profound silence succeeded this sudden and unexpected question.
+All knew that the boat was gone, and all knew that it had been lost
+by the widow's pertinacity and clumsiness; but no one felt disposed
+to betray her at that grave moment. Mulford left the bilge, and
+waded as far aft as it was at all prudent for him to proceed, in the
+vain hope that the boat might be there, fastened by its painter to
+the schooner's tafferel, as he had left it, but concealed from view
+by the darkness of the night. Not finding what he was after, he
+returned to his companions, still uttering exclamations of surprise
+at the unaccountable loss of the boat. Rose now told him that the
+boat had got adrift some ten or fifteen minutes before the accident
+befell them, and that they were actually endeavouring to recover it
+when the squall which capsized the schooner struck them.
+
+"And why did you not call me, Rose?" asked Harry, with a little of
+gentle reproach in his manner. "It must have soon been my watch on
+deck, and it would have been better that I should lose half an hour
+of my watch below, than that we should lose the boat."
+
+Rose was now obliged to confess that the time for calling him had
+long been past, and that the faint streak of light, which was just
+appearing in the east, was the near approach of day. This
+explanation was made gently, but frankly; and Mulford experienced a
+glow of pleasure at his heart, even in that moment of jeopardy, when
+he understood Rose's motive for not having him disturbed. As the
+boat was gone, with little or no prospect of its being recovered
+again, no more was said about it; and the window, who had stood on
+thorns the while, had the relief of believing that her awkwardness
+was forgotten.
+
+It was such a relief from an imminent danger to have escaped from
+drowning when the schooner capsized, that those on her bottom did
+not, for some little time, realize all the terrors of their actual
+situation. The inconvenience of being wet was a trifle not to be
+thought of, and, in fact, the light summer dresses worn by all,
+linen or cotton as they were entirely, were soon effectually dried
+in the wind. The keel made a tolerably convenient seat, and the
+whole party placed themselves on it to await the return of day, in
+order to obtain a view of all that their situation offered in the
+way of a prospect. While thus awaiting, a broken and short dialogue
+occurred.
+
+"Had you stood to the northward the whole night?" asked Mulford,
+gloomily, of Jack Tier; for gloomily he began to feel, as all the
+facts of their case began to press more closely on his mind. "If so,
+we must be well off the reef, and out of the track of wreckers and
+turtlers. How had you the wind, and how did you head before the
+accident happened?"
+
+"The wind was light the whole time, and for some hours it was nearly
+calm," answered Jack, in the same vein; "I kept the schooner's head
+to the nor'ard, until I thought we were getting too far off our
+course, and then I put her about. I do not think we could have been
+any great distance from the reef, when the boat got away from us,
+and I suppose we are in its neighbourhood now, for I was tacking to
+fall in with the boat when the craft went over."
+
+"To fall in with the boat! Did you keep off to leeward of it, then,
+that you expected to fetch it by tacking?"
+
+"Ay, a good bit; and I think the boat is now away here to windward
+of us, drifting athwart our bows."
+
+This was important news to Mulford. Could he only get that boat, the
+chances of being saved would be increased a hundred fold, nay, would
+almost amount to a certainty; whereas, so long as the wind held to
+the southward and eastward, the drift of the wreck must be toward
+the open water, and consequently so much the further removed from
+the means of succor. The general direction of the trades, in that
+quarter of the world, is east, and should they get round into their
+old and proper quarter, it would not benefit them much; for the reef
+running south-west, they could scarcely hope to hit the Dry Tortugas
+again, in their drift, were life even spared them sufficiently long
+to float the distance. Then there might be currents, about which
+Mulford knew nothing with certainty; they might set them in any
+direction; and did they exist, as was almost sure to be the case,
+were much more powerful than the wind in controlling the movements
+of a wreck.
+
+The mate strained his eyes in the direction pointed out by Jack
+Tier, in the hope of discovering the boat through the haze of the
+morning, and he actually did discern something that, it appeared to
+him, might be the much desired little craft. If he were right, there
+was every reason to think the boat would drift down so near them as
+to enable him to recover it by swimming. This cheering intelligence
+was communicated to his companions, who received it with gratitude
+and delight. But the approach of day gradually dispelled that hope,
+the object which Mulford had mistaken for the boat, within two
+hundred yards of the wreck, turning out to be a small, low, but bare
+hummock of the reef, at a distance of more than two miles.
+
+"That is a proof that we are not far from the reef, at least," cried
+Mulford, willing to encourage those around him all he could, and
+really much relieved at finding himself so near even this isolated
+fragment of terra firma. "This fact is the next encouraging thing to
+finding ourselves near the boat, or to falling in with a sail."
+
+"Ay, ay," said Jack, gloomily; "boat or no boat, 't will make no
+great matter of difference now. There's customers that'll be sartain
+to take all the grists you can send to their mill."
+
+"What things are those glancing about the vessel?" cried Rose,
+almost in the same breath; "those dark, sharp-looking sticks--see,
+there are five or six of them! and they move as if fastened to
+something under the water that pulls them about."
+
+"Them's the customers I mean, Miss Rose," answered Jack, in the same
+strain as that in which he had first spoken; "they're the same thing
+at sea as lawyers be ashore, and seem made to live on other folks.
+Them's sharks."
+
+"And yonder is truly the boat!" added Mulford, with a sigh that
+almost amounted to a groan. The light had, by this time, so far
+returned as to enable the party not only to see the fins of half a
+dozen sharks, which were already prowling about the wreck, the
+almost necessary consequence of their proximity to a reef in that
+latitude, but actually to discern the boat drifting down toward
+them, at a distance that promised to carry it past, within the reach
+of Mulford's powers of swimming, though not as near as he could have
+wished, even under more favourable circumstances. Had their
+extremity been greater, or had Rose begun to suffer from hunger or
+thirst, Mulford might have attempted the experiment of endeavoring
+to regain the boat, though the chances of death by means of the
+sharks would be more than equal to those of escape; but still fresh,
+and not yet feeling even the heat of the sun of that low latitude,
+he was not quite goaded into such an act of desperation. All that
+remained for the party, therefore, was to sit on the keel of the
+wreck, and gaze with longing eyes at a little object floating past,
+which, once at their command, might so readily be made to save them
+from a fate that already began to appear terrible in the
+perspective. Near an hour was thus consumed, ere the boat was about
+half a mile to leeward; during which scarcely an eye was turned from
+it for one instant, or a word was spoken.
+
+"It is beyond my reach now," Mulford at length exclaimed, sighing
+heavily, like one who became conscious of some great and
+irretrievable loss. "Were there no sharks, I could hardly venture to
+attempt swimming so far, with the boat drifting from me at the same
+time."
+
+"I should never consent to let you make the trial, Harry," murmured
+Rose, "though it were only half as far."
+
+Another pause succeeded.
+
+"We have now the light of day," resumed the mate, a minute or two
+later, "and may see our true situation. No sail is in sight, and the
+wind stands steadily in its old quarter. Still I do not think we
+leave the reef. There, you may see breakers off here at the
+southward, and it seems as if more rocks rise above the sea, in that
+direction. I do not know that our situation would be any the better,
+however, were we actually on them, instead of being on this floating
+wreck."
+
+"The rocks will never sink," said Jack Tier, with so much emphasis
+as to startle the listeners.
+
+"I do not think this hull will sink until we are taken off it, or
+are beyond caring whether it sink or swim," returned Mulford.
+
+"I do not know that, Mr. Mulford. Nothing keeps us up but the air in
+the hold, you say."
+
+"Certainly not; but that air will suffice as long as it remains
+there."
+
+"And what do you call these things?" rejoined the assistant steward,
+pointing at the water near him, in or on which no one else saw
+anything worthy of attention.
+
+Mulford, however, was not satisfied with a cursory glance, but went
+nearer to the spot where Tier was standing. Then, indeed, he saw to
+what the steward alluded, and was impressed by it, though he said
+nothing. Hundreds of little bubbles rose to the surface of the
+water, much as one sees them rising in springs. These bubbles are
+often met with in lakes and other comparatively shallow waters, but
+they are rarely seen in those of the ocean. The mate understood, at
+a glance, that those he now beheld were produced by the air which
+escaped from the hold of the wreck; in small quantities at a time,
+it was true, but by a constant and increasing process. The great
+pressure of the water forced this air through crevices so minute
+that, under ordinary circumstances, they would have proved
+impenetrable to this, as they were still to the other fluid, though
+they now permitted the passage of the former. It might take a long
+time to force the air from the interior of the vessel by such means,
+but the result was as certain as it might be slow. As constant
+dropping will wear a stone, so might the power that kept the wreck
+afloat be exhausted by the ceaseless rising of these minute
+air-bubbles.
+
+Although Mulford was entirely sensible of the nature of this new
+source of danger, we cannot say he was much affected by it at the
+moment. It seemed to him far more probable that they must die of
+exhaustion, long before the wreck would lose all of its buoyancy by
+this slow process, than that even the strongest of their number
+could survive for such a period. The new danger, therefore, lost
+most of its terrors under this view of the subject, though it
+certainly did not add to the small sense of security that remained,
+to know that inevitably their fate must be sealed through its
+agency, should they be able to hold out for a sufficient time
+against hunger and thirst. It caused Mulford to muse in silence for
+many more minutes.
+
+"I hope we are not altogether without food," the mate at length
+said. "It sometimes happens that persons at sea carry pieces of
+biscuit in their pockets, especially those who keep watch at night.
+The smallest morsel is now of the last importance."
+
+At this suggestion, every one set about an examination. The result
+was, that neither Mrs. Budd nor Rose had a particle of food, of any
+sort, about their persons. Biddy produced from her pockets, however,
+a whole biscuit, a large bunch of excellent raisins that she had
+filched from the steward's stores, and two apples,--the last being
+the remains of some fruit that Spike had procured a month earlier in
+New York. Mulford had half a biscuit, at which he had been
+accustomed to nibble in his watches; and Jack lugged out, along with
+a small plug of tobacco, a couple of sweet oranges. Here, then, was
+everything in the shape of victuals or drink, that could be found
+for the use of five persons, in all probability for many days. The
+importance of securing it for equal distribution, was so obvious,
+that Mulford's proposal to do so met with a common assent. The whole
+was put in Mrs. Budd's bag, and she was intrusted with the keeping
+of this precious store.
+
+"It may be harder to abstain from food at first, when we have not
+suffered from its want, than it will become after a little
+endurance," said the mate. "We are now strong, and it will be wiser
+to fast as long as we conveniently can, to-day, and relieve our
+hunger by a moderate allowance toward evening, than to waste our
+means by too much indulgence at a time when we are strong. Weakness
+will be sure to come if we remain long on the wreck."
+
+"Have you ever suffered in this way, Harry?" demanded Rose, with
+interest.
+
+"I have, and that dreadfully. But a merciful Providence came to my
+rescue then, and it may not fail me now. The seaman is accustomed to
+carry his life in his hand, and to live on the edge of eternity."
+
+The truth of this was so apparent as to produce a thoughtful
+silence. Anxious glances were cast around the horizon from time to
+time, in quest of any sail that might come in sight, but uselessly.
+None appeared, and the day advanced without bringing the slightest
+prospect of relief. Mulford could see, by the now almost sunken
+hummocks, that they were slowly drifting along the reef, toward the
+southward and eastward, a current no doubt acting slightly from the
+north-west. Their proximity to the reef, however, was of no
+advantage, as the distance was still so great as to render any
+attempt to reach it, even on the part of the mate, unavailable. Nor
+would he have been any better off could he have gained a spot on the
+rocks that was shallow enough to admit of his walking, since wading
+about in such a place would have been less desirable than to be
+floating where he was.
+
+The want of water to drink threatened to be the great evil. Of this,
+the party on the wreck had not a single drop! As the warmth of the
+day was added to the feverish feeling produced by excitement, they
+all experienced thirst, though no one murmured. So utterly without
+means of relieving this necessity did each person know them all to
+be, that no one spoke on the subject at all. In fact, shipwreck
+never produced a more complete destitution of all the ordinary
+agents of helping themselves, in any form or manner, than was the
+case here. So sudden and complete had been the disaster, that not a
+single article, beyond those on the persons of the sufferers, came
+even in view. The masts, sails, rigging, spare spars, in a word,
+everything belonging to the vessel was submerged and hidden from
+their sight, with the exception of a portion of the vessel's bottom,
+which might be forty feet in length, and some ten or fifteen in
+width, including that which was above water on both sides of the
+keel, though one only of these sides was available to the females,
+as a place to move about on. Had Mulford only a boat-hook, he would
+have felt it a relief; for not only did the sharks increase in
+number, but they grew more audacious, swimming so near the wreck
+that, more than once, Mulford apprehended that some one of the
+boldest of them might make an effort literally to board them. It is
+true, he had never known of one of these fishes attempting to quit
+his own element in pursuit of his prey; but such things were
+reported, and those around the wreck swam so close, and seemed so
+eager to get at those who were on it, that there really might be
+some excuse for fancying they might resort to unusual means of
+effecting their object. It is probable that, like all other animals,
+they were emboldened by their own numbers, and were acting in a sort
+of concert, that was governed by some of the many mysterious laws of
+nature that have still escaped human observation.
+
+Thus passed the earlier hours of that appalling day. Toward noon,
+Mulford had insisted on the females dividing one of the oranges
+between them, and extracting its juice by way of assuaging their
+thirst. The effect was most grateful, as all admitted, and even Mrs.
+Budd urged Harry and Tier to take a portion of the remaining orange;
+but this both steadily refused. Mulford did consent to receive a
+small portion of one of the apples, more with a view of moistening
+his throat than to appease his hunger, though it had, in a slight
+degree, the latter effect also. As for Jack Tier, he declined even
+the morsel of apple, saying that tobacco answered his purpose, as
+indeed it temporarily might.
+
+It was near sunset, when the steward's assistant called Mulford
+aside, and whispered to him that he had something private to
+communicate. The mate bade him say on, as they were out of ear-shot
+of their companions.
+
+"I've been in sitiations like this afore," said Jack, "and one
+l'arns exper'ence by exper'ence. I know how cruel it is on the
+feelin's to have the hopes disapp'inted in these cases, and
+therefore shall proceed with caution. But, Mr. Mulford, there's a
+sail in sight, if there is a drop of water in the Gulf!"
+
+"A sail, Jack! I trust in Heaven you are not deceived!"
+
+"Old eyes are true eyes in such matters, sir. Be careful not to
+start the women. They go off like gunpowder, and, Lord help 'em!
+have no more command over themselves, when you loosen 'em once, than
+so many flying-fish with a dozen dolphins a'ter them. Look hereaway,
+sir, just clear of the Irishwoman's bonnet, a little broad off the
+spot where the reef was last seen--if that an't a sail, my flame is
+not Jack Tier."
+
+A sail there was, sure enough! It was so very distant, however, as
+to render its character still uncertain, though Mulford fancied it
+was a square-rigged vessel heading to the northward. By its
+position, it must be in one of the channels of the reef, and by its
+course, if he were not deceived, it was standing through, from the
+main passage along the southern side of the rocks, to come out on
+the northern. All this was favourable, and at first the young mate
+felt such a throbbing of the heart as we all experience when great
+and unexpected good intelligence is received. A moment's reflection,
+however, made him aware how little was to be hoped for from this
+vessel. In the first place, her distance was so great as to render
+it uncertain even which way she was steering. Then, there was the
+probability that she would pass at so great a distance as to render
+it impossible to perceive an object as low as the wreck, and the
+additional chance of her passing in the night. Under all the
+circumstances, therefore, Mulford felt convinced that there was very
+little probability of their receiving any succour from the strange
+sail; and he fully appreciated Jack Tier's motive in forbearing to
+give the usual call of "Sail, ho!" when he made this discovery.
+Still, he could not deny himself the pleasure of communicating to
+Rose the cheering fact that a vessel was actually in sight. She
+could not reason on the circumstances as he had done, and might at
+least pass several hours of comparative happiness by believing that
+there was some visible chance of delivery.
+
+The females received the intelligence with very different degrees of
+hope. Rose was delighted. To her their rescue appeared an event so
+very probable now, that Harry Mulford almost regretted he had given
+rise to an expectation which he himself feared was to be
+disappointed. The feelings of Mrs. Budd were more suppressed. The
+wreck and her present situation were so completely at variance with
+all her former notions of the sea and its incidents, that she was
+almost dumb-founded, and feared either to speak or to think. Biddy
+differed from either of her mistresses--the young or the old; she
+appeared to have lost all hope, and her physical energy was fast
+giving way under her profound moral debility.
+
+From the return of light that day, Mulford had thought, if it were
+to prove that Providence had withdrawn its protecting hand from
+them, Biddy, who to all appearance ought to be the longest liver
+among the females at least, would be the first to sink under her
+sufferings. Such is the influence of moral causes on the mere
+animal.
+
+Rose saw the night shut in around them, amid the solemn solitude of
+the ocean, with a mingled sensation of awe and hope. She had prayed
+devoutly, and often, in the course of the preceding day, and her
+devotions had contributed to calm her spirits. Once or twice, while
+kneeling with her head bowed to the keel, she had raised her eyes
+toward Harry with a look of entreaty, as if she would implore him to
+humble his proud spirit and place himself at her side, and ask that
+succour from God which was so much needed, and which indeed it began
+most seriously to appear that God alone could yield. The young mate
+did not comply, for his pride of profession and of manhood offered
+themselves as stumbling-blocks to prevent submission to his secret
+wishes. Though he rarely prayed, Harry Mulford was far from being an
+unbeliever, or one altogether regardless of his duties and
+obligations to his Divine Creator. On the contrary, his heart was
+more disposed to resort to such means of self-abasement and
+submission, than he put in practice, and this because he had been
+taught to believe that the Anglo-Saxon mariner did not call on
+Hercules, on every occasion of difficulty and distress that
+occurred, as was the fashion with the Italian and Romish seamen, but
+he put his own shoulder to the wheel, confident that Hercules would
+not forget to help him who knew how to help himself. But Harry had
+great difficulty in withstanding Rose's silent appeal that evening,
+as she knelt at the keel for the last time, and turned her gentle
+eyes upward at him, as if to ask him once more to take his place at
+her side. Withstand the appeal he did, however, though in his inward
+spirit he prayed fervently to God to put away this dreadful
+affliction from the young and innocent creature before him. When
+these evening devotions were ended, the whole party became
+thoughtful and silent.
+
+It was necessary to sleep, and arrangements were made to do so, if
+possible, with a proper regard for their security. Mulford and Tier
+were to have the look-out, watch and watch. This was done that no
+vessel might pass near them unseen, and that any change in the
+weather might be noted and looked to. As it was, the wind had
+fallen, and seemed about to vary, though it yet stood in its old
+quarter, or a little more easterly, perhaps. As a consequence, the
+drift of the wreck, insomuch as it depended on the currents of the
+air, was more nearly in a line with the direction of the reef, and
+there was little ground for apprehending that they might be driven
+further from it in the night. Although that reef offered in reality
+no place of safety, that was available to his party, Mulford felt it
+as a sort of relief, to be certain that it was not distant, possibly
+influenced by a vague hope that some passing wrecker or turtler
+might yet pick them up.
+
+The bottom of the schooner and the destitute condition of the party
+admitted of only very simple arrangements for the night. The females
+placed themselves against the keel in the best manner they could,
+and thus endeavoured to get a little of the rest they so much
+needed. The day had been warm, as a matter of course, and the
+contrast produced by the setting of the sun was at first rather
+agreeable than otherwise. Luckily Rose had thrown a shawl over her
+shoulders, not long before the vessel capsized, and in this shawl
+she had been saved. It had been dried, and it now served for a light
+covering to herself and her aunt, and added essentially to their
+comfort. As for Biddy, she was too hardy to need a shawl, and she
+protested that she should not think of using one, had she been
+better provided. The patient, meek manner in which that humble, but
+generous-hearted creature submitted to her fate, and the earnestness
+with which she had begged that "Miss Rosy" might have her morsel of
+the portion of biscuit each received for a supper, had sensibly
+impressed Mulford in her favour; and knowing how much more necessary
+food was to sustain one of her robust frame and sturdy habits, than
+to Rose, he had contrived to give the woman, unknown to herself, a
+double allowance. Nor was it surprising that Biddy did not detect
+this little act of fraud in her favour, for this double allowance
+was merely a single mouthful. The want of water had made itself much
+more keenly felt than the want of food, for as yet anxiety,
+excitement and apprehension prevented the appetite from being much
+awakened, while the claims of thirst were increased rather than the
+reverse, by these very causes. Still, no one had complained, on this
+or any other account, throughout the whole of the long and weary day
+which had passed.
+
+Mulford took the first look-out, with the intention of catching a
+little sleep, if possible, during the middle hours of the night, and
+of returning to his duty as morning approached. For the first hour
+nothing occurred to divert his attention from brooding on the
+melancholy circumstances of their situation. It seemed as if all
+around him had actually lost the sense of their cares in sleep, and
+no sound was audible amid that ocean waste, but the light washing of
+the water, as the gentle waves rolled at intervals against the
+weather side of the wreck. It was now that Mulford found a moment
+for prayer, and seated on the keel, that he called on the Divine
+aid, in a fervent but silent petition to God, to put away this trial
+from the youthful and beautiful Rose, at least, though he himself
+perished. It was the first prayer that Mulford had made in many
+months, or since he had joined the Swash--a craft in which that duty
+was very seldom thought of.
+
+A few minutes succeeded this petition, when Biddy spoke.
+
+"Missus--Madam Budd--dear Missus"--half whispered the Irish woman,
+anxious not to disturb Rose, who lay furthest from her--"Missus,
+bees ye asleep at sich a time as this?"
+
+"No, Biddy; sleep and I are strangers to each other, and are likely
+to be till morning. What do you wish to say?"
+
+"Anything is better than my own t'oughts, missus dear, and I wants
+to talk to ye. Is it no wather at all they'll give us so long as we
+stay in this place?"
+
+"There is no one to give it to us but God, poor Biddy, and he alone
+can say what, in his gracious mercy, it may please him to do. Ah!
+Biddy, I fear me that I did an unwise and thoughtless thing, to
+bring my poor Rose to such a place as this. Were it to be done over
+again, the riches of Wall Street would not tempt me to be guilty of
+so wrong a thing!"
+
+The arm of Rose was thrown around her aunt's neck, and its gentle
+pressure announced how completely the offender was forgiven.
+
+"I's very sorry for Miss Rose," rejoined Biddy "and I suffers so
+much the more meself in thinking how hard it must be for the like of
+her to be wantin' in a swallow of fresh wather."
+
+"It is no harder for me to bear it, poor Biddy," answered the gentle
+voice of our heroine, "than it is for yourself."
+
+"Is it meself then? Sure am I, that if I had a quar-r-t of good,
+swate wather from our own pump, and that's far betther is it than
+the Crothon the best day the Crothon ever seed--but had I a quar-r-t
+of it, every dhrap would I give to you, Miss Rose, to app'ase your
+thirst, I would."
+
+"Water would be a great relief to us all, just now, my excellent
+Biddy," answered Rose, "and I wish we had but a tumbler full of that
+you name, to divide equally among the whole five of us."
+
+"Is it divide? Then it would be ag'in dividin' that my voice would
+be raised, for that same ra'son that the tumbler would never hold as
+much as you could dhrink yourself, Miss Rose."
+
+"Yet the tumbler full would be a great blessing for us all, just
+now," murmured Mrs. Budd.
+
+"And is n't mutthon good 'atin', ladies! Och! if I had but a good
+swate pratie, now, from my own native Ireland, and a dhrap of milk
+to help wash it down! It's mighty little that a body thinks of sich
+thrifles when there's abundance of them; but when there's none at
+all, they get to be stronger in the mind than riches and honours."
+
+"You say the truth, Biddy," rejoined the mistress, "and there is a
+pleasure in talking of them, if one can't enjoy them. I've been
+thinking all the afternoon, Rose, what a delicious food is a good
+roast turkey, with cranberry sauce; and I wonder, now, that I have
+not been more grateful for the very many that Providence has
+bestowed on me in my time. My poor Mr. Budd was passionately fond of
+mutton, and I used wickedly to laugh at his fondness for it,
+sometimes, when he always had his answer ready, and that was that
+there are no sheep at sea. How true that is, Rosy dear! there are
+indeed no sheep at sea!"
+
+"No, aunty," answered Rose's gentle voice from beneath the
+shawl;--"there are no such animals on the ocean, but God is with us
+here as much as he would be in New York."
+
+A long silence succeeded this simple remark of his well beloved, and
+the young mate hoped that there would be no more of a dialogue,
+every syllable of which was a dagger to his feelings. But nature was
+stronger than reflection in Mrs. Budd and Biddy, and the latter
+spoke again, after a pause of near a quarter of an hour.
+
+"Pray for me, Missus," she said, moaningly, "that I may sleep. A bit
+of sleep would do a body almost as much good as a bit of bread--I
+won't say as much as a dhrap of wather."
+
+"Be quiet, Biddy, and we will pray for you," answered Rose, who
+fancied by her breathing that her aunt was about to forget her
+sufferings for a brief space, in broken slumbers.
+
+"Is it for you I'll do that--and sure will I, Miss Rose. Niver would
+I have quitted Ireland, could I have thought there was sich a spot
+on this earth as a place where no wather was to be had."
+
+This was the last of Biddy's audible complaints, for the remainder
+of this long and anxious watch of Mulford. He then set himself about
+an arrangement which shall be mentioned in its proper place. At
+twelve o'clock, or when he thought it was twelve, he called Jack
+Tier, who in turn called the mate again at four.
+
+"It looks dark and threatening," said Mulford, as he rose to his
+feet and began to look about him once more, "though there does not
+appear to be any wind."
+
+"It's a flat calm, Mr. Mate, and the darkness comes from yonder
+cloud, which seems likely to bring a little rain."
+
+"Rain! Then God is indeed with us here. You are right, Jack; rain
+must fall from that cloud. We must catch some of it, if it be only a
+drop to cool Rose's parched tongue."
+
+"In what?" answered Tier, gloomily. "She may wring her clothes when
+the shower is over, and in that way get a drop. I see no other
+method."
+
+"I have bethought me of all that, and passed most of my watch in
+making the preparations."
+
+Mulford then showed Tier what he had been about, in the long and
+solitary hours of the first watch. It would seem that the young man
+had dug a little trench with his knife, along the schooner's bottom,
+commencing two or three feet from the keel, and near the spot where
+Rose was lying, and carrying it as far as was convenient toward the
+run, until he reached a point where he had dug out a sort of
+reservoir to contain the precious fluid, should any be sent them by
+Providence. While doing this, there were no signs of rain; but the
+young man knew that a shower alone could save them from insanity, if
+not from death; and in speculating on the means of profiting by one,
+should it come, he had bethought him of this expedient. The large
+knife of a seaman had served him a good turn, in carrying on his
+work, to complete which there remained now very little to do, and
+that was in enlarging the receptacle for the water. The hole was
+already big enough to contain a pint, and it might easily be
+sufficiently enlarged to hold double that quantity.
+
+Jack was no sooner made acquainted with what had been done, than he
+out knife and commenced tearing splinter after splinter from the
+planks, to help enlarge the reservoir. This could only be done by
+cutting on the surface, for the wood was not three inches in
+thickness, and the smallest hole through the plank, would have led
+to the rapid escape of the air and to the certain sinking of the
+wreck. It required a good deal of judgment to preserve the necessary
+level also, and Mulford was obliged to interfere more than once to
+prevent his companion from doing more harm than good. He succeeded,
+however, and had actually made a cavity that might contain more than
+a quart of water, when the first large drop fell from the heavens.
+This cavity was not a hole, but a long, deep trench--deep for the
+circumstances--so nicely cut on the proper level, as to admit of its
+holding a fluid in the quantity mentioned.
+
+"Rose--dearest--rise, and be ready to drink," said Mulford, tenderly
+disturbing the uneasy slumbers of his beloved. "It is about to rain,
+and God is with us here, as he might be on the land."
+
+"Wather!" exclaimed Biddy, who was awoke with the same call. "What a
+blessed thing is good swate wather, and sure am I we ought all to be
+thankful that there is such a precious gift in the wor-r-ld."
+
+"Come, then," said Mulford, hurriedly, "it will soon rain--I hear it
+pattering on the sea. Come hither, all of you, and drink, as a
+merciful God furnishes the means."
+
+This summons was not likely to be neglected. All arose in haste, and
+the word "water" was murmured from every lip. Biddy had less
+self-command than the others, and she was heard saying aloud,--"Och!
+and did n't I dhrame of the blessed springs and wells of Ireland the
+night, and haven't I dhrunk at 'em all? but now it's over, and I am
+awake, no good has't done me, and I'm ready to die for one dhrap of
+wather."
+
+That drop soon came, however, and with it the blessed relief which
+such a boon bestows. Mulford had barely time to explain his
+arrangements, and to place the party on their knees, along his
+little reservoir and the gutter which led to it, when the pattering
+of the rain advanced along the sea, with a deep rushing sound.
+Presently, the uplifted faces and open mouths caught a few heavy
+straggling drops, to cool the parched tongues, when the water came
+tumbling down upon them in a thousand little streams. There was
+scarcely any wind, and merely the skirt of a large black cloud
+floated over the wreck, on which the rain fell barely one minute.
+But it fell as rain comes down within the tropics, and in sufficient
+quantities for all present purposes. Everybody drank, and found
+relief, and, when all was over, Mulford ascertained by examination
+that his receptacle for the fluid was still full to overflowing. The
+abstinence had not been of sufficient length, nor the quantity taken
+of large enough amount, to produce injury, though the thirst was
+generally and temporarily appeased. It is probable that the coolness
+of the hour, day dawning as the cloud moved past, and the
+circumstance that the sufferers were wetted to their skins,
+contributed to the change.
+
+"Oh, blessed, blessed wather!" exclaimed Biddy, as she rose from her
+knees; "America, afther all, isn't as dhry a country as some say.
+I've niver tasted swater wather in Ireland itself!"
+
+Rose murmured her thanksgiving in more appropriate language. A few
+exclamations also escaped Mrs. Budd, and Jack Tier had his
+sententious eulogy on the precious qualities of sweet water.
+
+The wind rose as the day advanced, and a swell began to heave the
+wreck with a power that had hitherto been dormant. Mulford
+understood this to be a sign that there had been a blow at some
+distance from them, that had thrown the sea into a state of
+agitation, which extended itself beyond the influence of the wind.
+Eagerly did the young mate examine the horizon, as the curtain of
+night arose, inch by inch, as it might be, on the watery panorama,
+in the hope that a vessel of some sort or other might be brought
+within the view. Nor was he wholly disappointed. The strange sail
+seen the previous evening was actually there; and what was more, so
+near as to allow her hull to be distinctly visible. It was a ship,
+under her square canvas, standing from between divided portions of
+the reef, as if getting to the northward, in order to avoid the
+opposing current of the Gulf Stream. Vessels bound to Mobile, New
+Orleans, and other ports along the coast of the Republic, in that
+quarter of the ocean, often did this; and when the young mate first
+caught glimpses of the shadowy outline of this ship, he supposed it
+to be some packet, or cotton-droger, standing for her port on the
+northern shore. But a few minutes removed the veil, and with it the
+error of this notion. A seaman could no longer mistake the craft.
+Her length, her square and massive hamper, with the symmetry of her
+spars, and the long, straight outline of the hull, left no doubt
+that it was a cruiser, with her hammocks unstowed. Mulford now
+cheerfully announced to his companions, that the ship they so
+plainly saw, scarcely a gun-shot distant from them, was the
+sloop-of-war which had already become a sort of an acquaintance.
+
+"If we can succeed in making them see our signal," cried Mulford,
+"all will yet be well. Come, Jack, and help me to put abroad this
+shawl, the only ensign we can show."
+
+The shawl of Rose was the signal spread. Tier and Mulford stood on
+the keel, and holding opposite corners, let the rest of the cloth
+blow out with the wind. For near an hour did these two extend their
+arms, and try all possible expedients to make their signal
+conspicuous. But, unfortunately, the wind blew directly toward the
+cruiser, and instead of exposing a surface of any breadth to the
+vision of those on board her, it must, at most, have offered little
+more than a flitting, waving line.
+
+As the day advanced, sail was made on the cruiser. She had stood
+through the passage, in which she had been becalmed most of the
+night, under short canvas; but now she threw out fold after fold of
+her studding-sails, and moved away to the westward, with the stately
+motion of a ship before the wind. No sooner had she got far enough
+to the northward of the reef, than she made a deviation from her
+course as first seen, turning her stern entirely to the wreck, and
+rapidly becoming less and less distinct to the eyes of those who
+floated on it.
+
+Mulford saw the hopelessness of their case, as it respected relief
+from this vessel; still, he persevered in maintaining his position
+on the keel, tossing and waving the shawl, in all the variations
+that his ingenuity could devise. He well knew, however, that their
+chances of being seen would have been trebled could they have been
+ahead instead of astern of the ship. Mariners have few occasions to
+look behind them, while a hundred watchful eyes are usually turned
+ahead, more especially when running near rocks and shoals. Mrs. Budd
+wept like an infant when she saw the sloop-of-war gliding away,
+reaching a distance that rendered sight useless, in detecting an
+object that floated as low on the water as the wreck. As for Biddy,
+unable to control her feelings, the poor creature actually called to
+the crew of the departing vessel, as if her voice had the power to
+make itself heard, at a distance which already exceeded two leagues.
+It was only by means of the earnest remonstrances of Rose, that the
+faithful creature could be quieted.
+
+"Why will ye not come to our relaif?" she cried at the top of her
+voice. "Here are we, helpless as new-born babies, and ye sailing
+away from us in a conthrary way! D'ye not bethink you of the missus,
+who is much of a sailor, but not sich a one as to sail on a wrack;
+and poor Miss Rose, who is the char-rm and delight of all eyes. Only
+come and take off Miss Rose, and lave the rest of us, if ye so
+likes; for it's a sin and a shame to lave the likes of her to die in
+the midst of the ocean, as if she was no betther nor a fish. Then it
+will be soon that we shall ag'in feel the want of wather, and that,
+too, with nothing but wather to be seen on all sides of us."
+
+"It is of no use," said Harry, mournfully, stepping down from the
+keel, and laying aside the shawl. "They cannot see us, and the
+distance is now so great as to render it certain they never will.
+There is only one hope left. We are evidently set to and fro by the
+tides, and it is possible that by keeping in or near this passage,
+some other craft may appear, and we be more fortunate. The relief of
+the rain is a sign that we are not forgotten by Divine Providence,
+and with such a protector we ought not to despair."
+
+A gloomy and scanty breaking of the fast succeeded. Each person had
+one large mouthful of bread, which was all that prudence would
+authorize Mulford to distribute. He attempted a pious fraud,
+however, by placing his own allowance along with that of Rose's,
+under the impression that her strength might not endure privation as
+well as his own. But the tender solicitude of Rose was not to be
+thus deceived. Judging of his wishes and motives by her own, she at
+once detected the deception, and insisted on retaining no more than
+her proper share. When this distribution was completed, and the
+meagre allowance taken, only sufficient bread remained to make one
+more similar scanty meal, if meal a single mouthful could be termed.
+As for the water, a want of which would be certain to be felt as
+soon as the sun obtained its noon-day power, the shawl was extended
+over it, in a way to prevent evaporation as much as possible, and at
+the same time to offer some resistance to the fluid's being washed
+from its shallow receptacle by the motion of the wreck, which was
+sensibly increasing with the increase of the wind and waves.
+
+Mulford had next an anxious duty to perform. Throughout the whole of
+the preceding day he had seen the air escaping from the hull, in an
+incessant succession of small bubbles, which were formidable through
+their numbers, if not through their size. The mate was aware that
+this unceasing loss of the buoyant property of the wreck, must
+eventually lead to their destruction, should no assistance come, and
+he had marked the floating line, on the bottom of the vessel with
+his knife, ere darkness set in, on the previous evening. No sooner
+did his thoughts recur to this fact, after the excitement of the
+first hour of daylight was over, than he stepped to the different
+places thus marked, and saw, with an alarm that it would be
+difficult to describe, that the wreck had actually sunk into the
+water several inches within the last few hours. This was, indeed,
+menacing their security in a most serious manner, setting a limit to
+their existence, which rendered all precaution on the subject of
+food and water useless. By the calculations of the mate, the wreck
+could not float more than eight-and-forty hours, should it continue
+to lose the air at the rate at which it had been hitherto lost. Bad
+as all this appeared, things were fated to become much more serious.
+The motion of the water quite sensibly increased, lifting the wreck
+at times in a way greatly to increase the danger of their situation.
+The reader will understand this movement did not proceed from the
+waves of the existing wind, but from what is technically called a
+ground-swell, or the long, heavy undulations that are left by the
+tempest that is past, or by some distant gale. The waves of the
+present breeze were not very formidable, the reef making a lee;
+though they might possibly become inconvenient from breaking on the
+weather side of the wreck, as soon as the drift carried the latter
+fairly abreast of the passage already mentioned. But the dangers
+that proceeded from the heavy ground-swell, which now began to give
+a considerable motion to the wreck, will best explain itself by
+narrating the incidents as they occurred.
+
+Harry had left his marks, and had taken his seat on the keel at
+Rose's side, impatiently waiting for any turn that Providence might
+next give to their situation, when a heavy roll of the wreck first
+attracted his attention to this new circumstance.
+
+"If any one is thirsty," he observed quietly, "he or she had better
+drink now, while it may be done. Two or three more such rolls as
+this last will wash all the water from our gutters."
+
+"Wather is a blessed thing," said Biddy, with a longing expression
+of the eyes, "and it would be betther to swallow it than to let it
+be lost."
+
+"Then drink, for Heaven's sake, good woman--it may be the last
+occasion that will offer."
+
+"Sure am I that I would not touch a dhrap, while the missus and Miss
+Rosy was a sufferin'."
+
+"I have no thirst at all," answered Rose, sweetly, "and have already
+taken more water than was good for me, with so little food on my
+stomach."
+
+"Eat another morsel of the bread, beloved," whispered Harry, in a
+manner so urgent that Rose gratefully complied. "Drink, Biddy, and
+we will come and share with you before the water is wasted by this
+increasing motion."
+
+Biddy did as desired, and each knelt in turn and took a little of
+the grateful fluid, leaving about a gill in the gutters for the use
+of those whose lips might again become parched.
+
+"Wather is a blessed thing," repeated Biddy, for the twentieth
+time--"a blessed, blessed thing is wather!"
+
+A little scream from Mrs. Budd, which was dutifully taken up by the
+maid, interrupted the speech of the latter, and every eye was turned
+on Mulford, as if to ask an explanation of the groaning sound that
+had been heard within the wreck. The young mate comprehended only
+too well. The rolling of the wreck had lifted a portion of the open
+hatchway above the undulating surface of the sea, and a large
+quantity of the pent air within the hold had escaped in a body. The
+entrance of water to supply the vacuum had produced the groan.
+Mulford had made new marks on the vessel's bottom with his knife,
+and he stepped down to them, anxious and nearly heart-broken, to
+note the effect. That one surging of the wreck had permitted air
+enough to escape to lower it in the water several inches. As yet,
+however, the visible limits of their floating foundation had not
+been sufficiently reduced to attract the attention of the females;
+and the young man said nothing on the subject. He thought that Jack
+Tier was sensible of the existence of this new source of danger, but
+if he were, that experienced mariner imitated his own reserve, and
+made no allusion to it. Thus passed the day. Occasionally the wreck
+rolled heavily, when more air escaped, the hull settling lower and
+lower in the water as a necessary consequence. The little bubbles
+continued incessantly to rise, and Mulford became satisfied that
+another day must decide their fate. Taking this view of their
+situation, he saw no use in reserving their food, but encouraged his
+companions to share the whole of what remained at sunset. Little
+persuasion was necessary, and when night once more came to envelope
+them in darkness, not a mouthful of food or a drop of water remained
+to meet the necessities of the coming morn. It had rained again for
+a short time, in the course of the afternoon, when enough water had
+been caught to allay their thirst, and what was almost of as much
+importance to the females now, a sufficiency of sun had succeeded to
+dry their clothes, thus enabling them to sleep without enduring the
+chilling damps that might otherwise have prevented it. The wind had
+sensibly fallen, and the ground-swell was altogether gone, but
+Mulford was certain that the relief had come too late. So much air
+had escaped while it lasted as scarce to leave him the hope that the
+wreck could float until morning. The rising of the bubbles was now
+incessant, the crevices by which they escaped having most probably
+opened a little, in consequence of the pressure and the unceasing
+action of the currents, small as the latter were.
+
+Just as darkness was shutting in around them for the second time,
+Rose remarked to Mulford that it seemed to her that they had not as
+large a space for their little world as when they were first placed
+on it. The mate, however, successfully avoided an explanation; and
+when the watch was again set for the night, the females lay down to
+seek their repose, more troubled with apprehensions for a morrow of
+hunger and thirst, than by any just fears that might so well have
+arisen from the physical certainty that the body which alone kept
+them from being engulfed in the sea, could float but a few hours
+longer. This night Tier kept the look-out until Jupiter reached the
+zenith, when Mulford was called to hold the watch until light
+returned.
+
+It may seem singular that any could sleep at all in such a
+situation. But we get accustomed, in an incredibly short time, to
+the most violent changes; and calamities that seem insupportable,
+when looked at from a distance, lose half their power if met and
+resisted with fortitude. The last may, indeed, be too insignificant
+a word to be applied to all of the party on the wreck, on the
+occasion of which we are writing, though no one of them all betrayed
+fears that were troublesome. Of Mulford it is unnecessary to speak.
+His deportment had been quiet, thoughtful, and full of a manly
+interest in the comfort of others, from the first moment of the
+calamity. That Rose should share the largest in his attentions was
+natural enough, but he neglected no essential duty to her
+companions. Rose, herself, had little hope of being rescued. Her
+naturally courageous character, however, prevented any undue
+exhibitions of despair, and now it was that the niece became the
+principal support of the aunt, completely changing the relations
+that had formerly existed between them. Mrs. Budd had lost all the
+little buoyancy of her mind. Not a syllable did she now utter
+concerning ships and their manoeuvres. She had been, at first, a
+little disposed to be querulous and despairing, but the soothing and
+pious conversation of Rose awakened a certain degree of resolution
+in her, and habit soon exercised its influence over even her
+inactive mind. Biddy was a strange mixture of courage, despair,
+humility, and consideration for others. Not once had she taken her
+small allowance of food without first offering it, and that, too, in
+perfect good faith, to her "Missus and Miss Rosy;" yet her moanings
+for this sort of support, and her complaints of bodily suffering
+much exceeded that of all the rest of the party put together. As for
+Jack Tier, his conduct singularly belied his appearance. No one
+would have expected any great show of manly resolution from the
+little rotund, lymphatic figure of Tier; but he had manifested a
+calmness that denoted either great natural courage, or a resolution
+derived from familiarity with danger. In this particular, even
+Mulford regarded his deportment with surprise, not unmingled with
+respect.
+
+"You have had a tranquil watch, Jack," said Harry, when he was
+called by the person named, and had fairly aroused himself from his
+slumbers. "Has the wind stood as it is since sunset?"
+
+"No change whatever, sir. It has blown a good working breeze the
+whole watch, and what is surprising not as much lipper has got up as
+would frighten a colt on a sea-beach."
+
+"We must be near the reef, by that. I think the only currents we
+feel come from the tide, and they seem to be setting us back and
+forth, instead of carrying us in any one settled direction."
+
+"Quite likely, sir; and this makes my opinion of what I saw an hour
+since all the more probable."
+
+"What you saw! In the name of a merciful Providence, Tier, do not
+trifle with me! Has any thing been seen near by?"
+
+"Don't talk to me of your liquors and other dhrinks," murmured Biddy
+in her sleep. "It's wather that is a blessed thing; and I wish I
+lived, the night and the day, by the swate pump that's in our own
+yard, I do."
+
+"The woman has been talking in her sleep, in this fashion, most of
+the watch," observed Jack, coolly, and perhaps a little
+contemptuously. "But, Mr. Mulford, unless my eyes have cheated me,
+we are near that boat again. The passage through the reef is close
+aboard us, here, on our larboard bow, as it might be, and the
+current has sucked us in it in a fashion to bring it in a sort of
+athwart-hawse direction to us."
+
+"If that boat, after all, should be sent by Providence to our
+relief! How long is it since you saw it, Jack."
+
+"But a bit since, sir; or, for that matter, I think I see it now.
+Look hereaway, sir, just where the dead-eyes of the fore-rigging
+would bear from us, if the craft stood upon her legs, as she ought
+to do. If that isn't a boat, it's a rock out of water."
+
+Mulford gazed through the gloom of midnight, and saw, or fancied he
+saw, an object that might really be the boat. It could not be very
+distant either; and his mind was instantly made up as to the course
+he would pursue. Should it actually turn out to be that which he now
+so much hoped for, and its distance in the morning did not prove too
+great for human powers, he was resolved to swim for it at the hazard
+of his life. In the meantime, or until light should return, there
+remained nothing to do but to exercise as much patience as could be
+summoned, and to confide in God, soliciting his powerful succour by
+secret prayer.
+
+Mulford was no sooner left alone, as it might be, by Tier's seeking
+a place in which to take his rest, than he again examined the state
+of the wreck. Little as he had hoped from its long-continued
+buoyancy, he found matters even worse than he apprehended they would
+be. The hull had lost much air, and had consequently sunk in the
+water in an exact proportion to this loss. The space that was
+actually above the water, was reduced to an area not more than six
+or seven feet in one direction, by some ten or twelve in the other.
+This was reducing its extent, since the evening previous, by fully
+one-half; and there could be no doubt that the air was escaping, in
+consequence of the additional pressure, in a ratio that increased by
+a sort of arithmetical progression. The young man knew that the
+whole wreck, under its peculiar circumstances, might sink entirely
+beneath the surface, and yet possess sufficient buoyancy to sustain
+those that were on it for a time longer, but this involved the
+terrible necessity of leaving the females partly submerged
+themselves.
+
+Our mate heard his own heart beat, as he became satisfied of the
+actual condition of the wreck, and of the physical certainty that
+existed of its sinking, at least to the point last mentioned, ere
+the sun came to throw his glories over the last view that the
+sufferers would be permitted to take of the face of day. It appeared
+to him that no time was to be lost. There lay the dim and shapeless
+object that seemed to be the boat, distant, as he thought, about a
+mile. It would not have been visible at all but for the perfect
+smoothness of the sea, and the low position occupied by the
+observer. At times it did disappear altogether, when it would rise
+again, as if undulating in the ground-swell. This last circumstance,
+more than any other, persuaded Harry that it was not a rock, but
+some floating object that he beheld. Thus encouraged, he delayed no
+longer. Every moment was precious, and all might be lost by
+indecision. He did not like the appearance of deserting his
+companions, but, should he fail, the motive would appear in the act.
+Should he fail, every one would alike soon be beyond the reach of
+censure, and in a state of being that would do full justice to all.
+
+Harry threw off most of his clothes, reserving only his shirt and a
+pair of light summer trowsers. He could not quit the wreck, however,
+without taking a sort of leave of Rose. On no account would he awake
+her, for he appreciated the agony she would feel during the period
+of his struggles. Kneeling at her side, he made a short prayer, then
+pressed his lips to her warm cheek, and left her. Rose murmured his
+name at that instant, but it was as the innocent and young betray
+their secrets in their slumbers. Neither of the party awoke.
+
+It was a moment to prove the heart of man, that in which Harry
+Mulford, in the darkness of midnight, alone, unsustained by any
+encouraging eye, or approving voice, with no other aid than his own
+stout arm, and the unknown designs of a mysterious Providence,
+committed his form to the sea. For an instant he paused, after he
+had waded down on the wreck to a spot where the water already
+mounted to his breast, but it was not in misgivings. He calculated
+the chances, and made an intelligent use of such assistance as could
+be had. There had been no sharks near the wreck that day, but a
+splash in the water might bring them back again in a crowd. They
+were probably prowling over the reef, near at hand. The mate used
+great care, therefore, to make no noise. There was the distant
+object, and he set it by a bright star, that wanted about an hour
+before it would sink beneath the horizon. That star was his beacon,
+and muttering a few words in earnest prayer, the young man threw his
+body forward, and left the wreck, swimming lightly but with vigour.
+
+JACK TIER.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  The night has been unruly: where we lay,
+  Our chimneys were blown down: and, as they say,
+  Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death;
+  And prophesying, with accents terrible,
+  Of dire combustion, and confused events,
+  New hatched to the woful time.
+
+
+_Macbeth_.
+
+It is seldom that man is required to make an exertion as desperate
+and appalling, in all its circumstances, as that on which Harry
+Mulford was now bent. The night was starlight, it was true, and it
+was possible to see objects near by with tolerable distinctness;
+still, it was midnight, and the gloom of that hour rested on the
+face of the sea, lending its solemn mystery and obscurity to the
+other trying features of the undertaking. Then there was the
+uncertainty whether it was the boat at all, of which he was in
+pursuit; and, if the boat, it might drift away from him as fast as
+he could follow it. Nevertheless, the perfect conviction that,
+without some early succour, the party on the wreck, including Rose
+Budd, must inevitably perish, stimulated him to proceed, and a
+passing feeling of doubt, touching the prudence of his course, that
+came over the young mate, when he was a few yards from the wreck,
+vanished under a vivid renewal of this last conviction. On he swam,
+therefore, riveting his eye on the "thoughtful star" that guided his
+course, and keeping his mind as tranquil as possible, in order that
+the exertions of his body might be the easier.
+
+Mulford was an excellent swimmer. The want of food was a serious
+obstacle to his making one of his best efforts, but, as yet, he was
+not very sensible of any great loss of strength. Understanding fully
+the necessity of swimming easily, if he would swim long, he did not
+throw out all his energy at first, but made the movements of his
+limbs as regular, continued, and skilful as possible. No strength
+was thrown away, and his progress was in proportion to the prudence
+of this manner of proceeding. For some twenty minutes he held on his
+course, in this way, when he began to experience a little of that
+weariness which is apt to accompany an unremitted use of the same
+set of muscles, in a monotonous and undeviating mode. Accustomed to
+all the resources of his art, he turned on his back, for the double
+purpose of relieving his arms for a minute, and of getting a glimpse
+of the wreck, if possible, in order to ascertain the distance he had
+overcome. Swim long in this new manner, however, he could not with
+prudence, as the star was necessary in order to keep the direct line
+of his course. It may be well to explain to some of our readers,
+that, though the surface of the ocean may be like glass, as
+sometimes really happens, it is never absolutely free from the long,
+undulating motion that is known by the name of a "ground swell."
+This swell, on the present occasion, was not very heavy, but it was
+sufficient to place our young mate, at moments, between two dark
+mounds of water, that limited his view in either direction to some
+eighty or a hundred yards; then it raised him on the summit of a
+rounded wave, that enabled him to see, far as his eye could reach
+under that obscure light. Profiting by this advantage, Mulford now
+looked behind him, in quest of the wreck, but uselessly. It might
+have been in the trough, while he was thus on the summit of the
+waves, or it might be that it floated so low as to be totally lost
+to the view of one whose head was scarcely above the surface of the
+water. For a single instant, the young man felt a chill at his
+heart, as he fancied that the wreck had already sunk; but it passed
+away when he recalled the slow progress by which the air escaped,
+and he saw the certainty that the catastrophe, however inevitable,
+could not yet have really arrived. He waited for another swell to
+lift him on its summit, when, by "treading water," he raised his
+head and shoulders fairly above the surface of the sea, and strained
+his eyes in another vain effort to catch a glimpse of the wreck. He
+could not see it. In point of fact, the mate had swum much further
+than he had supposed, and was already so distant as to render any
+such attempt hopeless. He was fully a third of a mile distant from
+the point of his departure.
+
+Disappointed, and in a slight degree disheartened, Mulford turned,
+and swam in the direction of the sinking star. He now looked
+anxiously for the boat. It was time that it came more plainly into
+view, and a new source of anxiety beset him, as he could discover no
+signs of its vicinity. Certain that he was on the course, after
+making a due allowance for the direction of the wind, the
+stout-hearted young man swam on. He next determined not to annoy
+himself by fruitless searches, or vain regrets, but to swim steadily
+for a certain time, a period long enough to carry him a material
+distance, ere he again looked for the object of his search.
+
+For twenty minutes longer did that courageous and active youth
+struggle with the waste of waters, amid the obscurity and solitude
+of midnight. He now believed himself near a mile from the wreck, and
+the star which had so long served him for a beacon was getting near
+to the horizon. He took a new observation of another of the heavenly
+bodies nigh it, to serve him in its stead when it should disappear
+altogether, and then he raised himself in the water, and looked
+about again for the boat. The search was in vain. No boat was very
+near him, of a certainty, and the dreadful apprehension began to
+possess his mind, of perishing uselessly in that waste of gloomy
+waters. While thus gazing about him, turning his eyes in every
+quarter, hoping intently to catch some glimpse of the much-desired
+object in the gloom, he saw two dark, pointed objects, that
+resembled small stakes, in the water within twenty feet of him.
+Mulford knew them at a glance, and a cold shudder passed through his
+frame, as he recognised them. They were, out of all question, the
+fins of an enormous shark; an animal that could not measure less
+than eighteen or twenty feet in length.
+
+It is scarcely necessary to say, that when our young mate discovered
+the proximity of this dangerous animal, situated as he was, he gave
+himself up for lost. He possessed his knife, however, and had heard
+of the manner in which even sharks were overcome, and that too in
+their own element, by the skilful and resolute. At first, he was
+resolved to make one desperate effort for life, before he submitted
+to a fate as horrible as that which now menaced him; but the
+movements of his dangerous neighbour induced him to wait. It did not
+approach any nearer, but continued swimming back and fro, on the
+surface of the water, according to the known habits of the fish, as
+if watching his own movements. There being no time to be wasted, our
+young mate turned on his face, and began again to swim in the
+direction of the setting star, though nearly chilled by despair. For
+ten minutes longer did he struggle on, beginning to feel exhaustion,
+however, and always accompanied by those two dark, sharp and gliding
+fins. There was no difficulty in knowing the position of the animal,
+and Mulford's eyes were oftener on those fins than on the beacon
+before him. Strange as it may appear, he actually became accustomed
+to the vicinity of this formidable creature, and soon felt his
+presence a sort of relief against the dreadful solitude of his
+situation. He had been told by seamen of instances, and had once
+witnessed a case himself, in which a shark had attended a swimming
+man for a long distance, either forbearing to do him harm, from
+repletion, or influenced by that awe which nature has instilled into
+all of the inferior, for the highest animal of the creation. He
+began to think that he was thus favoured, and really regarded the
+shark as a friendly neighbour, rather than as a voracious foe. In
+this manner did the two proceed, nearly another third of a mile, the
+fins sometimes in sight ahead, gliding hither and thither, and
+sometimes out of view behind the swimmer, leaving him in dreadful
+doubts as to the movements of the fish, when Mulford suddenly felt
+something hard hit his foot. Believing it to be the shark, dipping
+for his prey, a slight exclamation escaped him. At the next instant
+both feet hit the unknown substance again, and he stood erect, the
+water no higher than his waist! Quick, and comprehending everything
+connected with the sea, the young man at once understood that he was
+on a part of the reef where the water was so shallow as to admit of
+his wading.
+
+Mulford felt that he had been providentially rescued from death. His
+strength had been about to fail him, when he was thus led, unknown
+to himself, to a spot where his life might yet be possibly prolonged
+for a few more hours, or days. He had leisure to look about him, and
+to reflect on what was next to be done. Almost unwittingly, he
+turned in quest of his terrible companion, in whose voracious mouth
+he had actually believed himself about to be immolated, a few
+seconds before. There the two horn-like fins still were, gliding
+about above the water, and indicating the smallest movement of their
+formidable owner. The mate observed that they went a short distance
+ahead of him, describing nearly a semi-circle, and then returned,
+doing the same thing in his rear, repeating the movements
+incessantly, keeping always on his right. This convinced him that
+shoaler water existed on his left hand, and he waded in that
+direction, until he reached a small spot of naked rock.
+
+For a time, at least, he was safe! The fragment of coral on which
+the mate now stood, was irregular in shape, but might have contained
+a hundred feet square in superficial measurement, and was so little
+raised above the level of the water as not to be visible, even by
+daylight, at the distance of a hundred yards. Mulford found it was
+perfectly dry, however, an important discovery to him, as by a close
+calculation he had made of the tides, since quitting the Dry
+Tortugas, he knew it must be near high water. Could he have even
+this small portion of bare rock secure, it made him, for the moment,
+rich as the most extensive landholder living. A considerable
+quantity of sea-weed had lodged on the rock, and, as most of this
+was also quite dry, it convinced the young sailor that the place was
+usually bare. But, though most of this sea-weed was dry, there were
+portions of the more recent accessions there that still lay in, or
+quite near to the water, which formed exceptions. In handling these
+weeds, in order to ascertain the facts, Mulford caught a small
+shell-fish, and finding it fresh and easy to open, he swallowed it
+with the eagerness of a famishing man. Never had food proved half so
+grateful to him as that single swallow of a very palatable
+testaceous animal. By feeling further, he found several others of
+the same family, and made quite as large a meal, as, under the
+circumstances, was probably good for him. Then, grateful for his
+escape, but overcome by fatigue, he hastily arranged a bed of
+sea-weed, drew a portion of the plant over his body, to keep him
+warm, and fell into a deep sleep that lasted for hours.
+
+Mulford did not regain his consciousness until the rays of the
+rising sun fell upon his eye-lids, and the genial warmth of the
+great luminary shed its benign influence over his frame. At first
+his mind was confused, and it required a few seconds to bring a
+perfect recollection of the past, and a true understanding of his
+real situation. They came, however, and the young man moved to the
+highest part of his little domain, and cast an anxious, hurried look
+around in quest of the wreck. A knowledge of the course in which he
+had swum, aided by the position of the sun, told him on what part of
+the naked waste to look for the object he sought. God had not yet
+forsaken them! There was the wreck; or, it might be more exact to
+say, there were those whom the remaining buoyancy of the wreck still
+upheld from sinking into the depths of the gulf. In point of fact,
+but a very little of the bottom of the vessel actually remained
+above water, some two or three yards square at most, and that little
+was what seamen term nearly awash. Two or three hours must bury that
+small portion of the still naked wood beneath the surface of the
+sea, though sufficient buoyancy might possibly remain for the entire
+day still to keep the living from death.
+
+There the wreck was, however, yet floating; and, though not visible
+to Mulford, with a small portion of it above water. He saw the four
+persons only; and what was more, they saw him. This was evident by
+Jack Tier's waving his hat like a man cheering. When Mulford
+returned this signal, the shawl of Rose was tossed into the air, in
+a way to leave no doubt that he was seen and known. The explanation
+of this early recognition and discovery of the young mate was very
+simple. Tier was not asleep when Harry left the wreck, though,
+seeing the importance of the step the other was taking, he had
+feigned to be so. When Rose awoke, missed her lover, and was told
+what had happened, her heart was kept from sinking by his
+encouraging tale and hopes. An hour of agony had succeeded,
+nevertheless, when light returned and no Mulford was to be seen. The
+despair that burst upon the heart of our heroine was followed by the
+joy of discovering him on the rock.
+
+It is scarcely necessary to say how much the parties were relieved
+on ascertaining their respective positions. Faint as were the hopes
+of each of eventual delivery, the two or three minutes that
+succeeded seemed to be minutes of perfect happiness. After this rush
+of unlooked-for joy, Mulford continued his intelligent examination
+of surrounding objects.
+
+The wreck was fully half a mile from the rock of the mate, but much
+nearer to the reef than it had been the previous night. "Could it
+but ground on the rocks," thought the young man, "it would be a most
+blessed event." The thing was possible, though the first half hour
+of his observations told him that its drift was in the direction of
+the open passage so often named, rather than toward the nearest
+rocks. Still, that drift brought Rose each minute nearer and nearer
+to himself again. In looking round, however, the young man saw the
+boat. It was a quarter of a mile distant, with open water between
+them, apparently grounded on a rock, for it was more within the reef
+than he was himself. He must have passed it in the dark, and the
+boat had been left to obey the wind and currents, and to drift to
+the spot where it then lay.
+
+Mulford shouted aloud when he saw the boat, and at once determined
+to swim in quest of it, as soon as he had collected a little
+refreshment from among the sea-weed. On taking a look at his rock by
+daylight, he saw that its size was quadrupled to the eye by the
+falling of the tide, and that water was lying in several of the
+cavities of its uneven surface. At first he supposed this to be
+sea-water, left by the flood; but, reflecting a moment, he
+remembered the rain, and hoped it might be possible that one little
+cavity, containing two or three gallons of the fluid, would turn out
+to be fresh. Kneeling beside it, he applied his lips in feverish
+haste, and drank the sweetest draught that had ever passed his lips.
+Slaking his thirst, which had begun again to be painfully severe, he
+arose with a heart overflowing with gratitude--could he only get
+Rose to that narrow and barren rock, it would seem to be an earthly
+paradise. Mulford next made his scanty, but, all things considered,
+sufficient meal, drank moderately afterward, and then turned his
+attention and energies toward the boat, which, though now aground
+and fast, might soon float on the rising tide, and drift once more
+beyond his reach. It was his first intention to swim directly for
+his object; but, just when about to enter the water, he saw with
+horror the fins of at least a dozen sharks, which were prowling
+about in the deeper water of the reef, and almost encircling his
+hold. To throw himself in the midst of such enemies would be
+madness, and he stopped to reflect, and again to look about him. For
+the first time that morning, he took a survey of the entire horizon,
+to see if anything were in sight; for, hitherto, his thoughts had
+been too much occupied with Rose and her companions, to remember
+anything else. To the northward and westward he distinctly saw the
+upper sails of a large ship, that was standing on a wind to the
+northward and eastward. As there was no port to which a vessel of
+that character would be likely to be bound in the quarter of the
+Gulf to which such a course would lead, Mulford at once inferred it
+was the sloop-of-war, which, after having examined the islets, at
+the Dry Tortugas, and finding them deserted, was beating up, either
+to go into Key West, or to pass to the southward of the reef again,
+by the passage through which she had come as lately as the previous
+day. This was highly encouraging; and could he only get to the boat,
+and remove the party from the wreck before it sunk, there was now
+every prospect of a final escape.
+
+To the southward, also, the mate fancied he saw a sail. It was
+probably a much smaller vessel than the ship in the north-west, and
+at a greater distance. It might, however, be the lofty sails of some
+large craft; standing along the reef, going westward, bound to New
+Orleans, or to that new and important port, Point Isabel: or it
+might be some wrecker, or other craft, edging away into the passage.
+As it was, it appeared only as a speck in the horizon; and was too
+far off to offer much prospect of succour.
+
+Thus acquainted with the state of things around him, Mulford gave
+his attention seriously to his duties. He was chiefly afraid that
+the returning tide might lift the boat from the rock on which it had
+grounded, and that it would float beyond his reach. Then there was
+the frightful and ever-increasing peril of the wreck, and the
+dreadful fate that so inevitably menaced those that it held, were
+not relief prompt. This thought goaded him nearly to desperation,
+and he felt at moments almost ready to plunge into the midst of the
+sharks, and fight his way to his object.
+
+But reflection showed him a less hazardous way of making an effort
+to reach the boat. The sharks' fins described a semicircle only, as
+had been the case of his single attendant during the night, and he
+thought that the shealness of the water prevented their going
+further than they did, in a south-easterly direction, which was that
+of the boat. He well knew that a shark required sufficient water to
+sink beneath its prey, ere it made its swoop, and that it uniformly
+turned on its back, and struck upward whenever it gave one of its
+voracious bites. This was owing to the greater length of its upper
+than of its lower jaw, and Mulford had heard it was a physical
+necessity of its formation. Right or wrong, he determined to act on
+this theory, and began at once to wade along the part of the reef
+that his enemies seemed unwilling to approach.
+
+Had our young mate a weapon of any sort larger than his knife, he
+would have felt greater confidence in his success. As it was,
+however, he drew that knife, and was prepared to sell his life
+dearly should a foe assail him. No sooner was his step heard in the
+water, than the whole group of sharks were set in violent motion,
+glancing past, and frequently quite near him, as if aware their
+intended prey was about to escape. Had the water deepened much,
+Harry would have returned at once, for a conflict with such numbers
+would have been hopeless; but it did not; on the contrary, it
+shoaled again, after a very short distance, at which it had been
+waist-deep; and Mulford found himself wading over a long, broad
+surface of rock, and that directly toward the boat, through water
+that seldom rose above his knees, and which, occasionally, scarce
+covered his feet. There was no absolutely naked rock near him, but
+there seemed to be acres of that which might be almost said to be
+awash. Amid the greedy throng that endeavoured to accompany him, the
+mate even fancied he recognised the enormous fins of his old
+companion, who sailed to and fro in the crowd in a stately manner,
+as if merely a curious looker-on of his own movements. It was the
+smaller, and probably the younger sharks, that betrayed the greatest
+hardihood and voracity. One or two of these made fierce swoops
+toward Harry, as if bent on having him at every hazard; but they
+invariably glided off when they found their customary mode of attack
+resisted by the shoalness of the water.
+
+Our young mate got ahead but slowly, being obliged to pay a cautious
+attention to the movements of his escort. Sometimes he was compelled
+to wade up to his arms in order to cross narrow places, that he
+might get on portions of the rock that were nearly bare; and once he
+was actually compelled to swim eight or ten yards. Nevertheless, he
+did get on, and after an hour of this sort of work, he found himself
+within a hundred yards of the boat, which lay grounded near a low
+piece of naked rock, but separated from it by a channel of deep
+water, into which all the sharks rushed in a body, as if expressly
+to cut off his escape. Mulford now paused to take breath, and to
+consider what ought to be done. On the spot where he stood he was
+quite safe, though ancle-deep in the sea, the shallow water
+extending to a considerable distance on all sides of him, with the
+single exception of the channel in his front. He stood on the very
+verge of that channel, and could see in the pellucid element before
+him, that it was deep enough to float a vessel of some size.
+
+To venture into the midst of twenty sharks required desperation, and
+Harry was not yet reduced to that. He had been so busy in making his
+way to the point where he stood as to have no leisure to look for
+the wreck; but he now turned his eyes in quest of that
+all-interesting object. He saw the shawl fluttering in the breeze,
+and that was all he could see. Tier had contrived to keep it flying
+as a signal where he was to be found, but the hull of the schooner
+had sunk so low in the water that they who were seated on its keel
+were not visible even at the short distance which now separated them
+from Mulford. Encouraged by this signal, and animated by the revived
+hope of still saving his companions, Harry turned toward the
+channel, half inclined to face every danger rather than to wait any
+longer. At that moment the fins were all gliding along the channel
+from him, and in the same direction. Some object drew the sharks
+away in a body, and the young mate let himself easily into the
+water, and swam as noiselessly as he could toward the boat.
+
+It was a fearful trial, but Mulford felt that everything depended on
+his success. Stimulated by his motive, and strengthened by the food
+and water taken an hour before, never had he shown so much skill and
+power in the water. In an incredibly short period he was half-way
+across the channel, still swimming strong and unharmed. A few
+strokes more sent him so near the boat that hope took full
+possession of his soul, and he shouted in exultation. That
+indiscreet but natural cry, uttered so near the surface of the sea,
+turned every shark upon him, as the pack springs at the fox in view.
+Mulford was conscious of the folly of his cry the instant it escaped
+him, and involuntarily he turned his head to note the effect on his
+enemies. Every fin was gliding toward him--a dark array of swift and
+furious foes. Ten thousand bayonets, levelled in their line, could
+not have been one-half as terrible, and the efforts of the young man
+became nearly frantic. But strong as he was, and ready in the
+element, what is the movement of a man in the water compared to that
+of a vigorous and voracious fish? Mulford could see those fins
+coming on like a tempest, and he had just given up all hope, and was
+feeling his flesh creep with terror, when his foot hit the rock.
+Giving himself an onward plunge, he threw his body upward toward the
+boat, and into so much shoaler water, at least a dozen feet by that
+single effort. Recovering his legs as soon as possible, he turned to
+look behind him. The water seemed alive with fins, each pair gliding
+back and forth, as the bull-dog bounds in front of the ox's muzzle.
+Just then a light-coloured object glanced past the young man, so
+near as almost to touch him. It was a shark that had actually turned
+on its back to seize its prey, and was only prevented from
+succeeding by being driven from the line of its course by hitting
+the slimy rock, over which it was compelled to make its plunge. The
+momentum with which it came on, added to the inclination of the
+rock, forced the head and half of the body of this terrible
+assailant into the air, giving the intended victim an opportunity of
+seeing from what a fate he had escaped. Mulford avoided this fish
+without much trouble, however, and the next instant he threw himself
+into the boat, on the bottom of which he lay panting with the
+violence of his exertions, and unable to move under the reaction
+which now came over his system.
+
+The mate lay in the bottom of the boat, exhausted and unable to
+rise, for several minutes; during that space he devoutly returned
+thanks to God for his escape, and bethought him of the course he was
+next to pursue, in order to effect the rescue of his companions. The
+boat was larger than common. It was also well equipped--a mast and
+sail lying along with the oars, on its thwarts. The rock placed
+Harry to windward of the wreck, and by the time he felt sufficiently
+revived to rise and look about him, his plan of proceeding was fully
+arranged in his own mind. Among other things that he saw, as he
+still lay in the bottom of the boat, was a breaker which he knew
+contained fresh water, and a bread-bag. These were provisions that
+it was customary for the men to make, when employed on boat duty;
+and the articles had been left where he now saw them, in the hurry
+of the movements, as the brig quitted the islets.
+
+Harry rose the instant he felt his strength returning. Striking the
+breaker with his foot, and feeling the basket with a hand, he
+ascertained that the one held its water, and the other its bread.
+This was immense relief, for by this time the sufferings of the
+party on the wreck must be returning with redoubled force. The mate
+then stepped the mast, and fitted the sprit to the sail, knowing
+that the latter would be seen fluttering in the wind by those on the
+wreck, and carry joy to their hearts. After this considerate act, he
+began to examine into the position of the boat. It was still
+aground, having been left by the tide; but the water had already
+risen several inches, and by placing himself on a gunwale, so as to
+bring the boat on its bilge, and pushing with an oar, he soon got it
+into deep water. It only remained to haul aft the sheet, and right
+the helm, to be standing through the channel, at a rate that
+promised a speedy deliverance to his friends, and, most of all, to
+Rose.
+
+Mulford glanced past the rocks and shoals, attended by the whole
+company of the sharks. They moved before, behind, and on each side
+of him, as if unwilling to abandon their prey, even after he had got
+beyond the limits of their power to do him harm. It was not an easy
+thing to manage the boat in that narrow and crooked channel, with no
+other guide for the courses than the eye, and it required so much of
+the mate's vigilance to keep clear of the sharp angles of the rocks,
+that he could not once cast his eyes aside, to look for the
+fluttering shawl, which now composed the standing signal of the
+wreck. At length the boat shot through the last passage of the reef,
+and issued into open water. Mulford knew that he must come out half
+a mile at least to leeward of his object, and, without even raising
+his head, he flattened in the sheet, put his helm down, and luffed
+close to the wind. Then, and then only, did he venture to look
+around him.
+
+Our mate felt his heart leap toward his mouth, as he observed the
+present state of the wreck. It was dead to windward of him, in the
+first place, and it seemed to be entirely submerged. He saw the
+shawl fluttering as before; for Tier had fastened one corner to a
+button-hole of his own jacket, and another to the dress of Biddy,
+leaving the part which might be called the fly, to rise at moments
+almost perpendicularly in the air, in a way to render it visible at
+some distance. He saw also the heads and the bodies of those on the
+schooner's bottom, but to him they appeared to be standing in, or
+on, the water. The distance may have contributed a little to this
+appearance, but no doubt remained that so much air had escaped from
+the hold of the vessel, as to permit it to sink altogether beneath
+the surface of the sea. It was time, indeed, to proceed to the
+relief of the sufferers.
+
+Notwithstanding the boat sailed particularly fast, and worked
+beautifully, it could not equal the impatience of Mulford to get on.
+Passing away to the north-east a sufficient distance, as he thought,
+to weather on the wreck, the young man tacked at last, and had the
+happiness to see that every foot he proceeded was now in a direct
+line toward Rose. It was only while tacking he perceived that all
+the fins had disappeared. He felt little doubt that they had
+deserted him, in order to push for the wreck, which offered so much
+larger, and so much more attainable prey. This increased his
+feverish desire to get on, the boat seeming to drag, in his eyes, at
+the very moment it was leaving a wake full of eddies and little
+whirlpools. The wind was steady, but it seemed to Mulford that the
+boat was set to leeward of her course by a current, though this
+could hardly have been the case, as the wreck, the sole mark of his
+progress, would have had at least as great a drift as the boat. At
+length Mulford--to him it appeared to be an age; in truth it was
+after a run of about twenty minutes--came near the goal he so
+earnestly sought, and got an accurate view of the state of the
+wreck, and of those on it. The hull of the schooner had, in truth,
+sunk entirely beneath the surface of the sea; and the party it
+sustained stood already knee-deep in the water. This was
+sufficiently appalling; but the presence of the sharks, who were
+crowding around the spot, rendered the whole scene frightful. To the
+young mate it seemed as if he must still be too late to save Rose
+from a fate more terrible than drowning, for his boat fell so far to
+leeward as to compel him to tack once more. As he swept past the
+wreck, he called out to encourage his friends, begging them to be of
+good heart for five minutes longer, when he should be able to reach
+them. Rose held out her arms entreatingly, and the screams of Mrs.
+Budd and Biddy, which were extorted by the closer and closer
+approach of the sharks, proclaimed the imminency of the danger they
+ran, and the importance of not losing a moment of time.
+
+Mulford took his distance with a seaman's eye, and the boat went
+about like a top. The latter fell off, and the sail filled on the
+other tack. Then the young mariner saw, with a joy no description
+can pourtray, that he looked to windward of the fluttering shawl,
+toward which his little craft was already flying. He afterward
+believed that shawl alone prevented the voracious party of fish from
+assailing those on the wreck, for, though there might not yet be
+sufficient depth of water to allow of their customary mode of
+attack, creatures of their voracity did not always wait for such
+conveniences. But the boat was soon in the midst of the fins,
+scattering them in all directions; and Mulford let go his sheet, put
+his helm down, and sprang forward to catch the extended arms of
+Rose.
+
+It might have been accident, or it might have been the result of
+skill and interest in our heroine, but certain it is, that the bows
+of the boat came on the wreck precisely at the place where Rose
+stood, and her hand was the first object that the young man touched.
+
+"Take my aunt first," cried Rose, resisting Mulford's efforts to
+lift her into the boat; "she is dreadfully alarmed, and can stand
+with difficulty."
+
+Although two of Rose's activity and lightness might have been drawn
+into the boat, while the process was going on in behalf of the
+widow, Mulford lost no time in discussion, but did as he was
+desired. First directing Tier to hold on to the painter, he applied
+his strength to the arms of Mrs. Budd, and, assisted by Rose and
+Biddy, got her safely into the boat, over its bows. Rose now waited
+not for assistance, but followed her aunt with a haste that proved
+fear lent her strength in despite her long fast. Biddy came next,
+though clumsily, and not without trouble, and Jack Tier followed the
+instant he was permitted so to do. Of course, the boat, no longer
+held by its painter, drifted away from the spot, and the hull of the
+schooner, relieved from the weight of four human beings, rose so
+near the surface again as to bring a small line of its keel out of
+water. No better evidence could have been given of the trifling
+power which sustained it, and of the timely nature of the succour
+brought by Mulford. Had the boat remained near the schooner, it
+would have been found half an hour later that the hull had sunk
+slowly out of sight, finding its way, doubtless, inch by inch,
+toward the bottom of the Gulf.
+
+By this time the sun was well up, and the warmth of the hour,
+season, and latitude, was shed on the sufferers. There was an old
+sail in the boat, and in this the party dried their limbs and feet,
+which were getting to be numb by their long immersion. Then the mate
+produced the bag and opened it, in quest of bread. A small portion
+was given to each, and, on looking farther, the mate discovered that
+a piece of boiled ship's beef had been secreted in this receptacle.
+Of this also he gave each a moderate slice, taking a larger portion
+for himself, as requiring less precaution. The suffering of the
+party from hunger was far less than that they endured from thirst.
+Neither had been endured long enough seriously to enfeeble them or
+render a full meal very dangerous, but the thirst had been much the
+hardest to be borne. Of this fact Biddy soon gave audible evidence.
+
+"The mate is good," she said, "and the bread tastes swate and
+refreshing, but wather is a blessed thing. Can you no give us one
+dhrap of the wather that falls from heaven, Mr. Mulford; for this
+wather of the saa is of no use but to drown Christians in?"
+
+In an instant the mate had opened a breaker, and filled the tin pot
+which is almost always to be found in a boat. Biddy said no more,
+but her eyes pleaded so eloquently, that Rose begged the faithful
+creature might have the first drink. One eager swallow went down,
+and then a cry of disappointment succeeded. The water was salt, and
+had been put in the breaker for ballast. The other breaker was tried
+with the same success.
+
+"It is terrible to be without one drop of water," murmured Rose,
+"and this food makes it more necessary than ever."
+
+"Patience, patience, dearest Rose--patience for ten minutes, and you
+shall all drink," answered the mate, filling the sail and keeping
+the boat away while speaking. "There is water, God be praised, on
+the rock to which I first swam, and we will secure it before another
+day's sun help to make it evaporate."
+
+This announcement quieted the longings of those who endured a thirst
+which disappointment rendered doubly hard to bear; and away the boat
+glided toward the rock. As he now flew over the distance, lessened
+more than one-half by the drift of the wreck, Mulford recalled the
+scene through which he had so painfully passed the previous night.
+As often happens, he shuddered at the recollection of things which,
+at the moment, a desperate resolution had enabled him to encounter
+with firmness. Still, he thought nothing less than the ardent desire
+to save Rose could have carried him through the trial with the
+success which attended his struggles. The dear being at his side
+asked a few explanations of what had passed; and she bowed her head
+and wept, equally with pain and delight, as imagination pictured to
+her the situation of her betrothed, amid that waste of water, with
+his fearful companions, and all in the hours of deep night.
+
+But that was over now. There was the rock--the blessed rock on which
+Mulford had so accidentally struck, close before them--and presently
+they were all on it. The mate took the pot and ran to the little
+reservoir, returning with a sweet draught for each of the party.
+
+"A blessed, blessed thing, is wather!" exclaimed Biddy, this time
+finding the relief she sought, "and a thousand blessings on _you,_
+Mr. Mulford, who have niver done us anything but good."
+
+Rose looked a still higher eulogy on the young man, and even Mrs.
+Budd had something commendatory and grateful to say. Jack Tier was
+silent, but he had all his eyes about him, as he now proved.
+
+"We've all on us been so much taken up with our own affairs,"
+remarked the steward's assistant, "that we've taken but little
+notice of the neighbourhood. If that is n't the brig, Mr. Mulford,
+running through this very passage, with stun'sails set alow and
+aloft, I do n't know the Molly Swash when I see her!"
+
+"The brig!" exclaimed the mate, recollecting the vessels he had seen
+at the break-of-day, for the first time in hours. "Can it be
+possible that the craft I made out to the southward, is the brig?"
+
+"Look, and judge for yourself, sir. There she comes, like a
+race-horse, and if she holds her present course, she must pass
+somewhere within a mile or so of us, if we stay where we are."
+
+Mulford did look, as did all with him. There was the Swash, sure
+enough, coming down before the wind, and under a cloud of canvas.
+She might be still a league, or a league and a half distant, but, at
+the rate at which she was travelling, that distance would soon be
+past. She was running through the passage, no doubt with a view to
+proceed to the Dry Tortugas, to look after the schooner, Spike
+having the hope that he had dodged his pursuers on the coast of
+Cuba. The mate now looked for the ship, in the north-western board,
+believing, as he did, that she was the sloop-of-war. That vessel had
+gone about, and was standing to the southward, on a taut bowline.
+She was still a long way off, three or four leagues at least, but
+the change she had made in her position, since last seen, proved
+that she was a great sailer. Then she was more than hull down,
+whereas, now, she was near enough to let the outline of a long,
+straight fabric be discovered beneath her canvas.
+
+"It is hardly possible that Spike should not see the vessel here in
+the northern board," Mulford observed to Tier, who had been
+examining the ship with him. "The lookout is usually good on board
+the Swash, and, just now, should certainly be as good as common.
+Spike is no dawdler with serious business before him."
+
+"He's a willain!" muttered Jack Tier.
+
+The mate regarded his companion with some surprise. Jack was a very
+insignificant-looking personage in common, and one would scarcely
+pause to give him a second look, unless it might be to laugh at his
+rotundity and little waddling legs. But, now, the mate fancied he
+was swelling with feelings that actually imparted somewhat more than
+usual stature and dignity to his appearance. His face was full of
+indignation, and there was something about the eye, that to Mulford
+was inexplicable. As Rose, however, had related to him the scene
+that took place on the islet, at the moment when Spike was
+departing, the mate supposed that Jack still felt a portion of the
+resentment that such a collision would be apt to create. From the
+expression of Jack's countenance at that instant, it struck him
+Spike might not be exactly safe, should accident put it in the power
+of the former to do him an injury.
+
+It was now necessary to decide on the course that ought to be
+pursued. The bag contained sufficient food to last the party several
+days, and a gallon of water still remained in the cavity of the
+rock. This last was collected and put in one of the breakers, which
+was emptied of the salt water in order to receive it. As water,
+however, was the great necessity in that latitude, Mulford did not
+deem it prudent to set sail with so small a supply, and he
+accordingly commenced a search, on some of the adjacent rocks, Jack
+Tier accompanying him. They succeeded in doubling their stock of
+water, and collected several shell-fish, that the females found
+exceedingly grateful and refreshing. On the score of hunger and
+thirst, indeed, no one was now suffering. By judiciously sipping a
+little water at a time, and retaining it in the mouth before
+swallowing, the latter painful feeling had been gotten rid of; and
+as for food, there was even more than was actually needed, and that
+of a very good quality. It is probable that standing in the water
+for hours, as Rose, and her aunt, and Biddy had been obliged to do,
+had contributed to lessen the pain endured from thirst, though they
+had all suffered a good deal from that cause, especially while the
+sun shone.
+
+Mulford and Tier were half an hour in obtaining the water. By the
+end of that period the brigantine was so near as to render her hull
+distinctly visible. It was high time to decide on their future
+course. The sail had been brailed when the boat reached the rock,
+and the boat itself lay on the side of the latter opposite to the
+brig, and where no part of it could be seen to those on board the
+Swash, with the exception of the mast. Under the circumstances,
+therefore, Mulford thought it wisest to remain where they were, and
+let the vessel pass, before they attempted to proceed toward Key
+West, their intended place of refuge. In order to do this, however,
+it was necessary to cause the whole party to lie down, in such a way
+as to be hid by the inequalities in the rock, as it was now very
+evident the brig would pass within half a mile of them. Hitherto, it
+was not probable that they had been seen, and by using due caution,
+the chances of Spike's overlooking them altogether amounted nearly
+to certainty.
+
+The necessary arrangements were soon made, the boat's masts
+unstepped, the party placed behind their covers, and the females
+comfortably bestowed in the spare sail, where they might got a
+little undisturbed sleep after the dreadful night, or morning, they
+had passed. Even Jack Tier lay down to catch his nap, as the most
+useful manner of bestowing himself for a couple of hours; the time
+Mulford had mentioned as the period of their stay where they were.
+
+As for the mate, vigilance was his portion, and he took his
+position, hid like all the rest, where he could watch the movements
+of his old craft. In about twenty minutes, the brig was quite near;
+so near that Mulford not only saw the people on board her, who
+showed themselves in the rigging, but fancied he could recognise
+their persons. As yet, nothing had occurred in the way of change,
+but, just as the Swash got abreast of the rock, she began to take in
+her studding-sails, and that hurriedly, as is apt to occur on board
+a vessel in sudden emergencies. Our young man was a little alarmed
+at first, believing that they might have been discovered, but he was
+soon induced to think that the crew of the brigantine had just then
+begun to suspect the character of the ship to the northward. That
+vessel had been drawing near all this time, and was now only some
+three leagues distant. Owing to the manner in which she headed, or
+bows on, it was not a very easy matter to tell the character of this
+stranger, though the symmetry and squareness of his yards rendered
+it nearly certain he was a cruiser. Though Spike could not expect to
+meet his old acquaintance here, after the chase he had so lately led
+her, down on the opposite coast, he might and would have his
+misgivings, and Mulford thought it was his intention to haul up
+close round the northern angle of the reef, and maintain his
+advantage of the wind, over the stranger. If this were actually
+done, it might expose the boat to view, for the brig would pass
+within a quarter of a mile of it, and on the side of the rock on
+which it lay. It was too late, however, to attempt a change, since
+the appearance of human beings in such a place would be certain to
+draw the brig's glasses on them, and the glasses must at once let
+Spike know who they were. It remained, therefore, only to await the
+result as patiently as possible.
+
+A very few minutes removed all doubt. The brig hauled as close round
+the reef as she dared to venture, and in a very short time the boat
+lay exposed to view to all on board her. The vessel was now so near
+that Mulford plainly saw the boatswain get upon the coach-house, or
+little hurricane-house deck, where Spike stood examining the ship
+with his glass, and point out the boat, where it lay at the side of
+the rock. In an instant, the glass was levelled at the spot, and the
+movements on board the brig immediately betrayed to Mulford that the
+boat was recognised. Sail was shortened on board the Swash, and men
+were seen preparing to lower her stern boat, while everything
+indicated that the vessel was about to be hove-to. There was no time
+now to be lost, but the young man immediately gave the alarm.
+
+No sooner did the party arise and show themselves, than the crew of
+the Swash gave three cheers. By the aid of the glass, Spike
+doubtless recognised their persons, and the fact was announced to
+the men, by way of stimulating their exertions. This gave an
+additional spur to the movements of those on the rock, who hastened
+into their own boat, and made sail as soon as possible.
+
+It was far easier to do all that has been described, than to
+determine on the future course. Capture was certain if the fugitives
+ventured into the open water, and their only hope was to remain on
+the reef. If channels for the passage of the boat could be found,
+escape was highly probable, as the schooner's boat could sail much
+faster than the brig's boat could row, fast as Mulford knew the last
+to be. But the experience of the morning had told the mate that the
+rock rose too near the surface, in many places, for the boat, small
+as it was, to pass over it; and he must trust a great deal to
+chance. Away he went, however, standing along a narrow channel,
+through which the wind just permitted him to lay, with the sail
+occasionally shaking.
+
+By this time the Swash had her boat in the water, manned with four
+powerful oars, Spike steering it in his own person. Our young mate
+placed Tier in the bows, to point out the deepest water, and kept
+his sail a rap full, in order to get ahead as fast as possible.
+Ahead he did get, but it was on a course that soon brought him out
+in the open water of the main passage through the reef, leaving
+Spike materially astern. The latter now rose in his boat, and made a
+signal with his hat, which the boatswain perfectly understood. The
+latter caused the brig to ware short round on her heel, and boarded
+his foretack in chase, hauling up into the passage as soon as he
+could again round the reef. Mulford soon saw that it would never do
+for him to venture far from the rocks, the brig going two feet to
+his one, though not looking quite as high as he did in the boat. But
+the Swash had her guns, and it was probable they would be used
+rather than he should escape. When distant two hundred yards from
+the reef, therefore, he tacked. The new course brought the fugitives
+nearly at right angles to that steered by Spike, who stood directly
+on, as if conscious that, sooner or later, such a rencounter must
+occur. It would seem that the tide was setting through the passage,
+for when the boat of Mulford again reached the reef, it was
+considerably to windward of the channel out of which she had issued,
+and opposite to another which offered very opportunely for her
+entrance. Into this new channel, then, the mate somewhat blindly
+ran, feeling the necessity of getting out of gun-shot of the brig at
+every hazard. She at least could not follow him among the rocks, let
+Spike, in his boat, proceed as he might.
+
+According to appearances, Spike was not likely to be very
+successful. He was obliged to diverge from his course, in order to
+go into the main passage at the very point where Mulford had just
+before done the same thing, and pull along the reef to windward, in
+order to get into the new channel, into which the boat he was
+pursuing had just entered. This brought him not only astern again,
+but a long bit astern, inasmuch as he was compelled to make the
+circuit described. On he went, however, as eager in the chase as the
+hound with his game in view.
+
+Mulford's boat seemed to fly, and glided ahead at least three feet
+to that of Spike's two. The direction of the channel it was in,
+brought it pretty close to the wind, but the water was quite smooth,
+and our mate managed to keep the sail full, and his little craft at
+the same time quite near the weatherly side of the rocks. In the
+course of ten minutes the fugitives were fully a mile from the brig,
+which was unable to follow them, but kept standing off and on, in
+the main passage, waiting the result. At one time Mulford thought
+the channel would bring him out into open water again, on the
+northern side of the reef, and more than a mile to the eastward of
+the point where the ship-channel in which the Swash was plying
+commenced; but an accidental circumstance prevented his standing in
+far enough to ascertain the fact. That circumstance was as follows:
+
+In running a mile and a half over the reef, in the manner described,
+Mulford had left the boat of Spike quite half a mile astern. He was
+now out of gun-shot from the brig, or at least beyond the range of
+her grape, the only missile he feared, and so far to windward that
+he kept his eye on every opening to the southward, which he fancied
+might allow of his making a stretch deeper into the mazes of the
+reef, among which he believed it easiest for him to escape, and to
+weary the oarsmen of his pursuers. Two or three of these openings
+offered as he glided along, but it struck him that they all looked
+so high that the boat would not lay through them--an opinion in
+which he was right. At length he came abreast of one that seemed
+straight and clear of obstacles as far as he could see, and through
+which he might run with a flowing sheet. Down went his helm, and
+about went his boat, running away to the southward as fast as ever.
+
+Had Spike followed, doubled the same shoal, and kept away again in
+the same channel as had been done by the boat he chased, all his
+hopes of success must have vanished at once. This he did not
+attempt, therefore; but, sheering into one of the openings which the
+mate had rejected, he cut off quite half a mile in his distance.
+This was easy enough for him to accomplish, as a row-boat would pull
+even easier, near to the wind, than with the wind broad on its bow.
+In consequence of this short cut, therefore, Spike was actually
+crossing out into Mulford's new channel, just as the latter had
+handsomely cleared the mouth of the opening through which he
+effected his purpose.
+
+It is scarcely necessary to say that the two boats must have been
+for a few minutes quite near to each other; so near, indeed, did the
+fugitives now pass to their pursuers, that it would have been easy
+for them to have conversed, had they been so disposed. Not a word
+was spoken, however, but Mulford went by, leaving Spike about a
+hundred yards astern. This was a trying moment to the latter, and
+the devil tempted him to seek his revenge. He had not come unarmed
+on his enterprise, but three or four loaded muskets lay in the
+stern-sheets of his yawl. He looked at his men, and saw that they
+could not hold out much longer to pull as they had been pulling.
+Then he looked at Mulford's boat, and saw it gliding away from him
+at a rate that would shortly place it another half mile in advance.
+He seized a musket, and raised it to his shoulder, nay, was in the
+act of taking aim at his mate, when Rose, who watched his movements,
+threw herself before Harry, and if she did not actually save his
+life, at least prevented Spike's attempt on it for that occasion. In
+the course of the next ten minutes the fugitives had again so far
+gained on their pursuers, that the latter began to see that their
+efforts were useless. Spike muttered a few bitter curses, and told
+his men to lay on their oars.
+
+"It's well for the runaway," he added, "that the gal put herself
+between us, else would his grog have been stopped for ever. I've
+long suspected this; but had I been sure of it, the Gulf Stream
+would have had the keeping of his body, the first dark night we were
+in it together. Lay on your oars, men, lay on your oars; I'm afeared
+the villian will get through our fingers, a'ter all."
+
+The men obeyed, and then, for the first time, did they turn their
+heads, to look at those they had been so vehemently pursuing. The
+other boat was quite half a mile from them, and it had again tacked.
+This last occurrence induced Spike to pull slowly ahead, in quest of
+another short passage to cut the fugitives off; but no such opening
+offered.
+
+"There he goes about again, by George!" exclaimed Spike. "Give way,
+lads--give way; an easy stroke, for if he is embayed, he can't
+escape us!"
+
+Sure enough, poor Mulford _was_ embayed, and could see no outlet by
+which to pass ahead. He tacked his boat two or three times, and he
+wore round as often; but on every side shoals, or rocks that
+actually rose above the surface of the water, impeded his course.
+The fact was not to be concealed; after all his efforts, and so many
+promises of success, not only was his further progress ahead cut
+off, but equally so was retreat. The passage was not wide enough to
+admit the hope of getting by his pursuers, and the young man came to
+the conclusion that his better course was to submit with dignity to
+his fate. For himself he had no hope--he knew Spike's character too
+well for that; but he did not apprehend any great immediate danger
+to his companions. Spike had a coarse, brutal admiration for Rose!
+but her expected fortune, which was believed to be of more amount
+than was actually the case, was a sort of pledge that he would not
+willingly put himself in a situation that would prevent the
+possibility of enjoying it. Strange, hurried, and somewhat confused
+thoughts passed through Harry Mulford's mind, as he brailed his
+sail, and waited for his captors to approach and take possession of
+his boat and himself. This was done quietly, and with very few words
+on the part of Spike.
+
+Mulford would have liked the appearance of things better had his old
+commander cursed him, and betrayed other signs of the fury that was
+boiling in his very soul. On the contrary, never had Stephen Spike
+seemed more calm, or under better self-command. He smiled, and
+saluted Mrs. Budd, just as if nothing unpleasant had occurred, and
+alluded to the sharpness of the chase with facetiousness and seeming
+good-humour. The females were deceived by this manner, and hoped,
+after all, that the worst that would happen would be a return to
+their old position on board the Swash. This was being so much better
+off than their horrible situation on the wreck, that the change was
+not frightful to them.
+
+"What has become of the schooner, Mr. Mulford?" asked Spike, as the
+boats began to pass down the channel to return to the brig--two of
+the Swash's men taking their seats in that which had been captured,
+along with their commander, while the other two got a tow from the
+use of the sail. "I see you have the boat here that we used
+alongside of her, and suppose you know something of the craft
+itself."
+
+"She capsized with us in a squall," answered the mate, "and we only
+left the wreck this morning."
+
+"Capsized!--hum--that was a hard fate, to be sure, and denotes bad
+seamanship. Now I've sailed all sorts of craft these forty years, or
+five-and-thirty at least, and never cap-sized anything in my life.
+Stand by there for'ard to hold on by that rock."
+
+A solitary cap of the coral rose above the water two or three feet,
+close to the channel, and was the rock to which Spike alluded. It
+was only some fifty feet in diameter, and of an oval form, rising
+quite above the ordinary tides, as was apparent by its appearance.
+It is scarcely necessary to say it had no other fresh water than
+that which occasionally fell on its surface, which surface being
+quite smooth, retained very little of the rain it received. The boat
+was soon alongside of this rock, where it was held broadside-to by
+the two seamen.
+
+"Mr. Mulford, do me the favour to step up here," said Spike, leading
+the way on to the rock himself. "I have a word to say to you before
+we get on board the old Molly once more."
+
+Mulford silently complied, fully expecting that Spike intended to
+blow his brains out, and willing the bloody deed should be done in a
+way to be as little shocking to Rose as circumstances would allow.
+But Spike manifested no such intention. A more refined cruelty was
+uppermost in his mind; and his revenge was calculated, and took care
+to fortify itself with some of the quibbles and artifices of the
+law. He might not be exactly right in his legal reservations, but he
+did not the less rely on their virtue.
+
+"Hark'e, Mr. Mulford," said Spike, sharply, as soon as both were on
+the rock, "you have run from my brig, thereby showing your distaste
+for her; and I've no disposition to keep a man who wishes to quit
+me. Here you are, sir, on _terrum firm,_ as the scholars call it;
+and here you have my full permission to remain. I wish you a good
+morning, sir; and will not fail to report, when we get in, that you
+left the brig of your own pleasure."
+
+"You will not have the cruelty to abandon me on this naked rock,
+Captain Spike, and that without a morsel of food, or a drop of
+water."
+
+"Wather is a blessed thing!" exclaimed Biddy. "Do not think of
+lavin' the gentleman widout wather."
+
+"You left _me,_ sir, without food or water, and you can fit out your
+own rock--yes, d--e, sir, you left me _under fire,_ and that is a
+thing no true-hearted man would have thought of. Stand by to make
+sail, boys; and if he offer to enter the boat, pitch him out with
+the boat-hooks."
+
+Spike was getting angry, and he entered the boat again, without
+perceiving that Rose had left it. Light of foot, and resolute of
+spirit, the beautiful girl, handsomer than ever perhaps, by her
+excited feelings and dishevelled hair, had sprung on the rock, as
+Spike stepped into the boat forward, and when the latter turned
+round, after loosening the sail, he found he was drifting away from
+the very being who was the object of all his efforts. Mulford,
+believing that Rose was to be abandoned as well as himself, received
+the noble girl in his arms, though ready to implore Spike, on his
+knees, to return and at least to take her off. But Spike wanted no
+solicitation on that point. He returned of his own accord, and had
+just reached the rock again when a report of a gun drew all eyes
+toward the brig.
+
+The Swash had again run out of the passage, and was beating up,
+close to the reef as she dared to go, with a signal flying. All the
+seamen at once understood the cause of this hint. The strange sail
+was getting too near, and everybody could see that it was the
+sloop-of-war. Spike looked at Rose, a moment, in doubt. But Mulford
+raised his beloved in his arms, and carried her to the side of the
+rock, stepping on board the boat.
+
+Spike watched the movements of the young man with jealous vigilance,
+and no sooner was Rose placed on her seat, than he motioned
+significantly to the mate to quit the boat.
+
+"I cannot and will not voluntarily, Captain Spike," answered Harry,
+calmly. "It would be committing a sort of suicide."
+
+A sign brought two of the men to the captain's assistance. While the
+latter held Rose in her place, the sailors shoved Harry on the rock
+again. Had Mulford been disposed to resist, these two men could not
+very easily have ejected him from the boat, if they could have done
+it at all; but he knew there were others in reserve, and feared that
+blood might be shed, in the irritated state of Spike, in the
+presence of Rose. While, therefore, he would not be accessary to his
+own destruction, he would not engage in what he knew would prove not
+only a most harassing, but a bootless resistance. The consequence
+was that the boats proceeded, leaving him alone on the rock.
+
+It was perhaps fortunate for Rose that she fainted. Her condition
+occupied her aunt and Biddy, and Spike was enabled to reach his brig
+without any further interruption. Rose was taken on board still
+nearly insensible, while her two female companions were so much
+confused and distressed, that neither could have given a reasonably
+clear account of what had just occurred. Not so with Jack Tier,
+however. That singular being noted all that passed, seated in the
+eyes of the boat, away from the confusion that prevailed in its
+stern-sheets, and apparently undisturbed by it.
+
+As the party was sailing back toward the brig, the lighthouse boat
+towing the Swash's yawl, Jack took as good an observation of the
+channels of that part of the reef as his low position would allow.
+He tried to form in his mind a sort of chart of the spot, for, from
+the instant Mulford was thus deserted, the little fellow had formed
+a stern resolution to attempt his rescue. How that was to be done,
+however, was more than he yet knew; and when they reached the brig's
+side, Tier may be said to have been filled with good intentions,
+rather than with any very available knowledge to enable him to put
+them in execution.
+
+As respects the two vessels, the arrival of Spike on board his own
+was not a moment too soon. The Poughkeepsie, for the stranger to the
+northward was now ascertained to be that sloop-of-war, was within
+long gun-shot by this time, and near enough to make certain, by
+means of her glasses, of the character of the craft with which she
+was closing. Luckily for the brig she lay in the channel so often
+mentioned, and through which both she and her present pursuer had so
+lately come, on their way to the northward. This brought her to
+windward, as the wind then stood, with a clear passage before her.
+Not a moment was lost. No sooner were the females sent below, than
+sail was made on the brig, and she began to beat through the
+passage, making long legs and short ones. She was chased, as a
+matter of course, and that hard, the difference in sailing between
+the two crafts not being sufficiently great to render the
+brigantine's escape by any means certain, while absolutely within
+the range of those terrible missiles that were used by the
+man-of-war's men.
+
+But Spike soon determined not to leave a point so delicate as that
+of his own and his vessel's security to be decided by a mere
+superiority in the way of heels. The Florida Reef, with all its
+dangers, windings, and rocks, was as well known to him as the
+entrances to the port of New York. In addition to its larger
+channels, of which there are three or four, through which ships of
+size can pass, it had many others that would admit only vessels of a
+lighter draught of water. The brig was not flying light, it is true,
+but she was merely in good ballast trim, and passages would be
+available to her, into which the Poughkeepsie would not dare to
+venture. One of these lesser channels was favourably placed to
+further the escape of Spike, and he shoved the brig into it after
+the struggle had lasted less than an hour. This passage offered a
+shorter cut to the south side of the reef than the main channel, and
+the sloop-of-war, doubtless perceiving the uselessness of pursuit,
+under such circumstances, wore round on her heel, and came down
+through the main channel again, just entering the open water, near
+the spot where the schooner had sunk, as the sun was setting.
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_Shallow._ Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pound?
+
+_Evans._ Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny.
+
+_Shallow._ I know the young gentlewoman; she has good gifts.
+
+_Evans._ Seven hundred pounds, and possibilities, is good gifts.
+
+Shakspeare.
+
+As for Spike, he had no intention of going to the southward of the
+Florida Reef again until his business called him there. The lost bag
+of doubloons was still gleaming before his imagination, and no
+sooner did the Poughkeepsie bear up, than he shortened sail,
+standing back and forth in his narrow and crooked channel, rather
+losing ground than gaining, though he took great pains not to let
+his artifice be seen. When the Poughkeepsie was so far to the
+northward as to render it safe, he took in everything but one or two
+of his lowest sails, and followed easily in the same direction. As
+the sloop-of-war carried her light and loftier sails, she remained
+visible to the people of the Swash long after the Swash had ceased
+to be visible to her. Profiting by this circumstance, Spike entered
+the main channel again some time before it was dark, and selected a
+safe anchorage there that was well known to him; a spot where
+sufficient sand had collected on the coral to make good holding
+ground, and where a vessel would be nearly embayed, though always to
+windward of her channel going out, by the formation of the reef.
+Here he anchored, in order to wait until morning ere he ventured
+further north. During the whole of that dreadful day, Rose had
+remained in her cabin, disconsolate, nearly unable, as she was
+absolutely unwilling to converse. Now it was that she felt the total
+insufficiency of a mind feeble as that of her aunt's to administer
+consolation to misery like her own. Nevertheless, the affectionate
+solicitude of Mrs. Budd, as well as that of the faithful creature,
+Biddy, brought some relief, and reason and resignation began slowly
+to resume their influence. Yet was the horrible picture of Harry,
+dying by inches, deserted in the midst of the waters on his solitary
+rock, ever present to her thoughts, until, once or twice, her
+feelings verged on madness. Prayer brought its customary relief,
+however; and we do not think that we much exaggerate the fact, when
+we say that Rose passed fully one-half of that terrible afternoon on
+her knees.
+
+As for Jack Tier, he was received on board the brig much as if
+nothing had happened. Spike passed and repassed him fifty times,
+without even an angry look, or a word of abuse; and the
+deputy-steward dropped quietly into the duties of his office,
+without meeting with either reproach or hindrance. The only
+allusion, indeed, that was made to his recent adventures, took place
+in a conversation that was held on the subject in the galley, the
+interlocutors being Jack himself, Josh, the steward, and Simon, the
+cook.
+
+"Where you been scullin' to, 'bout on dat reef, Jack, wid dem' ere
+women, I won'er now?" demanded Josh, after tasting the cabin soup,
+in order to ascertain how near it was to being done. "It'ink it no
+great fun to dodge 'bout among dem rock in a boat, for anudder
+hurricane might come when a body least expeck him."
+
+"Oh," said Jack, cavalierly, "two hurricanes no more come in one
+month, than two shot in the same hole. We've been turtlin', that's
+all. I wish we had in your coppers, cook, some of the critturs that
+we fell in with in our cruise."
+
+"Wish'e had, master steward, wid all my heart," answered the fat,
+glistening potentate of the galley. "But, hark'ee, Jack; what became
+of our young mate, can 'e tell? Some say he get kill at'e Dry
+Tortugas, and some say he war' scullin' round in dat boat you hab,
+wid'e young woman, eh?"
+
+"Ah, boys," answered Jack, mournfully, "sure enough, what _has_
+become of him?"
+
+"You know, why can't you tell? What good to hab secret among
+friend."
+
+"_Are_ ye his friends, lads? Do you really feel as if you could give
+a poor soul in its agony a helpin' hand?"
+
+"Why not?" said Josh, in a reproachful way. "Misser Mulford'e bess
+mate dis brig ebber get; and I don't see why Cap'in Spike-want to be
+rid of him."
+
+"Because he's a willian!" returned Jack between his grated teeth.
+"D'ye know what that means in English, master Josh; and can you and
+cook here, both of whom have sailed with the man years in and years
+out, say whether my words be true or not?"
+
+"Dat as a body understand 'em. Accordin' to some rule, Stephen Spike
+not a werry honest man; but accordin' to 'nudder some, he as good as
+any body else."
+
+"Yes, dat just be upshot of de matter," put in Simon, approvingly.
+"De whole case lie in dat meanin'."
+
+"D'ye call it right to leave a human being to starve, or to suffer
+for water, on a naked rock, in the midst of the ocean?"
+
+"Who do dat?"
+
+"The willian who is captain of this brig; and all because he thinks
+young eyes and bloomin' cheeks prefar young eyes and bloomin' cheeks
+to his own grizzly beard and old look-outs."
+
+"Dat bad; dat werry bad," said Josh, shaking his head, a way of
+denoting dissatisfaction, in which Simon joined him; for no crime
+appeared sufficiently grave in the eyes of these two sleek and
+well-fed officials to justify such a punishment. "Dat mons'ous bad,
+and cap'in ought to know better dan do _dat_. I nebber starves a
+mouse, if I catches him in de bread-locker. Now, dat a sort of
+reason'ble punishment, too; but I nebber does it. If mouse eat my
+bread, it do seem right to tell mouse dat he hab enough, and dat he
+must not eat any more for a week, or a mont', but it too cruel for
+me, and I nebber does it; no, I t'rows de little debil overboard,
+and lets him drown like a gentle'em."
+
+"Y-e-s," drawled out Simon, in a philanthropical tone of voice,
+"dat'e best way. What good it do to torment a fellow critter? If
+Misser Mulford run, why put him down run, and let him go, I say,
+on'y mulk his wages; but what good it do anybody to starve him? Now
+dis is my opinion, gentle'em, and dat is, dat starwation be wuss dan
+choleric. Choleric kill, I knows, and so does starwation kill; but
+of de two, gib me de choleric fuss; if I gets well of dat, den try
+starwation if you can."
+
+"I'm glad to hear you talk in this manner, my hearties," put in
+Jack; "and I hope I may find you accommodatin' in a plan I've got to
+help the maty out of this difficulty. As a friend of Stephen Spike's
+I would do it; for it must be a terrible thing to die with such a
+murder on one's soul. Here's the boat that we pick'd up at the
+light-house, yonder, in tow of the brig at this minute; and there's
+everything in her comfortable for a good long run, as I know from
+having sailed in her; and what I mean is this: as we left Mr.
+Mulford, I took the bearings and distance of the rock he was on,
+d'ye understand, and think I could find my way back to it. You see
+the brig is travelin' slowly north ag'in, and afore long we shall be
+in the neighbourhood of that very rock. We, cook and stewards, will
+be called on to keep an anchor-watch, if the brig fetches up, as I
+heard the captain tell the Spanish gentleman he thought she would;
+and then we can take the boat that's in the water and go and have a
+hunt for the maty."
+
+The two blacks looked at Tier earnestly; then they turned their
+heads to look at each other. The idea struck each as bold and novel,
+but each saw serious difficulties in it. At length Josh, as became
+his superior station, took on himself the office of expressing the
+objections that occurred to his mind.
+
+"Dat nebber do!" exclaimed the steward. "We be's quite willin' to
+sarve'e mate, who's a good gentle'em, and as nice a young man as
+ever sung out, `hard a-lee," but we must t'ink little bit of number
+one; or, for dat matter, of number two, as Simon would be
+implercated as well as myself. If Cap'in Spike once knew we've lent
+a hand in sich a job, he'd never overlook it. I knows him, _well;_
+and that is sayin' as much as need be said of any man's character.
+You nebber catch _me_ runnin' myself into his jaws; would rather
+fight a shark widout any knife. No, no--I knows him _well_. Den
+comes anudder werry unanswerable objecsh'un, and dat is, dat'e brig
+owe bot' Simon and I money. Fifty dollars, each on us, if she owe
+one cent. Now, do you t'ink in cander, Jack, dat two colour'
+gentle'em, like us, can t'row away our fortins like two sons of a
+York merchant dat has inherited a hundred t'ousand dollar tudder
+day?"
+
+"There is no occasion for running at all, or for losing your wages."
+
+"How you get'e mate off, den? Can he walk away on de water? If so,
+let him go widout us. A werry good gentle'em is Misser Mulford, but
+not good enough to mulk Simon and me out of fifty dollar each."
+
+"You will not hear my project, Josh, and so will never know what I
+would be at."
+
+"Well, come, tell him jest as you surposes him. Now listen, Simon,
+so dat not a word be loss."
+
+"My plan is to take the boat, if we anchor, as anchor I know we
+shall, and go and find the rock and bring Mr. Mulford off; then we
+can come back to the brig, and get on board ourselves, and let the
+mate sail away in the boat by himself. On this plan nobody will run,
+and no wages be mulcted."
+
+"But dat take time and an anchor-watch last but two hour, surposin'
+even dat'ey puts all t'ree of us in de same watch."
+
+"Spike usually does that, you know. `Let the cook and the stewards
+keep the midnight watch,' he commonly says, `and that will give the
+foremost hands a better snooze."'
+
+"Yes, he do say _dat,_ Josh," put in Simon, "most ebbery time we
+comes-to."
+
+"I know he does, and surposes he will say it to-night, if he
+comes-to to-night. But a two hour watch may not be long enough to do
+all you wants; and den, jest t'ink for a moment, should 'e cap'in
+come on deck and hail'e forecastle, and find us all gone, I wouldn't
+be in your skin, Jack, for dis brig, in sich a kerlamity. I knows
+Cap'in Spike well; t'ree time I endebber to run myself, and each
+time he bring me up wid a round turn; so, now-a-days, I nebber
+t'inks of sich a projeck any longer."
+
+"But I do not intend to leave the forecastle without some one on it
+to answer a hail. No, all I want is a companion; for I do not like
+to go out on the reef at midnight, all alone. If one of you will go
+with me, the other can stay and answer the captain's hail, should he
+really come on deck in our watch--a thing very little likely to
+happen. When once his head is on his pillow, a'ter a hard day's
+work, it's not very apt to be lifted ag'in without a call, or a
+squall. If you do know Stephen Spike _well,_ Josh, I know him
+better."
+
+"Well, Jack, dis here is a new idee, d'ye see, and a body must take
+time to consider on it. If Simon and I do ship for dis v'y'ge, 't
+will be for lub of Mr. Mulford, and not for _his_ money or
+_your'n"_.
+
+This was all the encouragement of his project Jack Tier could
+obtain, on that occasion, from either his brother steward, or from
+the cook. These blacks were well enough disposed to rescue an
+innocent and unoffending man from the atrocious death to which Spike
+had condemned his mate, but neither lost sight of his own security
+and interest. They promised Tier not to betray him, however; and he
+had the fullest confidence in their pledges. They who live together
+in common, usually understand the feeling that prevails, on any
+given point, in their own set; and Jack felt pretty certain that
+Harry was a greater favourite in and about the camboose than the
+captain. On that feeling he relied, and he was fain to wait the
+course of events, ere he came to any absolute conclusion as to his
+own course.
+
+The interview in the galley took place about half an hour before the
+brig anchored for the night. Tier, who often assisted on such
+occasions, went aloft to help secure the royal, one of the gaskets
+of which had got loose, and from the yard he had an excellent
+opportunity to take a look at the reef, the situation of the vessel,
+and the probable bearings of the rock on which poor Mulford had been
+devoted to a miserable death. This opportunity was much increased by
+Spike's hailing him, while on the yard, and ordering him to take a
+good look at the sloop-of-war, and at the same time to ascertain if
+any boats were "prowlin' about, in order to make a set upon us in
+the night." On receiving this welcome order, Jack answered with a
+cheerful "Ay, ay, sir," and standing up on the yard, he placed an
+arm around the mast, and remained for a long time making his
+observations. The command to look-out for boats would have been a
+sufficient excuse had he continued on the yard as long as it was
+light.
+
+Jack had no difficulty in finding the Poughkeepsie, which was
+already through the passage, and no longer visible from the deck.
+She appeared to be standing to the northward and westward, under
+easy canvas, like a craft that was in no hurry. This fact was
+communicated to Spike in the usual way. The latter seemed pleased,
+and he answered in a hearty manner, just as if no difficulty had
+ever occurred between him and the steward's assistant.
+
+"Very well, Jack! bravo, Jack!--now take a good look for boats;
+you'll have light enough for that this half hour," cried the
+captain. "If any are out, you'll find them pulling down the channel,
+or maybe they'll try to shorten the cut, by attempting to pull
+athwart the reef. Take a good and steady look for them, my man."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir; I'll do all I can with naked eyes," answered Jack,
+"but I could do better, sir, if they would only send me up a glass
+by these here signal-halyards. With a glass, a fellow might speak
+with some sartainty."
+
+Spike seemed struck with the truth of this suggestion; and he soon
+sent a glass aloft by the signal-halyards. Thus provided, Jack
+descended as low as the cross-trees, where he took his seat, and
+began a survey at his leisure. While thus employed, the brig was
+secured for the night, her decks were cleared, and the people were
+ordered to get their suppers, previously to setting an anchor-watch,
+and turning-in for the night. No one heeded the movements of
+Tier,--for Spike had gone into his own state-room,--with the
+exception of Josh and Simon. Those two worthies were still in the
+galley, conversing on the subject of Jack's recent communications;
+and ever and anon one of them would stick his head out of the door
+and look aloft, withdrawing it, and shaking it significantly, as
+soon as his observations were ended.
+
+As for Tier, he was seated quite at his ease; and having slung his
+glass to one of the shrouds, in a way to admit of its being turned
+as on a pivot, he had every opportunity for observing accurately,
+and at his leisure. The first thing Jack did, was to examine the
+channel very closely, in order to make sure that no boats were in
+it, after which he turned the glass with great eagerness toward the
+reef, in the almost hopeless office of ascertaining something
+concerning Mulford. In point of fact, the brig had anchored quite
+three leagues from the solitary rock of the deserted mate, and,
+favoured as he was by his elevation, Jack could hardly expect to
+discern so small and low an object as that rock at so great a
+distance. Nevertheless, the glass was much better than common. It
+had been a present to Spike from one who was careful in his
+selections of such objects, and who had accidentally been under a
+serious obligation to the captain. Knowing the importance of a good
+look, as regards the boats, Spike had brought this particular
+instrument, of which, in common, he was very chary, from his own
+state-room, and sent it aloft, in order that Jack might have every
+available opportunity of ascertaining his facts. It was this glass,
+then, which was the means of the important discoveries the little
+fellow, who was thus perched on the fore-topmast cross-trees of the
+Swash, did actually succeed in making.
+
+Jack actually started, when he first ascertained how distinctly and
+near the glass he was using brought distant objects. The gulls that
+sailed across its disk, though a league off, appeared as if near
+enough to be touched by the hand, and even their feathers gave out
+not only their hues, but their forms. Thus, too, was it with the
+surface of the ocean, of which the little waves that agitated the
+water of the reef, might be seen tossing up and down, at more than
+twice the range of the Poughkeepsie's heaviest gun. Naked rocks, low
+and subdued as they were in colour, too, were to be noted, scattered
+up and down in the panorama. At length Tier fancied his glass
+covered a field that he recognized. It was distant, but might be
+seen from his present elevation. A second look satisfied him he was
+right; and he next clearly traced the last channel in which they had
+endeavoured to escape from Spike, or that in which the boat had been
+taken. Following it along, by slowly moving the glass, he actually
+hit the rock on which Mulford had been deserted. It was peculiar in
+shape, size, and elevation above the water, and connected with the
+circumstance of the channel, which was easily enough seen by the
+colour of the water, and more easily from his height than if he had
+been in it, he could not be mistaken. The little fellow's heart beat
+quick as he made the glass move slowly over its surface, anxiously
+searching for the form of the mate. It was not to be seen. A second,
+and a more careful sweep of the glass, made it certain that the rock
+was deserted.
+
+Although a little reflection might have satisfied any one Mulford
+was not to be sought in that particular spot, so long after he had
+been left there, Jack Tier felt grievously disappointed when he was
+first made certain of the accuracy of his observations. A minute
+later he began to reason on the matter, and he felt more encouraged.
+The rock on which the mate had been abandoned was smooth, and could
+not hold any fresh water that might have been left by the late
+showers. Jack also remembered that it had neither sea-weed nor
+shell-fish. In short, the utmost malice of Spike could not have
+selected, for the immolation of his victim, a more suitable place.
+Now Tier had heard Harry's explanation to Rose, touching the manner
+in which he had waded and swum about the reef that very morning, and
+it at once occurred to him that the young man had too much energy
+and spirit to remain helpless and inactive to perish on a naked
+rock, when there might be a possibility of at least prolonging
+existence, if not of saving it. This induced the steward to turn the
+glass slowly over the water, and along all the ranges of visible
+rock that he could find in that vicinity. For a long time the search
+was useless, the distance rendering such an examination not only
+difficult but painful. At length Jack, about to give up the matter
+in despair, took one sweep with the glass nearer to the brig, as
+much to obtain a general idea of the boat-channels of the reef, as
+in any hope of finding Mulford, when an object moving in the water
+came within the field of the glass. He saw it but for an instant, as
+the glass swept slowly past, but it struck him it was something that
+had life, and was in motion. Carefully going over the same ground
+again, after a long search, he again found what he so anxiously
+sought. A good look satisfied him that he was right. It was
+certainly a man wading along the shallow water of the reef, immersed
+to his waist--and it must be Mulford.
+
+So excited was Jack Tier by this discovery that he trembled like a
+leaf. A minute or two elapsed before he could again use the glass;
+and when he did, a long and anxious search was necessary before so
+small an object could be once more found. Find it he did, however,
+and then he got its range by the vessel, in a way to make sure of
+it. Yes, it was a man, and it was Mulford.
+
+Circumstances conspired to aid Jack in the investigation that
+succeeded. The sun was near setting, but a stream of golden light
+gleamed over the waters, particularly illuminating the portion which
+came within the field of the glass. It appeared then that Harry, in
+his efforts to escape from the rock, and to get nearer to the edge
+of the main channel, where his chances of being seen and rescued
+would be ten-fold what they were on his rock, had moved south, by
+following the naked reef and the shallow places, and was actually
+more than a league nearer to the brig than he would have been had he
+remained stationary. There had been hours in which to make this
+change, and the young man had probably improved them to the utmost.
+
+Jack watched the form that was wading slowly along with an interest
+he had never before felt in the movements of any human being.
+Whether Mulford saw the brig or not, it was difficult to say. She
+was quite two leagues from him, and, now that her sails were furled,
+she offered but little for the eye to rest on at that distance. At
+first, Jack thought the young man was actually endeavouring to get
+nearer to her, though it must have been a forlorn hope that should
+again place him in the hands of Spike. It was, however, a more
+probable conjecture that the young man was endeavouring to reach the
+margin of the passage, where a good deal of rock was above water,
+and near to which he had already managed to reach. At one time Jack
+saw that the mate was obliged to swim, and he actually lost sight of
+him for a time. His form, however, reappeared, and then it slowly
+emerged from the water, and stood erect on a bare rock of some
+extent. Jack breathed freer at this; for Mulford was now on the very
+margin of the channel, and might be easily reached by the boat,
+should he prevail on Josh, or Simon, to attempt the rescue.
+
+At first, Jack Tier fancied that Mulford had knelt to return thanks
+on his arrival at a place of comparative safety; but a second look
+satisfied him that Harry was drinking from one of the little pools
+of fresh water left by the late shower. When he rose from drinking,
+the young man walked about the place, occasionally stooping, signs
+that he was picking up shell-fish for his supper. Suddenly, Mulford
+darted forward, and passed beyond the field of the glass. When Jack
+found him again, he was in the act of turning a small turtle, using
+his knife on the animal immediately after. Had Jack been in danger
+of starvation himself, and found a source of food as ample and as
+grateful as this, he could scarcely have been more delighted. The
+light now began to wane perceptibly, still Harry's movements could
+be discerned. The turtle was killed and dressed, sufficiently at
+least for the mate's purposes, and the latter was seen collecting
+sea-weed, and bits of plank, boards, and sticks of wood, of which
+more or less, in drifting past, had lodged upon the rocks. "Is it
+possible," thought Jack, "that he is so werry partic'lar he can't
+eat his turtle raw! Will he, indeed, venture to light a fire, or has
+he the means?" Mulford was so particular, however, he did venture to
+light a fire, and he had the means. This may be said to be the age
+of matches--not in a connubial, though in an inflammatory sense--and
+the mate had a small stock in a tight box that he habitually carried
+on his person. Tier saw him at work over a little pile he had made
+for a long time, the beams of day departing now so fast as to make
+him fearful he should soon lose his object in the increasing
+obscurity of twilight. Suddenly a light gleamed, and the pile sent
+forth a clear flame. Mulford went to and fro, collecting materials
+to feed his fire, and was soon busied in cooking his turtle. All
+this Tier saw and understood, the light of the flames coming in
+proper time to supply the vacuum left by the departure of that of
+day.
+
+In a minute Tier had no difficulty in seeing the fire that Mulford
+had lighted on his low and insulated domains with the naked eye. It
+gleamed brightly in that solitary place; and the steward was much
+afraid it would be seen by some one on deck, get to be reported to
+Spike, and lead to Harry's destruction after all. The mate appeared
+to be insensible to his danger, however, occasionally casting piles
+of dry sea-weed on his fire, in a way to cause the flames to flash
+up, as if kindled anew by gunpowder. It now occurred to Tier that
+the young man had a double object in lighting this fire, which would
+answer not only the purposes of his cookery, but as a signal of
+distress to anything passing near. The sloop-of-war, though more
+distant than the brig, was in his neighbourhood; and she might
+possibly yet send relief. Such was the state of things when Jack was
+startled by a sudden hail from below. It was Spike's voice, and came
+up to him short and quick.
+
+"Fore-topmast cross-trees, there! What are ye about all this time,
+Master Jack Tier, in them fore-topmast cross-trees, I say?" demanded
+Spike.
+
+"Keeping a look-out for boats from the sloop-of-war, as you bade me,
+sir," answered Jack, coolly.
+
+"D'ye see any, my man? Is the water clear ahead of us, or not?"
+
+"It's getting to be so dark, sir, I can see no longer. While there
+was day-light, no boat was to be seen."
+
+"Come down, man--come down; I've business for you below. The sloop
+is far enough to the nor'ard, and we shall neither see nor hear from
+her to-night. Come down, I say, Jack--come down."
+
+Jack obeyed, and securing the glass, he began to descend the
+rigging. He was soon as low as the top, when he paused a moment to
+take another look. The fire was still visible, shining like a torch
+on the surface of the water, casting its beams abroad like "a good
+deed in a naughty world." Jack was sorry to see it, though he once
+more took its bearing from the brig, in order that he might know
+where to find the spot, in the event of a search for it. When on the
+stretcher of the fore-rigging, Jack stopped and again looked for his
+beacon. It had disappeared, having sunk below the circular formation
+of the earth. By ascending two or three ratlins, it came into view,
+and by going down as low as the stretcher again, it disappeared.
+Trusting that no one, at that hour, would have occasion to go aloft,
+Jack now descended to the deck, and went aft with the spy-glass.
+
+Spike and the Senor Montefalderon were under the coach-house, no one
+else appearing on any part of the quarter-deck. The people were
+eating their suppers, and Josh and Simon were busy in the galley. As
+for the females, they chose to remain in their own cabin, where
+Spike was well pleased to leave them.
+
+"Come this way, Jack," said the captain, in his best-humoured tone
+of voice, "I've a word to say to you. Put the glass in at my
+state-room window, and come hither."
+
+Tier did as ordered.
+
+"So you can make out no boats to the nor'ard, ha, Jack! nothing to
+be seen thereaway?"
+
+"Nothing in the way of a boat, sir."
+
+"Ay, ay, I dare say there's plenty of water, and some rock. The
+Florida Reef has no scarcity of either, to them that knows where to
+look for one, and to steer clear of the other. Hark'e, Jack; so you
+got the schooner under way from the Dry Tortugas, and undertook to
+beat her up to Key West, when she fancied herself a turtle, and over
+she went with you--is that it, my man?"
+
+"The schooner turned turtle with us, sure enough, sir; and we all
+came near drowning on her bottom."
+
+"No sharks in that latitude and longitude, eh Jack?"
+
+"Plenty on 'em, sir; and I thought they would have got us all, at
+one time. More than twenty set of fins were in sight at once, for
+several hours."
+
+"You could hardly have supplied the gentlemen with a leg, or an arm,
+each. But where was the boat all this time--you had the light-house
+boat in tow, I suppose?"
+
+"She had been in tow, sir; but Madam Budd talked so much dictionary
+to the painter, that it got adrift."
+
+"Yet I found you all in it."
+
+"Very true, sir. Mr. Mulford swam quite a mile to reach the rocks,
+and found the boat aground on one on 'em. As soon as he got the
+boat, he made sail, and came and took us off. We had reason to thank
+God he could do so."
+
+Spike looked dark and thoughtful. He muttered the words "swam," and
+"rocks," but was too cautious to allow any expressions to escape
+him, that might betray to the Mexican officer that which was
+uppermost in his mind. He was silent, however, for quite a minute,
+and Jack saw that he had awakened a dangerous source of distrust in
+the captain's breast.
+
+"Well, Jack," resumed Spike, after the pause, "can you tell us
+anything of the doubloons? I nat'rally expected to find them in the
+boat, but there were none to be seen. You scarcely pumped the
+schooner out, without overhauling her lockers, and falling in with
+them doubloons."
+
+"We found them, sure enough, and had them ashore with us, in the
+tent, down to the moment when we sailed."
+
+"When you took them off to the schooner, eh? My life for it, the
+gold was not forgotten."
+
+"It was not, sure enough, sir; but we took it off with us to the
+schooner, and it went down in her when she finally sunk."
+
+Another pause, during which Senor Montefalderon and Captain Spike
+looked significantly at each other.
+
+"Do you think, Jack, you could find the spot where the schooner went
+down?"
+
+"I could come pretty near it, sir, though not on the very spot
+itself. Water leaves no mark over the grave of a sunken ship."
+
+"If you can take us within a reasonable distance, we might find it
+by sweeping for it. Them doubloons are worth some trouble; and their
+recovery would be better than a long v'y'ge to us, any day."
+
+"They would, indeed, Don Esteban," observed the Mexican; "and my
+poor country is not in a condition to bear heavy losses. If Senor
+Jack Tier can find the wreck, and we regain the money, ten of those
+doubloons shall be his reward, though I take them from my own share,
+much diminished as it will be."
+
+"You hear, Jack--here is a chance to make your fortune! You say you
+sailed with me in old times--and old times were good times with this
+brig, though times has changed; but if you sailed with me, in _old_
+times, you must remember that whatever the Swash touched she turned
+to gold."
+
+"I hope you do n't doubt, Captain Spike, my having sailed in the
+brig, not only in old times, but in her best times."
+
+Jack seemed hurt as he put this question, and Spike appeared in
+doubt. The latter gazed at the little, rotund, queer-looking figure
+before him, as if endeavouring to recognise him; and when he had
+done, he passed his hand over his brow, like one who endeavoured to
+recall past objects by excluding those that are present.
+
+"You will then show us the spot where my unfortunate schooner did
+sink, Senor Jack Tier?" put in the Mexican.
+
+"With all my heart, senor, if it is to be found. I think I could
+take you within a cable's length of the place, though hunger, and
+thirst, and sharks, and the fear of drowning, will keep a fellow
+from having a very bright look-out for such a matter."
+
+"In what water do you suppose the craft to lie, Jack?" demanded the
+captain.
+
+"You know as much of that as I do myself, sir. She went down about a
+cable's length from the reef, toward which she was a settin' at the
+time; and had she kept afloat an hour longer, she might have
+grounded on the rocks."
+
+"She 's better where she is, if we can only find her by sweeping. On
+the rocks we could do nothing with her but break her up, and ten to
+one the doubloons would be lost. By the way, Jack, do you happen to
+know where that scoundrel of a mate of mine stowed the money?"
+
+"When we left the island, I carried it down to the boat myself--and
+a good lift I had of it. As sure as you are there, senor, I was
+obliged to take it on a shoulder. When it came out of the boat, Mr.
+Mulford carried it below; and I heard him tell Miss Rose, a'terwards
+that he had thrown it into a bread-locker."
+
+"Where we shall find it, Don Wan, notwithstanding all this veering
+and hauling. The old brig has luck when, doubloons are in question,
+and ever has had since I've commanded her. Jack, we shall have to
+call on the cook and stewards for an anchor-watch to-night. The
+people are a good deal fagged with boxing about this reef so much,
+and I shall want 'em all as fresh to-morrow as they can be got. You
+idlers had better take the middle watches, which will give the
+fore-castle chaps longer naps."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir; we'll manage that for 'em. Josh and Simon can go on at
+twelve, and I will take the watch at two, which will give the men
+all the rest they want, as I can hold out for four hours full. I'm
+as good for an anchor-watch as any man in the brig, Captain Spike."
+
+"That you are, Jack, and better than some on 'em. Take you all
+round, and round it is, you 're a rum 'un, my lad--the queerest
+little jigger that ever lay out on a royal-yard."
+
+Jack might have been a little offended at Spike's compliments, but
+he was certainly not sorry to find him so good-natured, after all
+that had passed. He now left the captain, and his Mexican companion,
+seemingly in close conference together, while he went below himself,
+and dropped as naturally into the routine of his duty, as if he had
+never left the brig. In the cabin he found the females, of course.
+Rose scarce raising her face from the shawl which lay on the bed of
+her own berth. Jack busied himself in a locker near this berth,
+until an opportunity occurred to touch Rose, unseen by her aunt or
+Biddy. The poor heart-stricken girl raised her face, from which all
+the colour had departed, and looked almost vacantly at Jack, as if
+to ask an explanation. Hope is truly, by a most benevolent provision
+of Providence, one of the very last blessings to abandon us. It is
+probable that we are thus gifted, in order to encourage us to rely
+on the great atonement to the last moment, since, without this
+natural endowment to cling to hope, despair might well be the fate
+of millions, who, there is reason to think, reap the benefit of that
+act of divine mercy. It would hardly do to say that anything like
+hope was blended with the look Rose now cast on Jack, but it was
+anxious and inquiring.
+
+The steward bent his head to the locker, bringing his face quite
+near to that of Rose, and whispered--"There is hope, Miss Rose--but
+do not betray me."
+
+These were blessed words for our heroine to hear, and they produced
+an immediate and great revolution in her feelings. Commanding
+herself, however, she looked her questions, instead of trusting even
+to a whisper. Jack did not say any more, just then; but, shortly
+after, he called Rose, whose eyes were now never off him, into the
+main cabin, which was empty. It was so much pleasanter to sleep in
+an airy state-room on deck, that Senor Montefalderon, indeed, had
+given up the use of this cabin, in a great measure, seldom appearing
+in it, except at meals, having taken possession of the deserted
+apartment of Mulford. Josh was in the galley, where he spent most of
+his time, and Rose and Jack had no one to disturb their conference.
+
+"He is safe, Miss Rose--God be praised!" whispered Jack. "Safe for
+the present, at least; with food, and water, and fire to keep him
+warm at night."
+
+It was impossible for Rose not to understand to whom there was
+allusion, though her head became dizzy under the painful confusion
+that prevailed in it. She pressed her temples with both hands, and
+asked a thousand questions with her eyes. Jack considerately handed
+her a glass of water before he proceeded. As soon as he found her a
+little more composed, he related the facts connected with his
+discovery of Mulford, precisely as they had occurred.
+
+"He is now on a large rock--a little island, indeed--where he is
+safe from the ocean unless it comes on to blow a hurricane,"
+concluded Jack, "has fresh water and fresh turtle in the bargain. A
+man might live a month on one such turtle as I saw Mr. Mulford
+cutting up this evening."
+
+"Is there no way of rescuing him from the situation you have
+mentioned, Jack? In a year or two I shall be my own mistress, and
+have money to do as I please with; put me only in the way of taking
+Mr. Mulford from that rock, and I will share all I am worth on earth
+with you, dear Jack."
+
+"Ay, so it is with the whole sex," muttered Tier; "let them only
+once give up their affections to a man, and he becomes dearer to
+them than pearls and rubies! But you know me, Miss Rose, and know
+_why_ and _how well_ I would sarve you. My story and my feelin's are
+as much your secret, as your story and your feelin's is mine. We
+shall pull together, if we do n't pull so very strong. Now, hearken
+to me, Miss Rose, and I will let you into the secret of my plan to
+help Mr. Mulford make a launch."
+
+Jack then communicated to his companion his whole project for the
+night. Spike had, of his own accord, given to him and his two
+associates, Simon and Josh, the care of the brig between midnight
+and morning. If he could prevail on either of these men to accompany
+him, it was his intention to take the light-house boat, which was
+riding by its painter astern of the brig, and proceed as fast as
+they could to the spot whither Mulford had found his way. By his
+calculations, if the wind stood as it then was, little more than an
+hour would be necessary to reach the rock, and about as much more to
+return. Should the breeze lull, of which there was no great danger,
+since the easterly trades were again blowing, Jack thought he and
+Josh might go over the distance with the oars in about double the
+time. Should both Josh and Simon refuse to accompany him, he thought
+he should attempt the rescue of the mate alone, did the wind stand,
+trusting to Mulford's assistance, should he need it, in getting back
+to the brig.
+
+"You surely would not come back here with Harry, did you once get
+him safe from off that rock!" exclaimed Rose.
+
+"Why, you know how it is with me, Miss Rose," answered Jack. "_My_
+business is here, on board the Swash, and I must attend to it.
+Nothing shall tempt me to give up the brig so long as she floats,
+and sartain folk float in her, unless it might be some such matter
+as that which happened on the bit of an island at the Dry Tortugas.
+Ah! he's a willian! But if I do come back, it will be only to get
+into my own proper berth ag'in, and not to bring Mr. Mulford into
+the lion's jaws. He will only have to put me back on board the Molly
+here, when he can make the best of his own way to Key West. Half an
+hour would place him out of harm's way; especially as I happen to
+know the course Spike means to steer in the morning."
+
+"I will go with you, Jack," said Rose, mildly, but with great
+firmness.
+
+"You, Miss Rose! But why should I show surprise! It's like all the
+sex, when they have given away their affections. Yes, woman will be
+woman, put her on a naked rock, or put her in silks and satins in
+her parlour at home. How different is it with men! They dote for a
+little while, and turn to a new face. It must be said, men's
+willians!"
+
+"Not Mulford, Jack--no, not Harry Mulford! A truer or a nobler heart
+never beat in a human breast; and you and I will drown together,
+rather than he should not be taken from that rock."
+
+"It shall be as you say," answered Jack, a little thoughtfully.
+"Perhaps it would be best that you should quit the brig altogether.
+Spike is getting desperate, and you will be safer with the young
+mate than with so great an old willian. Yes, you shall go with me,
+Miss Rose; and if Josh and Simon both refuse, we will go alone."
+
+"With you, Jack, but not with Mr. Mulford. I cannot desert my aunt,
+nor can I quit the Swash alone in company with her mate. As for
+Spike, I despise him too much to fear him. He must soon go into port
+somewhere, and at the first place where he touches we shall quit
+him. He dare not detain us--nay, he _cannot_--and I do not fear him.
+We will save Harry, but I shall remain with my aunt."
+
+"We'll see, Miss Rose, we'll see," said Tier, smiling. "Perhaps a
+handsome young man, like Mr. Mulford, will have better luck in
+persuading you than an old fellow like me. If he should fail, 't
+will be his own fault."
+
+So thought Jack Tier, judging of women as he had found them, but so
+did not think Rose Budd. The conversation ended here, however, each
+keeping in view its purport, and the serious business that was
+before them.
+
+The duty of the vessel went on as usual. The night promised to be
+clouded, but not very dark, as there was a moon. When Spike ordered
+the anchor-watches, he had great care to spare his crew as much as
+possible, for the next day was likely to be one of great toil to
+them. He intended to get the schooner up again, if possible; and
+though he might not actually pump her out so as to cause her to
+float, enough water was to be removed to enable him to get at the
+doubloons. The situation of the bread-locker was known, and as soon
+as the cabin was sufficiently freed from water to enable one to move
+about in it, Spike did not doubt his being able to get at the gold.
+With his resources and ingenuity, the matter in his own mind was
+reduced to one of toil and time. Eight-and-forty hours, and some
+hard labour, he doubted not would effect all he cared for.
+
+In setting the anchor-watches for the night, therefore, Stephen
+Spike bethought him as much of the morrow as of the present moment.
+Don Juan offered to remain on deck until midnight, and as he was as
+capable of giving an alarm as any one else, the offer was accepted.
+Josh and Simon were to succeed the Mexican, and to hold the lookout
+for two hours, when Jack was to relieve them, and to continue on
+deck until light returned, when he was to give the captain a call.
+This arrangement made, Tier turned in at once, desiring the cook to
+call him half an hour before the proper period of his watch
+commenced. That half hour Jack intended to employ in exercising his
+eloquence in endeavouring to persuade either Josh or Simon to be of
+his party. By eight o'clock the vessel lay in a profound quiet,
+Senor Montefalderon pacing the quarterdeck alone, while the deep
+breathing of Spike was to be heard issuing through the open window
+of his state-room; a window which it may be well to say to the
+uninitiated, opened in-board, or toward the deck, and not outboard,
+or toward the sea.
+
+For four solitary hours did the Mexican pace the deck of the
+stranger, resting himself for a few minutes at a time only, when
+wearied with walking. Does the reader fancy that a man so situated
+had not plenty of occupation for his thoughts? Don Juan
+Montefalderon was a soldier and a gallant cavalier; and love of
+country had alone induced him to engage in his present duties. Not
+that patriotism which looks to political preferment through a
+popularity purchased by the valgar acclamation which attends success
+in arms, even when undeserved, or that patriotism which induces men
+of fallen characters to endeavour to retrieve former offences by the
+shortest and most reckless mode, or that patriotism which shouts
+"our country right or wrong," regardless alike of God and his
+eternal laws, that are never to be forgotten with impunity; but the
+patriotism which would defend his home and fire-side, his altars and
+the graves of his fathers, from the ruthless steps of the invader.
+We shall not pretend to say how far this gentleman entered into the
+merits of the quarrel between the two republics, which no arts of
+European jealousy can ever conceal from the judgment of truth, for,
+with him, matters had gone beyond the point when men feel the
+necessity of reasoning, and when, perhaps, if such a condition of
+the mind is ever to be defended, he found his perfect justification
+in feeling. He had travelled, and knew life by observation, and not
+through traditions and books. He had never believed, therefore, that
+his countrymen could march to Washington, or even to the Sabine; but
+he had hoped for better things than had since occurred. The warlike
+qualities of the Americans of the North, as he was accustomed to
+call those who term themselves, _par excellence,_ Americans, a name
+they are fated to retain, and to raise high on the scale of national
+power and national pre-eminence, unless they fall by their own
+hands, had taken him by surprise, as they have taken all but those
+who knew the country well, and who understood its people. Little had
+he imagined that the small, widely-spread body of regulars, that
+figured in the blue books, almanacs and army-registers of America,
+as some six or seven thousand men, scattered along frontiers of a
+thousand leagues in extent, could, at the beck of the government,
+swell into legions of invaders, men able to carry war to the
+capitals of his own states, thousands of miles from their doors, and
+formidable alike for their energy, their bravery, their readiness in
+the use of arms, and their numbers. He saw what is perhaps justly
+called the boasting of the American character, vindicated by their
+exploits; and marches, conquests and victories that, if sober truth
+were alone to cover the pages of history, would far outdo in real
+labour and danger the boasted passage of the Alps under Napoleon,
+and the exploits that succeeded it.
+
+Don Juan Montefalderon was a grave and thoughtful man, of pure
+Iberian blood. He might have had about him a little of the
+exaltation of the Spanish character; the overflowings of a generous
+chivalry at the bottom; and, under its influence, he may have set
+too high an estimate on Mexico and her sons, but he was not one to
+shut his eyes to the truth. He saw plainly that the northern
+neighbours of his country were a race formidable and enterprising,
+and that of all the calumnies that had been heaped upon them by
+rivalries and European superciliousness, that of their not being
+military by temperament was, perhaps, the most absurd of all. On the
+contrary, he had himself, though anticipating evil, been astounded
+by the suddenness and magnitude of their conquests, which in a few
+short months after the breaking out of hostilities, had overrun
+regions larger in extent than many ancient empires. All this had
+been done, too, not by disorderly and barbarous hordes, seeking in
+other lands the abundance that was wanting at home; but with system
+and regularity, by men who had turned the ploughshare into the sword
+for the occasion, quitting abundance to encounter fatigue, famine,
+and danger. In a word, the Senor Montefalderon saw all the evils
+that environed his own land, and foresaw others, of a still graver
+character that menaced the future. On matters such as these did he
+brood in his walk, and bitter did he find the minutes of that sad
+and lonely watch. Although a Mexican, he could feel; although an
+avowed foe of this good republic of ours, he had his principles, his
+affections, and his sense of right. Whatever may be the merits of
+the quarrel, and we are not disposed to deny that our provocation
+has been great, a sense of right should teach every man that what
+may be patriotic in an American, would not be exactly the same thing
+in a Mexican, and that we ought to respect in others sentiments that
+are so much vaunted among ourselves. Midnight at length arrived,
+and, calling the cook and steward, the unhappy gentleman was
+relieved, and went to his berth to dream, in sorrow, over the same
+pictures of national misfortunes, on which, while waking, he had
+brooded in such deep melancholy.
+
+The watch of Josh and Simon was tranquil, meeting with no
+interruption until it was time to summon Jack. One thing these men
+had done, however, that was of some moment to Tier, under a pledge
+given by Josh, and which had been taken in return for a dollar in
+hand. They had managed to haul the light-house boat alongside, from
+its position astern, and this so noiselessly as not to give the
+alarm to any one. There it lay, when Jack appeared, ready at the
+main-rigging, to receive him at any moment he might choose to enter
+it.
+
+A few minutes after Jack appeared on deck, Rose and Biddy came
+stealthily out of the cabin, the latter carrying a basket filled
+with bread and broken meat, and not wanting in sundry little
+delicacies, such as woman's hands prepare, and, in this instance,
+woman's tenderness had provided. The whole party met at the galley,
+a place so far removed from the state-rooms aft as to be out of
+ear-shot. Here Jack renewed his endeavours to persuade either Josh
+or Simon to go in the boat, but without success. The negroes had
+talked the matter over in their watch, and had come to the
+conclusion the enterprise was too hazardous.
+
+"I tell you, Jack, you does n't know Cap'in Spike as well as I
+does," Josh said, in continuance of the discourse. "No, you does n't
+know him at all as well as I does. If he finds out that anybody has
+quit dis brig dis werry night, woful will come! It no good to try to
+run; I run t'ree time, an' Simon here run twice. What good it all
+do? We got cotched, and here we is, just as fast as ever. I knows
+Cap'in Spike, and does n't want to fall in athwart his hawse any
+more."
+
+"Y-e-s, dat my judgment too," put in the cook. "We wishes you well,
+Jack, and we wishes Miss Rose well, and Mr. Mulford well, but we
+can't, no how, run ath'art hawse, as Josh says. Dat is my judgment,
+too."
+
+"Well, if your minds are made up to this, my darkies, I s'pose
+there'll be no changing them," said Jack. "At all ewents you'll lend
+us a hand, by answering any hail that may come from aft, in my
+watch, and in keepin' our secret. There's another thing you can do
+for us, which may be of service. Should Captain Spike miss the boat,
+and lay any trap to catch us, you can just light this here bit of
+lantern and hang it over the brig's bows, where he'll not be likely
+to see it, that we may know matters are going wrong, and give the
+craft a wide berth."
+
+"Sartain," said Josh, who entered heartily into the affair, so far
+as good wishes for its success were concerned, at the very moment
+when he had a most salutary care of his own back. "Sartain; we do
+all dat, and no t'ank asked. It no great matter to answer a hail, or
+to light a lantern and sling him over de bows; and if Captain Spike
+want to know who did it, let him find out."
+
+Here both negroes laughed heartily, manifesting so little care to
+suppress their mirth, that Rose trembled lest their noise should
+awaken Spike. Accustomed sounds, however, seldom produce this effect
+on the ears of the sleeper, and the heavy breathing from the
+state-room, succeeded the merriment of the blacks, as soon as the
+latter ceased. Jack now announced his readiness to depart. Some
+little care and management were necessary to get into the boat
+noiselessly, more especially with Biddy. It was done however, with
+the assistance of the blacks, who cast off the painter, when Jack
+gave the boat a shove to clear the brig, and suffered it to drift
+astern for a considerable distance before he ventured to cast loose
+the sail.
+
+"I know Spike well," said Jack, in answer to a remonstrance from the
+impatient Rose concerning his delay: "A single flap of that canvas
+would wake him up, with the brig anchored, while he would sleep
+through a salute of heavy guns if it came in regular course. Quick
+ears has old Stephen, and it's best to humour them. In a minute more
+we'll set our canvas and be off."
+
+All was done as Jack desired, and the boat got away from the brig
+unheard and undetected. It was blowing a good breeze, and Jack Tier
+had no sooner got the sail on the boat, than away it started at a
+speed that would have soon distanced Spike in his yawl, and with his
+best oarsmen. The main point was to keep the course, though the
+direction of the wind was a great assistant. By keeping the wind
+abeam, Jack thought he should be going toward the rock of Mulford.
+In one hour, or even in less time, he expected to reach it, and he
+was guided by time, in his calculations, as much as by any other
+criterion. Previously to quitting the brig, he had gone up a few
+ratlins of the fore-rigging to take the bearings of the fire on
+Mulford's rock, but the light was no longer visible. As no star was
+to be seen, the course was a little vague, but Jack was navigator
+enough to understand that by keeping on the weather side of the
+channel he was in the right road, and that his great danger of
+missing his object was in over-running it.
+
+So much of the reef was above water, that it was not difficult to
+steer a boat along its margin. The darkness, to be sure, rendered it
+a little uncertain how near they were running to the rocks, but, on
+the whole, Jack assured Rose he had no great difficulty in getting
+along.
+
+"These trades are almost as good as compasses," he said, "and the
+rocks are better, if we can keep close aboard them without going on
+to them. I do not know the exact distance of the spot we seek from
+the brig, but I judged it to be about two leagues, as I looked at it
+from aloft. Now, this boat will travel them two leagues in an hour,
+with this breeze and in smooth water."
+
+"I wish you had seen the fire again before we left the brig," said
+Rose, too anxious for the result not to feel uneasiness on some
+account or other.
+
+"The mate is asleep, and the fire has burned down; that's the
+explanation. Besides, fuel is not too plenty on a place like that
+Mr. Mulford inhabits just now. As we get near the spot, I shall look
+out for embers, which may sarve as a light-house, or beacon, to
+guide us into port."
+
+"Mr. Mulford will be charmed to see us, now that we take him
+wather!" exclaimed Biddy. "Wather is a blessed thing, and it's hard
+will be the heart that does not fale gratitude for a planty of swate
+wather."
+
+"The maty has plenty of food and water where he is," said Jack.
+"I'll answer for both them sarcumstances. I saw him turn a turtle as
+plain as if I had been at his elbow, and I saw him drinking at a
+hole in the rock, as heartily as a boy ever pulled at a gimblet-hole
+in a molasses hogs-head."
+
+"But the distance was so great, Jack, I should hardly think you
+could have distinguished objects so small."
+
+"I went by the motions altogether. I saw the man, and I saw the
+movements, and I knowed what the last meant. It's true I couldn't
+swear to the turtle, though I saw something on the rock that I
+knowed, by the way in which it was handled, _must_ be a turtle. Then
+I saw the mate kneel, and put his head low, and then I knowed he was
+drinking."
+
+"Perhaps he prayed," said Rose, solemnly.
+
+"Not he. Sailors isn't so apt to pray, Miss Rose; not as apt as they
+ought to be. Women for prayers, and men for work. Mr. Mulford is no
+worse than many others, but I doubt if he be much given to _that_."
+
+To this Rose made no answer, but Biddy took the matter up, and, as
+the boat went briskly ahead, she pursued the subject.
+
+"Then more is the shame for him," said the Irish woman, "and Miss
+Rose, and missus, and even I prayin' _for_ him, all as if he was our
+own brudder. It's seldom I ask anything for a heretic, but I could
+not forget a fine young man like Mr. Mulford, and Miss Rose so
+partial to him, and he in so bad a way. He ought to be ashamed to
+make his brags that he is too proud to pray."
+
+"Harry has made no such wicked boast," put in Rose, mildly; "nor do
+we know that he has not prayed for us, as well as for himself. It
+may all be a mistake of Jack's, you know."
+
+"Yes," added Jack, coolly, "it _may_ be a mistake, a'ter all, for I
+was lookin' at the maty six miles off, and through a spy-glass. No
+one can be sure of anything at such a distance. So overlook the
+matter, my good Biddy, and carry Mr. Mulford the nice things you've
+mustered in that basket, all the same as if he was pope."
+
+"This is a subject we had better drop," Rose quietly observed.
+
+"Anything to oblige you, Miss Rose, though religion is a matter it
+would do me no harm to talk about once and awhile. It's many a long
+year since I've had time and opportunity to bring my thoughts to
+dwell on holy things. Ever since I left my mother's side, I've been
+a wanderer in my mind, as much as in my body."
+
+"Poor Jack! I understand and feel for your sufferings; but a better
+time will come, when you may return to the habits of your youth, and
+to the observances of your church."
+
+"I do n't know that, Miss Rose; I do n't know that," answered Tier,
+placing the elbow of his short arm on the seemingly shorter leg, and
+bending his head so low as to lean his face on the palm of the hand,
+an attitude in which he appeared to be suffering keenly through his
+recollections. "Childhood and innocence never come back to us in
+this world. What the grave may do, we shall all learn in time."
+
+"Innocence can return to all with repentance, Jack; and the heart
+that prompts you to do acts as generous as this you are now engaged
+in, must contain some good seed yet."
+
+"If Jack will go to a praste and just confess, when he can find a
+father, it will do his sowl good," said Biddy, who was touched by
+the mental suffering of the strange little being at her side.
+
+But the necessity of managing the boat soon compelled its coxswain
+to raise his head, and to attend to his duty. The wind sometimes
+came in puffs, and at such moments Jack saw that the large sail of
+the light-house boat required watching, a circumstance that induced
+him to shake off his melancholy, and give his mind more exclusively
+to the business before him. As for Rose, she sympathised deeply with
+Jack Tier, for she knew his history, his origin, the story of his
+youth, and the well-grounded causes of his contrition and regrets.
+From her, Jack had concealed nothing, the gentle commiseration of
+one like Rose being a balm to wounds that had bled for long and
+bitter years. The great poet of our language, and the greatest that
+ever lived, perhaps, short of the inspired writers of the Old
+Testament, and old Homer and Dante, has well reminded us that the
+"little beetle," in yielding its breath, can "feel a pang as great
+as when a giant dies." Thus is it, too, in morals. Abasement, and
+misery, and poverty, and sin, may, and all do, contribute to lower
+the tone of our moral existence; but the principle that has been
+planted by nature, can be eradicated by nature only. It exists as
+long as we exist; and if dormant for a time, under the pressure of
+circumstances, it merely lies, in the moral system, like the acorn,
+or the chestnut, in the ground, waiting its time and season to
+sprout, and bud, and blossom. Should that time never arrive, it is
+not because the seed is not there, but because it is neglected. Thus
+was it with the singular being of whose feelings we have just
+spoken. The germ of goodness had been implanted early in him, and
+was nursed with tenderness and care, until, self-willed, and
+governed by passion; he had thrown off the connections of youth and
+childhood, to connect himself with Spike--a connection that had left
+him what he was. Before closing our legend, we shall have occasion
+to explain it.
+
+"We have run our hour; Miss Rose," resumed Jack, breaking a
+continued silence, during which the boat had passed through a long
+line of water; "we have run our hour, and ought to be near the rock
+we are in search of. But the morning is so dark that I fear we shall
+have difficulty in finding it. It will never do to run past it, and
+we must haul closer into the reef, and shorten sail, that we may be
+sartain to make no such mistake."
+
+Rose begged her companion to omit no precaution, as it would be
+dreadful to fail in their search, after incurring so much risk in
+their own persons.
+
+"Harry may be sleeping on the sea-weed of which you spoke," she
+added, "and the danger of passing him will be much increased in such
+a case. What a gloomy and frightful spot is this, in which to
+abandon a human being! I fear, Jack, that we have come faster than
+we have supposed, and may already have passed the rock."
+
+"I hope not, Miss Rose--it seemed to me a good two leagues to the
+place where I saw him, and the boat is fast that will run two
+leagues in an hour."
+
+"We do not know the time, Jack, and are obliged to guess at that as
+well as at the distance. How very dark it is!"
+
+Dark, in one sense, it was not, though Rose's apprehensions,
+doubtless, induced her to magnify every evil. The clouds certainly
+lessened the light of the moon; but there was still enough of the
+last to enable one to see surrounding objects; and most especially
+to render distinct the character of the solitude that reigned over
+the place.
+
+The proximity of the reef, which formed a weather shore to the boat,
+prevented anything like a swell on the water, notwithstanding the
+steadiness and strength of the breeze, which had now blown for near
+twenty-four hours. The same wind, in open water, would have raised
+sea enough to cause a ship to pitch, or roll; whereas, the
+light-house boat, placed where she was, scarce rose and fell under
+the undulations of the channel through which she was glancing.
+
+"This is a good boat, and a fast boat too," observed Jack Tier,
+after he had luffed up several minutes, in order to make sure of his
+proximity to the reef; "and it might carry us all safe enough to Key
+West, or certainly back to the Dry Tortugas, was we inclined to try
+our hands at either."
+
+"I cannot quit my aunt," said Rose, quickly, "so we will not even
+think of any such thing."
+
+"No, 't would never do to abandon the missus," said Biddy, "and she
+on the wrack wid us, and falin' the want of wather as much as
+ourselves."
+
+"We three have sartainly gone through much in company," returned
+Jack, "and it ought to make us friends for life."
+
+"I trust it will, Jack; I hope, when we return to New York, to see
+you among us, anchored, as you would call it, for the rest of your
+days under my aunt's roof, or under my own, should I ever have one."
+
+"No, Miss Rose, my business is with the Swash and her captain. I
+shall stick by both, now I've found 'em again, until they once more
+desart me. A man's duty is _his_ duty, and a woman's duty is _her_
+duty."
+
+"You same to like the brig and her captain, Jack Tier," observed
+Biddy, "and there's no use in gainsaying such a likin'. What _will_
+come to pass, must come to pass. Captain Spike is a mighty great
+sailor, anyway."
+
+"He's a willian!" muttered Jack.
+
+"There!" cried Rose, almost breathless, "there is a rock above the
+water, surely. Do not fly by it so swiftly, Jack, but let us stop
+and examine it."
+
+"There is a rock, sure enough, and a large piece it is," answered
+Tier. "We will go alongside of it, and see what it is made of. Biddy
+shall be boat-keeper, while you and I, Miss Rose, explore."
+
+Jack had thrown the boat into the wind, and was shooting close
+alongside of the reef, even while speaking. The party found no
+difficulty in landing; the margin of the rock admitting the boat to
+lie close alongside of it, and its surface being even and dry. Jack
+had brailed the sail, and he brought the painter ashore, and
+fastened it securely to a fragment of stone, that made a very
+sufficient anchor. In addition to this precaution, a lazy painter
+was put into Biddy's hands, and she was directed not to let go of it
+while her companions were absent. These arrangements concluded, Rose
+and Jack commenced a hurried examination of the spot.
+
+A few minutes sufficed to give our adventurers a tolerably accurate
+notion of the general features of the place on which they had
+landed. It was a considerable portion of the reef that was usually
+above water, and which had even some fragments of soil, or sand, on
+which was a stinted growth of bushes. Of these last, however, there
+were very few, nor were there many spots of the sand. Drift-wood and
+sea-weed were lodged in considerable quantities about its margin,
+and, in places, piles of both had been tossed upon the rock itself,
+by the billows of former gales of wind. Nor was it long before Jack
+discovered a turtle that had been up to a hillock of sand, probably
+to deposit its eggs. There was enough of the sportsman in Jack,
+notwithstanding the business he was on, to turn this animal; though
+with what object, he might have been puzzled himself to say. This
+exploit effected, Jack followed Rose as fast as his short legs would
+permit, our heroine pressing forward eagerly, though almost without
+hope, in order to assertain if Mulford were there.
+
+"I am afraid this is not the rock," said Rose, nearly breathless
+with her own haste, when Jack had overtaken her. "I see nothing of
+him, and we have passed over most of the place."
+
+"Very true, Miss Rose," answered her companion, who was in a good
+humour on account of his capture of the turtle; "but there are other
+rocks besides this. Ha! what was that, yonder," pointing with a
+finger, "here, more toward the brig. As I'm a sinner, there was a
+flashing, as of fire."
+
+"If a fire, it must be that made by Harry. Let us go to the spot at
+once."
+
+Jack led the way, and, sure enough, he soon reached a place where
+the embers of what had been a considerable body of fire, were
+smouldering on the rock. The wind had probably caused some brand to
+kindle momentarily, which was the object that had caught Tier's eye.
+No doubt any longer remained of their having found the very place
+where the mate had cooked his supper, and lighted his beacon, though
+he himself was not near it. Around these embers were all the signs
+of Mulford's having made the meal, of which Jack had seen the
+preparations. A portion of the turtle, much the greater part of it,
+indeed, lay in its shell; and piles of wood and sea-weed, both dry,
+had been placed at hand, ready for use. A ship's topgallant-yard,
+with most of its rope attached, lay with a charred end near the
+fire, of where the fire had been, the wood having burned until the
+flames went out for want of contact with other fuel. There were many
+pieces of boards of pitch-pine in the adjacent heap, and two or
+three beautiful planks of the same wood, entire. In short, from the
+character and quantity of the materials of this nature that had thus
+been heaped together, Jack gave it as his opinion that some vessel,
+freighted with lumber, had been wrecked to windward, and that the
+adjacent rocks had been receiving the tribute of her cargo. Wrecks
+are of very, very frequent occurrence on the Florida Reef; and there
+are always moments when such gleanings are to be made in some part
+of it or other.
+
+"I see no better way to give a call to the mate, Miss Rose, than to
+throw some of this dry weed, and some of this lumber on the fire,"
+said Jack, after he had rummaged about the place sufficiently to
+become master of its condition. "There is plenty of amunition, and
+here goes for a broadside."
+
+Jack had no great difficulty in effecting his object. In a few
+minutes he succeeded in obtaining a flame, and then he fed it with
+such fragments of the brands and boards as were best adapted to his
+purpose. The flames extended gradually, and by the time Tier had
+dragged the topgallant-yard over the pile, and placed several
+planks, on their edges, alongside of it, the whole was ready to
+burst into a blaze. The light was shed athwart the rock for a long
+distance, and the whole place, which was lately so gloomy and
+obscure, now became gay, under the bright radiance of a blazing
+fire.
+
+"There is a beacon-light that might almost be seen on board!" said
+Jack, exulting in his success. If the mate is anywhere in this
+latitude, he will soon turn up."
+
+"I see nothing of him," answered Rose, in a melancholy voice.
+"Surely, surely, Jack, he cannot have left the rock just as we have
+come to rescue him!"
+
+Rose and her companion had turned their faces from the fire to look
+in an opposite direction in quest of him they sought. Unseen by
+them, a human form advanced swiftly toward the fire, from a point on
+its other side. It advanced nearer, then hesitated, afterward rushed
+forward with a tread that caused the two to turn, and at the next
+moment, Rose was clasped to the heart of Mulford.
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  I might have pass'd that lovely cheek,
+  Nor, perchance, my heart have left me;
+  But the sensitive blush that came trembling there,
+  Of my heart it for ever bereft me.
+  Who could blame had I loved that face,
+  Ere my eyes could twice explore her;
+  Yet it is for the fairy intelligence there,
+  And her warm, warm heart I adore her.
+
+Wolfe.
+
+The stories of the respective parties who had thus so strangely met
+on that barren and isolated rock, were soon told. Harry confirmed
+all of Jack's statements as to his own proceedings, and Rose had
+little more to say than to add how much her own affections had led
+her to risk in his behalf. In a word, ten minutes made each fully
+acquainted with the other's movements. Then Tier considerately
+retired to the boat, under the pretence of minding it, and seeing
+everything ready for a departure, but as much to allow the lovers
+the ten or fifteen minutes of uninterrupted discourse that they now
+enjoyed, as for any other reason.
+
+It was a strange scene that now offered on the rock. By this time
+the fire was burning not only brightly, but fiercely, shedding its
+bright light far and near. Under its most brilliant rays stood Harry
+and Rose, both smiling and happy, delighted in their meeting, and,
+for the moment, forgetful of all but their present felicity. Never,
+indeed, had Rose appeared more lovely than under these
+circumstances. Her face was radiant with those feelings which had so
+recently changed from despair to delight--a condition that is ever
+most propitious to beauty; and charms that always appeared feminine
+and soft, now seemed elevated to a bright benignancy that might best
+be likened to our fancied images of angels. The mild, beaming,
+serene and intelligent blue eyes, the cheeks flushed with happiness,
+the smiles that came so easily, and were so replete with tenderness,
+and the rich hair, deranged by the breeze, and moistened by the air
+of the sea, each and all, perhaps, borrowed some additional lustre
+from the peculiar light under which they were exhibited. As for
+Harry, happiness had thrown all the disadvantages of exposure, want
+of dress, and a face that had not felt the razor for six-and-thirty
+hours, into the back-ground. When he left the wreck, he had cast
+aside his cap and his light summer jacket, in order that they might
+not encumber him in swimming, but both had been recovered when he
+returned with the boat to take off his friends. In his ordinary sea
+attire, then, he now stood, holding Rose's two hands in front of the
+fire, every garment clean and white as the waters of the ocean could
+make them, but all betraying some of the signs of his recent trials.
+His fine countenance was full of the love he bore for the intrepid
+and devoted girl who had risked so much in his behalf; and a painter
+might have wished to preserve the expression of ardent, manly
+admiration which glowed in his face, answering to the gentle
+sympathy and womanly tenderness it met in that of Rose.
+
+The back-ground of this picture was the wide, even surface of the
+coral reef, with its exterior setting of the dark and gloomy sea. On
+the side of the channel, however, appeared the boat, already winded,
+with Biddy still on the rock, looking kindly at the lovers by the
+fire, while Jack was holding the painter, beginning to manifest a
+little impatience at the delay.
+
+"They'll stay there an hour, holding each other's hands, and looking
+into each other's faces," half grumbled the little, rotund,
+assistant-steward, anxious to be on his way back to the brig,
+"unless a body gives 'em a call. Captain Spike will be in no very
+good humour to receive you and me on board ag'in, if he should find
+out what sort of a trip we've been making hereaway."
+
+"Let 'em alone--let 'em alone, Jacky," answered the good-natured and
+kind-hearted Irish woman. "It's happy they bees, jist now, and it
+does my eyes good to look at 'em."
+
+"Ay, they're happy enough, _now;_ I only hope it may last."
+
+"Last! what should help its lasting? Miss Rose is so good, and so
+handsome--and she's a fortin', too; and the mate so nice a young
+man. Think of the likes of them, Jack, wantin' the blessed gift of
+wather, and all within one day and two nights. Sure it's Providence
+that takes care of, and not we ourselves! Kings on their thrones is
+n't as happy as _them_ at this moment."
+
+"Men's willians!" growled Jack; "and more fools women for trustin'
+'em."
+
+"Not sich a nice young man as our mate, Jacky; no, not he. Now the
+mate of the ship I came from Liverpool in, this time ten years
+agone, he was a villain. He grudged us our potaties, and our own
+bread; and he grudged us every dhrap of swate wather that went into
+our mouths. Call him a villain, if you will, Jack; but niver call
+the likes of Mr. Mulford by so hard a name."
+
+"I wish him well, and nothing else; and for that very reason must
+put a stop to his looking so fondly into that young woman's face.
+Time wont stand still, Biddy, to suit the wishes of lovers; and
+Stephen Spike is a man not to be trifled with. Halloo, there, maty!
+It's high time to think of getting under way."
+
+At this summons both Harry and Rose started, becoming aware of the
+precious moments they were losing. Carrying a large portion of the
+turtle, the former moved toward the craft, in which all were seated
+in less than three minutes, with the sail loose, and the boat in
+motion. For a few moments the mate was so much occupied with Rose,
+that he did not advert to the course; but one of his experience
+could not long be misled on such a point, and he turned suddenly to
+Tier, who was steering, to remonstrate.
+
+"How's this, Jack!" cried Mulford; "you've got the boat's head the
+wrong way."
+
+"Not I, sir. She's heading for the brig as straight as she can go.
+This wind favours us on both legs; and it's lucky it does, for't
+will be hard on upon daylight afore we are alongside of her. You'll
+want half an hour of dark, at the very least, to get a good start of
+the Swash, in case she makes sail a'ter you."
+
+"Straight for the brig!--what have we to do with the brig? Our
+course is for Key West, unless it might be better to run down before
+the wind to the Dry Tortugas again, and look for the sloop-of-war.
+Duty, and perhaps my own safety, tells me to let Captain Mull know
+what Spike is about with the Swash; and I shall not hesitate a
+moment about doing it, after all that has passed. Give me the helm,
+Jack, and let us ware short round on our heel."
+
+"Never, master maty--never. I must go back to the brig. Miss Rose,
+there, knows that my business is with Stephen Spike, and with him
+only."
+
+"And I must return to my aunt, Harry," put in Rose, herself. "It
+would never do for me to desert my aunt, you know."
+
+"And I have been taken from that rock, to be given up to the tender
+mercies of Spike again?"
+
+This was said rather in surprise, than in a complaining way; and it
+at once induced Rose to tell the young man the whole of their
+project.
+
+"Never, Harry, never," she said firmly. "It is our intention to
+return to the brig ourselves, and let you escape in the boat
+afterwards. Jack Tier is of opinion this can be done without much
+risk, if we use proper caution and do not lose too much time. On no
+account would I consent to place you in the hands of Spike
+again--death would be preferable to that, Harry!"
+
+"And on no account can or will I consent to place _you_ again in
+the hands of Spike, Rose," answered the young man. "Now that we know
+his intentions, such an act would be almost impious."
+
+"Remember my aunt, dear Harry. What would be her situation in the
+morning, when she found herself deserted by her niece and Biddy--by
+me, whom she has nursed and watched from childhood, and whom she
+loves so well."
+
+"I shall not deny your obligations to your aunt, Rose, and your duty
+to her under ordinary circumstances. But these are not ordinary
+circumstances; and it would be courting the direst misfortunes, nay,
+almost braving Providence, to place yourself in the hands of that
+scoundrel again, now that you are clear of them."
+
+"Spike's a willian!" muttered Jack.
+
+"And my desartin' the missus would be a sin that no praste would
+overlook aisily," put in Biddy. "When Miss Rose told me of this
+v'y'ge that she meant to make in the boat wid Jack Tier, I asked to
+come along, that I might take care of her, and see that there was
+plenty of wather; but ill-luck befall me if I would have t'ought of
+sich a thing, and the missus desarted."
+
+"We can then run alongside of the brig, and put Biddy and Jack on
+board of her," said Mulford, reflecting a moment on what had just
+been said, "when you and I can make the best of our way to Key West,
+where the means of sending government vessels out after the Swash
+will soon offer. In this way we can not only get our friends out of
+the lion's jaws, but keep out of them ourselves."
+
+"Reflect a moment, Harry," said Rose, in a low voice, but not
+without tenderness in its tones; "it would not do for me to go off
+alone with you in this boat."
+
+"Not when you have confessed your willingness to go over the wide
+world with me, Rose--with me, and with me only?"
+
+"Not even then, Harry. I know you will think better of this, when
+your generous nature has time to reason with your heart, on my
+account."
+
+"I can only answer in your own words, Rose--never. If you return to
+the Swash, I shall go on board with you, and throw defiance into the
+very teeth of Spike. I know the men do not dislike me, and, perhaps,
+assisted by Senor Montefalderon, and a few friends among the people,
+I can muster a force that will prevent my being thrown into the
+sea."
+
+Rose burst into tears, and then succeeded many minutes, during which
+Mulford was endeavouring, with manly tenderness, to soothe her. As
+soon as our heroine recovered her self-command, she began to discuss
+the matter at issue between them more coolly. For half an hour
+everything was urged by each that feeling, affection, delicacy, or
+distrust of Spike could well urge, and Mulford was slowly getting
+the best of the argument, as well he might, the truth being mostly
+of his side. Rose was bewildered, really feeling a strong reluctance
+to quit her aunt, even with so justifiable a motive, but principally
+shrinking from the appearance of going off alone in a boat, and
+almost in the open sea, with Mulford. Had she loved Harry less, her
+scruples might not have been so active, but the consciousness of the
+strength of her attachment, as well as her fixed intention to become
+his wife the moment it was in her power to give him her hand with
+the decencies of her sex, contributed strangely to prevent her
+yielding to the young man's reasoning. On the subject of the aunt,
+the mate made out so good a case, that it was apparent to all in the
+boat Rose would have to abandon that ground of refusal. Spike had no
+object to gain by ill-treating Mrs. Budd; and the probability
+certainly was that he would get rid of her as soon as he could, and
+in the most easy manner. This was so apparent to all, that Harry had
+little difficulty in getting Rose to assent to its probability. But
+there remained the reluctance to go off alone with the mate in a
+boat. This part of the subject was more difficult to manage than the
+other; and Mulford betrayed as much by the awkwardness with which he
+managed it. At length the discussion was brought to a close by Jack
+Tier suddenly saying,--
+
+"Yonder is the brig; and we are heading for her as straight as if
+she was the pole, and the keel of this boat was a compass. I see how
+it is, Miss Rose, and a'ter all, I must give in. I suppose some
+other opportunity will offer for me to get on board of the brig
+ag'in, and I'll trust to that. If you won't go off with the mate
+alone, I suppose you'll not refuse to go off in my company."
+
+"Will you accompany us, Jack? This is more than I had hoped for!
+Yes, Harry, if Jack Tier will be of the party, I will trust my aunt
+to Biddy, and go with you to Key West, in order to escape from
+Spike."
+
+This was said so rapidly, and so unexpectedly, as to take Mulford
+completely by surprise. Scarce believing what he heard, the young
+man was disposed, at first, to feel hurt, though a moment's
+reflection showed him that he ought to rejoice in the result let the
+cause be what it might.
+
+"More than I had hoped for!" he could not refrain from repeating a
+little bitterly; "is Jack Tier, then, of so much importance, that
+_his_ company is thought preferable to mine!"
+
+"Hush, Harry!" said Rose, laying her hand on Mulford's arm, by way
+of strengthening her appeal. "Do not say _that_. You are ignorant of
+circumstances; at another time you shall know them, but not now. Let
+it be enough for the present, that I promise to accompany you if
+Jack will be of our party."
+
+"Ay, ay, Miss Rose, I will be of the party, seeing there is no other
+way of getting the lamb out of the jaws of the wolf. A'ter all, it
+may be the wisest thing I can do, though back to the Swash I must
+and _will_ come, powder or no powder, treason or no treason, at the
+first opportunity. Yes, _my_ business is with the Molly, and to the
+Molly I shall return. It's lucky, Miss Rose, since you have made up
+your mind to ship for this new cruise, that I bethought me of
+telling Biddy to make up a bundle of duds for you. This carpet-bag
+has a change or two in it, and all owing to my forethought. Your
+woman said `Miss Rose will come back wid us, Jack, and what's the
+use of rumplin' the clothes for a few hours' sail in the boat;' but
+I knew womankind better, and foreseed that if master mate fell in
+alongside of you ag'in, you would not be apt to part company very
+soon."
+
+"I thank you, Jack, for the provision made for my comfort; though
+some money would have added to it materially. My purse has a little
+gold in it, but a very little, and I fear you are not much better
+off, Harry. It will be awkward to find ourselves in Key West
+penniless."
+
+"We shall not be quite that. I left the brig absolutely without a
+cent, but foreseeing that necessity might make them of use, I
+borrowed half a dozen of the doubloons from the bag of Senor
+Montefalderon, and, fortunately, they are still in my pocket. All I
+am worth in the world is in a bag of half-eagles, rather more than a
+hundred altogether, which I left in my chest, in my own state-room
+aboard the brig."
+
+"You'll find that in the carpet-bag too, master mate," said Jack,
+coolly.
+
+"Find what, man--not my money, surely?"
+
+"Ay, every piece of it. Spike broke into your chest this a'ternoon,
+and made me hold the tools while he was doing it. He found the bag,
+and overhauled it--a hundred and seven half, eleven quarter, and one
+full-grown eagle, was the count. When he had done the job, he put
+all back ag'in, a'ter giving me the full-grown eagle for my share of
+the plunder, and told me to say nothing of what I had seen. I did
+say nothing, but I did a good bit of work, for, while he was at
+supper. I confiserated that bag, as they call it--and you will find
+it there among Miss Rose's clothes, with the full-grown gentleman
+back in his nest ag'in."
+
+"This is being not only honest, Tier," cried Mulford, heartily, "but
+thoughtful. One-half that money shall be yours for this act."
+
+"I thank'e, sir; but I'll not touch a cent of it. It came hard, I
+know, Mr. Mulford; for my own hands have smarted too much with tar,
+not to know that the seaman `earns his money like the horse.'"
+
+"Still it would not be `spending it like an ass,' Jack, to give you
+a portion of mine. But there will be other opportunities to talk of
+this. It is a sign of returning to the concerns of life, Rose, that
+money begins to be of interest to us. How little did we think of the
+doubloons, or half-eagles, a few hours since, when on the wreck!"
+
+"It was wather that we t'ought of then," put in Biddy. "Goold is
+good in a market, or in a town, or to send back to Ireland, to help
+a body's aged fader or mudder in comfort wid; but wather is the
+blessed thing on a wrack!"
+
+"The brig is coming quite plainly into view, and you had better give
+me the helm, Jack. It is time to bethink us of the manner of
+approaching her, and how we are to proceed when alongside."
+
+This was so obviously true, that everybody felt disposed to forget
+all other matters, in order to conduct the proceedings of the next
+twenty minutes, with the necessary prudence and caution. When
+Mulford first took the helm, the brig was just coming clearly into
+view, though still looking a little misty and distant. She might
+then have been half a league distant, and would not have been
+visible at all by that light, but for the circumstance that she had
+no back-ground to swallow up her outlines. Drawn against clouds,
+above which the rays of the moon were shed, her tracery was to be
+discerned, however, and, minute by minute, it was getting to be more
+and more distinct, until it was now so plainly to be seen as to
+admonish the mate of the necessity of preparation in the manner
+mentioned.
+
+Tier now communicated to the mate his own proposed manner of
+proceeding. The brig tended to the trades, the tides having very
+little influence on her, in the bight of the reef where she lay. As
+the wind stood at about east south-east, the brig's stern pointed to
+about west north-west, while the boat was coming down the passage
+from a direction nearly north from her, having, as a matter of
+course, the wind just free enough to lay her course. Jack's plan was
+to pass the brig to windward, and having got well on her bow, to
+brail the sail, and drift down upon her, expecting to fall in
+alongside, abreast of the fore-chains, into which he had intended to
+help Biddy, and to ascend himself, when he supposed that Mulford
+would again make sail, and carry off his mistress. To this scheme
+the mate objected that it was awkward, and a little lubberly. He
+substituted one in its place that differed in seamanship, and which
+was altogether better. Instead of passing to wind-ward, Mulford
+suggested the expediency of approaching to leeward, and of coming
+alongside under the open bow-port, letting the sheet fly and
+brailing the sail, when the boat should be near enough to carry her
+to the point of destination without further assistance from her
+canvass.
+
+Jack Tier took his officer's improvement on his own plan in perfect
+good part, readily and cheerfully expressing his willingness to aid
+the execution of it all that lay in his power. As the boat sailed
+unusually well, there was barely time to explain to each individual
+his or her part in the approaching critical movements, ere the
+crisis itself drew near; then each of the party became silent and
+anxious, and events were regarded rather than words.
+
+It is scarcely necessary to say that Mulford sailed a boat well. He
+held the sheet in his hand, as the little craft came up under the
+lee-quarter of the brig, while Jack stood by the brail. The eyes of
+the mate glanced over the hull of the vessel to ascertain, if
+possible, who might be stirring; but not a sign of life could he
+detect on board her. This very silence made Mulford more distrustful
+and anxious, for he feared a trap was set for him. He expected to
+see the head of one of the blacks at least peering over the
+bulwarks, but nothing like a man was visible. It was too late to
+pause, however, and the sheet was slowly eased off, Jack hauling on
+the brail at the same time; the object being to prevent the sail's
+flapping, and the sound reaching the ears of Spike. As Mulford used
+great caution, and had previously schooled Jack on the subject, this
+important point was successfully achieved. Then the mate put his
+helm down, and the boat shot up under the brig's lee-bow. Jack was
+ready to lay hold of one of the bow-sprit shrouds, and presently the
+boat was breasted up under the desired port, and secured in that
+position. Mulford quitted the stern-sheets, and cast a look in upon
+deck. Nothing was to be seen, though he heard the heavy breathing of
+the blacks, both of whom were sound asleep on a sail that they had
+spread on the forecastle.
+
+The mate whispered for Biddy to come to the port. This the
+Irishwoman did at once, having kissed Rose, and taken her leave of
+her previously. Tier also came to the port, through which he passed,
+getting on deck with a view to assist Biddy, who was awkward, almost
+as a matter of course, to pass through the same opening. He had just
+succeeded, when the whole party was startled, some of them almost
+petrified, indeed, by a hail from the quarter-deck in the
+well-known, deep tones of Spike.
+
+"For'ard, there?" hailed the captain. Receiving no answer, he
+immediately repeated, in a shorter, quicker call, "Forecastle,
+there?"
+
+"Sir," answered Jack Tier, who by this time had come to his senses.
+
+"Who has the look-out on that forecastle?"
+
+"I have it, sir--I, Jack Tier. You know, sir, I was to have it from
+two 'till daylight."
+
+"Ay, ay, I remember now. How does the brig ride to her anchor?"
+
+"As steady as a church, sir. She's had no more sheer the whole watch
+than if she was moored head and starn."
+
+"Does the wind stand as it did?"
+
+"No change, sir. As dead a trade wind as ever blowed."
+
+"What hard breathing is that I hear for'ard?"
+
+"'T is the two niggers, sir. They've turned in on deck, and are
+napping it off at the rate of six knots. There's no keepin' way with
+a nigger in snorin'."
+
+"I thought I heard loud whispering, too, but I suppose it was a sort
+of half-dream. I'm often in that way now-a-days. Jack!"
+
+"Sir."
+
+"Go to the scuttle-butt and get me a pot of fresh water--my coppers
+are hot with hard thinking."
+
+Jack did as ordered, and soon stood beneath the coach-house deck
+with Spike, who had come out of his state-room, heated and uneasy at
+he knew not what. The captain drank a full pint of water at a single
+draught.
+
+"That's refreshing," he said, returning Jack the tinpot, "and I feel
+the cooler for it. How much does it want of daylight, Jack?"
+
+"Two hours, I think, sir. The order was passed to me to have all
+hands called as soon as it was broad day."
+
+"Ay, that is right. We must get our anchor and be off as soon as
+there is light to do it in. Doubloons may melt as well as flour, and
+are best cared for soon when cared for at all."
+
+"I shall see and give the call as soon as it is day. I hope, Captain
+Spike, I can take the liberty of an old ship-mate, however, and say
+one thing to you, which is this--look out for the Poughkeepsie,
+which is very likely to be on your heels when you least expect her."
+
+"That's your way of thinking, is it, Jack. Well, I thank you, old
+one, for the hint, but have little fear of that craft. We've had our
+legs together, and I think the brig has the longest."
+
+As the captain said this, he gaped like a hound, and went into his
+state-room. Jack lingered on the quarter-deck, waiting to hear him
+fairly in his berth, when he made a sign to Biddy, who had got as
+far aft as the galley, where she was secreted, to pass down into the
+cabin, as silently as possible. In a minute or two more, he moved
+forward, singing in a low, cracked voice, as was often his practice,
+and slowly made his way to the forecastle. Mulford was just
+beginning to think the fellow had changed his mind, and meant to
+stick by the brig, when the little, rotund figure of the
+assistant-steward was seen passing through the port, and to drop
+noiselessly on a thwart. Jack then moved to the bow, and cast off
+the painter, the head of the boat slowly falling off under the
+pressure of the breeze on that part of her mast and sail which rose
+above the hull of the Swash. Almost at the same moment, the mate let
+go the stern-fast, and the boat was free.
+
+It required some care to set the sail without the canvas flapping.
+It was done, however, before the boat fairly took the breeze, when
+all was safe. In half a minute the wind struck the sail, and away
+the little craft started, passing swiftly ahead of the brig. Soon as
+far enough off, Mulford put up his helm and wore short round,
+bringing the boat's head to the northward, or in its proper
+direction; after which they flew along before the wind, which seemed
+to be increasing in force, with a velocity that really appeared to
+defy pursuit. All this time the brig lay in its silence and
+solitude, no one stirring on board her, and all, in fact, Biddy
+alone excepted, profoundly ignorant of what had just been passing
+alongside of her. Ten minutes of running off with a flowing sheet,
+caused the Swash to look indistinct and hazy again; in ten minutes
+more she was swallowed up, hull, spars, and all, in the gloom of
+night.
+
+Mulford and Rose now felt something like that security, without the
+sense of which happiness itself is but an uneasy feeling, rendering
+the anticipations of evil the more painful by the magnitude of the
+stake. There they sat, now, in the stern-sheets by themselves, Jack
+Tier having placed himself near the bows of the boat, to look out
+for rocks, as well as to trim the craft. It was not long before Rose
+was leaning on Harry's shoulder, and ere an hour was past, she had
+fallen into a sweet sleep in that attitude, the young man having
+carefully covered her person with a capacious shawl, the same that
+had been used on the wreck. As for Jack, he maintained his post in
+silence, sitting with his arms crossed, and the hands thrust into
+the breast of his jacket, sailor fashion, a picture of nautical
+vigilance. It was some time after Rose had fallen asleep, that this
+singular being spoke for the first time.
+
+"Keep her away a bit, maty," he said, "keep her away, half a point
+or so. She's been travelin' like a racer since we left the brig; and
+yonder's the first streak of day."
+
+"By the time we have been running," observed Mulford, "I should
+think we must be getting near the northern side of the reef."
+
+"All of that, sir, depend on it. Here's a rock close aboard on us,
+to which we're comin' fast--just off here, on our weather-bow, that
+looks to me like the place where you landed a'ter that swim, and
+where we had stowed ourselves when Stephen Spike made us out, and
+gave chase."
+
+"It is surprising to me, Jack, that you should have any fancy to
+stick by a man of Spike's character. He is a precious rascal, as we
+all can see, now, and you are rather an honest sort of fellow."
+
+"Do you love the young woman there, that's lying in your arms, as it
+might be, and whom you say you wish to marry."
+
+"The question is a queer one, but it is easily answered. More than
+my life, Jack."
+
+"Well, how happens it that _you_ succeed, when the world has so many
+other young men who might please her as well as yourself."
+
+"It may be that no other loves her as well, and she has had the
+sagacity to discover it."
+
+"Quite likely. So it is with me and Stephen Spike. I fancy a man
+whom other folk despise and condemn. _Why_ I stand by him is my own
+secret; but stand by him I do and will."
+
+"This is all very strange, after your conduct on the island, and
+your conduct to-night. I shall not disturb your secret, however,
+Jack, but leave you to enjoy it by yourself. Is this the rock of
+which you spoke, that we are now passing?"
+
+"The same; and there's the spot in which we was stowed when they
+made us out from the brig; and here-away, a cable's length, more or
+less, the wreck of that Mexican craft must lie."
+
+"What is that rising above the water, thereaway, Jack; more on our
+weather-beam?"
+
+"I see what you mean, sir; it looks like a spar. By George! there's
+two on 'em; and they _do_ seem to be the schooner's masts."
+
+Sure enough! a second look satisfied Mulford that two mast-heads
+were out of water, and that within a hundred yards of the place the
+boat was running past. Standing on a short distance, or far enough
+to give himself room, the mate put his helm down, and tacked the
+boat. The flapping of the sail, and the little movement of shifting
+over the sheet, awoke Rose, who was immediately apprized of the
+discovery. As soon as round, the boat went glancing up to the spars,
+and presently was riding by one, Jack Tier having caught hold of a
+topmast-shroud, when Mulford let fly his sheet again, and luffed
+short up to the spot. By this time the increasing light was
+sufficiently strong to render objects distinct, when near by, and no
+doubt remained any longer in the mind of Mulford about the two
+mast-heads being those of the unfortunate Mexican schooner.
+
+"Well, of all I have ever seen I've never see'd the like of this
+afore!" exclaimed Jack. "When we left this here craft, sir, you'll
+remember, she had almost turned turtle, laying over so far as to
+bring her upper coamings under water; now she stands right side up,
+as erect as if docked! My navigation can't get along with this, Mr.
+Mulford, and it does seem like witchcraft."
+
+"It is certainly a very singular incident, Jack, and I have been
+trying to come at its causes."
+
+"Have you succeeded, Harry?" asked Rose, by this time wide awake,
+and wondering like the others.
+
+"It must have happened in this wise. The wreck was abandoned by us
+some little distance out here, to windward. The schooner's masts, of
+course, pointed to leeward, and when she drifted in here, they have
+first touched on a shelving rock, and as they have been shoved up,
+little by little, they have acted as levers to right the hull, until
+the cargo has shifted back into its proper berth, which has suddenly
+set the vessel up again."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," answered Jack, "all that might have happened had she
+been above water, or any part of her above water; but you'll
+remember, maty, that soon after we left her she went down."
+
+"Not entirely. The wreck settled in the water no faster after we had
+left it, than it had done before. It continued to sink, inch by
+inch, as the air escaped, and no faster after it had gone entirely
+out of sight than before; not as fast, indeed, as the water became
+denser the lower it got. The great argument against my theory, is
+the fact, that after the hull got beneath the surface, the wind
+could not act on it. This is true in one sense, however, and not in
+another. The waves, or the pressure of the water produced by the
+wind, might act on the hull for some time after we ceased to see it.
+But the currents have set the craft in here, and the hull floating
+always, very little force would cant the craft. If the rock were
+shelving and slippery, I see no great difficulty in the way; and the
+barrels may have been so lodged, that a trifle would set them
+rolling back again, each one helping to produce a change that would
+move another. As for the ballast, that, I am certain, could not
+shift, for it was stowed with great care. As the vessel righted, the
+air still in her moved, and as soon as the water permitted, it
+escaped by the hatches, when the craft went down, as a matter of
+course. This air may have aided in bringing the hull upright by its
+movements in the water."
+
+This was the only explanation to which the ingenuity of Mulford
+could help him, under the circumstances, and it may have been the
+right one, or not. There lay the schooner, however, in some five or
+six fathoms of water, with her two topmasts, and lower mast-heads
+out of the element, as upright as if docked! It may all have
+occurred as the mate fancied, or the unusual incident may have been
+owing to some of the many mysterious causes which baffle inquiry,
+when the agents are necessarily hidden from examination.
+
+"Spike intends to come and look for this wreck, you tell me, Jack;
+in the hope of getting at the doubloons it contains?" said Mulford;
+when the boat had lain a minute or two longer, riding by the
+mast-head.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir; that's his notion, sir, and he'll be in a great stew,
+as soon as he turns out, which must be about this time, and finds me
+missing; for I was to pilot him to the spot."
+
+"He'll want no pilot now. It will be scarcely possible to pass
+anywhere near this and not see these spars. But this discovery
+almost induces me to change my own plans. What say _you,_ Rose? We
+have now reached the northern side of the reef, when it is time to
+haul close by the wind, if we wish to beat up to Key West. There is
+a moral certainty, however, that the sloop-of-war is somewhere in
+the neighbourhood of the Dry Tortugas, which are much the most
+easily reached, being to leeward. We might run down to the
+light-house by mid-day, while it is doubtful if we could reach the
+town until to-morrow morning. I should like exceedingly to have five
+minutes conversation with the commander of the Poughkeepsie."
+
+"Ay, to let him know where he will be likely to fall in with the
+Molly Swash and her traitor master, Stephen Spike," cried Jack Tier.
+"Never mind, maty; let 'em come on; both the Molly and her master
+have got long legs and clean heels. Stephen Spike will show 'em how
+to thread the channels of a reef."
+
+"It is amazing to me, Jack, that you should stand by your old
+captain in feeling, while you are helping to thwart him, all you
+can, in his warmest wishes."
+
+"He's a willian!" muttered Jack--"a reg'lar willian is Stephen
+Spike!"
+
+"If a villain, why do you so evidently wish to keep him out of the
+hands of the law? Let him be captured and punished, as his crimes
+require."
+
+"Men's willians, all round," still muttered Jack. "Hark'e, Mr.
+Mulford, I've sailed in the brig longer than you, and know'd her in
+her comeliest and best days--when she was young, and blooming, and
+lovely to the eye, as the young creature at your side--and it would
+go to my heart to have anything happen to _her_. Then, I've know'd
+Stephen a long time, too, and old shipmates get a feelin' for each
+other, sooner or later. I tell you now, honestly, Mr. Mulford,
+Captain Adam Mull shall never make a prisoner of Stephen Spike, if I
+can prevent it."
+
+The mate laughed at this sally, but Rose appeared anxious to change
+the conversation, and she managed to open a discussion on the
+subject of the course it might be best to steer. Mulford had several
+excellent reasons to urge for wishing to run down to the islets, all
+of which, with a single exception, he laid before his betrothed. The
+concealed reason was one of the strongest of them all, as usually
+happens when there is a reason to conceal, but of that he took care
+to say nothing. The result was an acquiescence on the part of Rose,
+whose consent was yielded more to the influence of one particular
+consideration than to all the rest united. That one was this: Harry
+had pointed out to her the importance to himself of his appearing
+early to denounce the character and movements of the brig, lest,
+through his former situation in her, his own conduct might be
+seriously called in question.
+
+As soon as the matter was determined, Jack was told to let go his
+hold, the sheet was drawn aft, and away sped the boat. No sooner did
+Mulford cause the little craft to keep away than it almost flew, as
+if conscious it were bound to its proper home, skimming swiftly over
+the waves, like a bird returning eagerly to its nest. An hour later
+the party breakfasted. While at this meal, Jack Tier pointed out to
+the mate a white speck, in the south-eastern board, which he took to
+be the brig coming through the passage, on her way to the wreck.
+
+"No matter," returned the mate. "Though we can see her, she cannot
+see us. There is that much advantage in our being small, Rose, if it
+do prevent our taking exercise by walking the deck."
+
+Soon after, Mulford made a very distant sail in the north-western
+board, which he hoped might turn out to be the Poughkeepsie. It was
+but another speck, but its position was somewhat like that in which
+he had expected to meet the sloop-of-war. The two vessels were so
+far apart that one could not be seen from the other, and there was
+little hope that the Poughkeepsie would detect Spike at his toil on
+the wreck; but the mate fully expected that the ship would go into
+the anchorage, among the islets, in order to ascertain what had
+become of the schooner. If she did not go in herself, she would be
+almost certain to send in a boat.
+
+The party from the brigantine had run down before the wind more than
+two hours before the light-house began to show itself, just rising
+out of the waves. This gave them the advantage of a beacon, Mulford
+having steered hitherto altogether by the sun, the direction of the
+wind, and the treading of the reef. Now he had his port in sight, it
+being his intention to take possession of the dwelling of the
+light-house keeper, and to remain in it, until a favourable
+opportunity occurred to remove Rose to Key West. The young man had
+also another important project in view, which it will be in season
+to mention as it reaches the moment of its fulfillment.
+
+The rate of sailing of the light-house boat, running before a brisk
+trade wind, could not be much less than nine miles in the hour.
+About eleven o'clock, therefore, the lively craft shot through one
+of the narrow channels of the islets, and entered the haven. In a
+few minutes all three of the adventurers were on the little wharf
+where the light-house people were in the habit of landing. Rose
+proceeded to the house, while Harry and Jack remained to secure the
+boat. For the latter purpose a sort of slip, or little dock, had
+been made, and when the boat was hauled into it, it lay so snug that
+not only was the craft secure from injury, but it was actually hid
+from the view of all but those who stood directly above it.
+
+"This is a snug berth for the boat, Jack," observed the mate, when
+he had hauled it into the place mentioned, "and by unstepping the
+mast, a passer-by would not suspect such a craft of lying in it. Who
+knows what occasion there may be for concealment, and I'll e'en do
+that thing."
+
+To a casual listener, Harry, in unstepping the mast, might have
+seemed influenced merely by a motiveless impulse; but, in truth, a
+latent suspicion of Jack's intentions instigated him, and as he laid
+the mast, sprit and sail on the thwarts, he determined, in his own
+mind, to remove them all to some other place, as soon as an
+opportunity for doing so unobserved should occur. He and Jack now
+followed Rose to the house.
+
+The islets were found deserted and tenantless. Not a human being had
+entered the house since Rose left it, the evening she had remained
+so long ashore, in company with her aunt and the Senor
+Montefalderon. This our heroine knew from the circumstance of
+finding a slight fastening of the outer door in the precise
+situation in which she had left it with her own hands. At first a
+feeling of oppression and awe prevailed with both Harry and Rose,
+when they recollected the fate of those who had so lately been
+tenants of the place; but this gradually wore off, and each soon got
+to be more at home. As for Jack, he very coolly rummaged the
+lockers, as he called the drawers and closets of the place, and made
+his preparations for cooking a very delicious repast, in which
+_callipash_ and _callipee_ were to be material ingredients. The
+necessary condiments were easily enough found in that place, turtle
+being a common dish there, and it was not long before steams that
+might have quickened the appetite of an alderman filled the kitchen.
+Rose rummaged, too, and found a clean table-cloth, plates, glasses,
+bowls, spoons, and knives; in a word, all that was necessary to
+spread a plain but plentiful board. While all this was doing, Harry
+took some fishing-tackle, and proceeded to a favourable spot among
+the rocks. In twenty minutes he returned with a fine mess of that
+most delicious little fish that goes by the very unpoetical name of
+"hog-fish," from the circumstance of its giving a grunt not unlike
+that of a living porker, when rudely drawn from its proper element.
+Nothing was now wanting to not only a comfortable, but to what was
+really a most epicurian meal, and Jack just begged the lovers to
+have patience for an hour or so, when he promised them dishes that
+even New York could not furnish.
+
+Harry and Rose first retired to pay a little attention to their
+dress, and then they joined each other in a walk. The mate had found
+some razors, and was clean shaved. He had also sequestered a shirt,
+and made some other little additions to his attire, that contributed
+to give him the appearance of being, that which he really was, a
+very gentleman-like looking young sailor. Rose had felt no necessity
+for taking liberties with the effects of others, though a good deal
+of female attire was found in the dwelling. As was afterward
+ascertained, a family ordinarily dwelt there, but most of it had
+gone to Key West, on a visit, at the moment when the man and boy
+left in charge had fallen into the hands of the Mexicans, losing
+their lives in the manner mentioned.
+
+While walking together, Harry opened his mind to Rose, on the
+subject which lay nearest to his heart, and which had been at the
+bottom of this second visit to the islets of the Dry Tortugas.
+During the different visits of Wallace to the brig, the boat's crew
+of the Poughkeepsie had held more or less discourse with the people
+of the Swash. This usually happens on such occasions, and although
+Spike had endeavoured to prevent it, when his brig lay in this bay,
+he had not been entirely successful. Such discourse is commonly
+jocular, and sometimes witty; every speech, coming from which side
+it may, ordinarily commencing with "shipmate," though the
+interlocutors never saw each other before that interview. In one of
+the visits an allusion was made to cargo, when "the pretty gal aft,"
+was mentioned as being a part of the cargo of the Swash. In answer
+to this remark, the wit of the Poughkeepsie had told the brig's man,
+"you had better send her on board us, for we carry a chaplain, a
+regular-built one, that will be a bishop some day or other, perhaps,
+and we can get her spliced to one of our young officers." This
+remark had induced the sailor of the Molly to ask if a sloop-of-war
+really carried such a piece of marine luxury as a chaplain, and the
+explanation given went to say that the clergyman in question did not
+properly belong to the Poughkeepsie, but was to be put on board a
+frigate, as soon as they fell in with one that he named. Now, all
+this Mulford overheard, and he remembered it at a moment when it
+might be of use. Situated as he and Rose were, he felt the wisdom
+and propriety of their being united, and his present object was to
+persuade his companion to be of the same way of thinking. He doubted
+not that the sloop-of-war would come in, ere long, perhaps that very
+day, and he believed it would be an easy matter to induce her
+chaplain to perform the ceremony. America is a country in which
+every facility exists, with the fewest possible impediments, to
+getting married; and, we regret to be compelled to add, to getting
+unmarried also. There are no banns, no licenses, no consent of
+parents even, usually necessary, and persons who are of the age of
+discretion, which, as respects females and matrimony, is a very
+tender age indeed, may be married, if they see fit, almost without
+form or ceremony. There existed, therefore, no legal impediment to
+the course Mulford desired to take; and his principal, if not his
+only difficulty, would be with Rose. Over her scruples he hoped to
+prevail, and not without reason, as the case he could and did
+present, was certainly one of a character that entitled him to be
+heard with great attention.
+
+In the first place, Mrs. Budd had approved of the connection, and it
+was understood between them, that the young people were to be united
+at the first port in which a clergyman of their own persuasion could
+be found, and previously to reaching home. This had been the aunt's
+own project, for, weak and silly as she was, the relict had a
+woman's sense of the proprieties. It had occured to her that it
+would be more respectable to make the long journey which lay before
+them, escorted by a nephew and husband, than escorted by even an
+accepted lover. It is true that she had never anticipated a marriage
+in a light-house, and under the circumstances in which Rose was now
+placed, though it might be more reputable that her niece should quit
+the islets as the wife of Harry than as his betrothed. Then Mulford
+still apprehended Spike. In that remote part of the world, almost
+beyond the confines of society, it was not easy to foretell what
+claims he might set up, in the event of his meeting them there.
+Armed with the authority of a husband, Mulford could resist him, in
+any such case, with far better prospects of success than if he
+should appear only in the character of a suitor.
+
+Rose listened to these arguments, ardently and somewhat eloquently
+put, as a girl of her years and habits would be apt to listen to a
+favoured lover. She was much too sincere to deny her own attachment,
+which the events of the last few days had increased almost to
+intenseness, so apt is our tenderness to augment in behalf of those
+for whom we feel solicitude; and her judgment told her that the more
+sober part of Harry's reasoning was entitled to consideration. As
+his wife, her situation would certainly be much less equivocal and
+awkward, than while she bore a different name, and was admitted to
+be a single woman, and it might yet be weeks before the duty she
+owed her aunt would allow her to proceed to the north. But, after
+all, Harry prevailed more through the influence of his hold on
+Rose's affections, as would have been the case with almost every
+other woman, than through any force of reasoning. He truly loved,
+and that made him eloquent when he spoke of love; sympathy in all he
+uttered being his great ally. When summoned to the house, by the
+call of Jack, who announced that the turtle-soup was ready, they
+returned with the understanding that the chaplain of the
+Poughkeepsie should unite them, did the vessel come in, and would
+the functionary mentioned consent to perform the ceremony.
+
+"It would be awkward--nay, it would be distressing, Harry, to have
+him refuse," said the blushing Rose, as they walked slowly back to
+the house, more desirous to prolong their conversation than to
+partake of the bountiful provision of Jack Tier. The latter could
+not but be acceptable, nevertheless, to a young man like Mulford,
+who was in robust health, and who had fared so badly for the last
+eight-and-forty hours. When he sat down to the table, therefore,
+which was covered by a snow-white cloth, with smoking and most
+savoury viands on it, it will not be surprising if we say it was
+with a pleasure that was derived from one of the great necessities
+of our nature.
+
+Sancho calls for benediction "on the man who invented sleep." It
+would have been more just to have asked this boon in behalf of him
+who invented eating and turtle-soup. The wearied fall into sleep, as
+it might be unwittingly; sometimes against their will, and often
+against their interests; while many a man is hungry without
+possessing the means of appeasing his appetite. Still more daily
+feel hunger without possessing turtle-soup. Certain persons impute
+this delicious compound to the genius of some London alderman, but
+we rather think unjustly. Aldermanic genius is easily excited and
+rendered active, no doubt, by strong appeals on such a theme, but
+our own experience inclines us to believe that the tropics usually
+send their inventions to the less fruitful regions of the earth
+along with their products. We have little doubt, could the fact be
+now ascertained, that it would be found turtle-soup was originally
+invented by just some such worthy as Jack Tier, who in filling his
+coppers to tickle the captain's appetite, had used all the
+condiments within his reach; ventured on a sort of Regent's punch;
+and, as the consequence, had brought forth the dish so often
+eulogized, and so well beloved. It is a little extraordinary that in
+Paris, the seat of gastronomy, one rarely, if ever, hears of or sees
+this dish; while in London it is to be met in almost as great
+abundance as in one of our larger commercial towns. But so it is,
+and we cannot say we much envy a _cuisine_ its _pates,_ and
+_soufflets,_ and its _a la_ this and _a la_ thats, but which was
+never redolent with the odours of turtle-soup.
+
+"Upon my word, Jack, you have made out famously with your dinner, or
+supper, whichever you may please to call it," cried Mulford gaily,
+as he took his seat at table, after having furnished Rose with a
+chair. "Nothing appears to be wanting; but here is good pilot bread,
+potatoes even, and other little niceties, in addition to the turtle
+and the fish. These good people of the light seem to have lived
+comfortably, at any rate."
+
+"Why should they not, maty?" answered Jack, beginning to help to
+soup. "Living on one of these islets is like living afloat.
+Everything is laid in, as for an outward bound craft; then the reef
+must always furnish fish and turtle. I've overhauled the lockers
+pretty thoroughly, and find a plenty of stores to last _us_ a month.
+Tea, sugar, coffee, bread, pickles, potatoes, onions, and all other
+knick-knacks."
+
+"The poor people who own these stores will be heavy-hearted enough
+when they come to learn the reason why we have been put in
+undisturbed possession of their property," said Rose. "We must
+contrive some means of repaying them for such articles as we may
+use, Harry."
+
+"That's easily enough done, Miss Rose. Drop one of the half-eagles
+in a tea-pot, or a mug, and they'll be certain to fall in with it
+when they come back. Nothin' is easier than to pay a body's debts,
+when a body has the will and the means. Now, the worst enemy of
+Stephen Spike must own that his brig never quits port with unsettled
+bills. Stephen has his faults, like other mortals; but he has his
+good p'ints, too."
+
+"Still praising Spike, my good Jack," cried the mate, a little
+provoked at this pertinacity in the deputy-steward, in sticking to
+his ship and his shipmate. "I should have thought that you had
+sailed with him long enough to have found him out, and to wish never
+to put your foot in his cabin again."
+
+"Why, no, maty, a craft is a craft, and a body gets to like even the
+faults of one in which a body has gone through gales, and squalls,
+with a whole skin. I like the Swash, and, for sartain things I like
+her captain."
+
+"Meaning by that, it is your intention to get on board of the one,
+and to sail with the other, again, as soon as you can."
+
+"I do, Mr. Mulford, and make no bones in telling on't. You know that
+I came here without wishing it."
+
+"Well, Jack, no one will attempt to control your movements, but you
+shall be left your own master. I feel it to be a duty, however, as
+one who may know more of the law than yourself, as well as more of
+Stephen Spike, to tell you that he is engaged in a treasonable
+commerce with the enemy, and that he, and all who voluntarily remain
+with him, knowing this fact, may be made to swing for it."
+
+"Then I'll swing for it," returned Jack, sullenly.
+
+"There is a little obstinacy in this, my good fellow, and you must
+be reasoned out of it. I am under infinite obligations to you, Jack,
+and shall ever be ready to own them. Without you to sail the boat, I
+might have been left to perish on that rock,--for God only knows
+whether any vessel would have seen me in passing. Most of those who
+go through that passage keep the western side of the reef aboard,
+they tell me, on account of there being better water on that side of
+the channel, and the chance of a man's being seen on a rock, by
+ships a league or two off, would be small indeed. Yes, Jack, I owe
+my life to you, and am proud to own it."
+
+"You owe it to Miss Rose, maty, who put me up to the enterprise, and
+who shared it with me."
+
+"To her I owe more than life," answered Harry, looking at his
+beloved as she delighted in being regarded by him, "but even she,
+with all her wishes to serve me, would have been helpless without
+your skill in managing a boat. I owe also to your good-nature the
+happiness of having Rose with me at this moment; for without you she
+would not have come."
+
+"I'll not deny it, maty--take another ladle-full of the soup, Miss
+Rosy: a quart of it would n't hurt an infant--I'll not deny it, Mr.
+Mulford--I know by the way you've got rid of the first bowl-full
+that _you_ are ready for another, and there it is--I'll not deny it,
+and all I can say is that you are heartily welcome to my sarvices."
+
+"I thank you, Jack; but all this only makes me more desirous of
+being of use to you, now, when it's in my power. I wish you to stick
+by me, and not to return to the Swash. As soon as I get to New York
+I shall build or buy a ship, and the berth of steward in her shall
+always be open to you."
+
+"Thank'e, maty; thank'e, with all my heart. It's something to know
+that a port is open to leeward, and, though I cannot _now_ accept
+your offer, the day _may_ come when I shall be glad to do so."
+
+"If you like living ashore better, our house will always be ready to
+receive you. I should be glad to leave as handy a little fellow as
+yourself behind me whenever I went to sea. There are a hundred
+things in which you might be useful, and fully earn your biscuit, so
+as to have no qualms about eating the bread of idleness."
+
+"Thank'e, thank'e, maty," cried Jack, dashing a tear out of his eye
+with the back of his hand, "thank'e, sir, from the bottom of my
+heart. The time _may_ come, but not now. My papers is signed for
+this v'y'ge. Stephen Spike has a halter round his neck, as you say
+yourself, and it's necessary for me to be there to look to't. We all
+have our callin's and duties, and this is mine. I stick by the Molly
+and her captain until both are out of this scrape, or both are
+condemned. I know nothin' of treason; but if the law wants another
+victim, I must take my chance."
+
+Mulford was surprised at this steadiness of Jack's, in what he
+thought a very bad cause, and he was quite as much surprised that
+Rose did not join him, in his endeavours to persuade the steward not
+to be so foolhardy, as to endeavour to go back to the brig. Rose did
+not, however; sitting silently eating her dinner the whole time,
+though she occasionally cast glances of interest at both the
+speakers the while. In this state of things the mate abandoned the
+attempt, for the moment, intending to return to the subject, after
+having had a private conference with his betrothed.
+
+Notwithstanding the little drawback just related, that was a happy
+as well as a delicious repast. The mate did full justice to the
+soup, and afterward to the fish with the unpoetical name; and Rose
+ate more than she had done in the last three days. The habits of
+discipline prevented Jack from taking his seat at table, though
+pressed by both Rose and Harry to do so, but he helped himself to
+the contents of a bowl and did full justice to his own art, on one
+aside. The little fellow was delighted with the praises that were
+bestowed on his dishes; and for the moment, the sea, its dangers,
+its tornadoes, wrecks and races, were all forgotten in the security
+and pleasures of so savoury a repast.
+
+"Folk ashore do n't know how sailors sometimes live," said Jack,
+holding a large spoon filled with the soup ready to plunge into a
+tolerably capacious mouth.
+
+"Or how they sometimes starve," answered Rose. "Remember our own
+situation, less than forty-eight hours since!"
+
+"All very true, Miss Rose; yet, you see, turtle-soup brings us up,
+a'ter all. Would you like a glass of wine, maty?"
+
+"Very much indeed, Jack, after so luscious a soup; but wishing for
+it will not bring it here."
+
+"That remains to be seen, sir. I call this a bottle of something
+that looks wery much like a wine."
+
+"Claret, as I live! Why, where should light-house keepers get the
+taste for claret?"
+
+"I've thought of that myself, Mr. Mulford, and have supposed that
+some of Uncle Sam's officers have brought the liquor to this part of
+the world. I understand a party on 'em was here surveyin' all last
+winter. It seems they come in the cool weather, and get their sights
+and measure their distances, and go home in the warm weather, and
+work out their traverses in the shade, as it might be."
+
+"This seems likely, Jack; but, come whence it may it is welcome, and
+we will taste it."
+
+Mulford then drew the cork of this mild and grateful liquor, and
+helped his companions and himself. In this age of moral _tours de
+force,_ one scarcely dare say anything favourable of a liquid that
+even bears the name of wine, or extol the shape of a bottle. It is
+truly the era of exaggeration. Nothing is treated in the
+old-fashioned, natural, common sense way. Virtue is no longer
+virtue, unless it get upon stilts; and, as for sin's being confined
+to "transgression against the law of God," audacious would be the
+wretch who should presume to limit the sway of the societies by any
+dogma so narrow! A man may be as abstemious as an anchorite and get
+no credit for it, unless "he sigu the pledge;" or, signing the
+pledge, he may get fuddled in corners, and be cited as a miracle of
+sobriety. The test of morals is no longer in the abuse of the gifts
+of Providence, but in their use; prayers are deserting the closet
+for the corners of streets, and charity (not the giving of alms) has
+got to be so earnest in the demonstration of its nature, as to be
+pretty certain to "begin at home," and to end where it begins. Even
+the art of mendacity has been aroused by the great progress which is
+making by all around it, and many manifest the strength of their
+ambition by telling ten lies where their fathers would have been
+satisfied with telling only one. This art has made an extraordinary
+progress within the last quarter of a century, aspiring to an
+ascendency that was formerly conceded only to truth, until he who
+gains his daily bread by it has some such contempt for the sneaking
+wretch who does business on the small scale, as the slayer of his
+thousands in the field is known to entertain for him who kills only
+a single man in the course of a long life.
+
+At the risk of damaging the reputations of our hero and heroine, we
+shall frankly aver the fact that both Harry and Rose partook of the
+_vin de Bordeaux,_ a very respectable bottle of _Medoc,_ by the way,
+which had been forgotten by Uncle Sam's people, in the course of the
+preceding winter, agreeably to Jack Tier's conjecture. One glass
+sufficed for Rose, and, contrary as it may be to all modern theory,
+she was somewhat the better for it; while the mate and Jack Tier
+quite half emptied the bottle, being none the worse. There they sat,
+enjoying the security and abundance which had succeeded to their
+late danger, happy in that security, happy in themselves, and happy
+in the prospects of a bright future. It was just as practicable for
+them to remain at the Dry Tortugas, as it was for the family which
+ordinarily dwelt at the light. The place was amply supplied with
+everything that would be necessary for their wants, for months to
+come, and Harry caused his betrothed to blush, as he whispered to
+her, should the chaplain arrive, he should delight in passing the
+honey-moon where they then were.
+
+"I could tend the light," he added, smiling, "which would be not
+only an occupation, but a useful occupation; you could read all
+those books from beginning to end, and Jack could keep us suplied
+with fish. By the way, master steward, are you in the humour for
+motion, so soon after your hearty meal?"
+
+"Anything to be useful," answered Jack, cheerfully.
+
+"Then do me the favour to go up into the lantern of the light-house,
+and take a look for the sloop-of-war. If she's in sight at all,
+you'll find her off here to the northward; and while you are aloft
+you may as well make a sweep of the whole horizon. There hangs the
+light-house keeper's glass, which may help your eyes, by stepping
+into the gallery outside of the lantern."
+
+Jack willingly complied, taking the glass and proceeding forthwith
+to the other building. Mulford had two objects in view in giving
+this commission to the steward. He really wished to ascertain what
+was the chance of seeing the Poughkeepsie, in the neighbourhood of
+the islets, and felt just that indisposition to move himself, that
+is apt to come over one who has recently made a very bountiful meal,
+while he also desired to have another private conversation with
+Rose.
+
+A good portion of the time that Jack was gone, and he stayed quite
+an hour in the lantern, our lovers conversed as lovers are much
+inclined to converse; that is to say, of themselves, their feelings,
+and their prospects. Mulford told Rose of his hopes and fears, while
+he visited at the house of her aunt, previously to sailing, and the
+manner in which his suspicions had been first awakened in reference
+to the intentions of Spike--intentions, so far as they were
+connected with an admiration of his old commander's niece, and
+possibly in connection also with the little fortune she was known to
+possess, but not in reference to the bold project to which he had,
+in fact, resorted. No distrust of the scheme finally put in practice
+had ever crossed the mind of the young mate, until he received the
+unexpected order, mentioned in our opening chapter, to prepare the
+brig for the reception of Mrs. Budd and her party. Harry confessed
+his jealousy of one youth whom he dreaded far more even than he had
+ever dreaded Spike, and whose apparent favour with Rose, and actual
+favour with her aunt, had given him many a sleepless night.
+
+They next conversed of the future, which to them seemed full of
+flowers. Various were the projects started, discussed, and
+dismissed, between them, the last almost as soon as proposed. On one
+thing they were of a mind, as soon as proposed. Harry was to have a
+ship as quick as one could be purchased by Rose's means, and the
+promised bride laughingly consented to make one voyage to Europe
+along with her husband.
+
+"I wonder, dear Rose, my poverty has never presented any
+difficulties in the way of our union," said Harry, sensibly touched
+with the free way his betrothed disposed of her own money in his
+behalf; "but neither you nor Mrs. Budd has ever seemed to think of
+the difference there is between us in this respect."
+
+"What is the trifle I possess, Harry, set in the balance against
+your worth? My aunt, as you say, has thought I might even be the
+gainer by the exchange."
+
+"I am sure I feel a thousand times indebted to Mrs. Budd--"
+
+"_Aunt_ Budd. You must learn to say, `_my_ Aunt Budd,' Mr. Henry
+Mulford, if you mean to live in peace with her unworthy niece."
+
+"_Aunt_ Budd, then," returned Harry, laughing, for the laugh came
+easily that evening; "Aunt Budd, if you wish it, Rose. I can have no
+objection to call any relative of yours, uncle or aunt."
+
+"I think we are intimate enough, now, to ask you a question or two,
+Harry, touching my aunt," continued Rose, looking stealthily over
+her shoulder, as if apprehensive of being overheard. "You know how
+fond she is of speaking of the sea, and of indulging in nautical
+phrases?"
+
+"Any one must have observed that, Rose," answered the young man,
+gazing up at the wall, in order not to be compelled to look the
+beautiful creature before him in the eyes--"Mrs. Budd has very
+strong tastes that way."
+
+"Now tell me, Harry--that is, answer me frankly--I mean--she is not
+_always_ right, is she?"
+
+"Why, no; not absolutely so--that is, not absolutely _always_
+so--few persons are _always_ right, you know."
+
+Rose remained silent and embarrassed for a moment; after which she
+pursued the discourse.
+
+"But aunty does not know as much of the sea and of ships as she
+thinks she does?"
+
+"Perhaps not. We all overrate our own acquirements. I dare say that
+even I am not as good a seaman as I fancy myself to be."
+
+"Even Spike admits that you are what he calls `a prime seaman.' But
+it is not easy for a woman to get a correct knowledge of the use of
+all the strange, and sometimes uncouth, terms that you sailors use."
+
+"Certainly not, and for that reason I would rather you should never
+attempt it, Rose. We rough sons of the ocean would prefer to hear
+our wives make divers pretty blunders, rather than to be swaggering
+about like so many `old salts.'"
+
+"Mr. Mulford! Does Aunt Budd swagger like an old salt?"
+
+"Dearest Rose, I was not thinking of your aunt, but of _you_. Of
+you, as you are, feminine, spirited, lovely alike in form and
+character, and of you a graduate of the ocean, and full of its
+language and ideas."
+
+It was probable Rose was not displeased at this allusion to herself,
+for a smile struggled around her pretty mouth, and she did not look
+at all angry. After another short pause, she resumed the discourse.
+
+"My aunt did not very clearly comprehend those explanations of yours
+about the time of day, and the longitude," she said, "nor am I quite
+certain that I did myself."
+
+"You understood them far better than Mrs. Budd, Rose. Women are so
+little accustomed to _think_ on such subjects at all, that it is not
+surprising they sometimes get confused. I do wish, however, that
+your aunt could be persuaded to be more cautious in the presence of
+strangers, on the subject of terms she does not understand."
+
+"I feared it might be so, Harry," answered Rose, in a low voice, as
+if unwilling even he should know the full extent of her thoughts on
+this subject; "but my aunt's heart is most excellent, though she may
+make mistakes occasionally, I owe her a great deal, if not
+absolutely my education, certainly my health and comfort through
+childhood, and more prudent, womanly advice than you may suppose,
+perhaps, since I have left school. How she became the dupe of Spike,
+indeed, is to me unaccountable; for in all that relates to health,
+she is, in general, both acute and skilful."
+
+"Spike is a man of more art than he appears to be to superficial
+observers. On my first acquaintance with him, I mistook him for a
+frank, fearless but well-meaning sailor, who loved hazardous voyages
+and desperate speculation--a sort of innocent gambler; but I have
+learned to know better. His means are pretty much reduced to his
+brig, and she is getting old, and can do but little more service.
+His projects are plain enough, now. By getting you into his power,
+he hoped to compel a marriage, in which case both your fortune and
+your aunt's would contribute to repair his."
+
+"He might have killed me, but I never would have married him,"
+rejoined Rose, firmly. "Is not that Jack coming down the steps of
+the light-house?"
+
+"It is. I find that fellow's attachment to Spike very extraordinary,
+Rose. Can you, in any manner, account for it?"
+
+Rose at first seemed disposed to reply. Her lips parted, as if about
+to speak, and closed again, as glancing her eyes toward the open
+door, she seemed to expect the appearance of the steward's little,
+rotund form on its threshold, which held her tongue-tied. A brief
+interval elapsed, however, ere Jack actually arrived, and Rose,
+perceiving that Harry was curiously expecting her answer, said
+hurriedly--"It may be hatred, not attachment."
+
+The next instant Jack Tier entered the room. He had been gone rather
+more than an hour, not returning until just as the sun was about to
+set in a flame of fire.
+
+"Well, Jack, what news from the Poughkeepsie?" demanded the mate.
+"You have been gone long enough to make sure of your errand. Is it
+certain that we are not to see the man-of-war's-men to-night."
+
+"Whatever you see, my advice to you is to keep close, and to be on
+your guard," answered Jack, evasively.
+
+"I have little fear of any of Uncle Sam's craft. A plain story, and
+an honest heart, will make all clear to a well-disposed listener. We
+have not been accomplices in Spike's treasons, and cannot be made to
+answer for them."
+
+"Take my advice, maty, and be in no hurry to hail every vessel you
+see. Uncle Sam's fellows may not always be at hand to help you. Do
+you not know that this island will be tabooed to seamen for some
+time to come?"
+
+"Why so, Jack? The islet has done no harm, though others may have
+performed wicked deeds near it."
+
+"Two of the drowned men lie within a hundred yards of this spot, and
+sailors never go near new-made graves, if they can find any other
+place to resort to."
+
+"You deal in enigmas, Jack; and did I not know that you are very
+temperate, I might suspect that the time you have been gone has been
+passed in the company of a bottle of brandy."
+
+"That will explain my meanin'," said Jack, laconically, pointing as
+he spoke seemingly at some object that was to be seen without.
+
+The door of the house was wide open, for the admission of air. It
+faced the haven of the islets, and just as the mate's eyes were
+turned to it, the end of a flying-jib-boom, with the sail down, and
+fluttering beneath it, was coming into the view. "The Poughkeepsie!"
+exclaimed Mulford, in delight, seeing all his hopes realized, while
+Rose blushed to the eyes. A pause succeeded, during which Mulford
+drew aside, keeping his betrothed in the back-ground, and as much
+out of sight as possible. The vessel was shooting swiftly into view,
+and presently all there could see it was the Swash.
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  But no--he surely is not dreaming.
+  Another minute makes it clear,
+  A scream, a rush, a burning tear,
+  From Inez' cheek, dispel the fear
+  That bliss like his is only seeming.
+
+Washington Alston.
+
+A moment of appalled surprise succeeded the instant when Harry and
+Rose first ascertained the real character of the vessel that had
+entered the haven of the Dry Tortugas. Then the first turned toward
+Jack Tier, and sternly demanded an explanation of his apparent
+faithlessness.
+
+"Rascal," he cried, "has this treachery been intended? Did you not
+see the brig and know her?"
+
+"Hush, Harry--_dear_ Harry," exclaimed Rose, entreatingly. "My life
+for it, Jack has _not_ been faithless."
+
+"Why, then, has he not let us know that the brig was coming? For
+more than an hour has he been aloft, on the look-out, and here are
+we taken quite by surprise. Rely on it, Rose, he has seen the
+approach of the brig, and might have sooner put us on our guard."
+
+"Ay, ay, lay it on, maty," said Jack, coolly, neither angry nor
+mortified, so far as appearances went, at these expressions of
+dissatisfaction; "my back is used to it. If I did n't know what it
+is to get hard raps on the knuckles, I should be but a young
+steward. But, as for this business, a little reflection will tell
+you I am not to blame."
+
+"Give us your own explanations, for without them I shall trust you
+no longer."
+
+"Well, sir, what good would it have done, _had_ I told you the brig
+was standing for this place? There she came down, like a race-horse,
+and escape for you was impossible. As the wind is now blowin', the
+Molly would go two feet to the boat's one, and a chase would have
+been madness."
+
+"I do n't know that, sirrah" answered the mate." The boat might have
+got into the smaller passages of the reef, where the brig could not
+enter, or she might have dodged about among these islets, until it
+was night, and then escaped in the darkness."
+
+"I thought of all that, Mr. Mulford, but it came too late. When I
+first went aloft, I came out on the north-west side of the lantern,
+and took my seat, to look out for the sloop-of-war, as you bade me,
+sir. Well, there I was sweepin' the horizon with the glass for the
+better part of an hour, sometimes fancyin' I saw her, and then
+givin' it up; for to this moment I am not sartain there is n't a
+sail off here to the westward, turning up toward the light on a
+bowline; but if there be, she's too far off to know anything
+partic'lar about her. Well, sir, there I sat, looking for the
+Poughkeepsie, for the better part of an hour, when I thought I would
+go round on t' other side of the lantern and take a look to
+windward. My heart was in my mouth, I can tell you, Miss Rose, when
+I saw the brig; and I felt both glad and sorry. Glad on my own
+account, and sorry on your'n. There she was, however, and no help
+for it, within two miles of this very spot, and coming down as if
+she despised touching the water at all. Now, what could I do? There
+was n't time, Mr. Mulford, to get the boat out, and the mast
+stepped, afore we should have been within reach of canister, and
+Stephen Spike would not have spared _that,_ in order to get you
+again within his power."
+
+"Depend on it, Harry, this is all true," said Rose, earnestly. "I
+know Jack well, and can answer for his fidelity. He wishes to, and
+if he can he _will_ return to the brig, whither he thinks his duty
+calls him, but he will never willingly betray _us_--least of all,
+_me_. Do I speak as I ought, Jack?"
+
+"Gospel truth, Miss Rose, and Mr. Mulford will get over this squall,
+as soon as he comes to think of matters as he ought. There 's my
+hand, maty, to show I bear no malice."
+
+"I take it, Jack, for I must believe you honest, after all you have
+done for us. Excuse my warmth, which, if a little unreasonable, was
+somewhat natural under the circumstances. I suppose our case is now
+hopeless, and that we shall all be soon on board the brig again; for
+Spike will hardly think of abandoning me again on an island
+provisioned and fitted as is this!"
+
+"It's not so sartain, sir, that you fall into his hands at all," put
+in Jack. "The men of the brig will never come here of their own
+accord, depend on that, for sailors don't like graves. Spike has
+come in here a'ter the schooner's chain, that he dropped into the
+water when he made sail from the sloop-of-war, at the time he was
+here afore, and is not expectin' to find us here. No--no--he thinks
+we are beatin' up toward Key West this very minute, if, indeed, he
+has missed us at all. 'T is possible he believes the boat has got
+adrift by accident, and has no thought of our bein' out of the
+brig."
+
+"That is impossible, Jack. Do you suppose he is ignorant that Rose
+is missing?"
+
+"Sartain of it, maty, if Mrs. Budd has read the letter well that
+Miss Rose left for her, and Biddy has obeyed orders. If they've
+followed instructions, Miss Rose is thought to be in her state-room,
+mournin' for a young man who was abandoned on a naked rock, and Jack
+Tier, havin' eat somethin' that has disagreed with him, is in his
+berth. Recollect, Spike will not be apt to look into Miss Rose's
+state-room or my berth, to see if all this is true. The cook and
+Josh are both in my secret, and know I mean to come back, and when
+the fit is over I have only to return to duty, like any other hand.
+It is my calculation that Spike believes both Miss Rose and myself
+on board the Molly at this very moment."
+
+"And the boat--what can he suppose has become of the boat?"
+
+"Sartainly, the boat makes the only chance ag'in us. But the boat
+was ridin' by its painter astarn, and accidents sometimes happen to
+such craft. Then we two are the wery last he will suspect of havin'
+made off in the boat by ourselves. There'll be Mrs. Budd and Biddy
+as a sort of pledge that Miss Rose is aboard, and as for Jack Tier,
+he is too insignificant to occupy the captain's thoughts just now.
+He will probably muster the people for'ard, when he finds the boat
+is gone, but I do not think he'll trouble the cabins or
+state-rooms."
+
+Mulford admitted that this was _possible,_ though it scarcely seemed
+probable to him. There was no help, however, for the actual state of
+things, and they all now turned their attention to the brig, and to
+the movements of those on board her. Jack Tier had swung-to the
+outer-door of the house, as soon as the Swash came in view through
+it, and fortunately none of the windows on that side of the building
+had been opened at all. The air entered to windward, which was on
+the rear of the dwelling, so that it was possible to be comfortable
+and yet leave the front, in view from the vessel, with its deserted
+air. As for the brig, she had already anchored and got both her
+boats into the water. The yawl was hauled alongside, in readiness
+for any service that might be required of it, while the launch had
+been manned at once, and was already weighing the anchor, and
+securing the chain to which Tier had alluded. All this served very
+much to lessen the uneasiness of Mulford and Rose, as it went far to
+prove that Spike had not come to the Dry Tortugas in quest of them,
+as, at first, both had very naturally supposed. It might, indeed,
+turn out that his sole object was to obtain this anchor and chain,
+with a view to use them in raising the ill-fated vessel that had now
+twice gone to the bottom.
+
+"I wish an explanation with you, Jack, on one other point," said the
+mate, after all three had been for sometime observing the movements
+on board and around the Swash. "Do you actually intend to get on
+board the brig?"
+
+"If it's to be done, maty. My v'y'ge is up with you and Miss Rose. I
+may be said to have shipped for Key West and a market, and the
+market's found at this port."
+
+"You will hardly leave us _yet,_ Jack," said Rose, with a manner and
+emphasis that did not fail to strike her betrothed lover, though he
+could in no way account for either. That Rose should not wish to be
+left alone with him in that solitary place was natural enough; or,
+might rather be referred to education and the peculiar notions of
+her sex; but he could not understand why so much importance should
+be attached to the presence of a being of Jack Tier's mould and
+character. It was true, that there was little choice, under present
+circumstances, but it occurred to Mulford that Rose had manifested
+the same strange predilection when there might have been something
+nearer to a selection. The moment, however, was not one for much
+reflection on the subject.
+
+"You will hardly leave us yet, Jack?" said Rose, in the manner
+related.
+
+"it's now or never, Miss Rose. If the brig once gets away from this
+anchorage without me, I may never lay eyes on her ag'in. Her time is
+nearly up, for wood and iron wont hold together always, any more
+than flesh and blood. Consider how many years I've been busy in
+huntin' her up, and how hard 't will be to lose that which has given
+me so many weary days and sleepless nights to find."
+
+Rose said no more. If not convinced, she was evidently silenced,
+while Harry was left to wonder and surmise, as best he might. Both
+quitted the subject, to watch the people of the brig. By this time
+the anchor had been lifted, and the chain was heaving in on board
+the vessel, by means of a line that had been got around its bight.
+The work went on rapidly, and Mulford observed to Rose that he did
+not think it was the intention of Spike to remain long at the
+Tortugas, inasmuch as his brig was riding by a very short range of
+cable. This opinion was confirmed, half an hour later, when it was
+seen that the launch was hooked on and hoisted in again, as soon as
+the chain and anchor of the schooner were secured.
+
+Jack Tier watched every movement with palpable uneasiness. His
+apprehensions that Spike would obtain all he wanted, and be off
+before he could rejoin him, increased at each instant, and he did
+not scruple to announce an intention to take the boat and go
+alongside of the Swash at every hazard, rather than be left.
+
+"You do not reflect on what you say, Jack," answered Harry; "unless,
+indeed, it be your intention to betray us. How could you appear in
+the boat, at this place, without letting it be known that we must be
+hard by?"
+
+"That don't follow at all, maty," answered Jack. "Suppose I go
+alongside the brig and own to the captain that I took the boat last
+night, with the hope of findin' you, and that failin' to succeed, I
+bore up for this port, to look for provisions and water. Miss Rose
+he thinks on board at this moment, and in my judgment he would take
+me at my word, give me a good cursing, and think no more about it."
+
+"It would never do, Jack," interposed Rose, instantly. "It would
+cause the destruction of Harry, as Spike would not believe you had
+not found him, without an examination of this house."
+
+"What are they about with the yawl, Mr. Mulford?" asked Jack, whose
+eye was never off the vessel for a single moment. "It's gettin' to
+be so dark that one can hardly see the boat, but it seems as if
+they're about to man the yawl."
+
+"They are, and there goes a lantern into it. And that is Spike
+himself coming down the brig's side this instant."
+
+"They can only bring a lantern to search this house," exclaimed
+Rose. "Oh! Harry, you are lost!"
+
+"I rather think the lantern is for the light-house," answered
+Mulford, whose coolness, at what was certainly a most trying moment,
+did not desert him. "Spike may wish to keep the light burning, for
+once before, you will remember, he had it kindled after the keeper
+was removed. As for his sailing, he would not be apt to sail until
+the moon rises; and in beating back to the wreck the light may serve
+to let him know the bearings and position of the reef."
+
+"There they come," whispered Rose, half breathless with alarm. "The
+boat has left the brig, and is coming directly hither!"
+
+All this was true enough. The yawl had shoved off, and with two men
+to row it, was pulling for the wharf in front of the house, and
+among the timbers of which lay the boat, pretty well concealed
+beneath a sort of bridge. Mulford would not retreat, though he
+looked to the fastenings of the door as a means of increasing his
+chances of defence. In the stern-sheets of the boat sat two men,
+though it was not easy to ascertain who they were by the fading
+light. One was known to be Spike, however, and the other, it was
+conjectured, must be Don Juan Montefalderon, from the circumstance
+of his being in the place of honour. Three minutes solved this
+question, the boat reaching the wharf by that time. It was instantly
+secured, and all four of the men left it. Spike was now plainly to
+be discerned by means of the lantern which he carried in his own
+hands, He gave some orders, in his customary authoritative way, and
+in a high key, after which he led the way from the wharf, walking
+side by side with the Senor Montefalderon. These two last came up
+within a yard of the door of the house, where they paused, enabling
+those within not only to see their persons and the working of their
+countenances, but to hear all that was said; this last the more
+especially, since Spike never thought it necessary to keep his
+powerful voice within moderate limits.
+
+"It's hardly worth while, Don Wan, for you to go into the
+light-house," said Spike. "'T is but a greasy, dirty place at the
+best, and one's clothes are never the better for dealin' with ile.
+Here, Bill, take the lantern, and get a filled can, that we may go
+up and trim and fill the lamp, and make a blaze. Bear a hand, lads,
+and I'll be a'ter ye afore you reach the lantern. Be careful with
+the flame about the ile, for seamen ought never to wish to see a
+lighthouse destroyed."
+
+"What do you expect to gain by lighting the lamps above, Don
+Esteban?" demanded the Mexican, when the sailors had disappeared in
+the light-house, taking their own lantern with them.
+
+"It's wisest to keep things reg'lar about this spot, Don Wan, which
+will prevent unnecessary suspicions. But, as the brig stretches in
+toward the reef to-night, on our way back, the light will be a great
+assistance. I am short of officers, you know, and want all the help
+of this sort I can get."
+
+"To be sincere with you, Don Esteban, I greatly regret you _are_ so
+short of officers, and do not yet despair of inducing you to go and
+take off the mate, whom I hear you have left on a barren rock. He
+was a fine young fellow, Senor Spike, and the deed was not one that
+you will wish to remember a few years hence."
+
+"The fellow run, and I took him at his word, Don Wan. I'm not
+obliged to receive back a deserter unless it suits me."
+
+"We are all obliged to see we do not cause a fellow creature the
+loss of life. This will prove the death of the charming young woman
+who is so much attached to him, unless you relent and are merciful!"
+
+"Women have tender looks but tough hearts," answered Spike,
+carelessly, though Mulford felt certain, by the tone of his voice,
+that great bitterness of feeling lay smothered beneath the affected
+indifference of his manner; "few die of love."
+
+"The young lady has not been on deck all day; and the Irish woman
+tells me that she does nothing but drink water--the certain proof of
+a high fever."
+
+"Ay, ay, she keeps her room if you will, Don Wan, but she is not
+about to make a dupe of me by any such tricks. I must go and look to
+the lamps, however, and you will find the graves you seek in the
+rear of this house, about thirty yards behind it, you'll remember.
+That's a very pretty cross you've made, senor, and the skipper of
+the schooner's soul will be all the better for settin' it up at the
+head of his grave."
+
+"It will serve to let those who come after us know that a Christian
+sleeps beneath the sand, Don Esteban," answered the Mexican, mildly.
+"I have no other expectation from this sacred symbol."
+
+The two now separated, Spike going into the light-house, little in a
+hurry, while Don Juan Montefalderon walked round the building to its
+rear in quest of the grave. Mulford waited a moment for Spike to get
+a short distance up the stairs of the high tower he had to ascend,
+when placing the arm of Rose within his own, he opened the door in
+the rear of the house, and walked boldly toward the Mexican. Don
+Juan was actually forcing the pointed end of his little cross into
+the sand, at the head of his countryman's grave, when Mulford and
+his trembling companion reached the spot. Although night had shut
+in, it was not so dark that persons could not be recognised at small
+distances. The Senor Montefalderon was startled at an apparition so
+sudden and unexpected, when Mulford saluted him by name; but
+recognising first the voice of Harry, and then the persons of
+himself and his companion, surprise, rather than alarm, became the
+emotion that was uppermost. Notwithstanding the strength of the
+first of these feelings, he instantly saluted the young couple with
+the polished ease that marked his manner, which had much of the
+courtesy of a Castilian in it, tempered a little, perhaps, by the
+greater flexibility of a Southern American.
+
+"I _see_ you," exclaimed Don Juan, "and must believe my eyes.
+Without their evidence, however, I could scarce believe it can be
+you two, one of whom I thought on board the brig, and the other
+suffering a most miserable death on a naked rock."
+
+"I am aware of your kind feelings in our behalf, Don Juan," said
+Mulford, "and it is the reason I now confide in you. I was taken off
+that rock by means of the boat, which you doubtless have missed; and
+this is the gentle being who has been the means of saving my life.
+To her and Jack Tier, who is yonder, under the shadows of the house,
+I owe my not being the victim of Spike's cruelty."
+
+"I now comprehend the whole matter, Don Henriquez. Jack Tier has
+managed the boat for the senorita; and those whom we were told were
+too ill to be seen on deck, have been really out of the brig!"
+
+"Such are the facts, senor, and from _you_ there is no wish to
+conceal them. We are then to understand that the absence of Rose and
+Jack from the brig is not known to Spike."
+
+"I believe not, senor. He has alluded to both, once or twice to-day,
+as being ill below; but would you not do well to retire within the
+shade of the dwelling, lest a glance from the lantern might let
+those in it know that I am not alone."
+
+"There is little danger, Don Juan, as they who stand near a light
+cannot well see those who are in the darkness. Beside, they are high
+in the air, while we are on the ground, which will greatly add to
+the obscurity down here. We can retire, nevertheless, as I have a
+few questions to ask, which may as well be put in perfect security,
+as put where there is any risk."
+
+The three now drew near the house, Rose actually stepping within its
+door, though Harry remained on its exterior, in order to watch the
+proceedings of those in the light-house. Here the Senor
+Montefalderon entered into a more detailed explanation of what had
+occurred on board the brig, since the appearance of day, that very
+morning. According to his account of the matter, Spike had
+immediately called upon the people to explain the loss of the boat.
+Tier was not interrogated on this occasion, it being understood he
+had gone below and turned in, after having the look-out for fully
+half the night. As no one could, or would, give an account of the
+manner in which the boat was missing, Josh was ordered to go below
+and question Jack on the subject. Whether it was from consciousness
+of his connection with the escape of Jack, and apprehensions of the
+consequences, or from innate good-nature, and a desire to befriend
+the lovers, this black now admitted that Jack confessed to him that
+the boat had got away from him while endeavouring to shift the turns
+of its painter from a cleet where they ought not to be, to their
+proper place. This occurred early in Jack's watch, according to
+Josh's story, and had not been reported, as the boat did not
+properly belong to the brig, and was an incumbrance rather than an
+advantage. The mate admired the negro's cunning, as Don Juan related
+this part of his story, which put him in a situation to throw all
+the blame on Jack's mendacity in the event of a discovery, while it
+had the effect to allow the fugitives more time for their escape.
+The result was, that Spike bestowed a few hearty curses, as usual,
+on the clumsiness of Jack Tier, and seemed to forget all about the
+matter. It is probable he connected Jack's abstaining from showing
+himself on deck, and his alleged indisposition, with his supposed
+delinquency in this matter of the boat. From that moment the captain
+appeared to give himself no further concern on the subject, the boat
+having been, in truth, an incumbrance rather than a benefit, as
+stated.
+
+As for Rose, her keeping her room, under the circumstances, was so
+very natural, that the Senor Montefalderon had been completely
+deceived, as, from his tranquillity on this point, there was no
+question was the case with Spike also. Biddy appeared on deck,
+though the widow did not, and the Irish woman shook her head
+anxiously when questioned about her young mistress, giving the
+spectators reason to suppose that the latter was in a very bad way.
+
+As respects the brig and her movements, Spike had got under way as
+soon as there was light enough to find his course, and had run
+through the passage. It is probable that the boat was seen; for
+something that was taken for a small sail had just been made out for
+a single instant, and then became lost again. This little sail was
+made, if made at all, in the direction of the Dry Tortugas, but so
+completely was all suspicion at rest in the minds of those on the
+quarter-deck of the Swash, that neither Spike nor the Mexican had
+the least idea what it was. When the circumstance was reported to
+the former, he answered that it was probably some small wrecker, of
+which many were hovering about the reef, and added, laughingly,
+though in a way to prove how little he thought seriously on the
+subject at all, "who knows but the light-house boat has fallen into
+their hands, and that they've made sail on _her;_ if they have, my
+word for it, that she goes, hull, spars, rigging, canvas, and cargo,
+all in a lump, for salvage."
+
+As the brig came out of the passage, in broad day, the heads of the
+schooner's masts were seen, as a matter of course. This induced
+Spike to heave-to, lower a boat, and to go in person to examine the
+condition of the wreck. It will be seen that Jack's presence could
+now be all the better dispensed with. The examination, with the
+soundings, and other calculations connected with raising the vessel,
+occupied hours. When they were completed, Spike returned on board,
+run up his boat, and squared away for the Dry Tortugas. Senor
+Montefalderon confirmed the justice of Jack Tier's surmises, as to
+the object of this unexpected visit. The brig had come solely for
+the chain and anchor mentioned, and having secured them, it was
+Spike's intention to get under way and beat up to the wreck again as
+soon as the moon rose. As for the sloop-of-war, he believed she had
+given him up; for by this time she must know that she had no chance
+with the brig, so long as the latter kept near the reef, and that
+she ran the constant hazard of shipwreck, while playing so near the
+dangers herself.
+
+Before the Senor Montefalderon exhausted all he had to communicate,
+he was interrupted by Jack Tier with a singular proposition. Jack's
+great desire was to get on board the Swash; and he now begged the
+Mexican to let Mulford take the yawl and scull him off to the brig,
+and return to the islet before Spike and his companions should
+descend from the lantern of the light-house. The little fellow
+insisted there was sufficient time for such a purpose, as the three
+in the lantern had not yet succeeded in filling the lamps with the
+oil necessary to their burning for a night--a duty that usually
+occupied the regular keeper for an hour. Five or six minutes would
+suffice for him; and if he were seen going up the brig's side, it
+would be easy for him to maintain that he had come ashore in the
+boat. No one took such precise note of what was going on; as to be
+able to contradict him; and as to Spike and the men with him, they
+would probably never hear anything about it.
+
+Don Juan Montefalderon was struck with the boldness of Jack Tier's
+plan, but refused his assent to it. He deemed it too hazardous, but
+substituted a project of his own. The moon would not rise until near
+eleven, and it wanted several hours before the time of sailing. When
+they returned to the brig, he would procure his cloak, and scull
+himself ashore, being perfectly used to managing a boat in this way,
+under the pretence of wishing to pass an hour longer near the grave
+of his countryman. At the expiration of that hour he would take Jack
+off, concealed beneath his cloak--an exploit of no great difficulty
+in the darkness, especially as no one would be on deck but a hand or
+two keeping the anchor-watch. With this arrangement, therefore, Jack
+Tier was obliged to be content.
+
+Some fifteen or twenty minutes more passed; during which the Mexican
+again alluded to his country, and his regrets at her deplorable
+situation. The battles of the 8th and 9th of May; two combats that
+ought to, and which will reflect high honour on the little army that
+won them, as well as on that hardly worked, and in some respects
+hardly used, service to which they belong, had been just fought. Don
+Juan mentioned these events without reserve; and frankly admitted
+that success had fallen to the portion of much the weaker party. He
+ascribed the victory to the great superiority of the American
+officers of inferior rank; it being well known that in the service
+of the "Republic of the North," as he termed America, men who had
+been regularly educated at the military academy, and who had reached
+the period of middle life, were serving in the stations of captains,
+and sometimes in that of lieutenants; men who, in many cases, were
+fitted to command regiments and brigades, having been kept in these
+lower stations by the tardiness with which promotion comes in an
+army like that of this country.
+
+Don Juan Montefalderon was not sufficiently conversant with the
+subject, perhaps, else he might have added, that when occasions _do_
+offer to bestow on these gentlemen the preferment they have so
+hardly and patiently earned, they are too often neglected, in order
+to extend the circle of vulgar political patronage. He did not know
+that when a new regiment of dragoons was raised, one permanent in
+its character, and intended to be identified with the army in all
+future time, that, instead of giving its commissions to those who
+had fairly earned them by long privations and faithful service, they
+were given, with one or two exceptions, to strangers.
+
+No government trifles more with its army and navy than our own. So
+niggardly are the master-spirits at Washington of the honours justly
+earned by military men, that we have fleets still commanded by
+captains, and armies by officers whose regular duty it would be to
+command brigades. The world is edified with the sight of forces
+sufficient, in numbers, and every other military requisite, to make
+one of Napoleon's _corps de armee,_ led by one whose commission
+would place him properly at the head of a brigade, and nobly led,
+too. Here, when so favourable an occasion offers to add a regiment
+or two to the old permanent line of the army, and thus infuse new
+life into its hope deferred, the opportunity is overlooked, and the
+rank and file are to be obtained by cramming, instead of by a
+generous regard to the interests of the gallant gentlemen who have
+done so much for the honour of the American name, and, unhappily, so
+little for themselves. The extra-patriots of the nation, and they
+form a legion large enough to trample the "Halls of the Montezumas"
+under their feet, tell us that the reward of those other patriots
+beneath the shadows of the Sierra Madre, is to be in the love and
+approbation of their fellow citizens, at the very moment when they
+are giving the palpable proof of the value of this esteem, and of
+the inconstancy of popular applause, by pointing their fingers, on
+account of an inadvertent expression in a letter, at the gallant
+soldier who taught, in our own times, the troops of this country to
+stand up to the best appointed regiments of England, and to carry
+off victory from the pride of Europe, in fair field-fights. Alas!
+alas! it is true of nations as well as of men, in their simplest and
+earliest forms of association, that there are "secrets in all
+families;" and it will no more do to dwell on our own, than it would
+edify us to expose those of poor Mexico.
+
+The discourse between the Senor Montefalderon and Mulford was
+interesting, as it ever has been when the former spoke of his
+unfortunate country. On the subject of the battles of May he was
+candid, and admitted his deep mortification and regrets. He had
+expected more from the force collected on the Rio Grande, though,
+understanding the northern character better than most of his
+countrymen, he had not been as much taken by surprise as the great
+bulk of his own nation.
+
+"Nevertheless, Don Henrique," he concluded, for the voice of Spike
+was just then heard as he was descending the stairs of the
+light-house, "nevertheless, Don Henrique, there is one thing that
+your people, brave, energetic, and powerful as I acknowledge them to
+be, would do well to remember, and it is this--no nation of the
+numbers of ours can be, or ever was conquered, unless by the force
+of political combinations. In a certain state of society a
+government may be overturned, or a capital taken, and carry a whole
+country along with it, but our condition is one not likely to bring
+about such a result. We are of a race different from the
+Anglo-Saxon, and it will not be easy either to assimilate us to your
+own, or wholly to subdue us. In those parts of the country, where
+the population is small, in time, no doubt, the Spanish race might
+be absorbed, and your sway established; but ages of war would be
+necessary entirely to obliterate our usages, our language, and our
+religion from the peopled portions of Mexico."
+
+It might be well for some among us to reflect on these matters. The
+opinions of Don Juan, in our judgment, being entitled to the
+consideration of all prudent and considerate men.
+
+As Spike descended to the door of the light-house, Harry, Rose, and
+Jack Tier retired within that of the dwelling. Presently the voice
+of the captain was heard hailing the Mexican, and together they
+walked to the wharf, the former boasting to the latter of his
+success in making a brilliant light. Brilliant it was, indeed; so
+brilliant as to give Mulford many misgivings on the subject of the
+boat. The light from the lantern fell upon the wharf, and he could
+see the boat from the window where he stood, with Spike standing
+nearly over it, waiting for the men to get his own yawl ready. It is
+true, the captain's back was toward the dangerous object, and the
+planks of the bridge were partly between him and it; but there was a
+serious danger that was solely averted by the circumstance that
+Spike was so earnestly dilating on some subject to Don Juan, as to
+look only at that gentleman's face. A minute later they were all in
+the yawl, which pulled rapidly toward the brig.
+
+Don Juan Montefalderon was not long absent. Ten minutes sufficed for
+the boat to reach the Swash, for him to obtain his cloak, and to
+return to the islet alone, no one in the vessel feeling a desire to
+interfere with his imaginary prayers. As for the people, it was not
+probable that one in the brig could have been induced to accompany
+him to the graves at that hour; though everybody but Josh had
+turned-in, as he informed Mulford, to catch short naps previously to
+the hour of getting the brig under way. As for the steward, he had
+been placed on the look-out as the greatest idler on board. All this
+was exceedingly favourable to Jack Tier's project, since Josh was
+already in the secret of his absence, and would not be likely to
+betray his return. After a brief consultation, it was agreed to wait
+half an hour or an hour, in order to let the sleepers lose all
+consciousness, when Don Juan proposed returning to the vessel with
+his new companion.
+
+The thirty or forty minutes that succeeded were passed in general
+conversation. On this occasion the Senor Montefalderon spoke more
+freely than he had yet done of recent events. He let it be plainly
+seen how much he despised Spike, and how irksome to him was the
+intercourse he was obliged to maintain, and to which he only
+submitted through a sense of duty. The money known to be in the
+schooner, was of a larger amount than had been supposed; and every
+dollar was so important to Mexico, at that moment, that he did not
+like to abandon it, else, did he declare, that he would quit the
+brig at once, and share in the fortunes of Harry and Rose. He
+courteously expressed his best wishes for the happiness of the young
+couple, and delicately intimated that, under the circumstances, he
+supposed that they would be united as soon as they could reach a
+place where the marriage rite could be celebrated. This was said in
+the most judicious way possible; so delicately as not to wound any
+one's feelings, and in a way to cause it to resemble the
+announcement of an expectation, rather than the piece of paternal
+advice for which it was really intended. Harry was delighted with
+this suggestion of his Mexican friend--the most loyal American may
+still have a sincere friend of Mexican birth and Mexican feelings,
+too--since it favoured not only his secret wishes, but his secret
+expectations also.
+
+At the appointed moment, Don Juan Montefalderon and Jack Tier took
+their leave of the two they left behind them. Rose manifested what
+to Harry seemed a strange reluctance to part with the little
+steward; but Tier was bent on profiting by this excellent
+opportunity to get back to the brig. They went, accordingly, and the
+anxious listeners, who watched the slightest movement of the yawl,
+from the shore, had reason to believe that Jack was smuggled in
+without detection. They heard the familiar sound of the oar falling
+in the boat, and Mulford said that Josh's voice might be
+distinguished, answering to a call from Don Juan. No noise or
+clamour was heard, such as Spike would certainly have made, had he
+detected the deception that had been practised on himself.
+
+Harry and Rose were now alone. The former suggested that the latter
+should take possession of one of the little bed-rooms that are
+usually to be found in American dwellings of the dimensions and
+humble character of the lighthouse abode, while he kept watch until
+the brig should sail. Until Spike was fairly off, he would not trust
+himself to sleep; but there was no sufficient reason why Rose should
+not endeavour to repair the evil of a broken night's rest, like that
+which had been passed in the boat. With this understanding, then,
+our heroine took possession of her little apartment, where she threw
+herself on the bed in her clothes, while Mulford walked out into the
+air, as the most effective means of helping to keep his eyes open.
+
+It was now some time past ten, and before eleven the moon would
+rise. The mate consequently knew that his watch could not be long
+before Spike would quit the neighbourhood--a circumstance pregnant
+with immense relief to him, at least. So long as that unscrupulous,
+and now nearly desperate, man remained anywhere near Rose, he felt
+that she could not be safe; and as he paced the sands, on the off,
+or outer side of the islet, in order to be beyond the influence of
+the light in the lantern, his eye was scarcely a moment taken away
+from the Swash, so impatiently and anxiously did he wait for the
+signs of some movement on board her.
+
+The moon rose, and Mulford heard the well-known raps on the
+booby-hatch, which precedes the call of "all hands," on board a
+merchant-man. "All hands up anchor, ahoy!" succeeded, and in less
+than five minutes the bustle on board the brig announced the fact,
+that her people were "getting the anchor." By this time it had got
+to be so light that the mate deemed it prudent to return to the
+house, in order that he might conceal his person within its shadows.
+Awake Rose he would not, though he knew she would witness the
+departure of the Swash with a satisfaction little short of his own.
+He thought he would wait, that when he did speak to her at all, it
+might be to announce their entire safety. As regarded the aunt, Rose
+was much relieved on her account, by the knowledge that Jack Tier
+would not fail to let Mrs. Budd know everything connected with her
+own situation and prospects. The desertion of Jack, after coming so
+far with her, had pained our heroine in a way we cannot at present
+explain; but go he would, probably feeling assured there was no
+longer any necessity for his continuance with the lovers, in order
+to prevail on Rose to escape from Spike.
+
+The Swash was not long in getting her ground-tackle, and the brig
+was soon seen with her topsail aback, waiting to cat the anchor.
+This done, the yards swung round, and the topsail filled. It was
+blowing just a good breeze for such a craft to carry whole sail on a
+bow-line with, and away the light and active craft started, like the
+racer that is galloping for daily exercise. Of course there were
+several passages by which a vessel might quit the group of islets,
+some being larger, and some smaller, but all having sufficient water
+for a brigantine of the Molly's draught. Determined not to lose an
+inch of distance unnecessarily, Spike luffed close up to the wind,
+making an effort to pass out to windward of the light. In order to
+do this, however, it became necessary for him to make two short
+tacks within the haven, which brought him far enough to the
+southward and eastward to effect his purpose. While this was doing,
+the mate, who perfectly understood the object of the manoeuvres,
+passed to the side of the light-house that was opposite to that on
+which the dwelling was placed, with a view to get a better sight of
+the vessel as she stood out to sea. In order to do this, however, it
+was necessary for the young man to pass through a broad bit of
+moonlight but he trusted for his not being seen, to the active
+manner in which all hands were employed on board the vessel. It
+would seem that, in this respect, Mulford trusted without his host,
+for as the vessel drew near, he perceived that six or eight figures
+were on the guns of the Swash, or in her rigging, gesticulating
+eagerly, and seemingly pointing to the very spot where he stood.
+When the brig got fairly abeam of the light, she would not be a
+hundred yards distant from it, and fearful to complete the exposure
+of his person, which he had so inadvertently and unexpectedly
+commenced, our mate drew up close to the wall of the light-house,
+against which he sustained himself in a position as immovable as
+possible. This movement had been seen by a single seaman on board
+the Swash, and the man happened to be one of those who had landed
+with Spike only two hours before. His name was Barlow.
+
+"Captain Spike, sir," called out Barlow, who was coiling up rigging
+on the forecastle, and was consequently obliged to call out so loud
+as to be heard by all on board, "yonder is a man at the foot of the
+light-house."
+
+By this time, the moon coming out bright through an opening in the
+clouds, Mulford had become conscious of the risk he ran, and was
+drawn up, as immovable as the pile itself, against the stones of the
+light-house. Such an announcement brought everybody to leeward, and
+every head over the bulwarks. Spike himself sprang into the lee
+main-chains, where his view was unobstructed, and where Mulford saw
+and recognised him, even better than he was seen and recognised in
+his own person. All this time the brig was moving ahead.
+
+"A man, Barlow!" exclaimed Spike, in the way one a little bewildered
+by an announcement expresses his surprise. "A man! that can never
+be. There is no one at the light-house, you know."
+
+"There he stands, sir, with his back to the tower, and his face this
+way. His dark figure against the white-washed stones is plain enough
+to be seen. Living, or dead, sir, that is the mate!"
+
+"_Living_ it cannot be," answered Spike, though he gulped at the
+words the next moment.
+
+A general exclamation now showed that everybody recognised the mate,
+whose figure, stature, dress, and even features, were by this time
+all tolerably distinct. The fixed attitude, however, the immovable
+statue-like rigidity of the form, and all the other known
+circumstances of Harry's case, united to produce a common and
+simultaneous impression among the superstitious mariners, that what
+they saw was but the ghostly shadow of one lately departed to the
+world of spirits. Even Spike was not free from this illusion, and
+his knees shook beneath him, there where he stood, in the channels
+of a vessel that he had handled like a top in so many gales and
+tempests. With him, however, the illusion was neither absolute nor
+lasting. A second thought told him it could scarcely be so, and then
+he found his voice. By this time the brig was nearly abreast of
+where Harry stood.
+
+"You Josh!" called out Spike, in a voice of thunder, loud enough to
+startle even Mrs. Budd and Biddy in their berths.
+
+"Lor' help us all!" answered the negro, "what _will_ come next
+t'ing aboard dis wessel! Here I be, sir."
+
+"Pass the fowling-piece out of my state-room. Both barrels are
+loaded with ball; I'll try him, though the bullets _are_ only lead."
+
+A common exclamation of dissatisfaction escaped the men, while Josh
+was obeying the order. "It's no use."
+
+"You never can hurt one of them things," "Something will befall the
+brig on account of this," and "It's the mate's sperit, and sperits
+can't be harmed by lead or iron," were the sort of remarks made by
+the seamen, during the short interval between the issuing the order
+for the fowling-piece and its execution.
+
+"There 't is, Cap'in Spike," said Josh, passing the piece up through
+the rigging, "but 't will no more shoot _that_ thing, than one of
+our carronades would blow up Gibraltar."
+
+By this time Spike was very determined, his lips being compressed
+and his teeth set, as he took the gun and cocked it. Then he hailed.
+As all that passed occurred, as it might be, at once, the brig even
+at that moment was little more than abreast of the immovable mate,
+and about eighty yards from him.
+
+"Light-house, there!" cried Spike--"Living or dead, answer or I
+fire."
+
+No answer came, and no motion appeared in the dark figure that was
+now very plainly visible, under a bright moon, drawn in high relief
+against the glittering white of the tower. Spike dropped the muzzle
+to its aim, and fired.
+
+So intense was the attention of all in the Swash, that a wink of
+Harry's could almost have been seen, had he betrayed even that
+slight sign of human infirmity at the flash and the report. The ball
+was flattened against a stone of the building, within a foot of the
+mate's body; but he did not stir. All depended now on his perfect
+immovability, as he well knew; and he so far commanded himself, as
+to remain rigid as if of stone himself.
+
+"There! one can see how it is--no life in that being," said one. "I
+know'd how it would end," added another. "Nothing but silver, and
+that cast on purpose, will ever lay it," continued a third. But
+Spike disregarded all. This time he was resolved that his aim should
+be better, and he was inveterately deliberate in getting it. Just as
+he pulled the trigger, however, Don Juan Montefalderon touched his
+elbow, the piece was fired, and there stood the immovable figure as
+before, fixed against the tower. Spike was turning angrily to chide
+his Mexican friend for deranging his aim, when the report of an
+answering musket came back like an echo. Every eye was turned toward
+the figure, but it moved not. Then the humming sound of an advancing
+ball was heard, and a bullet passed, whistling hoarsely, through the
+rigging, and fell some distance to windward. Every head disappeared
+below the bulwarks. Even Spike was so far astonished as to spring in
+upon deck, and, for a single instant, not a man was to be seen above
+the monkey-rail of the brig. Then Spike recovered himself and jumped
+upon a gun. His first look was toward the light-house, now on the
+vessel's lee-quarter; but the spot where had so lately been seen the
+form of Mulford, showed nothing but the glittering brightness of the
+white-washed stones!
+
+The reader will not be surprised to learn that all these events
+produced a strange and deep impression on board the Molly Swash. The
+few who might have thrown a little light on the matter were
+discreetly silent, while all that portion of the crew which was in
+the dark, firmly believed that the spirit of the murdered mate was
+visiting them, in order to avenge the wrongs inflicted on it in the
+flesh. The superstition of sailors is as deep as it is general. All
+those of the Molly, too, were salts of the old school, sea-dogs of a
+past generation, properly speaking, and mariners who had got their
+notions in the early part of the century, when the spirit of
+progress was less active than it is at present.
+
+Spike himself might have had other misgivings, and believed that he
+had seen the living form of his intended victim, but for the
+extraordinary and ghost-like echo of his last discharge. There was
+nothing visible, or intelligible, from which that fire could have
+come, and he was perfectly bewildered by the whole occurrence. An
+intention to round-to, as soon as through the passage, down boat and
+land, which had been promptly conceived when he found that his first
+aim had failed, was as suddenly abandoned, and he gave the command
+to "board fore-tack;" immediately after, his call was to "pack on the
+brig," and not without a little tremour in his voice, as soon as he
+perceived that the figure had vanished. The crew was not slow to
+obey these orders, and in ten minutes, the Swash was a mile from the
+light, standing to the northward and eastward, under a press of
+canvas, and with a freshening breeze.
+
+To return to the islets. Harry, from the first, had seen that
+everything depended on his remaining motionless. As the people of
+the brig were partly in shadow, he could not, and did not, fully
+understand how completely he was himself exposed, in consequence of
+the brightness of all around him, and he had at first hoped to be
+mistaken for some accidental resemblance to a man. His nerves were
+well tried by the use of the fowling-piece, but they proved equal to
+the necessities of the occasion. But, when an answering report came
+from the rear, or from the opposite side of the islet, he darted
+round the tower, as much taken by surprise, and overcome by wonder,
+as any one else who heard it. It was this rapid movement which
+caused his flight to be unnoticed, all the men of the brig dodging
+below their own bulwarks at that precise instant.
+
+As the light-house was now between the mate and the brig, he had no
+longer any motive for trying to conceal himself. His first thought
+was of Rose, and, strange as it may seem, for some little time he
+fancied that she had found a musket in the dwelling, and discharged
+it, in order to aid his escape. The events had passed so swiftly,
+that there was no time for the cool consideration of anything, and
+it is not surprising that some extravagances mingled with the first
+surmises of all these.
+
+On reaching the door of the house, therefore, Harry was by no means
+surprised at seeing Rose standing in it, gazing at the swiftly
+receding brigantine. He even looked for the musket, expecting to see
+it lying at her feet, or leaning against the wall of the building.
+Rose, however, was entirely unarmed, and as dependent on him for
+support, as when he had parted from her, an hour or two before.
+
+"Where did you find that musket, Rose, and what have you done with
+it?" inquired Harry, as soon as he had looked in every place he
+thought likely to hold such an implement.
+
+"Musket, Harry! I have had no musket, though the report of
+fire-arms, near by, awoke me from a sweet sleep."
+
+"Is this possible! I had imprudently trusted myself on the other
+side of the light-house, while the moon was behind clouds, and when
+they broke suddenly away, its light betrayed me to those on board
+the brig. Spike fired at me twice, without injuring me; when, to my
+astonishment, an answering report was heard from the islet. What is
+more, the piece was charged with a ball-cartridge, for I heard the
+whistling of the bullet as it passed on its way to the brig."
+
+"And you supposed I had fired that musket?"
+
+"Whom else could I suppose had done it? You are not a very likely
+person to do such a thing, I will own, my love; but there are none
+but us two here."
+
+"It must be Jack Tier," exclaimed Rose suddenly.
+
+"That is impossible, since he has left us."
+
+"One never knows. Jack understood how anxious I was to retain him
+with us, and he is so capricious and full of schemes, that he may
+have contrived to get out of the brig, as artfully as he got on
+board her."
+
+"If Jack Tier be actually on this islet, I shall set him down as
+little else than a conjuror."
+
+"Hist!" interrupted Rose, "what noise is that in the direction of
+the wharf? It sounds like an oar falling in a boat."
+
+Mulford heard that well-known sound, as well as his companion, and,
+followed by Rose, he passed swiftly through the house, coming out at
+the front, next the wharf. The moon was still shining bright, and
+the mystery of the echoing report, and answering shot, was
+immediately explained. A large boat, one that pulled ten oars, at
+least, was just coming up to the end of the wharf, and the manner in
+which its oars were unshipped and tossed, announced to the mate that
+the crew were man-of-war's men. He walked hastily forward to meet
+them.
+
+Three officers first left the boat together. The gold bands of their
+caps showed that they belonged to the quarter-deck, a fact that the
+light of the moon made apparent at once, though it was not strong
+enough to render features distinct. As Mulford continued to advance,
+however, the three officers saluted him.
+
+"I see you have got the light under way once more," observed the
+leader of the party. "Last night it was as dark as Erebus in your
+lantern."
+
+"The light-house keeper and his assistant have both been drowned,"
+answered Mulford. "The lamps have been lit to-night by the people of
+the brig which has just gone out."
+
+"Pray, sir, what brig may that be?"
+
+"The Molly Swash, of New York; a craft that I lately belonged to
+myself, but which I have left on account of her evil doings."
+
+"The Molly Swash, Stephen Spike master and owner, bound to Key West
+and a market, with a cargo of eight hundred barrels of flour, and
+that of a quality so lively and pungent that it explodes like
+gunpowder! I beg your pardon, Mr. Mate, for not recognising you
+sooner. Have you forgotten the Poughkeepsie, Captain Mull, and her
+far-reaching Paixhans?"
+
+"I ought to ask your pardon, Mr. Wallace, for not recognising _you_
+sooner, too. But one does not distinguish well by moonlight. I am
+delighted to see you, sir, and now hope that, with my assistance, a
+stop can be put to the career of the brig."
+
+"What, Mr. Mate, do _you_ turn against your craft?" said Wallace,
+under the impulsive feeling which induces all loyal men to have a
+distaste for treachery of every sort, "the seaman should love the
+very planks of his vessel."
+
+"I fully understand you, Mr. Wallace, and will own that, for a long
+time, I was tied to rascality by the opinions to which you allude.
+But, when you come to hear my explanation, I do not fear your
+judgment in the least."
+
+Mulford now led the way into the house, whither Rose had already
+retreated, and where she had lighted candles, and made other womanly
+arrangements for receiving her guests. At Harry's suggestion, some
+of the soup was placed over coals, to warm up for the party, and our
+heroine made her preparations to comfort them also with a cup of
+tea. While she was thus employed, Mulford gave the whole history of
+his connection with the brig, his indisposition to quit the latter,
+the full exposure of Spike's treason, his own desertion, if
+desertion it could be called, the loss of the schooner, and his
+abandonment on the rock, and the manner in which he had been finally
+relieved. It was scarcely possible to relate all these matters, and
+altogether avoid allusions to the schemes of Spike in connection
+with Rose, and the relation in which our young man himself stood
+toward her. Although Mulford touched on these points with great
+delicacy, it was as a seaman talking to seamen, and he could not
+entirely throw aside the frankness of the profession. Ashore, men
+live in the privacy of their own domestic circles, and their
+secrets, and secret thoughts, are "family secrets," of which it has
+passed into a proverb to say, that there are always some, even in
+the best of these communities. On shipboard, or in the camp, it is
+very different. The close contact in which men are brought with each
+other, the necessity that exists for opening the heart and expanding
+the charities, gets in time to influence the whole character, and a
+certain degree of frankness and simplicity, takes the place of the
+reserve and acting that might have been quickened in the same
+individual, under a different system of schooling. But Mulford was
+frank by nature, as well as by his sea-education, and his companions
+on this occasion were pretty well possessed of all his wishes and
+plans, in reference to Rose, even to his hope of falling in with the
+chaplain of the Poughkeepsie, by the time his story was all told.
+The fact that Rose was occupied in another room, most of the time,
+had made these explanations all the easier, and spared her many a
+blush. As for the man-of-war's men, they listened to the tale, with
+manly interest and a generous sympathy.
+
+"I am glad to hear your explanation, Mr. Mate," said Wallace,
+cordially, as soon as Harry had done, "and there's my hand, in proof
+that I approve of your course. I own to a radical dislike of a
+turncoat, or a traitor to his craft, Brother Hollins"--looking at
+the elder of his two companions, one of whom was the midshipman who
+had originally accompanied him on board the Swash--"and am glad to
+find that our friend Mulford here is neither. A true-hearted sailor
+can be excused for deserting even his own ship, under such
+circumstances."
+
+"I am glad to hear even this little concession from you, Wallace,"
+answered Hollins, good-naturedly, and speaking with a mild
+expression of benevolence, on a very calm and thoughtful
+countenance. "Your mess is as heteredox as any I ever sailed with,
+on the subject of our duties, in this respect."
+
+"I hold it to be a sailor's duty to stick by his ship, reverend and
+dear sir."
+
+This mode of address, which was used by the "ship's gentleman" in
+the cant of the ward-room, as a pleasantry of an old shipmate, for
+the two had long sailed together in other vessels, at once announced
+to Harry that he saw the very chaplain for whose presence he had
+been so anxiously wishing. The "reverend and dear sir" smiled at the
+sally of his friend, a sort of thing to which he was very well
+accustomed, but he answered with a gravity and point that, it is to
+be presumed, he thought befitting his holy office.
+
+It may be well to remark here, that the Rev. Mr. Hollins was not one
+of the "lunch'd chaplains," that used to do discredit to the navy of
+this country, or a layman dubbed with such a title, and rated that
+he might get the pay and become a boon companion of the captain, at
+the table and in his frolics ashore. Those days are gone by, and
+ministers of the gospel are now really employed to care for the
+souls of the poor sailors, who so long have been treated by others,
+and have treated themselves, indeed, as if they were beings without
+souls, altogether. In these particulars, the world has certainly
+advanced, though the wise and the good, in looking around them, may
+feel more cause for astonishment in contemplating what it once was,
+than to rejoice in what it actually is. But intellect has certainly
+improved in the aggregate, if not in its especial dispensations, and
+men will not now submit to abuses that, within the recollections of
+a generation, they even cherished. In reference to the more
+intellectual appointments of a ship of war, the commander excepted,
+for we contend he who directs all, ought to possess the most
+capacity, but, in reference to what are ordinarily believed to be
+the more intellectual appointments of a vessel of war, the surgeon
+and the chaplain, we well recollect opinions that were expressed to
+us, many years since, by two officers of the highest rank known to
+the service. "When I first entered the navy," said one of these old
+Benbows, "if I had occasion for the amputation of a leg, and the
+question lay between the carpenter and the doctor, d--e, but I would
+have tried the carpenter first, for I felt pretty certain he would
+have been the most likely to get through with the job." "In old
+times," said the other, "when a chaplain joined a ship, the question
+immediately arose, whether the mess were to convert the chaplain, or
+the chaplain, the mess; and the mess generally got the best of it."
+There was very little exaggeration in either of these opinions. But,
+happily, all this is changed vastly for the better, and a
+navy-surgeon is necessarily a man of education and experience; in
+very many instances, men of high talents are to be found among them;
+while chaplains can do something better than play at backgammon, eat
+terrapins, when in what may be called terra-pin-ports, and drink
+brandy and water, or pure Bob Smith.1
+
+"It is a great mistake, Wallace, to fancy that the highest duty a
+man owes, is either to his ship or to his country," observed the
+Rey. Mr. Hollins, quietly. "The highest duty of each and all of us,
+is to God; and whatever conflicts with that duty, must be avoided as
+a transgression of his laws, and consequently as sin."
+
+"You surprise me, reverend and dear sir! I do not remember ever to
+have heard you broach such opinions before, which might be
+interpreted to mean that a fellow might be disloyal to his flag."
+
+"Because the opinion might be liable to misinterpretation. Still, I
+do not go as far as many of my friends on this subject. If Decatur
+ever really said, `Our country, right or wrong,' he said what might
+be just enough, and creditable enough, in certain cases, and taken
+with the fair limitations that he probably intended should accompany
+the sentiment; but, if he meant it as an absolute and controlling
+principle, it was not possible to be more in error. In this last
+sense, such a rule of conduct might, and in old times often would,
+have justified idolatry; nay, it _is_ a species of idolatry in
+itself, since it is putting country before God. Sailors may not
+always be able to make the just distinctions in these cases, but the
+quarter-deck should be so, irreverend and dear sir."
+
+Wallace laughed, and then he turned the discourse to the subject
+more properly before them.
+
+"I understand you to say, Mr. Mulford," he remarked, "that, in your
+opinion, the Swash has gone to try to raise the unfortunate Mexican
+schooner, a second time, from the depths of the ocean?"
+
+"From the rock on which she lies. Under the circumstances, I hardly
+think he would have come hither for the chain and cable, unless with
+some such object. We know, moreover, thut such _was_ his intention
+when we left the brig."
+
+"And you can take us to the very spot where that wreck lies?"
+
+"Without any difficulty. Her masts are partly out of water, and we
+hung on to them, in our boat, no later than last night, or this
+morning rather."
+
+"So far, well. Your conduct in all this affair will be duly
+appreciated, and Captain Mull will not fail to represent it in a
+right point of view to the government."
+
+"Where is the ship, sir? I looked for her most anxiously, without
+success, last evening; nor had Jack Tier, the little fellow I have
+named to you, any better luck; though I sent him aloft, as high as
+the lantern in the light-house, for that purpose."
+
+"The ship is off here to the northward and westward, some six
+leagues or so. At sunset she may have been a little further. We have
+supposed that the Swash would be coming back hither, and had laid a
+trap for her, which came very near taking her alive."
+
+"What is the trap you mean, sir--though taking Stephen Spike alive,
+is sooner said than done."
+
+"Our plan has been to catch him with our boats. With the greater
+draft of water of the Poughkeepsie, and the heels of your brig, sir,
+a regular chase about these reefs, as we knew from experience, would
+be almost hopeless. It was, therefore, necessary to use head-work,
+and some man-of-war traverses, in order to lay hold of him.
+Yesterday afternoon we hoisted out three cutters, manned them, and
+made sail in them all, under our luggs, working up against the
+trades. Each boat took its own course, one going off, the west end
+of the reef, one going more to the eastward, while I came this way,
+to look in at the Dry Tortugas. Spike will be lucky if he do not
+fall in with our third cutter, which is under the fourth lieutenant,
+should he stand on far on the same tack as that on which he left
+this place. Let him try his fortune, however. As for our boat, as
+soon as I saw the lamps burning in the lantern, I made the best of
+my way hither, and got sight of the brig, just as she loosened her
+sails. Then I took in my own luggs, and came on with the oars. Had
+we continued under our canvas, with this breeze, I almost think we
+might have overhauled the rascal."
+
+"It would have been impossible, sir. The moment he got a sight of
+your sails, he would have been off in a contrary direction, and that
+brig really seems to fly, whenever there is a pressing occasion for
+her to move. You did the wisest thing you could have done, and
+barely missed him, as it was. He has not seen you at all, as it is,
+and will be all the less on his guard, against the next visit from
+the ship."
+
+"Not seen me! Why, sir, the fellow fired at us _t_wice with a
+musket; why he did not use a carronade, is more than I can tell."
+
+"Excuse me, Mr. Wallace; those two shots were intended for me,
+though I now fully comprehend why you answered them."
+
+"Answered them! yes, indeed; who would not answer such a salute, and
+gun for gun, if he had a chance. I certainly thought he was firing
+at us, and having a musket between my legs, I let fly in return, and
+even the chaplain here will allow that was returning `good for
+evil.' But explain your meaning."
+
+Mulford now went into the details of the incidents connected with
+his coming into the moon-light, at the foot of the light-house. That
+he was not mistaken as to the party for whom the shots were
+intended, was plain enough to him, from the words that passed aloud
+among the people of the Swash, as well as from the circumstance that
+both balls struck the stones of the tower quite near him. This
+statement explained everything to Wallace, who now fully
+comprehended the cause and motive of each incident.
+
+It was now near eleven, and Rose had prepared the table for supper.
+The gentlemen of the Poughkeepsie manifested great interest in the
+movements of the Hebe-like little attendant who was caring for their
+wants. When the cloth was to be laid, the midshipman offered his
+assistance, but his superior directed him to send a hand or two up
+from the wharf, where the crew of the cutter were lounging or
+sleeping after their cruise. These men had been thought of, too; and
+a vessel filled with smoking soup was taken to them, by one of their
+own number.
+
+The supper was as cheerful as it was excellent. The dry humour of
+Wallace, the mild intelligence of the chaplain, the good sense of
+Harry, and the spirited information of Rose, contributed, each in
+its particular way, to make the meal memorable in more senses than
+one. The laugh came easily at that table, and it was twelve o'clock,
+before the party thought of breaking up.
+
+The dispositions for the night were soon made. Rose returned to her
+little room, where she could now sleep in comfort, and without
+apprehension. The gentlemen made the disposition of their persons,
+that circumstances allowed; each finding something on which to
+repose, that was preferable to a plank. As for the men, they were
+accustomed to hard fare, and enjoyed their present good-luck, to the
+top of their bent. It was quite late, before they had done "spinning
+their yarns," and "cracking their jokes," around the pot of
+turtle-soup, and the can of grog that succeeded it. By half-past
+twelve, however, everybody was asleep.
+
+Mulford was the first person afoot the following morning. He left
+the house just as the sun rose, and perceiving that the "coast was
+clear" of sharks, he threw off his light attire, and plunged into
+the sea. Refreshed with this indulgence, he was returning toward the
+building, when he met the chaplain coming in quest of him. This
+gentleman, a man of real piety, and of great discretion, had been
+singularly struck, on the preceding night, with the narrative of our
+young mate; and he had not failed to note the allusions, slight as
+they were, and delicately put as they had been, to himself. He saw,
+at once, the propriety of marrying a couple so situated, and now
+sought Harry, with a view to bring about so desirable an event, by
+intimating his entire willingness to officiate. It is scarcely
+necessary to say that very few words were wanting, to persuade the
+young man to fall into his views; and as to Rose, he had handed her
+a short note on the same subject, which he was of opinion, would be
+likely to bring her to the same way of thinking.
+
+An hour later, all the officers, Harry and Rose, were assembled in
+what might be termed the light-house parlour. The Rev. Mr. Hollins
+had neither band, gown, nor surplice; but he had what was far
+better, feeling and piety. Without a prayer-book he never moved; and
+he read the marriage ceremony with a solemnity that was communicated
+to all present. The ring was that which had been used at the
+marriage of Rose's parents, and which she wore habitually, though
+not on the left hand. In a word, Harry and Rose were as firmly and
+legally united, on that solitary and almost unknown islet, as could
+have been the case, had they stood up before the altar of mother
+Trinity itself, with a bishop to officiate, and a legion of
+attendants. After the compliments which succeeded the ceremony, the
+whole party sat down to breakfast.
+
+If the supper had been agreeable, the morning meal was not less so.
+Rose was timid and blushing, as became a bride, though she could not
+but feel how much more respectable her position became under the
+protection of Harry as his wife, than it had been while she was only
+his betrothed. The most delicate deportment, on the part of her
+companions, soon relieved her embarrassment however, and the
+breakfast passed off without cause for an unhappy moment.
+
+"The ship's standing in toward the light, sir," reported the
+cockswain of the cutter, as the party was still lingering around the
+table, as if unwilling to bring so pleasant a meal to a close.
+"Since the mist has broke away, we see her, sir, even to her ports
+and dead-eyes."
+
+"In that case, Sam, she can't be very far off," answered Wallace.
+"Ay, there goes a gun from her, at this moment, as much as to say,
+`what has become of all of my boats?' Run down and let off a musket;
+perhaps she will make out to hear that, as we must be rather to
+windward, if anything."
+
+The signal was given and understood. A quarter of an hour later, the
+Poughkeepsie began to shorten sail. Then Wallace stationed himself
+in the cutter, in the centre of one of the passages, signalling the
+ship to come on. Ten minutes later still, the noble craft came into
+the haven, passing the still burning light, with her topsails just
+lifting, and making a graceful sweep under very reduced sail, she
+came to the wind, very near the spot where the Swash had lain only
+ten hours before, and dropped an anchor.
+
+1. In the palmy days of the service, when Robert Smith was so long
+Secretary of the Navy, the ship's whisky went by this familiar
+_sobriquet_.
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  The gull has found her place on shore;
+  The sun gone down again to rest;
+  And all is still but ocean's roar;
+  There stands the man unbless'd.
+  But see, he moves--he turns, as asking where
+  His mates? Why looks he with that piteous stare?
+
+Dana.
+
+Superstition would seem to be a consequence of a state of being, in
+which so much is shadowed forth, while so little is accurately
+known. Our far-reaching thoughts range over the vast fields of
+created things, without penetrating to the secret cause of the
+existence of even a blade of grass. We can analyze all substances
+that are brought into our crucibles, tell their combinations and
+tendencies, give a scientific history of their formation, so far as
+it is connected with secondary facts, their properties, and their
+uses; but in each and all, there is a latent natural cause, that
+baffles all our inquiries, and tells us that we are merely men. This
+is just as true in morals, as in physics--no man living being equal
+to attaining the very faith that is necessary to his salvation,
+without the special aid of the spirit of the godhead; and even with
+that mighty support, trusting implicitly for all that is connected
+with a future that we are taught to believe is eternal, to "the
+substance of things _hoped_ for, and the evidence of things
+_unseen_." In a word, this earthly probation of ours, was intended
+for finite beings, in the sense of our present existence, leaving
+far more to be conjectured, than is understood.
+
+Ignorance and superstition ever bear a close, and even a
+mathematical relation to each other. The degrees of the one, are
+regulated by the degrees of the other. He who knows the least
+believes the most; while he who has seen the most, without the
+intelligence to comprehend that which he has seen, feels, perhaps,
+the strongest inclination to refer those things which to him are
+mysteries, to the supernatural and marvellous. Sailors have been,
+from time immemorial, more disposed than men of their class on the
+land, to indulge in this weakness, which is probably heightened by
+the circumstance of their living constantly and vividly in the
+presence of powers that menace equally their lives and their means,
+without being in any manner subject to their control.
+
+Spike, for a seaman of his degree of education, was not particularly
+addicted to the weakness to which we have just alluded.
+Nevertheless, he was not altogether free from it; and recent
+circumstances contributed to dispose him so much the more to admit a
+feeling which, like sin itself, is ever the most apt to insinuate
+itself at moments of extraordinary moral imbecility, and through the
+openings left by previous transgression. As his brig stood off from
+the light, the captain paced the deck, greatly disturbed by what had
+just passed, and unable to account for it. The boat of the
+Poughkeepsie was entirely concealed by the islet, and there existing
+no obvious motive for wishing to return, in order to come at the
+truth, not a thought to that effect, for one moment, crossed the
+mind of the smuggler. So far from this, indeed, were his wishes,
+that the Molly did not seem to him to go half as fast as usual, in
+his keen desire to get further and further from a spot where such
+strange incidents had occurred.
+
+As for the men forward, no argument was wanting to make _them_
+believe that something supernatural had just passed before their
+eyes. It was known to them all, that Mulford had been left on a
+naked rock, some thirty miles from that spot; and it was not easy to
+understand how he could now be at the Dry Tortugas, planted, as it
+might be, on purpose to show himself to the brig, against the tower,
+in the bright moonlight, "like a pictur' hung up for his old
+shipmates to look at."
+
+Sombre were the tales that were related that night among them, many
+of which related to the sufferings of men abandoned on desert
+islands; and all of which bordered, more or less, on the
+supernatural. The crew connected the disappearance of the boat with
+Mulford's apparition, though the logical inference would have been,
+that the body which required planks to transport it, could scarcely
+be classed with anything of the world of spirits. The links in
+arguments, however, are seldom respected by the illiterate and
+vulgar, who jump to their conclusions, in cases of the marvellous,
+much as politicians find an expression of the common mind in the
+prepared opinions of the few who speak for them, totally
+disregarding the dissenting silence of the million. While the men
+were first comparing their opinions on that which, to them, seemed
+to be so extraordinary, the Senor Montefalderon joined the captain
+in his walk, and dropped into a discourse touching the events which
+had attended their departure from the haven of the Dry Tortugas. In
+this conversation, Don Juan most admirably preserved his
+countenance, as well as his self-command, effectually preventing the
+suspicion of any knowledge on his part, that was not common to them
+both.
+
+"You did leave the port with the salutes observed," the Mexican
+commenced, with the slightest accent of a foreigner, or just enough
+to show that he was not speaking in his mother tongue; "salutes paid
+and returned."
+
+"Do you call that saluting, Don Wan? To me, that infernal shot
+sounded more like an echo, than anything else."
+
+"And to what do _you_ ascribe it, Don Esteban?"
+
+"I wish I could answer that question. Sometimes I begin to wish I
+had not left my mate on that naked rock."
+
+"There is still time to repair the last wrong; we shall go within a
+few miles of the place where the Senor Enrique was left; and I can
+take the yawl, with two men, and go in search of him, while you are
+at work on the wreck."
+
+"Do you believe it possible that he can be still there?" demanded
+Spike, looking suddenly and intently at his companion, while his
+mind was strangely agitated between hatred and dread. "If he is
+there, who and what was _he_ that we all saw so plainly at the foot
+of the light-house?"
+
+"How should he have left the rock? He was without food or water; and
+no man, in all his vigour, could swim this distance. I see no means
+of his getting here."
+
+"Unless some wrecker, or turtler, fell in with him, and took him
+off. Ay, ay, Don Wan; I left him that much of a chance, at least. No
+man can say I _murdered_ my mate."
+
+"I am not aware, Don Esteban, that any one _has_ said so hard a
+thing of you. Still, we have seen neither wrecker nor turtler since
+we have been here; and that lessens the excellent chance you left
+Don Enrique."
+
+"There is no occasion, senor, to be so particular," growled Spike, a
+little sullenly, in reply. "The chance, I say, was a _good_ one,
+when you consider how many of them devils of wreckers hang about
+these reefs. Let this brig only get fast on a rock, and they would
+turn up, like sharks, all around us, each with his maw open for
+salvage. But this is neither here nor there; what puzzles me, was
+what we saw at the light, half an hour since, and the musket that
+was fired back at us! I _know_ that the figure at the foot of the
+tower did not fire, for my eye was on him from first to last; and he
+had no arms. You were on the island a good bit, and must have known
+if the light-house keeper was there or not, Don Wan?"
+
+"The light-house keeper _was_ there, Don Esteban--but he was in his
+_grave_."
+
+"Ay, ay, one, I know, was drowned, and buried with the rest of them;
+there might, however, have been more than one. You saw none of the
+people that had gone to Key West, in or about the house, Don Wan?"
+
+"None. If any persons have left the Tortugas to go to Key West,
+within a few days, not one of them has yet returned."
+
+"So I supposed. No, it can be none of _them_. Then I saw his face as
+plainly as ever I saw it by moon-light, from aft, for'ard. What is
+your opinion about seeing the dead walk on the 'arth, Don Wan?"
+
+"That I have never seen any such thing myself, Don Esteban, and
+consequently know nothing about it."
+
+"So I supposed; I find it hard to believe it, I do. It may be a
+warning to keep us from-coming any more to the Dry Tortugas; and I
+must say I have little heart for returning to this place, after all
+that has fell out here. We can go to the wreck, fish up the
+doubloons, and be off for Yucatan. Once in one of your ports, I make
+no question that the merits of the Molly will make themselves
+understood, and that we shall soon agree on a price."
+
+"What use could we put the brig to, Don Esteban, if we had her all
+ready for sea?"
+
+"That is a strange question to ask in time of war! Give _me_ such a
+craft as the Molly, with sixty or eighty men on board her, in a war
+like this, and her 'arnin's should not fall short of half a million
+within a twelvemonth."
+
+"Could we engage you to take charge of her, Don Esteban?"
+
+"That would be ticklish work, Don Wan. But we can see. No one knows
+what he will do until he is tried. In for a penny, in for a pound. A
+fellow never knows! Ha! ha! ha! Don Wan, we live in a strange
+world--yes, in a strange world."
+
+"We live in strange _times,_ Don Esteban, as the situation of my
+poor country proves. But let us talk this matter over a little more
+in confidence."
+
+And they did thus discuss the subject. It was a singular spectacle
+to see an honourable man, one full of zeal of the purest nature in
+behalf of his own country, sounding a traitor as to the terms on
+which he might be induced to do all the harm he could, to those who
+claimed his allegiance. Such sights, however, are often seen; our
+own especial objects too frequently blinding us to the obligations
+that we owe morality, so far as not to be instrumental in effecting
+even what we conceive to be good, by questionable agencies. But the
+Senor Montefalderon kept in view, principally, his desire to be
+useful to Mexico, blended a little too strongly, perhaps, with the
+wishes of a man who was born near the sun, to avenge his wrongs,
+real or fancied.
+
+While this dialogue was going on between Spike and his passenger, as
+they paced the quarter-deck, one quite as characteristic occurred in
+the galley, within twenty feet of them--Simon, the cook, and Josh,
+the steward, being the interlocutors. As they talked secrets, they
+conferred together with closed doors, though few were ever disposed
+to encounter the smoke, grease, and fumes of their narrow domains,
+unless called thither by hunger.
+
+"What _you_ t'ink of dis matter Josh?" demanded Simon, whose skull
+having the well-known density of his race, did not let internal
+ideas out, or external ideas in as readily as most men's. "Our young
+mate _was_ at de light-house beyond all controwersy; and how can he
+be den on dat rock over yonder, too?"
+
+"Dat is imposserbul," answered Josh; "derefore I says it is n't
+true. I surposes you know dat what is imposserbul is n't true,
+Simon. Nobody can't be out yonder and down here at de same time. Dat
+is imposserble, Simon. But what I wants to intermate to you, will
+explain all dis difficulty; and it do show de raal super'ority of a
+coloured man over de white poperlation. Now, you mark my words,
+cook, and be full of admiration! Jack Tier came back along wid de
+Mexican gentle'em, in my anchor-watch, dis very night! You see, in
+de first place, ebbery t'ing come to pass in nigger's watch."
+
+Here the two dark-skinned worthies haw-haw'd to their heart's
+content; laughing very much as a magistrate or a minister of the
+gospel might be fancied to laugh, the first time he saw a clown at a
+circus. The merriment of a negro will have its course, in spite of
+ghosts, or of anything else; and neither the cook nor the steward
+dreamed of puting in another syllable, until their laugh was fairly
+and duly ended. Then the cook made his remarks.
+
+"How Jack Tier comin' back explain der differculty, Josh?" asked
+Simon.
+
+"Did n't Jack go away wid Miss Rose and de mate, in de boat dat got
+adrift, you know, in Jack's watch on deck?"
+
+Here the negroes laughed again, their imaginations happening to
+picture to each, at the same instant, the mystification about the
+boat; Biddy having told Josh in confidence, the manner in which the
+party had returned to the brig, while he and Simon were asleep;
+which fact the steward had already communicated to the cook. To
+these two beings, of an order in nature different from all around
+them, and of a simplicity and of habits that scarce placed them on a
+level with the intelligence of the humblest white man, all these
+circumstances had a sort of mysterious connection, out of which
+peeped much the most conspicuously to their faculties, the absurdity
+of the captain's imagining that a boat had got adrift, which had, in
+truth, been taken away by human hands. Accordingly, they laughed it
+out; and when they had done laughing, they returned again to the
+matter before them with renewed interest in the subject.
+
+"Well, how all dat explain dis differculty?" repeated Simon.
+
+"In dis wery manner, cook," returned the steward, with a little
+dignity in his manner. "Ebbery t'ing depend on understandin', I
+s'pose you know. If Mr. Mulford got taken off dat rock by Miss Rose
+and Jack Tier, wid de boat, and den dey comes here altogedder; and
+den Jack Tier, he get on board and tell Biddy all dis matter, and
+den Biddy tell Josh, and den Josh tell de cook--what for you
+surprise, you black debbil, one bit?"
+
+"Dat all!" exclaimed Simon.
+
+"Dat just all--dat ebbery bit of it, do n't I say."
+
+Here Simon burst into such a fit of loud laughter, that it induced
+Spike himself to shove aside the galley-door, and thrust his own
+frowning visage into the dark hole within, to inquire the cause.
+
+"What's the meaning of this uproar?" demanded the captain, all the
+more excited because he felt that things had reached a pass that
+would not permit him to laugh himself. "Do you fancy yourself on the
+Hook, or at the Five Points?"
+
+The Hook and the Five Points are two pieces of tabooed territory
+within the limits of the good town of Manhattan, that are getting to
+be renowned for their rascality and orgies. They probably want
+nothing but the proclamation of a governor in vindication of their
+principles, annexed to a pardon of some of their unfortunate
+children, to render both classical. If we continue to make much
+further progress in political logic, and in the same direction as
+that in which we have already proceeded so far, neither will
+probably long be in want of this illustration. Votes can be given by
+the virtuous citizens of both these purlieus, as well as by the
+virtuous citizens of the anti-rent districts, and votes contain the
+essence of all such principles, as well as of their glorification.
+
+"Do you fancy yourselves on the Hook, or at the Five Points?"
+demanded Spike, angrily.
+
+"Lor', no sir!" answered Simon, laughing at each pause with all his
+heart. "Only laughs a little at _ghost_--dat all, sir."
+
+"Laugh at ghost! Is that a subject to laugh at? Have a care, you
+black rascal, or he will visit you in your galley here, when you
+will least want to see him."
+
+"No care much for _him,_ sir," returned Simon, laughing away as hard
+as ever. "_Sich_ a ghost ought n't to skear little baby."
+
+"_Such_ a ghost? And what do you know of _this_ ghost more than any
+other?"
+
+"Well, I seed him, Cap'in Spike; and what a body sees, he is
+acquainted wid."
+
+"You saw an image that looked as much like Mr. Mulford, my late
+mate, as one timber-head in this brig is like another."
+
+"Yes, sir, he like enough--must say _dat_--so wery like, could n't
+see any difference."
+
+As Simon concluded this remark, he burst out into another fit of
+laughter, in which Josh joined him, heart and soul, as it might be.
+The uninitiated reader is not to imagine the laughter of those
+blacks to be very noisy, or to be raised on a sharp, high key. They
+_could_ make the welkin ring, in sudden bursts of merriment, on
+occasion; but, at a time like this, they rather caused their
+diversion to be developed by sounds that came from the depths of
+their chests. A gleam of suspicion that these blacks were acquainted
+with some fact that it might be well for him to know, shot across
+the mind of Spike; but he was turned from further inquiry by a
+remark of Don Juan, who intimated that the mirth of such persons
+never had much meaning to it, expressing at the same time a desire
+to pursue the more important subject in which they were engaged.
+Admonishing the blacks to be more guarded in their manifestations of
+merriment, the captain closed the door on them, and resumed his walk
+up and down the quarter-deck. As soon as left to themselves, the
+blacks broke out afresh, though in a way so guarded, as to confine
+their mirth to the galley.
+
+"Cap'in Spike t'ink _dat_ a ghost!" exclaimed Simon, with contempt.
+
+"Guess if he see _raal_ ghost, he find 'e difference," answered
+Josh. "One look at raal sperit wort' two at dis object."
+
+Simon's eyes now opened like two saucers, and they gleamed, by the
+light of the lamp they had, like dark balls of condensed curiosity,
+blended with awe, on his companion.
+
+"You ebber see him, Josh?" he asked, glancing over each shoulder
+hurriedly, as it might be, to make sure that he could not see "him,"
+too.
+
+"How you t'ink I get so far down the wale of life, Simon, and nebber
+see sich a t'ing? I seed t'ree of the crew of the `Maria
+Sheffington,' that was drowned by deir boat's cap-sizin', when we
+lay at Gibraltar, jest as plain as I see you now. Then--"
+
+But it is unnecessary to repeat Josh's experiences in this way, with
+which he continued to entertain and terrify Simon for the next
+half-hour. This is just the difference between ignorance and
+knowledge. While Spike himself, and every man in his brig who
+belonged forward, had strong misgivings as to the earthly character
+of the figure they had seen at the foot of the light-house, these
+negroes laughed at their delusion, because they happened to be in
+the secret of Mulford's escape from the rock, and of that of his
+actual presence at the Tortugas. When, however, the same
+superstitious feeling was brought to bear on circumstances that lay
+_without_ the sphere of their exact information, they became just as
+dependent and helpless as all around them; more so, indeed, inasmuch
+as their previous habits and opinions disposed them to a more
+profound credulity.
+
+It was midnight before any of the crew of the Swash sought their
+rest that night. The captain had to remind them that a day of
+extraordinary toil was before them, ere he could get one even to
+quit the deck; and when they did go below, it was to continue to
+discuss the subject of what they had seen at the Dry Tortugas. It
+appeared to be the prevalent opinion among the people, that the late
+event foreboded evil to the Swash, and long as most of these men had
+served in the brig, and much as they had become attached to her, had
+she gone into port that night, nearly every man forward would have
+run before morning. But fatigue and wonder, at length, produced
+their effect, and the vessel was silent as was usual at that hour.
+Spike himself lay down in his clothes, as he had done ever since
+Mulford had left him; and the brig continued to toss the spray from
+her bows, as she bore gallantly up against the trades, working her
+way to windward. The light was found to be of great service, as it
+indicated the position of the reef, though it gradually sunk in the
+western horizon, until near morning it fell entirely below it.
+
+At this hour Spike appeared on deck again, where, for the first time
+since their interview on the morning of Harry's and Rose's escape,
+he laid his eyes on Jack Tier. The little dumpling-looking fellow
+was standing in the waist, with his arms folded sailor-fashion, as
+composedly as if nothing had occurred to render his meeting with the
+captain any way of a doubtful character. Spike approached near the
+person of the steward, whom he surveyed from head to foot, with a
+sort of contemptuous superiority, ere he spoke.
+
+"So, Master Tier," at length the captain commenced, "you have
+deigned to turn out at last, have you? I hope the day's duty you've
+forgotten, will help to pay for the light-house boat, that I
+understand you've lost for me, also."
+
+"What signifies a great clumsy boat that the brig could n't hoist in
+nor tow," answered Jack, coolly, turning short round at the same
+time, but not condescending to "uncoil" his arms as he did so, a
+mark of indifference that would probably have helped to mystify the
+captain, had he even actually suspected that anything was wrong
+beyond the supposed accident to the boat in question. "If you had
+had the boat astarn, Captain Spike, an order would have been given
+to cut it adrift the first time the brig made sail on the wind."
+
+"Nobody knows, Jack; that boat would have been very useful to us
+while at work about the wreck. You never even turned out this
+morning to let me know where that craft lay, as you promised to do,
+but left us to find it out by our wits."
+
+"There was no occasion for my tellin' you anything about it, sir,
+when the mast-heads was to be seen above water. As soon as I heard
+that them 'ere mast-heads was out of water, I turned over and went
+to sleep upon it. A man can't be on the doctor's list and on duty at
+the same time."
+
+Spike looked hard at the little steward, but he made no further
+allusion to his being off duty, or to his failing to stand pilot to
+the brig as she came through the passage in quest of the schooner's
+remains. The fact was, that he had discovered the mast-heads
+himself, just as he was on the point of ordering Jack to be called,
+having allowed him to remain in his berth to the last moment after
+his watch, according to a species of implied faith that is seldom
+disregarded among seamen. Once busied on the wreck, Jack was
+forgotten, having little to do in common with any one on board, but
+that which the captain termed the "women's mess."
+
+"Come aft, Jack," resumed Spike, after a considerable pause, during
+the whole of which he had stood regarding the little steward as if
+studying his person, and through that his character. "Come aft to
+the trunk; I wish to catechise you a bit."
+
+"Catechise!" repeated Tier, in an under tone, as he followed the
+captain to the place mentioned. "It's a long time since I've done
+anything at _that!_"
+
+"Ay, come hither," resumed Spike, seating himself at his ease on the
+trunk, while Jack stood near by, his arms still folded, and his
+rotund little form as immovable, under the plunges that the lively
+brig made into the head-seas that she was obliged to meet, as if a
+timber-head in the vessel itself. "You keep your sea-legs well,
+Jack, short as they are."
+
+"No wonder for that, Captain Spike; for the last twenty years I've
+scarce passed a twelvemonth ashore; and what I did before that, no
+one can better tell than yourself, since we was ten good years
+shipmates."
+
+"So you say, Jack, though I do not remember _you_ as well as you
+seem to remember _me_. Do you not make the time too long?"
+
+"Not a day, sir. Ten good and happy years did we sail together,
+Captain Spike; and all that time in this very--"
+
+"Hush--h-u-s-h, man, hush! There is no need of telling the Molly's
+age to everybody. I may wish to sell her some day, and then her
+great experience will be no recommendation. You should recollect
+that the Molly is a female, and the ladies do not like to hear of
+their ages after five-and-twenty."
+
+Jack made no answer, but he dropped his arms to their natural
+position, seeming to wait the captain's communication, first
+referring to his tobacco-box and taking a fresh quid.
+
+"If you was with me in the brig, Jack, at the time you mention,"
+continued Spike, after another long and thoughtful pause, "you must
+remember many little things that I do n't wish to have known;
+especially while Mrs. Budd and her handsome niece is aboard here."
+
+"I understand you, Captain Spike. The ladies shall l'arn no more
+from me than they know already."
+
+"Thank 'e for that Jack--thank 'e with all my heart Shipmates of our
+standing ought to be fast friends; and so you'll find me, if you'll
+only sail under the true colours, my man."
+
+At that moment Jack longed to let the captain know how strenuously
+he had insisted that very night on rejoining his vessel; and this at
+a time, too, when the brig was falling into disrepute. But this he
+could not do, without betraying the secret of the lovers--so he
+chose to say nothing.
+
+"There is no use in blabbing all a man knows, and the galley is a
+sad place for talking. Galley news is poor news, I suppose you know,
+Jack."
+
+"I've hear'n say as much on board o' man-of-war. It's a great place
+for the officers to meet and talk, and smoke, in Uncle Sam's crafts;
+and what a body hears in such places, is pretty much newspaper
+stuff, I do suppose."
+
+"Ay, ay, that's it; not to be thought of half-an-hour after it has
+been spoken. Here's a doubloon for you, Jack; and all for the sake
+of old times. Now, tell me, my litle fellow, how do the ladies come
+on? Does n't Miss Rose get over her mourning on account of the mate?
+Ar' n't we to have the pleasure of seein' her on deck soon?"
+
+"I can't answer for the minds and fancies of young women, Captain
+Spike. They are difficult to understand; and I would rather not
+meddle with what I can't understand."
+
+"Poh, poh, man; you must get over that. You might be of great use to
+me, Jack, in a very delicate affair--for you know how it is with
+women; they must be handled as a man would handle this brig among
+breakers; Rose, in partic'lar, is as skittish as a colt."
+
+"Stephen Spike," said Jack, solemnly, but on so low a key that it
+entirely changed his usually harsh and cracked voice to one that
+sounded soft, if not absolutely pleasant, "do you never think of
+hereafter? Your days are almost run; a very few years, in your
+calling it may be a very few weeks, or a few hours, and time will be
+done with you, and etarnity will commence.--Do you never think of a
+hereafter?"
+
+Spike started to his feet, gazing at Jack intently; then he wiped
+the perspiration from his face, and began to pace the deck rapidly,
+muttering to himself--"this has been a most accursed night! First
+the mate, and now _this!_ Blast me, but I thought it was a voice
+from the grave! Graves! can't they keep those that belong to them,
+or have rocks and waves no graves?"
+
+What more passed through the mind of the captain must remain a
+secret, for he kept it to himself; nor did he take any further
+notice of his companion. Jack, finding that he was unobserved,
+passed quietly below, and took the place in his berth, which he had
+only temporarily abandoned.
+
+Just as the day dawned, the Swash reached the vicinity of the wreck
+again. Sail was shortened, and the brig stood in until near enough
+for the purpose of her commander, when she was hove-to, so near the
+mast-heads that, by lowering the yawl, a line was sent out to the
+fore-mast, and the brig was hauled close alongside. The direction of
+the reef at that point formed a lee; and the vessel lay in water
+sufficiently smooth for her object.
+
+This was done soon after the sun had risen, and Spike now ordered
+all hands called, and began his operations in earnest. By sounding
+carefully around the schooner when last here, he had ascertained her
+situation to his entire satisfaction. She had settled on a shelf of
+the reef, in such a position that her bows lay in a sort of cradle,
+while her stern was several feet nearer to the surface than the
+opposite extremity. This last fact was apparent, indeed, by the
+masts themselves, the lower mast aft being several feet out of
+water, while the fore-mast was entirely buried, leaving nothing but
+the fore-topmast exposed. On these great premises Spike had laid the
+foundation of the practical problem he intended to solve.
+
+No expectation existed of ever getting the schooner afloat again.
+All that Spike and the Senor Montefalderon now aimed at, was to
+obtain the doubloons, which the former thought could be got at in
+the following manner. He knew that it would be much easier handling
+the wreck, so far as its gravity was concerned, while the hull
+continued submerged. He also knew that one end could be raised with
+a comparatively trifling effort, so long as the other rested on the
+rock. Under these circumstances, therefore, he proposed merely to
+get slings around the after body of the schooner, as near her
+stern-post, indeed, as would be safe, and to raise that extremity of
+the vessel to the surface, leaving most of the weight of the craft
+to rest on the bows. The difference between the power necessary to
+effect this much, and that which would be required to raise the
+whole wreck, would be like the difference in power necessary to turn
+over a log with one end resting on the ground, and turning the same
+log by lifting it bodily in the arms, and turning it in the air.
+With the stern once above water, it would be easy to come at the bag
+of doubloons, which Jack Tier had placed in a locker above the
+transoms.
+
+The first thing was to secure the brig properly, in order that she
+might bear the necessary strain. This was done very much as has been
+described already, in the account of the manner in which she was
+secured and supported in order to raise the schooner at the Dry
+Tortugas. An anchor was laid abreast and to windward, and purchases
+were brought to the masts, as before. Then the bight of the chain
+brought from the Tortugas, was brought under the schooner's keel,
+and counter-purchases, leading from both the fore-mast and main-mast
+of the brig, were brought to it, and set taut. Spike now carefully
+examined all his fastenings, looking to his cables as well as his
+mechanical power aloft, heaving in upon this, and veering out upon
+that, in order to bring the Molly square to her work; after which he
+ordered the people to knock-off for their dinners. By that time, it
+was high noon.
+
+While Stephen Spike was thus employed on the wreck, matters and
+things were not neglected at the Tortugas. The Poughkeepsie had no
+sooner anchored, than Wallace went on board and made his report.
+Capt. Mull then sent for Mulford, with whom he had a long personal
+conference. This officer was getting grey, and consequently he had
+acquired experience. It was evident to Harry, at first, that he was
+regarded as one who had been willingly engaged in an unlawful
+pursuit, but who had abandoned it to push dearer interests in
+another quarter. It was some time before the commander of the
+sloop-of-war could divest himself of this opinion, though it
+gradually gave way before the frankness of the mate's manner, and
+the manliness, simplicity, and justice of his sentiments. Perhaps
+Rose had some influence also in bringing about this favourable
+change.
+
+Wallace did not fail to let it be known that turtle-soup was to be
+had ashore; and many was the guest our heroine had to supply with
+that agreeable compound, in the course of the morning. Jack Tier had
+manifested so much skill in the preparation of the dish, that its
+reputation soon extended to the cabin, and the captain was induced
+to land, in order to ascertain how far rumour was or was not a liar,
+on this interesting occasion. So ample was the custom, indeed, that
+Wallace had the consideration to send one of the ward-room servants
+to the light-house, in order to relieve Rose from a duty that was
+getting to be a little irksome. She was "seeing company" as a bride,
+in a novel and rather unpleasant manner; and it was in consequence
+of a suggestion of the "ship's gentleman," that the remains of the
+turtle were transferred to the vessel, and were put into the
+coppers, _secundum artem,_ by the regular cooks.
+
+It was after tickling his palate with a bowl of the soup, and
+enjoying a half-hour's conversation with Rose, that Capt. Mull
+summoned Harry to a final consultation on the subject of their
+future proceedings. By this time the commander of the Poughkeepsie
+was in a better humour with his new acquaintance, more disposed to
+believe him, and infinitely more inclined to listen to his
+suggestions and advice, than he had been in their previous
+interviews. Wallace was present in his character of "ship's
+gentleman," or, as having nothing to do, while his senior, the first
+lieutenant, was working like a horse on board the vessel, in the
+execution of his round of daily duties.
+
+At this consultation, the parties came into a right understanding of
+each other's views and characters. Capt. Mull was slow to yield his
+confidence, but when he did bestow it, he bestowed it
+sailor-fashion, or with all his heart. Satisfied at last that he had
+to do with a young man of honour, and one who was true to the flag,
+he consulted freely with our mate, asked his advice, and was greatly
+influenced in the formation of his final decision by the opinions
+that Harry modestly advanced, maintaining them, however, with solid
+arguments, and reasons that every seaman could comprehend.
+
+Mulford knew the plans of Spike by means of his own communications
+with the Senor Montefalderon. Once acquainted with the projects of
+his old commander, it was easy for him to calculate the time it
+would require to put them in execution, with the means that were to
+be found on board the Swash. "It will take the brig until near
+morning," he said, "to beat up to the place where the wreck lies.
+Spike will wait for light to commence operations, and several hours
+will be necessary to moor the brig, and get out the anchors with
+which he will think it necessary to stay his masts. Then he will
+hook on, and he may partly raise the hull before night return. More
+than this he can never do; and it would not surprise me were he
+merely to get everything ready for heaving on his purchases
+to-morrow, and suspend further proceedings until the next day, in
+preference to having so heavy a strain on his spars all night. He
+has not the force, however, to carry on such duty to a very late
+hour; and you may count with perfect security, Captain Mull, on his
+being found alongside of the wreck at sunrise the next day after
+to-morrow, in all probability with his anchors down, and fast to the
+wreck. By timing your own arrival well, nothing will be easier than
+to get him fairly under your guns, and once under your guns, the
+brig must give up. When you chased her out of this very port, a few
+days since, you would have brought her up could you have kept her
+within range of those terrible shells ten minutes longer."
+
+"You would then advise my not sailing from this place immediately,"
+said Mull.
+
+"It will be quite time enough to get under way late in the
+afternoon, and then under short canvas. Ten hours will be ample time
+for this ship to beat up to that passage in, and it will be
+imprudent to arrive too soon; nor do I suppose you will wish to be
+playing round the reef in the dark."
+
+To the justice of all this Capt. Mull assented; and the plan of
+proceedings was deliberately and intelligently formed. As it was
+necessary for Mulford to go in the ship, in order to act as pilot,
+no one else on board knowing exactly where to find the wreck, the
+commander of the Poughkeepsie had the civility to offer the young
+couple the hospitalities of his own cabin, with one of his
+state-rooms. This offer Harry gratefully accepted, it being
+understood that the ship would land them at Key West, as soon as the
+contemplated duty was executed. Rose felt so much anxiety about her
+aunt, that any other arrangement would scarcely have pacified her
+fears.
+
+In consequence of these arrangements, the Poughkeepsie lay quietly
+at her anchors until near sunset. In the interval her boats were out
+in all directions, parties of the officers visiting the islet where
+the powder had exploded, and the islet where the tent, erected for
+the use of the females, was still standing. As for the light-house
+island, an order of Capt. Mull's prevented it from being crowded in
+a manner unpleasant to Rose, as might otherwise have been the case.
+The few officers who did land there, however, appeared much struck
+with the ingenuous simplicity and beauty of the bride, and a manly
+interest in her welfare was created among them all, principally by
+means of the representations of the second lieutenant and the
+chaplain. About five o'clock she went off to the ship, accompanied
+by Harry, and was hoisted on board in the manner usually practised
+by vessels of war which have no accommodation-ladder rigged. Rose
+was immediately installed in her state-room, where she found every
+convenience necessary to a comfortable though small apartment.
+
+It was quite late in the afternoon, when the boatswain and his mate
+piped "all hands up anchor!" Harry hastened into the state-room for
+his charming bride, anxious to show her the movements of a vessel of
+war on such an occasion. Much as she had seen of the ocean, and of a
+vessel, within the last few weeks, Rose now found that she had yet a
+great deal to learn, and that a ship of war had many points to
+distinguish her from a vessel engaged in commerce.
+
+The Poughkeepsie was only a sloop-of-war, or a corvette, in
+construction, number of her guns, and rate; but she was a ship of
+the dimensions of an old-fashioned frigate, measuring about one
+thousand tons. The frigates of which we read half a century since,
+were seldom ever as large as this, though they were differently
+built in having a regular gun-deck, or one armed deck that was
+entirely covered, with another above it; and on the quarter-deck and
+forecastle of the last of which were also batteries of lighter guns.
+To the contrary of all this, the Poughkeepsie had but one armed
+deck, and on that only twenty guns. These pieces, however, were of
+unusually heavy calibre, throwing thirty-two pound shot, with the
+exception of the Paixhans, or Columbiads, which throw shot of even
+twice that weight. The vessel had a crew of two hundred souls, all
+told; and she had the spars, anchors, and other equipments of a
+light frigate.
+
+In another great particular did the Poughkeepsie differ from the
+corvette-built vessels that were so much in favour at the beginning
+of the century; a species of craft obtained from the French, who
+have taught the world so much in connection with naval science, and
+who, after building some of the best vessels that ever floated, have
+failed in knowing how to handle them, though not always in that. The
+Poughkeepsie, while she had no spar, or upper deck, properly
+speaking, had a poop and a topgallant-forecastle. Within the last
+were the cabins and other accommodations of the captain; an
+arrangement that was necessary for a craft of her construction, that
+carried so many officers, and so large a crew. Without it,
+sufficient space would not be had for the uses of the last. One gun
+of a side was in the main cabin, there being a very neat and amply
+spacious after-cabin between the state-rooms, as is ordinarily the
+case in all vessels from the size of frigates up to that of
+three-deckers. It may be well to explain here, while on this subject
+of construction, that in naval parlance, a ship is called a
+single-decked vessel; a _two-_decker, or a _three-_ decker, not from
+the number of decks she actually possesses, but from the number of
+_gun-_decks that she has, or of those that are _fully_ armed. Thus a
+frigate has four decks, the spar, gun, berth, and orlop (or haul-up)
+decks; but she is called a "single-decked ship," from the
+circumstance that only one of these four decks has a complete range
+of batteries. The two-decker has two of these fully armed decks, and
+the three-deckers three; though, in fact, the two-decker has five,
+and the three-decker six decks. Asking pardon for this little
+digression, which we trust will be found useful to a portion of our
+readers, we return to the narrative.
+
+Harry conducted Rose to the poop of the Poughkeepsie, where she
+might enjoy the best view of the operation of getting so large a
+craft under way, man-of-war fashion. The details were mysteries, of
+course, and Rose knew no more of the process by which the chain was
+brought to the capstan, by the intervention of what is called a
+messenger, than if she had not been present. She saw two hundred men
+distributed about the vessel, some at the capstan, some on the
+forecastle, some in the tops, and others in the waist, and she heard
+the order to "heave round." Then the shrill fife commenced the
+lively air of "the girl I left behind me," rather more from a habit
+in the fifer, than from any great regrets for the girls left at the
+Dry Tortugas, as was betrayed to Mulford by the smiles of the
+officers, and the glances they cast at Rose. As for the latter, she
+knew nothing of the air, and was quite unconscious of the sort of
+parody that the gentlemen of the quarter-deck fancied it conveyed on
+her own situation.
+
+Rose was principally struck with the quiet that prevailed in the
+ship, Captain Mull being a silent man himself, and insisting on
+having a quiet vessel. The first lieutenant was not a noisy officer,
+and from these two, everybody else on board received their cues. A
+simple "all ready, sir," uttered by the first to the captain, in a
+common tone of voice, answered by a "very well, sir, get your
+anchor," in the same tone, set everything in motion. "Stamp and go,"
+soon followed, and taking the whole scene together, Rose felt a
+strange excitement come over her. There were the shrill, animating
+music of the fife; the stamping time of the men at the bars; the
+perceptible motion of the ship, as she drew ahead to her anchor, and
+now and then the call between Wallace, who stood between the
+knight-heads, as commander-in-chief on the forecastle, (the second
+lieutenant's station when the captain does not take the trumpet, as
+very rarely happens,) and the "executive officer" aft, was "carrying
+on duty," all conspiring to produce this effect. At length, and it
+was but a minute or two from the time when the "stamp and go"
+commenced, Wallace called out "a short stay-peak, sir." "Heave and
+pull," followed, and the men left their bars.
+
+The process of making sail succeeded. There was no "letting fall" a
+fore-topsail here, as on board a merchant-man, but all the canvas
+dropped from the yards, into festoons, at the same instant. Then the
+three topsails were sheeted home and hoisted, all at once, and all
+in a single minute of time; the yards were counter-braced, and the
+capstan-bars were again manned. In two more minutes it was "heave
+and she's up and down." Then "heave and in sight," and "heave and
+pull again." The cat-fall was ready, and it was "hook on," when the
+fife seemed to turn its attention to another subject as the men
+catted the anchor. Literally, all this was done in less time than we
+have taken to write it down in, and in very little more time than
+the reader has wasted in perusing what we have here written.
+
+The Poughkeepsie was now "free of bottom," as it is called, with her
+anchor catted and fished, and her position maintained in the basin
+where she lay, by the counter-bracing of her yards, and the
+counteracting force of the wind on her sails. It only remained to
+"fill away," by bracing her head-yards sharp up, when the vast mass
+overcame its inertia, and began to move through the water. As this
+was done, the jib and spanker were set. The two most beautiful
+things with which we are acquainted, are a graceful and high-bred
+woman entering or quitting a drawing-room, more particularly the
+last, and a man-of-war leaving her anchorage in a moderate breeze,
+and when not hurried for time. On the present occasion, Captain Mull
+was in no haste, and the ship passed out to windward of the light,
+as the Swash had done the previous night, under her three topsails,
+spanker and jib, with the light sails loose and flowing, and the
+courses hanging in the brails.
+
+A great deal is said concerning the defective construction of the
+light cruisers of the navy, of late years, and complaints are made
+that they will not sail, as American cruisers ought to sail, and
+were wont to sail in old times. That there has been some ground for
+these complaints, we believe; though the evil has been greatly
+exaggerated, and some explanation may be given, we think, even in
+the cases in which the strictures are not altogether without
+justification. The trim of a light, sharp vessel is easily deranged;
+and officers, in their desire to command as much as possible, often
+get their vessels of this class too deep. They are, generally, for
+the sort of cruiser, over-sparred, over-manned, and
+over-provisioned; consequently, too deep. We recollect a case in
+which one of these delicate craft, a half-rigged brig, was much
+abused for "having lost her sailing." She did, indeed, lose her
+fore-yard, and, after that, she sailed like a witch, until she got a
+new one! If the facts were inquired into, in the spirit which ought
+to govern such inquiries, it would be found that even most of the
+much-abused "ten sloops" proved to be better vessels than common.
+The St. Louis, the Vincennes, the Concord, the Fairfield, the
+Boston, and the Falmouth, are instances of what we mean. In behalf
+of the Warren, and the Lexington, we believe no discreet man was
+ever heard to utter one syllable, except as wholesome crafts. But
+the Poughkeepsie was a very different sort of vessel from any of the
+"ten sloops." She was every way a good ship, and, as Jack expressed
+it, was "a good goer." The most severe nautical critic could
+scarcely have found a fault in her, as she passed out between the
+islets, on the evening of the day mentioned, in the sort of undress
+we have described. The whole scene, indeed, was impressive, and of
+singular maritime characteristics.
+
+The little islets scattered about, low, sandy, and untenanted, were
+the only land in sight--all else was the boundless waste of waters.
+The solitary light rose like an aquatic monument, as if purposely to
+give its character to the view. Captain Mull had caused its lamps to
+be trimmed and lighted for the very reason that had induced Spike to
+do the same thing, and the dim star they presented was just
+struggling into existence, as it might be, as the briliance left by
+the setting sun was gradually diminished, and finally disappeared.
+As for the ship, the hull appeared dark, glossy, and graceful, as is
+usual with a vessel of war. Her sails were in soft contrast to the
+colour of the hull, and they offered the variety and divergence from
+straight lines which are thought necessary to perfect beauty. Those
+that were set, presented the symmetry in their trim, the flatness in
+their hoist, and the breadth that distinguish a man-of-war; while
+those that were loose, floated in the air in every wave and
+cloud-like swell, that we so often see in light canvas that is
+released from the yards in a fresh breeze. The ship had an undress
+look from this circumstance, but it was such an undress as denotes
+the man or woman of the world. This undress appearance was increased
+by the piping down of the hammocks, which left the nettings loose,
+and with a negligent but still knowing look about them.
+
+When half a mile from the islets, the main-yard was braced aback,
+and the maintopsail was laid to the mast. As soon as the ship had
+lost her way, two or three boats that had been towing astern, each
+with its boat-sitter, or keeper, in it, were hauled up alongside, or
+to the quarters, were "hooked on," and "run up" to the whistling of
+the call. All was done at once, and all was done in a couple of
+minutes. As soon as effected, the maintopsail was again filled, and
+away the ship glided.
+
+Captain Mull was not in the habit of holding many consultations with
+his officers. If there be wisdom in a "multitude of counsellors," he
+was of opinion it was not on board a man-of-war. Napoleon is
+reported to have said that _one_ bad general was better than _two_
+good ones; meaning that one head to an army, though of inferior
+quality, is better than a hydra of Solomons, or Cesars. Captain Mull
+was much of the same way of thinking, seldom troubling his
+subordinates with anything but orders. He interfered very little
+with "working Willy," though he saw effectually that he did his
+duty. "The ship's gentleman" might enjoy his joke as much as he
+pleased, so long as he chose his time and place with discretion, but
+in the captain's presence joking was not tolerated, unless it were
+after dinner, at his own table, and in his own cabin. Even there it
+was not precisely such joking as took place daily, not to say
+hourly, in the midshipmen's messes.
+
+In making up his mind as to the mode of proceeding on the present
+occasion, therefore, Captain Mull, while he had heard all that
+Mulford had to tell him, and had even encouraged Wallace to give his
+opinions, made up his decision for himself. After learning all that
+Harry had to communicate, he made his own calculations as to time
+and distance, and quietly determined to carry whole sail on the ship
+for the next four hours. This he did as the wisest course of making
+sure of getting to windward while he could, and knowing that the
+vessel could be brought under short canvas at any moment when it
+might be deemed necessary. The light was a beacon to let him know
+his distance with almost mathematical precision. It could be seen so
+many miles at sea, each mile being estimated by so many feet of
+elevation, and having taken that elevation, he was sure of his
+distance from the glittering object, so long as it could be seen
+from his own poop. It was also of use by letting him know the range
+of the reef, though Captain Mull, unlike Spike, had determined to
+make one leg off to the northward and eastward until he had brought
+the light nearly to the horizon, and then to make another to the
+southward and eastward, believing that the last stretch would bring
+him to the reef, almost as far to windward as he desired to be. In
+furtherance of this plan, the sheets of the different sails were
+drawn home, as soon as the boats were in, and the Poughkeepsie,
+bending a little to the breeze, gallantly dashed the waves aside, as
+she went through and over them, at a rate of not less than ten good
+knots in the hour. As soon as all these arrangements were made, the
+watch went below, and from that time throughout the night, the ship
+offered nothing but the quiet manner in which ordinary duty is
+carried on in a well-regulated vessel of war at sea, between the
+hours of sun and sun. Leaving the good craft to pursue her way with
+speed and certainty, we must now return to the Swash.
+
+Captain Spike had found the mooring of his brig a much more
+difficult task, on this occasion, than on that of his former attempt
+to raise the schooner. Then he had to lift the wreck bodily, and he
+knew that laying the Swash a few feet further ahead or astern, could
+be of no great moment, inasmuch as the moment the schooner was off
+the bottom, she would swing in perpendicularly to the purchases. But
+now one end of the schooner, her bows, was to remain fast, and it
+became of importance to be certain that the purchases were so placed
+as to bring the least strain on the masts while they acted most
+directly on the after body of the vessel to be lifted. This point
+gave Spike more trouble than he had anticipated. Fully one half of
+the remainder of the day, even after he had begun to heave upon his
+purchases, was spent in rectifying mistakes in connection with this
+matter, and in getting up additional securities to his masts.
+
+In one respect Spike had, from the first, made a good disposition.
+The masts of the brig raked materially, and by bringing the head of
+the Swash in the direction of the schooner, he converted this fact,
+which might otherwise have been of great disadvantage, into a
+circumstance that was favourable. In consequence of the brig's
+having been thus moored, the strain, which necessarily led forward,
+came nearly in a line with the masts, and the latter were much
+better able to support it. Notwithstanding this advantage, however,
+it was found expedient to get up preventer-stays, and to give the
+spars all the additional support could be conveniently bestowed.
+Hours were passed in making these preliminary, or it might be better
+to say, secondary arrangements.
+
+It was past five in the afternoon when the people of the Swash began
+to heave on their purchases as finally disposed. After much
+creaking, and the settling of straps and lashings into their places,
+it was found that everything stood, and the work went on. In ten
+minutes Spike found he had the weight of the schooner, so far as he
+should be obliged to sustain it at all, until the stern rose above
+the surface; and he felt reasonably secure of the doubloons. Further
+than this he did not intend to make any experiment on her, the Senor
+Montefalderon having abandoned all idea of recovering the vessel
+itself, now so much of the cargo was lost. The powder was mostly
+consumed, and that which remained in the hull must, by this time, be
+injured by dampness, if not ruined. So reasoned Don Juan at least.
+
+As the utmost care was necessary, the capstan and wind-lass were
+made to do their several duties with great caution. As inch by inch
+was gained, the extra supports of the masts were examined, and it
+was found that a much heavier strain now came on the masts than when
+the schooner was raised before. This was altogether owing to the
+direction in which it came, and to the fact that the anchor planted
+off abeam was not of as much use as on the former occasion, in
+consequence of its not lying so much in a straight line with the
+direction of the purchases. Spike began to have misgivings on
+account of his masts, and this so much the more because the wind
+appeared to haul a little further to the northward, and the weather
+to look unsettled. Should a swell roll into the bight of the reef
+where the brig lay, by raising the hull a little too rudely, there
+would be the imminent danger of at least springing, if not of
+absolutely carrying away both the principal spars. It was therefore
+necessary to resort to extraordinary precautions, in order to
+obviate this danger.
+
+The captain was indebted to his boatswain, who was now in fact
+acting as his mate, for the suggestion of the plan next adopted. Two
+of the largest spare spars of the brig were got out, with their
+heads securely lashed to the links of the chain by which the wreck
+was suspended, one on each side of the schooner. Pig-iron and shot
+were lashed to the heels of these spars, which carried them to the
+bottom. As the spars were of a greater length than was necessary to
+reach the rock, they necessarily lay at an inclination, which was
+lessened every inch the after body of the wreck was raised, thus
+forming props to the hull of the schooner.
+
+Spike was delighted with the success of this scheme, of which he was
+assured by a single experiment in heaving. After getting the spars
+well planted at their heels, he even ordered the men to slacken the
+purchases a little, and found that he could actually relieve the
+brig from the strain, by causing the wreck to be supported
+altogether by these shores. This was a vast relief from the cares of
+the approaching night, and indeed alone prevented the necessity of
+the work's going on without interruption, or rest, until the end was
+obtained.
+
+The people of the Swash were just assured of the comfortable fact
+related, as the Poughkeepsie was passing out from among the islets
+of the Dry Tortugas. They imagined themselves happy in having thus
+made a sufficient provision against the most formidable of all the
+dangers that beset them, at the very moment when the best laid plan
+for their destruction was on the point of being executed. In this
+respect, they resembled millions of others of their fellows, who
+hang suspended over the vast abyss of eternity, totally unconscious
+of the irretrievable character of the fall that is so soon to occur.
+Spike, as has been just stated, was highly pleased with his own
+expedient, and he pointed it out with exultation to the Senor
+Montefalderon, as soon as it was completed.
+
+"A nicer fit was never made by a Lunnun leg-maker, Don Wan," the
+captain cried, after going over the explanations connected with the
+shores--"there she stands, at an angle of fifty, with two as good
+limbs under her as a body could wish. I could now cast off
+everything, and leave the wreck in what they call `_statu quo,_'
+which, I suppose, means on its pins, like a statue. The tafferel is
+not six inches below the surface of the water, and half an hour of
+heaving will bring the starn in sight."
+
+"Your work seems ingeniously contrived to get up one extremity of
+the vessel, Don Esteban," returned the Mexican; "but are you quite
+certain that the doubloons are in her?"
+
+This question was put because the functionary of a government in
+which money was very apt to stick in passing from hand to hand was
+naturally suspicious, and he found it difficult to believe that
+Mulford, Jack Tier, and even Biddy, under all the circumstances, had
+not paid special attention to their own interests.
+
+"The bag was placed in one of the transom-lockers before the
+schooner capsized," returned the captain, "as Jack Tier informs me;
+if so, it remains there still. Even the sharks will not touch gold,
+Don Wan."
+
+"Would it not be well to call Jack, and hear his account of the
+matter once more, now we appear to be so near the Eldorado of our
+wishes?"
+
+Spike assented, and Jack was summoned to the quarter-deck. The
+little fellow had scarce showed himself throughout the day, and he
+now made his appearance with a slow step, and reluctantly.
+
+"You've made no mistake about them 'ere doubloons, I take it, Master
+Tier?" said Spike, in a very nautical sort of style of addressing an
+inferior. "You _know_ them to be in one of the transom-lockers?"
+
+Jack mounted on the breech of one of the guns, and looked over the
+bulwarks at the dispositions that had been made about the wreck. The
+tafferel of the schooner actually came in sight, when a little swell
+passed over it, leaving it for an instant in the trough. The steward
+thus caught a glimpse again of the craft on board which he had seen
+so much hazard, and he shook his head and seemed to be thinking of
+anything but the question which had just been put to him.
+
+"Well, about that gold?" asked Spike, impatiently.
+
+"The sight of that craft has brought other thoughts than gold into
+my mind, Captain Spike," answered Jack, gravely, "and it would be
+well for all us mariners, if we thought less of gold and more of the
+dangers we run. For hours and hours did I stand over etarnity, on
+the bottom of that schooner, Don Wan, holdin' my life, as it might
+be, at the marcy of a few bubbles of air."
+
+"What has all that to do with the gold? Have you deceived me about
+that locker, little rascal?"
+
+"No, sir, I've _not_ deceived you--no, Captain Spike, _no_. The bag
+is in the upper transom-locker, on the starboard side. There I put
+it with my own hands, and a good lift it was; and there you'll find
+it, if you'll cut through the quarter-deck at the spot I can p'int
+out to you."
+
+This information seemed to give a renewed energy to all the native
+cupidity of the captain, who called the men from their suppers, and
+ordered them to commence heaving anew. The word was passed to the
+crew that "it was now for doubloons," and they went to the bars and
+handspikes, notwithstanding the sun had set, cheerfully and
+cheering.
+
+All Spike's expedients admirably answered the intended purposes. The
+stern of the schooner rose gradually, and at each lift the heels of
+the shores dropped in more perpendicularly, carried by the weights
+attached to them, and the spars stood as firm props to secure all
+that was gained. In a quarter of an hour, most of that part of the
+stern which was within five or six feet of the tafferel, rose above
+the water, coming fairly in view.
+
+Spike now shouted to the men to "pall!" then he directed the falls
+to be very gradually eased off, in order to ascertain if the shores
+would still do their duty. The experiment was successful, and
+presently the wreck stood in its upright position, sustained
+entirely by the two spars. As the last were now nearly
+perpendicular, they were capable of bearing a very heavy weight, and
+Spike was so anxious to relieve his own brig from the strain she had
+been enduring, that he ordered the lashings of the blocks to be
+loosened, trusting to his shores to do their duty. Against this
+confidence the boatswain ventured a remonstrance, but the gold was
+too near to allow the captain to listen or reply. The carpenter was
+ordered over on the wreck with his tools, while Spike, the Senor
+Montefalderon, and two men to row the boat and keep it steady, went
+in the yawl to watch the progress of the work. Jack Tier was ordered
+to stand in the chains, and to point out, as nearly as possible, the
+place where the carpenter was to cut.
+
+When all was ready, Spike gave the word, and the chips began to fly.
+By the use of the saw and the axe, a hole large enough to admit two
+or three men at a time, was soon made in the deck, and the sounding
+for the much-coveted locker commenced. By this time, it was quite
+dark; and a lantern was passed down from the brig, in order to
+enable those who searched for the locker to see. Spike had breasted
+the yawl close up to the hole, where it was held by the men, while
+the captain himself passed the lantern and his own head into the
+opening to reconnoitre.
+
+"Ay, it's all right!" cried the voice of the captain from within his
+cell-like cavity. "I can just see the lid of the locker that Jack
+means, and we shall soon have what we are a'ter. Carpenter, you may
+as well slip off your clothes at once, and go inside; I will point
+out to you the place where to find the locker. You're certain, Jack,
+it was the starboard locker?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir, the starboard locker, and no other."
+
+The carpenter had soon got into the hole, as naked as when he was
+born. It was a gloomy-looking place for a man to descend into at
+that hour, the light from the lantern being no great matter, and
+half the time it was shaded by the manner in which Spike was
+compelled to hold it.
+
+"Take care and get a good footing, carpenter," said the captain, in
+a kinder tone than common, "before you let go with your hands; but I
+suppose you can swim, as a matter of course?"
+
+"No, sir, not a stroke--I never could make out in the water at all."
+
+"Have the more 'care, then. Had I known as much, I would have sent
+another hand down; but mind your footing. More to the left,
+man--more to the left. That is the lid of the locker--your hand is
+on it; why do you not open it?"
+
+"It is swelled by the water, sir, and will need a chisel, or some
+tool of that sort. Just call out to one of the men, sir, if you
+please, to pass me a chisel from my tool-chest. A good stout one
+will be best."
+
+This order was given, and, during the delay it caused, Spike
+encouraged the carpenter to be cool, and above all to mind his
+footing. His own eagerness to get at the gold was so great that he
+kept his head in at the hole, completely cutting off the man within
+from all communication with the outer world.
+
+"What's the matter with you?" demanded Spike, a little sternly. "You
+shiver, and yet the water cannot be cold in this latitude. No, my
+hand makes it just the right warmth to be pleasant."
+
+"It's not the water, Captain Spike--I wish they would come with the
+chisel. Did you hear nothing, sir? I'm certain I did!"
+
+"Hear!--what is there here to be heard, unless there may be some
+fish inside, thrashing about to get out of the vessel's hold?"
+
+"I am sure I heard something like a groan, Captain Spike. I wish you
+would let me come out, sir, and I'll go for the chisel myself; them
+men will never find it."
+
+"Stay where you are, coward! are you afraid of dead men standing
+against walls? Stay where you are. Ah! here is the chisel--now let
+us see what you can do with it."
+
+"I am certain I heard another groan, Captain Spike. I cannot work,
+sir. I'm of no use here--_do_ let me come out, sir, and send a hand
+down that can swim."
+
+Spike uttered a terrible malediction on the miserable carpenter, one
+we do not care to repeat; then he cast the light of the lantern full
+in the man's face. The quivering flesh, the pallid face, and the
+whole countenance wrought up almost to a frenzy of terror,
+astonished, as well as alarmed him.
+
+"What ails you, man?" said the captain in a voice of thunder. "Clap
+in the chisel, or I'll hurl you off into the water. There is nothing
+here, dead or alive, to harm ye!"
+
+"The groan, sir--I hear it again! _Do_ let me come out, Captain
+Spike."
+
+Spike himself, this time, heard what even _he_ took for a groan. It
+came from the depths of the vessel, apparently, and was sufficiently
+distinct and audible. Astonished, yet appalled, he thrust his
+shoulders into the aperture, as if to dare the demon that tormented
+him, and was met by the carpenter endeavouring to escape. In the
+struggle that ensued, the lantern was dropped into the water,
+leaving the half-frenzied combatants contending in the dark. The
+groan was renewed, when the truth flashed on the minds of both.
+
+"The shores! the shores!" exclaimed the carpenter from within. "The
+shores!" repeated Spike, throwing himself back into the boat, and
+shouting to his men to "see all clear of the wreck!" The grating of
+one of the shores on the coral beneath was now heard plainer than
+ever, and the lower extremity slipped outward, not astern, as had
+been apprehended, letting the wreck slowly settle to the bottom
+again. One piercing shriek arose from the narrow cavity within; then
+the gurgling of water into the aperture was heard, when naught of
+sound could be distinguished but the sullen and steady wash of the
+waves of the gulf over the rocks of the reef.
+
+The impression made by this accident was most profound. A fatality
+appeared to attend the brig; and most of the men connected the sad
+occurrence of this night with the strange appearance of the previous
+evening. Even the Senor Montefalderon was disposed to abandon the
+doubloons, and he urged Spike to make the best of his way for
+Yucatan, to seek a friendly harbour. The captain wavered, but
+avarice was too strong a passion in him to be easily diverted from
+its object, and he refused to give up his purpose.
+
+As the wreck was entirely free from the brig when it went down for
+the third time, no injury was sustained by the last on this
+occasion. By renewing the lashings, everything would be ready to
+begin the work anew--and this, Spike was resolved to attempt in the
+morning. The men were too much fatigued, and it was too dark to
+think of pushing matters any further that night; and it was very
+questionable whether they could have been got to work. Orders were
+consequently given for all hands to turn in, the captain, relieved
+by Don Juan and Jack Tier, having arranged to keep the watches of
+the night.
+
+"This is a sad accident, Don Esteban," observed the Mexican, as he
+and Spike paced the quarter-deck together, just before the last
+turned in; "a sad accident! My miserable schooner seems to be
+deserted by its patron saint. Then your poor carpenter!"
+
+"Yes, he was a good fellow enough with a saw, or an adze," answered
+Spike, yawning. "But we get used to such things at sea. It's neither
+more nor less than a carpenter expended. Good night, Senor Don Wan;
+in the morning we'll be at that gold ag'in."
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  She's in a scene of nature's war,
+  The winds and waters are at strife;
+  And both with her contending for
+  The brittle thread of human life.
+
+Miss Gould.
+
+Spike was sleeping hard in his berth, quite early on the following
+morning, before the return of light, indeed, when he suddenly
+started up, rubbed his eyes, and sprang upon deck like a man
+alarmed. He had heard, or fancied he had heard, a cry. A voice once
+well known and listened to, seemed to call him in the very portals
+of his ear. At first he had listened to its words in wonder,
+entranced like the bird by the snake, the tones recalling scenes and
+persons that had once possessed a strong control over his rude
+feelings. Presently the voice became harsher in its utterance, and
+it said.
+
+"Stephen Spike, awake! The hour is getting late, and you have
+enemies nearer to you than you imagine. Awake, Stephen, awake!"
+
+When the captain was on his feet, and had plunged his head into a
+basin of water that stood ready for him in the state-room, he could
+not have told, for his life, whether he had been dreaming or waking,
+whether what he had heard was the result of a feverish imagination,
+or of the laws of nature. The call haunted him all that morning, or
+until events of importance so pressed upon him as to draw his
+undivided attention to them alone.
+
+It was not yet day. The men were still in heavy sleep, lying about
+the decks, for they avoided the small and crowded forecastle in that
+warm climate, and the night was apparently at its deepest hour.
+Spike walked forward to look for the man charged with the
+anchor-watch. It proved to be Jack Tier, who was standing near the
+galley, his arms folded as usual, apparently watching the few signs
+of approaching day that were beginning to be apparent in the western
+sky. The captain was in none of the best humours with the steward's
+assistant; but Jack had unaccountably got an ascendency over his
+commander, which it was certainly very unusual for any subordinate
+in the Swash to obtain. Spike had deferred more to Mulford than to
+any mate he had ever before employed; but this was the deference due
+to superior information, manners, and origin. It was common-place,
+if not vulgar; whereas, the ascendency obtained by little Jack Tier
+was, even to its subject, entirely inexplicable. He was unwilling to
+admit it to himself in the most secret manner, though he had begun
+to feel it on all occasions which brought them in contact, and to
+submit to it as a thing not to be averted.
+
+"Jack Tier," demanded the captain, now that he found himself once
+more alone with the other, desirous of obtaining his opinion on a
+point that harassed him, though he knew not why; "Jack Tier, answer
+me one thing. Do you believe that we saw the form of a dead or of a
+living man at the foot of the light-house?"
+
+"The dead are never seen leaning against walls in that manner,
+Stephen Spike," answered Jack, coolly, not even taking the trouble
+to uncoil his arms. "What you saw was a living man; and you would do
+well to be on your guard against him. Harry Mulford is not your
+friend--and there is reason for it."
+
+"Harry Mulford, and living! How can that be, Jack? You know the port
+in which he chose to run."
+
+"I know the rock on which you chose to abandon him, Captain Spike."
+
+"If so, how could he be living and at the Dry Tortugas. The thing is
+impossible!"
+
+"The thing is so. You saw Harry Mulford, living and well, and ready
+to hunt you to the gallows. Beware of him, then; and beware of his
+handsome wife!"
+
+"Wife! the fellow has no wife--he has always professed to be a
+single man!"
+
+"The man is married--and I bid you beware of his handsome wife. She,
+too, will be a witness ag'in you."
+
+"This will be news, then, for Rose Budd. I shall delight in telling
+it to _her,_ at least."
+
+"'T will be _no_ news to Rose Budd. She was present at the wedding,
+and will not be taken by surprise. Rose loves Harry too well to let
+him marry, and she not present at the wedding."
+
+"Jack, you talk strangely! What is the meaning of all this? I am
+captain of this craft, and will not be trifled with--tell me at once
+your meaning, fellow."
+
+"My meaning is simple enough, and easily told. Rose Budd is the wife
+of Harry Mulford."
+
+"You're dreaming, fellow, or are wishing to trifle with me!"
+
+"It may be a dream, but it is one that will turn out to be true. If
+they have found the Poughkeepsie sloop-of-war, as I make no doubt
+they have by this time, Mulford and Rose are man and wife."
+
+"Fool! you know not what you say! Rose is at this moment in her
+berth, sick at heart on account of the young gentleman who preferred
+to live on the Florida Reef rather than to sail in the Molly!"
+
+"Rose is _not_ in her berth, sick or well; neither is she on board
+this brig at all. She went off in the light-house boat to deliver
+her lover from the naked rock--and well did she succeed in so doing.
+God was of her side, Stephen Spike; and a body seldom fails with
+such a friend to support one."
+
+Spike was astounded at these words, and not less so at the cool and
+confident manner with which they were pronounced. Jack spoke in a
+certain dogmatical, oracular manner, it is true, one that might have
+lessened his authority with a person over whom he had less
+influence; but this in no degree diminished its effect on Spike. On
+the contrary, it even disposed the captain to yield an implicit
+faith to what he heard, and all so much the more because the facts
+he was told appeared of themselves to be nearly impossible. It was
+half a minute before he had sufficiently recovered from his surprise
+to continue the discourse.
+
+"The light-house boat!" Spike then slowly repeated. "Why, fellow,
+you told me the light-house boat went adrift from your own hands!"
+
+"So it did," answered Jack, coolly, "since I cast off the
+painter--and what is more, went in it."
+
+"You! This is impossible. You are telling me a fabricated lie. If
+you had gone away in that boat, how could you now be here? No,
+no--it is a miserable lie, and Rose is below!"
+
+"Go and look into her state-room, and satisfy yourself with your own
+eyes."
+
+Spike did as was suggested. He went below, took a lamp that was
+always suspended, lighted in the main cabin, and, without ceremony,
+proceeded to Rose's state-room, where he soon found that the bird
+had really flown. A direful execration followed this discovery, one
+so loud as to awaken Mrs. Budd and Biddy. Determined not to do
+things by halves, he broke open the door of the widow's state-room,
+and ascertained that the person he sought was not there. A fierce
+explosion of oaths and denunciations followed, which produced an
+answer in the customary screams. In the midst of this violent scene,
+however, questions were put, and answers obtained, that not only
+served to let the captain know that Jack had told him nothing but
+truth, but to put an end to everything like amicable relations
+between himself and the relict of his old commander. Until this
+explosion, appearances had been observed between them; but, from
+that moment, there must necessarily be an end of all professions of
+even civility. Spike was never particularly refined in his
+intercourse with females, but he now threw aside even its
+pretension. His rage was so great that he totally forgot his
+manhood, and lavished on both Mrs. Budd and Biddy epithets that were
+altogether inexcusable, and many of which it will not do to repeat.
+Weak and silly as was the widow, she was not without spirit; and on
+this occasion she was indisposed to submit to all this unmerited
+abuse in silence. Biddy, as usual, took her cue from her mistress,
+and between the two, their part of the wordy conflict was kept up
+with a very respectable degree of animation.
+
+"I know you--I know you, now!" screamed the widow, at the tope of
+her voice; "and you can no longer deceive me, unworthy son of
+Neptune as you are! You are unfit to be a lubber, and would be
+log-booked for an or'nary by every gentleman on board ship. You, a
+full-jiggered sea-man! No, you are not even half-jiggered, sir; and
+I tell you so to your face."
+
+"Yes, and it is n't _half_ that might be tould the likes of yees!"
+put in Biddy, as her mistress stopped to breathe. "And it's Miss
+Rose you'd have for a wife, when Biddy Noon would be too good for
+ye! We knows ye, and all about ye, and can give yer history as
+complate from the day ye was born down to the prisent moment; and
+not find a good word to say in yer favour in all that time--and a
+precious time it is, too, for a gentleman that would marry pretthy,
+_young_ Miss Rose! Och! I scorn to look at ye, yer so ugly!"
+
+"And trying to persuade me you were a friend of my poor, dear Mr.
+Budd, whose shoe you are unworthy to touch, and who had the heart
+and soul for the noble profession you disgrace," cut in the widow,
+the moment Biddy gave her a chance, by pausing to make a wry face as
+she pronounced the word "ugly." "I now believe you capasided them
+poor Mexicans, in order to get their money; and the moment we cast
+anchor in a road-side, I'll go ashore, and complain of you for
+murder, I will."
+
+"Do, missus, dear, and I'll be your bail, will I, and swear to all
+that happened, and more too. Och! yer a wretch, to wish to be the
+husband of Miss Rose, and she so young and pretthy, and you so ould
+and ugly!"
+
+"Come away--come away, Stephen Spike, and do not stand wrangling
+with women, when you and your brig, and all that belongs to you, are
+in danger," called out Jack Tier from the companion-way. "Day is
+come; and what is much worse for you, your most dangerous enemy is
+coming with it."
+
+Spike was almost livid with rage, and ready to burst out in awful
+maledictions; but at this summons he sprang to the ladder, and was
+on deck in a moment. At first, he felt a strong disposition to wreak
+his vengeance on Tier, but, fortunately for the latter, as the
+captain's foot touched the quarter-deck, his eye fell on the
+Poughkeepsie, then within half a league of the Swash, standing in
+toward the reef, though fully half a mile to leeward. This spectre
+drove all other subjects from his mind, leaving the captain of the
+Swash in the only character in which he could be said to be
+respectable, or that of a seaman. Almost instinctively he called all
+hands, then he gave one brief minute to a survey of his situation.
+
+It was, indeed, time for the Swash to be moving. There she lay, with
+three anchors down, including that of the schooner, all she had, in
+fact, with the exception of her best bower, and one kedge, with the
+purchases aloft, in readiness for hooking on to the wreck, and all
+the extra securities up that had been given to the masts. As for the
+sloop-of-war, she was under the very same canvas as that with which
+she had come out from the Dry Tortugas, or her three top-sails,
+spanker, and jib; but most of her other sails were loose, even to
+her royals and flying-jibs; though closely gathered into their spars
+by means of the running gear. In a word, every sailor would know, at
+a glance, that the ship was merely waiting for the proper moment to
+spread her wings, when she would be flying through the water at the
+top of her speed. The weather looked dirty, and the wind was
+gradually increasing, threatening to blow heavily as the day
+advanced.
+
+"Unshackle, unshackle!" shouted Spike to the boat-swain, who was the
+first man that appeared on deck. "The bloody sloop-of-war is upon
+us, and there is not a moment to lose. We must get the brig clear of
+the ground in the shortest way we can, and abandon everything.
+Unshackle, and cast off for'ard and aft, men."
+
+A few minutes of almost desperate exertion succeeded. No men work
+like sailors, when the last are in a hurry, their efforts being
+directed to counteracting squalls, and avoiding emergencies of the
+most pressing character. Thus was it now with the crew of the Swash.
+The clanking of chains lasted but a minute, when the parts attached
+to the anchors were thrust through the hawse-holes, or were dropped
+into the water from other parts of the brig. This at once released
+the vessel, though a great deal remained to be done to clear her for
+working, and to put her in the best trim.
+
+"Away with this out-hauler!" again shouted Spike, casting loose the
+main-brails as he did so; "loose the jibs!"
+
+All went on at once, and the Swash moved away from the grave of the
+poor carpenter with the ease and facility of motion that marked all
+her evolutions. Then the top-sail was let fall, and presently all
+the upper square-sails were sheeted home, and hoisted, and the
+fore-tack was hauled aboard. The Molly was soon alive, and jumping
+into the seas that met her with more power than was common, as she
+drew out from under the shelter of the reef into rough water. From
+the time when Spike gave his first order, to that when all his
+canvas was spread, was just seven minutes.
+
+The Poughkeepsie, with her vastly superior crew, was not idle the
+while. Although the watch below was not disturbed, she tacked
+beautifully, and stood off the reef, in a line parallel to the
+course of the brig, and distant from her about half a mile. Then
+sail was made, her tacks having been boarded in stays. Spike knew
+the play of his craft was short legs, for she was so nimble in her
+movements that he believed she could go about in half the time that
+would be required for a vessel of the Poughkeepsie's length. "Ready
+about," was his cry, therefore, when less than a mile distant from
+the reef--"ready about, and let her go round." Round the Molly did
+go, like a top, being full on the other tack in just fifty-six
+seconds. The movement of the corvette was more stately, and somewhat
+more deliberate. Still, she stayed beautifully, and both Spike and
+the boatswain shook their heads, as they saw her coming into the
+wind with her sails all lifting and the sheets flowing.
+
+"That fellow will fore-reach a cable's length before he gets about!"
+exclaimed Spike. "He will prove too much for us at this sport! Keep
+her away, my man--keep the brig away for the passage. We must run
+through the reef, instead of trusting ourselves to our heels in open
+water."
+
+The brig was kept away accordingly, and sheets were eased off, and
+braces just touched, to meet the new line of sailing. As the wind
+stood, it was possible to lay through the passage on an easy
+bowline, though the breeze, which was getting to be fresher than
+Spike wished it to be, promised to haul more to the southward of
+east, as the day advanced. Nevertheless, this was the Swash's best
+point of sailing, and all on board of her had strong hopes of her
+being too much for her pursuer, could she maintain it. Until this
+feeling began to diffuse itself in the brig, not a countenance was
+to be seen on her decks that did not betray intense anxiety; but now
+something like grim smiles passed among the crew, as their craft
+seemed rather to fly than force her way through the water, toward
+the entrance of the passage so often adverted to in this narrative.
+
+On the other hand, the Poughkeepsie was admirably sailed and
+handled. Everybody was now on deck, and the first lieutenant had
+taken the trumpet. Captain Mull was a man of method, and a thorough
+man-of-war's man. Whatever he did was done according to rule, and
+with great system. Just as the Swash was about to enter the passage,
+the drum of the Poughkeepsie beat to quarters. No sooner were the
+men mustered, in the leeward, or the starboard batteries, than
+orders were sent to cast loose the guns, and to get them ready for
+service. Owing to the more leeward position of his vessel, and to
+the fact that she always head-reached so much in stays, Captain Mull
+knew that she would not lose much by luffing into the wind, or by
+making half-boards, while he might gain everything by one
+well-directed shot.
+
+The strife commenced by the sloop-of-war, firing her weather
+bow-gun, single-shotted, at the Swash. No damage was done, though
+the fore-yard of the brig had a very narrow escape. This experiment
+was repeated three times, without even a rope-yarn being carried
+away, though the gun was pointed by Wallace himself, and well
+pointed, too. But it is possible for a shot to come very near its
+object and still to do no injury. Such was the fact on this
+occasion, though the "ship's gentleman" was a good deal mortified by
+the result. Men look so much at success as the test of merit, that
+few pause to inquire into the reasons of failures, though it
+frequently happens that adventures prosper by means of their very
+blunders. Captain Mull now determined on a half-board, for his ship
+was more to leeward than he desired. Directions were given to the
+officers in the batteries to be deliberate, and the helm was put
+down. As the ship shot into the wind, each gun was fired, as it
+could be brought to bear, until the last of them all was discharged.
+Then the course of the vessel was changed, the helm being righted
+before the ship had lost her way, and the sloop-of-war fell off
+again to her course.
+
+All this was done in such a short period of time as scarcely to
+cause the Poughkeepsie to lose anything, while it did the Swash the
+most serious injury. The guns had been directed at the brig's spars
+and sails, Captain Mull desiring no more than to capture his chase,
+and the destruction they produced aloft was such as to induce Spike
+and his men, at first, to imagine that the whole hamper above their
+heads was about to come clattering down on deck. One shot carried
+away all the weather fore-top-mast rigging of the brig, and would no
+doubt have brought about the loss of the mast, if another, that
+almost instantly succeeded it, had not cut the spar itself in two,
+bringing down, as a matter of course, everything above it. Nearly
+half of the main-mast was gouged out of that spar, and the gaff was
+taken fairly out of its jaws. The fore-yard was cut in the slings,
+and various important ropes were carried away in different parts of
+the vessel.
+
+Flight, under such circumstances, was impossible, unless some
+extraordinary external assistance was to be obtained. This Spike saw
+at once, and he had recourse to the only expedient that remained;
+which might possibly yet save him. The guns were still belching
+forth their smoke and flames, when he shouted out the order to put
+the helm hard up. The width of the passage in which the vessels were
+was not so great but that he might hope to pass across it, and to
+enter a channel among the rocks, which was favourably placed for
+such a purpose, ere the sloop-of-war could overtake him. Whither
+that channel led, what water it possessed, or whether it were not a
+shallow _cul de sac,_ were all facts of which Spike was ignorant.
+The circumstances, however, would not admit of an alternative.
+
+Happily for the execution of Spike's present design, nothing from
+aloft had fallen into the water, to impede the brig's way. Forward,
+in particular, she seemed all wreck; her fore-yard having come down
+altogether, so as to encumber the forecastle, while her top-mast,
+with its dependent spars and gear, was suspended but a short
+distance above. Still, nothing had gone over the side, so as
+actually to touch the water, and the craft obeyed her helm as usual.
+Away she went, then, for the lateral opening in the reef just
+mentioned, driven ahead by the pressure of a strong breeze on her
+sails, which still offered large surfaces to the wind, at a rapid
+rate. Instead of keeping away to follow, the Poughkeepsie maintained
+her luff, and just as the Swash entered the unknown passage, into
+which she was blindly plunging, the sloop-of-war was about a quarter
+of a mile to windward, and standing directly across her stern.
+Nothing would have been easier, now, than for Captain Mull to
+destroy his chase; but humanity prevented his firing. He knew that
+her career must be short, and he fully expected to see her anchor;
+when it would be easy for him to take possession with his boats.
+With this expectation, indeed, he shortened sail, furling
+top-gallant-sails, and hauling up his courage. By this time, the
+wind had so much freshened, as to induce him to think of putting in
+a reef, and the step now taken had a double object in view.
+
+To the surprise of all on board the man-of-war, the brig continued
+on, until she was fully a mile distant, finding her way deeper and
+deeper among the mazes of the reef without meeting with any
+impediment! This fact induced Captain Mull to order his Paixhans to
+throw their shells beyond her, by way of a hint to anchor. While the
+guns were getting ready, Spike stood on boldly, knowing it was neck
+or nothing, and beginning to feel a faint revival of hope, as he
+found himself getting further and further from his pursuers, and the
+rocks not fetching him up. Even the men, who had begun to murmur at
+what seemed to them to be risking too much, partook, in a slight
+degree, of the same feeling, and began to execute the order they had
+received to try to get the launch into the water, with some
+appearance of an intention to succeed. Previously, the work could
+scarcely be said to go on at all; but two or three of the older
+seamen now bestirred themselves, and suggestions were made and
+attended to, that promised results. But it was no easy thing to get
+the launch out of a half-rigged brig, that had lost her fore-yard,
+and which carried nothing square abaft. A derrick was used in
+common, to lift the stern of the boat, but a derrick would now be
+useless aft, without an assistant forward. While these things were
+in discussion, under the superintendence of the boatswain, and Spike
+was standing between the knight-heads, conning the craft, the
+sloop-of-war let fly the first of her hollow shot. Down came the
+hurtling mass upon the Swash, keeping every head elevated and all
+eyes looking for the dark object, as it went booming through the air
+above their heads. The shot passed fully a mile to leeward, where it
+exploded. This great range had been given to the first shot, with a
+view to admonish the captain how long he must continue under the
+guns of the ship, and as advice to come to. The second gun followed
+immediately. Its shot was seem to ricochet, directly in a line with
+the brig, making leaps of about half a mile in length. It struck the
+water about fifty yards astern of the vessel, bounded directly over
+her decks, passing through the main-sail and some of the fallen
+hamper forward, and exploded about a hundred yards ahead. As usually
+happens with such projectiles, most of the fragments were either
+scattered laterally, or went on, impelled by the original momentum.
+
+The effect of this last gun on the crew of the Swash was
+instantaneous and deep. The faint gleamings of hope vanished at
+once, and a lively consciousness of the desperate nature of their
+condition succeeded in every mind. The launch was forgotten, and,
+after conferring together for a moment, the men went in a body, with
+the boatswain at their head, to the forecastle, and offered a
+remonstrance to their commander, on the subject of holding out any
+longer, under circumstances so very hazardous, and which menaced
+their lives in so many different ways. Spike listened to them with
+eyes that fairly glared with fury. He ordered them back to their
+duty in a voice of thunder, tapping the breast of his jacket, where
+he was known to carry revolvers, with a significance that could
+convey but one meaning.
+
+It is wonderful the ascendency that men sometimes obtain over their
+fellows, by means of character, the habits of command, and
+obedience, and intimidation. Spike was a stern disciplinarian,
+relying on that and ample pay for the unlimited control he often
+found it necessary to exercise over his crew. On the present
+occasion, his people were profoundly alarmed, but habitual deference
+and submission to their leader counteracted the feeling, and held
+them in suspense. They were fully aware of the nature of the
+position they occupied in a legal sense, and were deeply reluctant
+to increase the appearances of crime; but most of them had been
+extricated from so many grave difficulties in former instances, by
+the coolness, nerve and readiness of the captain, that a latent ray
+of hope was perhaps dimly shining in the rude breast of every old
+sea-dog among them. As a consequence of these several causes, they
+abandoned their remonstrance, for the moment at least, and made a
+show of returning to their duty; though it was in a sullen and moody
+manner.
+
+It was easier, however, to make a show of hoisting out the launch,
+than to effect the object. This was soon made apparent on trial, and
+Spike himself gave the matter up. He ordered the yawl to be lowered,
+got alongside, and to be prepared for the reception of the crew, by
+putting into it a small provision of food and water. All this time
+the brig was rushing madly to leeward, among rocks and breakers,
+without any other guide than that which the visible dangers
+afforded. Spike knew no more where he was going than the meanest man
+in his vessel. His sole aim was to get away from his pursuers, and
+to save his neck from the rope. He magnified the danger of
+punishment that he really ran, for he best knew the extent and
+nature of his crimes, of which the few that have been laid before
+the reader, while they might have been amongst the most prominent,
+as viewed through the statutes and international law, were far from
+the gravest he had committed in the eyes of morals.
+
+About this time the Senor Montefalderon went forward to confer with
+Spike. The calmness of this gentleman's demeanour, the simplicity
+and coolness of his movements, denoted a conscience that saw no
+particular ground for alarm. He wished to escape captivity, that he
+might continue to serve his country, but no other apprehension
+troubled him.
+
+"Do you intend to trust yourself in the yawl, Don Esteban?" demanded
+the Mexican quietly. "If so, is she not too small to contain so many
+as we shall make altogether?"
+
+Spike's answer was given in a low voice; and it evidently came from
+a very husky throat.
+
+"Speak lower, Don Wan," he said. "The boat would be greatly
+overloaded with all hands in it, especially among the breakers, and
+blowing as it does; but we may leave some of the party behind."
+
+"The brig _must_ go on the rocks, sooner or later, Don Esteban; when
+she does, she will go to pieces in an hour.
+
+"I expect to hear her strike every minute, senor; the moment she
+does, we must be off. I have had my eye on that ship for some time,
+expecting to see her lower her cutters and gigs to board us. _You_
+will not be out of the way, Don Wan; but there is no need of being
+talkative on the subject of our escape."
+
+Spike now turned his back on the Mexican, looking anxiously ahead,
+with the desire to get as far into the reef as possible with his
+brig, which he conned with great skill and coolness. The Senor
+Montefalderon left him. With the chivalry and consideration of a man
+and a gentleman, he went in quest of Mrs. Budd and Biddy. A hint
+sufficed for them, and gathering together a few necessaries they
+were in the yawl in the next three minutes. This movement was unseen
+by Spike, or he might have prevented it. His eyes were now riveted
+on the channel ahead. It had been fully his original intention to
+make off in the boat, the instant the brig struck, abandoning not
+only Don Juan, with Mrs. Budd and Biddy to their fates, but most of
+the crew. A private order had been given to the boatswain, and three
+of the ablest-bodied among the seamen, each and all of whom kept the
+secret with religious fidelity, as it was believed their own
+personal safety might be connected with the success of this plan.
+
+Nothing is so contagious as alarm. It requires not only great
+natural steadiness of nerve, but much acquired firmness to remain
+unmoved when sudden terror has seized on the minds of those around
+us. Habitual respect had prevented the crew from interfering with
+the movements of the Mexican, who not only descended into the boat
+with his female companions uninterrupted, but also took with him the
+little bag of doubloons which fell to his share from the first
+raising of the schooner. Josh and Jack Tier assisted in getting Mrs.
+Budd and Biddy over the side, and both took their own places in the
+yawl, as soon as this pious duty was discharged. This served as a
+hint to others near at hand; and man after man left his work to
+steal into the yawl, until every living being had disappeared from
+the deck of the Swash, Spike himself excepted. The man at the wheel
+had been the last to desert his post, nor would he have done so
+then, but for a signal from the boatswain, with whom he was a
+favourite.
+
+It is certain there was a secret desire among the people of the
+Swash, who were now crowded into a boat not large enough to contain
+more than half their number with safety, to push off from the brig's
+side, and abandon her commander and owner to his fate. All had
+passed so soon, however, and events succeeded each other with so
+much rapidity, that little time was given for consultation. Habit
+kept them in their places, though the appearances around them were
+strong motives for taking care of themselves.
+
+Notwithstanding the time necessary to relate the foregoing events, a
+quarter of an hour had not elapsed, from the moment when the Swash
+entered this unknown channel among the rocks, ere she struck. No
+sooner was her helm deserted than she broached-to, and Spike was in
+the act of denouncing the steerage, ignorant of its cause, when the
+brig was thrown, broadside-to, on a sharp, angular bed of rocks. It
+was fortunate for the boat, and all in it, that it was brought to
+leeward by the broaching-to of the vessel, and that the water was
+still sufficiently deep around them to prevent the waves from
+breaking. Breakers there were, however, in thousands, on every side;
+and the seamen understood that their situation was almost
+desperately perilous, without shipwreck coming to increase the
+danger.
+
+The storm itself was scarcely more noisy and boisterous than was
+Spike, when he ascertained the manner in which his people had
+behaved. At first, he believed it was their plan to abandon him to
+his fate; but, on rushing to the lee-gangway, Don Juan Montefalderon
+assured him that no such intention existed, and that he would not
+allow the boat to be cast off until the captain was received on
+board. This brief respite gave Spike a moment to care for his
+portion of the doubloons; and he rushed to his state-room to secure
+them, together with his quadrant.
+
+The grinding of the brig's bottom on the coral, announced a speedy
+breaking up of the craft, while her commander was thus employed. So
+violent were some of the shocks with which she came down on the hard
+bed in which she was now cradled, that Spike expected to see her
+burst asunder, while he was yet on her decks. The cracking of
+timbers told him that all was over with the Swash, nor had he got
+back as far as the gangway with his prize, before he saw plainly
+that the vessel had broken her back, as it is termed, and that her
+plank-sheer was opening in a way that threatened to permit a
+separation of the craft into two sections, one forward and the other
+aft. Notwithstanding all these portentous proofs that the minutes of
+the Molly were numbered, and the danger that existed of his being
+abandoned by his crew, Spike paused a moment, ere he went over the
+vessel's side, to take a hasty survey of the reef. His object was to
+get a general idea of the position of the breakers, with a view to
+avoid them. As much of the interest of that which is to succeed is
+connected with these particular dangers, it may be well to explain
+their character, along with a few other points of a similar bearing.
+
+The brig had gone ashore fully two miles within the passage she had
+entered, and which, indeed, terminated at the very spot where she
+had struck. The Poughkeepsie was standing off and on, in the main
+channel, with her boats in the water, evidently preparing to carry
+the brig in that mode. As for the breakers, they whitened the
+surface of the ocean in all directions around the wreck, far as the
+eye could reach, but in two. The passage in which the Poughkeepsie
+was standing to and fro was clear of them, of course; and about a
+mile and a half to the northward, Spike saw that he should be in
+open water, or altogether on the northern side of the reef, could he
+only get there. The gravest dangers would exist in the passage,
+which led among breakers on all sides, and very possibly among rocks
+so near the surface as absolutely to obstruct the way. In one sense,
+however, the breakers were useful. By avoiding them as much as
+possible, and by keeping in the unbroken water, the boat would be
+running in the channels of the reef, and consequently would be the
+safer. The result of the survey, short as it was, and it did not
+last a minute, was to give Spike something like a plan; and when he
+went over the side, and got into the boat, it was with a
+determination to work his way out of the reef to its northern edge,
+as soon as possible, and then to skirt it as near as he could, in
+his flight toward the Dry Tortugas.
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+  The screams of rage, the groan, the strife,
+  The blow, the grasp, the horrid cry,
+  The panting, throttled prayer for life,
+  The dying's heaving sigh,
+  The murderer's curse, the dead man's fixed, still glare,
+  And fear's and death's cold sweat--they all are there.
+
+Matthew Lee.
+
+It was high time that Captain Spike should arrive when his foot
+touched the bottom of the yawl. The men were getting impatient and
+anxious to the last degree, and the power of Senor Montefalderon to
+control them was lessening each instant. They heard the rending of
+timber, and the grinding on the coral, even more distinctly than the
+captain himself, and feared that the brig would break up while they
+lay alongside of her, and crush them amid the ruins. Then the spray
+of the seas that broke over the weather side of the brig, fell like
+rain upon them; and everybody in the boat was already as wet as if
+exposed to a violent shower. It was well, therefore, for Spike that
+he descended into the boat as he did, for another minute's delay
+might have brought about his own destruction.
+
+Spike felt a chill at his heart when he looked about him and saw the
+condition of the yawl. So crowded were the stern-sheets into which
+he had descended, that it was with difficulty he found room to place
+his feet; it being his intention to steer, Jack was ordered to get
+into the eyes of the boat, in order to give him a seat. The thwarts
+were crowded, and three or four of the people had placed themselves
+in the very bottom of the little craft, in order to be as much as
+possible out of the way, as well as in readiness to bail out water.
+So seriously, indeed, were all the seamen impressed with the gravity
+of this last duty, that nearly every man had taken with him some
+vessel fit for such a purpose. Rowing was entirely out of the
+question, there being no space for the movement of the arms. The
+yawl was too low in the water, moreover, for such an operation in so
+heavy a sea. In all, eighteen persons were squeezed into a little
+craft that would have been sufficiently loaded, for moderate weather
+at sea, with its four oarsmen and as many sitters in the
+stern-sheets, with, perhaps, one in the eyes to bring her more on an
+even keel. In other words, she had twice the weight in her, in
+living freight, that it would have been thought prudent to receive
+in so small a craft, in an ordinary time, in or out of a port. In
+addition to the human beings enumerated, there was a good deal of
+baggage, nearly every individual having had the forethought to
+provide a few clothes for a change. The food and water did not
+amount to much, no more having been provided than enough for the
+purposes of the captain, together with the four men with whom it had
+been his intention to abandon the brig. The effect of all this cargo
+was to bring the yawl quite low in the water; and every sea-faring
+man in her had the greatest apprehensions about her being able to
+float at all when she got out from under the lee of the Swash, or
+into the troubled water. Try it she must, however, and Spike, in a
+reluctant and hesitating manner, gave the final order to "Shove
+off!"
+
+The yawl carried a lugg, as is usually the case with boats at sea,
+and the first blast of the breeze upon it satisfied Spike that his
+present enterprise was one of the most dangerous of any in which he
+had ever been engaged. The puffs of wind were quite as much as the
+boat would bear; but this he did not mind, as he was running off
+before it, and there was little danger of the yawl capsizing with
+such a weight in her. It was also an advantage to have swift way on,
+to prevent the combing waves from shooting into the boat, though the
+wind itself scarce outstrips the send of the sea in a stiff blow. As
+the yawl cleared the brig and began to feel the united power of the
+wind and waves, the following short dialogue occurred between the
+boatswain and Spike.
+
+"I dare not keep my eyes off the breakers ahead," the captain
+commenced, "and must trust to you, Strand, to report what is going
+on among the man-of-war's men. What is the ship about?"
+
+"Reefing her top-sails just now, sir. All three are on the caps, and
+the vessel is laying-to, in a manner."
+
+"And her boats?"
+
+"I see none, sir--ay, ay, there they come from alongside of her in a
+little fleet! There are four of them, sir, and all are coming down
+before the wind, wing and wing, carrying their luggs reefed."
+
+"Ours ought to be reefed by rights, too, but we dare not stop to do
+it; and these infernal combing seas seem ready to glance aboard us
+with all the way we can gather. Stand by to bail, men; we must pass
+through a strip of white water--there is no help for it. God send
+that we go clear of the rocks!"
+
+All this was fearfully true. The adventurers were not yet more than
+a cable's length from the brig, and they found themselves so
+completely environed with the breakers as to be compelled to go
+through them. No man in his senses would ever have come into such a
+place at all, except in the most unavoidable circumstances; and it
+was with a species of despair that the seamen of the yawl now saw
+their little craft go plunging into the foam.
+
+But Spike neglected no precaution that experience or skill could
+suggest. He had chosen his spot with coolness and judgment. As the
+boat rose on the seas he looked eagerly ahead, and by giving it a
+timely sheer, he hit a sort of channel, where there was sufficient
+water to carry them clear of the rock, and where the breakers were
+less dangerous than in the shoaler places. The passage lasted about
+a minute; and so serious was it, that scarce an individual breathed
+until it was effected. No human skill could prevent the water from
+combing in over the gunwales; and when the danger was passed, the
+yawl was a third filled with water. There was no time or place to
+pause, but on the little craft was dragged almost gunwale to, the
+breeze coming against the lugg in puffs that threatened to take the
+mast out of her. All hands were bailing; and even Biddy used her
+hands to aid in throwing out the water.
+
+"This is no time to hesitate, men," said Spike, sternly. "Everything
+must go overboard but the food and water. Away with them at once,
+and with a will."
+
+It was a proof how completely all hands were alarmed by this, the
+first experiment in the breakers, that not a man stayed his hand a
+single moment, but each threw into the sea, without an instant of
+hesitation, every article he had brought with him and had hoped to
+save. Biddy parted with the carpet-bag, and Senor Montefalderon,
+feeling the importance of example, committed to the deep a small
+writing-desk that he had placed on his knees. The doubloons alone
+remained, safe in a little locker where Spike had deposited them
+along with his own.
+
+"What news astern, boatswain?" demanded the captain, as soon as this
+imminent danger was passed, absolutely afraid to turn his eyes off
+the dangers ahead for a single instant. "How come on the
+man-of-war's men?"
+
+"They are running down in a body toward the wreck, though one of
+their boats does seem to be sheering out of the line, as if getting
+into our wake. It is hard to say, sir, for they are still a good bit
+to windward of the wreck."
+
+"And the Molly, Strand?"
+
+"Why, sir, the Molly seems to be breaking up fast; as well as I can
+see, she has broke in two just abaft the forechains, and cannot hold
+together in any shape at all many minutes longer."
+
+This information drew a deep groan from Spike, and the eye of every
+seaman in the boat was turned in melancholy on the object they were
+so fast leaving behind them. The yawl could not be said to be
+sailing very rapidly, considering the power of the wind, which was a
+little gale, for she was much too deep for that, but she left the
+wreck so fast as already to render objects on board her indistinct.
+Everybody saw that, like an overburthened steed, she had more to get
+along with than she could well bear; and, dependent as seamen
+usually are on the judgment and orders of their superiors, even in
+the direst emergencies, the least experienced man in her saw that
+their chances of final escape from drowning were of the most
+doubtful nature. The men looked at each other in a way to express
+their feelings; and the moment seemed favourable to Spike to confer
+with his confidential sea-dogs in private; but more white water was
+also ahead, and it was necessary to pass through it, since no
+opening was visible by which to avoid it. He deferred his purpose,
+consequently, until this danger was escaped.
+
+On this occasion Spike saw but little opportunity to select a place
+to get through the breakers, though the spot, as a whole, was not of
+the most dangerous kind. The reader will understand that the
+preservation of the boat at all, in white water, was owing to the
+circumstance that the rocks all around it lay so near the surface of
+the sea as to prevent the possibility of agitating the element very
+seriously, and to the fact that she was near the lee side of the
+reef. Had the breakers been of the magnitude of those which are seen
+where the deep rolling billows of the ocean first meet the weather
+side of shoals or rocks, a craft of that size, and so loaded, could
+not possibly have passed the first line of white water without
+filling. As it was, however, the breakers she had to contend with
+were sufficiently formidable, and they brought with them the
+certainty that the boat was in imminent danger of striking the
+bottom at any moment. Places like those in which Mulford had waded
+on the reef, while it was calm, would now have proved fatal to the
+strongest frame, since human powers were insufficient long to
+withstand the force of such waves as did glance over even these
+shallows.
+
+"Look out!" cried Spike, as the boat again plunged in among the
+white water. "Keep bailing, men--keep bailing."
+
+The men did bail, and the danger was over almost as soon as
+encountered. Something like a cheer burst out of the chest of Spike,
+when he saw deeper water around him, and fancied he could now trace
+a channel that would carry him quite beyond the extent of the reef.
+It was arrested, only half uttered, however, by a communication from
+the boatswain, who sat on a midship thwart, his arms folded, and his
+eye on the brig and the boats.
+
+"There goes the Molly's masts, sir! Both have gone together; and as
+good sticks was they, before them bomb-shells passed through our
+rigging, as was ever stepped in a keelson."
+
+The cheer was changed to something like a groan, while a murmur of
+regret passed through the boat.
+
+"What news from the man-of-war's men, boatswain? Do they still stand
+down on a mere wreck?"
+
+"No, sir; they seem to give it up, and are getting out their oars to
+pull back to their ship. A pretty time they'll have of it, too. The
+cutter that gets to windward half a mile in an hour, ag'in such a
+sea, and such a breeze, must be well pulled and better steered. One
+chap, however, sir, seems to hold on."
+
+Spike now ventured to look behind him, commanding an experienced
+hand to take the helm. In order to do this he was obliged to change
+places with the man he had selected to come aft, which brought him
+on a thwart alongside of the boatswain and one or two other of his
+confidants. Here a whispered conference took place, which lasted
+several minutes, Spike appearing to be giving instructions to the
+men.
+
+By this time the yawl was more than a mile from the wreck, all the
+man-of-war boats but one had lowered their sails, and were pulling
+slowly and with great labour back toward the ship, the cutter that
+kept on, evidently laying her course after the yawl, instead of
+standing on toward the wreck. The brig was breaking up fast, with
+every probability that nothing would be left of her in a few more
+minutes. As for the yawl, while clear of the white water, it got
+along without receiving many seas aboard, though the men in its
+bottom were kept bailing without intermission. It appeared to Spike
+that so long as they remained on the reef, and could keep clear of
+breakers--a most difficult thing, however--they should fare better
+than if in deeper water, where the swell of the sea, and the combing
+of the waves, menaced so small and so deep-loaded a craft with
+serious danger. As it was, two or three men could barely keep the
+boat clear, working incessantly, and much of the time with a foot or
+two of water in her.
+
+Josh and Simon had taken their seats, side by side, with that sort
+of dependence and submission that causes the American black to
+abstain from mingling with the whites more than might appear seemly.
+They were squeezed on to one end of the thwart by a couple of robust
+old sea-dogs, who were two of the very men with whom Spike had been
+in consultation. Beneath that very thwart was stowed another
+confidant, to whom communications had also been made. These men had
+sailed long in the Swash, and having been picked up in various
+ports, from time to time, as the brig had wanted hands, they were of
+nearly as many different nations as they were persons. Spike had
+obtained a great ascendency over them by habit and authority, and
+his suggestions were now received as a sort of law. As soon as the
+conference was ended, the captain returned to the helm.
+
+A minute more passed, during which the captain was anxiously
+surveying the reef ahead, and the state of things astern. Ahead was
+more white water--the last before they should get clear of the reef;
+and astern it was now settled that the cutter that held on through
+the dangers of the place, was in chase of the yawl. That Mulford was
+in her Spike made no doubt; and the thought embittered even his
+present calamities. But the moment had arrived for something
+decided. The white water ahead was much more formidable than any
+they had passed; and the boldest seamen there gazed at it with
+dread. Spike made a sign to the boatswain, and commenced the
+execution of his dire project.
+
+"I say, you Josh," called out the captain, in the authoritative
+tones that are so familiar to all on board a ship, "pull in that
+fender that is dragging alongside."
+
+Josh leaned over the gunwale, and reported that there was no fender
+out. A malediction followed, also so familiar to those acquainted
+with ships, and the black was told to look again. This time, as had
+been expected, the negro leaned with his head and body far over the
+side of the yawl, to look for that which had no existence, when two
+of the men beneath the thwart shoved his legs after them. Josh
+screamed, as he found himself going into the water, with a sort of
+confused consciousness of the truth; and Spike called out to Simon
+to "catch hold of his brother-nigger." The cook bent forward to
+obey, when a similar assault on _his_ legs from beneath the thwart,
+sent him headlong after Josh. One of the younger seamen, who was not
+in the secret, sprang up to rescue Simon, who grasped his extended
+hand, when the too generous fellow was pitched headlong from the
+boat.
+
+All this occurred in less than ten seconds of time, and so
+unexpectedly and naturally, that not a soul beyond those who were in
+the secret, had the least suspicion it was anything but an accident.
+Some water was shipped, of necessity, but the boat was soon bailed
+free. As for the victims of this vile conspiracy, they disappeared
+amid the troubled waters of the reef, struggling with each other.
+Each and all met the common fate so much the sooner, from the manner
+in which they impeded their own efforts.
+
+The yawl was now relieved from about five hundred pounds of the
+weight it had carried--Simon weighing two hundred alone, and the
+youngish seaman being large and full. So intense does human
+selfishness get to be, in moments of great emergency, that it is to
+be feared most of those who remained, secretly rejoiced that they
+were so far benefited by the loss of their fellows. The Senor
+Montefalderon was seated on the aftermost thwart, with his legs in
+the stern-sheets, and consequently with his back toward the negroes,
+and he fully believed that what had happened was purely accidental.
+
+"Let us lower our sail, Don Esteban," he cried, eagerly, "and save
+the poor fellows."
+
+Something very like a sneer gleamed on the dark countenance of the
+captain, but it suddenly changed to a look of assent.
+
+"Good!" he said, hastily--"spring forward, Don Wan, and lower the
+sail--stand by the oars, men!"
+
+Without pausing to reflect, the generous-hearted Mexican stepped on
+a thwart, and began to walk rapidly forward, steadying himself by
+placing his hands on the heads of the men. He was suffered to get as
+far as the second thwart or past most of the conspirators, when his
+legs were seized from behind. The truth now flashed on him, and
+grasping two of the men in his front, who knew nothing of Spike's
+dire scheme, he endeavoured to save himself by holding to their
+jackets. Thus assailed, those men seized others with like intent,
+and an awful struggle filled all that part of the craft. At this
+dread instant the boat glanced into the white water, shipping so
+much of the element as nearly to swamp her, and taking so wild a
+sheer as nearly to broach-to. This last circumstance probably saved
+her, fearful as was the danger for the moment. Everybody in the
+middle of the yawl was rendered desperate by the amount and nature
+of the danger incurred, and the men from the bottom rose in their
+might, underneath the combatants, when a common plunge was made by
+all who stood erect, one dragging overboard another, each a good
+deal hastened by the assault from beneath, until no less than five
+were gone. Spike got his helm up, the boat fell off, and away from
+the spot it flew, clearing the breakers, and reaching the northern
+wall-like margin of the reef at the next instant. There was now a
+moment when those who remained could breathe, and dared to look
+behind them.
+
+The great plunge had been made in water so shoal, that the boat had
+barely escaped being dashed to pieces on the coral. Had it not been
+so suddenly relieved from the pressure of near a thousand pounds in
+weight, it is probable that this calamity would have befallen it,
+the water received on board contributing so much to weight it down.
+The struggle between these victims ceased, however, the moment they
+went over. Finding bottom for their feet, they released each other,
+in a desperate hope of prolonging life by wading. Two or three held
+out their arms, and shouted to Spike to return and pick them up.
+This dreadful scene lasted but a single instant, for the waves
+dashed one after another from his feet, continually forcing them
+all, as they occasionally regained their footing, toward the margin
+of the reef, and finally washing them off it into deep water. No
+human power could enable a man to swim back to the rocks, once to
+leeward of them, in the face of such seas, and so heavy a blow; and
+the miserable wretches disappeared in succession, as their strength
+became exhausted, in the depths of the Gulf.
+
+Not a word had been uttered while this terrific scene was in the
+course of occurrence; not a word was uttered for some time
+afterward. Gleams of grim satisfaction had been seen on the
+countenances of the boatswain and his associates, when the success
+of their nefarious project was first assured; but they soon
+disappeared in looks of horror, as they witnessed the struggles of
+the drowning men. Nevertheless, human selfishness was strong within
+them all, and none there was so ignorant as not to perceive how much
+better were the chances of the yawl now than it had been on quitting
+the wreck. The weight of a large ox had been taken from it, counting
+that of all the eight men drowned; and as for the water shipped, it
+was soon bailed back again into the sea. Not only, therefore, was
+the yawl in a better condition to resist the waves, but it sailed
+materially faster than it had done before. Ten persons still
+remained in it, however, which brought it down in the water below
+its proper load-line; and the speed of a craft so small was
+necessarily a good deal lessened by the least deviation from its
+best sailing, or rowing trim. But Spike's projects were not yet
+completed.
+
+All this time the man-of-war's cutter had been rushing as madly
+through the breakers, in chase, as the yawl had done in the attempt
+to escape. Mulford was, in fact, on board it; and his now fast
+friend, Wallace, was in command. The latter wished to seize a
+traitor, the former to save the aunt of his weeping bride. Both
+believed that they might follow wherever Spike dared to lead. This
+reasoning was more bold than judicious notwithstanding, since the
+cutter was much larger, and drew twice as much water as the yawl. On
+it came, nevertheless, faring much better in the white water than
+the little craft it pursued, but necessarily running a much more
+considerable risk of hitting the coral, over which it was glancing
+almost as swiftly as the waves themselves; still it had thus far
+escaped--and little did any in it think of the danger. This cutter
+pulled ten oars; was an excellent sea boat; had four armed marines
+in it, in addition to its crew, but carried all through the
+breakers, receiving scarcely a drop of water on board, on account of
+the height of its wash-boards, and the general qualities of the
+craft. It may be well to add here, that the Poughkeepsie had shaken
+out her reefs, and was betraying the impatience of Captain Mull to
+make sail in chase, by firing signal-guns to his boats to bear a
+hand and return. These signals the three boats under their oars were
+endeavouring to obey, but Wallace had got so far to leeward as now
+to render the course he was pursuing the wisest.
+
+Mrs. Budd and Biddy had seen the struggle in which the Senor
+Montefalderon had been lost, in a sort of stupid horror. Both had
+screamed, as was their wont, though neither probably suspected the
+truth. But the fell designs of Spike extended to them, as well as to
+those whom he had already destroyed. Now the boat was in deep water,
+running along the margin of the reef, the waves were much increased
+in magnitude, and the comb of the sea was far more menacing to the
+boat. This would not have been the case had the rocks formed a lee;
+but they did not, running too near the direction of the trades to
+prevent the billows that got up a mile or so in the offing, from
+sending their swell quite home to the reef. It was this swell,
+indeed, which caused the line of white water along the northern
+margin of the coral, washing on the rocks by a sort of lateral
+effort, and breaking, as a matter of course. In many places, no boat
+could have lived to pass through it.
+
+Another consideration influenced Spike to persevere. The cutter had
+been overhauling him, hand over hand, but since the yawl was
+relieved of the weight of no less than eight men, the difference in
+the rate of sailing was manifestly diminished. The man-of-war's boat
+drew nearer, but by no means as fast as it had previously done. A
+point was now reached in the trim of the yawl, when a very few
+hundreds in weight might make the most important change in her
+favour; and this change the captain was determined to produce. By
+this time the cutter was in deep water, as well as himself, safe
+through all the dangers of the reef, and she was less than a quarter
+of a mile astern. On the whole, she was gaining, though so slowly as
+to require the most experienced eye to ascertain the fact.
+
+"Madame Budd," said Spike, in a hypocritical tone, "we are in great
+danger, and I shall have to ask you to change your seat. The boat is
+too much by the starn, now we've got into deep water, and your
+weight amidships would be a great relief to us. Just give your hand
+to the boatswain, and he will help you to step from thwart to
+thwart, until you reach the right place, when Biddy shall follow."
+
+Now Mrs. Budd had witnessed the tremendous struggle in which so many
+had gone overboard, but so dull was she of apprehension, and so
+little disposed to suspect anything one-half so monstrous as the
+truth, that she did not hesitate to comply. She was profoundly awed
+by the horrors of the scene through which she was passing, the
+raging billows of the Gulf, as seen from so small a craft, producing
+a deep impression on her; still a lingering of her most inveterate
+affectation was to be found in her air and language, which presented
+a strange medley of besetting weakness, and strong, natural, womanly
+affection.
+
+"Certainly, Captain Spike," she answered, rising. "A craft should
+never go astern, and I am quite willing to ballast the boat. We have
+seen such terrible accidents today, that all should lend their aid
+in endeavouring to get under way, and in averting all possible
+hamper. Only take me to my poor, dear Rosy, Captain Spike, and
+everything shall be forgotten that has passed between us. This is
+not a moment to bear malice; and I freely pardon you all and
+everything. The fate of our unfortunate friend, Mr. Montefalderon,
+should teach us charity, and cause us to prepare for untimely ends."
+
+All the time the good widow was making this speech, which she
+uttered in a solemn and oracular sort of manner, she was moving
+slowly toward the seat the men had prepared for her, in the middle
+of the boat, assisted with the greatest care and attention by the
+boatswain and another of Spike's confidants. When on the second
+thwart from aft, and about to take her seat, the boatswain cast a
+look behind him, and Spike put the helm down. The boat luffed and
+lurched, of course, and Mrs. Budd would probably have gone overboard
+to leeward, by so sudden and violent a change, had not the impetus
+thus received been aided by the arms of the men who held her two
+hands. The plunge she made into the water was deep, for she was a
+woman of great weight for her stature. Still, she was not
+immediately gotten rid of. Even at that dread instant, it is
+probable that the miserable woman did not suspect the truth, for she
+grasped the hand of the boatswain with the tenacity of a vice, and,
+thus dragged on the surface of the boiling surges, she screamed
+aloud for Spike to save her. Of all who had yet been sacrificed to
+the captain's selfish wish to save himself, this was the first
+instance in which any had been heard to utter a sound, after falling
+into the sea. The appeal shocked even the rude beings around her,
+and Biddy chiming in with a powerful appeal to "save the missus!"
+added to the piteous nature of the scene.
+
+"Cast off her hand," said Spike reproachfully, "she'll swamp the
+boat by her struggles--get rid of her at once! Cut her fingers off,
+if she wont let go!"
+
+The instant these brutal orders were given, and that in a fierce,
+impatient tone, the voice of Biddy was heard no more. The truth
+forced itself on her dull imagination, and she sat a witness of the
+terrible scene, in mute despair. The struggle did not last long. The
+boatswain drew his knife across the wrist of the hand that grasped
+his own, one shriek was heard, and the boat plunged into the trough
+of a sea, leaving the form of poor Mrs. Budd struggling with the
+wave on its summit, and amid the foam of its crest. This was the
+last that was ever seen of the unfortunate relict.
+
+"The boat has gained a good deal by that last discharge of cargo,"
+said Spike to the boatswain, a minute after they had gotten rid of
+the struggling woman--"she is much more lively, and is getting
+nearer to her load-line. If we can bring her to _that,_ I shall have
+no fear of the man-of-war's men; for this yawl is one of the fastest
+boats that ever floated."
+
+"A very little _now,_ sir, would bring us to our true trim."
+
+"Ay, we must get rid of more cargo. Come, good woman," turning to
+Biddy, with whom he did not think it worth his while to use much
+circumlocution, "_your_ turn is next. It's the maid's duty to follow
+her mistress."
+
+"I know'd it _must_ come," said Biddy, meekly. "If there was no
+mercy for the missus, little could I look for. But ye'll not take
+the life of a Christian woman widout giving her so much as one
+minute to say her prayers?"
+
+"Ay, pray away," answered Spike, his throat becoming dry and husky,
+for, strange to say, the submissive quiet of the Irish woman, so
+different from the struggle he had anticipated with _her,_ rendered
+him more reluctant to proceed than he had hitherto been in all of
+that terrible day. As Biddy kneeled in the bottom of the
+stern-sheets, Spike looked behind him, for the double purpose of
+escaping the painful spectacle at his feet, and that of ascertaining
+how his pursuers came on. The last still gained, though very slowly,
+and doubts began to come over the captain's mind whether he could
+escape such enemies at all. He was too deeply committed, however, to
+recede, and it was most desirable to get rid of poor Biddy, if it
+were for no other motive than to shut her mouth. Spike even fancied
+that some idea of what had passed was entertained by those in the
+cutter. There was evidently a stir in that boat, and two forms that
+he had no difficulty, now, in recognizing as those of Wallace and
+Mulford, were standing on the grating in the eyes of the cutter, or
+forward of the foresail. The former appeared to have a musket in his
+hand, and the other a glass. The last circumstance admonished him
+that all that was now done would be done before dangerous witnesses.
+It was too late to draw back, however, and the captain turned to
+look for the Irish woman.
+
+Biddy arose from her knees, just as Spike withdrew his eyes from his
+pursuers. The boatswain and another confidant were in readiness to
+cast the poor creature into the sea, the moment their leader gave
+the signal. The intended victim saw and understood the arrangement,
+and she spoke earnestly and piteously to her murderers.
+
+"It's not wanting will be violence!" said Biddy, in a quiet tone,
+but with a saddened countenance. "I know it's my turn, and I will
+save yer sowls from a part of the burden of this great sin. God, and
+His Divine Son, and the Blessed Mother of Jesus have mercy on me if
+it be wrong; but I would far radder jump into the saa widout having
+the rude hands of man on me, than have the dreadful sight of the
+missus done over ag'in. It's a fearful thing is wather, and
+sometimes we have too little of it, and sometimes more than we
+want--"
+
+"Bear a hand, bear a hand, good woman," interrupted the boatswain,
+impatiently. "We must clear the boat of you, and the sooner it is
+done the better it will be for all of us."
+
+"Don't grudge a poor morthal half a minute of life, at the last
+moment," answered Biddy. "It's not long that I'll throuble ye, and
+so no more need be said."
+
+The poor creature then got on the quarter of the boat, without any
+one's touching her; there she placed herself with her legs outboard,
+while she sat on the gunwale. She gave one moment to the thought of
+arranging her clothes with womanly decency, and then she paused to
+gaze with a fixed eye, and pallid cheek, on the foaming wake that
+marked the rapid course of the boat. The troughs of the sea seemed
+less terrible to her than their combing crests, and she waited for
+the boat to descend into the next.
+
+"God forgive ye all, this deed, as I do!" said Biddy, earnestly, and
+bending her person forward, she fell, as it might be "without
+hands," into the gulf of eternity. Though all strained their eyes,
+none of the men, Jack Tier excepted, ever saw more of Biddy Noon.
+Nor did Jack see much. He got a frightful glimpse of an arm,
+however, on the summit of a wave, but the motion of the boat was too
+swift, and the water of the ocean too troubled, to admit of aught
+else.
+
+A long pause succeeded this event. Biddy's quiet submission to her
+fate had produced more impression on her murderers than the
+desperate, but unavailing, struggles of those who had preceded her.
+Thus it is ever with men. When opposed, the demon within blinds them
+to consequences as well as to their duties; but, unresisted, the
+silent influence of the image of God makes itself felt, and a better
+spirit begins to prevail. There was not one in that boat who did
+not, for a brief space, wish that poor Biddy had been spared. With
+most, that feeling, the last of human kindness they ever knew,
+lingered until the occurrence of the dread catastrophe which, so
+shortly after, closed the scene of this state of being on their
+eyes.
+
+"Jack Tier," called out Spike, some five minutes after Biddy was
+drowned, but not until another observation had made it plainly
+apparent to him that the man-of-war's men still continued to draw
+nearer, being now not more than fair musket-shot astern.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," answered Jack, coming quietly out of his hole, from
+forward of the mast, and moving aft as if indifferent to the danger,
+by stepping lightly from thwart to thwart, until he reached the
+stern-sheets.
+
+"It is your turn, little Jack," said Spike, as if in a sort of
+sorrowful submission to a necessity that knew no law, "we cannot
+spare you the room."
+
+"I have expected this, and am ready. Let me have my own way, and I
+will cause you no trouble. Poor Biddy has taught me how to die.
+Before I go, however, Stephen Spike, I must leave you this letter.
+It is written by myself, and addressed to you. When I am gone, read
+it, and think well of what it contains. And now, may a merciful God
+pardon the sins of both, through love for His Divine Son. I forgive
+you, Stephen; and should you live to escape from those who are now
+bent on hunting you to the death, let this day cause you no grief on
+my account. Give me but a moment of time, and I will cause you no
+trouble."
+
+Jack now stood upon the seat of the stern-sheets, balancing himself
+with one foot on the stern of the boat. He waited until the yawl had
+risen to the summit of a wave, when he looked eagerly for the
+man-of-war's cutter. At that moment she was lost to view in the
+trough of the sea. Instead of springing overboard, as all expected,
+he asked another instant of delay. The yawl sank into the trough
+itself, and rose on the succeeding billow. Then he saw the cutter,
+and Wallace and Mulford standing in its bows. He waved his hat to
+them, and sprang high into the air, with the intent to make himself
+seen; when he came down the boat had shot her length away from the
+place, leaving him to buffet with the waves. Jack now managed
+admirably, swimming lightly and easily, but keeping his eyes on the
+crests of the waves, with a view to meet the cutter. Spike now saw
+this well-planned project to avoid death, and regretted his own
+remissness in not making sure of Jack. Everybody in the yawl was
+eagerly looking after the form of Tier.
+
+"There he is on the comb of that sea, rolling over like a keg!"
+cried the boatswain.
+
+"He 's through it," answered Spike, "and swimming with great
+strength and coolness."
+
+Several of the men started up involuntarily and simultaneously to
+look, hitting their shoulders and bodies together. Distrust was at
+its most painful height; and bull-dogs do not spring at the ox's
+muzzle more fiercely than those six men throttled each other. Oaths,
+curses, and appeals for help, succeeded; each man endeavouring, in
+his frenzied efforts, to throw all the others overboard, as the only
+means of saving himself. Plunge succeeded plunge; and when that
+combat of demons ended, no one remained of them all but the
+boatswain. Spike had taken no share in the struggle, looking on in
+grim satisfaction, as the Father of Lies may be supposed to regard
+all human strife, hoping good to himself, let the result be what it
+might to others. Of the five men who thus went overboard, not one
+escaped. They drowned each other by continuing their maddened
+conflict in an element unsuited to their natures.
+
+Not so with Jack Tier. His leap had been seen, and a dozen eyes in
+the cutter watched for his person, as that boat came foaming down
+before the wind. A shout of "There he is!" from Mulford succeeded;
+and the little fellow was caught by the hair, secured, and then
+hauled into the boat by the second lieutenant of the Poughkeepsie
+and our young mate.
+
+Others in the cutter had noted the incident of the hellish fight.
+The fact was communicated to Wallace, and Mulford said, "That yawl
+will outsail this loaded cutter, with only two men in it."
+
+"Then it is time to try what virtue there is in lead," answered
+Wallace. "Marines, come forward, and give the rascal a volley."
+
+The volley was fired; one ball passed through the head of the
+boatswain, killing him dead on the spot. Another went through the
+body of Spike. The captain fell in the stern-sheets, and the boat
+instantly broached-to.
+
+The water that came on board apprised Spike fully of the state in
+which he was now placed, and by a desperate effort, he clutched the
+tiller, and got the yawl again before the wind. This could not last,
+however. Little by little, his hold relaxed, until his hand
+relinquished its grasp altogether, and the wounded man sank into the
+bottom of the stern-sheets, unable to raise even his head. Again the
+boat broached-to. Every sea now sent its water aboard, and the yawl
+would soon have filled, had not the cutter come glancing down past
+it, and rounding-to under its lee, secured the prize.
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  Man hath a weary pilgrimage,
+  As through the world he wends;
+  On every stage, from youth to age,
+  Still discontent attends;
+  With heaviness he casts his eye,
+  Upon the road before,
+  And still remembers with a sigh
+  The days that are no more.
+
+Southey.
+
+It has now become necessary to advance the time three entire days,
+and to change the scene to Key West. As this latter place may not be
+known to the world at large, it may be well to explain that it is a
+small seaport, situate on one of the largest of the many low islands
+that dot the Florida Reef, that has risen into notice, or indeed
+into existence as a town, since the acquisition of the Floridas by
+the American Republic. For many years it was the resort of few
+besides wreckers, and those who live by the business dependent on
+the rescuing and repairing of stranded vessels, not forgetting the
+salvages. When it is remembered that the greater portion of the
+vessels that enter the Gulf of Mexico stand close along this reef,
+before the trades, for a distance varying from one to two hundred
+miles, and that nearly everything which quits it, is obliged to beat
+down its rocky coast in the Gulf Stream for the same distance, one
+is not to be surprised that the wrecks, which so constantly occur,
+can supply the wants of a considerable population. To live at Key
+West is the next thing to being at sea. The place has sea air, no
+other water than such as is preserved in cisterns, and no soil, or
+so little as to render even a head of lettuce a rarity. Turtle is
+abundant, and the business of "turtling" forms an occupation
+additional to that of wrecking. As might be expected, in such
+circumstances, a potato is a far more precious thing than a turtle's
+egg, and a sack of the tubers would probably be deemed a sufficient
+remuneration for enough of the materials of callipash and callipee
+to feed all the aldermen extant.
+
+Of late years, the government of the United States has turned its
+attention to the capabilities of the Florida Reef, as an advanced
+naval station; a sort of Downs, or St. Helen's Roads, for the West
+Indian seas. As yet little has been done beyond making the
+preliminary surveys, but the day is not probably very distant when
+fleets will lie at anchor among the islets described in our earlier
+chapters, or garnish the fine waters of Key West. For a long time it
+was thought that even frigates would have a difficulty in entering
+and quitting the port of the latter, but it is said that recent
+explorations have discovered channels capable of admitting anything
+that floats. Still Key West is a town yet in its chrysalis state,
+possessing the promise rather than the fruition of the prosperous
+days which are in reserve. It may be well to add, that it lies a
+very little north of the 24th degree of latitude, and in a longitude
+quite five degrees west from Washington. Until the recent conquests
+in Mexico it was the most southern possession of the American
+government, on the eastern side of the continent; Cape St. Lucas, at
+the extremity of Lower California, however, being two degrees
+farther south.
+
+It will give the foreign reader a more accurate notion of the
+character of Key West, if we mention a fact of quite recent
+occurrence. A very few weeks after the closing scenes of this tale,
+the town in question was, in a great measure, washed away! A
+hurricane brought in the sea upon all these islands and reefs, water
+running in swift currents over places that within the memory of man
+were never before submerged. The lower part of Key West was
+converted into a raging sea, and everything in that quarter of the
+place disappeared. The foundation being of rock, however, when the
+ocean retired the island came into view again, and industry and
+enterprise set to work to repair the injuries.
+
+The government has established a small hospital for seamen at Key
+West. Into one of the rooms of the building thus appropriated our
+narrative must now conduct the reader. It contained but a single
+patient, and that was Spike. He was on his narrow bed, which was to
+be but the pucursor of a still narrower tenement, the grave. In the
+room with the dying man were two females, in one of whom our readers
+will at once recognize the person of Rose Budd, dressed in deep
+mourning for her aunt. At first sight, it is probable that a casual
+spectator would mistake the second female for one of the ordinary
+nurses of the place. Her attire was well enough, though worn
+awkwardly, and as if its owner were not exactly at ease in it. She
+had the air of one in her best attire, who was unaccustomed to be
+dressed above the most common mode. What added to the singularity of
+her appearance, was the fact, that while she wore no cap, her hair
+had been cut into short, gray bristles, instead of being long, and
+turned up, as is usual with females. To give a sort of climax to
+this uncouth appearance, this strange-looking creature chewed
+tobacco.
+
+The woman in question, equivocal as might be her exterior, was
+employed in one of the commonest avocations of her sex--that of
+sewing. She held in her hand a coarse garment, one of Spike's, in
+fact, which she seemed to be intently busy in mending; although the
+work was of a quality that invited the use of the palm and
+sail-needle, rather than that of the thimble and the smaller
+implement known to seamstresses, the woman appeared awkward in her
+business, as if her coarse-looking and dark hands refused to lend
+themselves to an occupation so feminine. Nevertheless, there were
+touches of a purely womanly character about this extraordinary
+person, and touches that particularly attracted the attention, and
+awakened the sympathy of the gentle Rose, her companion. Tears
+occasionally struggled out from beneath her eyelids, crossed her
+dark, sun-burnt cheek, and fell on the coarse canvas garment that
+lay in her lap. It was after one of these sudden and strong
+exhibitions of feeling that Rose approached her, laid her own
+little, fair hand, in a friendly way, though unheeded, on the
+other's shoulder, and spoke to her in her kindest and softest tones.
+
+"I do really think he is reviving, Jack," said Rose, "and that you
+may yet hope to have an intelligent conversation with him."
+
+"They all agree he _must_ die," answered Jack Tier--for it was _he,_
+appearing in the garb of his proper sex, after a disguise that had
+now lasted fully twenty years--"and he will never know who I am, and
+that I forgive him. He must think of me in another world, though he
+is n't able to do it in this; but it would be a great relief to his
+soul to know that I forgive him."
+
+"To be sure, a man must like to take a kind leave of his own wife
+before he closes his eyes for ever; and I dare say it would be a
+great relief to you to tell him that you have forgotten his
+desertion of you, and all the hardships it has brought upon you in
+searching for him, and in earning your own livelihood as a common
+sailor."
+
+"I shall not tell him I've _forgotten_ it, Miss Rose; that would be
+untrue--and there shall be no more deception between us; but I shall
+tell him that I _forgive_ him, as I hope God will one day forgive me
+all _my_ sins."
+
+"It is, certainly, not a light offence to desert a wife in a foreign
+land, and then to seek to deceive another woman," quietly observed
+Rose.
+
+"He's a willian!" muttered the wife--"but--but--"
+
+"You forgive him, Jack--yes, I'm sure you do. You are too good a
+Christian to refuse to forgive him."
+
+"I'm a woman a'ter all, Miss Rose; and that, I believe, is the truth
+of it. I suppose I ought to do as you say, for the reason you
+mention; but I'm his wife--and once he loved me, though that has
+long been over. When I first knew Stephen, I'd the sort of feelin's
+you speak of, and was a very different creatur' from what you see me
+to-day. Change comes over us all with years and sufferin'."
+
+Rose did not answer, but she stood looking intently at the speaker
+more than a minute. Change had, indeed, come over her, if she had
+ever possessed the power to please the fancy of any living man. Her
+features had always seemed diminutive and mean for her assumed sex,
+as her voice was small and cracked; but, making every allowance for
+the probabilities, Rose found it difficult to imagine that Jack Tier
+had ever possessed, even under the high advantages of youth and
+innocence, the attractions so common to her sex. Her skin had
+acquired the tanning of the sea; the expression of her face had
+become hard and worldly; and her habits contributed to render those
+natural consequences of exposure and toil even more than usually
+marked and decided. By saying "habits," however, we do not mean that
+Jack had ever drunk to excess, as happens with so many seamen, for
+this would have been doing her injustice, but she smoked and
+chewed--practices that intoxicate in another form, and lead nearly
+as many to the grave as excess in drinking. Thus all the accessories
+about this singular being, partook of the character of her recent
+life and duties. Her walk was between a waddle and a seaman's roll,
+her hands were discoloured with tar, and had got to be full of
+knuckles, and even her feet had degenerated into that flat,
+broad-toed form that, perhaps, sooner distinguishes caste, in
+connection with outward appearances, than any one other physical
+peculiarity. Yet this being _had_ once been young--had once been
+even _fair;_ and had once possessed that feminine air and lightness
+of form, that as often belongs to the youthful American of her sex,
+perhaps, as to the girl of any other nation on earth. Rose continued
+to gaze at her companion for some time, when she walked musingly to
+a window that looked out upon the port.
+
+"I am not certain whether it would do him good or not to see this
+sight," she said, addressing the wife kindly, doubtful of the effect
+of her words even on the latter. "But here are the sloop-of-war, and
+several other vessels."
+
+"Ay, she is _there;_ but never will his foot be put on board the
+Swash ag'in. When he bought that brig I was still young, and
+agreeable to him; and he gave her my maiden name, which was Mary, or
+Molly Swash. But that is all changed; I wonder he did not change the
+name with his change of feelin's."
+
+"Then you did really sail in the brig in former times, and knew the
+seaman whose name you assumed?"
+
+"Many years. Tier, with whose name I made free, on account of his
+size, and some resemblance to me in form, died under my care; and
+his protection fell into my hands, which first put the notion into
+my head of hailing as his representative. Yes, I knew Tier in the
+brig, and we were left ashore at the same time; I, intentionally, I
+make no question; he, because Stephen Spike was in a hurry, and did
+not choose to wait for a man. The poor fellow caught the yellow
+fever the very next day, and did not live eight-and-forty hours. So
+the world goes; them that wish to live, die; and them that wants to
+die, live!"
+
+"You have had a hard time for one of your sex, poor Jack--quite
+twenty years a sailor, did you not tell me?"
+
+"Every day of it, Miss Rose--and bitter years have they been; for
+the whole of that time have I been in chase of my husband, keeping
+my own secret, and slaving like a horse for a livelihood."
+
+"You could not have been old when he left--that is--when you
+parted."
+
+"Call it by its true name, and say at once, when he desarted me. I
+was under thirty by two or three years, and was still like my own
+sex to look at. All _that_ is changed since; but I _was_ comely
+_then_."
+
+"_Why_ did Captain Spike abandon you, Jack; you have never told me
+_that_."
+
+"Because he fancied another. And ever since that time he has been
+fancying others, instead of remembering me. Had he got _you,_ Miss
+Rose, I think he would have been content for the rest of his days."
+
+"Be certain, Jack, I should never have consented to marry Captain
+Spike."
+
+"You're well out of his hands," answered Jack, sighing heavily,
+which was the most feminine thing she had done during the whole
+conversation, "well out of his hands--and God be praised it is so.
+He should have died, before I would let him carry you off the
+island--husband or no husband."
+
+"It might have exceeded your power to prevent it under other
+circumstances, Jack."
+
+Rose now continued looking out of the window in silence. Her
+thoughts reverted to her aunt and Biddy, and tears rolled down her
+cheeks as she remembered the love of one, and the fidelity of the
+other. Their horrible fate had given her a shock that, at first,
+menaced her with a severe fit of illness; but her strong, good
+sense, and excellent constitution, both sustained by her piety and
+Harry's manly tenderness, had brought her through the danger, and
+left her, as the reader now sees her, struggling with her own
+griefs, in order to be of use to the still more unhappy woman who
+had so singularly become her friend and companion.
+
+The reader will readily have anticipated that Jack Tier had early
+made the females on board the Swash her confidants. Rose had known
+the outlines of her history from the first few days they were at sea
+together, which is the explanation of the visible intimacy that had
+caused Mulford so much surprise. Jack's motive in making his
+revelations might possibly have been tinctured with jealousy, but a
+desire to save one as young and innocent as Rose was at its bottom.
+Few persons but a wife would have supposed our heroine could have
+been in any danger from a lover like Spike; but Jack saw him with
+the eyes of her own youth, and of past recollections, rather than
+with those of truth. A movement of the wounded man first drew Rose
+from the window. Drying her eyes hastily, she turned toward him,
+fancying she might prove the better nurse of the two,
+notwithstanding Jack's greater interest in the patient.
+
+"What place is this--and why am I here?" demanded Spike, with more
+strength of voice than could have been expected, after all that had
+passed. "This is not a cabin--not the Swash--it looks like a
+hospital."
+
+"It is a hospital, Captain Spike," said Rose, gently drawing near
+the bed; "you have been hurt, and have been brought to Key West, and
+placed in the hospital. I hope you feel better, and that you suffer
+no pain."
+
+"My head is n't right--I do n't know--everything seems turned round
+with me--perhaps it will all come out as it should. I begin to
+remember--where is my brig?"
+
+"She is lost on the rocks. The seas have broken her into fragments."
+
+"That's melancholy news, at any rate. Ah! Miss Rose! God bless
+you--I've had terrible dreams. Well, it's pleasant to be among
+friends--what creature is that--where does _she_ come from?"
+
+"That is Jack Tier," answered Rose, steadily. "She turns out to be a
+woman, and has put on her proper dress, in order to attend on you
+during your illness. Jack has never left your bedside since we have
+been here."
+
+A long silence succeeded this revelation. Jack's eyes twinkled, and
+she hitched her body half aside, as if to conceal her features,
+where emotions that were unusual were at work with the muscles. Rose
+thought it might be well to leave the man and wife alone--and she
+managed to get out of the room unobserved.
+
+Spike continued to gaze at the strange-looking female, who was now
+his sole companion. Gradually his recollection returned, and with it
+the full consciousness of his situation. He might not have been
+fully aware of the absolute certainty of his approaching death, but
+he must have known that his wound was of a very grave character, and
+that the result might early prove fatal. Still that strange and
+unknown figure haunted him; a figure that was so different from any
+he had ever seen before, and which, in spite of its present dress,
+seemed to belong quite as much to one sex as to the other. As for
+Jack, we call Molly, or Mary Swash by her masculine appellation, not
+only because it is more familiar, but because the other name seems
+really out of place, as applied to such a person--as for Jack, then,
+she sat with her face half averted, thumbing the canvas, and
+endeavouring to ply the needle, but perfectly mute. She was
+conscious that Spike's eyes were on her; and a lingering feeling of
+her sex told her how much time, exposure, and circumstances, had
+changed her person--and she would gladly have hidden the defects in
+her appearance.
+
+Mary Swash was the daughter as well as the wife of a ship-master. In
+her youth, as has been said before, she had even been pretty, and
+down to the day when her husband deserted her, she would have been
+thought a female of a comely appearance rather than the reverse. Her
+hair in particular, though slightly coarse, perhaps, had been rich
+and abundant; and the change from the long, dark, shining, flowing
+locks which she still possessed in her thirtieth year, to the short,
+grey bristles that now stood exposed without a cap, or covering of
+any sort, was one very likely to destroy all identity of appearance.
+Then Jack had passed from what might be called youth to the verge of
+old age, in the interval that she had been separated from her
+husband. Her shape had changed entirely; her complexion was utterly
+gone; and her features, always unmeaning, though feminine, and
+suitable to her sex, had become hard and slightly coarse. Still
+there was something of her former self about Jack that bewildered
+Spike; and his eyes continued fastened on her for quite a quarter of
+an hour in profound silence.
+
+"Give me some water," said the wounded man, "I wish some water to
+drink."
+
+Jack arose, filled a tumbler and brought it to the side of the bed.
+Spike took the glass and drank, but the whole time his eyes were
+riveted on the strange nurse. When his thirst was appeased, he
+asked--
+
+"Who are you? How came you here?"
+
+"I am your nurse. It is common to place nurses at the bedsides of
+the sick."
+
+"Are you man or woman?"
+
+"That is a question I hardly know how to answer. Sometimes I think
+myself each; sometimes neither."
+
+"Did I ever see you before?"
+
+"Often, and quite lately. I sailed with you in your last voyage."
+
+"You! That cannot be. If so, what is your name?"
+
+"Jack Tier."
+
+A long pause succeeded this announcement, which induced Spike to
+muse as intently as his condition would allow, though the truth did
+not yet flash on his understanding. At length the bewildered man
+again spoke.
+
+"Are _you_ Jack Tier?" he said slowly, like one who doubted. "Yes--I
+now see the resemblance, and it was _that_ which puzzled me. Are
+they so rigid in this hospital that you have been obliged to put on
+woman's clothes in order to lend me a helping hand?"
+
+"I am dressed as you see, and for good reasons."
+
+"But Jack Tier run, like that rascal Mulford--ay, I remember now;
+you were in the boat when I overhauled you all on the reef."
+
+"Very true; I was in the boat. But I never run, Stephen Spike. It
+was _you_ who abandoned _me,_ on the islet in the Gulf, and that
+makes the second time in your life that you left me ashore, when it
+was your duty to carry me to sea."
+
+"The first time I was in a hurry, and could not wait for you; this
+last time you took sides with the women. But for your interference,
+I should have got Rose, and married her, and all would now have been
+well with me."
+
+This was an awkward announcement for a man to make to his legal
+wife. But after all Jack had endured, and all Jack had seen during
+the late voyage, she was not to be overcome by this avowal. Her
+self-command extended so far as to prevent any open manifestation of
+emotion, however much her feelings were excited.
+
+"I took sides with the women, because I am a woman myself," she
+answered, speaking at length with decision, as if determined to
+bring matters to a head at once. "It is natural for us all to take
+sides with our kind."
+
+"You a woman, Jack! That is very remarkable. Since when have you
+hailed for a woman? You have shipped with me twice, and each time as
+a man--though I've never thought you able to do seaman's duty."
+
+"Nevertheless, I am what you see; a woman born and edicated; one
+that never had on man's dress until I knew you. _You_ supposed me to
+be a man, when I came off to you in the skiff to the eastward of
+Riker's Island, but I was then what you now see."
+
+"I begin to understand matters," rejoined the invalid, musingly.
+"Ay, ay, it opens on me; and I now see how it was you made such fair
+weather with Madam Budd and pretty, pretty Rose. Rose _is_ pretty,
+Jack; you _must_ admit _that,_ though you be a woman."
+
+"Rose _is_ pretty--I do admit it; and what is better, Rose is
+_good."_ It required a heavy draft on Jack's justice and
+magnanimity, however, to make this concession.
+
+"And you told Rose and Madam Budd about your sex; and that was the
+reason they took to you so on the v'y'ge?"
+
+"I told them who I was, and why I went abroad as a man. They know my
+whole story."
+
+"Did Rose approve of your sailing under false colours, Jack?"
+
+"You must ask that of Rose herself. My story made her my friend; but
+she never said anything for or against my disguise."
+
+"It was no great disguise a'ter all, Jack. Now you're fitted out in
+your own clothes, you've a sort of half-rigged look; one would be as
+likely to set you down for a man under jury-canvas, as for a woman."
+
+Jack made no answer to this, but she sighed very heavily. As for
+Spike himself, he was silent for some little time, not only from
+exhaustion, but because he suffered pain from his wound. The needle
+was diligently but awkwardly plied in this pause.
+
+Spike's ideas were still a little confused; but a silence and rest
+of a quarter of an hour cleared them materially. At the end of that
+time he again asked for water. When he had drunk, and Jack was once
+more seated, with his side-face toward him, at work with the needle,
+the captain gazed long and intently at this strange woman. It
+happened that the profile of Jack preserved more of the resemblance
+to her former self, than the full face; and it was this resemblance
+that now attracted Spike's attention, though not the smallest
+suspicion of the truth yet gleamed upon him. He saw something that
+was familiar, though he could not even tell what that something was,
+much less to what or whom it bore any resemblance. At length he
+spoke.
+
+"I was told that Jack Tier was dead," he said; "that he took the
+fever, and was in his grave within eight-and-forty hours after we
+sailed. That was what they told me of _him_."
+
+"And what did they tell you of your own wife, Stephen Spike. She
+that you left ashore at the time Jack was left?"
+
+"They said she did not die for three years later. I heard of her
+death at New Or_leens,_ three years later."
+
+"And how could you leave her ashore--she, your true and lawful
+wife?"
+
+"It was a bad thing," answered Spike, who, like all other mortals,
+regarded his own past career, now that he stood on the edge of the
+grave, very differently from what he had regarded it in the hour of
+his health and strength. "Yes, it _was_ a very bad thing; and I wish
+it was ondone. But it is too late now. She died of the fever,
+too--that's some comfort; had she died of a broken heart, I could
+not have forgiven myself. Molly was not without her faults--great
+faults, I considered them; but, on the whole, Molly was a good
+creatur'."
+
+"You liked her, then, Stephen Spike?"
+
+"I can truly say that when I married Molly, and old Captain Swash
+put his da'ghter's hand into mine, that the woman was n't living who
+was better in my judgment, or handsomer in my eyes."
+
+"Ay, ay--when you _married_ her; but how was it a'terwards?--when
+you was tired of her, and saw another that was fairer in your eyes?"
+
+"I desarted her; and God has punished me for the sin! Do you know,
+Jack, that luck has never been with me since that day. Often and
+often have I bethought me of it; and sartain as you sit there, no
+great luck has ever been with me, or my craft, since I went off,
+leaving my wife ashore. What was made in one v'y'ge, was lost in the
+next. Up and down, up and down the whole time, for so many, many
+long years, that grey hairs set in, and old age was beginning to get
+close aboard--and I as poor as ever. It has been rub and go with me
+ever since; and I have had as much as I could do to keep the brig in
+motion, as the only means that was left to make the two ends meet."
+
+"And did not all this make you think of your poor wife--she whom you
+had so wronged?"
+
+"I thought of little else, until I heard of her death at New
+Or_leens_--and then I gave it up as useless. Could I have fallen in
+with Molly at any time a'ter the first six months of my desartion,
+she and I would have come together again, and everything would have
+been forgotten. I knowed her very nature, which was all forgiveness
+to me at the bottom, though seemingly so spiteful and hard."
+
+"Yet you wanted to have this Rose Budd, who is only too young, and
+handsome, and good for you."
+
+"I was tired of being a widower, Jack; and Rose _is_ wonderful
+pretty. She has money, too, and might make the evening of my days
+comfortable. The brig was old, as you must know, and has long been
+off of all the Insurance Offices' books; and she could n't hold
+together much longer. But for this sloop-of-war, I should have put
+her off on the Mexicans; and they would have lost her to our people
+in a month."
+
+"And was it an honest thing to sell an old and worn-out craft to any
+one, Stephen Spike?"
+
+Spike had a conscience that had become hard as iron by means of
+trade. He who traffics much, most especially if his dealings be on
+so small a scale as to render constant investigations of the minor
+qualities of things necessary, must be a very fortunate man, if he
+preserve his conscience in any better condition. When Jack made this
+allusion, therefore, the dying man--for death was much nearer to
+Spike that even be supposed, though he no longer hoped for his own
+recovery--when Jack made this allusion, then, the dying man was a
+good deal at a loss to comprehend it. He saw no particular harm in
+making the best bargain he could; nor was it easy for him to
+understand why he might not dispose of anything he possessed for the
+highest price that was to be had. Still he answered in an apologetic
+sort of way.
+
+"The brig was old, I acknowledge," he said, "but she was strong, and
+_might_ have run a long time. I only spoke of her capture as a thing
+likely to take place soon, if the Mexicans got her; so that her
+qualities were of no great account, unless it might be her
+speed--and that you know was excellent, Jack."
+
+"And you regret that brig, Stephen Spike, lying as you do on your
+death-bed, more than anything else."
+
+"Not as much as I do pretty Rose Budd, Jack; Rosy is so delightful
+to look at!"
+
+The muscles of Jack's face twitched a little, and she looked deeply
+mortified; for, to own the truth, she hoped that the conversation
+had so far turned her delinquent husband's thoughts to the past, as
+to have revived in him some of his former interest in herself. It is
+true, he still believed her dead; but this was a circumstance Jack
+overlooked--so hard is it to hear the praises of a rival, and be
+just. She felt the necessity of being more explicit, and determined
+at once to come to the point.
+
+"Stephen Spike," she said, steadily, drawing near to the bed-side,
+"you should be told the truth, when you are heard thus extolling the
+good looks of Rose Budd, with less than eight-and-forty hours of
+life remaining. Mary Swash did not die, as you have supposed, three
+years a'ter you desarted her, but is living at this moment. Had you
+read the letter I gave you in the boat, just before you made me jump
+into the sea, _that_ would have told you where she is to be found."
+
+Spike stared at the speaker intently; and when her cracked voice
+ceased, his look was that of a man who was terrified as well as
+bewildered. This did not arise still from any gleamings of the real
+state of the case, but from the soreness with which his conscience
+pricked him, when he heard that his much-wronged wife was alive. He
+fancied, with a vivid and rapid glance at the probabilities, all
+that a woman abandoned would be likely to endure in the course of so
+many long and suffering years.
+
+"Are you sure of what you say, Jack? You would n't take advantage of
+my situation to tell me an untruth?"
+
+"As certain of it as of my own existence. I have seen her quite
+lately--talked with her of _you_--in short, she is now at Key West,
+knows your state, and has a wife's feelin's to come to your
+bed-side."
+
+Notwithstanding all this, and the many gleamings he had had of the
+facts during their late intercourse on board the brig, Spike did not
+guess at the truth. He appeared astounded, and his terror seemed to
+increase.
+
+"I have another thing to tell you," continued Jack, pausing but a
+moment to collect her own thoughts. "Jack Tier--the real Jack
+Tier--he who sailed with you of old, and whom you left ashore at the
+same time you desarted your wife, _did_ die of the fever, as you was
+told, in eight-and-forty hours a'ter the brig went to sea."
+
+"Then who, in the name of Heaven, are you? How came you to hail by
+another's name as well as by another sex?"
+
+"What could a woman do, whose husband had desarted her in a strange
+land?"
+
+"That is remarkable! So _you_'ve been married? I should not have
+thought _that_ possible; and your husband desarted you, too. Well,
+such things _do_ happen."
+
+Jack now felt a severe pang. She could not but see that her
+ungainly--we had almost said her unearthly appearance--prevented the
+captain from even yet suspecting the truth; and the meaning of his
+language was not easily to be mistaken. That any one should have
+married _her,_ seemed to her husband as improbable as it was
+probable he would run away from her as soon as it was in his power
+after the ceremony.
+
+"Stephen Spike," resumed Jack, solemnly, "_I_ am Mary Swash--_I_ am
+your wife!"
+
+Spike started in his bed; then he buried his face in the
+coverlet--and he actually groaned. In bitterness of spirit the woman
+turned away and wept. Her feelings had been blunted by misfortune
+and the collisions of a selfish world; but enough of former self
+remained to make this the hardest of all the blows she had ever
+received. Her husband, dying as he was, as he must and did know
+himself to be, shrunk from one of her appearance, unsexed as she had
+become by habits, and changed by years and suffering.
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+  The trusting heart's repose, the paradise
+  Of home, with all its loves, doth fate allow
+  The crown of glory unto woman's brow.
+
+
+Mrs. Hemans.
+
+It has again become necessary to advance the time; and we shall take
+the occasion thus offered to make a few explanations touching
+certain events which have been passed over without notice.
+
+The reason why Captain Mull did not chase the yawl of the brig in
+the Poughkeepsie herself, was the necessity of waiting for his own
+boats that were endeavouring to regain the sloop-of-war. It would
+not have done to abandon them, inasmuch as the men were so much
+exhausted by the pull to windward, that when they reached the vessel
+all were relieved from duty for the rest of the day. As soon,
+however, as the other boats were hoisted in, or run up, the ship
+filled away, stood out of the passage and ran down to join the
+cutter of Wallace, which was endeavouring to keep its position, as
+much as possible, by making short tacks under close-reefed luggs.
+
+Spike had been received on board the sloop-of-war, sent into her
+sick bay, and put under the care of the surgeon and his assistants.
+From the first, these gentlemen pronounced the hurt mortal. The
+wounded man was insensible most of the time, until the ship had beat
+up and gone into Key West, where he was transferred to the regular
+hospital, as has already been mentioned.
+
+The wreckers went out the moment the news of the calamity of the
+Swash reached their ears. Some went in quest of the doubloons of the
+schooner, and others to pick up anything valuable that might be
+discovered in the neighbourhood of the stranded brig. It may be
+mentioned here, that not much was ever obtained from the brigantine,
+with the exception of a few spars, the sails, and a little rigging;
+but, in the end, the schooner was raised, by means of the chain
+Spike had placed around her, the cabin was ransacked, and the
+doubloons were recovered. As there was no one to claim the money, it
+was quietly divided among the conscientious citizens present at its
+re-visiting "the glimpses of the moon," making gold plenty.
+
+The doubloons in the yawl would have been lost but for the sagacity
+of Mulford. He too well knew the character of Spike to believe he
+would quit the brig without taking the doubloons with him.
+Acquainted with the boat, he examined the little locker in the
+stern-sheets, and found the two bags, one of which was probably the
+lawful property of Captain Spike, while the other, in truth,
+belonged to the Mexican government. The last contained the most
+gold, but the first amounted to a sum that our young mate knew to be
+very considerable. Rose had made him acquainted with the sex of Jack
+Tier since their own marriage; and he at once saw that the claims of
+this uncouth wife, who was so soon to be a widow, to the gold in
+question, might prove to be as good in law, as they unquestionably
+were in morals. On representing the facts of the case to Captain
+Mull and the legal functionaries at Key West, it was determined to
+relinquish this money to the heirs of Spike, as, indeed, they must
+have done under process, there being no other claimant. These
+doubloons, however, did not amount to the full price of the flour
+and powder that composed the cargo of the Swash. The cargo had been
+purchased with Mexican funds; and all that Spike or his heirs could
+claim, was the high freight for which he had undertaken the delicate
+office of transporting those forbidden articles, contraband of war,
+to the Dry Tortugas.
+
+Mulford by this time was high in the confidence and esteem of all on
+board the Poughkeepsie. He had frankly explained his whole connexion
+with Spike, not even attempting to conceal the reluctance he had
+felt to betray the brig after he had fully ascertained the fact of
+his commander's treason. The manly gentlemen with whom he was now
+brought in contact entered into his feelings, and admitted that it
+was an office no one could desire, to turn against the craft in
+which he sailed. It is true, they could not and would not be
+traitors, but Mulford had stopped far short of this; and the
+distinction between such a character and that of an informer was
+wide enough to satisfy all their scruples.
+
+Then Rose had the greatest success with the gentlemen of the
+Poughkeepsie. Her youth, beauty, and modesty, told largely in her
+favour; and the simple, womanly affection she unconsciously betrayed
+in behalf of Harry, touched the heart of every observer. When the
+intelligence of her aunt's fate reached her, the sorrow she
+manifested was so profound and natural, that every one sympathized
+with her grief. Nor would she be satisfied unless Mulford would
+consent to go in search of the bodies. The latter knew the
+hopelessness of such an excursion, but he could not refuse to
+comply. He was absent on that melancholy duty, therefore, at the
+moment of the scene related in our last chapter, and did not return
+until after that which we are now about to lay before the reader.
+Mrs. Budd, Biddy, and all of those who perished after the yawl got
+clear of the reef, were drowned in deep water, and no more was ever
+seen of any of them; or, if wreckers did pass them, they did not
+stop to bury the dead. It was different, however, with those, who
+were first sacrificed to Spike's selfishness. They were drowned on
+the reef, and Harry did actually recover the bodies of the Senor
+Montefalderon, and of Josh, the steward. They had washed upon a rock
+that is bare at low water. He took them both to the Dry Tortugas,
+and had them interred along with the other dead at that place. Don
+Juan was placed side by side with his unfortunate countryman, the
+master of his equally unfortunate schooner.
+
+While Harry was absent and thus employed, Rose wept much and prayed
+more. She would have felt herself almost alone in the world, but for
+the youth to whom she had so recently, less than a week before,
+plighted her faith in wedlock. That new tie, it is true, was of
+sufficient importance to counteract many of the ordinary feelings of
+her situation; and she now turned to it as the one which absorbed
+most of the future duties of her life. Still she missed the
+kindness, the solicitude, even the weaknesses of her aunt; and the
+terrible manner in which Mrs. Budd had perished, made her shudder
+with horror whenever she thought of it. Poor Biddy, too, came in for
+her share of the regrets. This faithful creature, who had been in
+the relict's service ever since Rose's infancy, had become endeared
+to her, in spite of her uncouth manners and confused ideas, by the
+warmth of her heart, and the singular truth of her feelings. Biddy,
+of all her family, had come to America, leaving behind her not only
+brothers and sisters, but parents living. Each year did she remit to
+the last a moiety of her earnings, and many a half-dollar that had
+come from Rose's pretty little hand, had been converted into gold,
+and forwarded on the same pious errand to the green island of her
+nativity. Ireland, unhappy country! at this moment what are not the
+dire necessities of thy poor! Here, from the midst of abundance, in
+a land that God has blessed in its productions far beyond the limits
+of human wants, a land in which famine was never known, do we at
+this moment hear thy groans, and listen to tales of suffering that
+to us seem almost incredible. In the midst of these chilling
+narratives, our eyes fall on an appeal to the English nation, that
+appears in what it is the fashion of some to term the first journal
+of Europe (!) in behalf of thy suffering people. A worthy appeal to
+the charity of England seldom fails; but it seems to us that one
+sentiment of this might have been altered, if not spared. The
+English are asked to be "_forgetful_ of the past," and to come
+forward to the relief of their suffering fellow-subjects. We should
+have written "_mindful_ of the past," in its stead. We say this in
+charity, as well as in truth. We come of English blood, and if we
+claim to share in all the ancient renown of that warlike and
+enlightened people, we are equally bound to share in the reproaches
+that original misgovernment has inflicted on thee. In this latter
+sense, then, thou hast a right to our sympathies, and they are not
+withheld.
+
+As has been already said, we now advance the time eight-and-forty
+hours, and again transfer the scene to that room in the hospital
+which was occupied by Spike. The approaches of death, during the
+interval just named, had been slow but certain. The surgeons had
+announced that the wounded man could not possibly survive the coming
+night; and he himself had been made sensible that his end was near.
+It is scarcely necessary to add that Stephen Spike, conscious of his
+vigour and strength, in command of his brig, and bent on the
+pursuits of worldly gains, or of personal gratification, was a very
+different person from him who now lay stretched on his pallet in the
+hospital of Key West, a dying man. By the side of his bed still sat
+his strange nurse, less peculiar in appearance, however, than when
+last seen by the reader.
+
+Rose Budd had been ministering to the ungainly externals of Jack
+Tier. She now wore a cap, thus concealing the short, grey bristles
+of hair, and lending to her countenance a little of that softness
+which is a requisite of female character. Some attention had also
+been paid to the rest of her attire; and Jack was, altogether, less
+repulsive in her exterior than when, unaided, she had attempted to
+resume the proper garb of her sex. Use and association, too, had
+contributed a little to revive her woman's nature, if we may so
+express it, and she had begun, in particular, to feel the sort of
+interest in her patient which we all come in time to entertain
+toward any object of our especial care. We do not mean that Jack had
+absolutely ever ceased to love her husband; strange as it may seem,
+such had not literally been the case; on the contrary, her interest
+in him and in his welfare had never ceased, even while she saw his
+vices and detested his crimes; but all we wish to say here is, that
+she was getting, in addition to the long-enduring feelings of a
+wife, some of the interest of a nurse.
+
+During the whole time which had elapsed between Jack's revealing her
+true character, and the moment of which we are now writing, Spike
+had not once spoken to his wife. Often had she caught his eyes
+intently riveted on her, when he would turn them away, as she
+feared, in distaste; and once or twice he groaned deeply, more like
+a man who suffered mental than bodily pain. Still the patient did
+not speak once in all the time mentioned. We should be representing
+poor Jack as possessing more philosophy, or less feeling, than the
+truth would warrant, were we to say that she was not hurt at this
+conduct in her husband.
+
+On the contrary, she felt it deeply; and more than once it had so
+far subdued her pride, as to cause her bitterly to weep. This
+shedding of tears, however, was of service to Jack in one sense, for
+it had the effect of renewing old impressions, and in a certain way,
+of reviving the nature of her sex within her--a nature which had
+been sadly weakened by her past life.
+
+But the hour had at length come when this long and painful silence
+was to be broken. Jack and Rose were alone with the patient, when
+the last again spoke to his wife.
+
+"Molly--poor Molly!" said the dying man, his voice continuing full
+and deep to the last, "what a sad time you must have had of it after
+I did you that wrong!"
+
+"It is hard upon a woman, Stephen, to turn her out, helpless, on a
+cold and selfish world," answered Jack, simply, much too honest to
+affect a reserve she did not feel.
+
+"It was hard, indeed; may God forgive me for it, as I hope ye do,
+Molly."
+
+No answer was made to this appeal; and the invalid looked anxiously
+at his wife. The last sat at her work, which had now got to be less
+awkward to her, with her eyes bent on her needle,--her countenance
+rigid, and, so far as the eye could discern, her feelings unmoved.
+
+"Your husband speaks to you, Jack Tier," said Rose, pointedly.
+
+"May _yours_ never have occasion to speak to you, Rose Budd, in the
+same way," was the solemn answer. "I do not flatter myself that I
+ever was as comely as you, or that yonder poor dying wretch was a
+Harry Mulford in his youth; but we were young and happy, and
+respected once, and loved each other, yet you see what it's all come
+to!"
+
+Rose was silenced, though she had too much tenderness in behalf of
+her own youthful and manly bridegroom to dread a fate similar to
+that which had overtaken poor Jack. Spike now seemed disposed to say
+something, and she went to the side of his bed, followed by her
+companion, who kept a little in the back-ground, as if unwilling to
+let the emotion she really felt be seen, and, perhaps, conscious
+that her ungainly appearance did not aid her in recovering the lost
+affections of her husband.
+
+"I have been a very wicked man, I fear," said Spike, earnestly.
+
+"There are none without sin," answered Rose. "Place your reliance on
+the mediation of the Son of God, and sins even far deeper than yours
+may be pardoned."
+
+The captain stared at the beautiful speaker, but self-indulgence,
+the incessant pursuit of worldly and selfish objects for forty
+years, and the habits of a life into which the thought of God and
+the dread hereafter never entered, had encased his spiritual being
+in a sort of brazen armour, through which no ordinary blow of
+conscience could penetrate. Still he had fearful glimpses of recent
+events, and his soul, hanging as it was over the abyss of eternity,
+was troubled.
+
+"What has become of your aunt?" half whispered Spike--"my old
+captain's widow. She ought to be here; and Don Wan Montezuma--where
+is he?"
+
+Rose turned aside to conceal her tears--but no one answered the
+questions of the dying man. Then a gleaming of childhood shot into
+the recollection of Spike, and, clasping his hands, he tried to
+pray. But, like others who have lived without any communication with
+their Creator through long lives of apathy to his existence and
+laws, thinking only of the present time, and daily, hourly
+sacrificing principles and duty to the narrow interests of the
+moment, he now found how hard it is to renew communications with a
+being who has been so long neglected. The fault lay in himself,
+however, for a gracious ear was open, even over the death-bed of
+Stephen Spike, could that rude spirit only bring itself to ask for
+mercy in earnestness and truth. As his companions saw his struggles,
+they left him for a few minutes to his own thoughts.
+
+"Molly," Spike at length uttered, in a faint tone, the voice of one
+conscious of being very near his end, "I hope you will forgive me,
+Molly. I know you must have a hard, hard time of it."
+
+"It is hard for a woman to unsex herself, Stephen; to throw off her
+very natur', as it might be, and to turn man."
+
+"It has changed you sadly--even your speech is altered. Once your
+voice was soft and womanish--more like that of Rose Budd's than it
+is now."
+
+"I speak as them speak among whom I've been forced to live. The
+forecastle and steward's pantry, Stephen Spike, are poor schools to
+send women to l'arn language in."
+
+"Try and forget it all, poor Molly! Say to me, so that I can hear
+you, `I forget and forgive, Stephen.' I am afraid God will not
+pardon my sins, which begin to seem dreadful to me, if my own wife
+refuse to forget and forgive, on my dying bed."
+
+Jack was much mollified by this appeal. Her interest in her
+offending husband had never been entirely extinguished. She had
+remembered him, and often with woman's kindness, in all her
+wanderings and sufferings, as the preceding parts of our narrative
+must show; and though resentment had been mingled with the grief and
+mortification she felt at finding how much he still submitted to
+Rose's superior charms, in a breast as really generous and humane as
+that of Jack Tier's, such a feeling was not likely to endure in the
+midst of a scene like that she was now called to witness. The
+muscles of her countenance twitched, the hard-looking, tanned face
+began to lose its sternness, and every way she appeared like one
+profoundly disturbed.
+
+"Turn to Him whose goodness and marcy may sarve you, Stephen," she
+said, in a milder and more feminine tone than she had used now for
+years, making her more like herself than either her husband or Rose
+had seen her since the commencement of the late voyage; "my sayin'
+that I forget and forgive cannot help a man on his death-bed."
+
+"It will settle my mind, Molly, and leave me freer to turn my
+thoughts to God."
+
+Jack was much affected, more by the countenance and manner of the
+sufferer, perhaps, than by his words. She drew nearer to the side of
+her husband's pallet, knelt, took his hands, and said solemnly,
+
+"Stephen Spike, from the bottom of my heart, I _do_ forgive you; and
+I shall pray to God that he will pardon your sins as freely and more
+marcifully than I now pardon all, and try to forget all that you
+have done to me."
+
+Spike clasped his hands, and again he tried to pray; but the habits
+of a whole life are not to be thrown off at will; and he who
+endeavours to regain, in his extremity, the moments that have been
+lost, will find, in bitter reality, that he has been heaping
+mountains on his own soul, by the mere practice of sin, which were
+never laid there by the original fall of his race. Jack, however,
+had disburthened her spirit of a load that had long oppressed it,
+and, burying her face in the rug, she wept.
+
+"I wish, Molly," said the dying man, several minutes later, "I wish
+I had never seen the brig. Until I got that craft, no thought of
+wronging human being ever crossed my mind."
+
+"It was the Father of Lies that tempts all to do evil, Stephen, and
+not the brig which caused the sins."
+
+"I wish I could live a year longer--_only_ one year; that is not
+much to ask for a man who is not yet sixty."
+
+"It is hopeless, poor Stephen. The surgeons say you cannot live one
+day."
+
+Spike groaned--for the past, blended fearfully with the future,
+gleamed on his conscience with a brightness that appalled him. And
+what is that future, which is to make us happy or miserable through
+an endless vista of time? Is it not composed of an existence, in
+which conscience, released from the delusions and weaknesses of the
+body, sees all in its true colours, appreciates all, and punishes
+all? Such an existence would make every man the keeper of the record
+of his own transgressions, even to the most minute exactness. It
+would of itself mete out perfect justice, since the sin would be
+seen amid its accompanying facts, every aggravating or extenuating
+circumstance. Each man would be strictly punished according to his
+talents. As no one is without sin, it makes the necessity of an
+atonement indispensable, and, in its most rigid interpretation, it
+exhibits the truth of the scheme of salvation in the clearest
+colours. The soul, or conscience, that can admit the necessary
+degree of faith in that atonement, and in admitting, _feels_ its
+efficacy, throws the burthen of its own transgressions away, and
+remains for ever in the condition of its original existence, pure,
+and consequently happy.
+
+We do not presume to lay down a creed on this mighty and mysterious
+matter, in which all have so deep an interest, and concerning which
+so very small a portion of the human race think much, or think with
+any clearness when it does become the subject of their passing
+thoughts at all We too well know our own ignorance to venture on
+dogmas which it has probably been intended that the mind of man
+should not yet grapple with and comprehend. To return to our
+subject.
+
+Stephen Spike was now made to feel the incubus-load, which
+perseverance in sin heaps on the breast of the reckless offender.
+What was the most grievous of all, his power to shake off this dead
+weight was diminished in precisely the same proportion as the
+burthen was increased, the moral force of every man lessening in a
+very just ratio to the magnitude of his delinquencies. Bitterly did
+this deep offender struggle with his conscience, and little did his
+half-unsexed wife know how to console or aid him. Jack had been
+superficially instructed in the dogmas of her faith, in childhood
+and youth, as most persons are instructed in what are termed
+Christian communities--had been made to learn the Catechism, the
+Lord's Prayer, and the Creed--and had been left to set up for
+herself on this small capital, in the great concern of human
+existence, on her marriage and entrance on the active business of
+life. When the manner in which she had passed the last twenty years
+is remembered, no one can be surprised to learn that Jack was of
+little assistance to her husband in his extremity. Rose made an
+effort to administer hope and consolation, but the terrible nature
+of the struggle she witnessed, induced her to send for the chaplain
+of the Poughkeepsie. This divine prayed with the dying man; but even
+he, in the last moments of the sufferer, was little more than a
+passive but shocked witness of remorse, suspended over the abyss of
+eternity in hopeless dread. We shall not enter into the details of
+the revolting scene, but simply add that curses, blasphemy,
+tremulous cries for mercy, agonized entreaties to be advised, and
+sullen defiance, were all strangely and fearfully blended. In the
+midst of one of these revolting paroxysms, Spike breathed his last.
+A few hours later, his body was interred in the sands of the shore.
+It may be well to say in this place, that the hurricane of 1846,
+which is known to have occurred only a few months later, swept off
+the frail covering, and that the body was washed away to leave its
+bones among the wrecks and relics of the Florida Reef.
+
+Mulford did not return from his fruitless expedition in quest of the
+remains of Mrs. Budd, until after the death and interment of Spike.
+As nothing remained to be done at Key West, he and Rose accompanied
+by Jack Tier, took passage for Charleston in the first convenient
+vessel that offered. Two days before they sailed, the Poughkeepsie
+went out to cruise in the Gulf, agreeably to her general orders. The
+evening previously Captain Mull, Wallace, and the chaplain, passed
+with the bridegroom and bride, when the matter of the doubloons
+found in the boat was discussed. It was agreed that Jack Tier should
+have them; and into her hands the bag was now placed. On this
+occasion, to oblige the officers, Jack went into a narrative of all
+she had seen and suffered, from the moment when abandoned by her
+late husband down to that when she found him again. It was a strange
+account, and one filled with surprising adventures. In most of the
+vessels in which she had served, Jack had acted in the steward's
+department, though she had frequently done duty as a fore-mast hand.
+In strength and skill she admitted that she had often failed; but in
+courage, never. Having been given reason to think her husband was
+reduced to serving in a vessel of war, she had shipped on board a
+frigate bound to the Mediterranean, and had actually made a whole
+cruise as a ward-room boy on that station. While thus employed, she
+had met with two of the gentlemen present; Captain Mull and Mr.
+Wallace. The former was then first-lieutenant of the frigate, and
+the latter a passed-midshipman; and in these capacities both had
+been well known to her. As the name she then bore was the same as
+that under which she now "hailed," these officers were soon made to
+recollect her, though Jack was no longer the light, trim-built lad
+he had then appeared to be. Neither of the gentlemen named had made
+the whole cruise in the ship, but each had been promoted and
+transferred to another craft, after being Jack's shipmate rather
+more than a year. This information greatly facilitated the affair of
+the doubloons.
+
+From Charleston the travellers came north by rail-road. Harry made
+several stops by the way, in order to divert the thoughts of his
+beautiful young bride from dwelling too much on the fate of her
+aunt. He knew that home would revive all these recollections
+painfully, and wished to put off the hour of their return, until
+time had a little weakened Rose's regrets. For this reason, he
+passed a whole week in Washington, though it was a season of the
+year that the place is not in much request. Still, Washington is
+scarce a town, at any season. It is much the fashion to deride the
+American capital, and to treat it as a place of very humble
+performance with very sounding pretensions. Certainly, Washington
+has very few of the peculiarities of a great European capital, but
+few as these are, they are more than belong to any other place in
+this country. We now allude to the _distinctive_ characteristics of
+a capital, and not to a mere concentration of houses and shops
+within a given space. In this last respect, Washington is much
+behind fifty other American towns, even while it is the only place
+in the whole republic which possesses specimens of architecture, on
+a scale approaching that of the higher classes of the edifices of
+the old world. It is totally deficient in churches, and theatres,
+and markets; or those it does possess are, in an architectural
+sense, not at all above the level of village or countrytown
+pretensions, but one or two of its national edifices do approach the
+magnificence and grandeur of the old world. The new Treasury
+Buildings are unquestionably, on the score of size, embellishments
+and finish, _the_ American edifice that comes nearest to first class
+architecture on the other side of the Atlantic. The Capitol comes
+next, though it can scarce be ranked, relatively, as high. As for
+the White House, it is every way sufficient for its purposes and the
+institutions; and now that its grounds are finished, and the
+shrubbery and trees begin to tell, one sees about it something that
+is not unworthy of its high uses and origin. Those grounds, which so
+long lay a reproach to the national taste and liberality, are now
+fast becoming beautiful, are already exceedingly pretty, and give to
+a structure that is destined to become historical, having already
+associated with it the names of Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, and
+Quincy Adams, together with the _ci polloi_ of the later Presidents,
+an _entourage_ that is suitable to its past recollections and its
+present purposes. They are not quite on a level with the parks of
+London, it is true; or even with the Tuileries, or Luxembourg, or
+the Boboli, or the Villa Reale, or fifty more grounds and gardens,
+of a similar nature, that might be mentioned; but, seen in the
+spring and early summer, they adorn the building they surround, and
+lend to the whole neighbourhood a character of high civilization,
+that no other place in America can show, in precisely the same form,
+or to the same extent.
+
+This much have we said on the subject of the White House and its
+precincts, because we took occasion, in a former work, to berate the
+narrow-minded parsimony which left the grounds of the White House in
+a condition that was discreditable to the republic. How far our
+philippic may have hastened the improvements which have been made,
+is more than we shall pretend to say; but having made the former
+strictures, we are happy to have an occasion to say (though nearly
+twenty years have intervened between the expressions of the two
+opinions) that they are no longer merited.
+
+And here we will add another word, and that on a subject that is not
+sufficiently pressed on the attention of a people, who, by position,
+are unavoidably provincial. We invite those whose gorges rise at any
+stricture on anything American, and who fancy it is enough to belong
+to the great republic to be great in itself, to place themselves in
+front of the State Department, as it now stands, and to examine its
+dimensions, material and form with critical eyes, then to look along
+the adjacent Treasury Buildings, to fancy them completed, by a
+junction with new edifices of a similar construction to contain the
+department of state; next to fancy similar works completed for the
+two opposite departments; after which, to compare the past and
+present with the future as thus finished, and remember how recent
+has been the partial improvement which even now exists. If this
+examination and comparison do not show, directly to the sense of
+sight, how much there was and is to criticise, as put in contrast
+with other countries, we shall give up the individuals in question,
+as too deeply dyed in the provincial wool ever to be whitened. The
+present Trinity church, New York, certainly not more than a third
+class European church, if as much, compared with its village-like
+predecessor, may supply a practical homily of the same degree of
+usefulness. There may be those among us, however, who fancy it
+patriotism to maintain that the old Treasury Buildings were quite
+equal to the new, and of these intense Americans we cry their mercy!
+
+Rose felt keenly on reaching her late aunt's very neat dwelling in
+Fourteenth Street, New York. But the manly tenderness of Mulford was
+a great support to her, and a little time brought her to think of
+that weak-minded, but well-meaning and affectionate relative, with
+gentle regret, rather than with grief. Among the connexions of her
+young husband, she found several females of a class in life
+certainly equal to her own, and somewhat superior to the latter in
+education and habits. As for Harry, he very gladly passed the season
+with his beautiful bride, though a fine ship was laid down for him,
+by means of Rose's fortune, now much increased by her aunt's death,
+and he was absent in Europe when his son was born; an event that
+occurred only two months since.
+
+The Swash, and the shipment of gunpowder, were thought of no more in
+the good town of Manhattan. This great emporium--we beg pardon, this
+great _commercial_ emporium--has a trick of forgetting, condensing
+all interests into those of the present moment. It is much addicted
+to believing that which never had an existence, and of overlooking
+that which is occurring directly under its nose. So marked is this
+tendency to forgetfulness, we should not be surprised to hear some
+of the Manhattanese pretend that our legend is nothing but a
+fiction, and deny the existence of the Molly, Captain Spike, and
+even of Biddy Noon. But we know them too well to mind what they say,
+and shall go on and finish our narrative in our own way, just as if
+there were no such raven-throated commentators at all.
+
+Jack Tier, still known by that name, lives in the family of Captain
+Mulford. She is fast losing the tan on her face and hands, and every
+day is improving in appearance. She now habitually wears her proper
+attire, and is dropping gradually into the feelings and habits of
+her sex. She never can become what she once was, any more than the
+blackamoor can become white, or the leopard change his spots; but
+she is no longer revolting. She has left off chewing and smoking,
+having found a refuge in snuff. Her hair is permitted to grow, and
+is already turned up with a comb, though constantly concealed
+beneath a cap. The heart of Jack, alone, seems unaltered. The
+strange, tiger-like affection that she bore for Spike, during twenty
+years of abandonment, has disappeared in regrets for his end. It is
+succeeded by a most sincere attachment for Rose, in which the little
+boy, since his appearance on the scene, is becoming a large
+participator. This child Jack is beginning to love intensely; and
+the doubloons, well invested, placing her above the feeling of
+dependence, she is likely to end her life, once so errant and
+disturbed, in tranquillity and a home-like happiness.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, JACK TIER OR THE FLORIDA REEF ***
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jack Tier or The Florida Reef
+by James Fenimore Cooper
+(#10 in our series by James Fenimore Cooper)
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Jack Tier or The Florida Reef
+
+Author: James Fenimore Cooper
+
+Release Date: December, 2003  [EBook #4796]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on March 22, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: Latin-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, JACK TIER OR THE FLORIDA REEF ***
+
+
+
+
+Edited by Charles Aldarondo (aldarondo@yahoo.com)
+
+
+
+JACK TIER;
+
+OR
+
+THE FLORIDA REEF.
+
+BY THE AUTHOR OF
+"THE PILOT," "RED ROVER," "TWO ADMIRALS," "WING AND
+WING," "MILES WALLINGFORD," ETC.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+
+
+
+This work has already appeared in Graham's Magazine, under the title
+of "Rose Budd." The change of name is solely the act of the author,
+and arises from a conviction that the appellation given in this
+publication is more appropriate than the one laid aside. The
+necessity of writing to a name, instead of getting it from the
+incidents of the book itself, has been the cause of this departure
+from the ordinary rules.
+
+When this book was commenced, it was generally supposed that the
+Mexican war would end, after a few months of hostilities. Such was
+never the opinion of the writer. He has ever looked forward to a
+protracted struggle; and, now that Congress has begun to interfere,
+sees as little probability of its termination, as on the day it
+commenced. Whence honourable gentlemen have derived their notions of
+the constitution, when they advance the doctrine that Congress is an
+American Aulic council, empowered to encumber the movements of
+armies, and, as old Blucher expressed it in reference to the
+diplomacy of Europe, "to spoil with the pen the work achieved by the
+sword," it is difficult to say more than this, that they do not get
+them from the constitution itself. It has generally been supposed
+that the present executive was created in order to avoid the very
+evils of a distracted and divided council, which this new
+construction has a direct tendency to revive. But a presidential
+election has ever proved, and probably will ever prove, stronger
+than any written fundamental law.
+
+We have had occasion to refer often to Mexico in these pages. It has
+been our aim to do so in a kind spirit; for, while we have never
+doubted that the factions which have possessed themselves of the
+government in that country have done us great wrong, wrong that
+would have justified a much earlier appeal to arms, we have always
+regarded the class of Mexicans who alone can properly be termed the
+`people,' as mild, amiable, and disposed to be on friendly terms
+with us. Providence, however, directs all to the completion of its
+own wise ends. If the crust which has so long encircled that nation,
+enclosing it in bigotry and ignorance, shall now be irretrievably
+broken, letting in light, even Mexico herself may have cause
+hereafter to rejoice in her present disasters. It was in this way
+that Italy has been, in a manner, regenerated; the conquests of the
+French carrying in their train the means and agencies which have, at
+length, aroused that glorious portion of the earth to some of its
+ancient spirit. Mexico, in certain senses, is the Italy of this
+continent; and war, however ruthless and much to be deplored, may
+yet confer on her the inestimable blessings of real liberty, and a
+religion released from "feux d'artifice," as well as all other
+artifices.
+
+A word on the facts of our legend. The attentive observer of men and
+things has many occasions to note the manner in which ordinary
+lookers on deceive themselves, as well as others. The species of
+treason portrayed in these pages is no uncommon occurrence; and it
+will often be found that the traitor is the loudest in his
+protestations of patriotism. It is a pretty safe rule to suspect the
+man of hypocrisy who makes a parade of his religion, and the
+partisan of corruption and selfishness, who is clamorous about the
+rights of the people. Captain Spike was altogether above the first
+vice; though fairly on level, as respects the second, with divers
+patriots who live by their deity.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Pros.
+
+ Why, that's my spirit!
+But was not this nigh shore?
+
+Ariel.
+
+ Close by, my master.
+
+Pros.
+
+ But are they, Ariel, safe?
+
+Ariel.
+
+ Not a hair perished:
+
+Tempest.
+
+
+
+
+"D'ye here there, Mr. Mulford?" called out Capt. Stephen Spike, of
+the half-rigged, brigantine Swash, or Molly Swash, as was her
+registered name, to his mate--"we shall be dropping out as soon as
+the tide makes, and I intend to get through the Gate, at least, on
+the next flood. Waiting for a wind in port is lubberly seamanship,
+for he that wants one should go outside and look for it."
+
+This call was uttered from a wharf of the renowned city of
+Manhattan, to one who was in the trunk-cabin of a clipper-looking
+craft, of the name mentioned, and on the deck of which not a soul
+was visible. Nor was the wharf, though one of those wooden piers
+that line the arm of the sea that is called the East River, such a
+spot as ordinarily presents itself to the mind of the reader, or
+listener, when an allusion is made to a wharf of that town which it
+is the fashion of the times to call the Commercial Emporium of
+America--as if there might very well be an emporium of any other
+character. The wharf in question had not a single vessel of any sort
+lying at, or indeed very near it, with the exception of the Molly
+Swash. As it actually stood on the eastern side of the town, it is
+scarcely necessary to say that such a wharf could only be found high
+up, and at a considerable distance from the usual haunts of
+commerce. The brig lay more than a mile above the Hook (Corlaer's,
+of course, is meant--not Sandy Hook) and quite near to the old Alms
+House--far above the ship-yards, in fact. It was a solitary place
+for a vessel, in the midst of a crowd. The grum top-chain voice of
+Captain Spike had nothing there to mingle with, or interrupt its
+harsh tones, and it instantly brought on deck Harry Mulford, the
+mate in question, apparently eager to receive his orders.
+
+"Did you hail, Captain Spike?" called out the mate, a tight,
+well-grown, straight-built, handsome sailor-lad of two or
+three-and-twenty--one full of health, strength and manliness.
+
+"Hail! If you call straining a man's throat until he's hoarse,
+hailing, I believe I did. I flatter myself, there is not a man north
+of Hatteras that can make himself heard further in gale of wind than
+a certain gentleman who is to be found within a foot of the spot
+where I stand. Yet, sir, I've been hailing the Swash these five
+minutes, and thankful am I to find some one at last who is on board
+to answer me."
+
+"What are your orders, Capt. Spike?"
+
+"To see all clear for a start as soon as the flood makes. I shall go
+through the Gate on the next young flood, and I hope you'll have all
+the hands aboard in time. I see two or three of them up at that
+Dutch beer-house, this moment, and can tell'em; in plain language,
+if they come here with their beer aboard them, they'll have to go
+ashore again."
+
+"You have an uncommonly sober crew, Capt. Spike," answered the young
+man, with great calmness. "During the whole time I have been with
+them, I have not seen a man among them the least in the wind."
+
+"Well, I hope it will turn out that I've an uncommonly sober mate in
+the bargain. Drunkenness I abominate, Mr. Mulford, and I can tell
+you, short metre, that I will not stand it."
+
+"May I inquire if you ever saw me, the least in the world, under the
+influence of liquor, Capt. Spike?" demanded the mate, rather than
+asked, with a very fixed meaning in his manner.
+
+"I keep no log-book of trifles, Mr. Mulford, and cannot say. No man
+is the worse for bowsing out his jib when off duty, though a
+drunkard's a thing I despise. Well, well--remember, sir, that the
+Molly Swash casts off on the young flood, and that Rose Budd and the
+good lady, her aunt, take passage in her, this v'y'ge."
+
+"Is it possible that you have persuaded them into that, at last!"
+exclaimed the handsome mate.
+
+"Persuaded! It takes no great persuasion, sir, to get the ladies to
+try their luck in that brig. Lady Washington herself, if she was
+alive and disposed to a sea-v'y'ge, might be glad of the chance.
+We've a ladies' cabin, you know, and it's suitable that it should
+have some one to occupy it. Old Mrs. Budd is a sensible woman, and
+takes time by the forelock. Rose is ailin'--pulmonary they call it,
+I believe, and her aunt wishes to try the sea for her
+constitution--"
+
+"Rose Budd has no more of a pulmonary constitution than I have
+myself," interrupted the mate.
+
+"Well, that's as people fancy. You must know, Mr. Mulford, they've
+got all sorts of diseases now-a-days, and all sorts of cures for'em.
+One sort of a cure for consumption is what they tarm the
+Hyder-Ally--"
+
+"I think you must mean hydropathy, sir--"
+
+"Well it's something of the sort, no matter what--but cold water is
+at the bottom of it, and they do say it's a good remedy. Now Rose's
+aunt thinks if cold water is what is wanted, there is no place where
+it can be so plenty as out on the ocean. Sea-air is good, too, and
+by taking a v'y'ge her niece will get both requisites together, and
+cheap."
+
+"Does Rose Budd think herself consumptive, Capt. Spike?" asked
+Mulford, with interest.
+
+"Not she--you know it will never do to alarm a pulmonary, so Mrs.
+Budd has held her tongue carefully on the subject before the young
+woman. Rose fancies that her aunt is out of sorts, and that the
+v'y'ge is tried on her account--but the aunt, the cunning thing,
+knows all about it."
+
+Mulford almost nauseated the expression of his commander's
+countenance while Spike uttered the last words. At no time was that
+countenance very inviting, the features being coarse and vulgar,
+while the color of the entire face was of an ambiguous red, in which
+liquor and the seasons would seem to be blended in very equal
+quantities. Such a countenance, lighted up by a gleam of successful
+management, not to say with hopes and wishes that it will hardly do
+to dwell on, could not but be revolting to a youth of Harry
+Mulford's generous feelings, and most of all to one who entertained
+the sentiments which he was quite conscious of entertaining for Rose
+Budd. The young man made no reply, but turned his face toward the
+water, in order to conceal the expression of disgust that he was
+sensible must be strongly depicted on it.
+
+The river, as the well-known arm of the sea in which the Swash was
+lying is erroneously termed, was just at that moment unusually clear
+of craft, and not a sail, larger than that of a boat, was to be seen
+between the end of Blackwell's Island and Corlaer's Hook, a distance
+of about a league. This stagnation in the movement of the port, at
+that particular point, was owing to the state of wind and tide. Of
+the first, there was little more than a southerly air, while the
+last was about two-thirds ebb. Nearly everything that was expected
+on that tide, coast-wise, and by the way of the Sound, had already
+arrived, and nothing could go eastward, with that light breeze and
+under canvas, until the flood made. Of course it was different with
+the steamers, who were paddling about like so many ducks, steering
+in all directions, though mostly crossing and re-crossing at the
+ferries. Just as Mulford turned away from his commander, however, a
+large vessel of that class shoved her bows into the view, doubling
+the Hook, and going eastward. The first glance at this vessel
+sufficed to drive even Rose Budd momentarily out of the minds of
+both master and mate, and to give a new current to their thoughts.
+Spike had been on the point of walking up the wharf, but he now so
+far changed his purpose as actually to jump on board of the brig and
+spring up alongside of his mate, on the taffrail, in order to get a
+better look at the steamer. Mulford, who loathed so much in his
+commander, was actually glad of this, Spike's rare merit as a seaman
+forming a sort of attraction that held him, as it might be against
+his own will, bound to his service.
+
+"What will they do next, Harry?" exclaimed the master, his manner
+and voice actually humanized, in air and sound at least, by this
+unexpected view of something new in his calling--"What will they do
+next?"
+
+"I see no wheels, sir, nor any movement in the water astern, as if
+she were a propeller," returned the young man.
+
+"She's an out-of-the-way sort of a hussy! She's a man-of-war,
+too--one of Uncle Sam's new efforts."
+
+"That can hardly be, sir. Uncle Sam has but three steamers, of any
+size or force, now the Missouri is burned; and yonder is one of
+them, lying at the Navy Yard, while another is, or was lately, laid
+up at Boston. The third is in the Gulf. This must be an entirely new
+vessel, if she belong to Uncle Sam."
+
+"New! She's as new as a Governor, and they tell me they've got so
+now that they choose five or six of them, up at Albany, every fall.
+That craft is sea-going, Mr. Mulford, as any one can tell at a
+glance. She's none of your passenger-hoys."
+
+"That's plain enough, sir--and she's armed. Perhaps she's English,
+and they've brought her here into this open spot to try some new
+machinery. Ay, ay! she's about to set her ensign to the navy men at
+the yard, and we shall see to whom she belongs."
+
+A long, low, expressive whistle from Spike succeeded this remark,
+the colours of the steamer going up to the end of a gaff on the
+sternmost of her schooner-rigged masts, just as Mulford ceased
+speaking. There was just air enough, aided by the steamer's motion,
+to open the bunting, and let the spectators see the design. There
+were the stars and stripes, as usual, but the last ran
+perpendicularly, instead of in a horizontal direction.
+
+"Revenue, by George!" exclaimed the master, as soon as his breath
+was exhausted in the whistle. "Who would have believed they could
+screw themselves up to doing such a thing in that bloody service?"
+
+"I now remember to have heard that Uncle Sam was building some large
+steamers for the revenue service, and, if I mistake not, with some
+new invention to get along with, that is neither wheel nor
+propeller. This must be one of these new craft, brought out here,
+into open water, just to try her, sir."
+
+"You're right, sir, you're right. As to the natur' of the beast, you
+see her buntin', and no honest man can want more. If there's
+anything I do hate, it is that flag, with its unnat'ral stripes, up
+and down, instead of running in the true old way. I have heard a
+lawyer say, that the revenue flag of this country is
+onconstitutional, and that a vessel carrying it on the high seas
+might be sent in for piracy."
+
+Although Harry Mulford was neither Puffendorf, nor Grotius, he had
+too much common sense, and too little prejudice in favour of even
+his own vocation, to swallow such a theory, had fifty Cherry Street
+lawyers sworn to its justice. A smile crossed his fine, firm-looking
+mouth, and something very like a reflection of that smile, if smiles
+can be reflected in one's own countenance, gleamed in his fine,
+large, dark eye.
+
+"It would be somewhat singular, Capt, Spike," he said, "if a vessel
+belonging to any nation should be seized as a pirate. The fact that
+she is national in character would clear her."
+
+"Then let her carry a national flag, and be d--d to her," answered
+Spike fiercely. "I can show you law for what I say, Mr. Mulford. The
+American flag has its stripes fore and aft by law, and this chap
+carries his stripes parpendic'lar. If I commanded a cruiser, and
+fell in with one of these up and down gentry, blast me if I wouldn't
+just send him into port, and try the question in the old
+Alms-House."
+
+Mulford probably did not think it worth while to argue the point any
+further, understanding the dogmatism and stolidity of his commander
+too well to deem it necessary. He preferred to turn to the
+consideration of the qualities of the steamer in sight, a subject on
+which, as seamen, they might better sympathize.
+
+"That's a droll-looking revenue cutter, after all, Capt. Spike," he
+said--"a craft better fitted to go in a fleet, as a look-out vessel,
+than to chase a smuggler in-shore."
+
+"And no goer in the bargain! I do not see how she gets along, for
+she keeps all snug under water; but, unless she can travel faster
+than she does just now, the Molly Swash would soon lend her the
+Mother Carey's Chickens of her own wake to amuse her."
+
+"She has the tide against her, just here, sir; no doubt she would do
+better in still water."
+
+Spike muttered something between his teeth, and jumped down on deck,
+seemingly dismissing the subject of the revenue entirely from his
+mind. His old, coarse, authoritative manner returned, and he again
+spoke to his mate about Rose Budd, her aunt, the "ladies' cabin,"
+the "young flood," and "casting off," as soon as the last made.
+Mulford listened respectfully, though with a manifest distaste for
+the instructions he was receiving. He knew his man, and a feeling of
+dark distrust came over him, as he listened to his orders concerning
+the famous accommodations he intended to give to Rose Budd and that
+"capital old lady, her aunt;" his opinion of "the immense deal of
+good sea-air and a v'y'ge would do Rose," and how "comfortable they
+both would be on board the Molly Swash."
+
+"I honour and respect, Mrs. Budd, as my captain's lady, you see, Mr.
+Mulford, and intend to treat her accordin'ly. She knows it--and Rose
+knows it--and they both declare they'd rather sail with me, since
+sail they must, than with any other ship-master out of America."
+
+"You sailed once with Capt. Budd yourself, I think I have heard you
+say, sir?"
+
+"The old fellow brought me up. I was with him from my tenth to my
+twentieth year, and then broke adrift to see fashions. We all do
+that, you know, Mr. Mulford, when we are young and ambitious, and my
+turn came as well as another's."
+
+"Capt. Budd must have been a good deal older than his wife, sir, if
+you sailed with him when a boy," Mulford observed a little drily.
+
+"Yes; I own to forty-eight, though no one would think me more than
+five or six-and-thirty, to look at me. There was a great difference
+between old Dick Budd and his wife, as you say, he being about
+fifty, when he married, and she less than twenty. Fifty is a good
+age for matrimony, in a man, Mulford; as is twenty in a young
+woman."
+
+"Rose Budd is not yet nineteen, I have heard her say," returned the
+mate, with emphasis.
+
+"Youngish, I will own, but that's a fault a liberal-minded man can
+overlook. Every day, too, will lessen it. Well, look to the cabins,
+and see all clear for a start. Josh will be down presently with a
+cart-load of stores, and you'll take 'em aboard without delay."
+
+As Spike uttered this order, his foot was on the plank-sheer of the
+bulwarks, in the act of passing to the wharf again. On reaching the
+shore, he turned and looked intently at the revenue steamer, and his
+lips moved, as if he were secretly uttering maledictions on her. We
+say maledictions, as the expression of his fierce ill-favoured
+countenance too plainly showed that they could not be blessings. As
+for Mulford, there was still something on his mind, and he followed
+to the gangway ladder and ascended it, waiting for a moment when the
+mind of his commander might be less occupied to speak. The
+opportunity soon occurred, Spike having satisfied himself with the
+second look at the steamer.
+
+"I hope you don't mean to sail again without a second mate, Capt.
+Spike?" he said.
+
+"I do though, I can tell you. I hate Dickies--they are always in the
+way, and the captain has to keep just as much of a watch with one as
+without one."
+
+"That will depend on his quality. You and I have both been Dickies
+in our time, sir; and my time was not long ago."
+
+"Ay--ay--I know all about it--but you didn't stick to it long enough
+to get spoiled. I would have no man aboard the Swash who made more
+than two v'y'ges as second officer. As I want no spies aboard my
+craft, I'll try it once more without a Dicky."
+
+Saying this in a sufficiently positive manner, Capt. Stephen Spike
+rolled up the wharf, much as a ship goes off before the wind, now
+inclining to the right, and then again to the left. The gait of the
+man would have proclaimed him a sea-dog, to any one acquainted with
+that animal, as far as he could be seen. The short squab figure, the
+arms bent nearly at right angles at the elbow, and working like two
+fins with each roll of the body, the stumpy, solid legs, with the
+feet looking in the line of his course and kept wide apart, would
+all have contributed to the making up of such an opinion. Accustomed
+as he was to this beautiful sight, Harry Mulford kept his eyes
+riveted on the retiring person of his commander, until it
+disappeared behind a pile of lumber, waddling always in the
+direction of the more thickly peopled parts of the town. Then he
+turned and gazed at the steamer, which, by this time, had fairly
+passed the brig, and seemed to be actually bound through the Gate.
+That steamer was certainly a noble-looking craft, but our young man
+fancied she struggled along through the water heavily. She might be
+quick at need, but she did not promise as much by her present rate
+of moving. Still, she was a noble-looking craft, and, as Mulford
+descended to the deck again, he almost regretted he did not belong
+to her; or, at least, to anything but the Molly Swash.
+
+Two hours produced a sensible change in and around that brigantine.
+Her people had all come back to duty, and what was very remarkable
+among seafaring folk, sober to a man. But, as has been said, Spike
+was a temperance man, as respects all under his orders at least, if
+not strictly so in practice himself. The crew of the Swash was large
+for a half-rigged brig of only two hundred tons, but, as her spars
+were very square, and all her gear as well as her mould seemed
+constructed for speed, it was probable more hands than common were
+necessary to work her with facility and expedition. After all, there
+were not many persons to be enumerated among the "people of the
+Molly Swash," as they called themselves; not more than a dozen,
+including those aft, as well as those forward. A peculiar feature of
+this crew, however, was the circumstance that they were all
+middle-aged men, with the exception of the mate, and all
+thorough-bred sea-dogs. Even Josh, the cabin-boy, as he was called,
+was an old, wrinkled, gray-headed negro, of near sixty. If the crew
+wanted a little in the elasticity of youth, it possessed the
+steadiness and experience of their time of life, every man appearing
+to know exactly what to do, and when to do it. This, indeed,
+composed their great merit; an advantage that Spike well knew how to
+appreciate.
+
+The stores had been brought alongside of the brig in a cart, and
+were already showed in their places. Josh had brushed and swept,
+until the ladies' cabin could be made no neater. This ladies' cabin
+was a small apartment beneath a trunk, which was, ingeniously
+enough, separated from the main cabin by pantries and double doors.
+The arrangement was unusual, and Spike had several times hinted that
+there was a history connected with that cabin; though what the
+history was Mulford never could induce him to relate. The latter
+knew that the brig had been used for a forced trade on the Spanish
+Main, and had heard something of her deeds in bringing off specie,
+and proscribed persons, at different epochs in the revolutions of
+that part of the world, and he had always understood that her
+present commander and owner had sailed in her, as mate, for many
+years before he had risen to his present station. Now, all was
+regular in the way of records, bills of sale, and other documents;
+Stephen Spike appearing in both the capacities just named. The
+register proved that the brig had been built as far back as the last
+English war, as a private cruiser, but recent and extensive repairs
+had made her "better than new," as her owner insisted, and there was
+no question as to her sea-worthiness. It is true the insurance
+offices blew upon her, and would have nothing to do with a craft
+that had seen her two score years and ten; but this gave none who
+belonged to her any concern, inasmuch as they could scarcely have
+been underwritten in their trade, let the age of the vessel be what
+it might. It was enough for them that the brig was safe and
+exceedingly fast, insurances never saving the lives of the people,
+whatever else might be their advantages. With Mulford it was an
+additional recommendation, that the Swash was usually thought to be
+of uncommonly just proportions.
+
+By half-past two, P. M., everything was ready for getting the
+brigantine under way. Her fore-topsail--or foretawsail as Spike
+called it--was loose, the fasts were singled, and a spring had been
+carried to a post in the wharf, that was well forward of the
+starboard bow, and the brig's head turned to the southwest, or down
+the stream, and consequently facing the young flood. Nothing seemed
+to connect the vessel with the land but a broad gangway plank, to
+which Mulford had attached life-lines, with more care than it is
+usual to meet with on board of vessels employed in short voyages.
+The men stood about the decks with their arms thrust into the bosoms
+of their shirts, and the whole picture was one of silent, and
+possibly of somewhat uneasy expectation. Nothing was said, however;
+Mulford walking the quarter-deck alone, occasionally looking up the
+still little tenanted streets of that quarter of the suburbs, as if
+to search for a carriage. As for the revenue-steamer, she had long
+before gone through the southern passage of Blackwell's, steering
+for the Gate.
+
+"Dat's dem, Mr. Mulford," Josh at length cried, from the look-out he
+had taken in a stern-port, where he could see over the low bulwarks
+of the vessel. "Yes, dat's dem, sir. I know dat old gray horse dat
+carries his head so low and sorrowful like, as a horse has a right
+to do dat has to drag a cab about this big town. My eye! what a
+horse it is, sir!"
+
+Josh was right, not only as to the gray horse that carried his head
+"sorrowful like," but as to the cab and its contents. The vehicle
+was soon on the wharf, and in its door soon appeared the short,
+sturdy figure of Capt. Spike, backing out, much as a bear descends a
+tree. On top of the vehicle were several light articles of female
+appliances, in the shape of bandboxes, bags, &c., the trunks having
+previously arrived in a cart. Well might that over-driven gray horse
+appear sorrowful, and travel with a lowered head. The cab, when it
+gave up its contents, discovered a load of no less than four persons
+besides the driver, all of weight, and of dimensions in proportion,
+with the exception of the pretty and youthful Rose Budd. Even she
+was plump, and of a well-rounded person; though still light and
+slender. But her aunt was a fair picture of a ship-master's widow;
+solid, comfortable and buxom. Neither was she old, nor ugly. On the
+contrary, her years did not exceed forty, and being well preserved,
+in consequence of never having been a mother, she might even have
+passed for thirty-five. The great objection to her appearance was
+the somewhat indefinite character of her shape, which seemed to
+blend too many of its charms into one. The fourth person, in the
+fare, was Biddy Noon, the Irish servant and factotum of Mrs. Budd,
+who was a pock-marked, red-faced, and red-armed single woman, about
+her mistress's own age and weight, though less stout to the eye.
+
+Of Rose we shall not stop to say much here. Her deep-blue eye, which
+was equally spirited and gentle, if one can use such contradictory
+terms, seemed alive with interest and curiosity, running over the
+brig, the wharf, the arm of the sea, the two islands, and all near
+her, including the Alms-House, with such a devouring rapidity as
+might be expected in a town-bred girl, who was setting out on her
+travels for the first time. Let us be understood; we say town-bred,
+because such was the fact; for Rose Budd had been both born and
+educated in Manhattan, though we are far from wishing to be
+understood that she was either very well-born, or highly educated.
+Her station in life may be inferred from that of her aunt, and her
+education from her station. Of the two, the last was, perhaps, a
+trifle the highest.
+
+We have said that the fine blue eye of Rose passed swiftly over the
+various objects near her, as she alighted from the cab, and it
+naturally took in the form of Harry Mulford, as he stood in the
+gangway, offering his arm to aid her aunt and herself in passing the
+brig's side. A smile of recognition was exchanged between the young
+people, as their eyes met, and the colour, which formed so bright a
+charm in Rose's sweet face, deepened, in a way to prove that that
+colour spoke with a tongue and eloquence of its own. Nor was
+Mulford's cheek mute on the occasion, though he helped the
+hesitating, half-doubting, half-bold girl along the plank with a
+steady hand and rigid muscles. As for the aunt, as a captain's
+widow, she had not felt it necessary to betray any extraordinary
+emotions in ascending the plank, unless, indeed, it might be those
+of delight on finding her foot once more on the deck of a vessel!
+
+Something of the same feeling governed Biddy, too, for, as Mulford
+civilly extended his hand to her also, she exclaimed--"No fear of
+me, Mr. Mate--I came from Ireland by wather, and knows all about
+ships and brigs, I do. If you could have seen the times we had, and
+the saas we crossed, you'd not think it nadeful to say much to the
+likes iv me."
+
+Spike had tact enough to understand he would be out of his element
+in assisting females along that plank, and he was busy in sending
+what he called "the old lady's dunnage" on board, and in discharging
+the cabman. As soon as this was done, he sprang into the
+main-channels, and thence vid the bulwarks, on deck, ordering the
+plank to be hauled aboard. A solitary labourer was paid a quarter to
+throw off the fasts from the ring-bolts and posts, and everything
+was instantly in motion to cast the brig loose. Work went on as if
+the vessel were in haste, and it consequently went on with activity.
+Spike bestirred himself, giving his orders in a way to denote he had
+been long accustomed to exercise authority on the deck of a vessel,
+and knew his calling to its minuti‘. The only ostensible difference
+between his deportment to-day and on any ordinary occasion, perhaps,
+was in the circumstance that he now seemed anxious to get clear of
+the wharf, and that in a way which might have attracted notice in
+any suspicious and attentive observer. It is possible that such a
+one was not very distant, and that Spike was aware of his presence,
+for a respectable-looking, well-dressed, middle-aged man had come
+down one of the adjacent streets, to a spot within a hundred yards
+of the wharf, and stood silently watching the movements of the brig,
+as he leaned against a fence. The want of houses in that quarter
+enabled any person to see this stranger from the deck of the Swash,
+but no one on board her seemed to regard him at all, unless it might
+be the master.
+
+"Come, bear a hand, my hearty, and toss that bow-fast clear," cried
+the captain, whose impatience to be off seemed to increase as the
+time to do so approached nearer and nearer. "Off with it, at once,
+and let her go."
+
+The man on the wharf threw the turns of the hawser clear of the
+post, and the Swash was released forward. A smaller line, for a
+spring, had been run some distance along the wharves, ahead of the
+vessel, and brought in aft. Her people clapped on this, and gave way
+to their craft, which, being comparatively light, was easily moved,
+and was very manageable. As this was done, the distant spectator who
+had been leaning on the fence moved toward the wharf with a step a
+little quicker than common. Almost at the same instant, a short,
+stout, sailor-like looking little person, waddled down the nearest
+street, seeming to be in somewhat of a hurry, and presently he
+joined the other stranger, and appeared to enter into conversation
+with him; pointing toward the Swash as he did so. All this time,
+both continued to advance toward the wharf.
+
+In the meanwhile, Spike and his people were not idle. The tide did
+not run very strong near the wharves and in the sort of a bight in
+which the vessel had lain; but, such as it was, it soon took the
+brig on her inner bow, and began to cast her head off shore. The
+people at the spring pulled away with all their force, and got
+sufficient motion on their vessel to overcome the tide, and to give
+the rudder an influence. The latter was put hard a-starboard, and
+helped to cast the brig's head to the southward.
+
+Down to this moment, the only sail that was loose on board the Swash
+was the fore-topsail, as mentioned. This still hung in the gear, but
+a hand had been sent aloft to overhaul the buntlines and clewlines,
+and men were also at the sheets. In a minute the sail was ready for
+hoisting. The Swash carried a wapper of a fore-and-aft mainsail,
+and, what is more, it was fitted with a standing gaff, for
+appearance in port. At sea, Spike knew better than to trust to this
+arrangement; but in fine weather, and close in with the land, he
+found it convenient to have this sail haul out and brail like a
+ship's spanker. As the gaff was now aloft, it was only necessary to
+let go the brails to loosen this broad sheet of canvas, and to clap
+on the out-hauler, to set it. This was probably the reason why the
+brig was so unceremoniously cast into the stream, without showing
+more of her cloth. The jib and flying-jibs, however, did at that
+moment drop beneath their booms, ready for hoisting.
+
+Such was the state of things as the two strangers came first upon
+the wharf. Spike was on the taffrail, overhauling the main-sheet,
+and Mulford was near him, casting the foretopsail braces from the
+pins, preparatory to clapping on the halyards.
+
+"I say, Mr. Mulford," asked the captain, "did you ever see either of
+them chaps afore? These jokers on the wharf, I mean."
+
+"Not to my recollection, sir," answered the mate, looking over the
+taffrail to examine the parties. "The little one is a burster! The
+funniest-looking little fat old fellow I've seen in many a day."
+
+"Ay, ay, them fat little bursters, as you call 'em, are sometimes
+full of the devil. I do n't like either of the chaps, and am right
+glad we are well cast, before they got here."
+
+"I do not think either would be likely to do us much harm, Capt.
+Spike."
+
+"There's no knowing sir. The biggest fellow looks as if he might lug
+out a silver oar at any moment."
+
+"I believe the silver oar is no longer used, in this country at
+least," answered Mulford, smiling. "And if it were, what have we to
+fear from it? I fancy the brig has paid her reckoning."
+
+"She do n't owe a cent, nor ever shall for twenty-four hours after
+the bill is made out, while I own her. They call me ready-money
+Stephen, round among the ship-chandlers and caulkers. But I do n't
+like them chaps, and what I do n't relish I never swallow, you
+know."
+
+"They 'll hardly try to get aboard us, sir; you see we are quite
+clear of the wharf, and the mainsail will take now, if we set it."
+
+Spike ordered the mate to clap on the outhauler, and spread that
+broad sheet of canvas at once to the little breeze there was. This
+was almost immediately done, when the sail filled, and began to be
+felt on the movement of the vessel. Still, that movement was very
+slow, the wind being so light, and the vis inertioe of so large a
+body remaining to be overcome. The brig receded from the wharf,
+almost in a line at right angles to its face, inch by inch, as it
+might be, dropping slowly up with the tide at the same time. Mulford
+now passed forward to set the jibs, and to get the topsail on the
+craft, leaving Spike on the taffrail, keenly eyeing the strangers,
+who, by this time, had got down nearly to the end of the wharf, at
+the berth so lately occupied by the Swash. That the captain was
+uneasy was evident enough, that feeling being exhibited in his
+countenance, blended with a malignant ferocity.
+
+"Has that brig any pilot?" asked the larger and better-looking of
+the two strangers.
+
+"What's that to you, friend?" demanded Spike, in return. "Have you a
+Hell-Gate branch?"
+
+"I may have one, or I may not. It is not usual for so large a craft
+to run the Gate without a pilot."
+
+"Oh! my gentleman's below, brushing up his logarithms. We shall have
+him on deck to take his departure before long, when I'll let him
+know your kind inquiries after his health."
+
+The man on the wharf seemed to be familiar with this sort of
+sea-wit, and he made no answer, but continued that close scrutiny of
+the brig, by turning his eyes in all directions, now looking below,
+and now aloft, which had in truth occasioned Spike's principal cause
+for uneasiness.
+
+"Is not that Capt. Stephen Spike, of the brigantine Molly Swash?"
+called out the little, dumpling-looking person, in a cracked,
+dwarfish sort of a voice, that was admirably adapted to his
+appearance. Our captain fairly started; turned full toward the
+speaker; regarded him intently for a moment; and gulped the words he
+was about to utter, like one confounded. As he gazed, however, at
+little dumpy, examining his bow-legs, red broad cheeks, and coarse
+snub nose, he seemed to regain his self-command, as if satisfied the
+dead had not really returned to life.
+
+"Are you acquainted with the gentleman you have named?" he asked, by
+way of answer. "You speak of him like one who ought to know him."
+
+"A body is apt to know a shipmate. Stephen Spike and I sailed
+together twenty years since, and I hope to live to sail with him
+again."
+
+"You sail with Stephen Spike? when and where, may I ask, and in what
+v'y'ge, pray?"
+
+"The last time was twenty years since. Have you forgotten little
+Jack Tier, Capt. Spike?"
+
+Spike looked astonished, and well he might, for he had supposed Jack
+to be dead fully fifteen years. Time and hard service had greatly
+altered him, but the general resemblance in figure, stature, and
+waddle, certainly remained. Notwithstanding, the Jack Tier that
+Spike remembered was quite a different person from this Jack Tier.
+That Jack had worn his intensely black hair clubbed and curled,
+whereas this Jack had cut his locks into short bristles, which time
+had turned into an intense gray. That Jack was short and thick, but
+he was flat and square; whereas this Jack was just as short, a good
+deal thicker, and as round as a dumpling. In one thing, however, the
+likeness still remained perfect. Both Jacks chewed tobacco, to a
+degree that became a distinct feature in their appearance.
+
+Spike had many reasons for wishing Jack Tier were not resuscitated
+in this extraordinary manner, and some for being glad to see him.
+The fellow had once been largely in his confidence, and knew more
+than was quite safe for any one to remember but himself, while he
+might be of great use to him in his future, operations. It is always
+convenient to have one at your elbow who thoroughly understands you,
+and Spike would have lowered a boat and sent it to the wharf to
+bring Jack off, were it not for the gentleman who was so inquisitive
+about pilots. Under the circumstances, he determined to forego the
+advantages of Jack's presence, reserving the right to hunt him up on
+his return.
+
+The reader will readily enough comprehend, that the Molly Swash was
+not absolutely standing still while the dialogue related was going
+on, and the thoughts we have recorded were passing through her
+master's mind. On the contrary, she was not only in motion, but that
+motion was gradually increasing, and by the time all was said that
+has been related, it had become necessary for those who spoke to
+raise their voices to an inconvenient pitch in order to be heard.
+This circumstance alone would soon have put an end to the
+conversation, had not Spike's pausing to reflect brought about the
+same result, as mentioned.
+
+In the mean time, Mulford had got the canvas spread. Forward, the
+Swash showed all the cloth of a full-rigged brig, even to royals and
+flying jib; while aft, her mast was the raking, tall, naked pole of
+an American schooner. There was a taunt topmast, too, to which a
+gaff-topsail was set, and the gear proved that she could also show,
+at need, a staysail in this part of her, if necessary. As the Gate
+was before them, however, the people had set none but the plain,
+manageable canvas.
+
+The Molly Swash kept close on a wind, luffing athwar the broad reach
+she was in, until far enough to weather Blackwell's, when she edged
+off to her course, and went through the southern passage. Although
+the wind remained light, and a little baffling, the brig was so
+easily impelled, and was so very handy, that there was no difficulty
+in keeping her perfectly in command. The tide, too, was fast
+increasing in strength and volocity, and the movement from this
+cause alone was getting to be sufficiently rapid.
+
+As for the passengers, of whom we have lost sight in order to get
+the brig under way, they were now on deck again. At first, they had
+all gone below, under the care of Josh, a somewhat rough groom of
+the chambers, to take possession of their apartment, a sufficiently
+neat, and exceedingly comfortable cabin, supplied with everything
+that could be wanted at sea, and, what was more, lined on two of its
+sides with state-rooms. It is true, all these apartments were small,
+and the state-rooms were very low, but no fault could be found with
+their neatness and general arrangements, when it was recollected
+that one was on board a vessel.
+
+"Here ebbery t'ing heart can wish," said Josh, exultingly, who,
+being an old-school black, did not disdain to use some of the
+old-school dialect of his caste. "Yes, ladies, ebbery t'ing. Let
+Cap'n Spike alone for dat! He won'erful at accommodation! Not a
+bed-bug aft--know better dan come here; jest like de people, in dat
+respects, and keep deir place forrard. You nebber see a pig come on
+de quarter-deck, nudder."
+
+"You must maintain excellent discipline, Josh," cried Rose, in one
+of the sweetest voices in the world, which was easily attuned to
+merriment--"and we are delighted to learn what you tell us. How do
+you manage to keep up these distinctions, and make such creatures
+know their places so well?"
+
+"Nuttin easier, if you begin right, miss. As for de pig, I teach dem
+wid scaldin' water. Wheneber I sees a pig come aft, I gets a little
+water from de copper, and just scald him wid it. You can't t'ink,
+miss, how dat mend his manners, and make him squeel fuss, and t'ink
+arter. In dat fashion I soon get de ole ones in good trainin', and
+den I has no more trouble with dem as comes fresh aboard; for de ole
+hog tell de young one, and 'em won'erful cunnin', and know how to
+take care of 'emself."
+
+Rose Budd's sweet eyes were full of fun and expectation, and she
+could no more repress her laugh than youth and spirits can always be
+discreet.
+
+"Yes, with the pigs," she cried, "that might do very well; but how
+is it with those--other creatures?"
+
+"Rosy, dear," interrupted the aunt, "I wish you would say no more
+about such shocking things. It's enough for us that Capt. Spike has
+ordered them all to stay forward among the men, which is always done
+on board well disciplined vessels. I've heard your uncle say, a
+hundred times, that the quarter-deck was sacred, and that might be
+enough to keep such animals off it."
+
+It was barely necessary to look at Mrs. Budd in the face to get a
+very accurate general notion of her character. She was one of those
+inane, uncultivated beings who seem to be protected by a benevolent
+Providence in their pilgrimage on earth, for they do not seem to
+possess the power to protect themselves. Her very countenance
+expressed imbecility and mental dependence, credulity and a love of
+gossip. Notwithstanding these radical weaknesses, the good woman had
+some of the better instincts of her sex, and was never guilty of
+anything that could properly convey reproach.
+
+She was no monitress for Rose, however, the niece much oftener
+influencing the aunt, than the aunt influencing the niece. The
+latter had been fortunate in having had an excellent instructress,
+who, though incapable of teaching her much in the way of
+accomplishments, had imparted a great deal that was respectable and
+useful. Rose had character, and strong character, too, as the course
+of our narrative will show; but her worthy aunt was a pure picture
+of as much mental imbecility as at all comported with the privileges
+of self-government.
+
+The conversation about "those other creatures" was effectually
+checked by Mrs. Budd's horror of the "animals," and Josh was called
+on deck so shortly after as to prevent its being renewed. The
+females staid below a few minutes, to take possession, and then they
+re-appeared on deck, to gaze at the horrors of the Hell Gate
+passage. Rose was all eyes, wonder and admiration of everything she
+saw. This was actually the first time she had ever been on the
+water, in any sort of craft, though born and brought up in sight of
+one of the most thronged havens in the world. But there must be a
+beginning to everything, and this was Rose Budd's beginning on the
+water. It is true the brigantine was a very beautiful, as well as an
+exceedingly swift vessel; but all this was lost on Rose, who would
+have admired a horse-jockey bound to the West Indies, in this the
+incipient state of her nautical knowledge. Perhaps the exquisite
+neatness that Mulford maintained about everything that came under
+his care, and that included everything on deck, or above-board, and
+about which neatness Spike occasionally muttered an oath, as so much
+senseless trouble, contributed somewhat to Rose's pleasure; but her
+admiration would scarcely have been less with anything that had
+sails, and seemed to move through the water with a power approaching
+that of volition.
+
+It was very different with Mrs. Budd, She, good woman, had actually
+made one voyage with her late husband, and she fancied that she knew
+all about a vessel. It was her delight to talk on nautical subjects,
+and never did she really feel her great superiority over her niece,
+so very unequivocally, as when the subject of the ocean was
+introduced, about which she did know something, and touching which
+Rose was profoundly ignorant, or as ignorant as a girl of lively
+imagination could remain with the information gleaned from others.
+
+"I am not surprised you are astonished at the sight of the vessel,
+Rosy," observed the self-complacent aunt at one of her niece's
+exclamations of admiration. "A vessel is a very wonderful thing, and
+we are told what extr'orny beings they are that `go down to the sea
+in ships.' But you are to know this is not a ship at all, but only a
+half-jigger rigged, which is altogether a different thing."
+
+"Was my uncle's vessel, The Rose In Bloom, then, very different from
+the Swash?"
+
+"Very different indeed, child! Why, The Rose In Bloom was a
+full-jiggered ship, and had twelve masts--and this is only a
+half-jiggered brig, and has but two masts. See, you may count
+them--one--two!"
+
+Harry Mulford was coiling away a top-gallant-brace, directly in
+front of Mrs. Budd and Rose, and, at hearing this account of the
+wonderful equipment of The Rose In Bloom, he suddenly looked up,
+with a lurking expression about his eye that the niece very well
+comprehended, while he exclaimed, without much reflection, under the
+impulse of surprise--"Twelve masts! Did I understand you to say,
+ma'am, that Capt. Budd's ship had twelve masts?"
+
+"Yes, sir, twelve! and I can tell you all their names, for I learnt
+them by heart--it appearing to me proper that a ship-master's wife
+should know the names of all the masts in her husband's vessel. Do
+you wish to hear their names, Mr. Mulford?"
+
+Harry Mulford would have enjoyed this conversation to the top of his
+bent, had it not been for Rose. She well knew her aunt's general
+weakness of intellect, and especially its weakness on this
+particular subject, but she would suffer no one to manifest contempt
+for either, if in her power to prevent it. It is seldom one so
+young, so mirthful, so ingenuous and innocent in the expression of
+her countenance, assumed so significant and rebuking a frown as did
+pretty Rose Budd when she heard the mate's involuntary exclamation
+about the "twelve masts." Harry, who was not easily checked by his
+equals, or any of his own sex, submitted to that rebuking frown with
+the meekness of a child, and stammered out, in answer to the
+well-meaning, but weak-minded widow's question--"If you please,
+Mrs. Budd--just as you please, ma'am--only twelve is a good many
+masts--" Rose frowned again--"that is--more than I'm used to
+seeing--that's all."
+
+"I dare say, Mr. Mulford--for you sail in only a half-jigger; but
+Capt. Budd always sailed in a full-jigger--and his full-jiggered
+ship had just twelve masts, and, to prove it to you, I'll give you
+the names--first then, there were the fore, main, and mizen masts--"
+
+"Yes--yes--ma'am," stammered Harry, who wished the twelve masts and
+The Rose In Bloom at the bottom of the ocean, since her owner's
+niece still continued to look coldly displeased--"that's right, I
+can swear!"
+
+"Very true, sir, and you'll find I am right as to all the rest.
+Then, there were the fore, main, and mizen top-masts--they make six,
+if I can count, Mr. Mulford?"
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed the mate, laughing, in spite of Rose's frowns, as
+the manner in which the old sea-dog had quizzed his wife became
+apparent to him. "I see how it is--you are quite right, ma'am--I
+dare say The Rose In Bloom had all these masts, and some to spare."
+
+"Yes, sir--I knew you would be satisfied. The fore, main and mizen
+top-gallant-masts make nine--and the fore, main and mizen royals
+make just twelve. Oh, I'm never wrong in anything about a vessel,
+especially if she is a full-jiggered ship."
+
+Mulford had some difficulty in restraining his smiles each time the
+full-jigger was mentioned, but Rose's expression of countenance kept
+him in excellent order--and she, innocent creature, saw nothing
+ridiculous in the term, though the twelve masts had given her a
+little alarm. Delighted that the old lady had got through her
+enumeration of the spars with so much success, Rose cried, in the
+exuberance of her spirits--"Well, aunty, for my part, I find a
+half-jigger vessel, so very, very beautiful, that I do not know how
+I should behave were I to go on board a full-jigger."
+
+Mulford turned abruptly away, the circumstance of Rose's making
+herself ridiculous giving him sudden pain, though he could have
+laughed at her aunt by the hour.
+
+"Ah, my dear, that is on account of your youth and inexperience--but
+you will learn better in time. I was just so, myself, when I was of
+your age, and thought the fore-rafters were as handsome as the
+squared-jiggers, but soon after I married Capt. Budd I felt the
+necessity of knowing more than I did about ships, and I got him to
+teach me. He did n't like the business, at first, and pretended I
+would never learn; but, at last, it came all at once like, and then
+he used to be delighted to hear me `talk ship,' as he called it.
+I've known him laugh, with his cronies, as if ready to die, at my
+expertness in sea-terms, for half an hour together--and then he
+would swear--that was the worst fault your uncle had, Rosy--he would
+swear, sometimes, in a way that frightened me, I do declare!"
+
+"But he never swore at you, aunty?"
+
+"I can't say that he did exactly do that, but he would swear all
+round me, even if he did n't actually touch me, when things went
+wrong--but it would have done your heart good to hear him laugh! he
+had a most excellent heart, just like your own, Rosy dear; but, for
+that matter, all the Budds have excellent hearts, and one of the
+commonest ways your uncle had of showing it was to laugh,
+particularly when we were together and talking. Oh, he used to
+delight in hearing me converse, especially about vessels, and never
+failed to get me at it when he had company. I see his good-natured,
+excellent-hearted countenance at this moment, with the tears running
+down his fat, manly cheeks, as he shook his very sides with
+laughter. I may live a hundred years, Rosy, before I meet again with
+your uncle's equal."
+
+This was a subject that invariably silenced Rose. She remembered her
+uncle, herself, and remembered his affectionate manner of laughing
+at her aunt, and she always wished the latter to get through her
+eulogiums on her married happiness, as soon as possible, whenever
+the subject was introduced.
+
+All this time the Molly Swash kept in motion. Spike never took a
+pilot when he could avoid it, and his mind was too much occupied
+with his duty, in that critical navigation, to share at all in the
+conversation of his passengers, though he did endeavour to make
+himself agreeable to Rose, by an occasional remark, when a
+favourable opportunity offered.
+
+As soon as he had worked his brig over into the south or weather
+passage of Blackwell's, however, there remained little for him to
+do, until she had drifted through it, a distance of a mile or more;
+and this gave him leisure to do the honours. He pointed out the
+castellated edifice on Blackwell's as the new penitentiary, and the
+hamlet of villas, on the other shore, as Ravenswood, though there is
+neither wood nor ravens to authorize the name. But the "Sunswick,"
+which satisfied the Delafields and Gibbses of the olden, time, and
+which distinguished their lofty halls and broad lawns, was not
+elegant enough for the cockney tastes of these latter days, so
+"wood" must be made to usurp the place of cherries and apples, and
+"ravens" that of gulls, in order to satisfy its cravings. But all
+this was lost on Spike. He remembered the shore as it had been
+twenty years before, and he saw what it was now, but little did he
+care for the change. On the whole, he rather preferred the Grecian
+Temples, over which the ravens would have been compelled to fly, had
+there been any ravens in that neighbourhood, to the old-fashioned
+and highly respectable residence that once alone occupied the spot.
+The point he did understand, however, and on the merits of which he
+had something to say, was a little farther ahead. That, too, had
+been re-christened--the Hallet's Cove of the mariner being converted
+into Astoria--not that bloody-minded place at the mouth of the
+Oregon, which has come so near bringing us to blows with our
+"ancestors in England," as the worthy denizens of that quarter
+choose to consider themselves still, if one can judge by their
+language. This Astoria was a very different place, and is one of the
+many suburban villages that are shooting up, like mushrooms in a
+night, around the great Commercial Emporium. This spot Spike
+understood perfectly, and it was not likely that he should pass it
+without communicating a portion of his knowledge to Rose.
+
+"There, Miss Rose," he said, with a didactic sort of air, pointing
+with his short, thick finger at the little bay which was just
+opening to their view; "there's as neat a cove as a craft need bring
+up in. That used to be a capital place to lie in, to wait for a wind
+to pass the Gate; but it has got to be most too public for my taste.
+I'm rural, I tell Mulford, and love to get in out-of-the-way berths
+with my brig, where she can see salt-meadows, and smell the clover.
+You never catch me down in any of the crowded slips, around the
+markets, or anywhere in that part of the town, for I do love country
+air. That's Hallet's Cove, Miss Rose, and a pretty anchorage it
+would be for us, if the wind and tide didn't sarve to take us
+through the Gate."
+
+"Are we near the Gate, Capt. Spike?" asked Rose, the fine bloom on
+her cheek lessening a little, under the apprehension that formidable
+name is apt to awaken in the breasts of the inexperienced.
+
+"Half a mile, or so. It begins just at the other end of this island
+on our larboard hand, and will be all over in about another half
+mile, or so. It's no such bad place, a'ter all, is Hell-Gate, to
+them that's used to it. I call myself a pilot in Hell-Gate, though I
+have no branch."
+
+"I wish, Capt. Spike, I could teach you to give that place its
+proper and polite name. We call it Whirl-Gate altogether now," said
+the relict.
+
+"Well, that's new to me," cried Spike. "I have heard some
+chicken-mouthed folk say Hurl-Gate, but this is the first time I
+ever heard it called Whirl-Gate--they'll get it to Whirligig-Gate
+next. I do n't think that my old commander, Capt. Budd, called the
+passage anything but honest up and down Hell-Gate."
+
+"That he did--that he did--and all my arguments and reading could
+not teach him any better. I proved to him that it was Whirl-Gate, as
+any one can see that it ought to be. It is full of whirlpools, they
+say, and that shows what Nature meant the name to be."
+
+"But, aunty," put in Rose, half reluctantly, half anxious to speak,
+"what has gate to do with whirlpools? You will remember it is called
+a gate--the gate to that wicked place I suppose is meant."
+
+"Rose, you amaze me! How can you, a young woman of only nineteen,
+stand up for so vulgar a name as Hell-Gate!"
+
+"Do you think it as vulgar as Hurl-Gate, aunty?" To me it always
+seems the most vulgar to be straining at gnats."
+
+"Yes," said Spike sentimentally, "I'm quite of Miss Rose's way of
+thinking--straining at gnats is very ill-manners, especially at
+table. I once knew a man who strained in this way, until I thought
+he would have choked, though it was with a fly to be sure; but gnats
+are nothing but small flies, you know, Miss Rose. Yes, I'm quite of
+your way of thinking, Miss Rose; it is very vulgar to be straining
+at gnats and flies, more particularly at table. But you'll find no
+flies or gnats aboard here, to be straining at, or brushing away, or
+to annoy you. Stand by there, my hearties, and see all clear to run
+through Hell-Gate. Do n't let me catch you straining at anything,
+though it should be the fin of a whale!"
+
+The people forward looked at each other, as they listened to this
+novel admonition, though they called out the customary "ay, ay,
+sir," as they went to the sheets, braces and bowlines. To them the
+passage of no Hell-Gate conveyed the idea of any particular terror,
+and with the one they were about to enter, they were much too
+familiar to care anything about it.
+
+The brig was now floating fast, with the tide, up abreast of the
+east end of Blackwell's, and in two or three more minutes she would
+be fairly in the Gate. Spike was aft, where he could command a view
+of everything forward, and Mulford stood on the quarter-deck, to
+look after the head-braces. An old and trustworthy seaman, who acted
+as a sort of boatswain, had the charge on the forecastle, and was to
+tend the sheets and tack. His name was Rove.
+
+"See all clear," called out Spike. "D'ye hear there, for'ard! I
+shall make a half-board in the Gate, if the wind favour us, and the
+tide prove strong enough to hawse us to wind'ard sufficiently to
+clear the Pot--so mind your--"
+
+The captain breaking off in the middle of this harangue, Mulford
+turned his head, in order to see what might be the matter. There was
+Spike, levelling a spy-glass at a boat that was pulling swiftly out
+of the north channel, and shooting like an arrow directly athwart
+the brig's bows into the main passage of the Gate. He stepped to the
+captain's elbow.
+
+"Just take a look at them chaps, Mr. Mulford," said Spike, handing
+his mate the glass.
+
+"They seem in a hurry," answered Harry, as he adjusted the glass to
+his eye, "and will go through the Gate in less time than it will
+take to mention the circumstance."
+
+"What do you make of them, sir?"
+
+"The little man who called himself Jack Tier is in the stern-sheets
+of the boat, for one," answered Mulford.
+
+"And the other, Harry--what do you make of the other?"
+
+"It seems to be the chap who hailed to know if we had a pilot. He
+means to board us at Riker's Island, and make us pay pilotage,
+whether we want his services or not."
+
+"Blast him and his pilotage too! Give me the glass"--taking another
+long look at the boat, which by this time was glancing, rather than
+pulling, nearly at right angles across his bows. "I want no such
+pilot aboard here, Mr. Mulford. Take another look at him--here, you
+can see him, away on our weather bow, already."
+
+Mulford did take another look at him, and this time his examination
+was longer and more scrutinizing than before.
+
+"It is not easy to cover him with the glass," observed the young
+man--"the boat seems fairly to fly."
+
+"We're forereaching too near the Hog's Back, Capt. Spike," roared
+the boatswain, from forward.
+
+"Ready about--hard a lee," shouted Spike. "Let all fly,
+for'ard--help her round, boys, all you can, and wait for no orders!
+Bestir yourselves--bestir yourselves."
+
+It was time the crew should be in earnest. While Spike's attention
+had been thus diverted by the boat, the brig had got into the
+strongest of the current, which, by setting her fast to windward,
+had trebled the power of the air, and this was shooting her over
+toward one of the greatest dangers of the passage on a flood tide.
+As everybody bestirred themselves, however, she was got round and
+filled on the opposite tack, just in time to clear the rocks. Spike
+breathed again, but his head was still full of the boat. The danger
+he had just escaped as Scylla met him as Charybdis. The boatswain
+again roared to go about. The order was given as the vessel began to
+pitch in a heavy swell. At the next instant she rolled until the
+water came on deck, whirled with her stern down the tide, and her
+bows rose as if she were about to leap out of water. The Swash had
+hit the Pot Rock.
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+"Watch. If we know him to be a thief, shall we not lay hands on
+him?
+
+Dogb. Truly, by your office, you may; but I think they that touch
+pitch will be defiled; the most peaceable way for you, if you do take
+a thief, is, to let him show himself what he is, and steal out of your
+company."
+
+Much Ado About Nothing.
+
+
+
+
+We left the brigantine of Capt. Spike in a very critical situation,
+and the master himself in great confusion of mind.
+
+A thorough seaman, this accident would never have happened, but for
+the sudden appearance of the boat and its passengers; one of whom
+appeared to be a source of great uneasiness to him. As might be
+expected, the circumstance of striking a place as dangerous as the
+Pot Rock in Hell-Gate, produced a great sensation on board the
+vessel. This sensation betrayed itself in various ways, and
+according to the characters, habits, and native firmness of the
+parties. As for the ship-master's relict, she seized hold of the
+main-mast, and screamed so loud and perseveringly, as to cause the
+sensation to extend itself into the adjacent and thriving village of
+Astoria, where it was distinctly heard by divers of those who dwelt
+near the water. Biddy Noon had her share in this clamour, lying down
+on the deck in order to prevent rolling over, and possibly to scream
+more at her leisure, while Rose had sufficient self-command to be
+silent, though her cheeks lost their colour.
+
+Nor was there anything extraordinary in females betraying this
+alarm, when one remembers the somewhat astounding signs of danger by
+which these persons were surrounded. There is always something
+imposing in the swift movement of a considerable body of water. When
+this movement is aided by whirlpools and the other similar
+accessories of an interrupted current, it frequently becomes
+startling, more especially to those who happen to be on the element
+itself. This is peculiarly the case with the Pot Rock, where, not
+only does the water roll and roar as if agitated by a mighty wind,
+but where it even breaks, the foam seeming to glance up stream, in
+the rapid succession of wave to wave. Had the Swash remained in her
+terrific berth more than a second or two, she would have proved what
+is termed a "total loss;" but she did not. Happily, the Pot Rock
+lies so low that it is not apt to fetch up anything of a light
+draught of water, and the brigantine's fore-foot had just settled on
+its summit, long enough to cause the vessel to whirl round and make
+her obeisance to the place, when a succeeding swell lifted her
+clear, and away she went down stream, rolling as if scudding in a
+gale, and, for a moment, under no command whatever. There lay
+another danger ahead, or it would be better to say astern, for the
+brig was drifting stern foremost; and that was in an eddy under a
+bluff, which bluff lies at an angle in the reach, where it is no
+uncommon thing for craft to be cast ashore, after they have passed
+all the more imposing and more visible dangers above. It was in
+escaping this danger, and in recovering the command of his vessel,
+that Spike now manifested the sort of stuff of which he was really
+made, in emergencies of this sort. The yards were all sharp up when
+the accident occurred, and springing to the lee braces, just as a
+man winks when his eye is menaced, he seized the weather fore-brace
+with his own hands, and began to round in the yard, shouting out to
+the man at the wheel to "port his helm" at the same time. Some of
+the people flew to his assistance, and the yards were not only
+squared, but braced a little up on the other tack, in much less time
+than we have taken to relate the evolution. Mulford attended to the
+main-sheet, and succeeded in getting the boom out in the right
+direction. Although the wind was in truth very light, the velocity
+of the drift filled the canvas, and taking the arrow-like current on
+her lee bow, the Swash, like a frantic steed that is alarmed with
+the wreck made by his own madness, came under command, and sheered
+out into the stream again, where she could drift clear of the
+apprehended danger astern.
+
+"Sound the pumps!" called out Spike to Mulford, the instant he saw
+he had regained his seat in the saddle. Harry sprang amidships to
+obey, and the eye of every mariner in that vessel was on the young
+man, as, in the midst of a death-like silence, he performed this
+all-important duty. It was like the physician's feeling the pulse of
+his patient before he pronounces on the degree of his danger.
+
+"Well, sir?" cried out Spike, impatiently, as the rod reappeared.
+
+"All right, sir," answered Harry, cheerfully--"the well is nearly
+empty."
+
+"Hold on a moment longer, and give the water time to find its way
+amidships, if there be any."
+
+The mate remained perched up on the pump, in order to comply, while
+Spike and his people, who now breathed more freely again, improved
+the leisure to brace up and haul aft, to the new course.
+
+"Biddy," said Mrs. Budd considerately, during this pause in the
+incidents, "you need n't scream any longer. The danger seems to be
+past, and you may get up off the deck now. See, I have let go of the
+mast. The pumps have been sounded, and are found tight."
+
+Biddy, like an obedient and respectful servant, did as directed,
+quite satisfied if the pumps were tight. It was some little time, to
+be sure, before she was perfectly certain whether she were alive or
+not--but, once certain of this circumstance, her alarm very sensibly
+abated, and she became reasonable. As for Mulford, he dropped the
+sounding rod again, and had the same cheering report to make.
+
+"The brig is as tight as a bottle, sir."
+
+"So much the better," answered Spike. "I never had such a whirl in
+her before in my life, and I thought she was going to stop and pass
+the night there. That's the very spot on which `The Hussar' frigate
+was wrecked."
+
+"So I have heard, sir. But she drew so much water that she hit slap
+against the rock, and started a butt. We merely touched on its top
+with our fore-foot, and slid off."
+
+This was the simple explanation of the Swash's escape, and,
+everybody being now well assured that no harm had been done, things
+fell into their old and regular train again. As for Spike, his
+gallantry, notwithstanding, was upset for some hours, and glad
+enough was he when he saw all three of his passengers quit the deck
+to go below. Mrs. Budd's spirits had been so much agitated that she
+told Rose she would go down into the cabin and rest a few minutes on
+its sofa. We say sofa, for that article of furniture, now-a-days, is
+far more common in vessels than it was thirty years ago in the
+dwellings of the country.
+
+"There, Mulford," growled Spike, pointing ahead of the brig, to an
+object on the water that was about half a mile ahead of them,
+"there's that bloody boat--d'ye see? I should like of all things to
+give it the slip. There's a chap in that boat I do n't like."
+
+"I do n't see how that can be very well done, sir, unless we anchor,
+repass the Gate at the turn of the tide, and go to sea by the way of
+Sandy Hook."
+
+"That will never do. I've no wish to be parading the brig before the
+town. You see, Mulford, nothing can be more innocent and proper than
+the Molly Swash, as you know from having sailed in her these twelve
+months. You'll give her that character, I'll be sworn?"
+
+"I know no harm of her, Capt. Spike, and hope I never shall."
+
+"No, sir--you know no harm of her, nor does any one else. A nursing
+infant is not more innocent than the Molly Swash, or could have a
+clearer character if nothing but truth was said of her. But the
+world is so much given to lying, that one of the old saints, of whom
+we read in the good book, such as Calvin and John Rogers, would be
+vilified if he lived in these times. Then, it must be owned, Mr.
+Mulford, whatever may be the raal innocence of the brig, she has a
+most desperate wicked look."
+
+"Why, yes, sir--it must be owned she is what we sailors call a
+wicked-looking craft. But some of Uncle Sam's cruisers have that
+appearance, also."
+
+"I know it--I know it, sir, and think nothing of looks myself. Men
+are often deceived in me, by my looks, which have none of your
+long-shore softness about 'em, perhaps; but my mother used to say I
+was one of the most tender-hearted boys she had ever heard spoken
+of--like one of the babes in the woods, as it might be. But mankind
+go so much by appearances that I do n't like to trust the brig too
+much afore their eyes. Now, should we be seen in the lower bay,
+waiting for a wind, or for the ebb tide to make, to carry us over
+the bar, ten to one but some philotropic or other would be off with
+a complaint to the District Attorney that we looked like a slaver,
+and have us all fetched up to be tried for our lives as pirates. No,
+no--I like to keep the brig in out-of-the-way places, where she can
+give no offence to your 'tropics, whether they be philos, or of any
+other sort."
+
+"Well, sir, we are to the eastward of the Gate, and all's safe. That
+boat cannot bring us up."
+
+"You forget, Mr. Mulford, the revenue-craft that steamed up, on the
+ebb. That vessel must be off Sands' Point by this time, and she may
+hear something to our disparagement from the feller in the boat, and
+take it into her smoky head to walk us back to town. I wish we were
+well to the eastward of that steamer! But there's no use in
+lamentations. If there is really any danger, it's some distance
+ahead yet, thank Heaven!"
+
+"You have no fears of the man who calls himself Jack Tier, Capt.
+Spike?"
+
+"None in the world. That feller, as I remember him, was a little
+bustlin' chap that I kept in the cabin, as a sort of steward's mate.
+There was neither good nor harm in him, to the best of my
+recollection. But Josh can tell us all about him--just give Josh a
+call."
+
+The best thing in the known history of Spike was the fact that his
+steward had sailed with him for more than twenty years. Where he had
+picked up Josh no one could say, but Josh and himself, and neither
+chose to be very communicative on the subject. But Josh had
+certainly been with him as long as he had sailed the Swash, and that
+was from a time actually anterior to the birth of Mulford. The mate
+soon had the negro in the council.
+
+"I say, Josh," asked Spike, "do you happen to remember such a hand
+aboard here as one Jack Tier?"
+
+"Lor' bless you, yes sir--'members he as well as I do the pea soup
+that was burnt, and which you t'rowed all over him, to scald him for
+punishment."
+
+"I've had to do that so often, to one careless fellow or other, that
+the circumstance does n't recall the man. I remember him--but not as
+clear as I could wish. How long did he sail with us?"
+
+"Sebberal v'y'ge, sir, and got left ashore down on the main, one
+night, when'e boat were obliged to shove off in a hurry. Yes,
+'members little Jack, right well I does."
+
+"Did you see the man that spoke us from the wharf, and hailed for
+this very Jack Tier?"
+
+"I see'd a man, sir, dat was won'erful Jack Tier built like, sir,
+but I did n't hear the conwersation, habbin' the ladies to 'tend to.
+But Jack was oncommon short in his floor timbers, sir, and had no
+length of keel at all. His beam was won'erful for his length,
+altogedder--what you call jolly-boat, or bum-boat build, and was
+only good afore'e wind, Cap'n Spike."
+
+"Was he good for anything aboard ship, Josh? Worth heaving-to for,
+should he try to get aboard of us again?"
+
+"Why, sir, can't say much for him in dat fashion. Jack was handy in
+the cabin, and capital feller to carry soup from the gally, aft. You
+see, sir, he was so low-rigged that the brig's lurchin' and pitchin'
+could n't get him off his pins, and he stood up like a church in the
+heaviest wea'der. Yes, sir, Jack was right good for dat."
+
+Spike mused a moment--then he rolled the tobacco over in his mouth,
+and added, in the way a man speaks when his mind is made up--"Ay
+ay! I see into the fellow. He'll make a handy lady's maid, and we
+want such a chap just now. It's better to have an old friend aboard,
+than to be pickin' up strangers, 'long shore. So, should this Jack
+Tier come off to us, from any of the islands or points ahead, Mr.
+Mulford, you'll round to and take him aboard. As for the steamer, if
+she will only pass out into the Sound where there's room, it shall
+go hard with us but I get to the eastward of her, without speaking.
+On the other hand, should she anchor this side of the fort, I'll not
+attempt to pass her. There is deep water inside of most of the
+islands, I know, and we'll try and dodge her in that way, if no
+better offer. I've no more reason than another craft to fear a
+government vessel, but the sight of one of them makes me
+oncomfortable; that's all."
+
+Mulford shrugged his shoulders and remained silent, perceiving that
+his commander was not disposed to pursue the subject any further. In
+the mean time, the brig had passed beyond the influence of the
+bluff, and was beginning to feel a stronger breeze, that was coming
+down the wide opening of Flushing Bay. As the tide still continued
+strong in her favour, and her motion through the water was getting
+to be four or five knots, there was every prospect of her soon
+reaching Whitestone, the point where the tides meet, and where it
+would become necessary to anchor; unless, indeed, the wind, which
+was now getting to the southward and eastward, should come round
+more to the south. All this Spike and his mate discussed together,
+while the people were clearing the decks, and making the
+preparations that are customary on board a vessel before she gets
+into rough water.
+
+By this time it was ascertained that the brig had received no damage
+by her salute of the Pot Rock, and every trace of uneasiness on that
+account was removed. But Spike kept harping on the boat, and "the
+pilot-looking chap who was in her." As they passed Riker's Island,
+all hands expected a boat would put off with a pilot, or to demand
+pilotage; but none came, and the Swash now seemed released from all
+her present dangers, unless some might still be connected with the
+revenue steamer. To retard her advance, however, the wind came out a
+smart working breeze from the southward and eastward, compelling her
+to make "long legs and short ones" on her way towards Whitestone.
+
+"This is beating the wind, Rosy dear," said Mrs. Budd, complacently,
+she and her niece having returned to the deck a few minutes after
+this change had taken place. "Your respected uncle did a great deal
+of this in his time, and was very successful in it. I have heard him
+say, that in one of his voyages between Liverpool and New York, he
+beat the wind by a whole fortnight, everybody talking of it in the
+insurance offices, as if it was a miracle."
+
+"Ay, ay, Madam Budd," put in Spike, "I'll answer for that. They're
+desperate talkers in and about them there insurance offices in Wall
+street. Great gossips be they, and they think they know everything.
+Now just because this brig is a little old or so, and was built for
+a privateer in the last war, they'd refuse to rate her as even B,
+No. 2, and my blessing on 'em."
+
+"Yes, B, No. 2, that's just what your dear uncle used to call me,
+Rosy--his charming B, No. 2, or Betsy, No. 2; particularly when he
+was in a loving mood. Captain Spike, did you ever beat the wind in a
+long voyage?"
+
+"I can't say I ever did, Mrs. Budd," answered Spike, looking grimly
+around, to ascertain if any one dared to smile at his passenger's
+mistake; "especially for so long a pull as from New York to
+Liverpool."
+
+"Then your uncle used to boast of the Rose In Bloom's wearing and
+attacking. She would attack anything that came in her way, no matter
+who, and as for wearing, I think he once told me she would wear just
+what she had a mind to, like any human being."
+
+Rose was a little mystified, but she looked vexed at the same time,
+as if she distrusted all was not right.
+
+"I remember all my sea education," continued the unsuspecting widow,
+"as if it had been learnt yesterday. Beating the wind and attacking
+ship, my poor Mr. Budd used to say, were nice manoeuvres, and
+required most of his tactics, especially in heavy weather. Did you
+know, Rosy dear, that sailors weigh the weather, and know when it is
+heavy and when it is light?"
+
+"I did not, aunt; nor do I understand now how it can very well be
+done."
+
+"Oh! child, before you have been at sea a week, you will learn so
+many things that are new, and get so many ideas of which you never
+had any notion before, that you'll not be the same person. My
+captain had an instrument he called a thermometer, and with that he
+used to weigh the weather, and then he would write down in the
+log-book `today, heavy weather, or to-morrow, light weather,' just
+as it happened, and that helped him mightily along in his voyages."
+
+"Mrs. Budd has merely mistaken the name of the instrument--the
+`barometer' is what she wished to say," put in Mulford, opportunely.
+
+Rose looked grateful, as well as relieved. Though profoundly
+ignorant on these subjects herself, she had always suspected her
+aunt's knowledge. It was, consequently, grateful to her to ascertain
+that, in this instance, the old lady's mistake had been so trifling.
+
+"Well, it may have been the barometer, for I know he had them both,"
+resumed the aunt. "Barometer, or thermometer, it do n't make any
+great difference; or quadrant, or sextant. They are all instruments,
+and sometimes he used one, and sometimes another. Sailors take on
+board the sun, too, and have an instrument for that, as well as one
+to weigh the weather with. Sometimes they take on board the stars,
+and the moon, and `fill their ships with the heavenly bodies,' as
+I've heard my dear husband say, again and again! But the most
+curious thing at sea, as all sailors tell me, is crossing the line,
+and I do hope we shall cross the line, Rosy, that you and I may see
+it."
+
+"What is the line, aunty, and how do vessels cross it."
+
+"The line, my dear, is a place in the ocean where the earth is
+divided into two parts, one part being called the North Pole, and
+the other part the South Pole. Neptune lives near this line, and he
+allows no vessel to go out of one pole into the other, without
+paying it a visit. Never! never!--he would as soon think of living
+on dry land as think of letting even a canoe pass, without visiting
+it."
+
+"Do you suppose there is such a being, really, as Neptune, aunty?"
+
+"To be sure I do; he is king of the sea. Why should n't there be?
+The sea must have a king, as well as the land."
+
+"The sea may be a republic, aunty, like this country; then, no king
+is necessary. I have always supposed Neptune to be an imaginary
+being."
+
+"Oh that's impossible--the sea is no republic; there are but two
+republics, America and Texas. I've heard that the sea is a highway,
+it is true--the `highway of nations,' I believe it is called, and
+that must mean something particular. But my poor Mr. Budd always
+told me that Neptune was king of the seas, and he was always so
+accurate, you might depend on everything he said. Why, he called his
+last Newfoundland dog Neptune; and do you think, Rosy, that your
+dear uncle would call his dog after an imaginary being?--and he a
+man to beat the wind, and attack ship, and take the sun, moon and
+stars aboard! No, no, child; fanciful folk may see imaginary beings,
+but solid folk see solid beings."
+
+Even Spike was dumfounded at this, and there is no knowing what he
+might have said, had not an old sea-dog, who had just come out of
+the fore-topmast cross-trees, come aft, and, hitching up his
+trowsers with one hand while he touched his hat with the other, said
+with immoveable gravity,
+
+"The revenue-steamer has brought up just under the fort, Capt.
+Spike."
+
+"How do you know that, Bill?" demanded the captain, with a rapidity
+that showed how completely Mrs. Budd and all her absurdities were
+momentarily forgotten.
+
+"I was up on the fore-topgallant yard, sir, a bit ago, just to look
+to the strap of the jewel-block, which wants some sarvice on it, and
+I see'd her over the land, blowin' off steam and takin' in her
+kites. Afore I got out of the cross-trees, she was head to wind
+under bare-poles, and if she had n't anchored, she was about to do
+so. I'm sartin 't was she, sir, and that she was about to bring up."
+
+Spike gave a long, low whistle, after his fashion, and he walked
+away from the females, with the air of a man who wanted room to
+think in. Half a minute later, he called out--"Stand by to shorten
+sail, boys. Man fore-clew-garnets, flying jib down haul, topgallant
+sheets, and gaff-topsail gear. In with 'em all, my lads--in with
+everything, with a will."
+
+An order to deal with the canvas in any way, on board ship,
+immediately commands the whole attention of all whose duty it is to
+attend to such matters, and there was an end of all discourse while
+the Swash was shortening sail. Everybody understood, too, that it
+was to gain time, and prevent the brig from reaching Throg's Neck
+sooner than was desirable.
+
+"Keep the brig off," called out Spike, "and let her ware--we're too
+busy to tack just now."
+
+The man at the wheel knew very well what was wanted, and he put his
+helm up, instead of putting it down, as he might have done without
+this injunction. As this change brought the brig before the wind,
+and Spike was in no hurry to luff up on the other tack, the Swash
+soon ran over a mile of the distance she had already made, putting
+her back that much on her way to the Neck. It is out of our power to
+say what the people of the different craft in sight thought of all
+this, but an opportunity soon offered of putting them on a wrong
+scent. A large coasting schooner, carrying everything that would
+draw on a wind, came sweeping under the stern of the Swash, and
+hailed.
+
+"Has anything happened, on board that brig?" demanded her master.
+
+"Man overboard," answered Spike--"you hav'nt seen his hat, have
+you?"
+
+"No--no," came back, just as the schooner, in her onward course,
+swept beyond the reach of the voice. Her people collected together,
+and one or two ran up the rigging a short distance, stretching their
+necks, on the look-out for the "poor fellow," but they were soon
+called down to "'bout ship." In less than five minutes, another
+vessel, a rakish coasting sloop, came within hail.
+
+"Did n't that brig strike the Pot Rock, in passing the Gate?"
+demanded her captain.
+
+"Ay, ay!--and a devil of a rap she got, too."
+
+This satisfied him; there being nothing remarkable in a vessel's
+acting strangely that had hit the Pot Rock in passing Hell Gate.
+
+"I think we may get in our mainsail on the strength of this, Mr.
+Mulford," said Spike. "There can be nothing oncommon in a craft's
+shortening sail, that has a man overboard, and which has hit the Pot
+Rock. I wonder I never thought of all this before."
+
+`Here is a skiff trying to get alongside of us, Capt. Spike," called
+out the boatswain.
+
+"Skiff be d--d! I want no skiff here."
+
+"The man that called himself Jack Tier is in her, sir."
+
+"The d--l he is!" cried Spike, springing over to the opposite side
+of the deck to take a look for himself. To his infinite satisfaction
+he perceived that Tier was alone in the skiff, with the exception of
+a negro, who pulled its sculls, and that this was a very different
+boat from that which had glanced through Hell Gate, like an arrow
+darting from its bow.
+
+"Luff, and shake your topsail," called out Spike. "Get a rope there
+to throw to this skiff."
+
+The orders were obeyed, and Jack Tier, with his clothes-bag, was
+soon on the deck of the Swash. As for the skiff and the negro, they
+were cast adrift the instant the latter had received his quarter.
+The meeting between Spike and his quondam steward's mate was a
+little remarkable. Each stood looking intently at the other, as if
+to note the changes which time had made. We cannot say that Spike's
+hard, red, selfish countenance betrayed any great feeling, though
+such was not the case with Jack Tier's. The last, a lymphatic, puffy
+sort of a person at the best, seemed really a little touched, and he
+either actually brushed a tear from his eye, or he affected so to
+do.
+
+"So, you are my old shipmate, Jack Tier, are ye?" exclaimed Spike,
+in a half-patronizing, half-hesitating way--"and you want to try the
+old craft ag'in. Give us a leaf of your log, and let me know where
+you have been this many a day, and what you have been about? Keep
+the brig off, Mr. Mulford. We are in no particular hurry to reach
+Throg's, you'll remember, sir."
+
+Tier gave an account of his proceedings, which could have no
+interest with the reader. His narrative was anything but very clear,
+and it was delivered in a cracked, octave sort of a voice, such as
+little dapper people not unfrequently enjoy--tones between those of
+a man and a boy. The substance of the whole story was this. Tier had
+been left ashore, as sometimes happens to sailors, and, by necessary
+connection, was left to shift for himself. After making some vain
+endeavours to rejoin his brig, he had shipped in one vessel after
+another, until he accidentally found himself in the port of New
+York, at the same time as the Swash. He know'd he never should be
+truly happy ag'in until he could once more get aboard the old hussy,
+and had hurried up to the wharf, where he understood the brig was
+lying. As he came in sight, he saw she was about to cast off, and,
+dropping his clothes-bag, he had made the best of his way to the
+wharf, where the conversation passed that has been related.
+
+"The gentleman on the wharf was about to take boat, to go through
+the Gate," concluded Tier, "and so I begs a passage of him. He was
+good-natured enough to wait until I could find my bag, and as soon
+a'terwards as the men could get their grog we shoved off. The Molly
+was just getting in behind Blackwell's as we left the wharf, and,
+having four good oars, and the shortest road, we come out into the
+Gate just ahead on you. My eye! what a place that is to go through
+in a boat, and on a strong flood! The gentleman, who watched the
+brig as a cat watches a mouse, says you struck on the Pot, as he
+called it, but I says `no,' for the Molly Swash was never know'd to
+hit rock or shoal in my time aboard her."
+
+"And where did you quit that gentleman, and what has become of him?"
+asked Spike.
+
+"He put me ashore on that point above us, where I see'd a nigger
+with his skiff, who I thought would be willin' to 'arn his quarter
+by giving me a cast alongside. So here I am, and a long pull I've
+had to get here."
+
+As this was said, Jack removed his hat and wiped his brow with a
+handkerchief, which, if it had never seen better days, had doubtless
+been cleaner. After this, he looked about him, with an air not
+entirely free from exultation.
+
+This conversation had taken place in the gangway, a somewhat public
+place, and Spike beckoned to his recruit to walk aft, where he might
+be questioned without being overheard.
+
+"What became of the gentleman in the boat, as you call him?"
+demanded Spike.
+
+"He pulled ahead, seeming to be in a hurry."
+
+"Do you know who he was?"
+
+"Not a bit of it. I never saw the man before, and he did n't tell me
+his business, sir."
+
+"Had he anything like a silver oar about him."
+
+"I saw nothing of the sort, Capt. Spike, and knows nothing
+consarning him."
+
+"What sort of a boat was he in, and where did he get it?"
+
+"Well, as to the boat, sir, I can say a word, seein' it was so much
+to my mind, and pulled so wonderful smart. It was a light ship's
+yawl, with four oars, and came round the Hook just a'ter you had got
+the brig's head round to the eastward. You must have seen it, I
+should think, though it kept close in with the wharves, as if it
+wished to be snug."
+
+"Then the gentleman, as you call him, expected that very boat to
+come and take him off?"
+
+"I suppose so, sir, because it did come and take him off. That's all
+I knows about it."
+
+"Had you no jaw with the gentleman? You was n't mnm the whole time
+you was in the boat with him?"
+
+"Not a bit of it, sir. Silence and I does n't agree together long,
+and so we talked most of the time."
+
+"And what did the stranger say of the brig?"
+
+"Lord, sir, he catechised me like as if I had been a child at
+Sunday-school. He asked me how long I had sailed in her; what ports
+we'd visited, and what trade we'd been in. You can't think the sight
+of questions he put, and how cur'ous he was for the answers."
+
+"And what did you tell him in your answers? You said nothin' about
+our call down on the Spanish Main, the time you were left ashore, I
+hope, Jack?"
+
+"Not I, sir. I played him off surprisin'ly. He got nothin' to count
+upon out of me. Though I do owe the Molly Swash a grudge, I'm not
+goin' to betray her."
+
+"You owe the Molly Swash a grudge! Have I taken an enemy on board
+her, then?"
+
+Jack started, and seemed sorry he had said so much; while Spike eyed
+him keenly. But the answer set all right. It was not given, however,
+without a moment for recollection.
+
+"Oh, you knows what I mean, sir. I owe the old hussy a grudge for
+having desarted me like; but it's only a love quarrel atween us. The
+old Molly will never come to harm by my means."
+
+"I hope not, Jack. The man that wrongs the craft he sails in can
+never be a true-hearted sailor. Stick by your ship in all weathers
+is my rule, and a good rule it is to go by. But what did you tell
+the stranger?"
+
+"Oh! I told him I'd been six v'y'ges in the brig. The first was to
+Madagascar--"
+
+"The d--l you did? Was he soft enough to believe that?"
+
+"That's more than I knows, sir. I can only tell you what I said; I
+do n't pretend to know how much he believed."
+
+"Heave ahead--what next?"
+
+"Then I told him we went to Kamschatka for gold dust and ivory."
+
+"Whe-e-ew! What did the man say to that?"
+
+"Why, he smiled a bit, and a'ter that he seemed more cur'ous than
+ever to hear all about it. I told him my third v'y'ge was to Canton,
+with a cargo of broom-corn, where we took in salmon and dun-fish for
+home. A'ter that we went to Norway with ice, and brought back silks
+and money. Our next run was to the Havana, with salt and 'nips--"
+
+"'Nips! what the devil be they?"
+
+"Turnips, you knows, sir. We always calls 'em 'nips in cargo. At the
+Havana I told him we took in leather and jerked beef, and came home.
+Oh! he got nothin' from me, Capt. Spike, that'll ever do the brig a
+morsel of harm!"
+
+"I am glad of that, Jack. You must know enough of the seas to
+understand that a close mouth is sometimes better for a vessel than
+a clean bill of health. Was there nothing said about the
+revenue-steamer?"
+
+"Now you name her, sir, I believe there was--ay, ay, sir, the
+gentleman did say, if the steamer fetched up to the westward of the
+fort, that he should overhaul her without difficulty, on this flood.
+
+"That'll do, Jack; that'll do, my honest fellow. Go below, and tell
+Josh to take you into the cabin again, as steward's mate. You're
+rather too Dutch built, in your old age, to do much aloft."
+
+One can hardly say whether Jack received this remark as
+complimentary, or not. He looked a little glum, for a man may be as
+round as a barrel, and wish to be thought genteel and slender; but
+he went below, in quest of Josh, without making any reply.
+
+The succeeding movements of Spike appeared to be much influenced by
+what he had just heard. He kept the brig under short canvas for near
+two hours, sheering about in the same place, taking care to tell
+everything which spoke him that he had lost a man overboard. In this
+way, not only the tide, but the day itself, was nearly spent. About
+the time the former began to lose its strength, however, the
+fore-course and the main-sail were got on the brigantine, with the
+intention of working her up toward Whitestone, where the tides meet,
+and near which the revenue-steamer was known to be anchored. We say
+near, though it was, in fact, a mile or two more to the eastward,
+and close to the extremity of the Point.
+
+Notwithstanding these demonstrations of a wish to work to windward,
+Spike was really in no hurry. He had made up his mind to pass the
+steamer in the dark, if possible, and the night promised to favour
+him; but, in order to do this, it might be necessary not to come in
+sight of her at all; or, at least, not until the obscurity should in
+some measure conceal his rig and character. In consequence of this
+plan, the Swash made no great progress, even after she had got sail
+on her, on her old course. The wind lessened, too, after the sun
+went down, though it still hung to the eastward, or nearly ahead. As
+the tide gradually lost its force, moreover, the set to windward
+became less and less, until it finally disappeared altogether.
+
+There is necessarily a short reach in this passage, where it is
+always slack water, so far as current is concerned. This is
+precisely where the tides meet, or, as has been intimated, at
+Whitestone, which is somewhat more than a mile to the westward of
+Throgmorton's Neck, near the point of which stands Fort Schuyler,
+one of the works recently erected for the defence of New York. Off
+the pitch of the point, nearly mid-channel, had the steamer
+anchored, a fact of which Spike had made certain, by going aloft
+himself, and reconnoitering her over the land, before it had got to
+be too dark to do so. He entertained no manner of doubt that this
+vessel was in waiting for him, and he well knew there was good
+reason for it; but he would not return and attempt the passage to
+sea by way of Sandy Hook. His manner of regarding the whole matter
+was cool and judicious. The distance to the Hook was too great to be
+made in such short nights ere the return of day, and he had no
+manner of doubt he was watched for in that direction, as well as in
+this. Then he was particularly unwilling to show his craft at all in
+front of the town, even in the night. Moreover, he had ways of his
+own for effecting his purposes, and this was the very spot and time
+to put them in execution.
+
+While these things were floating in his mind, Mrs. Budd and her
+handsome niece were making preparations for passing the night, aided
+by Biddy Noon. The old lady was factotum, or factota, as it might be
+most classical to call her, though we are entirely without
+authorities on the subject, and was just as self-complacent and
+ambitious of seawomanship below decks, as she had been above board.
+The effect, however, gave Spike great satisfaction, since it kept
+her out of sight, and left him more at liberty to carry out his own
+plans. About nine, however, the good woman came on deck, intending
+to take a look at the weather, like a skilful marineress as she was,
+before she turned in. Not a little was she astonished at what she
+then and there beheld, as she whispered to Rose and Biddy, both of
+whom stuck close to her side, feeling the want of good pilotage, no
+doubt, in strange waters.
+
+The Molly Swash was still under her canvas, though very little
+sufficed for her present purposes. She was directly off Whitestone,
+and was making easy stretches across the passage, or river, as it is
+called, having nothing set but her huge fore-and-aft mainsail and
+the jib. Under this sail she worked like a top, and Spike sometimes
+fancied she travelled too fast for his purposes, the night air
+having thickened the canvas as usual, until it "held the wind as a
+bottle holds water." There was nothing in this, however, to attract
+the particular attention of the ship-master's widow, a sail, more or
+less, being connected with observation much too critical for her
+schooling, nice as the last had been. She was surprised to find the
+men stripping the brig forward, and converting her into a schooner.
+Nor was this done in a loose and slovenly manner, under favour of
+the obscurity. On the contrary, it was so well executed that it
+might have deceived even a seaman under a noon-day sun, provided the
+vessel were a mile or two distant. The manner in which the
+metamorphosis was made was as follows: the studding-sail booms had
+been taken off the topsail-yard, in order to shorten it to the eye,
+and the yard itself was swayed up about half-mast, to give it the
+appearance of a schooner's fore-yard. The brig's real lower yard was
+lowered on the bulwarks, while her royal yard was sent down
+altogether, and the topgallant-mast was lowered until the heel
+rested on the topsail yard, all of which, in the night, gave the
+gear forward very much the appearance of that of a fore-topsail
+schooner, instead of that of a half-rigged brig, as the craft really
+was. As the vessel carried a try-sail on her foremast, it answered
+very well, in the dark, to represent a schooner's foresail. Several
+other little dispositions of this nature were made, about which it
+might weary the uninitiated to read, but which will readily suggest
+themselves to the mind of a sailor.
+
+These alterations were far advanced when the females re-appeared on
+deck. They at once attracted their attention, and the captain's
+widow felt the imperative necessity, as connected with her
+professional character, of proving the same. She soon found Spike,
+who was bustling around the deck, now looking around to see that his
+brig was kept in the channel, now and then issuing an order to
+complete her disguise.
+
+"Captain Spike, what can be the meaning of all these changes? The
+tamper of your vessel is so much altered that I declare I should not
+have known her!"
+
+"Is it, by George! Then she is just in the state I want her to be
+in."
+
+"But why have you done it--and what does it all mean?"
+
+"Oh, Molly's going to bed for the night, and she's only undressing
+herself--that's all."
+
+"Yes, Rosy dear, Captain Spike is right. I remember that my poor Mr.
+Budd used to talk about The Rose In Bloom having her clothes on, and
+her clothes off, just as if she was a born woman! But do n't you
+mean to navigate at all in the night, Captain Spike? Or will the
+brig navigate without sails?"
+
+"That's it--she's just as good in the dark, under one sort of
+canvas, as under another. So, Mr. Mulford, we'll take a reef in that
+mainsail; it will bring it nearer to the size of our new foresail,
+and seem more ship-shape and Brister fashion--then I think she'll
+do, as the night is getting to be rather darkish."
+
+"Captain Spike," said the boatswain, who had been set to look-out
+for that particular change--"the brig begins to feel the new tide,
+and sets to windward."
+
+"Let her go, then--now is as good a time as another. We've got to
+run the gantlet, and the sooner it is done the better."
+
+As the moment seemed propitious, not only Mulford, but all the
+people, heard this order with satisfaction. The night was
+star-light, though not very clear at that. Objects on the water,
+however, were more visible than those on the land, while those on
+the last could be seen well enough, even from the brig, though in
+confused and somewhat shapeless piles. When the Swash was brought
+close by the wind, she had just got into the last reach of the
+"river," or that which runs parallel with the Neck for near a mile,
+doubling where the Sound expands itself, gradually, to a breadth of
+many leagues. Still the navigation at the entrance of this end of
+the Sound was intricate and somewhat dangerous, rendering it
+indispensable for a vessel of any size to make a crooked course. The
+wind stood at south-east, and was very scant to lay through the
+reach with, while the tide was so slack as barely to possess a
+visible current at that place. The steamer lay directly off the
+Point, mid-channel, as mentioned, showing lights, to mark her
+position to anything which might be passing in or out. The great
+thing was to get by her without exciting her suspicion. As all on
+board, the females excepted, knew what their captain was at, the
+attempt was made amid an anxious and profound silence; or, if any
+one spoke at all, it was only to give an order in a low tone, or its
+answer in a simple monosyllable.
+
+Although her aunt assured her that everything which had been done
+already, and which was now doing, was quite in rule, the quick-eyed
+and quick-witted Rose noted these unusual proceedings, and had an
+opinion of her own on the subject. Spike had gone forward, and
+posted himself on the weather-side of the forecastle, where he could
+get the clearest look ahead, and there he remained most of the time,
+leaving Mulford on the quarter-deck, to work the vessel, Perceiving
+this, she managed to get near the mate, without attracting her
+aunt's attention, and at the same time out of ear-shot.
+
+"Why is everybody so still and seemingly so anxious, Harry Mulford?"
+she asked, speaking in a low tone herself, as if desirous of
+conforming to a common necessity. "Is there any new danger here? I
+thought the Gate had been passed altogether, some hours ago?"
+
+"So it has. D'ye see that large dark mass on the water, off the
+Point, which seems almost as huge as the fort, with lights above it?
+That is a revenue-steamer which came out of York a few hours before
+us. We wish to get past her without being troubled by any of her
+questions."
+
+"And what do any in this brig care about her questions? They can be
+answered, surely."
+
+"Ay, ay, Rose--they may be answered, as you say, but the answers
+sometimes are unsatisfactory. Captain Spike, for some reason or
+other, is uneasy, and would rather not have anything to say to her.
+He has the greatest aversion to speaking the smallest craft when on
+a coast."
+
+"And that's the reason he has undressed his Molly, as he calls her,
+that he might not be known."
+
+Mulford turned his head quickly toward his companion, as if
+surprised by her quickness of apprehension, but he had too just a
+sense of his duty to make any reply. Instead of pursuing the
+discourse, he adroitly contrived to change it, by pointing out to
+Rose the manner in which they were getting on, which seemed to be
+very successfully.
+
+Although the Swash was under much reduced canvas, she glided along
+with great ease and with considerable rapidity of motion. The heavy
+night air kept her canvas distended, and the weatherly set of the
+tide, trifling as it yet was, pressed her up against the breeze, so
+as to turn all to account. It was apparent enough, by the manner in
+which objects on the land were passed, that the crisis was fast
+approaching. Rose rejoined her aunt, in order to await the result,
+in nearly breathless expectation. At that moment, she would have
+given the world to be safe on shore. This wish was not the
+consequence of any constitutional timidity, for Rose was much the
+reverse from timid, but it was the fruit of a newly-awakened and
+painful, though still vague, suspicion. Happy, thrice happy was it
+for one of her naturally confiding and guileless nature, that
+distrust was thus opportunely awakened, for she was without a
+guardian competent to advise and guide her youth, as circumstances
+required.
+
+The brig was not long in reaching the passage that opened to the
+Sound. It is probable she did this so much the sooner because Spike
+kept her a little off the wind, with a view of not passing too near
+the steamer. At this point, the direction of the passage changes at
+nearly a right angle, the revenue-steamer lying on a line with the
+Neck, and leaving a sort of bay, in the angle, for the Swash to
+enter. The land was somewhat low in all directions but one, and that
+was by drawing a straight line from the Point, through the steamer,
+to the Long Island shore. On the latter, and in that quarter, rose a
+bluff of considerable elevation, with deep water quite near it; and,
+under the shadows of that bluff, Spike intended to perform his
+nicest evolutions. He saw that the revenue vessel had let her fires
+go down, and that she was entirely without steam. Under canvas, he
+had no doubt of beating her hand over hand, could he once fairly get
+to windward; and then she was at anchor, and would lose some time in
+getting under way, should she even commence a pursuit. It was all
+important, therefore, to gain as much to windward as possible,
+before the people of the government vessel took the alarm.
+
+There can be no doubt that the alterations made on board the Swash
+served her a very good turn on this occasion. Although the night
+could not be called positively dark, there was sufficient obscurity
+to render her hull confused and indistinct at any distance, and this
+so much the more when seen from the steamer outside, or between her
+and the land. All this Spike very well understood, and largely
+calculated on. In effect he was not deceived; the look-outs on board
+the revenue craft could trace little of the vessel that was
+approaching beyond the spars and sails which rose above the shores,
+and these seemed to be the spars and sails of a common foretopsail
+schooner. As this was not the sort of craft for which they were on
+the watch, no suspicion was awakened, nor did any reports go from
+the quarter-deck to the cabin. The steamer had her quarter watches,
+and officers of the deck, like a vessel of war, the discipline of
+which was fairly enough imitated, but even a man-of-war may be
+overreached on an occasion.
+
+Spike was only great in a crisis, and then merely as a seaman. He
+understood his calling to its minuti‘, and he understood the Molly
+Swash better than he understood any other craft that floated. For
+more than twenty years had he sailed her, and the careful parent
+does not better understand the humours of the child, than he
+understood exactly what might be expected from his brig. His
+satisfaction sensibly increased, therefore, as she stole along the
+land, toward the angle mentioned, without a sound audible but the
+gentle gurgling of the water, stirred by the stem, and which sounded
+like the ripple of the gentlest wave, as it washes the shingle of
+some placid beach.
+
+As the brig drew nearer to the bluff, the latter brought the wind
+more ahead, as respected the desired course. This was unfavourable,
+but it did not disconcert her watchful commander.
+
+"Let her come round, Mr. Mulford," said this pilot-captain, in a low
+voice--"we are as near in as we ought to go."
+
+The helm was put down, the head sheets started, and away into the
+wind shot the Molly Swash, fore-reaching famously in stays, and, of
+course, gaining so much on her true course. In a minute she was
+round, and filled on the other tack. Spike was now so near the land,
+that he could perceive the tide was beginning to aid him, and that
+his weatherly set was getting to be considerable. Delighted at this,
+he walked aft, and told Mulford to go about again as soon as the
+vessel had sufficient way to make sure of her in stays. The mate
+inquired if he did not think the revenue people might suspect
+something, unless they stood further out toward mid-channel, but
+Spike reminded him that they would be apt to think the schooner was
+working up under the southern shore, because the ebb first made
+there. This reason satisfied Mulford, and, as soon as they were
+half-way between the bluff and the steamer, the Swash was again
+tacked, with her head to the former. This manoeuvre was executed
+when the brig was about two hundred yards from the steamer, a
+distance that was sufficient to preserve, under all the
+circumstances, the disguise she had assumed.
+
+"They do not suspect us, Harry!" whispered Spike to his mate. "We
+shall get to windward of 'em, as sartain as the breeze stands. That
+boatin' gentleman might as well have staid at home, as for any good
+his hurry done him or his employers!"
+
+"Whom do you suppose him to be, Captain Spike?"
+
+"Who,--a feller that lives by his own wicked deeds. No matter who he
+is. An informer, perhaps. At any rate, he is not the man to outwit
+the Molly Swash, and her old, stupid, foolish master and owner,
+Stephen Spike. Luff, Mr. Mulford, luff. Now's the time to make the
+most of your leg--Luff her up and shake her. She is setting to
+windward fast, the ebb is sucking along that bluff like a boy at a
+molasses hogshead. All she can drift on this tack is clear gain;
+there is no hurry, so long as they are asleep aboard the steamer.
+That's it--make a half-board at once, but take care and not come
+round. As soon as we are fairly clear of the bluff, and open the bay
+that makes up behind it, we shall get the wind more to the
+southward, and have a fine long leg for the next stretch."
+
+Of course Mulford obeyed, throwing the brig up into the wind, and
+allowing her to set to windward, but filling again on the same tack,
+as ordered. This, of course, delayed her progress toward the land,
+and protracted the agony, but it carried the vessel in the direction
+she most wished to go, while it kept her not only end on to the
+steamer, but in a line with the bluff, and consequently in the
+position most favourable to conceal her true character. Presently,
+the bay mentioned, which was several miles deep, opened darkly
+toward the south, and the wind came directly out of it, or more to
+the southward. At this moment the Swash was near a quarter of a mile
+from the steamer, and all that distance dead to windward of her, as
+the breeze came out of the bay. Spike tacked his vessel himself now,
+and got her head up so high that she brought the steamer on her lee
+quarter, and looked away toward the island which lies northwardly
+from the Point, and quite near to which all vessels of any draught
+of water are compelled to pass, even with the fairest winds.
+
+"Shake the reef out of the mainsail, Mr. Mulford," said Spike, when
+the Swash was fairly in motion again on this advantageous tack. "We
+shall pass well to windward of the steamer, and may as well begin to
+open our cloth again."
+
+"Is it not a little too soon, sir?" Mulford ventured to remonstrate;
+"the reef is a large one, and will make a great difference in the
+size of the sail."
+
+"They'll not see it at this distance. No, no, sir, shake out the
+reef, and sway away on the topgallant-mast rope; I'm for bringing
+the Molly Swash into her old shape again, and make her look handsome
+once more."
+
+"Do you dress the brig, as well as undress her, o'mights; Captain
+Spike?" inquired the ship-master's reliet, a little puzzled with
+this fickleness of purpose. "I do not believe my poor Mr. Budd ever
+did that."
+
+"Fashions change, madam, with the times--ay, ay, sir--shake out the
+reef, and sway away on that mast-rope, boys, as soon as you have
+manned it. We'll convart our schooner into a brig again."
+
+As these orders were obeyed, of course, a general bustle now took
+place. Mulford soon had the reef out, and the sail distended to the
+utmost, while the topgallant-mast was soon up and fidded. The next
+thing was to sway upon the fore-yard, and get that into its place.
+The people were busied at this duty, when a hoarse hail came across
+the water on the heavy night air.
+
+"Brig ahoy!" was the call.
+
+"Sway upon that fore-yard," said Spike, unmoved by this
+summons--"start it, start it at once."
+
+"The steamer hails us, sir," said the mate.
+
+"Not she. She is hailing a brig; we are a schooner yet."
+
+A moment of active exertion succeeded, during which the fore-yard
+went into its place. Then came a second hail.
+
+"Schooner, ahoy!" was the summons this time.
+
+"The steamer hails us again, Captain Spike."
+
+"The devil a bit. We're a brig now, and she hails a schooner. Come
+boys, bestir yourselves, and get the canvas on Molly for'ard. Loose
+the fore-course before you quit the yard there, then up aloft and
+loosen everything you can find."
+
+All was done as ordered, and done rapidly, as is ever the case on
+board a well-ordered vessel when there is occasion for exertion.
+That occasion now appeared to exist in earnest, for while the men
+were sheeting home the topsail, a flash of light illuminated the
+scene, when the roar of a gun came booming across the water,
+succeeded by the very distinct whistling of its shot. We regret that
+the relict of the late Captain Budd did not behave exactly as became
+a shipmaster's widow, under fire. Instead of remaining silent and
+passive, even while frightened, as was the case with Rose, she
+screamed quite as loud as she had previously done that very day in
+Hell-Gate. It appeared to Spike, indeed, that practice was making
+her perfect; and, as for Biddy, the spirit of emulation became so
+powerful in her bosom, that, if anything, she actually outshrieked
+her mistress. Hearing this, the widow made a second effort, and
+fairly recovered the ground some might have fancied she had lost.
+
+"Oh! Captain Spike," exclaimed the agitated widow, "do not--do not,
+if you love me, do not let them fire again!"
+
+"How am I to help it!" asked the captain, a good deal to the point,
+though he overlooked the essential fact, that, by heaving-to, and
+waiting for the steamer's boat to board him, he might have prevented
+a second shot, as completely as if he had the ordering of the whole
+affair. No second shot was fired, however. As it afterward appeared,
+the screams of Mrs. Budd and Biddy were heard on board the steamer,
+the captain of which, naturally enough, supposing that the slaughter
+must be terrible where such cries had arisen, was satisfied with the
+mischief he had already done, and directed his people to secure
+their gun and go to the capstan-bars, in order to help lift the
+anchor. In a word, the revenue vessel was getting under way,
+man-of-war fashion, which means somewhat expeditiously.
+
+Spike understood the sounds that reached him, among which was the
+call of the boatswain, and he bestirred himself accordingly.
+Experienced as he was in chases and all sorts of nautical artifices,
+he very well knew that his situation was sufficiently critical. It
+would have been so, with a steamer at his heels, in the open ocean;
+but, situated as he was, he was compelled to steer but one course,
+and to accept the wind on that course as it might offer. If he
+varied at all in his direction it was only in a trifling way, though
+he did make some of these variations. Every moment was now precious,
+however, and he endeavoured to improve the time to the utmost. He
+knew that he could greatly outsail the revenue vessel, under canvas,
+and some time would be necessary to enable her to get up her steam;
+half an hour at the very least. On that half hour, then, depended
+the fate of the Molly Swash.
+
+"Send the booms on the yards, and set stun'sails at once, Mr.
+Mulford," said Spike, the instant the more regular canvas was spread
+forward. "This wind will be free enough for all but the lower
+stun'sail, and we must drive the brig on."
+
+"Are we not looking up too high, Captain Spike? The Stepping-Stones
+are ahead of us, sir."
+
+"I know that very well, Mulford. But it's nearly high water, and the
+brig's in light trim, and we may rub and go. By making a short cut
+here, we shall gain a full mile on the steamer; that mile may save
+us."
+
+"Do you really think it possible to get away from that craft, which
+can always make a fair wind of it, in these narrow waters, Captain
+Spike?"
+
+"One don't know, sir. Nothin' is done without tryin', and by tryin'
+more is often done than was hoped for. I have a scheme in my head,
+and Providence may favour me in bringing it about."
+
+Providence! The religionist quarrels with the philosopher if the
+latter happen to remove this interposition of a higher power, even
+so triflingly as by the intervention of secondary agencies, while
+the biggest rascal dignifies even his success by such phrases as
+Providential aid! But it is not surprising men should misunderstand
+terms, when they make such sad confusion in the acts which these
+terms are merely meant to represent. Spike had his Providence as
+well as a priest, and we dare say he often counted on its succour,
+with quite as rational grounds of dependence as many of the
+pharisees who are constantly exclaiming, "The Temple of the Lord,
+the Temple of the Lord are these."
+
+Sail was made on board the Swash with great rapidity, and the brig
+made a bold push at the Stepping-Stones. Spike was a capital pilot.
+He insisted if he could once gain sight of the spar that was moored
+on those rocks for a buoy, he should run with great confidence. The
+two lights were of great assistance, of course; but the revenue
+vessel could see these lights as well as the brig, and she,
+doubtless, had an excellent pilot on board. By the time the
+studding-sails were set on board the Swash, the steamer was aweigh,
+and her long line of peculiar sails became visible. Unfortunately
+for men who were in a hurry, she lay so much within the bluff as to
+get the wind scant, and her commander thought it necessary to make a
+stretch over to the southern shore, before he attempted to lay his
+course. When he was ready to tack, an operation of some time with a
+vessel of her great length, the Swash was barely visible in the
+obscurity, gliding off upon a slack bowline, at a rate which nothing
+but the damp night air, the ballast-trim of the vessel, united to
+her excellent sailing qualities, could have produced with so light a
+breeze.
+
+The first half hour took the Swash completely out of sight of the
+steamer. In that time, in truth, by actual superiority in sailing,
+by her greater state of preparation, and by the distance saved by a
+bold navigation, she had gained fully a league on her pursuer. But,
+while the steamer had lost sight of the Swash, the latter kept the
+former in view, and that by means of a signal that was very
+portentous. She saw the light of the steamer's chimneys, and could
+form some opinion of her distance and position.
+
+It was about eleven o'clock when the Swash passed the light at
+Sands' Point, close in with the land. The wind stood much as it had
+been. If there was a change at all, it was half a point more to the
+southward, and it was a little fresher. Such as it was, Spike saw he
+was getting, in that smooth water, quite eight knots out of his
+craft, and he made his calculations thereon. As yet, and possibly
+for half an hour longer, he was gaining, and might hope to continue
+to gain on the steamer. Then her turn would come. Though no great
+traveller, it was not to be expected that, favoured by smooth water
+and the breeze, her speed would be less than ten knots, while there
+was no hope of increasing his own without an increase of the wind.
+He might be five miles in advance, or six at the most; these six
+miles would be overcome in three hours of steaming, to a dead
+certainty, and they might possibly be overcome much sooner. It was
+obviously necessary to resort to some other experiment than that of
+dead sailing, if an escape was to be effected.
+
+The Sound was now several miles in width, and Spike, at first,
+proposed to his mate, to keep off dead before the wind, and by
+crossing over to the north shore, let the steamer pass ahead, and
+continue a bootless chase to the eastward. Several vessels, however,
+were visible in the middle of the passage, at distances varying from
+one to three miles, and Mulford pointed out the hopelessness of
+attempting to cross the sheet of open water, and expect to go unseen
+by the watchful eyes of the revenue people.
+
+"What you say is true enough, Mr. Mulford," answered Spike, after a
+moment of profound reflection, "and every foot that they come
+nearer, the less will be our chance. But here is Hempstead Harbour a
+few leagues ahead; if we can reach that before the blackguards
+close, we may do well enough. It is a deep bay, and has high land to
+darken the view. I don't think the brig could be seen at midnight by
+anything outside; if she was once fairly up that water a mile or
+two."
+
+"That is our chance, sir!" exclaimed Mulford cheerfully. "Ay, ay, I
+know the spot; and everything is favourable--try that, Captain
+Spike; I'll answer for it that we go clear."
+
+Spike did try it. For a considerable time longer he stood on,
+keeping as close to the land as he thought it safe to run, and
+carrying everything that would draw. But the steamer was on his
+heels, evidently gaining fast. Her chimneys gave out flames, and
+there was every sign that her people were in earnest. To those on
+board the Swash these flames seemed to draw nearer each instant, as
+indeed was the fact, and just as the breeze came fresher out of the
+opening in the hills, or the low mountains, which surround the place
+of refuge in which they designed to enter, Mulford announced that by
+aid of the night-glass he could distinguish both sails and hull of
+their pursuer. Spike took a look, and throwing down the instrument,
+in a way to endanger it, he ordered the studding-sails taken in. The
+men went aloft like cats, and worked as if they could stand in air.
+In a minute or two the Swash was under what Mrs. Budd might have
+called her "attacking" canvas, and was close by the wind, looking on
+a good leg well up the harbour. The brig seemed to be conscious of
+the emergency, and glided ahead at capital speed. In five minutes
+she had shut in the flaming chimneys of the steamer. In five minutes
+more Spike tacked, to keep under the western side of the harbour,
+and out of sight as long as possible, and because he thought the
+breeze drew down fresher where he was than more out in the bay.
+
+All now depended on the single fact whether the brig had been seen
+from the steamer or not, before she hauled into the bay. If seen,
+she had probably been watched; if not seen, there were strong
+grounds for hoping that she might still escape. About a quarter of
+an hour after Spike hauled up, the burning chimneys came again into
+view. The brig was then half a league within the bay, with a fine
+dark background of hills to throw her into shadow. Spike ordered
+everything taken in but the trysail, under which the brig was left
+to set slowly over toward the western side of the harbour. He now
+rubbed his hands with delight, and pointed out to Mulford the
+circumstance that the steamer kept on her course directly athwart
+the harbour's mouth! Had she seen the Swash, no doubt she would have
+turned into the bay also. Nevertheless, an anxious ten minutes
+succeeded, during which the revenue vessel steamed fairly past, and
+shut in her flaming chimneys again by the eastern headlands of the
+estuary.
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  The western wave was all a flame,
+  The day was well nigh done,
+  Almost upon the western wave
+  Rested the broad bright sun;
+  When that strange ship drove suddenly
+  Betwixt us and the sun.
+
+The Ancient Mariner.
+
+At that hour, on the succeeding morning, when the light of day is
+just beginning to chase away the shadows of night, the Molly Swash
+became visible within the gloom of the high land which surrounds so
+much of the bay of Hempstead, under easy sail, backing and filling,
+in order to keep within her hiding-place, until a look could be had
+at the state of things without. Half an hour later, she was so near
+the entrance of the estuary, as to enable the look-outs aloft to
+ascertain that the coast was clear, when Spike ordered the helm to
+be put up, and the brig to be kept away to her course. At this
+precise moment, Rose appeared on deck, refreshed by the sleep of a
+quiet night; and with cheeks tinged with a colour even more delicate
+than that which was now glowing in the eastern sky, and which was
+almost as brilliant.
+
+"We stopped in this bit of a harbour for the night, Miss Rose, that
+is all;" said Spike, observing that his fair passenger was looking
+about her, in some little surprise, at finding the vessel so near
+the land, and seemingly so much out of her proper position. "Yes, we
+always do that, when we first start on a v'y'ge, and before the brig
+gets used to travelling--do n't we, Mr. Mulford?"
+
+Mr. Mulford, who knew how hopeless was the attempt to mystify Rose,
+as one might mystify her credulous and weak-minded aunt, and who had
+no disposition to deal any way but fairly by the beautiful, and in
+one sense now helpless young creature before him, did not see fit to
+make any reply. Offend Spike he did not dare to do, more especially
+under present circumstances; and mislead Rose he would not do. He
+affected not to hear the question, therefore, but issuing an order
+about the head-sails, he walked forward as if to see it executed.
+Rose herself was not under as much restraint as the young mate.
+
+"It is convenient, Captain Spike," she coolly answered for Mulford,
+"to have stopping-places, for vessels that are wearied, and I
+remember the time when my uncle used to tell me of such matters,
+very much in the same vein; but, it was before I was twelve years
+old."
+
+Spike hemmed, and he looked a little foolish, but Clench, the
+boatswain, coming aft to say something to him in confidence, just at
+that moment, he was enabled to avoid the awkwardness of attempting
+to explain. This man Clench, or Clinch, as the name was pronounced,
+was deep in the captain's secrets; far more so than was his mate,
+and would have been filling Mulford's station at that very time, had
+he not been hopelessly ignorant of navigation. On the present
+occasion, his business was to point out to the captain, two or three
+lines of smoke, that were visible above the water of the Sound, in
+the eastern board; one of which he was apprehensive might turn out
+to be the smoke of the revenue craft, from which they had so
+recently escaped.
+
+"Steamers are no rarities in Long Island Sound, Clench," observed
+the captain, levelling his glass at the most suspected of the
+smokes. "That must be a Providence, or Stonington chap, coming west
+with the Boston train."
+
+"Either of them would have been further west, by this time, Captain
+Spike," returned the doubting, but watchful boatswain. "It's a large
+smoke, and I fear it is the revenue fellow coming back, after having
+had a look well to the eastward, and satisfying himself that we are
+not to be had in that quarter."
+
+Spike growled out his assent to the possibility of such a
+conjecture, and promised vigilance. This satisfied his subordinate
+for the moment, and he walked forward, or to the place where he
+belonged. In the mean time, the widow came on deck, smiling, and
+snuffing the salt air, and ready to be delighted with anything that
+was maritime.
+
+"Good morning, Captain Spike," she cried--"Are we in the offing,
+yet?--you know I desired to be told when we are in the offing, for I
+intend to write a letter to my poor Mr. Budd's sister, Mrs. Sprague,
+as soon as we get to the offing."
+
+"What is the offing, aunt?" inquired the handsome niece.
+
+"Why you have hardly been at sea long enough to understand me,
+child, should I attempt to explain. The offing, however, is the
+place where the last letters are always written to the owners, and
+to friends ashore. The term comes, I suppose, from the circumstance
+that the vessel is about to be off, and it is natural to think of
+those we leave behind, at such a moment. I intend to write to your
+aunt Sprague, my dear, the instant I hear we are in the offing; and
+what is more, I intend to make you my amanuensis."
+
+"But how will the letter be sent, aunty?--I have no more objections
+to writing than any one else, but I do not see how the letter is to
+be sent. Really, the sea is a curious region, with its
+stopping-places for the night, and its offings to write letters at!"
+
+"Yes, it's all as you say, Rose--a most remarkable region is the
+sea! You'll admire it, as I admire it, when you come to know it
+better; and as your poor uncle admired it, and as Captain Spike
+admires it, too. As for the letters, they can be sent ashore by the
+pilot, as letters are always sent."
+
+"But, aunty, there is no pilot in the Swash--for Captain Spike
+refused to take one on board."
+
+"Rose!--you don't understand what you are talking about! No vessel
+ever yet sailed without a pilot, if indeed any can. It's opposed to
+the law, not to have a pilot; and now I remember to have heard your
+dear uncle say it wasn't a voyage if a vessel didn't take away a
+pilot."
+
+"But if they take them away, aunty, how can they send the letters
+ashore by them?"
+
+"Poh! poh! child; you don't know what you're saying; but you'll
+overlook it, I hope, Captain Spike, for Rose is quick, and will soon
+learn to know better. As if letters couldn't be sent ashore by the
+pilot, though he was a hundred thousand miles from land! But,
+Captain Spike, you must let me know when we are about to get off the
+Sound, for I know that the pilot is always sent ashore with his
+letters, before the vessel gets off the Sound."
+
+"Yes, yes," returned the captain, a little mystified by the widow,
+though he knew her so well, and understood her so well--"you shall
+know, ma'am, when we get off soundings, for I suppose that is what
+you mean."
+
+"What is the difference? Off the Sound, or off the soundings, of
+course, must mean the same thing. But, Rosy, we will go below and
+write to your aunt at once, for I see a light-house yonder, and
+light-houses are always put just off the soundings."
+
+Rose, who always suspected her aunt's nautical talk, though she did
+not know how to correct it, and was not sorry to put an end to it,
+now, by going below, and spreading her own writing materials, in
+readiness to write, as the other dictated. Biddy Noon was present,
+sewing on some of her own finery.
+
+"Now write, as I tell you, Rose," commenced the widow--"My dear
+sister Sprague--Here we are, at last, just off the soundings, with
+light-houses all round us, and so many capes and islands in sight,
+that it does seem as if the vessel never could find its way through
+them all. Some of these islands must be the West Indies"--"Aunty,
+that can never be!" exclaimed Rose--"we left New York only
+yesterday."
+
+"What of that? Had it been old times, I grant you several days might
+be necessary to get a sight of the West Indies, but, now, when a
+letter can be written to a friend in Boston, and an answer received
+in half an hour, it requires no such time to go to the West Indies.
+Besides, what other islands are there in this part of the
+world?--they can't be England--"
+
+"No--no,"--said Rose, at once seeing it would be preferable to admit
+they were the West Indies; so the letter went on:--"Some of these
+islands must be the West Indies, and it is high time we saw some of
+them, for we are nearly off the Sound, and the light-houses are
+getting to be quite numerous. I think we have already seen four
+since we left the wharf. But, my dear sister Sprague, you will be
+delighted to hear how much better Rose's health is already
+becoming--"
+
+"My health, aunty! Why, I never knew an ill day in my life!"
+
+"Don't tell me that, my darling; I know too well what all these
+deceptive appearances of health amount to. I would not alarm you for
+the world, Rosy dear, but a careful parent--and I'm your parent in
+affection, if not by nature--but a careful parent's eye is not to be
+deceived. I know you look well, but you are ill, my child; though,
+Heaven be praised, the sea air and hydropathy are already doing you
+a monstrous deal of good."
+
+As Mrs. Budd concluded, she wiped her eyes, and appeared really glad
+that her niece had a less consumptive look than when she embarked.
+Rose sat, gazing at her aunt, in mute astonishment. She knew how
+much and truly she was beloved, and that induced her to be more
+tolerant of her connection's foibles than even duty demanded.
+Feeling was blended with her respect, but it was almost too much for
+her, to learn that this long, and in some respects painful voyage,
+was undertaken on her account, and without the smallest necessity
+for it. The vexation, however, would have been largely increased,
+but for certain free communications that had occasionally occurred
+between her and the handsome mate, since the moment of her coming on
+board the brig. Rose knew that Harry Mulford loved her, too, for he
+had told her as much with a seaman's frankness; and though she had
+never let him know that his partiality was returned, her woman's
+heart was fast inclining toward him, with all her sex's tenderness.
+This made the mistake of her aunt tolerable, though Rose was
+exceedingly vexed it should ever have occurred.
+
+"Why, my dearest aunt," she cried, "they told me it was on your
+account that this voyage was undertaken!"
+
+"I know they did, poor, dear Rosy, and that was in order not to
+alarm you. Some persons of delicate constitutions--"
+
+"But my constitution is not in the least delicate, aunt; on the
+contrary, it is as good as possible; a blessing for which, I trust,
+I am truly grateful, I did not know but you might be suffering,
+though you do look so well, for they all agreed in telling me you
+had need of a sea-voyage."
+
+"I, a subject for hydropathy! Why, child, water is no more necessary
+to me than it is to a cat."
+
+"But going to sea, aunty, is not hydropathy--"
+
+"Don't say that, Rosy; do not say that, my dear. It is hydropathy on
+a large scale, as Captain Spike says; and when he gets us into blue
+water, he has promised that you shall have all the benefits of the
+treatment."
+
+Rose was silent and thoughtful; after which she spoke quickly, like
+one to whom an important thought had suddenly occurred.
+
+"And Captain Spike, then, was consulted in my case?" she asked.
+
+"He was, my dear, and you have every reason to be grateful to him.
+He was the first to discover a change in your appearance, and to
+suggest a sea voyage. Marine Hydropathy, he said, he was sure would
+get you up again; for Captain Spike thinks your constitution good at
+the bottom, though the high colour you have proves too high a state
+of habitual excitement."
+
+"Was Dr. Monson consulted at all, aunt?"
+
+"Not at all. You know the doctors are all against hydropathy, and
+mesmerism, and the magnetic telegraph, and everything that is new;
+so we thought it best not to consult him."
+
+"And my aunt Sprague?"
+
+"Yes, she was consulted after everything was settled, and when I
+knew her notions could not undo what had been already done. But she
+is a seaman's widow, as well as myself, and has a great notion of
+the virtue of sea air."
+
+"Then it would seem that Doctor Spike was the principal adviser in
+my case!"
+
+"I own that he was, Rosy dear. Captain Spike was brought up by your
+uncle, who has often told me what a thorough seaman he was. `There's
+Spike, now,' he said to me one day, `he can almost make his brig
+talk'--this very brig too, your uncle meant, Rosy, and, of course,
+one of the best vessels in the world to take hydropathy in."
+
+"Yes, aunty," returned Rose, playing with the pen, while her air
+proved how little her mind was in her words. "Well, what shall I say
+next to my aunt Sprague?"
+
+"Rose's health is already becoming confirmed," resumed the widow,
+who thought it best to encourage her niece by as strong terms as she
+could employ, "and I shall extol hydropathy to the skies, as long as
+I live. As soon as we reach our port of destination, my dear sister
+Sprague, I shall write you a line to let you know it, by the
+magnetic telegraph--"
+
+"But there is no magnetic telegraph on the sea, aunty," interrupted
+Rose, looking up from the paper, with her clear, serene, blue eyes,
+expressing even her surprise, at this touch of the relict's
+ignorance.
+
+"Don't tell me that, Rosy, child, when everybody says the sparks
+will fly round the whole earth, just as soon as they will fly from
+New York to Philadelphia."
+
+"But they must have something to fly on, aunty; and the ocean will
+not sustain wires, or posts."
+
+"Well, there is no need of being so particular; if there is no
+telegraph, the letter must come by mail. You can say telegraph,
+here, and when your aunt gets the letter, the postmark will tell her
+how it came. It looks better to talk about telegraphic
+communications, child."
+
+Rose resumed her pen, and wrote at her aunt's dictation, as
+follows:--"By the magnetic telegraph, when I hope to be able to tell
+you that our dear Rose is well. As yet, we both enjoy the ocean
+exceedingly; but when we get off the Sound, into blue water, and
+have sent the pilot ashore, or discharged him, I ought to say, which
+puts me in mind of telling you that a cannon was discharged at us
+only last night, and that the ball whistled so near me, that I heard
+it as plain as ever you heard Rose's piano."
+
+"Had I not better first tell my aunt Sprague what is to be done when
+the pilot is discharged?"
+
+"No; tell her about the cannon that was discharged, first, and about
+the ball that I heard. I had almost forgot that adventure, which was
+a very remarkable one, was it not, Biddy?"
+
+"Indeed, Missus, and it was! and Miss Rose might put in the letter
+how we both screamed at that cannon, and might have been heard as
+plainly, every bit of it, as the ball."
+
+"Say nothing on the subject, Rose, or we shall never hear the last
+of it. So, darling, you may conclude in your own way, for I believe
+I have told your aunt all that comes to mind."
+
+Rose did as desired, finishing the epistle in a very few words, for,
+rightly enough, she had taken it into her head there was no pilot to
+be discharged, and consequently that the letter would never be sent.
+Her short but frequent conferences with Mulford were fast opening
+her eyes, not to say her heart, and she was beginning to see Captain
+Spike in his true character, which was that of a great scoundrel. It
+is true, that the mate had not long judged his commander quite so
+harshly; but had rather seen his beautiful brig, and her rare
+qualities, in her owner and commander, than the man himself; but
+jealousy had quickened his observation of late, and Stephen Spike
+had lost ground sensibly with Harry Mulford, within the last week.
+Two or three times before, the young man had thought of seeking
+another berth, on account of certain distrusts of Spike's
+occupations; but he was poor, and so long as he remained in the
+Swash, Harry's opportunities of meeting Rose were greatly increased.
+This circumstance, indeed, was the secret of his still being in the
+"Molly," as Spike usually called his craft; the last voyage having
+excited suspicions that were rather of a delicate nature. Then the
+young man really loved the brig, which, if she could not be
+literally made to talk, could be made to do almost everything else.
+A vessel, and a small vessel, too, is rather contracted as to space,
+but those who wish to converse can contrive to speak together often,
+even in such narrow limits. Such had been the fact with Rose Budd
+and the handsome mate. Twenty times since they sailed, short as that
+time was, had Mulford contrived to get so near to Rose, as to talk
+with her, unheard by others. It is true, that he seldom ventured to
+do this, so long as the captain was in sight, but Spike was often
+below, and opportunities were constantly occurring. It was in the
+course of these frequent but brief conversations, that Harry had
+made certain dark hints touching the character of his commander, and
+the known recklessness of his proceedings. Rose had taken the alarm,
+and fully comprehending her aunt's mental imbecility, her situation
+was already giving her great uneasiness. She had some undefined
+hopes from the revenue steamer; though, strangely enough as it
+appeared to her, her youngest and most approved suitor betrayed a
+strong desire to escape from that craft, at the very moment he was
+expressing his apprehensions on account of her presence in the brig.
+This contradiction arose from a certain esprit de corps, which
+seldom fails, more or less, to identify the mariner with his ship.
+
+But the writing was finished, and the letter sealed with wax, Mrs.
+Budd being quite as particular in that ceremony as Lord Nelson, when
+the females again repaired on deck. They found Spike and his mate
+sweeping the eastern part of the Sound with their glasses, with a
+view to look out for enemies; or, what to them, just then, was much
+the same thing, government craft. In this occupation, Rose was a
+little vexed to see that Mulford was almost as much interested as
+Spike himself, the love of his vessel seemingly overcoming his love
+for her, if not his love of the right--she knew of no reason,
+however, why the captain should dread any other vessel, and felt
+sufficiently provoked to question him a little on the subject, if it
+were only to let him see that the niece was not as completely his
+dupe as the aunt. She had not been on deck five minutes, therefore,
+during which time several expressions had escaped the two sailors
+touching their apprehensions of vessels seen in the distance, ere
+she commenced her inquiries.
+
+"And why should we fear meeting with other vessels?" Rose plainly
+demanded--"here in Long Island Sound, and within the power of the
+laws of the country?"
+
+"Fear?" exclaimed Spike, a little startled, and a good deal
+surprised at this straight-forward question--"Fear, Miss Rose! You
+do not think we are afraid, though there are many reasons why we do
+not wish to be spoken by certain craft that are hovering about. In
+the first place, you know it is war time--I suppose you know, Madam
+Budd, that America is at war with Mexico?"
+
+"Certainly," answered the widow, with dignity--"and that is a
+sufficient reason, Rose, why one vessel should chase, and another
+should run. If you had heard your poor uncle relate, as I have done,
+all his chasings and runnings away, in the war times, child, you
+would understand these things better. Why, I've heard your uncle say
+that, in some of his long voyages, he has run thousands and
+thousands of miles, with sails set on both sides, and all over his
+ship!"
+
+"Yes, aunty, and so have I, but that was `running before the wind,'
+as he used to call it."
+
+"I s'pose, however, Miss Rose," put in Spike, who saw that the niece
+would soon get the better of the aunt;--"I s'pose, Miss Rose, that
+you'll acknowledge that America is at war with Mexico?"
+
+"I am sorry to say that such is the fact, but I remember to have
+heard you say, yourself, Captain Spike, when my aunt was induced to
+undertake this voyage, that you did not consider there was the
+smallest danger from any Mexicans."
+
+"Yes, you did, Captain Spike," added the aunt--"you did say there
+was no danger from Mexicans."
+
+"Nor is there a bit, Madam Budd, if Miss Rose, and your honoured
+self, will only hear me. There is no danger, because the brig has
+the heels of anything Mexico can send to sea. She has sold her
+steamers, and, as for anything else under her flag, I would not care
+a straw."
+
+"The steamer from which we ran, last evening, and which actually
+fired off a cannon at us, was not Mexican, but American," said Rose,
+with a pointed manner that put Spike to his trumps.
+
+"Oh! that steamer--" he stammered--"that was a race--only a race,
+Miss Rose, and I wouldn't let her come near me, for the world. I
+should never hear the last of it, in the insurance offices, and on
+'change, did I let her overhaul us. You see, Miss Rose--you see,
+Madam Budd--" Spike ever found it most convenient to address his
+mystifying discourse to the aunt, in preference to addressing it to
+the niece--"You see, Madam Budd, the master of that craft and I are
+old cronies--sailed together when boys, and set great store by each
+other. We met only last evening, just a'ter I had left your own
+agreeable mansion, Madam Budd, and says he, `Spike, when do you
+sail?' `To-morrow's flood, Jones,' says I--his name is Jones;--Peter
+Jones, and as good a fellow as ever lived. `Do you go by the Hook,
+or by Hell-Gate--'"
+
+"Hurl-Gate, Captain Spike, if you please--or Whirl-Gate, which some
+people think is the true sound; but the other way of saying it is
+awful."
+
+"Well, the captain, my old master, always called it Hell-Gate, and I
+learned the trick from him--"
+
+"I know he did, and so do all sailors; but genteel people,
+now-a-days, say nothing but Hurl-Gate, or Whirl-Gate."
+
+Rose smiled at this; as did Mulford; but neither said anything, the
+subject having once before been up between them. As for ourselves,
+we are still so old-fashioned as to say, and write, Hell-Gate, and
+intend so to do, in spite of all the Yankees that have yet passed
+through it, or who ever shall pass through it, and that is saying a
+great deal. We do not like changing names to suit their uneasy
+spirits.
+
+"Call the place Hurl-Gate, and go on with your story," said the
+widow, complacently.
+
+"Yes, Madam Budd--`Do you go by the Hook, or by Whirl-Gate?' said
+Jones. `By Whirl-a-Gig-Gate,' says I. `Well,' says he, `I shall go
+through the Gate myself, in the course of the morning. We may meet
+somewhere to the eastward, and, if we do, I'll bet you a beaver,'
+says he, `that I show you my stern.' `Agreed,' says I, and we shook
+hands upon it. That's the whole history of our giving the steamer
+the slip, last night, and of my not wishing to let her speak me."
+
+"But you went into a bay, and let her go past you," said Rose,
+coolly enough as to manner, but with great point as to substance.
+"Was not that a singular way of winning a race?"
+
+"It does seem so, Miss Rose, but it's all plain enough, when
+understood. I found that steam was too much for sails, and I stood
+up into the bay to let them run past us, in hopes they would never
+find out the trick. I care as little for a hat as any man, but I do
+care a good deal about having it reported on 'change that the Molly
+was beat, by even a steamer."
+
+This ended the discourse for the moment, Clench again having
+something to say to his captain in private.
+
+"How much of that explanation am I to believe, and how much
+disbelieve?" asked Rose, the instant she was left alone with Harry.
+"If it be all invention, it was a ready and ingenious story."
+
+"No part of it is true. He no more expected that the steamer would
+pass through Hell-Gate, than I expected it myself. There was no bet,
+or race, therefore; but it was our wish to avoid Uncle Sam's
+cruiser, that was all."
+
+"And why should you wish any such thing?"
+
+"On my honour, I can give you no better reason, so far as I am
+concerned, than the fact that, wishing to keep clear of her, I do
+not like to be overhauled. Nor can I tell you why Spike is so much
+in earnest in holding the revenue vessel at arm's length; I know he
+dislikes all such craft, as a matter of course, but I can see no
+particular reason for it just now. A more innocent cargo was never
+stuck into a vessel's hold."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Flour; and no great matter of that. The brig is not half full,
+being just in beautiful ballast trim, as if ready for a race. I can
+see no sufficient reason, beyond native antipathy, why Captain Spike
+should wish to avoid any craft, for it is humbug his dread of a
+Mexican, and least of all, here, in Long Island Sound. All that
+story about Jones is a tub for whales."
+
+"Thank you for the allusion; my aunt and myself being the whales."
+
+"You know I do mean--can mean nothing, Rose, that is disrespectful
+to either yourself or your aunt."
+
+Rose looked up, and she looked pleased. Then she mused in silence,
+for some time, when she again spoke.
+
+"Why have you remained another voyage with such a man, Harry?" she
+asked, earnestly.
+
+"Because, as his first officer, I have had access to your house,
+when I could not have had it otherwise; and because I have
+apprehended that he might persuade Mrs. Budd, as he had boasted to
+me it was his intention to do, to make this voyage."
+
+Rose now looked grateful; and deeply grateful did she feel, and had
+reason to feel. Harry had concealed no portion of his history from
+her. Like herself, he was a shipmaster's child, but one better
+educated and better connected than was customary for the class. His
+father had paid a good deal of attention to the youth's early years,
+but had made a seaman of him, out of choice. The father had lost his
+all, however, with his life, in a shipwreck; and Harry was thrown
+upon his own resources, at the early age of twenty. He had made one
+or two voyages as a second mate, when chance threw him in Spike's
+way, who, pleased with some evidences of coolness and skill, that he
+had shown in a foreign port, on the occasion of another loss, took
+him as his first officer; in which situation he had remained ever
+since, partly from choice and partly from necessity. On the other
+hand, Rose had a fortune; by no means a large one, but several
+thousands in possession, from her own father, and as many more in
+reversion from her uncle. It was this money, taken in connection
+with the credulous imbecility of the aunt, that had awakened the
+cupidity, and excited the hopes of Spike. After a life of lawless
+adventure, one that had been chequered by every shade of luck, he
+found himself growing old, with his brig growing old with him, and
+little left beside his vessel and the sort of half cargo that was in
+her hold. Want of means, indeed, was the reason that the
+flour-barrels were not more numerous.
+
+Rose heard Mulford's explanation favourably, as indeed she heard
+most of that which came from him, but did not renew the discourse,
+Spike's conference with the boatswain just then terminating. The
+captain now came aft, and began to speak of the performances of his
+vessel in a way to show that he took great pride in them.
+
+"We are travelling at the rate of ten knots, Madam Budd," he said
+exultingly, "and that will take us clear of the land, before night
+shuts in ag'in. Montauk is a good place for an offing; I ask for no
+better."
+
+"Shall we then have two offings, this voyage, Captain Spike?" asked
+Rose, a little sarcastically. "If we are in the offing now, and are
+to be in the offing when we reach Montauk, there must be two such
+places."
+
+"Rosy, dear, you amaze me!" put in the aunt. "There is no offing
+until the pilot is discharged, and when he's discharged there is
+nothing but offing. It's all offing. On the Sound, is the first
+great change that befalls a vessel as she goes to sea; then comes
+the offing; next the pilot is discharged--then--then--what comes
+next, Captain Spike?"
+
+"Then the vessel takes her departure--an old navigator like
+yourself, Madam Budd, ought not to forget the departure."
+
+"Quite true, sir. The departure is a very important portion of a
+seaman's life. Often and often have I heard my poor dear Mr. Budd
+talk about his departures. His departures, and his offings and
+his--"
+
+"Land-falls," added Spike, perceiving that the shipmaster's relict
+was a little at fault.
+
+"Thank you, sir; the hint is quite welcome. His landfalls, also,
+were often in his mouth."
+
+"What is a land-fall, aunty?" inquired Rose--"It appears a strange
+term to be used by one who lives on the water."
+
+"Oh! there is no end to the curiosities of sailors! A `land-fall,'
+my dear, means a shipwreck, of course. To fall on the land, and a
+very unpleasant fall it is, when a vessel should keep on the water.
+I've heard of dreadful land-falls in my day, in which hundreds of
+souls have been swept into eternity, in an instant."
+
+"Yes; yes, Madam Budd--there are such accidents truly, and serious
+things be they to encounter," answered Spike, hemming a little to
+clear his throat, as was much his practice whenever the widow ran
+into any unusually extravagant blunder; "yes, serious things to
+encounter. But the land-fall that I mean is a different sort of
+thing; being, as you well know, what we say when we come in sight of
+land, a'ter a v'y'ge; or, meaning the land we may happen first to
+see. The departure is the beginning of our calculation when we lose
+sight of the last cape or headland, and the land-fall closes it, by
+letting us know where we are, at the other end of our journey, as
+you probably remember."
+
+"Is there not such a thing as clearing out in navigation?" asked
+Rose, quickly, willing to cover a little confusion that was manifest
+in her aunt's manner.
+
+"Not exactly in navigation, Miss Rose, but clearing out, with honest
+folk, ought to come first, and navigation a'terwards. Clearing out
+means going through the Custom-House, accordin' to law."
+
+"And the Molly Swash has cleared out, I hope?"
+
+"Sartain--a more lawful clearance was never given in Wall Street;
+it's for Key West and a market. I did think of making it Havana and
+a market, but port-charges are lightest at Key West."
+
+"Then Key West is the place to which we are bound?"
+
+"It ought to be, agreeable to papers; though vessels sometimes miss
+the ports for which they clear."
+
+Rose put no more questions; and her aunt, being conscious that she
+had not appeared to advantage in the affair of the "land-fall," was
+also disposed to be silent. Spike and Mulford had their attention
+drawn to the vessel, and the conversation dropped.
+
+The reader can readily suppose that the Molly Swash had not been
+standing still all this time. So far from this, she was running
+"down Sound," with the wind on her quarter, or at south-west, making
+great head-way, as she was close under the south shore, or on the
+island side of the water she was in. The vessel had no other motion
+than that of her speed, and the females escaped everything like
+sea-sickness, for the time being. This enabled them to attend to
+making certain arrangements necessary to their comforts below,
+previously to getting into rough water. In acquitting herself of
+this task, Rose received much useful advice from Josh, though his
+new assistant, Jack Tier, turned out to be a prize indeed, in the
+cabins. The first was only a steward; but the last proved himself
+not only a handy person of his calling, but one full of resources--a
+genius, in his way. Josh soon became so sensible of his own
+inferiority, in contributing to the comforts of females, that he
+yielded the entire management of the "ladies' cabin," as a little
+place that might have been ten feet square, was called, to his
+uncouth-looking, but really expert deputy. Jack waddled about below,
+as if born and brought up in such a place, and seemed every way
+fitted for his office. In height, and in build generally, there was
+a surprising conformity between the widow and the steward's deputy,
+a circumstance which might induce one to think they must often have
+been in each other's way, in a space so small; though, in point of
+fact, Jack never ran foul of any one. He seemed to avoid this
+inconvenience by a species of nautical instinct.
+
+Towards the turn of the day, Rose had everything arranged, and was
+surprised to find how much room she had made for her aunt and
+herself, by means of Jack's hints, and how much more comfortable it
+was possible to be, in that small cabin, than she had at first
+supposed.
+
+After dinner, Spike took his siesta. He slept in a little state-room
+that stood on the starboard side of the quarter-deck, quite aft; as
+Mulford did in one on the larboard. These two state-rooms were
+fixtures; but a light deck overhead, which connected them, shipped
+and unshipped, forming a shelter for the man at the wheel, when in
+its place, as well as for the officer of the watch, should he see
+fit to use it, in bad weather. This sort of cuddy, Spike termed his
+"coach-house."
+
+The captain had no sooner gone into his state-room, and closed its
+window, movements that were understood by Mulford, than the latter
+took occasion to intimate to Rose, by means of Jack Tier, the state
+of things on deck, when the young man was favoured with the young
+lady's company.
+
+"He has turned in for his afternoon's nap, and will sleep for just
+one hour, blow high, or blow low," said the mate, placing himself at
+Rose's side on the trunk, which formed the usual seat for those who
+could presume to take the liberty of sitting down on the
+quarter-deck. "It's a habit with him, and we can count on it, with
+perfect security."
+
+"His doing so, now, is a sign that he has no immediate fears of the
+revenue steamer?"
+
+"The coast is quite clear of her. We have taken good looks at every
+smoke, but can see nothing that appears like our late companion. She
+has doubtless gone to the eastward, on duty, and merely chased us,
+on her road."
+
+"But why should she chase us, at all?"
+
+"Because we ran. Let a dog run, or a man run, or a cat run, ten to
+one but something starts in chase. It is human nature, I believe, to
+give chase; though I will admit there was something suspicious about
+that steamer's movements--her anchoring off the Fort, for instance.
+But let her go, for the present; are you getting things right, and
+to your mind, below decks?"
+
+"Very much so. The cabin is small, and the two state-rooms the
+merest drawers that ever were used, but, by putting everything in
+its place, we have made sufficient room, and no doubt shall be
+comfortable."
+
+"I am sorry you did not call on me for assistance. The mate has a
+prescriptive right to help stow away."
+
+"We made out without your services," returned Rose, slightly
+blushing--"Jack Tier, as he is called, Josh's assistant, is a very
+useful person, and has been our adviser and manager. I want no
+better for such services."
+
+"He is a queer fellow, all round. Take him altogether, I hardly ever
+saw so droll a being! As thick as he's long, with a waddle like a
+duck, a voice that is cracked, hair like bristles, and knee high;
+the man might make a fortune as a show. Tom Thumb is scarcely a
+greater curiosity."
+
+"He is singular in `build,' as you call it," returned Rose,
+laughing, "but, I can assure you that he is a most excellent fellow
+in his way--worth a dozen of Josh. Do you know, Harry, that I
+suspect he has strong feelings towards Captain Spike; though whether
+of like or dislike, friendship or enmity, I am at a loss to say."
+
+"And why do you think that he has any feeling at all? I have heard
+Spike say he left the fellow ashore, somewhere down on the Spanish
+Main, or in the Islands, quite twenty years since; but a sailor
+would scarce carry a grudge so long a time, for such a thing as
+that."
+
+"I do not know--but feeling there is, and much of it, too; though,
+whether hostile or friendly, I will not undertake to say."
+
+"I'll look to the chap, now you tell me this. It is a little odd,
+the manner in which he got on board us, taken in connection with the
+company he was in, and a discovery may be made. Here he is, however;
+and, as I keep the keys of the magazine, he can do us no great harm,
+unless he scuttles the brig."
+
+"Magazine! Is there such a thing here?"
+
+"To be sure there is, and ammunition enough in it to keep eight
+carronades in lively conversation for a couple of hours."
+
+"A carronade is what you call a gun, is it not?"
+
+"A piece of a one--being somewhat short, like your friend, Jack
+Tier, who is shaped a good deal like a carronade."
+
+Rose smiled--nay, half laughed, for Harry's pleasantries almost took
+the character of wit in her eyes, but she did not the less pursue
+her inquiries.
+
+"Guns! And where are they, if they be on this vessel?"
+
+"Do not use such a lubberly expression, my dear Rose, if you respect
+your father's profession. On a vessel, is a new-fangled Americanism,
+that is neither fish, flesh, nor red-herring, as we sailors
+say--neither English nor Greek."
+
+"What should I say, then? My wish is not to parade sea-talk, but to
+use it correctly, when I use it at all."
+
+"The expression is hardly `sea-talk,' as you call it, but every-day
+English--that is, when rightly used. On a vessel is no more English
+than it is nautical--no sailor ever used such an expression."
+
+"Tell me what I ought to say, and you will find me a willing, if not
+an apt scholar. I am certain of having often read it, in the
+newspapers, and that quite lately."
+
+"I'll answer for that, and it's another proof of its being wrong. In
+a vessel is as correct as in a coach, and on a vessel as wrong as
+can be; but you can say on board a vessel, though not `on the boards
+of a vessel;' as Mrs. Budd has it."
+
+"Mr. Mulford!"
+
+"I beg a thousand pardons, Rose, and will offend no more--though she
+does make some very queer mistakes!"
+
+"My aunt thinks it an honour to my uncle's memory, to be able to use
+the language of his professional life, and if she does sometimes
+make mistakes that are absurd, it is with motives so respectable
+that no sailor should deride them."
+
+"I am rebuked for ever. Mrs. Budd may call the anchor a silver
+spoon, hereafter, without my even smiling. But if the aunt has this
+kind remembrance of a seaman's life, why cannot the niece think
+equally well of it?"
+
+"Perhaps she does," returned Rose, smiling again--"seeing all its
+attractions through the claims of Captain Spike."
+
+"I think half the danger from him gone, now that you seem so much on
+your guard. What an odious piece of deception, to persuade Mrs. Budd
+that you were fast falling into a decline!"
+
+"One so odious that I shall surely quit the brig at the first port
+we enter, or even in the first suitable vessel that we may speak."
+
+"And Mrs. Budd--could you persuade her to such a course?"
+
+"You scarce know us, Harry Mulford. My aunt commands, when there is
+no serious duty to perform, but we change places when there is. I
+can persuade her to anything that is right, in ten minutes."
+
+"You might persuade a world!" cried Harry, with strong admiration
+expressed in his countenance; after which he began to converse with
+Rose, on a subject so interesting to themselves, that we do not
+think it prudent to relate any more of the discourse, forgetting all
+about the guns.
+
+About four o'clock, of a fine summer's afternoon, the Swash went
+through the Race, on the best of the ebb, and with a staggering
+south-west wind. Her movement by the land, just at that point, could
+not have been less than at the rate of fifteen miles in the hour.
+Spike was in high spirits, for his brig had got on famously that
+day, and there was nothing in sight to the eastward. He made no
+doubt, as he had told his mate, that the steamer had gone into the
+Vineyard Sound, and that she was bound over the shoals.
+
+"They want to make political capital out of her," he added, using
+one of the slang phrases, that the "business habits" of the American
+people are so rapidly incorporating with the common language of the
+country--"They want to make political capital out of her, Harry, and
+must show her off to the Boston folk, who are full of notions. Well,
+let them turn her to as much account in that way as they please, so
+long as they keep her clear of the Molly. Your sarvant, Madam
+Budd"--addressing the widow, who just at that moment came on
+deck--"a fine a'ternoon, and likely to be a clear night to run off
+the coast in."
+
+"Clear nights are desirable, and most of all at sea, Captain Spike,"
+returned the relict, in her best, complacent manner, "whether it be
+to run off a coast, or to run on a coast. In either case, a clear
+night, or a bright moon must be useful."
+
+Captain Spike rolled his tobacco over in his mouth, and cast a
+furtive glance at the mate, but he did not presume to hazard any
+further manifestations of his disposition to laugh.
+
+"Yes, Madam Budd," he answered, "it is quite as you say, and I am
+only surprised where you have picked up so much of what I call
+useful nautical knowledge."
+
+"We live and learn, sir. You will recollect that this is not my
+first voyage, having made one before, and that I passed a happy,
+happy, thirty years, in the society of my poor, dear husband, Rose's
+uncle. One must have been dull, indeed, not to have picked up, from
+such a companion, much of a calling that was so dear to him, and the
+particulars of which were so very dear to him. He actually gave me
+lessons in the `sea dialect,' as he called it, which probably is the
+true reason I am so accurate and general in my acquisitions."
+
+"Yes, Madam Budd--yes--hem--you are--yes, you are wonderful in that
+way. We shall soon get an offing, now, Madam Budd--yes, soon get an
+offing, now."
+
+"And take in our departure, Captain Spike--" added the widow, with a
+very intelligent smile.
+
+"Yes, take our departure. Montauk is yonder, just coming in sight;
+only some three hours' run from this spot. When we get there, the
+open ocean will lie before us; and give me the open sea, and I'll
+not call the king my uncle."
+
+"Was he your uncle, Captain Spike?"
+
+"Only in a philanthropic way, Madam Budd. Yes, let us get a good
+offing, and a rapping to'gallant breeze, and I do not think I should
+care much for two of Uncle Sam's new-fashioned revenue craft, one on
+each side of me."
+
+"How delightful do I find such conversation, Rose! It's as much like
+your poor, dear uncle's, as one pea is like another. `Yes,' he used
+to say, too, `let me only have one on each side of me, and a wrapper
+round the topgallant sail to hold the breeze, and I'd not call the
+king my uncle.' Now I think of it, he used to talk about the king as
+his uncle, too."
+
+"It was all talk, aunty. He had no uncle, and, what is more, he had
+no king."
+
+"That's quite true, Miss Rose," rejoined Spike, attempting a bow,
+which ended in a sort of jerk. "It is not very becoming in us
+republicans to be talking of kings, but a habit is a habit. Our
+forefathers had kings, and we drop into their ways without thinking
+of what we are doing. Fore-topgallant yard, there?"
+
+"Sir."
+
+"Keep a bright look-out, ahead. Let me know the instant you make
+anything in the neighbourhood of Montauk."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"As I was saying, Madam Budd, we seamen drop into our forefathers'
+ways. Now, when I was a youngster, I remember, one day, that we fell
+in with a ketch--you know, Miss Rose, what a ketch is, I suppose?"
+
+"I have not the least notion of it, sir."
+
+"Rosy, you amaze me!" exclaimed the aunt--"and you a ship-master's
+niece, and a ship-master's daughter! A catch is a trick that sailors
+have, when they quiz landsmen."
+
+"Yes, Madam Budd, yes; we have them sort of catches, too; but I now
+mean the vessel with a peculiar rig, which we call a ketch, you
+know."
+
+"Is it the full-jigger, or the half-jigger sort, that you mean?"
+
+Spike could hardly stand this, and he had to hail the
+topgallant-yard again, in order to keep the command of his muscles,
+for he saw by the pretty frown that was gathering on the brow of
+Rose, that she was regarding the matter a little seriously. Luckily,
+the answer of the man on the yard diverted the mind of the widow
+from the subject, and prevented the necessity of any reply.
+
+"There's a light, of course, sir, on Montauk, is there not, Captain
+Spike?" demanded the seaman who was aloft.
+
+"To be sure there is--every head-land, hereabouts, has its light;
+and some have two."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir--it's that which puzzles me; I think I see one
+light-house, and I'm not certain but I see two."
+
+"If there is anything like a second, it must be a sail. Montauk has
+but one light."
+
+Mulford sprang into the fore-rigging, and in a minute was on the
+yard. He soon came down, and reported the lighthouse in sight, with
+the afternoon's sun shining on it, but no sail near.
+
+"My poor, dear Mr. Budd used to tell a story of his being cast away
+on a light-house, in the East Indies," put in the relict, as soon as
+the mate had ended his report, "which always affected me. It seems
+there were three ships of them together, in an awful tempest
+directly off the land--"
+
+"That was comfortable, any how," cried Spike;--"if it must blow
+hard, let it come off the land, say I."
+
+"Yes, sir, it was directly off the land, as my poor husband always
+said, which made it so much the worse you must know, Rosy; though
+Captain Spike's gallant spirit would rather encounter danger than
+not. It blew what they call a Hyson, in the Chinese seas--"
+
+"A what, aunty?--Hyson is the name of a tea, you know."
+
+"A Hyson, I'm pretty sure it was; and I suppose the wind is named
+after the tea, or the tea after the wind."
+
+"The ladies do get in a gale, sometimes, over their tea," said Spike
+gallantly. "But I rather think Madam Budd must mean a Typhoon."
+
+"That's it--a Typhoon, or a Hyson--there is not much difference
+between them, you see. Well, it blew a Typhoon, and they are always
+mortal to somebody. This my poor Mr. Budd well knew, and he had set
+his chronometer for that Typhoon--"
+
+"Excuse me, aunty, it was the barometer that he was watching--the
+chronometer was his watch."
+
+"So it was--his watch on deck was his chronometer, I declare. I am
+forgetting a part of my education. Do you know the use of a
+chronometer, now, Rose? You have seen your uncle's often, but do you
+know how he used it?"
+
+"Not in the least, aunty. My uncle often tried to explain it, but I
+never could understand him."
+
+"It must have been, then, because Captain Budd did not try to make
+himself comprehended," said Mulford, "for I feel certain nothing
+would be easier than to make you understand the uses of the
+chronometer."
+
+"I should like to learn it from you, Mr. Mulford," answered the
+charming girl, with an emphasis so slight on the `you,' that no one
+observed it but the mate, but which was clear enough to him, and
+caused every nerve to thrill.
+
+"I can attempt it," answered the young man, "if it be agreeable to
+Mrs. Budd, who would probably like to hear it herself."
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Mulford; though I fancy you can say little on such a
+subject that I have not often heard already, from my poor, dear Mr.
+Budd."
+
+"This was not very encouraging, truly; but Rose continuing to look
+interested, the mate proceeded.
+
+"The use of the chronometer is to ascertain the longitude," said
+Harry, "and the manner of doing it is, simply this: A chronometer is
+nothing more nor less than a watch, made with more care than usual,
+so as to keep the most accurate time. They are of all sizes, from
+that of a clock, down to this which I wear in my fob, and which is a
+watch in size and appearance. Now, the nautical almanacs are all
+calculated to some particular meridian--"
+
+"Yes," interrupted the relict, "Mr. Budd had a great deal to say
+about meridians."
+
+"That of London, or Greenwich, being the meridian used by those who
+use the English Almanacs, and those of Paris or St. Petersburg, by
+the French and Russians. Each of these places has an observatory,
+and chronometers that are kept carefully regulated, the year round.
+Every chronometer is set by the regulator of the particular
+observatory or place to which the almanac used is calculated."
+
+"How wonderfully like my poor, dear Mr. Budd, all this is, Rosy!
+Meridians, and calculated, and almanacs! I could almost think I
+heard your uncle entertaining me with one of his nautical
+discussions, I declare!"
+
+"Now the sun rises earlier in places east, than in places west of
+us."
+
+"It rises earlier in the summer, but later in the winter,
+everywhere, Mr. Mulford."
+
+"Yes, my dear Madam; but the sun rises earlier every day, in London,
+than it does in New York."
+
+"That is impossible," said the widow, dogmatically--"Why should not
+the sun rise at the same time in England and America?"
+
+"Because England is east of America, aunty. The sun does not move,
+you know, but only appears to us to move, because the earth turns
+round from west to east, which causes those who are farthest east to
+see it first. That is what Mr. Mulford means."
+
+"Rose has explained it perfectly well," continued the mate. "Now the
+earth is divided into 360 degrees, and the day is divided into 24
+hours. If 360 be divided by 24, the quotient will be 15. If follows
+that, for each fifteen degrees of longitude, there is a difference
+of just one hour in the rising of the sun, all over the earth, where
+it rises at all. New York is near five times 15 degrees west of
+Greenwich, and the sun consequently rises five hours later at New
+York than at London."
+
+"There must be a mistake in this, Rosy," said the relict, in a tone
+of desperate resignation, in which the desire to break out in
+dissent, was struggling oddly enough with an assumed dignity of
+deportment. "I've always heard that the people of London are some of
+the latest in the world. Then, I've been in London, and know that
+the sun rises in New York, in December, a good deal earlier than it
+does in London, by the clock--yes, by the clock."
+
+"True enough, by the clock, Mrs. Budd, for London is more than ten
+degrees north of New York, and the farther north you go, the later
+the sun rises in winter, and the earlier in summer."
+
+The relict merely shrugged her shoulders, as much as to say that she
+knew no such thing; but Rose, who had been well taught, raised her
+serene eyes to her aunt's face, and mildly said--"All true, aunty,
+and that is owing to the fact that the earth is smaller at each end
+than in the middle."
+
+"Fiddle faddle with your middles and ends, Rose--I've been in
+London, dear, and know that the sun rises later there than in New
+York, in the month of December, and that I know by the clock, I tell
+you."
+
+"The reason of which is," resumed Mulford, "because the clocks of
+each place keep the time of that place. Now, it is different with
+the chronometers; they are set in the observatory of Greenwich, and
+keep the time of Greenwich. This watch chronometer was set there,
+only six months since; and this time, as you see, is near nine
+o'clock, when in truth it is only about four o'clock here, where we
+are."
+
+"I wonder you keep such a watch, Mr. Mulford!"
+
+"I keep it," returned the mate, smiling, "because I know it to keep
+good time. It has the Greenwich time; and, as your watch has the New
+York time, by comparing them together, it is quite easy to find the
+longitude of New York."
+
+"Do you, then, keep watches to compare with your chronometers?"
+asked Rose, with interest.
+
+"Certainly not; as that would require a watch for every separate
+part of the ocean, and then we should only get known longitudes. It
+would be impracticable, and load a ship with nothing but watches.
+What we do is this: We set our chronometers at Greenwich, and thus
+keep the Greenwich true time wherever we go. The greatest attention
+is paid to the chronometers, to see that they receive no injuries;
+and usually there are two, and often more of them, to compare one
+with another, in order to see that they go well. When in the middle
+of the ocean, for instance, we find the true time of the day at that
+spot, by ascertaining the height of the sun. This we do by means of
+our quadrants, or sextants; for, as the sun is always in the zenith
+at twelve o'clock, nothing is easier than to do this, when the sun
+can be seen, and an arc of the heavens measured. At the instant the
+height of the sun is ascertained by one observer, he calls to
+another, who notes the time on the chronometer. The difference in
+these two times, or that of the chronometer and that of the sun,
+gives the distance in degrees and minutes, between the longitude of
+Greenwich and that of the place on the ocean where the observer is;
+and that gives him his longitude. If the difference is three hours
+and twenty minutes, in time, the distance from Greenwich is fifty
+degrees of longitude, because the sun rises three hours and twenty
+minutes sooner in London, than in the fiftieth degree of west
+longitude."
+
+"A watch is a watch, Rosy," put in the aunt, doggedly--"and time is
+time.--When it's four o'clock at our house, it's four o'clock at
+your aunt Sprague's, and it's so all over the world. The world may
+turn round--I'll not deny it, for your uncle often said as much as
+that, but it cannot turn in the way Mr. Mulford says, or we should
+all fall off it, at night, when it was bottom upwards. No, sir, no;
+you've started wrong. My poor, dear, late Mr. Budd, always admitted
+that the world turned round, as the books say; but when I suggested
+to him the difficulty of keeping things in their places, with the
+earth upside down, he acknowledged candidly--for he was all candour,
+I must say that for him--and owned that he had made a discovery by
+means of his barometer, which showed that the world did not turn
+round in the way you describe, or by rolling over, but by whirling
+about, as one turns in a dance. You must remember your uncle's
+telling me this, Rose?"
+
+Rose did remember her uncle's telling her aunt this, as well as a
+great many other similar prodigies. Captain Budd had married his
+silly wife on account of her pretty face, and when the novelty of
+that was over, he often amused himself by inventing all sorts of
+absurdities, to amuse both her and himself. Among other things, Rose
+well remembered his quieting her aunt's scruples about falling off
+the earth, by laying down the theory that the world did not "roll
+over," but "whirl round." But Rose did not answer the question.
+
+"Objects are kept in their places on the earth by means of
+attraction," Mulford ventured to say, with a great deal of humility
+of manner. "I believe it is thought there is no up or down, except
+as we go from or towards the earth; and that would make the position
+of the last a matter of indifference, as respects objects keeping on
+it."
+
+"Attractions are great advantages, I will own, sir, especially to
+our sex. I think it will be acknowledged there has been no want of
+them in our family, any more than there has been of sense and
+information. Sense and information we pride ourselves on;
+attractions being gifts from God, we try to think less of them. But
+all the attractions in the world could not keep Rosy, here, from
+falling off the earth, did it ever come bottom upwards. And, mercy
+on me, where would she fall to!"
+
+Mulford saw that argument was useless, and he confined his remarks,
+during the rest of the conversation, to showing Rose the manner in
+which the longitude of a place might be ascertained, with the aid of
+the chronometer, and by means of observations to get the true time
+of day, at the particular place itself. Rose was so quick-witted,
+and already so well instructed, as easily to comprehend the
+principles; the details being matters of no great moment to one of
+her sex and habits. But Mrs. Budd remained antagonist to the last.
+She obstinately maintained that twelve o'clock was twelve o'clock;
+or, if there was any difference, "London hours were notoriously
+later than those of New York."
+
+Against such assertions arguments were obviously useless, and
+Mulford, perceiving that Rose began to fidget, had sufficient tact
+to change the conversation altogether.
+
+And still the Molly Swash kept in swift motion. Montauk was by this
+time abeam, and the little brigantine began to rise and fall, on the
+long swells of the Atlantic, which now opened before her, in one
+vast sheet of green and rolling waters. On her right lay the
+termination of Long Island; a low, rocky cape, with its light, and a
+few fields in tillage, for the uses of those who tended it. It was
+the "land's end" of New York, while the island that was heaving up
+out of the sea, at a distance of about twenty miles to the eastward,
+was the property of Rhode Island, being called Blok Island. Between
+the two, the Swash shaped her course for the ocean.
+
+Spike had betrayed uneasiness, as his brig came up with Montauk; but
+the coast seemed clear, with not even a distant sail in sight, and
+he came aft, rubbing his hands with delight, speaking cheerfully.
+
+"All right, Mr. Mulford," he cried--"everything ship-shape and
+brister-fashion--not even a smack fishing here-away, which is a
+little remarkable. Ha!--what are you staring at, over the quarter,
+there?"
+
+"Look here, sir, directly in the wake of the setting sun, which we
+are now opening from the land--is not that a sail?"
+
+"Sail! Impossible, sir. What should a sail be doing in there, so
+near Montauk--no man ever saw a sail there in his life. It's a spot
+in the sun, Madam Budd, that my mate has got a glimpse at, and,
+sailor-like, he mistakes it for a sail! Ha--ha--ha--yes, Harry, it's
+a spot in the sun."
+
+"It is a spot on the sun, as you say, but it's a spot made by a
+vessel--and here is a boat pulling towards her, might and main;
+going from the light, as if carrying news."
+
+It was no longer possible for Spike's hopes to deceive him. There
+was a vessel, sure enough; though, when first seen, it was so
+directly in a line with the fiery orb of the setting sun, as to
+escape common observation. As the brig went foaming on towards the
+ocean, however, the black speck was soon brought out of the range of
+the orb of day, and Spike's glass was instantly levelled at it.
+
+"Just as one might expect, Mr. Mulford," cried the captain, lowering
+his glass, and looking aloft to see what could be done to help his
+craft along; "a bloody revenue cutter, as I'm a wicked sinner! There
+she lies, sir, within musket shot of the shore, hid behind the
+point, as it might be in waiting for us, with her head to the
+southward, her helm hard down, topsail aback, and foresail brailed;
+as wicked looking a thing as Free Trade and Sailor's Rights ever ran
+from. My life on it, sir, she's been put in that precise spot, in
+waiting for the Molly to arrive. You see, as we stand on, it places
+her as handsomely to windward of us, as the heart of man could
+desire."
+
+"It is a revenue cutter, sir; now she's out of the sun's wake, that
+is plain enough. And that is her boat, which has been sent to the
+light to keep a look-out for us. Well, sir, she's to windward; but
+we have everything set for our course, and as we are fairly abeam,
+she must be a great traveller to overhaul us."
+
+"I thought these bloody cutters were all down in the Gulf," growled
+the captain, casting his eyes aloft again, to see that everything
+drew. "I'm sure the newspapers have mentioned as many as twenty that
+are down there, and here is one, lying behind Montauk, like a snake
+in the grass!"
+
+"At any rate, by the time he gets his boat up we shall get the start
+of him--ay, there he fills and falls off, to go and meet her. He'll
+soon be after us, Captain Spike, at racing speed."
+
+Everything occurred as those two mariners had foreseen. The revenue
+cutter, one of the usual fore-top-sail schooners that are employed
+in that service, up and down the coast, had no sooner hoisted up her
+boat, than she made sail, a little off the wind, on a line to close
+with the Swash. As for the brig, she had hauled up to an easy
+bowline, as she came round Montauk, and was now standing off south
+southeast, still having the wind at south-west. The weatherly
+position of the cutter enabled her to steer rather more than one
+point freer. At the commencement of this chase, the vessels were
+about a mile and a half apart, a distance too great to enable the
+cutter to render the light guns she carried available, and it was
+obvious from the first, that everything depended on speed. And speed
+it was, truly; both vessels fairly flying; the Molly Swash having at
+last met with something very like her match. Half an hour satisfied
+both Spike and Mulford that, by giving the cutter the advantage of
+one point in a freer wind, she would certainly get alongside of
+them, and the alternative was therefore to keep off.
+
+"A starn chase is a long chase, all the world over," cried
+Spike--"edge away, sir; edge away, sir, and bring the cutter well on
+our quarter."
+
+This order was obeyed; but to the surprise of those in the Swash,
+the cutter did not exactly follow, though she kept off a little
+more. Her object seemed to be to maintain her weatherly position,
+and in this manner the two vessels ran on for an hour longer, until
+the Swash had made most of the distance between Montauk and Blok
+Island. Objects were even becoming dimly visible on the last, and
+the light on the point was just becoming visible, a lone star above
+a waste of desert, the sun having been down now fully a quarter of
+an hour, and twilight beginning to draw the curtain of night over
+the waters.
+
+"A craft under Blok," shouted the look-out, that was still kept
+aloft as a necessary precaution.
+
+"What sort of a craft?" demanded Spike, fiercely; for the very
+mention of a sail, at that moment, aroused all his ire. "Arn't you
+making a frigate out of an apple-orchard?"
+
+"It's the steamer, sir. I can now see her smoke. She's just clearing
+the land, on the south side of the island, and seems to be coming
+round to meet us."
+
+A long, low, eloquent whistle from the captain, succeeded this
+announcement. The man aloft was right. It was the steamer, sure
+enough; and she had been lying hid behind Blok Island, exactly as
+her consort had been placed behind Montauk, in waiting for their
+chase to arrive. The result was, to put the Molly Swash in exceeding
+jeopardy, and the reason why the cutter kept so well to windward was
+fully explained. To pass out to sea between these two craft was
+hopeless. There remained but a single alternative from capture by
+one or by the other,--and that Spike adopted instantly. He kept his
+brig dead away, setting studding-sails on both sides. This change of
+course brought the cutter nearly aft, or somewhat on the other
+quarter, and laid the brig's head in a direction to carry her close
+to the northern coast of the island. But the principal advantage was
+gained over the steamer, which could not keep off, without first
+standing a mile or two, or even more, to the westward, in order to
+clear the land. This was so much clear gain to the Swash, which was
+running off at racing speed, on a north-east course, while her most
+dangerous enemy was still heading to the westward. As for the
+cutter, she kept away; but it was soon apparent that the brig had
+the heels of her, dead before the wind.
+
+Darkness now began to close around the three vessels; the brig and
+the schooner soon becoming visible to each other principally by
+means of their night-glasses; though the steamer's position could be
+easily distinguished by means of her flaming chimney. This latter
+vessel stood to the westward for a quarter of an hour, when her
+commander appeared to become suddenly conscious of the ground he was
+losing, and he wore short round, and went off before the wind, under
+steam and canvas; intending to meet the chase off the northern side
+of the island. The very person who had hailed the Swash, as she was
+leaving the wharf, who had passed her in Hell-Gate, with Jack Tier
+in his boat, and who had joined her off Throgmorton's, was now on
+her deck, urging her commander by every consideration not to let the
+brig escape. It was at his suggestion that the course was changed.
+Nervous, and eager to seize the brig, he prevailed on the commander
+of the steamer to alter his course. Had he done no more than this,
+all might have been well; but so exaggerated were his notions of the
+Swash's sailing, that, instead of suffering the steamer to keep
+close along the eastern side of the island, he persuaded her
+commander of the necessity of standing off a long distance to the
+northward and eastward, with a view to get ahead of the chase. This
+was not bad advice, were there any certainly that Spike would stand
+on, of which, however, he had no intention.
+
+The night set in dark and cloudy; and, the instant that Spike saw,
+by means of the flaming chimney, that the steamer had wore, and was
+going to the eastward of Blok, his plan was laid. Calling to
+Mulford, he communicated it to him, and was glad to find that his
+intelligent mate was of his own way of thinking. The necessary
+orders were given, accordingly, and everything was got ready for its
+execution.
+
+In the meantime, the two revenue craft were much in earnest. The
+schooner was one of the fastest in the service, and had been placed
+under Montauk, as described, in the confident expectation of her
+being able to compete with even the Molly Swash successfully, more
+especially if brought upon a bowline. Her commander watched the
+receding form of the brig with the closest attention, until it was
+entirely swallowed up in the darkness, under the land, towards which
+he then sheered himself, in order to prevent the Swash from hauling
+up, and turning to windward, close in under the shadow of the
+island. Against this manoeuvre, however, the cutter had now taken an
+effectual precaution, and her people were satisfied that escape in
+that way was impossible.
+
+On the other hand, the steamer was doing very well. Driven by the
+breeze, and propelled by her wheels, away she went, edging further
+and further from the island, as the person from the Custom-House
+succeeded, as it might be, inch by inch, in persuading the captain
+of the necessity of his so doing. At length a sail was dimly seen
+ahead, and then no doubt was entertained that the brig had got to
+the northward and eastward of them. Half an hour brought the steamer
+alongside of this sail, which turned out to be a brig that had come
+over the shoals, and was beating into the ocean, on her way to one
+of the southern ports. Her captain said there had nothing passed to
+the eastward.
+
+Round went the steamer, and in went all her canvas. Ten minutes
+later the look-out saw a sail to the westward, standing before the
+wind. Odd as it might seem, the steamer's people now fancied they
+were sure of the Swash. There she was, coming directly for them,
+with squared yards! The distance was short, or a vessel could not
+have been seen by that light, and the two craft were soon near each
+other. A gun was actually cleared on board the steamer, ere it was
+ascertained that the stranger was the schooner! It was now midnight,
+and nothing was in sight but the coasting brig. Reluctantly, the
+revenue people gave the matter up; the Molly Swash having again
+eluded them, though by means unknown.
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  "Leander dived for love, Leucadia's cliff
+  The Lesbian Sappho leap'd from in a miff,
+  To punish Phaon; Icarus went dead,
+  Because the wax did not continue stiff;
+  And, had he minded what his father said,
+  He had not given a name unto his watery bed."
+
+Sands.
+
+We must now advance the time several days, and change the scene to a
+distant part of the ocean; within the tropics indeed. The females
+had suffered slight attacks of sea-sickness, and recovered from
+them, and the brig was safe from all her pursuers. The manner of
+Spike's escape was simple enough, and without any necromancy. While
+the steamer, on the one hand, was standing away to the northward and
+eastward, in order to head him off, and the schooner was edging in
+with the island, in order to prevent his beating up to windward of
+it, within its shadows, the brig had run close round the northern
+margin of the land, and hauled up to leeward of the island, passing
+between it and the steamer. All this time, her movements were
+concealed from the schooner by the island itself, and from the
+steamer, by its shadow and dark back-ground, aided by the distance.
+By making short tacks, this expedient answered perfectly well; and,
+at the very moment when the two revenue vessels met, at midnight,
+about three leagues to leeward of Blok Island, the brigantine, Molly
+Swash, was just clearing its most weatherly point, on the larboard
+tack, and coming out exactly at the spot where the steamer was when
+first seen that afternoon. Spike stood to the westward, until he was
+certain of having the island fairly between him and his pursuers,
+when he went about, and filled away on his course, running out to
+sea again on an easy bowline. At sunrise the next day he was fifty
+miles to the southward and eastward of Montauk; the schooner was
+going into New London, her officers and people quite chop-fallen;
+and the steamer was paddling up the Sound, her captain being fully
+persuaded that the runaways had returned in the direction from which
+they had come, and might yet be picked up in that quarter.
+
+The weather was light, just a week after the events related in the
+close of the last chapter. By this time the brig had got within the
+influence of the trades; and, it being the intention of Spike to
+pass to the southward of Cuba, he had so far profited by the
+westerly winds, as to get well to the eastward of the Mona Passage,
+the strait through which he intended to shape his course on making
+the islands. Early on that morning Mrs. Budd had taken her seat on
+the trunk of the cabin, with a complacent air, and arranged her
+netting, some slight passages of gallantry, on the part of the
+captain, having induced her to propose netting him a purse. Biddy
+was going to and fro, in quest of silks and needles, her mistress
+having become slightly capricious in her tastes of late, and giving
+her, on all such occasions, at least a double allowance of
+occupation. As for Rose, she sat reading beneath the shade of the
+coach-house deck, while the handsome young mate was within three
+feet of her, working up his logarithms, but within the sanctuary of
+his own state-room; the open door and window of which, however, gave
+him every facility he could desire to relieve his mathematics, by
+gazing at the sweet countenance of his charming neighbor. Jack Tier
+and Josh were both passing to and fro, as is the wont of stewards,
+between the camboose and the cabin, the breakfast table being just
+then in the course of preparation. In all other respects, always
+excepting the man at the wheel, who stood within a fathom of Rose,
+Spike had the quarter-deck to himself, and did not fail to pace its
+weather-side with an air that denoted the master and owner. After
+exhibiting his sturdy, but short, person in this manner, to the
+admiring eyes of all beholders, for some time, the captain suddenly
+took a seat at the side of the relict, and dropped into the
+following discourse.
+
+"The weather is moderate, Madam Budd; quite moderate," observed
+Spike, a sentimental turn coming over him at the moment. "What I
+call moderate and agreeable."
+
+"So much the better for us; the ladies are fond of moderation, sir."
+
+"Not in admiration, Madam Budd--ha! ha! ha! no, not in admiration.
+Immoderation is what they like when it comes to that. I'm a single
+man, but I know that the ladies like admiration--mind where you're
+sheering to," the captain said, interrupting himself a little
+fiercely, considering the nature of the subject, in consequence of
+Jack Tier's having trodden on his toe in passing--"or I'll teach you
+the navigation of the quarter-deck, Mr. Burgoo!"
+
+"Moderation--moderation, my good captain," said the simpering
+relict. "As to admiration, I confess that it is agreeable to us
+ladies; more especially when it comes from gentlemen of sense, and
+intelligence, and experience."
+
+Rose fidgeted, having heard every word that was said, and her face
+flushed; for she doubted not that Harry's ears were as good as her
+own. As for the man at the wheel, he turned the tobacco over in his
+mouth, hitched up his trousers, and appeared interested, though
+somewhat mystified--the conversation was what he would have termed
+"talking dictionary," and he had some curiosity to learn how the
+captain would work his way out of it. It is probable that Spike
+himself had some similar gleamings of the difficulties of his
+position, for he looked a little troubled, though still resolute. It
+was the first time he had ever lain yard-arm and yard-arm with a
+widow, and he had long entertained a fancy that such a situation was
+trying to the best of men.
+
+"Yes, Madam Budd, yes," he said, "exper'ence and sense carry weight
+with 'em, wherever they go. I'm glad to find that you entertain
+these just notions of us gentlemen, and make a difference between
+boys and them that's seen and known exper'ence. For my part, I count
+youngsters under forty as so much lumber about decks, as to any
+comfort and calculations in keepin' a family, as a family ought to
+be kept."
+
+Mrs. Budd looked interested, but she remained silent on hearing this
+remark, as became her sex.
+
+"Every man ought to settle in life, some time or other, Madam Budd,
+accordin' to my notion, though no man ought to be in a boyish haste
+about it," continued the captain. "Now, in my own case, I've been so
+busy all my youth--not that I'm very old now, but I'm no boy--but
+all my younger days have been passed in trying to make things meet,
+in a way to put any lady who might take a fancy to me--"
+
+"Oh! captain--that is too strong! The ladies do not take fancies for
+gentlemen, but the gentlemen take fancies for ladies!"
+
+"Well, well, you know what I mean, Madam Budd; and so long as the
+parties understand each other, a word dropped, or a word put into a
+charter-party, makes it neither stronger nor weaker. There's a time,
+howsomever, in every man's life, when he begins to think of settling
+down, and of considerin' himself as a sort of mooring-chain, for
+children and the likes of them to make fast to. Such is my natur', I
+will own; and ever since I've got to be intimate in your family,
+Madam Budd, that sentiment has grown stronger and stronger in me,
+till it has got to be uppermost in all my idees. Bone of my bone,
+and flesh of my flesh, as a body might say."
+
+Mrs. Budd now looked more than interested, for she looked a little
+confused, and Rose began to tremble for her aunt. It was evident
+that the parties most conspicuous in this scene were not at all
+conscious that they were overheard, the intensity of their attention
+being too much concentrated on what was passing to allow of any
+observation without their own narrow circle. What may be thought
+still more extraordinary, but what in truth was the most natural of
+all, each of the parties was so intently bent on his, or her, own
+train of thought, that neither in the least suspected any mistake.
+
+"Grown with your growth, and strengthened with your strength,"
+rejoined the relict, smiling kindly enough on the captain to have
+encouraged a much more modest man than he happened to be.
+
+"Yes, Madam Budd--very just that remark; grown with my strength, and
+strengthened with my growth, as one might say; though I've not done
+much at growing for a good many years. Your late husband, Captain
+Budd, often remarked how very early I got my growth; and rated me as
+an `able-bodied' hand, when most lads think it an honour to be
+placed among the `or'naries.'"
+
+The relict looked grave; and she wondered at any man's being so
+singular as to allude to a first husband, at the very moment he was
+thinking of offering himself for a second. As for herself, she had
+not uttered as many words in the last four years, as she had uttered
+in that very conversation, without making some allusion to her "poor
+dear Mr. Budd." The reader is not to do injustice to the captain's
+widow, however, by supposing for a moment that she was actually so
+weak as to feel any tenderness for a man like Spike, which would be
+doing a great wrong to both her taste and her judgment, as Rose well
+knew, even while most annoyed by the conversation she could not but
+overhear. All that influenced the good relict was that besetting
+weakness of her sex, which renders admiration so universally
+acceptable; and predisposes a female, as it might be, to listen to a
+suitor with indulgence, and some little show of kindness, even when
+resolute to reject him. As for Rose, to own the truth, her aunt did
+not give her a thought, as yet, notwithstanding Spike was getting to
+be so sentimental.
+
+"Yes, your late excellent and honourable consort always said that I
+got my growth sooner than any youngster he ever fell in with,"
+resumed the captain, after a short pause; exciting fresh wonder in
+his companion, that he would persist in lugging in the "dear
+departed" so very unseasonably. "I am a great admirer of all the
+Budd family, my good lady, and only wish my connection with it had
+never tarminated; if tarminated it can be called."
+
+"It need not be terminated, Captain Spike, so long as friendship
+exists in the human heart."
+
+"Ay, so it is always with you ladies; when a man is bent on suthin'
+closer and more interestin' like, you're for putting it off on
+friendship. Now friendship is good enough in its way, Madam Budd,
+but friendship is n't love."
+
+"Love!" echoed the widow, fairly starting, though she looked down at
+her netting, and looked as confused as she knew how. "That is a very
+decided word, Captain Spike, and should never be mentioned to a
+woman's ear lightly."
+
+So the captain now appeared to think, too, for no sooner had he
+delivered himself of the important monosyllable, than he left the
+widow's side, and began to pace the deck, as it might be to moderate
+his own ardour. As for Rose, she blushed, if her more practised aunt
+did not; while Harry Mulford laughed heartily, taking good care,
+however, not to be heard. The man at the wheel turned the tobacco
+again, gave his trousers another hitch, and wondered anew whither
+the skipper was bound. But the drollest manifestation of surprise
+came from Josh, the steward, who was passing along the lee-side of
+the quarter-deck, with a tea-pot in his hand, when the energetic
+manner of the captain sent the words "friendship is n't love" to his
+ears. This induced him to stop for a single instant, and to cast a
+wondering glance behind him; after which he moved on toward the
+galley, mumbling as he went--"Lub! what he want of lub, or what lub
+want of him! Well, I do t'ink Captain Spike bowse his jib out pretty
+'arly dis mornin'."
+
+Captain Spike soon got over the effects of his effort, and the
+confusion of the relict did not last any material length of time. As
+the former had gone so far, however, he thought the present an
+occasion as good as another to bring matters to a crisis.
+
+"Our sentiments sometimes get to be so strong, Madam Budd," resumed
+the lover, as he took his seat again on the trunk, "that they run
+away with us. Men is liable to be run away with as well as ladies. I
+once had a ship run away with me, and a pretty time we had of it.
+Did you ever hear of a ship's running away with her people, Madam
+Budd, just as your horse ran away with your buggy?"
+
+"I suppose I must have heard of such things, sir, my education
+having been so maritime, though just at this moment I cannot recall
+an instance. When my horse ran away, the buggy was cap-asided. Did
+your vessel cap-aside on the occasion you mention?"
+
+"No, Madam Budd, no. The ship was off the wind at the time I mean,
+and vessels do not capsize when off the wind. I'll tell you how it
+happened. We was a scuddin' under a goose-wing foresail--"
+
+"Yes, yes," interrupted the relict, eagerly. "I've often heard of
+that sail, which is small, and used only in tempests."
+
+"Heavy weather, Madam Budd--only in heavy weather."
+
+"It is amazing to me, captain, how you seamen manage to weigh the
+weather. I have often heard of light weather and heavy weather, but
+never fairly understood the manner of weighing it."
+
+"Why we do make out to ascertain the difference," replied the
+captain, a little puzzled for an answer; "and I suppose it must be
+by means of the barometer, which goes up and down like a pair of
+scales. But the time I mean, we was a scuddin' under a goose-wing
+foresail--"
+
+"A sail made of goose's wings, and a beautiful object it must be;
+like some of the caps and cloaks that come from the islands, which
+are all of feathers, and charming objects are they. I beg
+pardon--you had your goose's wings spread--"
+
+"Yes, Madam Budd, yes; we was steering for a Mediterranean port,
+intending to clear a mole-head, when a sea took us under the
+larboard-quarter, gave us such a sheer to-port as sent our cat-head
+ag'in a spile, and raked away the chain-plates of the top-mast
+back-stays, bringing down all the forrard hamper about our ears."
+
+This description produced such a confusion in the mind of the widow,
+that she was glad when it came to an end. As for the captain,
+fearful that the "goose's wings" might be touched upon again, he
+thought it wisest to attempt another flight on those of Cupid.
+
+"As I was sayin', Madam Budd, friendship is n't love; no, not a bit
+of it! Friendship is a common sort of feelin': but love, as you must
+know by exper'ence, Madam Budd, is an uncommon sort of feelin'."
+
+"Fie, Captain Spike, gentlemen should never allude to ladies knowing
+any thing about love. Ladies respect, and admire, and esteem, and
+have a regard for gentlemen; but it is almost too strong to talk
+about their love."
+
+"Yes, Madam Budd, yes; I dare say it is so, and ought to be so; and
+I ask pardon for having said as much as I did. But my love for your
+niece is of so animated and lastin' a natur', that I scarce know
+what I did say."
+
+"Captain Spike, you amaze me! I declare I can hardly breathe for
+astonishment. My niece! Surely you do not mean Rosy!"
+
+"Who else should I mean? My love for Miss Rose is so very decided
+and animated, I tell you, Madam Budd, that I will not answer for the
+consequences, should you not consent to her marryin' me."
+
+"I can scarce believe my ears! You, Stephen Spike, and an old friend
+of her uncle's, wishing to marry his niece!"
+
+"Just so, Madam Budd; that's it, to a shavin'. The regard I have for
+the whole family is so great, that nothin' less than the hand of
+Miss Rose in marriage can, what I call, mitigate my feelin's."
+
+Now the relict had not one spark of tenderness herself in behalf of
+Spike; while she did love Rose better than any human being, her own
+self excepted. But she had viewed all the sentiment of that morning,
+and all the fine speeches of the captain, very differently from what
+the present state of things told her she ought to have viewed them;
+and she felt the mortification natural to her situation. The captain
+was so much bent on the attainment of his own object, that he saw
+nothing else, and was even unconscious that his extraordinary and
+somewhat loud discourse had been overheard. Least of all did he
+suspect that his admiration had been mistaken; and that in what he
+called "courtin'" the niece, he had been all the while "courtin'"
+the aunt. But little apt as she was to discover any thing, Mrs. Budd
+had enough of her sex's discernment in a matter of this sort, to
+perceive that she had fallen into an awkward mistake, and enough of
+her sex's pride to resent it. Taking her work in her hand, she left
+her seat, and descended to the cabin, with quite as much dignity in
+her manner as it was in the power of one of her height and "build"
+to express. What is the most extraordinary, neither she nor Spike
+ever ascertained that their whole dialogue had been overheard. Spike
+continued to pace the quarter-deck for several minutes, scarce
+knowing what to think of the relict's manner, when his attention was
+suddenly drawn to other matters by the familiar cry of "sail-ho!"
+
+This was positively the first vessel with which the Molly Swash had
+fallen in since she lost sight of two or three craft that had passed
+her in the distance, as she left the American coast. As usual, this
+cry brought all hands on deck, and Mulford out of his state-room.
+
+It has been stated already that the brig was just beginning to feel
+the trades, and it might have been added, to see the mountains of
+San Domingo. The winds had been variable for the last day or two,
+and they still continued light, and disposed to be unsteady, ranging
+from north-east to south-east, with a preponderance in favour of the
+first point. At the cry of "sail-ho!" everybody looked in the
+indicated direction, which was west, a little northerly, but for a
+long time without success. The cry had come from aloft, and Mulford
+went up as high as the fore-top before he got any glimpse of the
+stranger at all. He had slung a glass, and Spike was unusually
+anxious to know the result of his examination.
+
+"Well, Mr. Mulford, what do you make of her?" he called out as soon
+as the mate announced that he saw the strange vessel.
+
+"Wait a moment, sir, till I get a look,--she's a long way off, and
+hardly visible."
+
+"Well, sir, well?"
+
+"I can only see the heads of her top-gallant sails. She seems a ship
+steering to the southward, with as many kites flying as an Indiaman
+in the trades. She looks as if she were carrying royal stun'-sails,
+sir."
+
+"The devil she does! Such a chap must not only be in a hurry, but he
+must be strong-handed to give himself all this trouble in such light
+and var'able winds. Are his yards square?--Is he man-of-war-ish?"
+
+"There's no telling, sir, at this distance; though I rather think
+its stun'-sails that I see. Go down and get your breakfast, and in
+half an hour I'll give a better account of him."
+
+This was done, Mrs. Budd appearing at the table with great dignity
+in her manner. Although she had so naturally supposed that Spike's
+attentions had been intended for herself, she was rather mortified
+than hurt on discovering her mistake. Her appetite, consequently,
+was not impaired, though her stomach might have been said to be very
+full. The meal passed off without any scene, notwithstanding, and
+Spike soon re-appeared on deck, still masticating the last mouthful
+like a man in a hurry, and a good deal … l' Am‚ricaine. Mulford saw
+his arrival, and immediately levelled his glass again.
+
+"Well, what news now, sir?" called out the captain. "You must have a
+better chance at him by this time, for I can see the chap from off
+the coach-house here."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir; he's a bit nearer, certainly. I should say that craft
+is a ship under stun'-sails, looking to the eastward of south, and
+that there are caps with gold bands on her quarter-deck."
+
+"How low down can you see her?" demanded Spike, in a voice of
+thunder.
+
+So emphatic and remarkable was the captain's manner in putting this
+question, that the mate cast a look of surprise beneath him ere he
+answered it. A look with the glass succeeded, when the reply was
+given.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir; there can be no mistake--it's a cruiser, you may
+depend on it. I can see the heads of her topsails now, and they are
+so square and symmetrical, that gold bands are below beyond all
+doubt."
+
+"Perhaps he's a Frenchman--Johnny Crapaud keeps cruisers in these
+seas as well as the rest on'em."
+
+"Johnny Crapaud's craft don't spread such arms, sir. The ship is
+either English or American; and he's heading for the Mona Passage as
+well as ourselves."
+
+"Come down, sir, come down--there's work to be done as soon as you
+have breakfasted."
+
+Mulford did come down, and he was soon seated at the table, with
+both Josh and Jack Tier for attendants. The aunt and the niece were
+in their own cabin, a few yards distant, with the door open.
+
+"What a fuss'e cap'in make 'bout dat sail," grumbled Josh, who had
+been in the brig so long that he sometimes took liberties with even
+Spike himself. "What good he t'ink t'will do to measure him inch by
+inch? Bye'm by he get alongside, and den 'e ladies even can tell all
+about him."
+
+"He nat'rally wishes to know who gets alongside," put in Tier,
+somewhat apologetically.
+
+"What matter dat. All sort of folk get alongside of Molly Swash; and
+what good it do 'em? Yoh! yoh! yoh! I do remem'er sich times vid'e
+ole hussy!"
+
+"What old hussy do you mean?" demanded Jack Tier a little fiercely,
+and in a way to draw Mulford's eyes from the profile of Rose's face
+to the visages of his two attendants.
+
+"Come, come, gentlemen, if you please; recollect where you are,"
+interrupted the mate authoritatively. "You are not now squabbling in
+your galley, but are in the cabin. What is it to you, Tier, if Josh
+does call the brig an old hussy; she is old, as we all know, and
+years are respectable; and as for her being a `hussy,' that is a
+term of endearment sometimes. I've heard the captain himself call
+the Molly a `hussy,' fifty times, and he loves her as he does the
+apple of his eye."
+
+This interference put an end to the gathering storm as a matter of
+course, and the two disputants shortly after passed on deck. No
+sooner was the coast clear than Rose stood in the door of her own
+cabin.
+
+"Do you think the strange vessel is an American?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"It is impossible to say--English or American I make no doubt. But
+why do you inquire?"
+
+"But my aunt and myself desire to quit the brig, and if the stranger
+should prove to be an American vessel of war, might not the occasion
+be favourable?"
+
+"And what reason can you give for desiring to do so?"
+
+"What signifies a reason," answered Rose with spirit. "Spike is not
+our master, and we can come and go as we may see fit."
+
+"But a reason must be given to satisfy the commander of the vessel
+of war. Craft of that character are very particular about the
+passengers they receive; nor would it be altogether wise in two
+unprotected females to go on board a cruiser, unless in a case of
+the most obvious necessity."
+
+"Will not what has passed this morning be thought a sufficient
+reason," added Rose, drawing nearer to the mate, and dropping her
+voice so as not to be heard by her aunt.
+
+Mulford smiled as he gazed at the earnest but attractive countenance
+of his charming companion.
+
+"And who could tell it, or how could it be told? Would the commander
+of a vessel of war incur the risk of receiving such a person as
+yourself on board his vessel, for the reason that the master of the
+craft she was in when he fell in with her desired to marry her?"
+
+Rose appeared vexed, but she was at once made sensible that it was
+not quite as easy to change her vessel at sea, as to step into a
+strange door in a town. She drew slowly back into her own cabin
+silent and thoughtful; her aunt pursuing her netting the whole time
+with an air of dignified industry.
+
+"Well, Mr. Mulford, well," called out Spike at the head of the cabin
+stairs, "what news from the coffee?"
+
+"All ready, sir," answered the mate, exchanging significant glances
+with Rose. "I shall be up in a moment."
+
+That moment soon came, and Mulford was ready for duty. While below,
+Spike had caused certain purchases to be got aloft, and the
+main-hatch was open and the men collected around it, in readiness to
+proceed with the work. Harry asked no questions, for the
+preparations told him what was about to be done, but passing below,
+he took charge of the duty there, while the captain superintended
+the part that was conducted on deck. In the course of the next hour
+eight twelve-pound carronades were sent up out of the hold, and
+mounted in as many of the ports which lined the bulwarks of the
+brigantine. The men seemed to be accustomed to the sort of work in
+which they were now engaged, and soon had their light batteries in
+order, and ready for service. In the mean time the two vessels kept
+on their respective courses, and by the time the guns were mounted,
+there was a sensible difference in their relative positions. The
+stranger had drawn so near the brigantine as to be very obvious from
+the latter's deck, while the brigantine had drawn so much nearer to
+the islands of San Domingo and Porto Rico, as to render the opening
+between them, the well-known Mona Passage, distinctly visible.
+
+Of all this Spike appeared to be fully aware, for he quitted the
+work several times before it was finished, in order to take a look
+at the stranger, and at the land. When the batteries were arranged,
+he and Mulford, each provided with a glass, gave a few minutes to a
+more deliberate examination of the first.
+
+"That's the Mona ahead of us," said the captain; "of that there can
+be no question, and a very pretty land-fall you've made of it,
+Harry. I'll allow you to be as good a navigator as floats."
+
+"Nevertheless, sir, you have not seen fit to let me know whither the
+brig is really bound this voyage."
+
+"No matter for that, young man--no matter, as yet. All in good time.
+When I tell you to lay your course for the Mona, you can lay your
+course for the Mona; and, as soon as we are through the passage,
+I'll let you know what is wanted next--if that bloody chap, who is
+nearing us, will let me."
+
+"And why should any vessel wish to molest us on our passage, Captain
+Spike?"
+
+"Why, sure enough! It's war-times, you know, and war-times always
+bring trouble to the trader--though it sometimes brings profit,
+too."
+
+As Spike concluded, he gave his mate a knowing wink, which the other
+understood to mean that he expected himself some of the unusual
+profit to which he alluded. Mulford did not relish this secret
+communication, for the past had induced him to suspect the character
+of the trade in which his commander was accustomed to engage.
+Without making any sort of reply, or encouraging the confidence by
+even a smile, he levelled his glass at the stranger, as did Spike,
+the instant he ceased to grin.
+
+"That's one of Uncle Sam's fellows!" exclaimed the captain, dropping
+the glass. "I'd swear to the chap in any admiralty court on 'arth."
+
+"'T is a vessel of war, out of all doubt," returned the mate, "and
+under a cloud of canvas. I can make out the heads of her courses
+now, and see that she is carrying hard, for a craft that is almost
+close-hauled."
+
+"Ay, ay; no merchantmen keeps his light stun'-sails set, as near the
+wind as that fellow's going. He's a big chap, too--a frigate, at
+least, by his canvas."
+
+"I do not know, sir--they build such heavy corvettes now-a-days,
+that I should rather take her for one of them. They tell me ships
+are now sent to sea which mount only two-and-twenty guns, but which
+measure quite a thousand tons."
+
+"With thunderin' batteries, of course."
+
+"With short thirty-twos and a few rapping sixty-eight Paixhans--or
+Columbiads, as they ought in justice to be called."
+
+"And you think this chap likely to be a craft of that sort?"
+
+"Nothing is more probable, sir. Government has several, and, since
+this war has commenced, it has been sending off cruiser after
+cruiser into the Gulf. The Mexicans dare not send a vessel of war to
+sea, which would be sending them to Norfolk, or New York, at once;
+but no one can say when they may begin to make a prey of our
+commerce."
+
+"They have taken nothing as yet, Mr. Mulford, and, to tell you the
+truth, I'd much rather fall in with one of Don Montezuma's craft
+than one of Uncle Sam's."
+
+"That is a singular taste, for an American, Captain Spike, unless
+you think, now our guns are mounted, we can handle a Mexican,"
+returned Mulford coldly. "At all events, it is some answer to those
+who ask `What is the navy about?' that months of war have gone by,
+and not an American has been captured. Take away that navy, and the
+insurance offices in Wall-street would tumble like a New York
+party-wall in a fire."
+
+"Nevertheless, I'd rather take my chance, just now, with Don
+Montezuma than with Uncle Sam."
+
+Mulford did not reply, though the earnest manner in which Spike
+expressed himself, helped to increase his distrust touching the
+nature of the voyage. With him the captain had no further
+conference, but it was different as respects the boatswain. That
+worthy was called aft, and for half an hour he and Spike were
+conversing apart, keeping their eyes fastened on the strange vessel
+most of the time.
+
+It was noon before all uncertainly touching the character of the
+stranger ceased. By that time, however, both vessels were entering
+the Mona Passage; the brig well to windward, on the Porto Rico side;
+while the ship was so far to leeward as to be compelled to keep
+everything close-hauled, in order to weather the island. The hull of
+the last could now be seen, and no doubt was entertained about her
+being a cruiser, and one of some size, too. Spike thought she was a
+frigate; but Mulford still inclined to the opinion that she was one
+of the new ships; perhaps a real corvette, or with a light spar-deck
+over her batteries. Two or three of the new vessels were known to be
+thus fitted, and this might be one. At length all doubt on the
+subject ceased, the stranger setting an American ensign, and getting
+so near as to make it apparent that she had but a single line of
+guns. Still she was a large ship, and the manner that she ploughed
+through the brine, close-hauled as she was, extorted admiration even
+from Spike.
+
+"We had better begin to shorten sail, Mr. Mulford," the captain at
+length most reluctantly remarked. "We might give the chap the slip,
+perhaps, by keeping close in under Porto Rico, but he would give us
+a long chase, and might drive us away to windward, when I wish to
+keep off between Cuba and Jamaica. He's a traveller; look, how he
+stands up to it under that could of canvas!"
+
+Mulford was slow to commence on the studding-sails, and the cruiser
+was getting nearer and nearer. At length a gun was fired, and a
+heavy shot fell about two hundred yards short of the brig, and a
+little out of line with her. On this hint, Spike turned the hands
+up, and began to shorten sail. In ten minutes the Swash was under
+her topsail, mainsail and jib, with her light sails hanging in the
+gear, and all the steering canvas in. In ten minutes more the
+cruiser was so near as to admit of the faces of the three or four
+men whose heads were above the hammock-cloths being visible, when
+she too began to fold her wings. In went her royals,
+topgallant-sails, and various kites, as it might be by some common
+muscular agency; and up went her courses. Everything was done at
+once. By this time she was crossing the brig's wake, looking
+exceedingly beautiful, with her topsails lifting, her light sails
+blowing out, and even her heavy courses fluttering in the breeze.
+There flew the glorious stars and stripes also; of brief existence,
+but full of recollections! The moment she had room, her helm went
+up, her bows fell off, and down she came, on the weather quarter of
+the Swash, so near as to render a trumpet nearly useless.
+
+On board the brig everybody was on deck; even the relict having
+forgotten her mortification in curiosity. On board the cruiser no
+one was visible, with the exception of a few men in each top, and a
+group of gold-banded caps on the poop. Among these officers stood
+the captain, a red-faced, middle-aged man, with the usual signs of
+his rank about him; and at his side was his lynx-eyed first
+lieutenant. The surgeon and purser were also there, though they
+stood a little apart from the more nautical dignitaries. The hail
+that followed came out of a trumpet that was thrust through the
+mizzen-rigging; the officer who used it taking his cue from the
+poop.
+
+"What brig is that?" commenced the discourse.
+
+"The Molly Swash, of New York, Stephen Spike, master."
+
+"Where from, and whither bound?"
+
+"From New York, and bound to Key West and a market."
+
+A pause succeeded this answer, during which the officers on the poop
+of the cruiser held some discourse with him of the trumpet. During
+the interval the cruiser ranged fairly up abeam.
+
+"You are well to windward of your port, sir," observed he of the
+trumpet significantly.
+
+"I know it; but it's war times, and I didn't know but there might be
+piccaroons hovering about the Havanna."
+
+"The coast is clear, and our cruisers will keep it so. I see you
+have a battery, sir!"
+
+"Ay, ay; some old guns that I've had aboard these ten years: they're
+useful, sometimes, in these seas."
+
+"Very true. I'll range ahead of you, and as soon as you've room,
+I'll thank you to heave-to. I wish to send a boat on board you."
+
+Spike was sullen enough on receiving this order, but there was no
+help for it. He was now in the jaws of the lion, and his wisest
+course was to submit to the penalties of his position with the best
+grace he could. The necessary orders were consequently given, and
+the brig no sooner got room than she came by the wind and backed her
+topsail. The cruiser went about, and passing to windward, backed her
+main-topsail just forward of the Swash's beam. Then the latter
+lowered a boat, and sent it, with a lieutenant and a midshipman in
+its stern-sheets, on board the brigantine. As the cutter approached,
+Spike went to the gangway to receive the strangers.
+
+Although there will be frequent occasion to mention this cruiser,
+the circumstances are of so recent occurrence, that we do not choose
+to give either her name, or that of any one belonging to her. We
+shall, consequently, tell the curious, who may be disposed to turn
+to their navy-lists and blue-books, that the search will be of no
+use, as all the names we shall use, in reference to this cruiser,
+will be fictitious. As much of the rest of our story as the reader
+please may be taken for gospel; but we tell him frankly, that we
+have thought it most expedient to adopt assumed names, in connection
+with this vessel and all her officers. There are good reasons for so
+doing; and, among others, is that of abstaining from arming a clique
+to calumniate her commander, (who, by the way, like another
+commander in the Gulf that might be named, and who has actually been
+exposed to the sort of tracasserie to which there is allusion, is
+one of the very ablest men in the service,) in order to put another
+in his place.
+
+The officer who now came over the side of the Swash we shall call
+Wallace; he was the second lieutenant of the vessel of war. He was
+about thirty, and the midshipman who followed him was a well-grown
+lad of nineteen. Both had a decided man-of-war look, and both looked
+a little curiously at the vessel they had boarded.
+
+"Your servant, sir," said Wallace, touching his cap in reply to
+Spike's somewhat awkward bow. "Your brig is the Molly Swash, Stephen
+Spike, bound from New York to Key West and a market."
+
+"You've got it all as straight, lieutenant, as if you was a readin'
+it from the log."
+
+"The next thing, sir, is to know of what your cargo is composed?"
+
+"Flour; eight hundred barrels of flour."
+
+"Flour! Would you not do better to carry that to Liverpool? The
+Mississippi must be almost turned into paste by the quantity of
+flour it floats to market."
+
+"Notwithstanding that, lieutenant, I know Uncle Sam's economy so
+well, as to believe I shall part with every barrel of my flour to
+his contractors, at a handsome profit."
+
+"You read Whig newspapers principally, I rather think, Mr. Spike,"
+answered Wallace, in his cool, deliberate way, smiling, however, as
+he spoke.
+
+We may just as well say here, that nature intended this gentleman
+for a second lieutenant, the very place he filled. He was a capital
+second lieutenant, while he would not have earned his rations as
+first. So well was he assured of this peculiarity in his moral
+composition, that he did not wish to be the first lieutenant of
+anything in which he sailed. A respectable seaman, a well-read and
+intelligent man, a capital deck officer, or watch officer, he was
+too indolent to desire to be anything more, and was as happy as the
+day was long, in the easy berth he filled. The first lieutenant had
+been his messmate as a midshipman, and ranked him but two on the
+list in his present commission; but he did not envy him in the
+least. On the contrary, one of his greatest pleasures was to get.
+"Working Willy," as he called his senior, over a glass of wine, or a
+tumbler of "hot stuff," and make him recount the labours of the day.
+On such occasions, Wallace never failed to compare the situation of
+"Working Willy" with his own gentlemanlike ease and independence. As
+second lieutenant, his rank raised him above most of the unpleasant
+duty of the ship, while it did not raise him high enough to plunge
+him into the never-ending labours of his senior. He delighted to
+call himself the "ship's gentleman," a sobriquet he well deserved,
+on more accounts than one.
+
+"You read Whig newspapers principally, I rather think, Mr. Spike,"
+answered the lieutenant, as has been just mentioned, "while we on
+board the Poughkeepsie indulge in looking over the columns of the
+Union, as well as over those of the Intelligencer, when by good luck
+we can lay our hands on a stray number."
+
+"That ship, then, is called the Poughkeepsie, is she, sir?" inquired
+Spike.
+
+"Such is her name, thanks to a most beneficent and sage provision of
+Congress, which has extended its parental care over the navy so far
+as to imagine that a man chosen by the people to exercise so many of
+the functions of a sovereign, is not fit to name a ship. All our two
+and three deckers are to be called after states; the frigates after
+rivers; and the sloops after towns. Thus it is that our craft has
+the honour to be called the United States ship the `Poughkeepsie,'
+instead of the `Arrow,' or the `Wasp,' or the `Curlew,' or the
+`Petrel,' as might otherwise have been the case. But the wisdom of
+Congress is manifest, for the plan teaches us sailors geography."
+
+"Yes, sir, yes, one can pick up a bit of l'arnin' in that way cheap.
+The Poughkeepsie, Captain--?"
+
+"The United States' ship Poughkeepsie, 20, Captain Adam Mull, at
+your service. But, Mr. Spike, you will allow me to look at your
+papers. It is a duty I like, for it can be performed quietly, and
+without any fuss."
+
+Spike looked distrustfully at his new acquaintance, but went for his
+vessel's papers without any very apparent hesitation. Every thing
+was en regle, and Wallace soon got through with the clearance,
+manifest, &c. Indeed the cargo, on paper at least, was of the
+simplest and least complicated character, being composed of nothing
+but eight hundred barrels of flour.
+
+"It all looks very well on paper, Mr. Spike," added the boarding
+officer. "With your permission, we will next see how it looks in
+sober reality. I perceive your main hatch is open, and I suppose it
+will be no difficult matter just to take a glance at your hold."
+
+"Here is a ladder, sir, that will take us at once to the half-deck,
+for I have no proper 'twixt decks in this craft; she's too small for
+that sort of outfit."
+
+"No matter, she has a hold, I suppose, and that can contain cargo.
+Take me to it by the shortest road, Mr. Spike, for I am no great
+admirer of trouble."
+
+Spike now led the way below, Wallace following, leaving the
+midshipman on deck, who had fallen into conversation with the relict
+and her pretty niece. The half-deck of the brigantine contained
+spare sails, provisions, and water, as usual, while quantities of
+old canvas lay scattered over the cargo; more especially in the wake
+of the hatches, of which there were two besides that which led from
+the quarter-deck.
+
+"Flour to the number of eight hundred barrels," said Wallace,
+striking his foot against a barrel that lay within his reach. "The
+cargo is somewhat singular to come from New York, going to Key West,
+my dear Spike?"
+
+"I suppose you know what sort of a place Key West is, sir; a bit of
+an island in which there is scarce so much as a potatoe grows."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir; I know Key West very well, having been in and out a
+dozen times. All eatables are imported, turtle excepted. But flour
+can be brought down the Mississippi so much cheaper than it can be
+brought from New York."
+
+"Have you any idee, lieutenant, what Uncle Sam's men are paying for
+it at New Orleens, just to keep soul and bodies together among the
+so'gers?"
+
+"That may be true, sir--quite true, I dare say, Mr. Spike. Have n't
+you a bit of a chair that a fellow can sit down on--this half-deck
+of your's is none of the most comfortable places to stand in. Thank
+you, sir--thank you with all my heart. What lots of old sails you
+have scattered about the hold, especially in the wake of the
+hatches!"
+
+"Why, the craft being little more than in good ballast trim, I keep
+the hatches off to air her; and the spray might spit down upon the
+flour at odd times but for them 'ere sails."
+
+"Ay, a prudent caution. So you think Uncle Sam's people will be
+after this flour as soon as they learn you have got it snug in at
+Key West?"
+
+"What more likely, sir? You know how it is with our
+government--always wrong, whatever it does! and I can show you
+paragraphs in letters written from New Orleens, which tell us that
+Uncle Sam is paying seventy-five and eighty per cent. more for flour
+than anybody else."
+
+"He must be a flush old chap to be able to do that, Spike."
+
+"Flush! I rather think he is. Do you know that he is spendin',
+accordin' to approved accounts, at this blessed moment, as much as
+half a million a day? I own a wish to be pickin' up some of the
+coppers while they are scattered about so plentifully."
+
+"Half a million a day! why that is only at the rate of $187,000,000
+per annum; a mere trifle, Spike, that is scarce worth mentioning
+among us mariners."
+
+"It's so in the newspapers, I can swear, lieutenant."
+
+"Ay, ay, and the newspapers will swear to it, too, and they that
+gave the newspapers their cue. But no matter, our business is with
+this flour. Will you sell us a barrel or two for our mess? I heard
+the caterer say we should want flour in the course of a week or so."
+
+Spike seemed embarrassed, though not to a degree to awaken suspicion
+in his companion.
+
+"I never sold cargo at sea, long as I've sailed and owned a craft,"
+he answered, as if uncertain what to do. "If you'll pay the price I
+expect to get in the Gulf, and will take ten barrels, I do n't know
+but we may make a trade on't. I shall only ask expected prices."
+
+"Which will be--?"
+
+"Ten dollars a barrel. For one hundred silver dollars I will put
+into your boat ten barrels of the very best brand known in the
+western country."
+
+"This is dealing rather more extensively than I anticipated, but we
+will reflect on it."
+
+Wallance now indolently arose and ascended to the quarter-deck,
+followed by Spike, who continued to press the flour on him, as if
+anxious to make money. But the lieutenant hesitated about paying a
+price as high as ten dollars, or to take a quantity as large as ten
+barrels.
+
+"Our mess is no great matter after all," he said carelessly. "Four
+lieutenants, the purser, two doctors, the master, and a marine
+officer, and you get us all. Nine men could never eat ten barrels of
+flour, my dear Spike, you will see for yourself, with the quantity
+of excellent bread we carry. You forget the bread."
+
+"Not a bit of it, Mr. Wallace, since that is your name. But such
+flour as this of mine has not been seen in the Gulf this many a day.
+I ought in reason to ask twelve dollars for it, and insist on such a
+ship as your'n's taking twenty instead of the ten barrels."
+
+"I thank you, sir, the ten will more than suffice; unless, indeed,
+the captain wants some for the cabin. How is it with your steerage
+messes, Mr. Archer--do you want any flour?"
+
+"We draw a little from the ship, according to rule, sir, but we
+can't go as many puddings latterly as we could before we touched
+last at the Havanna," answered the laughing midshipman. "There is
+n't a fellow among us, sir, that could pay a shore-boat for landing
+him, should we go in again before the end of another month. I never
+knew such a place as Havanna. They say midshipmen's money melts
+there twice as soon as lieutenants' money."
+
+"It's clear, then, you'll not take any of the ten. I am afraid after
+all, Mr. Spike, we cannot trade, unless you will consent to let me
+have two barrels. I'll venture on two at ten dollars, high as the
+price is."
+
+"I should n't forgive myself in six months for making so had a
+bargain, lieutenant, so we'll say no more about it if you please."
+
+"Here is a lady that wishes to say a word to you, Mr. Wallace,
+before we go back to the ship, if you are at leisure to hear her, or
+them--for there are two of them," put in Archer.
+
+At this moment Mrs. Budd was approaching with a dignified step,
+while Rose followed timidly a little in the rear. Wallace was a good
+deal surprised at this application, and Spike was quite as much
+provoked. As for Mulford, he watched the interview from a distance,
+a great deal more interested in its result than he cared to have
+known, more especially to his commanding officer. Its object was to
+get a passage in the vessel of war.
+
+"You are an officer of that Uncle Sam vessel," commenced Mrs. Budd,
+who thought that she would so much the more command the respect and
+attention of her listener, by showing him early how familiar she was
+with even the slang dialect of the seas.
+
+"I have the honour, ma'am, to belong to that Uncle Sam craft,"
+answered Wallace gravely, though he bowed politely at the same time,
+looking intently at the beautiful girl in the back-ground as he so
+did.
+
+"So I've been told, sir. She's a beautiful vessel, lieutenant, and
+is full jiggered, I perceive."
+
+For the first time in his life, or at least for the first time since
+his first cruise, Wallace wore a mystified look, being absolutely at
+a loss to imagine what "full jiggered" could mean. He only looked,
+therefore, for he did not answer.
+
+"Mrs. Budd means that you've a full rigged craft," put in Spike,
+anxious to have a voice in the conference, "this vessel being only a
+half-rigged brig."
+
+"Oh! ay; yes, yes--the lady is quite right. We are full jiggered
+from our dead-eyes to our eye-bolts."
+
+"I thought as much, sir, from your ground hamper and top-tackles,"
+added the relict smiling. "For my part there is nothing in nature
+that I so much admire as a full jiggered ship, with her canvas out
+of the bolt-ropes, and her clew-lines and clew-garnets braced sharp,
+and her yards all abroad."
+
+"Yes, ma'am, it is just as you say, a very charming spectacle. Our
+baby was born full grown, and with all her hamper aloft just as you
+see her. Some persons refer vessels to art, but I think you are
+quite right in referring them to nature."
+
+"Nothing can be more natural to me, lieutenant, than a fine ship
+standing on her canvas. It's an object to improve the heart and to
+soften the understanding."
+
+"So I should think, ma'am," returned Wallace, a little quizzically,
+"judging from the effect on yourself."
+
+This speech, unfortunately timed as it was, wrought a complete
+change in Rose's feelings, and she no longer wished to exchange the
+Swash for the Poughkeepsie. She saw that her aunt was laughed at in
+secret, and that was a circumstance that never failed to grate on
+every nerve in her system. She had been prepared to second and
+sustain the intended application--she was now determined to oppose
+it.
+
+"Yes, sir," resumed the unconscious relict, "and to soften the
+understanding. Lieutenant, did you ever cross the Capricorn?"
+
+"No less than six times; three going and three returning, you know."
+
+"And did Neptune come on board you, and were you shaved?"
+
+"Everything was done secundem artem, ma'am. The razor was quite an
+example of what are called in poetry `thoughts too deep for tears.'
+"
+
+"That must have been delightful. As for me, I'm quite a devotee of
+Neptune's; but I'm losing time, for no doubt your ship is all ready
+to pull away and carry on sail--"
+
+"Aunt, may I say a word to you before you go any further," put in
+Rose in her quiet but very controlling way.
+
+The aunt complied, and Wallace, as soon as left alone, felt like a
+man who was released from a quick-sand, into which every effort to
+extricate himself only plunged him so much the deeper. At this
+moment the ship hailed, and the lieutenant took a hasty leave of
+Spike, motioned to the midshipman to precede him, and followed the
+latter into his boat. Spike saw his visiter off in person, tending
+the side and offering the man-ropes with his own hands. For this
+civility Wallace thanked him, calling out as his boat pulled him
+from the brig's side--"If we `pull away,'" accenting the "pull" in
+secret derision of the relict's mistake, "you can pull away; our
+filling the topsail being a sign for you to do the same."
+
+"There you go, and joy go with you," muttered Spike, as he descended
+from the gangway. "A pretty kettle of fish would there have been
+cooked had I let him have his two barrels of flour."
+
+The man-of-war's cutter was soon under the lee of the ship, where it
+discharged its freight, when it was immediately run up. During the
+whole time Wallace had been absent, Captain Mull and his officers
+remained on the poop, principally occupied in examining and
+discussing the merits of the Swash. No sooner had their officer
+returned, however, than an order was given to fill away, it being
+supposed that the Poughkeepsie had no further concern with the
+brigantine. As for Wallace, he ascended to the poop and made the
+customary report.
+
+"It's a queer cargo to be carrying to Key West from the Atlantic
+coast," observed the captain in a deliberating sort of manner, as if
+the circumstance excited suspicion; "Yet the Mexicans can hardly be
+in want of any such supplies."
+
+"Did you see the flour, Wallace?" inquired the first lieutenant, who
+was well aware of his messmate's indolence.
+
+"Yes, sir, and felt it too. The lower hold of the brig is full of
+flour, and of nothing else."
+
+"Ware round, sir--ware round and pass athwart the brig's wake,"
+interrupted the captain. "There's plenty of room now, and I wish to
+pass as near that craft as we can."
+
+This manoeuvre was executed. The sloop-of-war no sooner filled her
+maintop-sail than she drew ahead, leaving plenty of room for the
+brigantine to make sail on her course. Spike did not profit by this
+opening, however, but he sent several men aloft forward, where they
+appeared to be getting ready to send down the upper yards and the
+topgallant-mast. No sooner was the sloop-of-war's helm put up than
+that vessel passed close along the brigantine's weather side, and
+kept off across her stern on her course. As she did this the canvas
+was fluttering aboard her, in the process of making sail, and Mull
+held a short discourse with Spike.
+
+"Is anything the matter aloft?" demanded the man-of-war's man.
+
+"Ay, ay; I've sprung my topgallant-mast, and think this a good
+occasion to get another up in its place."
+
+"Shall I lend you a carpenter or two, Mr. Spike?"
+
+"Thank'ee, sir, thank'ee with all my heart; but we can do without
+them. It's an old stick, and it's high time a better stood where it
+does. Who knows but I may be chased and feel the want of reliable
+spars."
+
+Captain Mull smiled and raised his cap in the way of an adieu, when
+the conversation ended; the Poughkeepsie sliding off rapidly with a
+free wind, leaving the Swash nearly stationary. In ten minutes the
+two vessels were more than a mile apart; in twenty, beyond the reach
+of shot.
+
+Notwithstanding the natural and common-place manner in which this
+separation took place, there was much distrust on board each vessel,
+and a good deal of consummate management on the part of Spike. The
+latter knew that every foot the sloop-of-war went on her course,
+carried her just so far to leeward, placing his own brig,
+in-so-much, dead to windward of her. As the Swash's best point of
+sailing, relatively considered, was close-hauled, this was giving to
+Spike a great security against any change of purpose on the part of
+the vessel of war. Although his people were aloft and actually sent
+down the topgallant-mast, it was only to send it up again, the spar
+being of admirable toughness, and as sound as the day it was cut.
+
+"I don't think, Mr. Mulford," said the captain sarcastically, "that
+Uncle Sam's glasses are good enough to tell the difference in wood
+at two leagues' distance, so we'll trust to the old stick a little
+longer. Ay, ay, let 'em run off before it, we'll find another road
+by which to reach our port."
+
+"The sloop-of-war is going round the south side of Cuba, Captain
+Spike," answered the mate, "and I have understood you to say that
+you intended to go by the same passage."
+
+"A body may change his mind, and no murder. Only consider, Harry,
+how common it is for folks to change their minds. I did intend to
+pass between Cuba and Jamaica, but I intend it no longer. Our run
+from Montauk has been oncommon short, and I've time enough to spare
+to go to the southward of Jamaica too, if the notion takes me."
+
+"That would greatly prolong the passage, Captain Spike,--a week at
+least."
+
+"What if it does--I've a week to spare; we're nine days afore our
+time."
+
+"Our time for what, sir? Is there any particular time set for a
+vessel's going into Key West?"
+
+"Don't be womanish and over-cur'ous, Mulford. I sail with sealed
+orders, and when we get well to windward of Jamaica, 't will be time
+enough to open them."
+
+Spike was as good as his word. As soon as he thought the
+sloop-of-war was far enough to leeward, or when she was hull down,
+he filled away and made sail on the wind to get nearer to Porto
+Rico. Long ere it was dark he had lost sight of the sloop-of-war,
+when he altered his course to south-westerly, which was carrying him
+in the direction he named, or to windward of Jamaica.
+
+While this artifice was being practised on board the Molly Swash,
+the officers of the Poughkeepsie were not quite satisfied with their
+own mode of proceeding with the brigantine. The more they reasoned
+on the matter, the more unlikely it seemed to them that Spike could
+be really carrying a cargo of flour from New York to Key West, in
+the expectation of disposing of it to the United States'
+contractors, and the more out of the way did he seem to be in
+running through the Mona Passage.
+
+"His true course should have been by the Hole in the Wall, and so
+down along the north side of Cuba, before the wind," observed the
+first lieutenant. "I wonder that never struck you, Wallace; you, who
+so little like trouble."
+
+"Certainly I knew it, but we lazy people like running off before the
+wind, and I did not know but such were Mr. Spike's tastes," answered
+the "ship's gentleman." "In my judgment, the reluctance he showed to
+letting us have any of his flour, is much the most suspicious
+circumstance in the whole affair."
+
+These two speeches were made on the poop, in the presence of the
+captain, but in a sort of an aside that admitted of some of the
+ward-room familiarity exhibited. Captain Mull was not supposed to
+hear what passed, though hear it he in fact did, as was seen by his
+own remarks, which immediately succeeded.
+
+"I understood you to say, Mr. Wallace," observed the captain, a
+little drily, "that you saw the flour yourself?"
+
+"I saw the flour-barrels, sir; and as regularly built were they as
+any barrels that ever were branded. But a flour-barrel may have
+contained something beside flour."
+
+"Flour usually makes itself visible in the handling; were these
+barrels quite clean?"
+
+"Far from it, sir. They showed flour on their staves, like any other
+cargo. After all, the man may have more sense than we give him
+credit for, and find a high market for his cargo."
+
+Captain Mull seemed to muse, which was a hint for his juniors not to
+continue the conversation, but rather to seem to muse, too. After a
+short pause, the captain quietly remarked--"Well, gentlemen, he will
+be coming down after us, I suppose, as soon as he gets his new
+topgallant-mast on-end, and then we can keep a bright look-out for
+him. We shall cruise off Cape St. Antonio for a day or two, and no
+doubt shall get another look at him. I should like to have one
+baking from his flour."
+
+But Spike had no intention to give the Poughkeepsie the desired
+opportunity. As has been stated, he stood off to the southward on a
+wind, and completely doubled the eastern end of Jamaica, when he put
+his helm up, and went, with favouring wind and current, toward the
+northward and westward. The consequence was, that he did not fall in
+with the Poughkeepsie at all, which vessel was keeping a sharp
+look-out for him in the neighbourhood of Cape St. Antonio and the
+Isle of Pines, at the very moment he was running down the coast of
+Yucatan. Of all the large maritime countries of the world, Mexico,
+on the Atlantic, is that which is the most easily blockaded, by a
+superior naval power. By maintaining a proper force between Key West
+and the Havanna, and another squadron between Cape St. Antonio and
+Loggerhead Key, the whole country, the Bay of Honduras excepted, is
+shut up, as it might be in a band-box. It is true the Gulf would be
+left open to the Mexicans, were not squadrons kept nearer in; but,
+as for anything getting out into the broad Atlantic, it would be
+next to hopeless. The distance to be watched between the Havanna and
+Key West is only about sixty miles, while that in the other
+direction is not much greater.
+
+While the Swash was making the circuit of Jamaica, as described, her
+captain had little communication with his passengers. The
+misunderstanding with the relict embarrassed him as much as it
+embarrassed her; and he was quite willing to let time mitigate her
+resentment. Rose would be just as much in his power a fortnight
+hence as she was today. This cessation in the captain's attentions
+gave the females greater liberty, and they improved it, singularly
+enough as it seemed to Mulford, by cultivating a strange sort of
+intimacy with Jack Tier. The very day that succeeded the delicate
+conversation with Mrs. Budd, to a part of which Jack had been an
+auditor, the uncouth-looking steward's assistant was seen in close
+conference with the pretty Rose; the subject of their conversation
+being, apparently, of a most engrossing nature. From that hour, Jack
+got to be not only a confidant, but a favourite, to Mulford's great
+surprise. A less inviting subject for tˆte-…-tˆtes and confidential
+dialogues, thought the young man, could not well exist; but so it
+was; woman's caprices are inexplicable; and not only Rose and her
+aunt, but even the captious and somewhat distrustful Biddy,
+manifested on all occasions not only friendship, but kindness and
+consideration for Jack.
+
+"You quite put my nose out o' joint, you Jack Tier, with 'e lady,"
+grumbled Josh, the steward de jure, if not now de facto, of the
+craft, "and I neber see nuttin' like it! I s'pose you expect ten
+dollar, at least, from dem passenger, when we gets in. But I'd have
+you to know, Misser Jack, if you please, dat a steward be a steward,
+and he do n't like to hab trick played wid him, afore he own face."
+
+"Poh! poh! Joshua," answered Jack good-naturedly, "do n't distress
+yourself on a consail. In the first place, you've got no nose to be
+put out of joint; or, if you have really a nose, it has no joint.
+It's nat'ral for folks to like their own colour, and the ladies
+prefar me, because I'm white."
+
+"No so werry white as all dat, nudder," grumbled Josh. "I see great
+many whiter dan you. But, if dem lady like you so much as to gib you
+ten dollar, as I expects, when we gets in, I presumes you'll hand
+over half, or six dollar, of dat money to your superior officer, as
+is law in de case."
+
+"Do you call six the half of ten, Joshua, my scholar, eh?"
+
+"Well, den, seven, if you like dat better. I wants just half, and
+just half I means to git."
+
+"And half you shall have, maty. I only wish you would just tell me
+where we shall be, when we gets in."
+
+"How I know, white man? Dat belong to skipper, and better ask him.
+If he do n't gib you lick in de chop, p'rhaps he tell you."
+
+As Jack Tier had no taste for "licks in the chops," he did not
+follow Josh's advice. But his agreeing to give half of the ten
+dollars to the steward kept peace in the cabins. He was even so
+scrupulous of his word, as to hand to Josh a half-eagle that very
+day; money he had received from Rose; saying he would trust to
+Providence for his own half of the expected douceur. This concession
+placed Jack Tier on high grounds with his "superior officer," and
+from that time the former was left to do the whole of the customary
+service of the ladies' cabin.
+
+As respects the vessel, nothing worthy of notice occurred until she
+had passed Loggerhead Key, and was fairly launched in the Gulf of
+Mexico. Then, indeed, Spike took a step that greatly surprised his
+mate. The latter was directed to bring all his instruments, charts,
+&c., and place them in the captain's state-room, where it was
+understood they were to remain until the brig got into port. Spike
+was but an indifferent navigator, while Mulford was one of a higher
+order than common. So much had the former been accustomed to rely on
+the latter, indeed, as they approached a strange coast, that he
+could not possibly have taken any step, that was not positively
+criminal, which would have given his mate more uneasiness than this.
+
+At first, Mulford naturally enough suspected that Spike intended to
+push for some Mexican port, by thus blinding his eyes as to the
+position of the vessel. The direction steered, however, soon
+relieved the mate from this apprehension. From the eastern extremity
+of Yucatan, the Mexican coast trends to the westward, and even to
+the south of west, for a long distance, whereas the course steered
+by Spike was north, easterly. This was diverging from the enemy's
+coast instead of approaching it, and the circumstance greatly
+relieved the apprehensions of Mulford.
+
+Nor was the sequestration of the mate's instruments the only
+suspicious act of Spike. He caused the brig's paint to be entirely
+altered, and even went so far toward disguising her, as to make some
+changes aloft. All this was done as the vessel passed swiftly on her
+course, and everything had been effected, apparently to the
+captain's satisfaction, when the cry of "land-ho!" was once more
+heard. The land proved to be a cluster of low, small islands, part
+coral, part sand, that might have been eight or ten in number, and
+the largest of which did not possess a surface of more than a very
+few acres. Many were the merest islets imaginable, and on one of the
+largest of the cluster rose a tall, gaunt light-house, having the
+customary dwelling of its keeper at its base. Nothing else was
+visible; the broad expanse of the blue waters of the Gulf excepted.
+All the land in sight would not probably have made one field of
+twenty acres in extent, and that seemed cut off from the rest of the
+world, by a broad barrier of water. It was a spot of such singular
+situation and accessories, that Mulford gazed at it with a burning
+desire to know where he was, as the brig steered through a channel
+between two of the islets, into a capacious and perfectly safe
+basin, formed by the group, and dropped her anchor in its centre.
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+  "He sleeps; but dreams of massy gold,
+    And heaps of pearl. He stretch'd his hands--
+  He hears a voice--
+
+  "Ill man withhold!'
+    A pale one near him stands."
+
+Dana.
+
+It was near night-fall when the Swash anchored among the low and
+small islets mentioned. Rose had been on deck, as the vessel
+approached this singular and solitary haven, watching the movements
+of those on board, as well as the appearance of objects on the land,
+with the interest her situation would be-likely to awaken. She saw
+the light and manageable craft glide through the narrow and crooked
+passages that led into the port, the process of anchoring, and the
+scene of tranquil solitude that succeeded; each following the other
+as by a law of nature. The light-house next attracted her attention,
+and, as soon as the sun disappeared, her eyes were fastened on the
+lantern, in expectation of beholding the watchful and warning fires
+gleaming there, to give the mariner notice of the position of the
+dangers that surrounded the place. Minute went by after minute,
+however, and the customary illumination seemed to be forgotten.
+
+"Why is not this light shining?" Rose asked of Mulford, as the young
+man came near her, after having discharged his duty in helping to
+moor the vessel, and in clearing the decks. "All the light-houses we
+have passed, and they have been fifty, have shown bright lights at
+this hour, but this."
+
+"I cannot explain it; nor have I the smallest notion where we are. I
+have been aloft, and there was nothing in sight but this cluster of
+low islets, far or near. I did fancy, for a moment, I saw a speck
+like a distant sail, off here, to the northward and eastward, but I
+rather think it was a gull, or some other sea-bird glancing upward
+on the wing. I mentioned it to the captain when I came down, and he
+appeared to believe it a mistake. I have watched that light-house
+closely, too, ever since we came in, and I have not seen the
+smallest sign of life about it. It is altogether an extraordinary
+place!"
+
+"One suited to acts of villany, I fear, Harry!"
+
+"Of that we shall be better judges to-morrow. You, at least, have
+one vigilant friend, who will die sooner than harm shall come to
+you. I believe Spike to be thoroughly unprincipled; still he knows
+he can go so far and no further, and has a wholesome dread of the
+law. But the circumstance that there should be such a port as this,
+with a regular light-house, and no person near the last, is so much
+out of the common way, that I do not know what to make of it."
+
+"Perhaps the light-house keeper is afraid to show himself, in the
+presence of the Swash?"
+
+"That can hardly be, for vessels must often enter the port, if port
+it can be called. But Spike is as much concerned at the circumstance
+that the lamps are not lighted, as any of us can be. Look, he is
+about to visit the building in the boat, accompanied by two of his
+oldest sea-dogs."
+
+"Why might we not raise the anchor, and sail out of this place,
+leaving Spike ashore?" suggested Rose, with more decision and spirit
+than discretion.
+
+"For the simple reason that the act would be piracy, even if I could
+get the rest of the people to obey my orders, as certainly I could
+not. No, Rose: you, and your aunt, and Biddy, however, might land at
+these buildings, and refuse to return, Spike having no authority
+over his passengers."
+
+"Still he would have the power to make us come back to his brig.
+Look, he has left the vessel's side, and is going directly toward
+the light-house."
+
+Mulford made no immediate answer, but remained at Rose's side,
+watching the movements of the captain. The last pulled directly to
+the islet with the buildings, a distance of only a few hundred feet,
+the light-house being constructed on a rocky island that was nearly
+in the centre of the cluster, most probably to protect it from the
+ravages of the waves. The fact, however, proved, as Mulford did not
+fail to suggest to his companion, that the beacon had been erected
+less to guide vessels into the haven, than to warn mariners at a
+distance, of the position of the whole group.
+
+In less than five minutes after he had landed, Spike himself was
+seen in the lantern, in the act of lighting its lamps. In a very
+short time the place was in a brilliant blaze, reflectors and all
+the other parts of the machinery of the place performing their
+duties as regularly as if tended by the usual keeper. Soon after
+Spike returned on board, and the anchor-watch was set. Then
+everybody sought the rest that it was customary to take at that
+hour.
+
+Mulford was on deck with the appearance of the sun; but he found
+that Spike had preceded him, had gone ashore again, had extinguished
+the lamps, and was coming alongside of the brig on his return. A
+minute later the captain came over the side.
+
+"You were right about your sail, last night, a'ter all, Mr.
+Mulford," said Spike, on coming aft. "There she is, sure enough; and
+we shall have her alongside to strike cargo out and in, by the time
+the people have got their breakfasts."
+
+As Spike pointed toward the light-house while speaking, the mate
+changed his position a little, and saw that a schooner was coming
+down toward the islets before the wind. Mulford now began to
+understand the motives of the captain's proceedings, though a good
+deal yet remained veiled in mystery. He could not tell where the
+brig was, nor did he know precisely why so many expedients were
+adopted to conceal the transfer of a cargo as simple as that of
+flour. But he who was in the secret left but little time for
+reflection; for swallowing a hasty breakfast on deck, he issued
+orders enough to his mate to give him quite as much duty as he could
+perform, when he again entered the yawl, and pulled toward the
+stranger.
+
+Rose soon appeared on deck, and she naturally began to question
+Harry concerning their position and prospects. He was confessing his
+ignorance, as well as lamenting it, when his companion's sweet face
+suddenly flushed. She advanced a step eagerly toward the open window
+of Spike's state-room, then compressed her full, rich under-lip with
+the ivory of her upper teeth, and stood a single instant, a
+beautiful statue of irresolution instigated by spirit. The last
+quality prevailed; and Mulford was really startled when he saw Rose
+advance quite to the window, thrust in an arm, and turn toward him
+with his own sextant in her hand. During the course of the passage
+out, the young man had taught Rose to assist him in observing the
+longitude; and she was now ready to repeat the practice. Not a
+moment was lost in executing her intention. Sights were had, and the
+instrument was returned to its place without attracting the
+attention of the men, who were all busy in getting up purchases, and
+in making the other necessary dispositions for discharging the
+flour. The observations answered the purpose, though somewhat
+imperfectly made. Mulford had a tolerable notion of their latitude,
+having kept the brig's run in his head since quitting Yutacan; and
+he now found that their longitude was about 83 o west from
+Greenwich. After ascertaining this fact, a glance at the open chart,
+which lay on Spike's desk, satisfied him that the vessel was
+anchored within the group of the Dry Tortugas, or at the western
+termination of the well-known, formidable, and extensive Florida
+Reef. He had never been in that part of the world before, but had
+heard enough in sea-gossip, and had read enough in books, to be at
+once apprised of the true character of their situation. The islets
+were American; the light-house was American; and the haven in which
+the Swash lay was the very spot in the contemplation of government
+for an outer man-of-war harbour, where fleets might rendezvous in
+the future wars of that portion of the world. He now saw plainly
+enough the signs of the existence of a vast reef, a short distance
+to the southward of the vessel, that formed a species of sea-wall,
+or mole, to protect the port against the waves of the gulf in that
+direction. This reef he knew to be miles in width.
+
+There was little time for speculation, Spike soon bringing the
+strange schooner directly alongside of the brig. The two vessels
+immediately became a scene of activity, one discharging, and the
+other receiving the flour as fast as it could be struck out of the
+hold of the Swash and lowered upon the deck of the schooner.
+Mulford, however, had practised a little artifice, as the stranger
+entered the haven, which drew down upon him an anathema or two from
+Spike, as soon as they were alone. The mate had set the brig's
+ensign, and this compelled the stranger to be markedly rude, or to
+answer the compliment. Accordingly he had shown the ancient flag of
+Spain. For thus extorting a national symbol from the schooner, the
+mate was sharply rebuked at a suitable moment, though nothing could
+have been more forbearing than the deportment of his commander when
+they first met.
+
+When Spike returned to his own vessel, he was accompanied by a
+dark-looking, well-dressed, and decidedly gentleman-like personage,
+whom he addressed indifferently, in his very imperfect Spanish, as
+Don Wan, (Don Juan, or John,) or Se¤or Montefalderon. By the latter
+appellation he even saw fit to introduce the very
+respectable-looking stranger to his mate. This stranger spoke
+English well, though with an accent.
+
+"Don Wan has taken all the flour, Mr. Mulford, and intends shoving
+it over into Cuba, without troubling the custom-house, I believe;
+but that is not a matter to give us any concern, you know."
+
+The wink, and the knowing look by which this speech was accompanied,
+seemed particularly disagreeable to Don Juan, who now paid his
+compliments to Rose, with no little surprise betrayed in his
+countenance, but with the ease and reserve of a gentleman. Mulford
+thought it strange that a smuggler of flour should be so polished a
+personage, though his duty did not admit of his bestowing much
+attention on the little trifling of the interview that succeeded.
+
+For about an hour the work went steadily and rapidly on. During that
+time Mulford was several times on board the schooner, as, indeed,
+was Josh, Jack Tier, and others belonging to the Swash. The Spanish
+vessel was Baltimore, or clipper built, with a trunk-cabin, and had
+every appearance of sailing fast. Mulford was struck with her model,
+and, while on board of her, he passed both forward and aft to
+examine it. This was so natural in a seaman, that Spike, while he
+noted the proceeding, took it in good part. He even called out to
+his mate, from his own quarter-deck, to admire this or that point in
+the schooner's construction. As is customary with the vessels of
+southern nations, this stranger was full of men, but they continued
+at their work, some half dozen of brawny negroes among them,
+shouting their songs as they swayed at the falls, no one appearing
+to manifest jealousy or concern. At length Tier came near the mate,
+and said,
+
+"Uncle Sam will not be pleased when he hears the reason that the
+keeper is not in his light-house."
+
+"And what is that reason, Jack? If you know it, tell it to me."
+
+"Go aft and look down the companion-way, maty, and see it for
+yourself."
+
+Mulford did go aft, and he made an occasion to look down into the
+schooner's cabin, where he caught a glimpse of the persons of a man
+and a boy, whom he at once supposed had been taken from the
+light-house. This one fact of itself doubled his distrust of the
+character of Spike's proceedings. There was no sufficient apparent
+reason why a mere smuggler should care about the presence of an
+individual more or less in a foreign port. Everything that had
+occurred, looked like pre-concert between the brig and the schooner;
+and the mate was just beginning to entertain the strongest distrust
+that their vessel was holding treasonable communication with the
+enemy, when an accident removed all doubt on the subject, from his
+own mind at least. Spike had, once or twice, given his opinion that
+the weather was treacherous, and urged the people of both crafts to
+extraordinary exertions, in order that the vessels might get clear
+of each other as soon as possible. This appeal had set various
+expedients in motion to second the more regular work of the
+purchases. Among other things, planks had been laid from one vessel
+to the other, and barrels were rolled along them with very little
+attention to the speed or the direction. Several had fallen on the
+schooner's deck with rude shocks, but no damage was done, until one,
+of which the hoops had not been properly secured, met with a fall,
+and burst nearly at Mulford's feet. It was at the precise moment
+when the mate was returning, from taking his glance into the cabin,
+toward the side of the Swash. A white cloud arose, and half a dozen
+of the schooner's people sprang for buckets, kids, or dishes, in
+order to secure enough of the contents of the broken barrel to
+furnish them with a meal. At first nothing was visible but the white
+cloud that succeeded the fall, and the scrambling sailors in its
+midst. No sooner, however, had the air got to be a little clear,
+than Mulford saw an object lying in centre of the wreck, that he at
+once recognised for a keg of the gunpowder! The captain of the
+schooner seized this keg, gave a knowing look at Mulford, and
+disappeared in the hold of his own vessel, carrying with him, what
+was out of all question, a most material part of the true cargo of
+the Swash.
+
+At the moment when the flour-barrel burst, Spike was below, in close
+conference with his Spanish, or Mexican guest; and the wreck being
+so soon cleared away, it is probable that he never heard of the
+accident. As for the two crews, they laughed a little among
+themselves at the revelation which had been made, as well as at the
+manner; but to old sea-dogs like them, it was a matter of very
+little moment, whether the cargo was, in reality, flour or
+gunpowder. In a few minutes the affair seemed to be forgotten. In
+the course of another hour the Swash was light, having nothing in
+her but some pig-lead, which she used for ballast, while the
+schooner was loaded to her hatches, and full. Spike now sent a boat,
+with orders to drop a kedge about a hundred yards from the place
+where his own brig lay. The schooner warped up to this kedge, and
+dropped an anchor of her own, leaving a very short range of cable
+out, it being a flat calm. Ordinarily, the trades prevail at the Dry
+Tortugas, and all along the Florida Reef. Sometimes, indeed, this
+breeze sweeps across the whole width of the Gulf of Mexico, blowing
+home, as it is called--reaching even to the coast of Texas. It is
+subject, however, to occasional interruptions everywhere, varying
+many points in its direction, and occasionally ceasing entirely. The
+latter was the condition of the weather about noon on this day, or
+when the schooner hauled off from the brig, and was secured at her
+own anchor.
+
+"Mr. Mulford," said Spike, "I do not like the state of the
+atmosphere. D'ye see that fiery streak along the western
+horizon--well, sir, as the sun gets nearer to that streak, there'll
+be trouble, or I'm no judge of weather."
+
+"You surely do not imagine, Captain Spike, that the sun will be any
+nearer to that fiery streak, as you call it, when he is about to
+set, than he is at this moment?" answered the mate, smiling.
+
+"I'm sure of one thing, young man, and that is, that old heads are
+better than young ones. What a man has once seen, he may expect to
+see again, if the same leading signs offer. Man the boat, sir, and
+carry out the kedge, which is still in it, and lay it off here,
+about three p'ints on our larboard bow."
+
+Mulford had a profound respect for Spike's seamanship, whatever he
+might think of his principles. The order was consequently obeyed.
+The mate was then directed to send down various articles out of the
+top, and to get the top-gallant and royal yards on deck. Spike
+carried his precautions so far, as to have the mainsail lowered, it
+ordinarily brailing at that season of the year, with a standing
+gaff. With this disposition completed, the captain seemed more at
+his ease, and went below to join Se¤or Montefalderon in a siesta.
+The Mexican, for such, in truth, was the national character of the
+owner of the schooner, had preceded him in this indulgence; and most
+of the people of the brig having laid themselves down to sleep under
+the heat of the hour, Mulford soon enjoyed another favourable
+opportunity for a private conference with Rose.
+
+"Harry," commenced the latter, as soon as they were alone; "I have
+much to tell you. While you have been absent I have overheard a
+conversation between this Spanish gentleman and Spike, that shows
+the last is in treaty with the other for the sale of the brig. Spike
+extolled his vessel to the skies, while Don Wan, as he calls him,
+complains that the brig is old, and cannot last long; to which Spike
+answered `to be sure she is old, Se¤or Montefalderon, but she will
+last as long as your war, and under a bold captain might be made to
+return her cost a hundred fold!' What war can he mean, and to what
+does such a discourse tend?"
+
+"The war alludes to the war now existing between America and Mexico,
+and the money to be made is to be plundered at sea, from our own
+merchant-vessels. If Don Juan Montefalderon is really in treaty for
+the purchase of the brig, it is to convert her into a Mexican
+cruiser, either public or private."
+
+"But this would be treason on the part of Spike!"
+
+"Not more so than supplying the enemy with gunpowder, as he has just
+been doing. I have ascertained the reason he was so unwilling to be
+overhauled by the revenue steamer, as well as the reason why the
+revenue steamer wished so earnestly to overhaul us. Each barrel of
+flour contains another of gunpowder, and that has been sold to this
+Se¤or Montefalderon, who is doubtless an officer of the Mexican
+government, and no smuggler."
+
+"He has been at New York, this very summer, I know," continued Rose,
+"for he spoke of his visit, and made such other remarks, as leaves
+no doubt that Spike expected to find him here, on this very day of
+the month. He also paid Spike a large sum of money in doubloons, and
+took back the bag to his schooner, when he had done so, after
+showing the captain enough was left to pay for the brig could they
+only agree on the terms of their bargain."
+
+"Ay, ay; it is all plain enough now, Spike has determined on a
+desperate push for fortune, and foreseeing it might not soon be in
+his power to return to New York in safety, he has included his
+designs on you and your fortune, in the plot."
+
+"My fortune! the trifle I possess can scarcely be called a fortune,
+Harry!"
+
+"It would be a fortune to Spike, Rose; and I shall be honest enough
+to own it would be a fortune to me. I say this frankly, for I do
+believe you think too well of me to suppose that I seek you for any
+other reason than the ardent love I bear your person and character;
+but a fact is not to be denied because it may lead certain persons
+to distrust our motives. Spike is poor, like myself; and the brig is
+not only getting to be very old, but she has been losing money for
+the last twelve months."
+
+Mulford and Rose now conversed long and confidentially, on their
+situation and prospects. The mate neither magnified nor concealed
+the dangers of both; but freely pointed out the risk to himself, in
+being on board a vessel that was aiding and comforting the enemy. It
+was determined between there that both would quit the brig the
+moment an opportunity offered; and the mate even went so far as to
+propose an attempt to escape in one of the boats, although he might
+incur the hazards of a double accusation, those of mutiny and
+larceny, for making the experiment. Unfortunately, neither Rose, nor
+her aunt, nor Biddy, nor Jack Tier had seen the barrel of powder,
+and neither could testify as to the true character of Spike's
+connection with the schooner. It was manifestly necessary,
+therefore, independently of the risks that might be run by "bearding
+the lion in his den," to proceed with great intelligence and
+caution.
+
+This dialogue between Harry and Rose, occurred just after the turn
+in the day, and lasted fully an hour. Each had been too much
+interested to observe the heavens, but, as they were on the point of
+separating, Rose pointed out to her companion the unusual and most
+menacing aspect of the sky in the western horizon. It appeared as if
+a fiery heat was glowing there, behind a curtain of black vapour;
+and what rendered it more remarkable, was the circumstance that an
+extraordinary degree of placidity prevailed in all other parts of
+the heavens. Mulford scarce knew what to make of it; his experience
+not going so far as to enable him to explain the novel and alarming
+appearance. He stepped on a gun, and gazed around him for a moment.
+There lay the schooner, without a being visible on board of her, and
+there stood the light-house, gloomy in its desertion and solitude.
+The birds alone seemed to be alive and conscious of what was
+approaching. They were all on the wing, wheeling wildly in the air,
+and screaming discordantly, as belonged to their habits. The young
+man leaped off the gun, gave a loud call to Spike, at the
+companion-way, and sprang forward to call all hands.
+
+One minute only was lost, when every seaman on board the Swash, from
+the captain to Jack Tier, was on deck. Mulford met Spike at the
+cabin door, and pointed toward the fiery column, that was booming
+down upon the anchorage, with a velocity and direction that would
+now admit of no misinterpretation. For one instant that sturdy old
+seaman stood aghast; gazing at the enemy as one conscious of his
+impotency might have been supposed to quail before an assault that
+he foresaw must prove irresistible. Then his native spirit, and most
+of all the effects of training, began to show themselves in him, and
+he became at once, not only the man again, but the resolute,
+practised, and ready commander.
+
+"Come aft to the spring, men--" he shouted--"clap on the spring, Mr.
+Mulford, and bring the brig head to wind."
+
+This order was obeyed as seamen best obey, in cases of sudden and
+extreme emergency; or with intelligence, aptitude and power. The
+brig had swung nearly round, in the desired direction, when the
+tornado struck her. It will be difficult, we do not know but it is
+impossible, to give a clear and accurate account of what followed.
+As most of our readers have doubtless felt how great is the power of
+the wind, whiffling and pressing different ways, in sudden and
+passing gusts, they have only to imagine this power increased many,
+many fold, and the baffling currents made furious, as it might be,
+by meeting with resistance, to form some notion of the appalling
+strength and frightful inconstancy with which it blew for about a
+minute.
+
+Notwithstanding the circumstance of Spike's precaution had greatly
+lessened the danger, every man on the deck of the Swash believed the
+brig was gone when the gust struck her. Over she went, in fact,
+until the water came pouring in above her half-ports, like so many
+little cascades, and spouting up through her scupper-holes,
+resembling the blowing of young whales. It was the whiffling energy
+of the tornado that alone saved her. As if disappointed in not
+destroying its intended victim at one swoop, the tornado "let up" in
+its pressure, like a dexterous wrestler, making a fresh and
+desperate effort to overturn the vessel, by a slight variation in
+its course. That change saved the Swash. She righted, and even
+rolled in the other direction, or what might be called to windward,
+with her decks full of water. For a minute longer these baffling,
+changing gusts continued, each causing the brig to bow like a reed
+to their power, one lifting as another pressed her down, and then
+the weight, or the more dangerous part of the tornado was passed,
+though it continued to blow heavily, always in whiffling blasts,
+several minutes longer.
+
+During the weight of the gust, no one had leisure, or indeed
+inclination to look to aught beyond its effect on the brig. Had one
+been otherwise disposed, the attempt would have been useless, for
+the wind had filled the air with spray, and near the islets even
+with sand. The lurid but fiery tinge, too, interposed a veil that no
+human eye could penetrate. As the tornado passed onward, however,
+and the winds lulled, the air again became clear, and in five
+minutes after the moment when the Swash lay nearly on her side, with
+her lower yard-arm actually within a few feet of the water, all was
+still and placid around her, as one is accustomed to see the ocean
+in a calm, of a summer's afternoon. Then it was that those who had
+been in such extreme jeopardy could breathe freely and look about
+them. On board the Swash all was well--not a rope-yarn had parted,
+or an eyebolt drawn. The timely precautions of Spike had saved his
+brig, and great was his joy thereat.
+
+In the midst of the infernal din of the tornado, screams had
+ascended from the cabin, and the instant he could quit the deck with
+propriety, Mulford sprang below, in order to ascertain their cause.
+He apprehended that some of the females had been driven to leeward
+when the brig went over, and that part of the luggage or furniture
+had fallen on them. In the main cabin, the mate found Se¤or
+Montefalderon just quitting his berth, composed, gentleman-like, and
+collected. Josh was braced in a corner nearly grey with fear, while
+Jack Tier still lay on the cabin floor, at the last point to which
+he had rolled. One word sufficed to let Don Juan know that the gust
+had passed, and the brig was safe, when Mulford tapped at the deor
+of the inner cabin. Rose appeared, pale, but calm and unhurt.
+
+"Is any one injured?" asked the young man, his mind relieved at
+once, as soon as he saw that she who most occupied his thoughts was
+safe; "we heard screams from this cabin."
+
+"My aunt and Biddy have been frightened," answered Rose, "but
+neither has been hurt. Oh, Harry, what terrible thing has happened
+to us? I heard the roaring of--"
+
+" 'T was a tornado," interrupted Mulford eagerly, "but 't is over.
+'T was one of those sudden and tremendous gusts that sometimes occur
+within the tropics, in which the danger is usually in the first
+shock. If no one is injured in this cabin, no one is injured at
+all."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Mulford--dear Mr. Mulford!" exclaimed the relict, from the
+corner into which she had been followed and jammed by Biddy, "Oh,
+Mr. Mulford, are we foundered or not?"
+
+"Heaven be praised, not, my dear ma'am, though we came nearer to it
+than I ever was before."
+
+"Are we cap-asided?"
+
+"Nor that, Mrs. Budd; the brig is as upright as a church."
+
+"Upright!" repeated Biddy, in her customary accent,--"is it as a
+church? Sure, then, Mr. Mate, 't is a Presbyterian church that you
+mane, and that is always totterin'."
+
+"Catholic, or Dutch--no church in York is more completely up and
+down than the brig at this moment."
+
+"Get off of me--get off of me, Biddy, and let me rise," said the
+widow, with dignity. "The danger is over I see, and, as we return
+our thanks for it, we have the consolation of knowing that we have
+done our duty. It is incumbent on all, at such moments, to be at
+their posts, and to set examples of decision and prudence."
+
+As Mulford saw all was well in the cabin, he hastened on deck,
+followed by Se¤or Montefalderon. Just as they emerged from the
+companion-way, Spike was hailing the forecastle.
+
+"Forecastle, there," he cried, standing on the trunk himself as he
+did so, and moving from side to side, as if to catch a glimpse of
+some object ahead.
+
+"Sir," came back from an old salt, who was coiling up rigging in
+that seat of seamanship.
+
+"Where-away is the schooner? She ought to be dead ahead of us, as we
+tend now--but blast me if I can see as much as her mast-heads."
+
+At this suggestion, a dozen men sprang upon guns or other objects,
+to look for the vessel in question. The old salt forward, however,
+had much the best chance, for he stepped on the heel of the
+bowsprit, and walked as far out as the knight-heads, to command the
+whole view ahead of the brig. There he stood half a minute, looking
+first on one side of the head-gear, then the other, when he gave his
+trousers a hitch, put a fresh quid in his mouth, and called out in a
+voice almost as hoarse as the tempest, that had just gone by,
+
+"The schooner has gone down at her anchor, sir. There's her buoy
+watching still, as if nothing had happened; but as for the craft
+itself, there's not so much as a bloody yard-arm, or mast-head of
+her to be seen!"
+
+This news produced a sensation in the brig at once, as may be
+supposed. Even Se¤or Montefalderon, a quiet, gentleman-like person,
+altogether superior in deportment to the bustle and fuss that
+usually marks the manners of persons in trade, was disturbed; for to
+him the blow was heavy indeed. Whether he were acting for himself,
+or was an agent of the Mexican government, the loss was much the
+same.
+
+"Tom is right enough," put in Spike, rather coolly for the
+circumstances--"that there schooner of yourn has foundered, Don Wan,
+as any one can see. She must have cap-sized and filled, for I
+obsarved they had left the hatches off, meaning, no doubt, to make
+an end of the storage as soon as they had done sleeping."
+
+"And what has become of all her men, Don Esteban?" for so the
+Mexican politely called his companion. "Have all my poor countrymen
+perished in this disaster?"
+
+"I fear they have, Don Wan; for I see no head, as of any one
+swimming. The vessel lay so near that island next to it, that a poor
+swimmer would have no difficulty in reaching the place; but there is
+no living thing to be seen. But man the boat, men; we will go to the
+spot, Se¤or, and examine for ourselves."
+
+There were two boats in the water, and along-side of the brig. One
+was the Swash's yawl, a small but convenient craft, while the other
+was much larger, fitted with a sail, and had all the appearance of
+having been built to withstand breezes and seas. Mulford felt
+perfectly satisfied, the moment he saw this boat, which had come
+into the haven in tow of the schooner, that it had been originally
+in the service of the light-house keeper. As there was a very
+general desire among those on the quarter-deck to go to the
+assistance of the schooner, Spike ordered both boats manned, jumping
+into the yawl himself, accompanied by Don Juan Montefalderon, and
+telling Mulford to follow with the larger craft, bringing with him
+as many of the females as might choose to accompany him. As Mrs.
+Budd thought it incumbent on her to be active in such a scene, all
+did go, including Biddy, though with great reluctance on the part of
+Rose.
+
+With the buoy for a guide, Spike had no difficulty in finding the
+spot where the schooner lay. She had scarcely shifted her berth in
+the least, there having been no time for her even to swing to the
+gust, but she had probably cap-sized at the first blast, filled, and
+gone down instantly. The water was nearly as clear as the calm, mild
+atmosphere of the tropics; and it was almost as easy to discern the
+vessel, and all her hamper, as if she lay on a beach. She had sunk
+as she filled, or on her side, and still continued in that position.
+As the water was little more than three fathoms deep, the upper side
+was submerged but a few inches, and her yard-arms would have been
+out of the water, but for the circumstance that the yards had canted
+under the pressure.
+
+At first, no sign was seen of any of those who had been on board
+this ill-fated schooner when she went down. It was known that
+twenty-one souls were in her, including the man and the boy who had
+belonged to the light-house. As the boat moved slowly over this sad
+ruin, however, a horrible and startling spectacle came in view. Two
+bodies were seen, within a few feet of the surface of the water, one
+grasped in the arms of the other, in the gripe of despair. The man
+held in the grasp, was kept beneath the water solely by the
+death-lock of his companion, who was himself held where he floated,
+by the circumstance that one of his feet was entangled in a rope.
+The struggle could not have been long over, for the two bodies were
+slowly settling toward the bottom when first seen. It is probable
+that both these men had more than once risen to the surface in their
+dreadful struggle. Spike seized a boat-hook, and made an effort to
+catch the clothes of the nearest body, but ineffectually, both
+sinking to the sands beneath, lifeless, and without motion. There
+being no sharks in sight, Mulford volunteered to dive and fasten a
+line to one of these unfortunate men, whom Don Juan declared at once
+was the schooner's captain. Some little time was lost in procuring a
+lead-line from the brig, when the lead was dropped alongside of the
+drowned. Provided with another piece of the same sort of line, which
+had a small running bowline around that which was fastened to the
+lead, the mate made his plunge, and went down with great vigour of
+arm. It required resolution and steadiness to descend so far into
+salt water; but Harry succeeded, and rose with the bodies, which
+came up with the slightest impulse. All were immediately got into
+the boat, and away the latter went toward the light-house, which was
+nearer and more easy of access than the brig.
+
+It is probable that one of these unfortunate men might have been
+revived under judicious treatment; but he was not fated to receive
+it. Spike, who knew nothing of such matters, undertook to direct
+everything, and, instead of having recourse to warmth and gentle
+treatment, he ordered the bodies to be rolled on a cask, suspended
+them by the heels, and resorted to a sort of practice that might
+have destroyed well men, instead of resuscitating those in whom the
+vital spark was dormant, if not actually extinct.
+
+Two hours later, Rose, seated in her own cabin, unavoidably
+overheard the following dialogue, which passed in English, a
+language that Se¤or Montefalderon spoke perfectly well, as has been
+said.
+
+"Well, Se¤or," said Spike, "I hope this little accident will not
+prevent our final trade. You will want the brig now, to take the
+schooner's place."
+
+"And how am I to pay you for the brig, Se¤or Spike, even if I buy
+her?"
+
+"I'll ventur' to guess there is plenty of money in Mexico. Though
+they do say the government is so backward about paying, I have
+always found you punctual, and am not afraid to put faith in you
+ag'in."
+
+"But I have no longer any money to pay you half in hand, as I did
+for the powder, when last in New York."
+
+"The bag was pretty well lined with doubloons when I saw it last,
+Se¤or."
+
+"And do you know where that bag is; and where there is another that
+holds the same sum?"
+
+Spike started, and he mused in silence some little time, ere he
+again spoke.
+
+"I had forgotten," he at length answered. "The gold must have all
+gone down in the schooner, along with the powder!"
+
+"And the poor men!"
+
+"Why, as for the men, Se¤or, more may be had for the asking; but
+powder and doubloons will be hard to find, when most wanted. Then
+the men were poor men, accordin' to my idees of what an able seaman
+should be, or they never would have let their schooner turn turtle
+with them as she did."
+
+"We will talk of the money, Don Esteban, if you please," said the
+Mexican, with reserve.
+
+"With all my heart, Don Wan--nothing is more agreeable to me than
+money. How many of them doubloons shall fall to my share, if I raise
+the schooner and put you in possession of your craft again?"
+
+"Can that be done, Se¤or?" demanded Don Juan earnestly.
+
+"A seaman can do almost anything, in that way, Don Wan, if you will
+give him time and means. For one-half the doubloons I can find in
+the wrack, the job shall be done."
+
+"You can have them," answered Don Juan, quietly, a good deal
+surprised that Spike should deem it necessary to offer him any part
+of the sum he might find. "As for the powder, I suppose that is lost
+to my country."
+
+"Not at all, Don Wan. The flour is well packed around it, and I
+don't expect it would take any harm in a month. I shall not only
+turn over the flour to you, just as if nothing had happened, but I
+shall put four first-rate hands aboard your schooner, who will take
+her into port for you, with a good deal more sartainty than forty of
+the men you had. My mate is a prime navigator."
+
+This concluded the bargain, every word of which was heard by Rose,
+and every word of which she did not fail to communicate to Mulford,
+the moment there was an opportunity. The young man heard it with
+great interest, telling Rose that he should do all he could to
+assist in raising the schooner, in the hope that something might
+turn up to enable him to escape in her, taking off Rose and her
+aunt. As for his carrying her into a Mexican port, let them trust
+him for that! Agreeably to the arrangement, orders were given that
+afternoon to commence the necessary preparations for the work, and
+considerable progress was made in them by the time the Swash's
+people were ordered to knock off work for the night.
+
+After the sun had set, the reaction in the currents again commenced,
+and it blew for a few hours heavily, during the night. Toward
+morning, however, it moderated, and when the sun re-appeared it
+scarcely ever diffused its rays over a more peaceful or quiet day.
+Spike caused all hands to be called, and immediately set about the
+important business he had before him.
+
+In order that the vessel might be as free as possible, Jack Tier was
+directed to skull the females ashore, in the brig's yawl; Se¤or
+Montefalderon, a man of polished manners, as we maintain is very apt
+to be the case with Mexican gentlemen, whatever may be the opinion
+of this good republic on the subject just at this moment, asked
+permission to be of the party. Mulford found an opportunity to beg
+Rose, if they landed at the light, to reconnoitre the place well,
+with a view to ascertain what facilities it could afford in an
+attempt to escape. They did land at the light, and glad enough were
+Mrs. Budd, Rose and Biddy to place their feet on terr  firmƒ after
+so long a confinement to the narrow limits of a vessel.
+
+"Well," said Jack Tier, as they walked up to the spot where the
+buildings stood, "this is a rum place for a light'us, Miss Rose, and
+I don't wonder the keeper and his mess-mates has cleared out."
+
+"I am very sorry to say," observed Se¤or Montefalderon, whose
+countenance expressed the concern he really felt, "that the keeper
+and his only companion, a boy, were on board the schooner, and have
+perished in her, in common with so many of my poor countrymen. There
+are the graves of two whom we buried here last evening, after vain
+efforts to restore them to life!"
+
+"What a dreadful catastrophe it has been, Se¤or," said Rose, whose
+sweet countenance eloquently expressed the horror and regret she so
+naturally felt--"Twenty fellow-beings hurried into eternity without
+even an instant for prayer!"
+
+"You feel for them, Se¤orita--it is natural you should, and it is
+natural that I, their countryman and leader, should feel for them,
+also. I do not know what God has in reserve for my unfortunate
+country! We may have cruel and unscrupulous men among us, Se¤orita,
+but we have thousands who are just, and brave, and honourable."
+
+"So Mr. Mulford tells me, Se¤or; and he has been much in your ports,
+on the west coast."
+
+"I like that young man, and wonder not a little at his and your
+situation in this brig--" rejoined the Mexican, dropping his voice
+so as not to be heard by their companions, as they walked a little
+ahead of Mrs. Budd and Biddy. "The Se¤or Spike is scarcely worthy to
+be his commander or your guardian."
+
+"Yet you find him worthy of your intercourse and trust, Don Juan?"
+
+The Mexican shrugged his shoulders, and smiled equivocally; still,
+in a melancholy manner. It would seem he did not deem it wise to
+push this branch of the subject further, since he turned to another.
+
+"I like the Se¤or Mulford," he resumed, "for his general deportment
+and principles, so far as I can judge of him on so short an
+acquaintance."
+
+"Excuse me, Se¤or," interrupted Rose, hurriedly--"but you never saw
+him until you met him here."
+
+"Never--I understand you, Se¤orita, and can do full justice to the
+young man's character. I am willing to think he did not know the
+errand of his vessel, or I should not have seen him now. But what I
+most like him for, is this: Last night, during the gale, he and I
+walked the deck together, for an hour. We talked of Mexico, and of
+this war, so unfortunate for my country already, and which may
+become still more so, when he uttered this noble sentiment--`My
+country is more powerful than yours, Se¤or Montefalderon,' he said,
+`and in this it has been more favoured by God. You have suffered
+from ambitious rulers, and from military rule, while we have been
+advancing under the arts of peace, favoured by a most beneficent
+Providence. As for this war, I know but little about it, though I
+dare say the Mexican government may have been wrong in some things
+that it might have controlled and some that it might not--but let
+right be where it will, I am sorry to see a nation that has taken so
+firm a stand in favour of popular government, pressed upon so hard
+by another that is supposed to be the great support of such
+principles. America and Mexico are neighbours, and ought to be
+friends; and while I do not, cannot blame my own country for
+pursuing the war with vigour, nothing would please me more than to
+hear peace proclaimed.'"
+
+"That is just like Harry Mulford," said Rose, thoughtfully, as soon
+as her companion ceased to speak. "I do wish, Se¤or, that there
+could be no use for this powder, that is now buried in the sea."
+
+Don Juan Montefalderon smiled, and seemed a little surprised that
+the fair young thing at his side should have known of the
+treacherous contents of the flour-barrels. No doubt he found it
+inexplicable, that persons like Rose and Mulford should, seemingly,
+be united with one like Spike; but he was too well bred, and,
+indeed, too effectually mystified, to push the subject further than
+might be discreet.
+
+By this time they were near the entrance of the lighthouse, into
+which the whole party entered, in a sort of mute awe at its silence
+and solitude. At Se¤or Montefalderon's invitation, they ascended to
+the lantern, whence they could command a wide and fair view of the
+surrounding waters. The reef was much more apparent from that
+elevation than from below; and Rose could see that numbers of its
+rocks were bare, while on other parts of it there was the appearance
+of many feet of water. Rose gazed at it with longing eyes, for, from
+a few remarks that had fallen from Mulford, she suspected he had
+hopes of escaping among its channels and coral.
+
+As they descended and walked through the buildings, Rose also took
+good heed of the supplies the place afforded. There were flour, and
+beef, and pork, and many other of the common articles of food, as
+well as water in a cistern, that caught it as it flowed from the
+roof of the dwelling. Water was also to be found in casks--nothing
+like a spring or a well existing among those islets. All these
+things Rose noted, putting them aside in her memory for ready
+reference hereafter.
+
+In the mean time the mariners were not idle. Spike moved his brig,
+and moored her, head and stern, alongside of the wreck, before the
+people got their breakfasts. As soon as that meal was ended, both
+captain and mate set about their duty in earnest. Mulford carried
+out an anchor on the off-side of the Swash, and dropped it at a
+distance of about eighty fathoms from the vessel's beam. Purchases
+were brought from both mast-heads of the brig to the chain of this
+anchor, and were hove upon until the vessel was given a heel of more
+than a streak, and the cable was tolerably taut. Other purchases
+were got up opposite, and overhauled down, in readiness to take hold
+of the schooner's masts. The anchor of the schooner was weighed by
+its buoy-rope, and the chain, after being rove through the upper or
+opposite hawse-hole, brought in on board the Swash. Another chain
+was dropped astern, in such a way, that when the schooner came
+upright, it would be sure to pass beneath her keel, some six or
+eight feet from the rudder. Slings were then sunk over the
+mast-heads, and the purchases were hooked on. Hours were consumed in
+these preliminary labours, and the people went to dinner as soon as
+they were completed.
+
+When the men had dined, Spike brought one of his purchases to the
+windlass, and the other to the capstan, though not until each was
+bowsed taut by hand; a few minutes having brought the strain so far
+on everything, as to enable a seaman, like Spike, to form some
+judgment of the likelihood that his preventers and purchases would
+stand. Some changes were found necessary to equalize the strain,
+but, on the whole, the captain was satisfied with his work, and the
+crew were soon ordered to "heave-away; the windlass best."
+
+In the course of half an hour the hull of the vessel, which lay on
+its bilge, began to turn on its keel, and the heads of the spars to
+rise above the water. This was the easiest part of the process, all
+that was required of the purchases being to turn over a mass which
+rested on the sands of the bay. Aided by the long levers afforded by
+the spars, the work advanced so rapidly, that, in just one hour's
+time after his people had begun to heave, Spike had the pleasure to
+see the schooner standing upright, alongside of his own brig, though
+still sunk to the bottom. The wreck was secured in this position, by
+means of guys and preventers, in order that it might not again cant,
+when the order was issued to hook on the slings that were to raise
+it to the surface. These slings were the chains of the schooner, one
+of which went under her keel, while for the other the captain
+trusted to the strength of the two hawse-holes, having passed the
+cable out of one and in at the other, in a way to serve his
+purposes, as has just been stated.
+
+When all was ready, Spike mustered his crew, and made a speech. He
+told the men that he was about a job that was out of the usual line
+of their duty, and that he knew they had a right to expect extra pay
+for such extra work. The schooner contained money, and his object
+was to get at it. If he succeeded, their reward would be a doubloon
+a man, which would be earning more than a month's wages by
+twenty-four hours' work. This was enough. The men wanted to hear no
+more; but they cheered their commander, and set about their task in
+the happiest disposition possible.
+
+The reader will understand that the object to be first achieved, was
+to raise a vessel, with a hold filled with flour and gunpowder, from
+off the bottom of the bay to its surface. As she stood, the deck of
+this vessel was about six feet under water, and every one will
+understand that her weight, so long as it was submerged in a fluid
+as dense as that of the sea, would be much more manageable than if
+suspended in air. The barrels, for instance, were not much heavier
+than the water they displaced, and the wood work of the vessel
+itself, was, on the whole, positively lighter than the element in
+which it had sunk. As for the water in the hold, that was of the
+same weight as the water on the outside of tne craft, and there had
+not been much to carry the schooner down, beside her iron, the spars
+that were out of water, and her ballast. This last, some ten or
+twelve tons in weight, was in fact the principal difficulty, and
+alone induced Spike to have any doubts about his eventual success.
+There was no foreseeing the result until he had made a trial,
+however; and the order was again given to "heave away."
+
+To the infinite satisfaction of the Swash's crew, the weight was
+found quite manageable, so long as the hull remained beneath the
+water. Mulford, with three or four assistants, was kept on board the
+schooner lightening her, by getting the other anchor off her bows,
+and throwing the different objects overboard, or on the decks of the
+brig. By the time the bulwarks reached the surface, as much was
+gained in this way, as was lost by having so much of the lighter
+woodwork rise above the water. As a matter of course, however, the
+weight increased as the vessel rose, and more especially as the
+lower portion of the spars, the bowsprit, boom, &c., from being
+buoyant assistants, became so much dead weight to be lifted.
+
+Spike kept a watchful eye on his spars, and the extra supports he
+had given them. He was moving, the whole time, from point to point,
+feeling shrouds and back-stays, and preventers, in order to
+ascertain the degree of strain on each, or examining how the
+purchases stood. As for the crew, they cheered at their toil,
+incessantly, passing from capstan bars to the handspikes, and vice
+versƒ. They, too, felt that their task was increasing in resistance
+as it advanced, and now found it more difficult to gain an inch,
+than it had been at first to gain a foot. They seemed, indeed, to be
+heaving their own vessel out, instead of heaving the other craft up,
+and it was not long before they had the Swash heeling over toward
+the wreck several streaks. The strain, moreover, on everything,
+became not only severe, but somewhat menacing. Every shroud,
+back-stay, and preventer was as taut as a bar of iron, and the
+chain-cable that led to the anchor planted off abeam, was as
+straight as if the brig were riding by it in a gale of wind. One or
+two ominous surges aloft, too, had been heard, and, though no more
+than straps and slings settling into their places under hard
+strains, they served to remind the crew that danger might come from
+that quarter. Such was the state of things, when Spike called out to
+"heave and pall," that he might take a look at the condition of the
+wreck.
+
+Although a great deal remained to be done, in order to get the
+schooner to float, a great deal had already been done. Her precise
+condition was as follows: Having no cabin windows, the water had
+entered her, when she capsized, by the only four apertures her
+construction possessed. These were the companion-way, or
+cabin-doors; the sky-light; the main-hatch, or the large inlet
+amid-ships, by which cargo went up and down; and the booby-hatch,
+which was the counterpart of the companion-way, forward; being
+intended to admit of ingress to the forecastle, the apartment of the
+crew. Each of these hatch-ways, or orifices, had the usual defences
+of "coamings," strong frame-work around their margins. These
+coamings rose six or eight inches above the deck, and answered the
+double purpose of strengthening the vessel, in a part, that without
+them would be weaker han common, and of preventing any water that
+might be washing about the decks from running below. As soon,
+therefore, as these three apertures, or their coamings, could be
+raised above the level of the water of the basin, all danger of the
+vessel's receiving any further tribute of that sort from the ocean
+would be over. It was to this end, consequently, that Spike's
+efforts had been latterly directed, though they had only in part
+succeeded. The schooner possessed a good deal of sheer, as it is
+termed; or, her two extremities rose nearly a foot above her centre,
+when on an even keel. This had brought her extremities first to the
+surface, and it was the additional weight which had consequently
+been brought into the air that had so much increased the strain, and
+induced Spike to pause. The deck forward, as far aft as the
+foremast, and aft as far forward as the centre of the trunk, or to
+the sky-light, was above the water, or at least awash; while all the
+rest of it was covered. In the vicinity of the main-hatch there were
+several inches of water; enough indeed to leave the upper edge of
+the coamings submerged by about an inch. To raise the keel that inch
+by means of the purchases, Spike well knew would cost him more
+labour, and would incur more risk than all that had been done
+previously, and he paused before he would attempt it.
+
+The men were now called from the brig and ordered to come on board
+the schooner. Spike ascertained by actual measurement how much was
+wanted to bring the coamings of the main-hatch above the water,
+until which, he knew, pumping and bailing would be useless. He found
+it was quite an inch, and was at a great loss to know how that inch
+should be obtained. Mulford advised another trial with the
+handspikes and bars, but to this Spike would not consent. He
+believed that the masts of the brig had already as much pressure on
+them as they would bear. The mate next proposed getting the main
+boom off the vessel, and to lighten the craft by cutting away her
+bowsprit and masts. The captain was well enough disposed to do this,
+but he doubted whether it would meet with the approbation of "Don
+Wan," who was still ashore with Rose and her aunt, and who probably
+looked forward to recovering his gunpowder by means of those very
+spars. At length the carpenter hit upon a plan that was adopted.
+
+This plan was very simple, though it had its own ingenuity. It will
+be remembered that water could now only enter the vessel's hold at
+the main-hatch, all the other hatchways having their coamings above
+the element. The carpenter proposed, therefore, that the
+main-hatches, which had been off when the tornado occurred, but
+which had been found on deck when the vessel righted, should now be
+put on, oakum being first laid along in their rabbetings, and that
+the cracks should be stuffed with additional oakum, to exclude as
+much water as possible. He thought that two or three men, by using
+caulking irons for ten minutes, would make the hatch-way so tight
+that very little water would penetrate. While this was doing, he
+himself would bore as many holes forward and aft as he could, with a
+two inch auger, out of which the water then in the vessel would be
+certain to run. Spike was delighted with this project, and gave the
+necessary orders on the spot.
+
+This much must be said of the crew of the Molly Swash--whatever they
+did in their own profession, they did intelligently and well. On the
+present occasion they maintained their claim to this character, and
+were both active and expert. The hatches were soon on, and, in an
+imperfect manner, caulked. While this was doing, the carpenter got
+into a boat, and going under the schooner's bows, where a whole
+plank was out of water, he chose a spot between two of the timbers,
+and bored a hole as near the surface of the water as he dared to do.
+Not satisfied with one hole, however, he bored many--choosing both
+sides of the vessel to make them, and putting some aft as well as
+forward. In a word, in the course of twenty minutes the schooner was
+tapped in at least a dozen places, and jets of water, two inches in
+diameter, were spouting from her on each bow, and under each
+quarter.
+
+Spike and Mulford noted the effect. Some water, doubtless, still
+worked itself into the vessel about the main-hatch, but that more
+flowed from her by means of the outlets just named, was quite
+apparent. After close watching at the outlets for some time, Spike
+was convinced that the schooner was slowly rising, the intense
+strain that still came from the brig producing that effect as the
+vessel gradually became lighter. By the end of half an hour, there
+could be no longer any doubt, the holes, which had been bored within
+an inch of the water, being now fully two inches above it. The auger
+was applied anew, still nearer to the surface of the sea, and as
+fresh outlets were made, those that began to manifest a dulness in
+their streams were carefully plugged.
+
+Spike now thought it was time to take a look at the state of things
+on deck. Here, to his joy, he ascertained that the coamings had
+actually risen a little above the water. The reader is not to
+suppose by this rising of the vessel, that she had become
+sufficiently buoyant, in consequence of the water that had run out
+of her, to float of herself. This was far from being the case; but
+the constant upward pressure from the brig, which, on mechanical
+principles, tended constantly to bring that craft upright, had the
+effect to lift the schooner as the latter was gradually relieved
+from the weight that pressed her toward the bottom.
+
+The hatches were next removed, when it was found that the water in
+the schooner's hold had so far lowered, as to leave a vacant space
+of quite a foot between the lowest part of the deck and its surface.
+Toward the two extremities of the vessel this space necessarily was
+much increased, in consequence of the sheer. Men were now sent into
+the hatchway with orders to hook on to the flour-barrels--a whip
+having been rigged in readiness to hoist them on deck. At the same
+time gangs were sent to the pumps, though Spike still depended for
+getting rid of the water somewhat on the auger--the carpenter
+continuing to bore and plug his holes as new opportunities offered,
+and the old outlets became useless. It was true this expedient would
+soon cease, for the water having found its level in the vessel's
+hold, was very nearly on a level also with that on the outside.
+Bailing also was commenced, both forward and aft.
+
+Spike's next material advantage was obtained by means of the cargo.
+By the time the sun had set, fully two hundred barrels had been
+rolled into the hatchway, and passed on deck, whence about half of
+them were sent in the lighthouse boat to the nearest islet, and the
+remainder were transferred to the deck of the brig. These last were
+placed on the off side of the Swash, and aided in bringing her
+nearer upright. A great deal was gained in getting rid of these
+barrels. The water in the schooner lowered just as much as the space
+they had occupied,-and the vessel was relieved at once of twenty
+tons in weight.
+
+Just after the sun had set, Se¤or Don Juan Montefalderon and his
+party returned on board. They had staid on the island to the last
+moment, at Rose's request, for she had taken as close an observation
+of everything as possible, in order to ascertain if any means of
+concealment existed, in the event of her aunt, Biddy, and herself
+quitting the brig. The islets were all too naked and too small,
+however; and she was compelled to return to the Swash, without any
+hopes derived from this quarter.
+
+Spike had just directed the people to get their suppers as the
+Mexican came on board. Together they descended to the schooner's
+deck, where they had a long but secret conference. Se¤or
+Montefalderon was a calm, quiet and reasonable man, and while he
+felt as one would be apt to feel who had recently seen so many
+associates swept suddenly out of existence, the late catastrophe did
+not in the least unman him. It is too much the habit of the American
+people to receive their impressions from newspapers, which throw off
+their articles unreflectingly, and often ignorantly, as crones in
+petticoats utter their gossip. In a word, the opinions thus obtained
+are very much on a level, in value, with the thoughts of those who
+are said to think aloud, and who give utterance to all the crudities
+and trivial rumours that may happen to reach their ears. In this
+manner, we apprehend, very false notions of our neighbours of Mexico
+have become circulated among us. That nation is a mixed race, and
+has necessarily the various characteristics of such an origin, and
+it is unfortunately little influenced by the diffusion of
+intelligence which certainly exists here. Although an enemy, it
+ought to be acknowledged, however, that even Mexico has her
+redeeming points. Anglo-Saxons as we are, we have no desire
+unnecessarily to illustrate that very marked feature in the
+Anglo-Saxon character, which prompts the mother stock to calumniate
+all who oppose it, but would rather adopt some of that chivalrous
+courtesy of which so much that is lofty and commendable is to be
+found among the descendants of Old Spain.
+
+The Se¤or Montefalderon was earnestly engaged in what he conceived
+to be the cause of his country. It was scarcely possible to bring
+together two men impelled by motives more distinct than Spike and
+this gentleman. The first was acting under impulses of the lowest
+and most grovelling nature; while the last was influenced by motives
+of the highest. However much Mexico may, and has, weakened her cause
+by her own punic faith, instability, military oppression, and
+political revolutions, giving to the Texans in particular ample
+justification for their revolt, it was not probable that Don Juan
+Montefalderon saw the force of all the arguments that a casuist of
+ordinary ingenuity could certainly adduce against his country; for
+it is a most unusual thing to find a man anywhere, who is willing to
+admit that the positions of an opponent are good. He saw in the
+events of the day, a province wrested from his nation; and, in his
+reasoning on the subject, entirely overlooking the numerous
+occasions on which his own fluctuating government had given
+sufficient justification, not to say motives, to their powerful
+neighbours to take the law into their own hands, and redress
+themselves, he fancied all that has occurred was previously planned;
+instead of regarding it, as it truly is, as merely the result of
+political events that no man could have foreseen, that no man had
+originally imagined, or that any man could control.
+
+Don Juan understood Spike completely, and quite justly appreciated
+not only his character, but his capabilities. Their acquaintance was
+not of a day, though it had ever been marked by that singular
+combination of caution and reliance that is apt to characterize the
+intercourse between the knave and the honest man, when circumstances
+compel not only communication, but, to a certain extent, confidence.
+They now paced the deck of the schooner, side by side, for fully an
+hour, during which time the price of the vessel, the means, and the
+mode of payment and transfer, were fully settled between them.
+
+"But what will you do with your passengers, Don Esteban?" asked the
+Mexican pleasantly, when the more material points were adjusted. "I
+feel a great interest in the young lady in particular, who is a
+charming se¤orita, and who tells me that her aunt brought her this
+voyage on account of her health. She looks much too blooming to be
+out of health, and if she were, this is a singular voyage for an
+invalid to make!"
+
+"You don't understand human natur' yet, altogether, I see, Don Wan,"
+answered Spike, chuckling and winking. "As you and I are not only
+good friends, but what a body may call old friends, I'll let you
+into a secret in this affair, well knowing that you'll not betray
+it. It's quite true that the old woman thinks her niece is a
+pulmonary, as they call it, and that this v'y'ge is recommended for
+her, but the gal is as healthy as she's handsom'."
+
+"Her constitution, then, must be very excellent, for it is seldom I
+have seen so charming a young woman. But if the aunt is misled in
+this matter, how has it been with the niece?"
+
+Spike did not answer in words, but he leered upon his companion, and
+he winked.
+
+"You mean to be understood that you are in intelligence with each
+other, I suppose, Don Esteban," returned the Se¤or Montefalderon,
+who did not like the captain's manner, and was willing to drop the
+discourse.
+
+Spike then informed his companion, in confidence, that he and Rose
+were affianced, though without the aunt's knowledge,--that he
+intended to marry the niece the moment he reached a Mexican port
+with the brig, and that it was their joint intention to settle in
+the country. He added that the affair required management, as his
+intended had property, and expected more, and he begged Don Juan to
+aid him, as things drew near to a crisis. The Mexican evaded an
+answer, and the discourse dropped.
+
+The moon was now shining, and would continue to throw its pale light
+over the scene for two or three hours longer. Spike profited by the
+circumstance to continue the work of lightening the schooner. One of
+the first things done next was to get up the dead, and to remove
+them to the boat. This melancholy office occupied an hour, the
+bodies being landed on the islet, near the powder, and there
+interred in the sands. Don Juan Montefalderon attended on this
+occasion, and repeated some prayers over the graves, as he had done
+in the morning, in the cases of the two who had been buried near the
+light-house.
+
+While this melancholy duty was in the course of performance, that of
+pumping and bailing was continued, under the immediate personal
+superintendence of Mulford. It would not be easy to define, with
+perfect clearness, the conflicting feelings by which the mate of the
+Swash was now impelled. He had no longer any doubt on the subject of
+Spike's treason, and had it not been for Rose, he would not have
+hesitated a moment about making off in the light-house boat for Key
+West, in order to report all that had passed to the authorities. But
+not only Rose was there, and to be cared for, but what was far more
+difficult to get along with, her aunt was with her. It is true, Mrs.
+Budd was no longer Spike's dupe; but under any circumstances she was
+a difficult subject to manage, and most especially so in all matters
+that related to the sea. Then the young man submitted, more or less,
+to the strange influence which a fine craft almost invariably
+obtains over those that belong to her. He did not like the idea of
+deserting the Swash, at the very moment he would not have hesitated
+about punishing her owner for his many misdeeds. In a word, Harry
+was too much of a tar not to feel a deep reluctance to turn against
+his cruise, or his voyage, however much either might be condemned by
+his judgment, or even by his principles.
+
+It was quite nine o'clock when the Se¤or Montefalderon and Spike
+returned from burying the dead. No sooner did the last put his foot
+on the deck of his own vessel, than he felt the fall of one of the
+purchases which had been employed in raising the schooner. It was so
+far slack as to satisfy him that the latter now floated by her own
+buoyancy, though it might be well to let all stand until morning,
+for the purposes of security. Thus apprised of the condition of the
+two vessels, he gave the welcome order to "knock off for the night."
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+  "At the piping of all hands,
+  When the judgment signal's spread--
+  When the islands and the land,
+  And the seas give up their dead,
+  And the south and the north shall come;
+  When the sinner is dismayed,
+  And the just man is afraid,
+  Then heaven be thy aid,
+  Poor Tom."
+
+Brainard.
+
+The people had now a cessation from their toil. Of all the labour
+known to sea-faring men, that of pumping is usually thought to be
+the most severe. Those who work at it have to be relieved every
+minute, and it is only by having gangs to succeed each other, that
+the duty can be done at all with anything like steadiness. In the
+present instance, it is true, that the people of the Swash were
+sustained by the love of gold, but glad enough were they when
+Mulford called out to them to "knock off, and turn in for the
+night." It was high time this summons should be made, for not only
+were the people excessively wearied, but the customary hours of
+labour were so far spent, that the light of the moon had some time
+before begun to blend with the little left by the parting sun. Glad
+enough were all hands to quit the toil; and two minutes were
+scarcely elapsed ere most of the crew had thrown themselves down,
+and were buried in deep sleep. Even Spike and Mulford took the rest
+they needed, the cook alone being left to look out for the changes
+in the weather. In a word, everybody but this idler was exhausted
+with pumping and bailing, and even gold had lost its power to charm,
+until nature was recruited by rest.
+
+The excitement produced by the scenes through which they had so
+lately passed, caused the females to sleep soundly, too. The
+death-like stillness which pervaded the vessel contributed to their
+rest, and Rose never woke, from the first few minutes after her head
+was on her pillow, until near four in the morning. The deep quiet
+seemed ominous to one who had so lately witnessed the calm which
+precedes the tornado, and she arose. In that low latitude and warm
+season, few clothes were necessary, and our heroine was on deck in a
+very few minutes. Here she found the same grave-like sleep pervading
+everything. There was not a breath of air, and the ocean seemed to
+be in one of its profoundest slumbers. The hard-breathing of Spike
+could be heard through the open windows of his state-room, and this
+was positively the only sound that was audible. The common men, who
+lay scattered about the decks, more especially from the mainmast
+forward, seemed to be so many logs, and from Mulford no breathing
+was heard.
+
+The morning was neither very dark nor very light, it being easy to
+distinguish objects that were near, while those at a distance were
+necessarily lost in obscurity. Availing herself of the circumstance,
+Rose went as far as the gangway, to ascertain if the cook were at
+his post. She saw him lying near his galley, in as profound a sleep
+as any of the crew. This she felt to be wrong, and she felt alarmed,
+though she knew not why. Perhaps it was the consciousness of being
+the only person up and awake at that hour of deepest night, in a
+vessel so situated as the Swash, and in a climate in which
+hurricanes seem to be the natural offspring of the air. Some one
+must be aroused, and her tastes, feelings, and judgment, all pointed
+to Harry Mulford as the person she ought to awaken. He slept
+habitually in his clothes--the lightest summer dress of the tropics;
+and the window of his little state-room was always open for air.
+Moving lightly to the place, Rose laid her own little, soft hand on
+the arm of the young man, when the latter was on his feet in an
+instant. A single moment only was necessary to regain his
+consciousness, when Mulford left the state-room and joined Rose on
+the quarter-deck.
+
+"Why am I called, Rose," the young man asked, attempering his voice
+to the calm that reigned around him; "and why am I called by you?"
+
+Rose explained the state of the brig, and the feeling which induced
+her to awaken him. With woman's gentleness she now expressed her
+regret for having robbed Harry of his rest; had she reflected a
+moment, she might have kept watch herself, and allowed him to obtain
+the sleep he must surely so much require.
+
+But Mulford laughed at this; protested he had never been awakened at
+a more favourable moment, and would have sworn, had it been proper,
+that a minute's further sleep would have been too much for him.
+After these first explanations, Mulford walked round the decks,
+carefully felt how much strain there was on the purchases, and
+rejoined Rose to report that all was right, and that he did not
+consider it necessary to call even the cook. The black was an idler
+in no sense but that of keeping watch, and he had toiled the past
+day as much as any of the men, though it was not exactly at the
+pumps.
+
+A long and semi-confidential conversation now occurred between Harry
+and Rose. They talked of Spike, the brig, and her cargo, and of the
+delusion of the captain's widow. It was scarcely possible that
+powder should be so much wanted at the Havanna as to render
+smuggling, at so much cost, a profitable adventure; and Mulford
+admitted his convictions that the pretended flour was originally
+intended for Mexico. Rose related the tenor of the conversation she
+had overheard between the two parties, Don Juan and Don Esteban, and
+the mate no longer doubted that it was Spike's intention to sell the
+brig to the enemy. She also alluded to what had passed between
+herself and the stranger.
+
+Mulford took this occasion to introduce the subject of Jack Tier's
+intimacy and favour with Rose. He even professed to feel some
+jealousy on account of it, little as there might be to alarm most
+men in the rivalry of such a competitor. Rose laughed, as girls will
+laugh when there is question of their power over the other sex, and
+she fairly shook her rich tresses as she declared her determination
+to continue to smile on Jack to the close of the voyage. Then, as if
+she had said more than she intended, she added with woman's
+generosity and tenderness,--"After all, Harry, you know how much I
+promised to you even before we sailed, and how much more since, and
+have no just cause to dread even Jack. There is another reason,
+however, that ought to set your mind entirely at case on his
+account. Jack is married, and has a partner living at this very
+moment, as he does not scruple to avow himself."
+
+A hissing noise, a bright light, and a slight explosion, interrupted
+the half-laughing girl, and Mulford, turning on his heel, quick as
+thought, saw that a rocket had shot into the air, from a point close
+under the bows of the brig. He was still in the act of moving toward
+the forecastle, when, at the distance of several leagues, he saw the
+explosion of another rocket high in the air. He knew enough of the
+practices of vessels of war, to feel certain that these were a
+signal and its answer from some one in the service of government.
+Not at all sorry to have the career of the Swash arrested, before
+she could pass into hostile hands, or before evil could befall Rose,
+Mulford reached the forecastle just in time to answer the inquiry
+that was immediately put to him, in the way of a hail. A gig,
+pulling four oars only, with two officers in its stern-sheets, was
+fairly under the vessel's bows, and the mate could almost
+distinguish the countenance of the officer who questioned him, the
+instant he showed his head and shoulders above the bulwarks.
+
+"What vessels are these?" demanded the stranger, speaking in the
+authoritative manner of one who acted for the state, but not
+speaking much above the usual conversational tone.
+
+"American and Spanish," was the answer. "This brig is American--the
+schooner alongside is a Spaniard, that turned turtle in a tornado,
+about six-and-thirty hours since, and on which we have been hard at
+work trying to raise her, since the gale which succeeded the tornado
+has blown its pipe out."
+
+"Ay, ay, that's the story, is it? I did not know what to make of
+you, lying cheek by jowl, in this fashion. Was anybody lost on board
+the schooner?"
+
+"All hands, including every soul aft and forward, the supercargo
+excepted, who happened to be aboard here. We buried seventeen bodies
+this afternoon on the smallest of the Keys that you see near at
+hand, and two this morning alongside of the light. But what boat is
+that, and where are you from, and whom are you signalling?"
+
+"The boat is a gig," answered the stranger, deliberately, "and she
+belongs to a cruiser of Uncle Sam's, that is off the reef, a short
+bit to the eastward, and we signalled our captain. But I'll come on
+board you, sir, if you please."
+
+Mulford walked aft to meet the stranger at the gangway, and was
+relieved, rather than otherwise, at finding that Spike was already
+on the quarter-deck. Should the vessel of war seize the brig, he
+could rejoice at it, but so strong were his professional ideas of
+duty to the craft he sailed in, that he did not find it in his heart
+to say aught against her. Were any mishap to befall it, or were
+justice to be done, he preferred that it might be done under Spike's
+own supervision, rather than under his.
+
+"Call all hands, Mr. Mulford," said Spike, as they met. "I see a
+streak of day coming yonder in the east--let all hands be called at
+once. What strange boat is this we have alongside?"
+
+This question was put to the strangers, Spike standing on his
+gangway-ladder to ask it, while the mate was summoning the crew. The
+officer saw that a new person was to be dealt with, and in his
+quiet, easy way, he answered, while stretching out his hands to take
+the man-rope--"Your servant, sir--we are man-of-war's men,
+belonging to one of Uncle Sam's craft, outside, and have just come
+in to pay you a visit of ceremony. I told one, whom I suppose was
+your mate, that I would just step on board of you."
+
+"Ay, ay--one at a time, if you please. It's war-time, and I cannot
+suffer armed boat's crews to board me at night, without knowing
+something about them. Come up yourself, if you please, but order
+your people to stay in the boat. Here, muster about this gangway,
+half a dozen of you, and keep an eye on the crew of this strange
+boat."
+
+These orders had no effect on the cool and deliberate lieutenant,
+who ascended the brig's side, and immediately stood on her deck. No
+sooner had he and Spike confronted each other, than each gave a
+little start, like that of recognition, and the lieutenant spoke.
+
+"Ay, ay--I believe I know this vessel now. It is the Molly Swash, of
+New York, bound to Key West, and a market; and I have the honour to
+see Captain Stephen Spike again."
+
+It was Mr. Wallace, the second lieutenant of the sloop-of-war that
+had boarded the brig in the Mona Passage, and to avoid whom Spike
+had gone to the southward of Jamaica. The meeting was very
+mal-…-propos, but it would not do to betray that the captain and
+owner of the vessel thought as much as this; on the contrary,
+Wallace was warmly welcomed, and received, not only as an old
+acquaintance, but as a very agreeable visiter. To have seen the two,
+as they walked aft together, one might have supposed that the
+meeting was conducive of nothing but a very mutual satisfaction, it
+was so much like that which happens between those who keep up a
+hearty acquaintance.
+
+"Well, I'm glad to see you again, Captain Spike," cried Wallace,
+after the greetings were passed, "if it be only to ask where you
+flew to, the day we left you in the Mona Passage? We looked out for
+you with all our eyes, expecting you would be down between San
+Domingo and Jamaica, but I hardly think you got by us in the night.
+Our master thinks you must have dove, and gone past loon-fashion. Do
+you ever perform that manoeuvre?"
+
+"No, we've kept above water the whole time, lieutenant," answered
+Spike, heartily; "and that is more than can be said of the poor
+fellow alongside of us. I was so much afraid of the Isle of Pines,
+that I went round Jamaica."
+
+"You might have given the Isle of Pines a berth, and still have
+passed to the northward of the Englishmen," said Wallace, a little
+drily. "However, that island is somewhat of a scarecrow, and we have
+been to take a look at it ourselves. All's right there, just now.
+But you seem light; what have you done with your flour?"
+
+"Parted with every barrel of it. You may remember I was bound to Key
+West, and a market. Well, I found my market here, in American
+waters."
+
+"You have been lucky, sir. This `emporium' does not seem to be
+exactly a commercial emporium."
+
+"The fact is, the flour is intended for the Havanna; and I fancy it
+is to be shipped for slavers. But I am to know nothing of all that,
+you'll understand, lieutenant. If I sell my flour in American
+waters, at two prices, it's no concern of mine what becomes of it
+a'terwards."
+
+"Unless it happen to pass into enemy's hands, certainly not; and you
+are too patriotic to deal with Mexico, just now, I'm sure. Pray, did
+that flour go down when the schooner turned turtle?"
+
+"Every barrel of it; but Don Wan, below there, thinks that most of
+it may yet be saved, by landing it on one of those Keys to dry.
+Flour, well packed, wets in slowly. You see we have some of it on
+deck."
+
+"And who may Don Wan be, sir, pray? We are sent here to look after
+Dons and Donas, you know."
+
+"Don Wan is a Cuban merchant, and deals in such articles as he
+wants. I fell in with him among the reefs here, where he was
+rummaging about in hopes of meeting with a wrack, he tells me, and
+thinking to purchase something profitable in that way; but finding I
+had flour, he agreed to take it out of me at this anchorage, and
+send me away in ballast at once. I have found Don Wan Montefalderon
+ready pay, and very honourable."
+
+Wallace then requested an explanation of the disaster, to the
+details of which he listened with a sailor's interest. He asked a
+great many questions, all of which bore on the more nautical
+features of the event; and, day having now fairly appeared, he
+examined the purchases and backings of the Swash with professional
+nicety. The schooner was no lower in the water than when the men had
+knocked off work the previous night; and Spike set the people at the
+pumps and their bailing again, as the most effectual method of
+preventing their making any indiscreet communications to the
+man-of-war's men.
+
+About this time the relict appeared on deck, when Spike gallantly
+introduced the lieutenant anew to his passengers. It is true he knew
+no name to use, but that was of little moment, as he called the
+officer "the lieutenant," and nothing else.
+
+Mrs. Budd was delighted with this occasion to show-off, and she soon
+broke out on the easy, indolent, but waggish Wallace, in a strain to
+surprise him, notwithstanding the specimen of the lady's skill from
+which he had formerly escaped.
+
+"Captain Spike is of opinion, lieutenant, that our cast-anchor here
+is excellent, and I know the value of a good cast-anchor place; for
+my poor Mr. Budd was a sea-faring man, and taught me almost as much
+of your noble profession as he knew himself."
+
+"And he taught you, ma'am," said Wallace, fairly opening his eyes,
+under the influence of astonishment, "to be very particular about
+cast-anchor places!"
+
+"Indeed he did. He used to say, that roads-instead were never as
+good, for such purposes, as land that's locked havens, for the
+anchors would return home, as he called it, in roads-instead."
+
+"Yes, ma'am," answered Wallace, looking very queer at first, as if
+disposed to laugh outright, then catching a glance of Rose, and
+changing his mind; "I perceive that Mr. Budd knew what he was about,
+and preferred an anchorage where he was well land-locked, and where
+there was no danger of his anchors coming home, as so often happens
+in your open roadsteads."
+
+"Yes, that's just it! That was just his notion! You cannot feel how
+delightful it is, Rose, to converse with one that thoroughly
+understands such subjects! My poor Mr. Budd did, indeed, denounce
+roads-instead, at all times calling them `savage.'"
+
+"Savage, aunt," put in Rose, hoping to stop the good relict by her
+own interposition--"that is a strange word to apply to an
+anchorage!"
+
+"Not at all, young lady," said Wallace gravely. "They are often wild
+berths, and wild berths are not essentially different from wild
+beasts. Each is savage, as a matter of course."
+
+"I knew I was right!" exclaimed the widow. "Savage cast-anchors come
+of wild births, as do savage Indians. Oh! the language of the ocean,
+as my poor Mr. Budd used to say, is eloquence tempered by common
+sense!"
+
+Wallace stared again, but his attention was called to other things,
+just at that moment. The appearance of Don Juan Montefalderon y
+Castro on deck, reminded him of his duty, and approaching that
+gentleman he condoled with him on the grave loss he had sustained.
+After a few civil expressions on both sides, Wallace made a delicate
+allusion to the character of the schooner.
+
+"Under other circumstances," he said, "it might be my duty to
+inquire a little particularly as to the nationality of your vessel,
+Se¤or, for we are at war with the Mexicans, as you doubtless know."
+
+"Certainly," answered Don Juan, with an unmoved air and great
+politeness of manner, "though it would be out of my power to satisfy
+you. Everything was lost in the schooner, and I have not a paper of
+any sort to show you. If it be your pleasure to make a prize of a
+vessel in this situation, certainly it is in your power to do it. A
+few barrels of wet flour are scarce worth disputing about."
+
+Wallace now seemed a little ashamed, the sang froid of the other
+throwing dust in his eyes, and he was in a hurry to change the
+subject. Se¤or Don Juan was very civilly condoled with again, and he
+was made to repeat the incidents of the loss, as if his auditor took
+a deep interest in what he said, but no further hint was given
+touching the nationality of the vessel. The lieutenant's tact let
+him see that Se¤or Montefalderon was a person of a very different
+calibre from Spike, as well as of different habits; and he did not
+choose to indulge in the quiet irony that formed so large an
+ingredient in his own character, with this new acquaintance. He
+spoke Spanish himself, with tolerable fluency, and a conversation
+now occurred between the two, which was maintained for some time
+with spirit and a very manifest courtesy.
+
+This dialogue between Wallace and the Spaniard gave Spike a little
+leisure for reflection. As the day advanced the cruiser came more
+and more plainly in view, and his first business was to take a good
+survey of her. She might have been three leagues distant, but
+approaching with a very light breeze, at the rate of something less
+than two knots in the hour. Unless there was some one on board her
+who was acquainted with the channels of the Dry Tortugas, Spike felt
+little apprehension of the ship's getting very near to him; but he
+very well understood that, with the sort of artillery that was in
+modern use among vessels of war, he would hardly be safe could the
+cruiser get within a league. That near Uncle Sam's craft might
+certainly come without encountering the hazards of the channels, and
+within that distance she would be likely to get in the course of the
+morning, should he have the complaisance to wait for her. He
+determined, therefore, not to be guilty of that act of folly.
+
+All this time the business of lightening the schooner proceeded.
+Although Mulford earnestly wished that the man-of-war might get an
+accurate notion of the true character and objects of the brig, he
+could not prevail on himself to become an informer. In order to
+avoid the temptation so to do, he exerted himself in keeping the men
+at their tasks, and never before had pumping and bailing been
+carried on with more spirit. The schooner soon floated of herself,
+and the purchases which led to the Swash were removed. Near a
+hundred more barrels of the flour had been taken out of the hold of
+the Spanish craft, and had been struck on the deck of the brig, or
+sent to the Key by means of the boats. This made a material change
+in the buoyancy of the vessel, and enabled the bailing to go on with
+greater facility. The pumps were never idle, but two small streams
+of water were running the whole time toward the scuppers, and
+through them into the sea.
+
+At length the men were ordered to knock off, and to get their
+breakfasts. This appeared to arouse Wallace, who had been chatting,
+quite agreeably to himself, with Rose, and seemed reluctant to
+depart, but who now became sensible that he was neglecting his duty.
+He called away his boat's crew, and took a civil leave of the
+passengers; after which he went over the side. The gig was some
+little distance from the Swash, when Wallace rose and asked to see
+Spike, with whom he had a word to say at parting.
+
+"I will soon return," he said, "and bring you forty or fifty fresh
+men, who will make light work with your wreck. I am certain our
+commander will consent to my doing so, and will gladly send on board
+you two or three boat's crews."
+
+"If I let him," muttered Spike between his teeth, "I shall be a
+poor, miserable cast-anchor devil, that's all."
+
+To Wallace, however, he expressed his hearty acknowledgments; begged
+him not to be in a hurry, as the worst was now over, and the row was
+still a long one. If he got back toward evening it would be all in
+good time. Wallace waved his hand, and the gig glided away. As for
+Spike, he sat down on the plank-sheer where he had stood, and
+remained there ruminating intently for two or three minutes. When he
+descended to the deck his mind was fully made up. His first act was
+to give some private orders to the boatswain, after which he
+withdrew to the cabin, whither he summoned Tier, without delay.
+
+"Jack," commenced the captain, using very little circumlocution in
+opening his mind, "you and I are old shipmates, and ought to be old
+friends, though I think your natur' has undergone some changes since
+we last met. Twenty years ago there was no man in the ship on whom I
+could so certainly depend as on Jack Tier; now, you seem given up
+altogether to the women. Your mind has changed even more than your
+body."
+
+"Time does that for all of us, Captain Spike," returned Tier coolly.
+"I am not what I used to be, I'll own, nor are you yourself, for
+that matter. When I saw you last, noble captain, you were a handsome
+man of forty, and could go aloft with any youngster in the brig;
+but, now, you're heavy, and not over-active."
+
+"I!--Not a bit of change has taken place in me for the last thirty
+years. I defy any man to show the contrary. But that's neither here
+nor there; you are no young woman, Jack, that I need be boasting of
+my health and beauty before you. I want a bit of real sarvice from
+you, and want it done in old-times fashion; and I mean to pay for it
+in old-times fashion, too."
+
+As Spike concluded, he put into Tier's hand one of the doubloons
+that he had received from Se¤or Montefalderon, in payment for the
+powder. The doubloons, for which so much pumping and bailing were
+then in process, were still beneath the waters of the gulf.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," returned Jack, smiling and pocketing the gold, with a
+wink of the eye, and a knowing look; "this does resemble old times
+sum'at. I now begin to know Captain Spike, my old commander again,
+and see that he's more like himself than I had just thought him.
+What am I to do for this, sir? speak plain, that I may be sartain to
+steer the true course."
+
+"Oh, just a trifle, Jack--nothing that will break up the ground-tier
+of your wits, my old shipmate. You see the state of the brig, and
+know that she is in no condition for ladies."
+
+"'T would have been better all round, sir, had they never come
+aboard at all," answered Jack, looking dark.
+
+Spike was surprised, but he was too much bent on his projects to
+heed trifles.
+
+"You know what sort of flour they're whipping out of the schooner,
+and must understand that the brig will soon be in a pretty litter. I
+do not intend to let them send a single barrel of it beneath my
+hatches again, but the deck and the islands must take it all. Now I
+wish to relieve my passengers from the confinement this will
+occasion, and I have ordered the boatswain to pitch a tent for them
+on the largest of these here Tortugas; and what I want of you, is to
+muster food and water, and other women's knicknacks, and go ashore
+with them, and make them as comfortable as you can for a few days,
+or until we can get this schooner loaded and off."
+
+Jack Tier looked at his commander as if he would penetrate his most
+secret thoughts. A short pause succeeded, during which the steward's
+mate was intently musing, then his countenance suddenly brightened;
+he gave the doubloon a fillip, and caught it on the palm of his hand
+as it descended, and he uttered the customary "Ay, ay, sir," with
+apparent cheerfulness. Nothing more passed between these two
+worthies, who now parted, Jack to make his arrangements, and Spike
+to "tell his yarn," as he termed the operation in his own mind, to
+Mrs. Budd, Rose, and Biddy. The widow listened complacently, though
+she seemed half doubting, half ready to comply. As for Rose, she
+received the proposal with delight--The confinement of the vessel
+having become irksome to her. The principal obstacle was in
+overcoming the difficulties made by the aunt, Biddy appearing to
+like the notion quite as much as "Miss Rosy." As for the
+light-house, Mrs. Budd had declared nothing would induce her to go
+there; for she did not doubt that the place would soon be, if it
+were not already, haunted. In this opinion she was sustained by
+Biddy; and it was the knowledge of this opinion that induced Spike
+to propose the tent.
+
+"Are you sure, Captain Spike, it is not a desert island?" asked the
+widow; "I remember that my poor Mr. Budd always spoke of desert
+islands as horrid places, and spots that every one should avoid."
+
+"What if it is, aunty," said Rose eagerly, "while we have the brig
+here, close at hand. We shall suffer none of the wants of such a
+place, so long as our friends can supply us."
+
+"And such friends, Miss Rose," exclaimed Spike, a little
+sentimentally for him, "friends that would undergo hunger and thirst
+themselves, before you should want for any comforts."
+
+"Do, now, Madam Budd," put in Biddy in her hearty way, "it's an
+island, ye'll remimber: and sure that's just what ould Ireland has
+ever been, God bless it! Islands make the pleasantest risidences."
+
+"Well I'll venture to oblige you and Biddy, Rosy, dear," returned
+the aunt, still half reluctant to yield; "but you'll remember, that
+if I find it at all a desert island, I'll not pass the night on it
+on any account whatever."
+
+With this understanding the party was transferred to the shore. The
+boatswain had already erected a sort of a tent, on a favourable
+spot, using some of the old sails that had covered the
+flour-barrels, not only for the walls, but for a carpet of some
+extent also. This tent was ingeniously enough contrived. In addition
+to the little room that was entirely enclosed, there was a sort of
+piazza, or open verandah, which would enable its tenants to enjoy
+the shade in the open air. Beneath this verandah, a barrel of fresh
+water was placed, as well as three or four ship's stools, all of
+which had been sent ashore with the materials for constructing the
+tent. The boat had been going and coming for some time, and the
+distance being short, the "desert island" was soon a desert no
+longer. It is true that the supplies necessary to support three
+women for as many days, were no great matter, and were soon landed,
+but Jack Tier had made a provision somewhat more ample. A capital
+caterer, he had forgotten nothing within the compass of his means,
+that could contribute to the comfort of those who had been put
+especially under his care. Long before the people "knocked off" for
+their dinners, the arrangements were completed, and the boatswain
+was ready to take his leave.
+
+"Well, ladies," said that grum old salt, "I can do no more for you,
+as I can see. This here island is now almost as comfortable as a
+ship that has been in blue water for a month, and I do n't know how
+it can be made more comfortabler."
+
+This was only according to the boatswain's notion of comfort; but
+Rose thanked him for his care in her winning way, while her aunt
+admitted that, "for a place that was almost a desert island, things
+did look somewhat promising." In a few minutes the men were all
+gone, and the islet was left to the sole possession of the three
+females, and their constant companion, Jack Tier. Rose was pleased
+with the novelty of her situation, though the islet certainly did
+deserve the opprobrium of being a "desert island." There was no
+shade but that of the tent, and its verandah-like covering, though
+the last, in particular, was quite extensive. There was no water,
+that in the barrel and that of the ocean excepted. Of herbage there
+was very little on this islet, and that was of the most meagre and
+coarse character, being a long wiry grass, with here and there a few
+stunted bushes. The sand was reasonably firm, however, more
+especially round the shore, and the walking was far from unpleasant.
+Little did Rose know it, but a week earlier, the spot would have
+been next to intolerable to her, on account of the musquitoes,
+gallinippers, and other similar insects of the family of tormentors;
+but everything of the sort had temporarily disappeared in the
+currents of the tornado. To do Spike justice, he was aware of this
+circumstance, or he might have hesitated about exposing females to
+the ordinary annoyances of one of these spots. Not a musquito, or
+anything of the sort was left, however, all having gone to leeward,
+in the vortex which had come so near sweeping off the Mexican
+schooner.
+
+"This place will do very well, aunty, for a day or two," cried Rose
+cheerfully, as she returned from a short excursion, and threw aside
+her hat, one made to shade her face from the sun of a warm climate,
+leaving the sea-breeze that was just beginning to blow, to fan her
+blooming and sunny cheeks. "It is better than the brig. The worst
+piece of land is better than the brig."
+
+"Do not say that, Rose--not if it's a desert island, dear; and this
+is desperately like a desert island; I am almost sorry I ventured on
+it."
+
+"It will not be deserted by us, aunty, until we shall see occasion
+to do so. Why not endeavour to get on board of yonder ship, and
+return to New York in her; or at least induce her captain to put us
+ashore somewhere near this, and go home by land. Your health never
+seemed better than it is at this moment; and as for mine, I do
+assure you, aunty, dear, I am as perfectly well as I ever was in my
+life."
+
+"All from this voyage. I knew it would set you up, and am delighted
+to hear you say as much. Biddy and I were talking of you this very
+morning, my child, and we both agreed that you were getting to be
+yourself again. Oh, ships, and brigs, and schooners, full-jigger or
+half-jigger, for pulmonary complaints, say I! My poor Mr. Budd
+always maintained that the ocean was the cure for all diseases, and
+I determined that to sea you should go, the moment I became alarmed
+for your health."
+
+The good widow loved Rose most tenderly, and she was obliged to use
+her handkerchief to dry the tears from her eyes as she concluded.
+Those tears sprung equally from a past feeling of apprehension, and
+a present feeling of gratitude. Rose saw this, and she took a seat
+at her aunt's side, touched herself, as she never failed to be on
+similar occasions with this proof of her relative's affection. At
+that moment even Harry Mulford would have lost a good deal in her
+kind feelings toward him, had he so much as smiled at one of the
+widow's nautical absurdities. At such times, Rose seemed to be her
+aunt's guardian and protectress, instead of reversing the relations,
+and she entirely forgot herself the many reasons which existed for
+wishing that she had been placed in childhood, under the care of one
+better qualified than the well-meaning relict of her uncle, for the
+performance of her duties.
+
+"Thank you, aunty--thank'ee, dear aunty," said Rose, kissing the
+widow affectionately. "I know that you mean the best for me, though
+you are a little mistaken in supposing me ill. I do assure you,
+dear," patting her aunt's cheek, as if she herself had been merely a
+playful child, "I never was better; and if I have been pulmonary, I
+am entirely cured, and am now ready to return home."
+
+"God be praised for this, Rosy. Under His divine providence, it is
+all owing to the sea. If you really feel so much restored, however,
+I do not wish to keep you a moment longer on a ship's board than is
+necessary. We owe something to Captain Spike's care, and cannot quit
+him too unceremoniously; but as soon as he is at liberty to go into
+a harbour, I will engage him to do so, and we can return home by
+land--unless, indeed, the brig intends to make the home voyage
+herself."
+
+"I do not like this brig, aunty, and now we are out of her, I wish
+we could keep out of her. Nor do I like your Captain Spike, who
+seems to me anything but an agreeable gentleman."
+
+"That's because you arn't accustomed to the sea. My poor Mr. Budd
+had his ways, like all the rest of them; it takes time to get
+acquainted with them. All sailors are so."
+
+Rose bent her face involuntarily, but so low as to conceal the
+increasing brightness of her native bloom, as she answered,
+
+"Harry Mulford is not so, aunty, dear--and he is every inch a
+sailor."
+
+"Well, there is a difference, I must acknowledge, though I dare say
+Harry will grow every day more and more like all the rest of them.
+In the end, he will resemble Captain Spike."
+
+"Never," said Rose, firmly.
+
+"You can't tell, child. I never saw your uncle when he was Harry's
+age, for I was n't born till he was thirty, but often and often has
+he pointed out to me some slender, genteel youth, and say, `just
+such a lad was I at twenty,' though nothing could be less alike, at
+the moment he was speaking, than they two. We all change with our
+years. Now I was once as slender, and almost--not quite, Rosy, for
+few there are that be--but almost as handsome as you yourself."
+
+"Yes, aunty, I've heard that before," said Rose, springing up, in
+order to change the discourse; "but Harry Mulford will never become
+like Stephen Spike. I wish we had never known the man, dearest
+aunty."
+
+"It was all your own doings, child. He's a cousin of your most
+intimate friend, and she brought him to the house; and one could n't
+offend Mary Mulford, by telling her we did n't like her cousin."
+
+Rose seemed vexed, and she kept her little foot in motion, patting
+the sail that formed the carpet, as girls will pat the ground with
+their feet when vexed. This gleam of displeasure was soon over,
+however, and her countenance became as placid as the clear, blue sky
+that formed the vault of the heavens above her head. As if to atone
+for the passing rebellion of her feelings, she threw her arms around
+her aunt's neck; after which she walked away, along the beach,
+ruminating on her present situation, and of the best means of
+extricating their party from the power of Spike.
+
+It requires great familiarity with vessels and the seas, for one to
+think, read, and pursue the customary train of reasoning on board a
+ship that one has practised ashore. Rose had felt this embarrassment
+during the past month, for the whole of which time she had scarcely
+been in a condition to act up to her true character, suffering her
+energies, and in some measure her faculties, to be drawn into the
+vortex produced by the bustle, novelties, and scenes of the vessel
+and the ocean. But, now she was once more on the land, diminutive
+and naked as was the islet that composed her present world, and she
+found leisure and solitude for reflection and decision. She was not
+ignorant of the nature of a vessel of war, or of the impropriety of
+unprotected females placing themselves on board of one; but
+gentlemen of character, like the officers of the ship in sight,
+could hardly be wanting in the feelings of their caste; and anything
+was better than to return voluntarily within the power of Spike. She
+determined within her own mind that voluntarily she would not. We
+shall leave this young girl, slowly wandering along the beach of her
+islet, musing on matters like these, while we return to the vessels
+and the mariners.
+
+A good breeze had come in over the reef from the Gulf, throwing the
+sloop-of-war dead to leeward of the brigantine's anchorage. This was
+the reason that the former had closed so slowly. Still the distance
+between the vessels was so small, that a swift cruiser, like the
+ship of war, would soon have been alongside of the wreckers, but for
+the intervening islets and the intricacies of their channels. She
+had made sail on the wind, however, and was evidently disposed to
+come as near to the danger as her lead showed would be safe, even if
+she did not venture among them.
+
+Spike noted all these movements, and he took his measures
+accordingly. The pumping and bailing had been going on since the
+appearance of light, and the flour had been quite half removed from
+the schooner's hold. That vessel consequently floated with
+sufficient buoyancy, and no further anxiety was felt on account of
+her sinking. Still, a great deal of water remained in her, the cabin
+itself being nearly half full. Spike's object was to reduce this
+water sufficiently to enable him to descend into the state-room
+which Se¤or Montefalderon had occupied, and bring away the doubloons
+that alone kept him in the vicinity of so ticklish a neighbour as
+the Poughkeepsie. Escape was easy enough to one who knew the
+passages of the reef and islets; more especially since the wind had
+so fortunately brought the cruiser to leeward. Spike most
+apprehended a movement upon him in the boats, and he had almost made
+up his mind, should such an enterprise be attempted, to try his hand
+in beating it off with his guns. A good deal of uncertainty on the
+subject of Mulford's consenting to resist the recognised authorities
+of the country, as well as some doubts of a similar nature in
+reference to two or three of the best of the foremast hands, alone
+left him at all in doubt as to the expediency of such a course. As
+no boats were lowered from the cruiser, however, the necessity of
+resorting to so desperate a measure, did not occur, and the duty of
+lightening the schooner had proceeded without interruption. As soon
+as the boatswain came off from the islet, he and the men with him
+were directed to take the hands and lift the anchors, of which it
+will be remembered the Swash had several down. Even Mulford was
+shortly after set at work on the same duty; and these expert and
+ready seamen soon had the brig clear of the ground. As the schooner
+was anchored, and floated without assistance, the Swash rode by her.
+
+Such was the state of things when the men turned to, after having
+had their dinners. By this time, the sloop-of-war was within half a
+league of the bay, her progress having been materially retarded by
+the set of the current, which was directly against her. Spike saw
+that a collision of some sort or other must speedily occur, and he
+determined to take the boatswain with him, and descend into the
+cabin of the schooner in quest of the gold. The boatswain was
+summoned, and Se¤or Montefalderon repeated in this man's presence
+the instructions that he thought it necessary for the adventurers to
+follow, in order to secure the prize. Knowing how little locks would
+avail on board a vessel, were the men disposed to rob him, that
+gentleman had trusted more to secreting his treasure, than to
+securing it in the more ordinary way. When the story had again been
+told, Spike and his boatswain went on board the schooner, and,
+undressing, they prepared to descend into the cabin. The captain
+paused a single instant to take a look at the sloop-of-war, and to
+examine the state of the weather. It is probable some new impression
+was made on him by this inquiry, for, hailing Mulford, he ordered
+him to loosen the sails, and to sheet home, and hoist the
+foretopsail. In a word, to "see all ready to cast off, and make sail
+on the brig at the shortest notice." With this command he
+disappeared by the schooner's companion-way.
+
+Spike and his companion found the water in the cabin very much
+deeper than they had supposed. With a view to comfort, the
+cabin-floor had been sunk much lower than is usual on board American
+vessels, and this brought the water up nearly to the arm-pits of two
+men as short as our captain and his sturdy little boatswain. The
+former grumbled a good deal, when he ascertained the fact, and said
+something about the mate's being better fitted to make a search in
+such a place, but concluding with the remark, that "the man who
+wants ticklish duty well done, must see to it himself."
+
+The gold-hunters groped their way cautiously about the cabin for
+some time, feeling for a drawer, in which they had been told they
+should find the key of Se¤or Montefalderon's state-room door. In
+this Spike himself finally succeeded, he being much better
+acquainted with cabins and their fixtures, than the boatswain.
+
+"Here it is, Ben," said the captain, "now for a dive among the Don's
+val'ables. Should you pick up anything worth speaking of, you can
+condemn it for salvage, as I mean to cast off, and quit the wrack
+the moment we've made sure of the doubloons."
+
+"And what will become of all the black flour that is lying about,
+sir?" asked the boatswain with a grin.
+
+"It may take care of itself. My agreement will be up as soon as the
+doubloons are found. If the Don will come down handsomely with his
+share of what will be left, I may be bought to put the kegs we have
+in the brig ashore for him somewhere in Mexico; but my wish is to
+get out of the neighbourhood of that bloody sloop-of-war, as soon as
+possible."
+
+"She makes but slow headway ag'in the current, sir; but a body would
+think she might send in her boats."
+
+"The boats might be glad to get back again," muttered Spike. "Ay,
+here is the door unlocked, and we can now fish for the money."
+
+Some object had rolled against the state-room door, when the vessel
+was capsized, and there was a good deal of difficulty in forcing it
+open. They succeeded at last, and Spike led the way by wading into
+the small apartment. Here they began to feel about beneath the
+water, and by a very insufficient light, in quest of the hidden
+treasure. Spike and his boatswain differed as to the place which had
+just been described to them, as men will differ even in the account
+of events that pass directly before their eyes. While thus employed,
+the report of a heavy gun came through the doors of the cabin,
+penetrating to the recess in which they were thus employed.
+
+"Ay, that's the beginning of it!" exclaimed Spike. "I wonder that
+the fool has put it off so long."
+
+"That gun was a heavy fellow, Captain Spike," returned the
+boatswain; "and it sounded in my ears as if't was shotted."
+
+"Ay, ay, I dare say you're right enough in both opinions. They put
+such guns on board their sloops-of-war, now-adays, as a fellow used
+to find in the lower batteries of a two-decker only in old times;
+and as for shot, why Uncle Sam pays, and they think it cheaper to
+fire one out of a gun, than to take the trouble of drawing it."
+
+"I believe here's one of the bags, Captain Spike," said the
+boatswain, making a dip, and coming up with one-half of the desired
+treasure in his fist. "By George, I've grabbed him, sir; and the
+other bag can't be far off."
+
+"Hand that over to me," said the captain, a little authoritatively,
+"and take a dive for the next."
+
+As the boatswain was obeying this order, a second gun was heard, and
+Spike thought that the noise made by the near passage of a large
+shot was audible also. He called out to Ben to "bear a hand, as the
+ship seems in 'arnest." But the head of the boatswain being under
+water at the time, the admonition was thrown away. The fellow soon
+came up, however, puffing like a porpoise that has risen to the
+surface to blow.
+
+"Hand it over to me at once," said Spike, stretching out his
+unoccupied hand to receive the prize; "we have little time to lose."
+
+"That's sooner said than done, sir," answered the boat-swain; "a box
+has driven down upon the bag, and there's a tight jam. I got hold of
+the neck of the bag, and pulled like a horse, but it wouldn't come
+no how."
+
+"Show me the place, and let me have a drag at it. There goes another
+of his bloody guns!"
+
+Down went Spike, and the length of time he was under water, proved
+how much he was in earnest. Up he came at length, and with no better
+luck than his companion. He had got hold of the bag, satisfied
+himself by feeling its outside that it contained the doubloons, and
+hauled with all his strength, but it would not come. The boatswain
+now proposed to take a jamming hitch with a rope around the neck of
+the bag, which was long enough to admit of such a fastening, and
+then to apply their united force. Spike assented, and the boatswain
+rummaged about for a piece of small rope to suit his purpose. At
+this moment Mulford appeared at the companion-way to announce the
+movements on the part of the sloop-of-war. He had been purposely
+tardy, in order to give the ship as much time as possible; but he
+saw by the looks of the men that a longer delay might excite
+suspicion.
+
+"Below there!" called out the mate.
+
+"What's wanting, sir?--what's wanting, sir?" answered Spike; "let's
+know at once."
+
+"Have you heard the guns, Captain Spike?"
+
+"Ay, ay, every grumbler of them. They've done no mischief, I trust,
+Mr. Mulford?"
+
+"None as yet, sir; though the last shot, and it was a heavy fellow,
+passed just above the schooner's deck. I've the topsail sheeted home
+and hoisted, and it's that which has set them at work. If I clewed
+up again, I dare say they'd not fire another gun."
+
+"Clew up nothing, sir, but see all clear for casting off and making
+sail through the South Pass. What do you say, Ben, are you ready for
+a drag?"
+
+"All ready, sir," answered the boatswain, once more coming up to
+breathe. "Now for it, sir; a steady pull, and a pull all together."
+
+They did pull, but the hitch slipped, and both went down beneath the
+water. In a moment they were up again, puffing a little and swearing
+a great deal. Just then another gun, and a clatter above their
+heads, brought them to a stand.
+
+"What means that, Mr. Mulford?" demanded Spike, a good deal
+startled.
+
+"It means that the sloop-of-war has shot away the head of this
+schooner's foremast, sir, and that the shot has chipp'd a small
+piece out of the heel of our maintop-mast--that's all."
+
+Though excessively provoked at the mate's cool manner of replying,
+Spike saw that he might lose all by being too tenacious about
+securing the remainder of the doubloons. Pronouncing in very
+energetic terms on Uncle Sam, and all his cruisers, an anathema that
+we do not care to repeat, he gave a surly order to Ben to
+"knock-off," and abandoned his late design. In a minute he was on
+deck and dressed.
+
+"Cast off, lads," cried the captain, as soon as on the deck of his
+own brig again, "and four of you man that boat. We have got half of
+your treasure, Se¤or Wan, but have been driven from the rest of it,
+as you see. There is the bag; when at leisure we'll divide it, and
+give the people their share. Mr. Mulford, keep the brig in motion,
+hauling up toward the South Pass, while I go ashore for the ladies.
+I'll meet you just in the throat of the passage."
+
+This said, Spike tumbled into his boat, and was pulled ashore. As
+for Mulford, though he cast many an anxious glance toward the islet,
+he obeyed his orders, keeping the brig standing off and on, under
+easy canvas, but working her up toward the indicated passage.
+
+Spike was met by Jack Tier on the beach of the little island.
+
+"Muster the women at once," ordered the captain, "we have no time to
+lose, for that fellow will soon be firing broad-sides, and his shot
+now range half a mile beyond us."
+
+"You'll no more move the widow and her maid, than you'll move the
+island," answered Jack, laconically.
+
+"Why should I not move them? Do they wish to stay here and starve?"
+
+"It's little that they think of that. The sloop-of-war no sooner
+begun to fire than down went Mrs. Budd on the canvas floor of the
+tent, and set up just such a screaming as you may remember she tried
+her hand at the night the revenue craft fired into us. Biddy lay
+down alongside of her mistress, and at every gun, they just scream
+as loud as they can, as if they fancied they might frighten off
+Uncle Sam's men from their duty."
+
+"Duty!--You little scamp, do you call tormenting honest traders in
+this fashion the duty of any man?"
+
+"Well, captain, I'm no ways partic'lar about a word or two. Their
+`ways,' if you like that better than duty, sir."
+
+"Where's Rose? Is she down too, screaming and squalling?"
+
+"No, Captain Spike, no. Miss Rose is endeavouring, like a handsome
+young Christian lady as she is, to pacify and mollify her aunt and
+Biddy; and right down sensible talk does she give them."
+
+"Then she at least can go aboard the brig," exclaimed Spike, with a
+sudden animation, and an expression of countenance that Jack did not
+at all like.
+
+"I ray-y-ther think she'll wish to hold on to the old lady,"
+observed the steward's-mate, a little emphatically.
+
+"You be d--d," cried Spike, fiercely; "when your opinion is wanted,
+I'll ask for it. If I find you've been setting that young woman's
+mind ag'in me, I'll toss you overboard, as I would the offals of a
+shark."
+
+"Young women's minds, when they are only nineteen, get set ag'in
+boys of fifty-six without much assistance."
+
+"Fifty-six yourself."
+
+"I'm fifty-three--that I'll own without making faces at it,"
+returned Jack, meekly; "and, Stephen Spike, you logged fifty-six
+your last birthday, or a false entry was made."
+
+This conversation did not take place in the presence of the boat's
+crew, but as the two walked together toward the tent. They were now
+in the verandah, as we have called the shaded opening in front, and
+actually within sound of the sweet voice of Rose, as she exhorted
+her aunt, in tones a little louder than usual for her to use, to
+manifest more fortitude. Under such circumstances Spike did not deem
+it expedient to utter that which was uppermost in his mind, but,
+turning short upon Tier, he directed a tremendous blow directly
+between his eyes. Jack saw the danger and dodged, falling backward
+to avoid a concussion which he knew would otherwise be fearful,
+coming as it would from one of the best forecastle boxers of his
+time. The full force of the blow was avoided, though Jack got enough
+of it to knock him down, and to give him a pair of black eyes. Spike
+did not stop to pick the assistant steward up, for another gun was
+fired at that very instant, and Mrs. Budd and Biddy renewed their
+screams. Instead of pausing to kick the prostrate Tier, as had just
+before been his intention, the captain entered the tent.
+
+A scene that was sufficiently absurd met the view of Spike, when he
+found himself in the presence of the females. The widow had thrown
+herself on the ground, and was grasping the cloth of the sail on
+which the tent had been erected with both her hands, and was
+screaming at the top of her voice. Biddy's imitation was not exactly
+literal, for she had taken a comfortable seat at the side of her
+mistress, but in the way of cries, she rather outdid her principal.
+
+"We must be off," cried Spike, somewhat unceremoniously. "The
+man-of-war is blazing away, as if she was a firin' minute-guns over
+our destruction, and I can wait no longer."
+
+"I'll not stir," answered the widow--"I can't stir--I shall be shot
+if I go out. No, no, no--I'll not stir an inch."
+
+"We'll be kilt!--we'll be kilt!" echoed Biddy, "and a wicket
+murther't will be in that same man, war or no war."
+
+The captain perceived the uselessness of remonstrance at such a
+moment, and perhaps he was secretly rejoiced thereat; but it is
+certain that he whipped Rose up under his arm, and walked away with
+her, as if she had been a child of two or three years of age. Rose
+did not scream, but she struggled and protested vehemently. It was
+in vain. Already the captain had carried her half the distance
+between the tent and the boat, in the last of which, a minute more
+would have deposited his victim, when a severe blow on the back of
+his head caused Spike to stumble, and he permitted Rose to escape
+from his grasp, in the effort to save himself from a fall. Turning
+fiercely toward his assailant, whom he suspected to be one of his
+boat's crew, he saw Tier standing within a few yards, levelling a
+pistol at him.
+
+"Advance a step, and you're a dead man, villain!" screamed Jack, his
+voice almost cracked with rage, and the effort he made to menace.
+
+Spike muttered an oath too revolting for our pages; but it was such
+a curse as none but an old salt could give vent to, and that in the
+bitterness of his fiercest wrath. At that critical moment, while
+Rose was swelling with indignation and wounded maiden pride, almost
+within reach of his arms, looking more lovely than ever, as the
+flush of anger deepened the colour in her cheeks, a fresh and deep
+report from one of the guns of the sloop-of-war drew all eyes in her
+direction. The belching of that gun seemed to be of double the power
+of those which had preceded it, and jets of water, that were twenty
+feet in height, marked the course of the formidable missile that was
+projected from the piece. The ship had, indeed, discharged one of
+those monster-cannons that bear the name of a distinguished French
+engineer, but which should more properly be called by the name of
+the ingenious officer who is at the head of our own ordnance, as
+they came originally from his inventive faculties, though somewhat
+improved by their European adopter. Spike suspected the truth, for
+he had heard of these "Pazans," as he called them, and he watched
+the booming, leaping progress of the eight-inch shell that this gun
+threw, with the apprehension that unknown danger is apt to excite.
+As jet succeeded jet, each rising nearer and nearer to his brig, the
+interval of time between them seeming fearfully to diminish, he
+muttered oath upon oath. The last leap that the shell made on the
+water was at about a quarter of a mile's distance of the islet on
+which his people had deposited at least a hundred and fifty barrels
+of his spurious flour:-thence it flew, as it might be without an
+effort, with a grand and stately bound into the very centre of the
+barrels, exploding at the moment it struck. All saw the scattering
+of flour, which was instantly succeeded by the heavy though slightly
+straggling explosion of all the powder on the island. A hundred kegs
+were lighted, as it might be, in a common flash, and a cloud of
+white smoke poured out and concealed the whole islet, and all near
+it.
+
+Rose stood confounded, nor was Jack Tier in a much better state of
+mind, though he still kept the pistol levelled, and menaced Spike.
+But the last was no longer dangerous to any there. He recollected
+that piles of the barrels encumbered the decks of his vessel, and he
+rushed to the boat, nearly frantic with haste, ordering the men to
+pull for their lives. In less than five minutes he was alongside,
+and on the deck of the Swash--his first order being to--"Tumble
+every barrel of this bloody powder into the sea, men. Over with it,
+Mr. Mulford, clear away the midship ports, and launch as much as you
+can through them."
+
+Remonstrance on the part of Se¤or Montefalderon would have been
+useless, had he been disposed to make it; but, sooth to say, he was
+as ready to get rid of the powder as any there, after the specimen
+he had just witnessed of the power of a Paixhan gun.
+
+Thus it is ever with men. Had two or three of those shells been
+first thrown without effect, as might very well have happened under
+the circumstances, none there would have cared for the risk they
+were running; but the chance explosion which had occurred, presented
+so vivid a picture of the danger, dormant and remote as it really
+was, as to throw the entire crew of the Swash into a frenzy of
+exertion.
+
+Nor was the vessel at all free from danger. On the contrary, she ran
+very serious risk of being destroyed, and in some degree, in the
+very manner apprehended. Perceiving that Spike was luffing up
+through one of the passages nearest the reef, which would carry him
+clear of the group, a long distance to windward of the point where
+he could only effect the same object, the commander of the
+sloop-of-war opened his fire in good earnest, hoping to shoot away
+something material on board the Swash, before she could get beyond
+the reach of his shot. The courses steered by the two vessels, just
+at that moment, favoured such an attempt, though they made it
+necessarily very short-lived. While the Swash was near the wind, the
+sloop-of-war was obliged to run off to avoid islets ahead of her, a
+circumstance which, while it brought the brig square with the ship's
+broadside, compelled the latter to steer on a diverging line to the
+course of her chase. It was in consequence of these facts, that the
+sloop-of-war now opened in earnest, and was soon canopied in the
+smoke of her own fire.
+
+Great and important changes, as has been already mentioned, have
+been made in the armaments of all the smaller cruisers within the
+last few years. Half a generation since, a ship of the rate--we do
+not say of the size--of the vessel which was in chase of Spike and
+his craft, would not have had it in her power to molest an enemy at
+the distance these two vessels were now apart. But recent
+improvements have made ships of this nominal force formidable at
+nearly a league's distance; more especially by means of their
+Paixhans and their shells.
+
+For some little time the range carried the shot directly over the
+islet of the tent; Jack Tier and Rose, both of whom were watching
+all that passed with intense interest, standing in the open air the
+whole time, seemingly with no concern for themselves, so absorbed
+was each, notwithstanding all that had passed, in the safety of the
+brig. As for Rose, she thought only of Harry Mulford, and of the
+danger he was in by those fearful explosions of the shells. Her
+quick intellect comprehended the peculiar nature of the risk that
+was incurred by having the flour-barrels on deck, and she could not
+but see the manner in which Spike and his men were tumbling them
+into the water, as the quickest manner of getting rid of them. After
+what had just passed between Jack Tier and his commander, it might
+not be so easy to account for his manifest, nay, intense interest in
+the escape of the Swash. This was apparent by his troubled
+countenance, by his exclamations, and occasionally by his openly
+expressed wishes for her safety. Perhaps it was no more than the
+interest the seaman is so apt to feel in the craft in which he has
+so long sailed, and which to him has been a home, and of which
+Mulford exhibited so much, in his struggles between feeling and
+conscience--between a true and a false duty.
+
+As for Spike and his people, we have already mentioned their efforts
+to get rid of the powder. Shell after shell exploded, though none
+very near the brig, the ship working her guns as if in action. At
+length the officers of the sloop-of-war detected a source of error
+in their aim, that is of very common occurrence in sea-gunnery.
+Their shot had been thrown to ricochet, quartering a low, but very
+regular succession of little waves. Each shot striking the water at
+an acute angle to its agitated surface, was deflected from a
+straight line, and described a regular curve toward the end of its
+career; or, it might be truer to say, an irregular curvature, for
+the deflection increased as the momentum of the missile diminished.
+
+No sooner did the commanding officer of the sloop-of-war discover
+this fact, and it was easy to trace the course of the shots by the
+jets of water they cast into the air, and to see as well as to hear
+the explosions of the shells, than he ordered the guns pointed more
+to windward, as a means of counteracting the departure from the
+straight lines. This expedient succeeded in part, the solid shot
+falling much nearer to the brig the moment the practice was resorted
+to. No shell was fired for some little time after the new order was
+issued, and Spike and his people began to hope these terrific
+missiles had ceased their annoyance. The men cheered, finding their
+voices for the first time since the danger had seemed so imminent,
+and Spike was heard animating them to their duty. As for Mulford, he
+was on the coach-house deck, working the brig, the captain having
+confided to him that delicate duty, the highest proof he could
+furnish of confidence in his seamanship. The handsome young mate had
+just made a half-board, in the neatest manner, shoving the brig by
+its means through a most difficult part of the passage, and had got
+her handsomely filled again on the same tack, looking right out into
+open water, by a channel through which she could now stand on a very
+easy bowline. Everything seemed propitious, and the sloop-of-war's
+solid shot began to drop into the water, a hundred yards short of
+the brig. In this state of things one of the Paixhans belched forth
+its angry flame and sullen roar again. There was no mistaking the
+gun. Then came its mass of iron, a globe that would have weighed
+just sixty-eight pounds, had not sufficient metal been left out of
+its interior to leave a cavity to contain a single pound of powder.
+Its course, as usual, was to be marked by its path along the sea, as
+it bounded, half a mile at a time, from wave to wave. Spike saw by
+its undeviating course that this shell was booming terrifically
+toward his brig, and a cry to "look out for the shell," caused the
+work to be suspended. That shell struck the water for the last time,
+within two hundred yards of the brig, rose dark and menacing in its
+furious leap, but exploded at the next instant. The fragments of the
+iron were scattered on each side, and ahead. Of the last, three or
+four fell into the water so near the vessel as to cast their spray
+on her decks.
+
+"Overboard with the rest of the powder!" shouted Spike. "Keep the
+brig off a little, Mr. Mulford--keep her off, sir; you luff too
+much, sir."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," answered the mate. "Keep her off, it is."
+
+"There comes the other shell!" cried Ben, but the men did not quit
+their toil to gaze this time. Each seaman worked as if life and
+death depended on his single exertions. Spike alone watched the
+course of the missile. On it came, booming and hurtling through the
+air, tossing high the jets, at each leap it made from the surface,
+striking the water for its last bound, seemingly in a line with the
+shell that had just preceded it. From that spot it made its final
+leap. Every hand in the brig was stayed and every eye was raised as
+the rushing tempest was heard advancing. The mass went muttering
+directly between the masts of the Swash. It had scarcely seemed to
+go by when the fierce flash of fire and the sharp explosion
+followed. Happily for those in the brig, the projectile force given
+by the gun carried the fragments from them, as in the other instance
+it had brought them forward; else would few have escaped mutilation,
+or death, among their crew.
+
+The flashing of fire so near the barrels of powder that still
+remained on their deck, caused the frantic efforts to be renewed,
+and barrel after barrel was tumbled overboard, amid the shouts that
+were now raised to animate the people to their duty.
+
+"Luff, Mr. Mulford--luff you may, sir," cried Spike. No answer was
+given.
+
+"D'ye hear there, Mr. Mulford?--it is luff you may, sir."
+
+"Mr. Mulford is not aft, sir," called out the man at the helm--"but
+luff it is, sir."
+
+"Mr. Mulford not aft! Where's the mate, man? Tell him he is wanted."
+
+No Mulford was to be found! A call passed round the decks, was sent
+below, and echoed through the entire brig, but no sign or tidings
+could be had of the handsome mate. At that exciting moment the
+sloop-of-war seemed to cease her firing, and appeared to be securing
+her guns.
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+  Thou art the same, eternal sea!
+  The earth has many shapes and forms,
+  Of hill and valley, flower and tree;
+  Fields that the fervid noontide warms,
+  Or winter's rugged grasp deforms,
+  Or bright with autumn's golden store;
+  Thou coverest up thy face with storms,
+  Or smilest serene,--but still thy roar
+  And dashing foam go up to vex the sea-beat shore:
+
+Lunt.
+
+We shall now advance the time eight-and-forty hours. The baffling
+winds and calms that succeeded the tornado had gone, and the trades
+blew in their stead. Both vessels had disappeared, the brig leading,
+doubling the western extremity of the reef, and going off before
+both wind and current, with flowing sheets, fully three hours before
+the sloop-of-war could beat up against the latter, to a point that
+enabled her to do the same thing. By that time, the Swash was
+five-and-twenty miles to the eastward, and consequently but just
+discernible in her loftiest sails, from the ship's royal yards.
+Still, the latter continued the chase; and that evening both vessels
+were beating down along the southern margin of the Florida Reef,
+against the trades, but favoured by a three or four knot current,
+the brig out of sight to windward. Our narrative leads us to lose
+sight of both these vessels, for a time, in order to return to the
+islets of the Gulf. Eight-and-forty hours had made some changes in
+and around the haven of the Dry Tortugas. The tent still stood, and
+a small fire that was boiling its pot and its kettle, at no great
+distance from it, proved that the tent was still inhabited. The
+schooner also rode at her anchors, very much as she had been
+abandoned by Spike. The bag of doubloons, however, had been found,
+and there it lay, tied but totally unguarded, in the canvas verandah
+of Rose Budd's habitation. Jack Tier passed and repassed it with
+apparent indifference, as he went to and fro, between his pantry and
+kitchen, busy as a bee in preparing his noontide meal for the day.
+This man seemed to have the islet all to himself, however, no one
+else being visible on any part of it. He sang his song, in a
+cracked, contre alto voice, and appeared to be happy in his
+solitude. Occasionally he talked to himself aloud, most probably
+because he had no one else to speak to. We shall record one of his
+recitatives, which came in between the strains of a very
+inharmonious air, the words of which treated of the seas, while the
+steward's assistant was stirring an exceedingly savoury mess that he
+had concocted of the ingredients to be found in the united larders
+of the Swash and the Mexican schooner.
+
+"Stephen Spike is a capital willian!" exclaimed Jack, smelling at a
+ladle filled with his soup--"a capital willian, I call him. To
+think, at his time of life, of such a handsome and pleasant young
+thing as this Rose Budd; and then to try to get her by underhand
+means, and by making a fool of her silly old aunt. It 's wonderful
+what fools some old aunts be! Quite wonderful! If I was as great a
+simpleton as this Mrs. Budd, I'd never cross my threshhold. Yes,
+Stephen Spike is a prodigious willian, as his best friend must own!
+Well, I gave him a thump on the head that he'll not forget this
+v'y'ge. To think of carryin' off that pretty Rose Budd in his very
+arms, in so indecent a manner! Yet, the man has his good p'ints, if
+a body could only forget his bad ones. He's a first-rate seaman. How
+he worked the brig till he doubled the reef, a'ter she got into open
+water; and how he made her walk off afore the wind, with stun'sails
+alow and aloft, as soon as ever he could make 'em draw! My life for
+it, he 'll tire the legs of Uncle Sam's man, afore he can fetch up
+with him. For running away, when hard chased, Stephen Spike has n't
+his equal on 'arth. But, he's a great willian--a prodigious willian!
+I cannot say I actually wish him hanged; but I would rather have him
+hanged than see him get pretty Rose in his power. What has he to do
+with girls of nineteen? If the rascal is one year old, he's
+fifty-six. I hope the sloop-of-war will find her match, and I think
+she will. The Molly's a great traveller, and not to be outdone
+easily. 'T would be a thousand pities so lovely a craft should be
+cut off in the flower of her days, as it might be, and I do hope
+she'll lead that bloody sloop on some sunken rock.
+
+"Well, there's the other bag of doubloons. It seems Stephen could
+not get it. That's odd, too, for he's great at grabbin' gold. The
+man bears his age well; but he's a willian! I wonder whether he or
+Mulford made that half-board in the narrow channel. It was well
+done, and Stephen is a perfect sailor; but he says Mulford is the
+same. Nice young man, that Mulford; just fit for Rose, and Rose for
+him. Pity to part them. Can find no great fault with him, except
+that he has too much conscience. There's such a thing as having too
+much, as well as too little conscience. Mulford has too much, and
+Spike has too little. For him to think of carryin' off a gal of
+nineteen! I say he's fifty-six, if he's a day. How fond he used to
+be of this very soup! If I've seen him eat a quart of it, I've seen
+him eat a puncheon full of it, in my time. What an appetite the man
+has when he's had a hard day's duty on 't! There 's a great deal to
+admire, and a great deal to like in Stephen Spike, but he's a
+reg'lar willian. I dare say he fancies himself a smart, jaunty youth
+ag'in, as I can remember him; a lad of twenty, which was about his
+years when I first saw him, by the sign that I was very little
+turned of fifteen myself. Spike was comely then, though I
+acknowledge he's a willian. I can see him now, with his deep blue
+roundabout, his bell-mouthed trowsers, both of fine cloth--too fine
+for such a willian--but fine it was, and much did it become him."
+
+Here Jack made a long pause, during which, though he may have
+thought much, he said nothing. Nevertheless, he was n't idle the
+while. On the contrary, he passed no less than three several times
+from the fire to the tent, and returned. Each time, in going and
+coming, he looked intently at the bag of doubloons, though he did
+not stop at it or touch it. Some associations connected with Spike's
+fruitless attempts to obtain it must have formed its principal
+interest with this singular being, as he muttered his captain's name
+each time in passing, though he said no more audibly. The concerns
+of the dinner carried him back and forth; and in his last visit to
+the tent, he began to set a small table--one that had been brought
+for the convenience of Mrs. Budd and her niece, from the brig, and
+which of course still remained on the islet. It was while thus
+occupied, that Jack Tier recommenced his soliloquy.
+
+"I hope that money may do some worthy fellow good yet. It's Mexican
+gold, and that's inemy's gold, and might be condemned by law, I do
+suppose. Stephen had a hankerin' a'ter it, but he did not get it. It
+come easy enough to the next man that tried. That Spike 's a
+willian, and the gold was too good for him. He has no conscience at
+all to think of a gal of nineteen! And one fit for his betters, in
+the bargain. The time has been when Stephen Spike might have
+pretended to Rose Budd's equal. That much I'll ever maintain, but
+that time's gone; and, what is more, it will never come again. I
+should like Mulford better if he had a little less conscience.
+Conscience may do for Uncle Sam's ships, but it is sometimes in the
+way aboard a trading craft. What can a fellow do with a conscience
+when dollars is to be smuggled off, or tobacco smuggled ashore? I do
+suppose I've about as much conscience as it is useful to have, and
+I've got ashore in my day twenty thousand dollars' worth of stuff,
+of one sort or another, if I've got ashore the valie of ten dollars.
+But Spike carries on business on too large a scale, and many's the
+time I've told him so. I could have forgiven him anything but this
+attempt on Rose Budd; and he's altogether too old for that, to say
+nothing of other people's rights. He's an up-and-down willian, and a
+body can make no more, nor any less of him. That soup must be near
+done, and I'll hoist the signal for grub."
+
+This signal was a blue-peter of which one had been brought ashore to
+signal the brig; and with which Jack now signalled the schooner. If
+the reader will turn his eyes toward the last named vessel, he will
+find the guests whom Tier expected to surround his table. Rose, her
+aunt, and Biddy were all seated, under an awning made by a sail, on
+the deck of the schooner, which now floated so buoyantly as to show
+that she had materially lightened since last seen. Such indeed was
+the fact, and he who had been the instrument of producing this
+change, appeared on deck in the person of Mulford, as soon as he was
+told that the blue-peter of Jack Tier was flying.
+
+The boat of the light-house, that in which Spike had landed in quest
+of Rose, was lying alongside of the schooner, and sufficiently
+explained the manner in which the mate had left the brig. This boat,
+in fact, had been fastened astern, in the hurry of getting from
+under the sloop-of-war's fire, and Mulford had taken the opportunity
+of the consternation and frantic efforts produced by the explosion
+of the last shell thrown, to descend from his station on the
+coach-house into this boat, to cut the painter, and to let the Swash
+glide away from him. This the vessel had done with great rapidity,
+leaving him unseen under the cover of her stern. As soon as in the
+boat, the mate had seized an oar, and sculled to an islet that was
+within fifty yards, concealing the boat behind a low hummock that
+formed a tiny bay. All this was done so rapidly, that united to the
+confusion on board the Swash, no one discovered the mate or the
+boat. Had he been seen, however, it is very little probable that
+Spike would have lost a moment of time, in the attempt to recover
+either. But he was not seen, and it was the general opinion on board
+the Swash, for quite an hour, that her handsome mate had been
+knocked overboard and killed, by a fragment of the shell that had
+seemed to explode almost in the ears of her people. When the reef
+was doubled, however, and Spike made his preparations for meeting
+the rough water, he hove to, and ordered his own yawl, which was
+also towing astern, to be hauled up alongside, in order to be
+hoisted in. Then, indeed, some glimmerings of the truth were shed on
+the crew, who missed the light-house boat. Though many contended
+that its painter must also have been cut by a fragment of the shell,
+and that the mate had died loyal to roguery and treason. Mulford was
+much liked by the crew, and he was highly valued by Spike, on
+account of his seamanship and integrity, this latter being a quality
+that is just as necessary for one of the captain's character to meet
+with in those he trusts as to any other man. But Spike thought
+differently of the cause of Mulford's disappearance, from his crew.
+He ascribed it altogether to love for Rose, when, in truth, it ought
+in justice to have been quite as much imputed to a determination to
+sail no longer with a man who was clearly guilty of treason. Of
+smuggling, Mulford had long suspected Spike, though he had no direct
+proof of the fact; but now he could not doubt that he was not only
+engaged in supplying the enemy with the munitions of war, but was
+actually bargaining to sell his brig for a hostile cruiser, and
+possibly to transfer himself and crew along with her.
+
+It is scarcely necessary to speak of the welcome Mulford received
+when he reached the islet of the tent. He and Rose had a long
+private conference, the result of which was to let the handsome mate
+into the secret of his pretty companion's true feelings toward
+himself. She had received him with tears, and a betrayal of emotion
+that gave him every encouragement, and now she did not deny her
+preference. In that interview the young people plighted to each
+other their troth. Rose never doubted of obtaining her aunt's
+consent in due time, all her prejudices being in favour of the sea
+and sailors; and should she not, she would soon be her own mistress,
+and at liberty to dispose of herself and her pretty little fortune
+as she might choose. But a cypher as she was, in all questions of
+real moment, Mrs. Budd was not a person likely to throw any real
+obstacle in the way of the young people's wishes; the true grounds
+of whose present apprehensions were all to be referred to Spike, his
+intentions, and his well-known perseverance. Mulford was convinced
+that the brig would be back in quest of the remaining doubloons, as
+soon as she could get clear of the sloop-of-war, though he was not
+altogether without a hope that the latter, when she found it
+impossible to overhaul her chase, might also return in order to
+ascertain what discoveries could be made in and about the schooner.
+The explosion of the powder, on the islet, must have put the
+man-of-war's men in possession of the secret of the real quality of
+the flour that had composed her cargo, and it doubtless had awakened
+all their distrust on the subject of the Swash's real business in
+the Gulf. Under all the circumstances, therefore, it did appear
+quite as probable that one of the parties should reappear at the
+scene of their recent interview as the other.
+
+Bearing all these things in mind, Mulford had lost no time in
+completing his own arrangements. He felt that he had some atonement
+to make to the country, for the part he had seemingly taken in the
+late events, and it occurred to him, could he put the schooner in a
+state to be moved, then place her in the hands of the authorities,
+his own peace would be made, and his character cleared. Rose no
+sooner understood his plans and motives, than she entered into them
+with all the ardour and self-devotion of her sex; for the single
+hour of confidential and frank communication which had just passed,
+doubled the interest she felt in Mulford and in all that belonged to
+him. Jack Tier was useful on board a vessel, though his want of
+stature and force rendered him less so than was common with
+sea-faring men. His proper sphere certainly had been the cabins,
+where his usefulness was beyond all cavil; but he was now very
+serviceable to Mulford on the deck of the schooner. The first two
+days, Mrs. Budd had been left on the islet, to look to the concerns
+of the kitchen, while Mulford, accompanied by Rose, Biddy and Jack
+Tier, had gone off to the schooner, and set her pumps in motion
+again. It was little that Rose could do, or indeed attempt to do, at
+this toil, but the pumps being small and easily worked, Biddy and
+Jack were of great service. By the end of the second day the pumps
+sucked; the cargo that remained in the schooner, as well as the form
+of her bottom, contributing greatly to lessen the quantity of the
+water that was to be got out of her.
+
+Then it was that the doubloons fell into Mulford's hands, along with
+everything else that remained below decks. It was perhaps fortunate
+that the vessel was thoroughly purified by her immersion, and the
+articles that were brought on deck to be dried were found in a
+condition to give no great offence to those who removed them. By
+leaving the hatches off, and the cabin doors open, the warm winds of
+the trades effectually dried the interior of the schooner in the
+course of a single night; and when Mulford repaired on board of her,
+on the morning of the third day, he found her in a condition to be
+fitted for his purposes. On this occasion Mrs. Budd had expressed a
+wish to go off to look at her future accommodations, and Jack was
+left on the islet to cook the dinner, which will explain the actual
+state of things as described in the opening of this chapter.
+
+As those who toil usually have a relish for their food, the
+appearance of the blue-peter was far from being unwelcome to those
+on board of the schooner. They got into the boat, and were sculled
+ashore by Mulford, who, seaman-like, used only one hand in
+performing this service. In a very few minutes they were all seated
+at the little table, which was brought out into the tent-verandah
+for the enjoyment of the breeze.
+
+"So far, well," said Mulford, after his appetite was mainly
+appeased; Rose picking crumbs, and affecting to eat, merely to have
+the air of keeping him company; one of the minor proofs of the
+little attentions that spring from the affections. "So far, well.
+The sails are bent, and though they might be never and better, they
+can be made to answer. It was fortunate to find anything like a
+second suit on board a Mexican craft of that size at all. As it is,
+we have foresail, mainsail, and jib, and with that canvas I think we
+might beat the schooner down to Key West in the course of a day and
+a night. If I dared to venture outside of the reef, it might be done
+sooner even, for they tell me there is a four-knot current sometimes
+in that track; but I do not like to venture outside, so
+short-handed. The current inside must serve our turn, and we shall
+get smooth water by keeping under the lee of the rocks. I only hope
+we shall not get into an eddy as we go further from the end of the
+reef, and into the bight of the coast."
+
+"Is there danger of that?" demanded Rose, whose quick intellect had
+taught her many of these things, since her acquaintance with
+vessels.
+
+"There may be, looking at the formation of the reef and islands,
+though I know nothing of the fact by actual observation. This is my
+first visit in this quarter."
+
+"Eddies are serious matters," put in Mrs. Budd, "and my poor husband
+could not abide them. Tides are good things; but eddies are very
+disagreeable."
+
+"Well, aunty, I should think eddies might sometimes be as welcome as
+tides. It must depend, however, very much on the way one wishes to
+go."
+
+"Rose, you surprise me! All that you have read, and all that you
+have heard, must have shown you the difference. Do they not say `a
+man is floating with the tide,' when things are prosperous with
+him--and don't ships drop down with the tide, and beat the wind with
+the tide? And don't vessels sometimes `tide it up to town,' as it is
+called, and is n't it thought an advantage to have the tide with
+you?"
+
+"All very true, aunty; but I do not see how that makes eddies any
+the worse."
+
+"Because eddies are the opposite of tides, child. When the tide goes
+one way, the eddy goes another--is n't it so, Harry Mulford? You
+never heard of one's floating in an eddy."
+
+"That's what we mean by an eddy, Mrs. Budd," answered the handsome
+mate, delighted to hear Rose's aunt call him by an appellation so
+kind and familiar,--a thing she had never done previously to the
+intercourse which had been the consequence of their present
+situation. "Though I agree with Rose in thinking an eddy may be a
+good or a bad thing, and very much like a tide, as one wishes to
+steer."
+
+"You amaze me, both of you! Tides are always spoken of favourably,
+but eddies never. If a ship gets ashore, the tide can float her off;
+that I've heard a thousand times. Then, what do the newspapers say
+of President--, and Governor--, and Congressman--? Why, that they
+all `float in the tide of public opinion,' and that must mean
+something particularly good, as they are always in office. No, no,
+Harry; I'll acknowledge that you do know something about ships; a
+good deal, considering how young you are; but you have something to
+learn about eddies. Never trust one as long as you live."
+
+Mulford was silent, and Rose took the occasion to change the
+discourse.
+
+"I hope we shall soon be able to quit this place," she said; "for I
+confess to some dread of Captain Spike's return."
+
+"Captain Stephen Spike has greatly disappointed me," observed the
+aunt, gravely. "I do not know that I was ever before deceived in
+judging a person. I could have sworn he was an honest, frank,
+well-meaning sailor--a character, of all others, that I love; but it
+has turned out otherwise."
+
+"He's a willian!" mutttered Jack Tier.
+
+Mulford smiled; at which speech we must leave to conjecture; but he
+answered Rose, as he ever did, promptly and with pleasure.
+
+"The schooner is ready, and this must be our last meal ashore," he
+said. "Our outfit will be no great matter; but if it will carry us
+down to Key West, I shall ask no more of it. As for the return of
+the Swash, I look upon it as certain. She could easily get clear of
+the sloop-of-war, with the start she had, and Spike is a man that
+never yet abandoned a doubloon, when he knew where one was to be
+found."
+
+"Stephen Spike is like all his fellow-creatures," put in Jack Tier,
+pointedly. "He has his faults, and he has his virtues."
+
+"Virtue is a term I should never think of applying to such a man,"
+returned Mulford, a little surprised at the fellow's earnestness.
+"The word is a big one, and belongs to quite another class of
+persons." Jack muttered a few syllables that were unintelligible,
+when again the conversation changed.
+
+Rose now inquired of Mulford as to their prospects of getting to Key
+West. He told her that the distance was about sixty miles; their
+route lying along the north or inner side of the Florida Reef. The
+whole distance was to be made against the trade-wind, which was then
+blowing about an eight-knot breeze, though, bating eddies, they
+might expect to be favoured with the current, which was less strong
+inside than outside of the reef. As for handling the schooner,
+Mulford saw no great difficulty in that. She was not large, and was
+both lightly sparred and lightly rigged. All her top-hamper had been
+taken down by Spike, and nothing remained but the plainest and most
+readily-managed gear. A fore-and-aft vessel, sailing close by the
+wind, is not difficult to steer; will almost steer herself, indeed,
+in smooth water. Jack Tier could take his trick at the helm, in any
+weather, even in running before the wind, the time when it is most
+difficult to guide a craft, and Rose might be made to understand the
+use of the tiller, and taught to govern the motions of a vessel so
+small and so simply rigged, when on a wind and in smooth water. On
+the score of managing the schooner, therefore, Mulford thought there
+would be little cause for apprehension. Should the weather continue
+settled, he had little doubt of safely landing the whole party at
+Key West, in the course of the next four-and-twenty hours. Short
+sail he should be obliged to carry, as well on account of the
+greater facility of managing it, as on account of the circumstance
+that the schooner was now in light ballast trim, and would not bear
+much canvas. He thought that the sooner they left the islets the
+better, as it could not be long ere the brig would be seen hovering
+around the spot. All these matters were discussed as the party still
+sat at table; and when they left it, which was a few minutes later,
+it was to remove the effects they intended to carry away to the
+boat. This was soon done, both Jack Tier and Biddy proving very
+serviceable, while Rose tripped backward and forward, with a step
+elastic as a gazelle's, carrying light burdens. In half an hour the
+boat was ready. "Here lies the bag of doubloons still," said
+Mulford, smiling. "Is it to be left, or shall we give it up to the
+admiralty court at Key West, and put in a claim for salvage?"
+
+"Better leave it for Spike," said Jack unexpectedly. "Should he come
+back, and find the doubloons, he may be satisfied, and not look for
+the schooner. On the other hand, when the vessel is missing, he will
+think that the money is in her. Better leave it for old Stephen."
+
+"I do not agree with you, Tier," said Rose, though she looked as
+amicably at the steward's assistant, as she thus opposed his
+opinion, as if anxious to persuade rather than coerce. "I do not
+quite agree with you. This money belongs to the Spanish merchant;
+and, as we take away with us his vessel, to give it up to the
+authorities at Key West, I do not think we have a right to put his
+gold on the shore and abandon it."
+
+This disposed of the question. Mulford took the bag, and carried it
+to the boat, without waiting to ascertain if Jack had any objection;
+while the whole party followed. In a few minutes everybody and
+everything in the boat were transferred to the deck of the schooner.
+As for the tent, the old sails of which it was made, the furniture
+it contained, and such articles of provisions as were not wanted,
+they were left on the islet, without regret. The schooner had
+several casks of fresh water, which were found in her hold, and she
+had also a cask or two of salted meats, besides several articles of
+food more delicate, that had been provided by Se¤or Montefalderon
+for his own use, and which had not been damaged by the water. A keg
+of Boston crackers were among these eatables, quite half of which
+were still in a state to be eaten. They were Biddy's delight; and it
+was seldom that she could be seen when not nibbling at one of them.
+The bread of the crew was hopelessly damaged. But Jack had made an
+ample provision of bread when sent ashore, and there was still a
+hundred barrels of the flour in the schooner's hold. One of these
+had been hoisted on deck by Mulford, and opened. The injured flour
+was easily removed, leaving a considerable quantity fit for the uses
+of the kitchen. As for the keg of gunpowder, it was incontinently
+committed to the deep.
+
+Thus provided for, Mulford decided that the time had arrived when he
+ought to quit his anchorage. He had been employed most of that
+morning in getting the schooner's anchor, a work of great toil to
+him, though everybody had assisted. He had succeeded, and the vessel
+now rode by a kedge, that he could easily weigh by means of a deck
+tackle. It remained now, therefore, to lift this kedge and to stand
+out of the bay of the islets. No sooner was the boat secured astern,
+and its freight disposed of, than the mate began to make sail. In
+order to hoist the mainsail well up, he was obliged to carry the
+halyards to the windlass. Thus aided, he succeeded without much
+difficulty. He and Jack Tier and Biddy got the jib hoisted by hand;
+and as for the fore-sail, that would almost set itself. Of course,
+it was not touched until the kedge was aweigh. Mulford found little
+difficulty in lifting the last, and he soon had the satisfaction of
+finding his craft clear of the ground. As Jack Tier was every way
+competent to take charge of the forecastle, Mulford now sprang aft,
+and took his own station at the helm; Rose acting as his pretty
+assistant on the quarter-deck.
+
+There is little mystery in getting a fore-and-aft vessel under way.
+Her sails fill almost as a matter of course, and motion follows as a
+necessary law. Thus did it prove with the Mexican schooner, which
+turned out to be a fast-sailing and an easily-worked craft. She was,
+indeed, an American bottom, as it is termed, having been originally
+built for the Chesapeake; and, though not absolutely what is
+understood by a Baltimore clipper, so nearly of that mould and
+nature as to possess some of the more essential qualities. As
+usually happens, however, when a foreigner gets hold of an American
+schooner, the Mexicans had shortened her masts and lessened her
+canvas. This circumstance was rather an advantage to Mulford, who
+would probably have had more to attend to than he wished under the
+original rig of the craft.
+
+Everybody, even to the fastidious Mrs. Budd, was delighted with the
+easy and swift movement of the schooner. Mulford, now he had got her
+under canvas, handled her without any difficulty, letting her stand
+toward the channel through which he intended to pass, with her
+sheets just taken in, though compelled to keep a little off, in
+order to enter between the islets. No difficulty occurred, however,
+and in less than ten minutes the vessel was clear of the channels,
+and in open water. The sheets were now flattened in, and the
+schooner brought close by the wind. A trial of the vessel on this
+mode of sailing was no sooner made, than Mulford was induced to
+regret he had taken so many precautions against any increasing power
+of the wind. To meet emergencies, and under the notion he should
+have his craft more under command, the young man had reefed his
+mainsail, and taken the bonnets off of the foresail and jib. As the
+schooner stood up better than he had anticipated, the mate felt as
+all seamen are so apt to feel, when they see that their vessels
+might be made to perform more than is actually got out of them. As
+the breeze was fresh, however, he determined not to let out the
+reef; and the labour of lacing on the bonnets again was too great to
+be thought of just at that moment.
+
+We all find relief on getting in motion, when pressed by
+circumstances. Mulford had been in great apprehension of the
+re-appearance of the Swash all that day; for it was about the time
+when Spike would be apt to return, in the event of his escaping from
+the sloop-of-war, and he dreaded Rose's again falling into the hands
+of a man so desperate. Nor is it imputing more than a very natural
+care to the young man, to say that he had some misgivings concerning
+himself. Spike, by this time, must be convinced that his business in
+the Gulf was known; and one who had openly thrown off his service,
+as his mate had done, would unquestionably be regarded as a traitor
+to his interests, whatever might be the relation in which he would
+stand to the laws of the country. It was probable such an alleged
+offender would not be allowed to appear before the tribunals of the
+land, to justify himself and to accuse the truly guilty, if it were
+in the power of the last to prevent it. Great, therefore, was the
+satisfaction of our handsome young mate when he found himself again
+fairly in motion, with a craft under him, that glided ahead in a way
+to prove that she might give even the Swash some trouble to catch
+her, in the event of a trial of speed.
+
+Everybody entered into the feelings of Mulford, as the schooner
+passed gallantly out from between the islets, and entered the open
+water. Fathom by fathom did her wake rapidly increase, until it
+could no longer be traced back as far as the sandy beaches that had
+just been left. In a quarter of an hour more, the vessel had drawn
+so far from the land, that some of the smaller and lowest of the
+islets were getting to be indistinct. At that instant everybody had
+come aft, the females taking their seats on the trunk, which, in
+this vessel as in the Swash herself, gave space and height to the
+cabin.
+
+"Well," exclaimed Mrs. Budd, who found the freshness of the sea air
+invigorating, as well as their speed exciting, "this is what I call
+maritime, Rosy, dear. This is what is meant by the Maritime States,
+about which we read so much, and which are commonly thought to be so
+important. We are now in a Maritime State, and I feel perfectly
+happy after all our dangers and adventures!"
+
+"Yes, aunty, and I am delighted that you are happy," answered Rose,
+with frank affection. "We are now rid of that infamous Spike, and
+may hope never to see his face more."
+
+"Stephen Spike has his good p'ints as well as another," said Jack
+Tier, abruptly.
+
+"I know that he is an old shipmate of yours, Tier, and that you
+cannot forget how he once stood connected with you, and am sorry I
+have said so much against him," answered Rose, expressing her
+concern even more by her looks and tones, than by her words.
+
+Jack was mollified by this, and he let his feeling be seen, though
+he said no more than to mutter, "He's a willian!" words that had
+frequently issued from his lips within the last day or two.
+
+"Stephen Spike is a capital seaman, and that is something in any
+man," observed the relict of Captain Budd. "He learned his trade
+from one who was every way qualified to teach him, and it's no
+wonder he should be expert. Do you expect, Mr. Mulford, to beat the
+wind the whole distance to Key West?"
+
+It was not possible for any one to look more grave than the mate did
+habitually, while the widow was floundering through her sea-terms.
+Rose had taught him that respect for her aunt was to be one of the
+conditions of her own regard, though Rose had never opened her lips
+to him on the subject.
+
+"Yes, ma'am," answered the mate, respectfully, "we are in the
+trades, and shall have to turn to windward, every inch of the way to
+Key West."
+
+"Of what lock is this place the key, Rosy?" asked the aunt,
+innocently enough. "I know that forts and towns are sometimes called
+keys, but they always have locks of some sort or other. Now,
+Gibraltar is the key of the Mediterranean, as your uncle has told me
+fifty times; and I have been there, and can understand why it should
+be,--but I do not know of what lock this West is the key."
+
+"It is not that sort of key which is meant, aunty, at all--but quite
+a different thing. The key meant is an island."
+
+"And why should any one be so silly as to call an island a key?"
+
+"The place where vessels unload is sometimes called a key," answered
+Mulford;--"the French calling it a quai, and the Dutch kaye. I
+suppose our English word is derived from these. Now, a low, sandy
+island, looking somewhat like keys, or wharves, seamen have given
+them this name. Key West is merely a low island."
+
+"Then there is no lock to it, or anything to be unfastened," said
+the widow, in her most simple manner.
+
+"It may turn out to be the key to the Gulf of Mexico, one of these
+days, ma'am. Uncle Sam is surveying the reef, and intends to do
+something here, I believe. When Uncle Sam is really in earnest, he
+is capable of performing great things."
+
+Mrs. Budd was satisfied with this explanation, though she told Biddy
+that evening, that "locks and keys go together, and that the person
+who christened the island to which they were going, must have been
+very weak in his upper story." But these reflections on the
+intellects of her fellow-creatures were by no means uncommon with
+the worthy relict; and we cannot say that her remarks made any
+particular impression on her Irish maid.
+
+In the mean time, the Mexican schooner behaved quite to Mulford's
+satisfaction. He thought her a little tender in the squalls, of
+which they had several that afternoon; but he remarked to Rose, who
+expressed her uneasiness at the manner in which the vessel lay over
+in one of them, that "she comes down quite easy to her bearings, but
+it is hard forcing her beyond them. The vessel needs more cargo to
+ballast her, though, on the whole, I find her as stiff as one could
+expect. I am now glad that I reefed, and reduced the head sails,
+though I was sorry at having done so when we first came out. At this
+rate of sailing, we ought to be up with Key West by morning."
+
+But that rate of sailing did not continue. Toward evening, the
+breeze lessened almost to a calm again, the late tornado appearing
+to have quite deranged the ordinary stability of the trades. When
+the sun set, and it went down into the broad waters of the Gulf a
+flood of flame, there was barely a two-knot breeze, and Mulford had
+no longer any anxiety on the subject of keeping his vessel on her
+legs. His solicitude, now, was confined to the probability of
+falling in with the Swash. As yet, nothing was visible, either in
+the shape of land or in that of a sail. Between the islets of the
+Dry Tortugas and the next nearest visible keys, there is a space of
+open water, of some forty miles in width. The reef extends across
+it, of course; but nowhere does the rock protrude itself above the
+surface of the sea. The depth of water on this reef varies
+essentially. In some places, a ship of size might pass on to it, if
+not across it; while in others a man could wade for miles. There is
+one deep and safe channel--safe to those who are acquainted with
+it--through the centre of this open space, and which is sometimes
+used by vessels that wish to pass from one side to the other; but it
+is ever better for those whose business does not call them in that
+direction, to give the rocks a good berth, more especially in the
+night.
+
+Mulford had gleaned many of the leading facts connected with the
+channels, and the navigation of those waters, from Spike and the
+older seamen of the brig, during the time they had been lying at the
+Tortugas. Such questions and answers are common enough on board
+ships, and, as they are usually put and given with intelligence, one
+of our mate's general knowledge of his profession, was likely to
+carry away much useful information. By conversations of this nature,
+and by consulting the charts, which Spike did not affect to conceal
+after the name of his port became known, the young man, in fact, had
+so far made himself master of the subject, as to have tolerably
+accurate notions of the courses, distances, and general
+peculiarities of the reef. When the sun went down, he supposed
+himself to be about half-way across the space of open water, and
+some five-and-twenty miles dead to windward of his port of
+departure. This was doing very well for the circumstances, and
+Mulford believed himself and his companions clear of spike, when, as
+night drew its veil over the tranquil sea, nothing was in sight.
+
+A very judicious arrangement was made for the watches on board the
+Mexican schooner, on this important night. Mrs. Budd had a great
+fancy to keep a watch, for once in her life, and, after the party
+had supped, and the subject came up in the natural course of things,
+a dialogue like this occurred:
+
+"Harry must be fatigued," said Rose, kindly, "and must want sleep.
+The wind is so light, and the weather appears to be so settled, that
+I think it would be better for him to `turn in,' as he calls
+it;"--here Rose laughed so prettily that the handsome mate wished
+she would repeat the words,--"better that he should `turn in' now,
+and we can call him, should there be need of his advice or
+assistance. I dare say Jack Tier and I can take very good care of
+the schooner until daylight."
+
+Mrs. Budd thought it would be no more than proper for one of her
+experience and years to rebuke this levity, as well as to enlighten
+the ignorance her niece had betrayed.
+
+"You should be cautious, my child, how you propose anything to be
+done on a ship's board," observed the aunt. "It requires great
+experience and a suitable knowledge of rigging to give maritime
+advice. Now, as might have been expected, considering your years,
+and the short time you have been at sea, you have made several
+serious mistakes in what you have proposed. In the first place,
+there should always be a mate on the deck, as I have heard your dear
+departed uncle say, again and again; and how can there be a mate on
+the deck if Mr. Mulford `turns in,' as you propose, seeing that he's
+the only mate we have. Then you should never laugh at any maritime
+expression, for each and all are, as a body might say, solemnized by
+storms and dangers. That Harry is fatigued I think is very probable;
+and he must set our watches, as they call it, when he can make his
+arrangements for the night, and take his rest as is usual. Here is
+my watch to begin with; and I'll engage he does not find it two
+minutes out of the way, though yours, Rosy dear, like most girl's
+time-pieces, is, I'll venture to say, dreadfully wrong. Where is
+your chronometer, Mr. Mulford? let us see how this excellent watch
+of mine, which was once my poor departed Mr. Budd's, will agree with
+that piece of your's, which I have heard you say is excellent."
+
+Here was a flight in science and nautical language that poor Mulford
+could not have anticipated, even in the captain's relict! That Mrs.
+Budd should mistake "setting the watch" for "setting our watches,"
+was not so very violent a blunder that one ought to be much
+astonished at it in her; but that she should expect to find a
+chronometer that was intended to keep the time of Greenwich,
+agreeing with a watch that was set for the time of New York,
+betrayed a degree of ignorance that the handsome mate was afraid
+Rose would resent on him, when the mistake was made to appear. As
+the widow held out her own watch for the comparison, however, he
+could not refuse to produce his own. By Mrs. Budd's watch it was
+past seven o'clock, while by his own, or the Greenwich-set
+chronometer, it was a little past twelve.
+
+"How very wrong your watch is, Mr. Mulford," cried the good lady,
+"notwithstanding all you have said in its favour. It's quite five
+hours too fast, I do declare; and now, Rosy dear, you see the
+importance of setting watches on a ship's board, as is done every
+evening, my departed husband has often told me."
+
+"Harry's must be what he calls a dog-watch, aunty," said Rose,
+laughing, though she scarce knew at what.
+
+"The watch goes, too," added the widow, raising the chronometer to
+her ear, "though it is so very wrong. Well, set it, Mr. Mulford;
+then we will set Rose's, which I'll engage is half an hour out of
+the way, though it can never be as wrong as yours."
+
+Mulford was a good deal embarrassed, but he gained courage by
+looking at Rose, who appeared to him to be quite as much mystified
+as her aunt. For once he hoped Rose was ignorant; for nothing would
+be so likely to diminish the feeling produced by the exposure of the
+aunt's mistake, as to include the niece in the same category.
+
+"My watch is a chronometer, you will recollect, Mrs. Budd," said the
+young man.
+
+"I know it; and they ought to keep the very best time--that I've
+always heard. My poor Mr. Budd had two, and they were as large as
+compasses, and sold for hundreds after his lamented decease."
+
+"They were ship's chronometers, but mine was made for the pocket. It
+is true, chronometers are intended to keep the most accurate time,
+and usually they do; this of mine, in particular, would not lose ten
+seconds in a twelvemonth, did I not carry it on my person."
+
+"No, no, it does not seem to lose any, Harry; it only gains," cried
+Rose, laughing.
+
+Mulford was now satisfied, notwithstanding all that had passed on a
+previous occasion, that the laughing, bright-eyed, and quick-witted
+girl at his elbow, knew no more of the uses of a chronometer than
+her unusually dull and ignorant aunt; and he felt himself relieved
+from all embarrassment at once. Though he dared not even seem to
+distrust Mrs. Budd's intellect or knowledge before Rose, he did not
+scruple to laugh at Rose herself, to Rose. With her there was no
+jealousy on the score of capacity, her quickness being almost as
+obvious to all who approached her as her beauty.
+
+"Rose Budd, you do not understand the uses of a chronometer, I see,"
+said the mate, firmly, "notwithstanding all I have told you
+concerning them."
+
+"It is to keep time, Harry Mulford, is it not?"
+
+"True, to keep time--but to keep the time of a particular meridian;
+you know what meridian means, I hope?"
+
+Rose looked intently at her lover, and she looked singularly lovely,
+for she blushed slightly, though her smile was as open and amicable
+as ingenuousness and affection could make it.
+
+"A meridian means a point over our heads--the spot where the sun is
+at noon," said Rose, doubtingly.
+
+"Quite right; but it also means longitude, in one sense. If you draw
+a line from one pole to the other, all the places it crosses are on
+the same meridian. As the sun first appears in the east, it follows
+that he rises sooner in places that are east, than in places that
+are further west. Thus it is, that at Greenwich, in England, where
+there is an observatory made for nautical purposes, the sun rises
+about five hours sooner than it does here. All this difference is
+subject to rules, and we know exactly how to measure it."
+
+"How can that be, Harry? You told me this but the other day, yet
+have I forgotten it."
+
+"Quite easily. As the earth turns round in just twenty-four hours,
+and its circumference is divided into three hundred and sixty equal
+parts, called degrees, we have only to divide 360 by 24, to know how
+many of these degrees are included in the difference produced by one
+hour of time. There are just fifteen of them, as you will find by
+multiplying 24 by 15. It follows that the sun rises just one hour
+later, each fifteen degrees of longitude, as you go west, or one
+hour earlier each fifteen degrees of longitude as you go east.
+Having ascertained the difference by the hour, it is easy enough to
+calculate for the minutes and seconds."
+
+"Yes, yes," said Rose, eagerly, "I see all that--go on."
+
+"Now a chronometer is nothing but a watch, made with great care, so
+as not to lose or gain more than a few seconds in a twelvemonth. Its
+whole merit is in keeping time accurately."
+
+"Still I do not see how that can be anything more than a very good
+watch."
+
+"You will see in a minute, Rose. For purposes that you will
+presently understand, books are calculated for certain meridians, or
+longitudes, as at Greenwich and Paris, and those who use the books
+calculated for Greenwich, get their chronometers set at Greenwich,
+and those who use the Paris, get their chronometers set to Paris
+time. When I was last in England, I took this watch to Greenwich,
+and had it set at the Observatory by the true solar time. Ever since
+it has been running by that time, and what you see here is the true
+Greenwich time, after allowing for a second or two that it may have
+lost or gained."
+
+"All that is plain enough," said the much interested Rose--"but of
+what use is it all?"
+
+"To help mariners to find their longitude at sea, and thus know
+where they are. As the sun passes so far north, and so far south of
+the equator each year, it is easy enough to find the latitude, by
+observing his position at noon-day; but for a long time seamen had
+great difficulty in ascertaining their longitudes. That, too, is
+done by observing the different heavenly bodies, and with greater
+accuracy than by any other process; but this thought of measuring
+the time is very simple, and so easily put in practice, that we all
+run by it now."
+
+"Still I cannot understand it," said Rose, looking so intently, so
+eagerly, and so intelligently into the handsome mate's eyes, that he
+found it was pleasant to teach her other things besides how to love.
+
+"I will explain it. Having the Greenwich time in the watch, we
+observe the sun, in order to ascertain the true time, wherever we
+may happen to be. It is a simple thing to ascertain the true time of
+day by an observation of the sun, which marks the hours in his
+track; and when we get our observation, we have some one to note the
+time at a particular instant on the chronometer. By noting the hour,
+minutes, and seconds, at Greenwich, at the very instant we observe
+here, when we have calculated from that observation the time here,
+we have only to add, or subtract, the time here from that of
+Greenwich, to know precisely how far east or west we are from
+Greenwich, which gives us our longitude."
+
+"I begin to comprehend it again," exclaimed Rose, delighted at the
+acquisition in knowledge she had just made. "How beautiful it is,
+yet how simple--but why do I forget it?"
+
+"Perfectly simple, and perfectly sure, too, when the chronometer is
+accurate, and the observations are nicely made. It is seldom we are
+more than eight or ten miles out of the way, and for them we keep a
+look-out. It is only to ascertain the time where you are, by means
+that are easily used, then look at your watch to learn the time of
+day at Greenwich, or any other meridian you may have selected, and
+to calculate your distance, east or west, from that meridian, by the
+difference in the two times."
+
+Rose could have listened all night, for her quick mind readily
+comprehended the principle which lies at the bottom of this useful
+process, though still ignorant of some of the details. This time she
+was determined to secure her acquisition, though it is quite
+probable that, woman-like, they were once more lost, almost as
+easily as made. Mulford, however, was obliged to leave her, to look
+at the vessel, before he stretched himself on the deck, in an old
+sail; it having been previously determined that he should sleep
+first, while the wind was light, and that Jack Tier, assisted by the
+females, should keep the first watch. Rose would not detain the
+mate, therefore, but let him go his way, in order to see that all
+was right before he took his rest.
+
+Mrs. Budd had listened to Mulford's second explanation of the common
+mode of ascertaining the longitude, with all the attention of which
+she was capable; but it far exceeded the powers of her mind to
+comprehend it. There are persons who accustom themselves to think so
+superficially, that it becomes a painful process to attempt to dive
+into any of the arcana of nature, and who ever turn from such
+investigations wearied and disgusted. Many of these persons, perhaps
+most of them, need only a little patience and perseverance to
+comprehend all the more familiar phenomena, but they cannot command
+even that much of the two qualities named to obtain the knowledge
+they would fain wish to possess. Mrs. Budd did not belong to a
+division as high in the intellectual scale as even this vapid class.
+Her intellect was unequal to embracing anything of an abstracted
+character, and only received the most obvious impressions, and those
+quite half the time it received wrong. The mate's reasoning,
+therefore, was not only inexplicable to her, but it sounded absurd
+and impossible.
+
+"Rosy, dear," said the worthy relict, as soon as she saw Mulford
+stretch his fine frame on his bed of canvas, speaking at the same
+time in a low, confidential tone to her niece, "what was it that
+Harry was telling you a little while ago? It sounded to me like rank
+nonsense; and men will talk nonsense to young girls, as I have so
+often warned you, child. You must never listen to their nonsense,
+Rosy; but remember your catechism and confirmation vow, and be a
+good girl."
+
+To how many of the feeble-minded and erring do those offices of the
+church prove a stay and support, when their own ordinary powers of
+resistance would fail them! Rose, however, viewed the matter just as
+it was, and answered accordingly.
+
+"But this was nothing of that nature, aunty," she said, "and only an
+account of the mode of finding out where a ship is, when out of
+sight of land, in the middle of the ocean. We had the same subject
+up the other day."
+
+"And how did Harry tell you, this time, that was done, my dear?"
+
+"By finding the difference in the time of day between two
+places--just as he did before."
+
+"But there is no difference in the time of day, child, when the
+clocks go well."
+
+"Yes, there is, aunty dear, as the sun rises in one place before it
+does in another."
+
+"Rose you've been listening to nonsense now! Remember what I have so
+often told you about young men, and their way of talking. I admit
+Harry Mulford is a respectable youth, and has respectable
+connections, and since you like one another, you may have him, with
+all my heart, as soon as he gets a full-jiggered ship, for I am
+resolved no niece of my poor dear husband's shall ever marry a mate,
+or a captain even, unless he has a full-jiggered ship under his
+feet. But do not talk nonsense with him. Nonsense is nonsense,
+though a sensible man talks it. As for all this stuff about the time
+of day, you can see it is nonsense, as the sun rises but once in
+twenty-four hours, and of course there cannot be two times, as you
+call it."
+
+"But, aunty dear, it is not always noon at London when it is noon at
+New York."
+
+"Fiddle-faddle, child; noon is noon, and there are no more two noons
+than two suns, or two times. Distrust what young men tell you, Rosy,
+if you would be safe, though they should tell you you are handsome."
+
+Poor Rose sighed, and gave up the explanation in despair. Then a
+smile played around her pretty mouth. It was not at her aunt that
+she smiled; this she never permitted herself to do, weak as was that
+person, and weak as she saw her to be; she smiled at the
+recollection how often Mulford had hinted at her good looks--for
+Rose was a female, and had her own weaknesses, as well as another.
+But the necessity of acting soon drove these thoughts from her mind,
+and Rose sought Jack Tier, to confer with him on the subject of
+their new duties.
+
+As for Harry Mulford, his head was no sooner laid on its bunch of
+sail than he fell into a profound sleep. There he lay, slumbering as
+the seaman slumbers, with no sense of surrounding things. The
+immense fatigues of that and of the two preceding days,--for he had
+toiled at the pumps even long after night had come, until the vessel
+was clear,--weighed him down, and nature was now claiming her
+influence, and taking a respite from exertion. Had he been left to
+himself, it is probable the mate would not have arisen until the sun
+had reappeared some hours.
+
+It is now necessary to explain more minutely the precise condition,
+as well as the situation of the schooner. On quitting his port,
+Mulford had made a stretch of some two leagues in length, toward the
+northward and eastward, when he tacked and stood to the southward.
+There was enough of southing in the wind, to make his last course
+nearly due south. As he neared the reef, he found that he fell in
+some miles to the eastward of the islets,--proof that he was doing
+very well, and that there was no current to do him any material
+harm, if, indeed, there were not actually a current in his favour.
+He next tacked to the northward again, and stood in that direction
+until near night, when he once more went about. The wind was now so
+light that he saw little prospect of getting in with the reef again,
+until the return of day; but as he had left orders with Jack Tier to
+be called at twelve o'clock, at all events, this gave him no
+uneasiness. At the time when the mate lay down to take his rest,
+therefore, the schooner was quite five-and-twenty miles to windward
+of the Dry Tortugas, and some twenty miles to the northward of the
+Florida Reef, with the wind quite light at east-south-east. Such,
+then, was the position or situation of the schooner.
+
+As respects her condition, it is easily described. She had but the
+three sails bent,--mainsail, foresail, and jib. Her topmasts had
+been struck, and all the hamper that belonged to them was below. The
+mainsail was single reefed, and the foresail and jib were without
+their bonnets, as has already been mentioned. This was somewhat
+short canvas, but Mulford knew that it would render his craft more
+manageable in the event of a blow. Usually, at that season and in
+that region, the east trades prevailed with great steadiness,
+sometimes diverging a little south of east, as at present, and
+generally blowing fresh. But, for a short time previously to, and
+ever since the tornado, the wind had been unsettled, the old
+currents appearing to regain their ascendancy by fits, and then
+losing it, in squalls, contrary currents, and even by short calms.
+
+The conference between Jack Tier and Rose was frank and
+confidential.
+
+"We must depend mainly on you," said the latter, turning to look
+toward the spot where Mulford lay, buried in the deepest sleep that
+had ever gained power over him. "Harry is so fatigued! It would be
+shameful to awaken him a moment sooner than is necessary."
+
+"Ay, ay; so it is always with young women, when they lets a young
+man gain their ears," answered Jack, without the least
+circumlocution; "so it is, and so it always will be, I'm afeard.
+Nevertheless, men is willians."
+
+Rose was not affronted at this plain allusion to the power that
+Mulford had obtained over her feelings. It would seem that Jack had
+got to be so intimate in the cabins, that his sex was, in a measure,
+forgotten; and it is certain that his recent services were not.
+Without a question, but for his interference, the pretty Rose Budd
+would, at that moment, have been the prisoner of Spike, and most
+probably the victim of his design to compel her to marry him.
+
+"All men are not Stephen Spikes," said Rose, earnestly, "and least
+of all is Harry Mulford to be reckoned as one of his sort. But, we
+must manage to take care of the schooner the whole night, and let
+Harry get his rest. He wished to be called at twelve, but we can
+easily let the hour go by, and not awaken him."
+
+"The commanding officer ought not to be sarved so, Miss Rose. What
+he says is to be done."
+
+"I know it, Jack, as to ordinary matters; but Harry left these
+orders that we might have our share of rest, and for no other reason
+at all. And what is to prevent our having it? We are four, and can
+divide ourselves into two watches; one watch can sleep while the
+other keeps a look-out."
+
+"Ay, ay, and pretty watches they would be! There's Madam Budd, now;
+why, she's quite a navigator, and knows all about weerin' and
+haulin', and I dares to say could put the schooner about, to keep
+her off the reef, on a pinch; though which way the craft would come
+round, could best be told a'ter it has been done. It's as much as
+I'd undertake myself, Miss Rose, to take care of the schooner,
+should it come on to blow; and as for you, Madam Budd, and that
+squalling Irishwoman, you'd be no better than so many housewives
+ashore."
+
+"We have strength, and we have courage, and we can pull, as you have
+seen. I know very well which way to put the helm now, and Biddy is
+as strong as you are yourself, and could help me all I wished. Then
+we could always call you, at need, and have your assistance. Nay,
+Harry himself can be called, if there should be a real necessity for
+it, and I do wish he may not be disturbed until there is that
+necessity."
+
+It was with a good deal of reluctance that Jack allowed himself to
+be persuaded into this scheme. He insisted, for a long time, that an
+officer should be called at the hour mentioned by himself, and
+declared he had never known such an order neglected, "marchant-man,
+privateer, or man-of-war." Rose prevailed over his scruples,
+however, and there was a meeting of the three females to make the
+final arrangements. Mrs. Budd, a kind-hearted woman, at the worst,
+gave her assent most cheerfully, though Rose was a little startled
+with the nature of the reasoning, with which it was accompanied.
+
+"You are quite right, Rosy dear," said the aunt, "and the thing is
+very easily done. I've long wanted to keep one watch, at sea; just
+one watch; to complete my maritime education. Your poor uncle used
+to say, `Give my wife but one night-watch, and you'd have as good a
+seaman in her as heart could wish.' I'm sure I've had night-watches
+enough with him and his ailings; but it seems that they were not the
+sort of watches he meant. Indeed, I did n't know till this evening
+there were so many watches in the world, at all. But this is just
+what I want, and just what I'm resolved to have. Tier shall command
+one watch and I'll command the other. Jack's shall be the
+`dog-watch,' as they call it, and mine shall be the `middle-watch,'
+and last till morning. You shall be in Jack's watch, Rose, and Biddy
+shall be in mine. You know a good deal that Jack do n't know, and
+Biddy can do a good deal I'm rather too stout to do. I do n't like
+pulling ropes, but as for ordering, I'll turn my back on no
+captain's widow out of York."
+
+Rose had her own misgivings on the subject of her aunt's issuing
+orders on such a subject to any one, but she made the best of
+necessity, and completed the arrangements without further
+discussion. Her great anxiety was to secure a good night's rest for
+Harry, already feeling a woman's care in the comfort and ease of the
+man she loved. And Rose did love Harry Mulford warmly and sincerely.
+If the very decided preference with which she regarded him before
+they sailed, had not absolutely amounted to passion, it had come so
+very near it as to render that access of feeling certain, under the
+influence of the association and events which succeeded. We have not
+thought it necessary to relate a tithe of the interviews and
+intercourse that had taken place between the handsome mate and the
+pretty Rose Budd, during the month they had now been shipmates,
+having left the reader to imagine the natural course of things,
+under such circumstances. Nevertheless, the plighted troth had not
+been actually given until Harry joined her on the islet, at a moment
+when she fancied herself abandoned to a fate almost as serious as
+death. Rose had seen Mulford quit the brig, had watched the mode and
+manner of his escape, and in almost breathless amazement, and felt
+how dear to her he had become, by the glow of delight which warmed
+her heart, when assured that he could not, would not, forsake her,
+even though he remained at the risk of life. She was now, true to
+the instinct of her sex, mostly occupied in making such a return for
+an attachment so devoted as became her tenderness and the habits of
+her mind.
+
+As Mrs. Budd chose what she was pleased to term the `middle-watch,'
+giving to Jack Tier and Rose her `dog-watch,' the two last were
+first on duty. It is scarcely necessary to say, the captain's widow
+got the names of the watches all wrong, as she got the names of
+everything else about a vessel; but the plan was to divide the night
+equally between these quasi mariners, giving the first half to those
+who were first on the look-out, and the remainder to their
+successors. It soon became so calm, that Jack left the helm, and
+came and sat by Rose, on the trunk, where they conversed
+confidentially for a long time. Although the reader will, hereafter,
+be enabled to form some plausible conjectures on the subject of this
+dialogue, we shall give him no part of it here. All that need now be
+said, is to add, that Jack did most of the talking, that his past
+life was the principal theme, and that the terrible Stephen Spike,
+he from whom they were now so desirous of escaping, was largely
+mixed up with the adventures recounted. Jack found in his companion
+a deeply interested listener, although this was by no means the
+first time they had gone over together the same story and discussed
+the same events. The conversation lasted until Tier, who watched the
+glass, seeing that its sands had run out for the last time,
+announced the hour of midnight. This was the moment when Mulford
+should have been called, but when Mrs. Budd and Biddy Noon were
+actually awakened in his stead.
+
+"Now, dear aunty," said Rose, as she parted from the new watch to go
+and catch a little sleep herself, "remember you are not to awaken
+Harry first, but to call Tier and myself. It would have done your
+heart good to have seen how sweetly he has been sleeping all this
+time. I do not think he has stirred once since his head was laid on
+that bunch of sails, and there he is, at this moment, sleeping like
+an infant!"
+
+"Yes," returned the relict, "it is always so with your true maritime
+people. I have been sleeping a great deal more soundly, the whole of
+the dog-watch, than I ever slept at home, in my own excellent bed.
+But it's your watch below, Rosy, and contrary to rule for you to
+stay on the deck, after you've been relieved. I've heard this a
+thousand times."
+
+Rose was not sorry to lie down; and her head was scarcely on its
+pillow, in the cabin, before she was fast asleep. As for Jack, he
+found a place among Mulford's sails, and was quickly in the same
+state.
+
+To own the truth, Mrs. Budd was not quite as much at ease, in her
+new station, for the first half hour, as she had fancied to herself
+might prove to be the case. It was a flat calm, it is true; but the
+widow felt oppressed with responsibility and the novelty of her
+situation. Time and again had she said, and even imagined, she
+should be delighted to fill the very station she then occupied, or
+to be in charge of a deck, in a "middle watch." In this instance,
+however, as in so many others, reality did not equal anticipation.
+She wished to be doing everything, but did not know how to do
+anything. As for Biddy, she was even worse off than her mistress. A
+month's experience, or for that matter a twelvemonth's, could not
+unravel to her the mysteries of even a schooner's rigging. Mrs. Budd
+had placed her "at the wheel," as she called it, though the vessel
+had no wheel, being steered by a tiller on deck, in the 'long-shore
+fashion. In stationing Biddy, the widow told her that she was to
+play "tricks at the wheel," leaving it to the astounded Irish
+woman's imagination to discover what those tricks were. Failing in
+ascertaining what might be the nature of her "tricks at the wheel,"
+Biddy was content to do nothing, and nothing, under the
+circumstances, was perhaps the very best thing she could have done.
+
+Little was required to be done for the first four hours of Mrs.
+Budd's watch. All that time, Rose slept in her berth, and Mulford
+and Jack Tier on their sail, while Biddy had played the wheel a
+"trick," indeed, by lying down on deck, and sleeping, too, as
+soundly as if she were in the county Down itself. But there was to
+be an end of this tranquillity. Suddenly the wind began to blow. At
+first, the breeze came in fitful puffs, which were neither very
+strong nor very lasting. This induced Mrs. Budd to awaken Biddy.
+Luckily, a schooner without a topsail could not very well be taken
+aback, especially as the head-sheets worked on travellers, and Mrs.
+Budd and her assistant contrived to manage the tiller very well for
+the first hour that these varying puffs of wind lasted. It is true,
+the tiller was lashed, and it is also true, the schooner ran in all
+directions, having actually headed to all the cardinal points of the
+compass, under her present management. At length, Mrs. Budd became
+alarmed. A puff of wind came so strong, as to cause the vessel to
+lie over so far as to bring the water into the lee scuppers. She
+called Jack Tier herself, therefore, and sent Biddy down to awaken
+Rose. In a minute, both these auxiliaries appeared on deck. The wind
+just then lulled, and Rose, supposing her aunt was frightened at
+trifles, insisted on it that Harry should be permitted to sleep on.
+He had turned over once, in the course of the night, but not once
+had he raised his head from his pillow.
+
+As soon as reinforced, Mrs. Budd began to bustle about, and to give
+commands, such as they were, in order to prove that she was
+unterrified. Jack Tier gaped at her elbow, and by way of something
+to do, he laid his hand on the painter of the Swash's boat, which
+boat was towing astern, and remarked that "some know-nothing had
+belayed it with three half-hitches." This was enough for the relict.
+She had often heard the saying that "three half-hitches lost the
+king's long-boat," and she busied herself, at once, in repairing so
+imminent an evil. It was far easier for the good woman to talk than
+to act; she became what is called "all fingers and thumbs," and in
+loosening the third half-hitch, she cast off the two others. At that
+instant, a puff of wind struck the schooner again, and the end of
+the painter got away from the widow, who had a last glimpse at the
+boat, as the vessel darted ahead, leaving its little tender to
+vanish in the gloom of the night.
+
+Jack was excessively provoked at this accident, for he had foreseen
+the possibility of having recourse to that boat yet, in order to
+escape from Spike. By abandoning the schooner, and pulling on to the
+reef, it might have been possible to get out of their pursuer's
+hands, when all other means should fail them. As he was at the
+tiller, he put his helm up, and ran off, until far enough to leeward
+to be to the westward of the boat, when he might tack, fetch and
+recover it. Nevertheless, it now blew much harder than he liked, for
+the schooner seemed to be unusually tender. Had he had the force to
+do it, he would have brailed the foresail. He desired Rose to call
+Mulford, but she hesitated about complying.
+
+"Call him--call the mate, I say," cried out Jack, in a voice that
+proved how much he was in earnest. "These puffs come heavy, I can
+tell you, and they come often, too. Call him--call him, at once,
+Miss Rose, for it is time to tack if we wish to recover the boat.
+Tell him, too, to brail the foresail, while we are in stays--that's
+right; another call will start him up."
+
+The other call was given, aided by a gentle shake from Rose's hand.
+Harry was on his feet in a moment. A passing instant was necessary
+to clear his faculties, and to recover the tenor of his thoughts.
+During that instant, the mate heard Jack Tier's shrill cry of "Hard
+a-lee--get in that foresail--bear a-hand--in with it, I say!"
+
+The wind came rushing and roaring, and the flaps of the canvas were
+violent and heavy.
+
+"In with the foresail, I say," shouted Jack Tier. "She files round
+like a top, and will be off the wind on the other tack presently.
+Bear a-hand!--bear a-hand! It looks black as night to windward."
+
+Mulford then regained all his powers. He sprang to the fore-sheet,
+calling on the others for aid. The violent surges produced by the
+wind prevented his grasping the sheet as soon as he could wish, and
+the vessel whirled round on her heel, like a steed that is
+frightened. At that critical and dangerous instant, when the
+schooner was nearly without motion through the water, a squall
+struck the flattened sails, and bowed her down as the willow bends
+to the gale. Mrs. Budd and Biddy screamed as usual, and Jack shouted
+until his voice seemed cracked, to "let go the head-sheets." Mulford
+did make one leap forward, to execute this necessary office, when
+the inclining plane of the deck told him it was too late. The wind
+fairly howled for a minute, and over went the schooner, the remains
+of her cargo shifting as she capsized, in a way to bring her very
+nearly bottom upward.
+
+1. We suppress the names used by Mrs. Budd, out of delicacy to the
+individuals mentioned, who are still living.
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  Ay, fare you well, fair gentleman.
+
+As You Like it.
+
+While the tyro believes the vessel is about to capsize at every puff
+of wind, the practised seaman alone knows when danger truly besets
+him in this particular form. Thus it was with Harry Mulford, when
+the Mexican schooner went over, as related in the close of the
+preceding chapter. He felt no alarm until the danger actually came.
+Then, indeed, no one there was so quickly, or so thoroughly apprized
+of what the result would be, and he directed all his exertions to
+meet the exigency. While there was the smallest hope of success, he
+did not lessen, in the least, his endeavours to save the vessel;
+making almost superhuman efforts to cast off the fore-sheet, so as
+to relieve the schooner from the pressure of one of her sails. But,
+no sooner did he hear the barrels in the hold surging to leeward,
+and feel by the inclination of the deck beneath his feet, that
+nothing could save the craft, than he abandoned the sheet, and
+sprang to the assistance of Rose. It was time he did; for, having
+followed him into the vessel's lee-waist, she was the first to be
+submerged in the sea, and would have been hopelessly drowned, but
+for Mulford's timely succour. Women might swim more readily than
+men, and do so swim, in those portions of the world where the laws
+of nature are not counteracted by human conventions. Rose Budd,
+however, had received the vicious education which civilized society
+inflicts on her sex, and, as a matter of course, was totally
+helpless in an element in which it was the design of Divine
+Providence she should possess the common means of sustaining
+herself, like every other being endued with animal life. Not so with
+Mulford: he swam with ease and force, and had no difficulty in
+sustaining Rose until the schooner had settled into her new berth,
+or in hauling her on the vessel's bottom immediately after.
+
+Luckily, there was no swell, or so little as not to endanger those
+who were on the schooner's bilge; and Mulford had no sooner placed
+her in momentary safety at least, whom he prized far higher than his
+own life, than he bethought him of his other companions. Jack Tier
+had hauled himself up to windward by the rope that steadied the
+tiller, and he had called on Mrs. Budd to imitate his example. It
+was so natural for even a woman to grasp anything like a rope at
+such a moment, that the widow instinctively obeyed, while Biddy
+seized, at random, the first thing of the sort that offered. Owing
+to these fortunate chances, Jack and Mrs. Budd succeeded in reaching
+the quarter of the schooner, the former actually getting up on the
+bottom of the wreck, on to which he was enabled to float the widow,
+who was almost as buoyant as cork, as indeed was the case with Jack
+himself. All the stern and bows of the vessel were under water, in
+consequence of her leanness forward and aft; but though submerged,
+she offered a precarious footing, even in these extremities, to such
+as could reach them. On the other hand, the place where Rose stood,
+or the bilge of the vessel, was two or three feet above the surface
+of the sea, though slippery and inclining in shape.
+
+It was not half a minute from the time that Mulford sprang to Rose's
+succour, ere he had her on the vessel's bottom. In another half
+minute, he had waded down on the schooner's counter, where Jack Tier
+was lustily calling to him for "help!" and assisted the widow to her
+feet, and supported her until she stood at Rose's side. Leaving the
+last in her aunt's arms, half distracted between dread and joy, he
+turned to the assistance of Biddy. The rope at which the Irish woman
+had caught, was a straggling end that had been made fast to the main
+channels of the schooner, for the support of a fender, and had been
+hauled partly in-board to keep it out of the water. Biddy had found
+no difficulty in dragging herself up to the chains, therefore; and
+had she been content to sustain herself by the rope, leaving as much
+of her body submerged as comported with breathing, her task would
+have been easy. But, like most persons who do not know how to swim,
+the good woman was fast exhausting her strength, by vain efforts to
+walk on the surface of an element that was never made to sustain
+her. Unpractised persons, in such situations, cannot be taught to
+believe that their greatest safety is in leaving as much of their
+bodies as possible beneath the water, keeping the mouth and nose
+alone free for breath. But we have seen even instances in which men,
+who were in danger of drowning, seemed to believe it might be
+possible for them to craw! over the waves on their hands and knees.
+The philosophy of the contrary course is so very simple, that one
+would fancy a very child might be made to comprehend it; yet, it is
+rare to find one unaccustomed to the water, and who is suddenly
+exposed to its dangers, that does not resort, under the pressure of
+present alarm, to the very reverse of the true means to save his or
+her life.
+
+Mulford had no difficulty in finding Bridget, whose exclamations of
+"murther!" "help!" "he-l-lup!" "Jasus!" and other similar cries, led
+him directly to the spot, where she was fast drowning herself by her
+own senseless struggles. Seizing her by the arm, the active young
+mate soon placed her on her feet, though her cries did not cease
+until she was ordered by her mistress to keep silence.
+
+Having thus rescued the whole of his companions from immediate
+danger, Mulford began to think of the future. He was seized with
+sudden surprise that the vessel did not sink, and for a minute he
+was unable to account for the unusual fact. On the former occasion,
+the schooner had gone down almost as soon as she fell over; but now
+she floated with so much buoyancy as to leave most of her keel and
+all of her bilge on one side quite clear of the water. As one of the
+main hatches was off, and the cabin-doors, and booby-hatch doors
+forward were open, and all were under water, it required a little
+reflection on the part of Mulford to understand on what circumstance
+all their lives now depended. The mate soon ascertained the truth,
+however, and we may as well explain it to the reader in our own
+fashion, in order to put him on a level with the young seaman.
+
+The puff of wind, or little squall, had struck the schooner at the
+most unfavourable moment for her safety. She had just lost her way
+in tacking, and the hull not moving ahead, as happens when a craft
+is thus assailed with the motion on her, all the power of the wind
+was expended in the direction necessary to capsize her. Another
+disadvantage arose from the want of motion. The rudder, which acts
+solely by pressing against the water as the vessel meets it, was
+useless, and it was not possible to luff, and throw the wind from
+the sails, as is usually practised by fore-and-aft rigged craft, in
+moments of such peril. In consequence of these united difficulties,
+the shifting of the cargo in the hold, the tenderness of the craft
+itself, and the force of the squall, the schooner had gone so far
+over as to carry all three of the openings to her interior suddenly
+under water, where they remained, held by the pressure of the cargo
+that had rolled to leeward. Had not the water completely covered
+these openings, or hatches, the schooner must have sunk in a minute
+or two, or by the time Mulford had got all his companions safe on
+her bilge. But they were completely submerged, and so continued to
+be, which circumstance alone prevented the vessel from sinking, as
+the following simple explanation will show.
+
+Any person who will put an empty tumbler, bottom upwards, into a
+bucket of water, will find that the water will not rise within the
+tumbler more than an inch at most. At that point it is arrested by
+the resistance of the air, which, unable to escape, and compressed
+into a narrow compass, forms a body that the other fluid cannot
+penetrate. It is on this simple and familiar principle, that the
+chemist keeps his gases, in inverted glasses, placing them on
+shelves, slightly submerged in water. Thus it was, then, that the
+schooner continued to float, though nearly bottom upward, and with
+three inlets open, by which the water could and did penetrate. A
+considerable quantity of the element had rushed in at the instant of
+capsizing, but meeting with resistance from the compressed and pent
+air, its progress had been arrested, and the wreck continued to
+float, sustained by the buoyancy that was imparted to it, in
+containing so large a body of a substance no heavier than
+atmospheric air. After displacing its weight of water, enough of
+buoyancy remained to raise the keel a few feet above the level of
+the sea.
+
+As soon as Mulford had ascertained the facts of their situation, he
+communicated them to his companions, encouraging them to hope for
+eventual safety. It was true, their situation was nearly desperate,
+admitting that the wreck should continue to float for ever, since
+they were almost without food, or anything to drink, and had no
+means of urging the hull through the water. They must float, too, at
+the mercy of the winds and waves, and should a sea get up, it might
+soon be impossible for Mulford himself to maintain his footing on
+the bottom of the wreck. All this the young man had dimly shadowed
+forth to him, through his professional experience; but the certainty
+of the vessel's not sinking immediately had so far revived his
+spirits, as to cause him to look on the bright side of the future,
+pale as that glimmering of hope was made to appear whenever reason
+cast one of its severe glances athwart it.
+
+Harry had no difficulty in making Rose comprehend their precise
+situation. Her active and clear mind understood at once the causes
+of their present preservation, and most of the hazards of the
+future. It was not so with Jack Tier. He was composed, even
+resigned; but he could not see the reason why the schooner still
+floated.
+
+"I know that the cabin-doors were open," he said, "and if they
+wasn't, of no great matter would it be, since the joints ar'n't
+caulked, and the water would run through them as through a sieve.
+I'm afeard, Mr. Mulford, we shall find the wreck going from under
+our feet afore long, and when we least wish it, perhaps."
+
+"I tell you the wreck will float so long as the air remains in its
+hold," returned the mate, cheerfully. "Do you not see how buoyant it
+is?--the certain proof that there is plenty of air within. So long
+as that remains, the hull must float."
+
+"I've always understood," said Jack, sticking to his opinion, "that
+wessels floats by vartue of water, and not by vartue of air; and,
+that when the water gets on the wrong side on 'em, there's little
+hope left of keepin' 'em up."
+
+"What has become of the boat?" suddenly cried the mate. "I have been
+so much occupied as to have forgotten the boat. In that boat we
+might all of us still reach Key West. I see nothing of the boat!"
+
+A profound silence succeeded this sudden and unexpected question.
+All knew that the boat was gone, and all knew that it had been lost
+by the widow's pertinacity and clumsiness; but no one felt disposed
+to betray her at that grave moment. Mulford left the bilge, and
+waded as far aft as it was at all prudent for him to proceed, in the
+vain hope that the boat might be there, fastened by its painter to
+the schooner's tafferel, as he had left it, but concealed from view
+by the darkness of the night. Not finding what he was after, he
+returned to his companions, still uttering exclamations of surprise
+at the unaccountable loss of the boat. Rose now told him that the
+boat had got adrift some ten or fifteen minutes before the accident
+befell them, and that they were actually endeavouring to recover it
+when the squall which capsized the schooner struck them.
+
+"And why did you not call me, Rose?" asked Harry, with a little of
+gentle reproach in his manner. "It must have soon been my watch on
+deck, and it would have been better that I should lose half an hour
+of my watch below, than that we should lose the boat."
+
+Rose was now obliged to confess that the time for calling him had
+long been past, and that the faint streak of light, which was just
+appearing in the east, was the near approach of day. This
+explanation was made gently, but frankly; and Mulford experienced a
+glow of pleasure at his heart, even in that moment of jeopardy, when
+he understood Rose's motive for not having him disturbed. As the
+boat was gone, with little or no prospect of its being recovered
+again, no more was said about it; and the window, who had stood on
+thorns the while, had the relief of believing that her awkwardness
+was forgotten.
+
+It was such a relief from an imminent danger to have escaped from
+drowning when the schooner capsized, that those on her bottom did
+not, for some little time, realize all the terrors of their actual
+situation. The inconvenience of being wet was a trifle not to be
+thought of, and, in fact, the light summer dresses worn by all,
+linen or cotton as they were entirely, were soon effectually dried
+in the wind. The keel made a tolerably convenient seat, and the
+whole party placed themselves on it to await the return of day, in
+order to obtain a view of all that their situation offered in the
+way of a prospect. While thus awaiting, a broken and short dialogue
+occurred.
+
+"Had you stood to the northward the whole night?" asked Mulford,
+gloomily, of Jack Tier; for gloomily he began to feel, as all the
+facts of their case began to press more closely on his mind. "If so,
+we must be well off the reef, and out of the track of wreckers and
+turtlers. How had you the wind, and how did you head before the
+accident happened?"
+
+"The wind was light the whole time, and for some hours it was nearly
+calm," answered Jack, in the same vein; "I kept the schooner's head
+to the nor'ard, until I thought we were getting too far off our
+course, and then I put her about. I do not think we could have been
+any great distance from the reef, when the boat got away from us,
+and I suppose we are in its neighbourhood now, for I was tacking to
+fall in with the boat when the craft went over."
+
+"To fall in with the boat! Did you keep off to leeward of it, then,
+that you expected to fetch it by tacking?"
+
+"Ay, a good bit; and I think the boat is now away here to windward
+of us, drifting athwart our bows."
+
+This was important news to Mulford. Could he only get that boat, the
+chances of being saved would be increased a hundred fold, nay, would
+almost amount to a certainty; whereas, so long as the wind held to
+the southward and eastward, the drift of the wreck must be toward
+the open water, and consequently so much the further removed from
+the means of succor. The general direction of the trades, in that
+quarter of the world, is east, and should they get round into their
+old and proper quarter, it would not benefit them much; for the reef
+running south-west, they could scarcely hope to hit the Dry Tortugas
+again, in their drift, were life even spared them sufficiently long
+to float the distance. Then there might be currents, about which
+Mulford knew nothing with certainty; they might set them in any
+direction; and did they exist, as was almost sure to be the case,
+were much more powerful than the wind in controlling the movements
+of a wreck.
+
+The mate strained his eyes in the direction pointed out by Jack
+Tier, in the hope of discovering the boat through the haze of the
+morning, and he actually did discern something that, it appeared to
+him, might be the much desired little craft. If he were right, there
+was every reason to think the boat would drift down so near them as
+to enable him to recover it by swimming. This cheering intelligence
+was communicated to his companions, who received it with gratitude
+and delight. But the approach of day gradually dispelled that hope,
+the object which Mulford had mistaken for the boat, within two
+hundred yards of the wreck, turning out to be a small, low, but bare
+hummock of the reef, at a distance of more than two miles.
+
+"That is a proof that we are not far from the reef, at least," cried
+Mulford, willing to encourage those around him all he could, and
+really much relieved at finding himself so near even this isolated
+fragment of terra firma. "This fact is the next encouraging thing to
+finding ourselves near the boat, or to falling in with a sail."
+
+"Ay, ay," said Jack, gloomily; "boat or no boat, 't will make no
+great matter of difference now. There's customers that'll be sartain
+to take all the grists you can send to their mill."
+
+"What things are those glancing about the vessel?" cried Rose,
+almost in the same breath; "those dark, sharp-looking sticks--see,
+there are five or six of them! and they move as if fastened to
+something under the water that pulls them about."
+
+"Them's the customers I mean, Miss Rose," answered Jack, in the same
+strain as that in which he had first spoken; "they're the same thing
+at sea as lawyers be ashore, and seem made to live on other folks.
+Them's sharks."
+
+"And yonder is truly the boat!" added Mulford, with a sigh that
+almost amounted to a groan. The light had, by this time, so far
+returned as to enable the party not only to see the fins of half a
+dozen sharks, which were already prowling about the wreck, the
+almost necessary consequence of their proximity to a reef in that
+latitude, but actually to discern the boat drifting down toward
+them, at a distance that promised to carry it past, within the reach
+of Mulford's powers of swimming, though not as near as he could have
+wished, even under more favourable circumstances. Had their
+extremity been greater, or had Rose begun to suffer from hunger or
+thirst, Mulford might have attempted the experiment of endeavoring
+to regain the boat, though the chances of death by means of the
+sharks would be more than equal to those of escape; but still fresh,
+and not yet feeling even the heat of the sun of that low latitude,
+he was not quite goaded into such an act of desperation. All that
+remained for the party, therefore, was to sit on the keel of the
+wreck, and gaze with longing eyes at a little object floating past,
+which, once at their command, might so readily be made to save them
+from a fate that already began to appear terrible in the
+perspective. Near an hour was thus consumed, ere the boat was about
+half a mile to leeward; during which scarcely an eye was turned from
+it for one instant, or a word was spoken.
+
+"It is beyond my reach now," Mulford at length exclaimed, sighing
+heavily, like one who became conscious of some great and
+irretrievable loss. "Were there no sharks, I could hardly venture to
+attempt swimming so far, with the boat drifting from me at the same
+time."
+
+"I should never consent to let you make the trial, Harry," murmured
+Rose, "though it were only half as far."
+
+Another pause succeeded.
+
+"We have now the light of day," resumed the mate, a minute or two
+later, "and may see our true situation. No sail is in sight, and the
+wind stands steadily in its old quarter. Still I do not think we
+leave the reef. There, you may see breakers off here at the
+southward, and it seems as if more rocks rise above the sea, in that
+direction. I do not know that our situation would be any the better,
+however, were we actually on them, instead of being on this floating
+wreck."
+
+"The rocks will never sink," said Jack Tier, with so much emphasis
+as to startle the listeners.
+
+"I do not think this hull will sink until we are taken off it, or
+are beyond caring whether it sink or swim," returned Mulford.
+
+"I do not know that, Mr. Mulford. Nothing keeps us up but the air in
+the hold, you say."
+
+"Certainly not; but that air will suffice as long as it remains
+there."
+
+"And what do you call these things?" rejoined the assistant steward,
+pointing at the water near him, in or on which no one else saw
+anything worthy of attention.
+
+Mulford, however, was not satisfied with a cursory glance, but went
+nearer to the spot where Tier was standing. Then, indeed, he saw to
+what the steward alluded, and was impressed by it, though he said
+nothing. Hundreds of little bubbles rose to the surface of the
+water, much as one sees them rising in springs. These bubbles are
+often met with in lakes and other comparatively shallow waters, but
+they are rarely seen in those of the ocean. The mate understood, at
+a glance, that those he now beheld were produced by the air which
+escaped from the hold of the wreck; in small quantities at a time,
+it was true, but by a constant and increasing process. The great
+pressure of the water forced this air through crevices so minute
+that, under ordinary circumstances, they would have proved
+impenetrable to this, as they were still to the other fluid, though
+they now permitted the passage of the former. It might take a long
+time to force the air from the interior of the vessel by such means,
+but the result was as certain as it might be slow. As constant
+dropping will wear a stone, so might the power that kept the wreck
+afloat be exhausted by the ceaseless rising of these minute
+air-bubbles.
+
+Although Mulford was entirely sensible of the nature of this new
+source of danger, we cannot say he was much affected by it at the
+moment. It seemed to him far more probable that they must die of
+exhaustion, long before the wreck would lose all of its buoyancy by
+this slow process, than that even the strongest of their number
+could survive for such a period. The new danger, therefore, lost
+most of its terrors under this view of the subject, though it
+certainly did not add to the small sense of security that remained,
+to know that inevitably their fate must be sealed through its
+agency, should they be able to hold out for a sufficient time
+against hunger and thirst. It caused Mulford to muse in silence for
+many more minutes.
+
+"I hope we are not altogether without food," the mate at length
+said. "It sometimes happens that persons at sea carry pieces of
+biscuit in their pockets, especially those who keep watch at night.
+The smallest morsel is now of the last importance."
+
+At this suggestion, every one set about an examination. The result
+was, that neither Mrs. Budd nor Rose had a particle of food, of any
+sort, about their persons. Biddy produced from her pockets, however,
+a whole biscuit, a large bunch of excellent raisins that she had
+filched from the steward's stores, and two apples,--the last being
+the remains of some fruit that Spike had procured a month earlier in
+New York. Mulford had half a biscuit, at which he had been
+accustomed to nibble in his watches; and Jack lugged out, along with
+a small plug of tobacco, a couple of sweet oranges. Here, then, was
+everything in the shape of victuals or drink, that could be found
+for the use of five persons, in all probability for many days. The
+importance of securing it for equal distribution, was so obvious,
+that Mulford's proposal to do so met with a common assent. The whole
+was put in Mrs. Budd's bag, and she was intrusted with the keeping
+of this precious store.
+
+"It may be harder to abstain from food at first, when we have not
+suffered from its want, than it will become after a little
+endurance," said the mate. "We are now strong, and it will be wiser
+to fast as long as we conveniently can, to-day, and relieve our
+hunger by a moderate allowance toward evening, than to waste our
+means by too much indulgence at a time when we are strong. Weakness
+will be sure to come if we remain long on the wreck."
+
+"Have you ever suffered in this way, Harry?" demanded Rose, with
+interest.
+
+"I have, and that dreadfully. But a merciful Providence came to my
+rescue then, and it may not fail me now. The seaman is accustomed to
+carry his life in his hand, and to live on the edge of eternity."
+
+The truth of this was so apparent as to produce a thoughtful
+silence. Anxious glances were cast around the horizon from time to
+time, in quest of any sail that might come in sight, but uselessly.
+None appeared, and the day advanced without bringing the slightest
+prospect of relief. Mulford could see, by the now almost sunken
+hummocks, that they were slowly drifting along the reef, toward the
+southward and eastward, a current no doubt acting slightly from the
+north-west. Their proximity to the reef, however, was of no
+advantage, as the distance was still so great as to render any
+attempt to reach it, even on the part of the mate, unavailable. Nor
+would he have been any better off could he have gained a spot on the
+rocks that was shallow enough to admit of his walking, since wading
+about in such a place would have been less desirable than to be
+floating where he was.
+
+The want of water to drink threatened to be the great evil. Of this,
+the party on the wreck had not a single drop! As the warmth of the
+day was added to the feverish feeling produced by excitement, they
+all experienced thirst, though no one murmured. So utterly without
+means of relieving this necessity did each person know them all to
+be, that no one spoke on the subject at all. In fact, shipwreck
+never produced a more complete destitution of all the ordinary
+agents of helping themselves, in any form or manner, than was the
+case here. So sudden and complete had been the disaster, that not a
+single article, beyond those on the persons of the sufferers, came
+even in view. The masts, sails, rigging, spare spars, in a word,
+everything belonging to the vessel was submerged and hidden from
+their sight, with the exception of a portion of the vessel's bottom,
+which might be forty feet in length, and some ten or fifteen in
+width, including that which was above water on both sides of the
+keel, though one only of these sides was available to the females,
+as a place to move about on. Had Mulford only a boat-hook, he would
+have felt it a relief; for not only did the sharks increase in
+number, but they grew more audacious, swimming so near the wreck
+that, more than once, Mulford apprehended that some one of the
+boldest of them might make an effort literally to board them. It is
+true, he had never known of one of these fishes attempting to quit
+his own element in pursuit of his prey; but such things were
+reported, and those around the wreck swam so close, and seemed so
+eager to get at those who were on it, that there really might be
+some excuse for fancying they might resort to unusual means of
+effecting their object. It is probable that, like all other animals,
+they were emboldened by their own numbers, and were acting in a sort
+of concert, that was governed by some of the many mysterious laws of
+nature that have still escaped human observation.
+
+Thus passed the earlier hours of that appalling day. Toward noon,
+Mulford had insisted on the females dividing one of the oranges
+between them, and extracting its juice by way of assuaging their
+thirst. The effect was most grateful, as all admitted, and even Mrs.
+Budd urged Harry and Tier to take a portion of the remaining orange;
+but this both steadily refused. Mulford did consent to receive a
+small portion of one of the apples, more with a view of moistening
+his throat than to appease his hunger, though it had, in a slight
+degree, the latter effect also. As for Jack Tier, he declined even
+the morsel of apple, saying that tobacco answered his purpose, as
+indeed it temporarily might.
+
+It was near sunset, when the steward's assistant called Mulford
+aside, and whispered to him that he had something private to
+communicate. The mate bade him say on, as they were out of ear-shot
+of their companions.
+
+"I've been in sitiations like this afore," said Jack, "and one
+l'arns exper'ence by exper'ence. I know how cruel it is on the
+feelin's to have the hopes disapp'inted in these cases, and
+therefore shall proceed with caution. But, Mr. Mulford, there's a
+sail in sight, if there is a drop of water in the Gulf!"
+
+"A sail, Jack! I trust in Heaven you are not deceived!"
+
+"Old eyes are true eyes in such matters, sir. Be careful not to
+start the women. They go off like gunpowder, and, Lord help 'em!
+have no more command over themselves, when you loosen 'em once, than
+so many flying-fish with a dozen dolphins a'ter them. Look hereaway,
+sir, just clear of the Irishwoman's bonnet, a little broad off the
+spot where the reef was last seen--if that an't a sail, my flame is
+not Jack Tier."
+
+A sail there was, sure enough! It was so very distant, however, as
+to render its character still uncertain, though Mulford fancied it
+was a square-rigged vessel heading to the northward. By its
+position, it must be in one of the channels of the reef, and by its
+course, if he were not deceived, it was standing through, from the
+main passage along the southern side of the rocks, to come out on
+the northern. All this was favourable, and at first the young mate
+felt such a throbbing of the heart as we all experience when great
+and unexpected good intelligence is received. A moment's reflection,
+however, made him aware how little was to be hoped for from this
+vessel. In the first place, her distance was so great as to render
+it uncertain even which way she was steering. Then, there was the
+probability that she would pass at so great a distance as to render
+it impossible to perceive an object as low as the wreck, and the
+additional chance of her passing in the night. Under all the
+circumstances, therefore, Mulford felt convinced that there was very
+little probability of their receiving any succour from the strange
+sail; and he fully appreciated Jack Tier's motive in forbearing to
+give the usual call of "Sail, ho!" when he made this discovery.
+Still, he could not deny himself the pleasure of communicating to
+Rose the cheering fact that a vessel was actually in sight. She
+could not reason on the circumstances as he had done, and might at
+least pass several hours of comparative happiness by believing that
+there was some visible chance of delivery.
+
+The females received the intelligence with very different degrees of
+hope. Rose was delighted. To her their rescue appeared an event so
+very probable now, that Harry Mulford almost regretted he had given
+rise to an expectation which he himself feared was to be
+disappointed. The feelings of Mrs. Budd were more suppressed. The
+wreck and her present situation were so completely at variance with
+all her former notions of the sea and its incidents, that she was
+almost dumb-founded, and feared either to speak or to think. Biddy
+differed from either of her mistresses--the young or the old; she
+appeared to have lost all hope, and her physical energy was fast
+giving way under her profound moral debility.
+
+From the return of light that day, Mulford had thought, if it were
+to prove that Providence had withdrawn its protecting hand from
+them, Biddy, who to all appearance ought to be the longest liver
+among the females at least, would be the first to sink under her
+sufferings. Such is the influence of moral causes on the mere
+animal.
+
+Rose saw the night shut in around them, amid the solemn solitude of
+the ocean, with a mingled sensation of awe and hope. She had prayed
+devoutly, and often, in the course of the preceding day, and her
+devotions had contributed to calm her spirits. Once or twice, while
+kneeling with her head bowed to the keel, she had raised her eyes
+toward Harry with a look of entreaty, as if she would implore him to
+humble his proud spirit and place himself at her side, and ask that
+succour from God which was so much needed, and which indeed it began
+most seriously to appear that God alone could yield. The young mate
+did not comply, for his pride of profession and of manhood offered
+themselves as stumbling-blocks to prevent submission to his secret
+wishes. Though he rarely prayed, Harry Mulford was far from being an
+unbeliever, or one altogether regardless of his duties and
+obligations to his Divine Creator. On the contrary, his heart was
+more disposed to resort to such means of self-abasement and
+submission, than he put in practice, and this because he had been
+taught to believe that the Anglo-Saxon mariner did not call on
+Hercules, on every occasion of difficulty and distress that
+occurred, as was the fashion with the Italian and Romish seamen, but
+he put his own shoulder to the wheel, confident that Hercules would
+not forget to help him who knew how to help himself. But Harry had
+great difficulty in withstanding Rose's silent appeal that evening,
+as she knelt at the keel for the last time, and turned her gentle
+eyes upward at him, as if to ask him once more to take his place at
+her side. Withstand the appeal he did, however, though in his inward
+spirit he prayed fervently to God to put away this dreadful
+affliction from the young and innocent creature before him. When
+these evening devotions were ended, the whole party became
+thoughtful and silent.
+
+It was necessary to sleep, and arrangements were made to do so, if
+possible, with a proper regard for their security. Mulford and Tier
+were to have the look-out, watch and watch. This was done that no
+vessel might pass near them unseen, and that any change in the
+weather might be noted and looked to. As it was, the wind had
+fallen, and seemed about to vary, though it yet stood in its old
+quarter, or a little more easterly, perhaps. As a consequence, the
+drift of the wreck, insomuch as it depended on the currents of the
+air, was more nearly in a line with the direction of the reef, and
+there was little ground for apprehending that they might be driven
+further from it in the night. Although that reef offered in reality
+no place of safety, that was available to his party, Mulford felt it
+as a sort of relief, to be certain that it was not distant, possibly
+influenced by a vague hope that some passing wrecker or turtler
+might yet pick them up.
+
+The bottom of the schooner and the destitute condition of the party
+admitted of only very simple arrangements for the night. The females
+placed themselves against the keel in the best manner they could,
+and thus endeavoured to get a little of the rest they so much
+needed. The day had been warm, as a matter of course, and the
+contrast produced by the setting of the sun was at first rather
+agreeable than otherwise. Luckily Rose had thrown a shawl over her
+shoulders, not long before the vessel capsized, and in this shawl
+she had been saved. It had been dried, and it now served for a light
+covering to herself and her aunt, and added essentially to their
+comfort. As for Biddy, she was too hardy to need a shawl, and she
+protested that she should not think of using one, had she been
+better provided. The patient, meek manner in which that humble, but
+generous-hearted creature submitted to her fate, and the earnestness
+with which she had begged that "Miss Rosy" might have her morsel of
+the portion of biscuit each received for a supper, had sensibly
+impressed Mulford in her favour; and knowing how much more necessary
+food was to sustain one of her robust frame and sturdy habits, than
+to Rose, he had contrived to give the woman, unknown to herself, a
+double allowance. Nor was it surprising that Biddy did not detect
+this little act of fraud in her favour, for this double allowance
+was merely a single mouthful. The want of water had made itself much
+more keenly felt than the want of food, for as yet anxiety,
+excitement and apprehension prevented the appetite from being much
+awakened, while the claims of thirst were increased rather than the
+reverse, by these very causes. Still, no one had complained, on this
+or any other account, throughout the whole of the long and weary day
+which had passed.
+
+Mulford took the first look-out, with the intention of catching a
+little sleep, if possible, during the middle hours of the night, and
+of returning to his duty as morning approached. For the first hour
+nothing occurred to divert his attention from brooding on the
+melancholy circumstances of their situation. It seemed as if all
+around him had actually lost the sense of their cares in sleep, and
+no sound was audible amid that ocean waste, but the light washing of
+the water, as the gentle waves rolled at intervals against the
+weather side of the wreck. It was now that Mulford found a moment
+for prayer, and seated on the keel, that he called on the Divine
+aid, in a fervent but silent petition to God, to put away this trial
+from the youthful and beautiful Rose, at least, though he himself
+perished. It was the first prayer that Mulford had made in many
+months, or since he had joined the Swash--a craft in which that duty
+was very seldom thought of.
+
+A few minutes succeeded this petition, when Biddy spoke.
+
+"Missus--Madam Budd--dear Missus"--half whispered the Irish woman,
+anxious not to disturb Rose, who lay furthest from her--"Missus,
+bees ye asleep at sich a time as this?"
+
+"No, Biddy; sleep and I are strangers to each other, and are likely
+to be till morning. What do you wish to say?"
+
+"Anything is better than my own t'oughts, missus dear, and I wants
+to talk to ye. Is it no wather at all they'll give us so long as we
+stay in this place?"
+
+"There is no one to give it to us but God, poor Biddy, and he alone
+can say what, in his gracious mercy, it may please him to do. Ah!
+Biddy, I fear me that I did an unwise and thoughtless thing, to
+bring my poor Rose to such a place as this. Were it to be done over
+again, the riches of Wall Street would not tempt me to be guilty of
+so wrong a thing!"
+
+The arm of Rose was thrown around her aunt's neck, and its gentle
+pressure announced how completely the offender was forgiven.
+
+"I's very sorry for Miss Rose," rejoined Biddy "and I suffers so
+much the more meself in thinking how hard it must be for the like of
+her to be wantin' in a swallow of fresh wather."
+
+"It is no harder for me to bear it, poor Biddy," answered the gentle
+voice of our heroine, "than it is for yourself."
+
+"Is it meself then? Sure am I, that if I had a quar-r-t of good,
+swate wather from our own pump, and that's far betther is it than
+the Crothon the best day the Crothon ever seed--but had I a quar-r-t
+of it, every dhrap would I give to you, Miss Rose, to app'ase your
+thirst, I would."
+
+"Water would be a great relief to us all, just now, my excellent
+Biddy," answered Rose, "and I wish we had but a tumbler full of that
+you name, to divide equally among the whole five of us."
+
+"Is it divide? Then it would be ag'in dividin' that my voice would
+be raised, for that same ra'son that the tumbler would never hold as
+much as you could dhrink yourself, Miss Rose."
+
+"Yet the tumbler full would be a great blessing for us all, just
+now," murmured Mrs. Budd.
+
+"And is n't mutthon good 'atin', ladies! Och! if I had but a good
+swate pratie, now, from my own native Ireland, and a dhrap of milk
+to help wash it down! It's mighty little that a body thinks of sich
+thrifles when there's abundance of them; but when there's none at
+all, they get to be stronger in the mind than riches and honours."
+
+"You say the truth, Biddy," rejoined the mistress, "and there is a
+pleasure in talking of them, if one can't enjoy them. I've been
+thinking all the afternoon, Rose, what a delicious food is a good
+roast turkey, with cranberry sauce; and I wonder, now, that I have
+not been more grateful for the very many that Providence has
+bestowed on me in my time. My poor Mr. Budd was passionately fond of
+mutton, and I used wickedly to laugh at his fondness for it,
+sometimes, when he always had his answer ready, and that was that
+there are no sheep at sea. How true that is, Rosy dear! there are
+indeed no sheep at sea!"
+
+"No, aunty," answered Rose's gentle voice from beneath the
+shawl;--"there are no such animals on the ocean, but God is with us
+here as much as he would be in New York."
+
+A long silence succeeded this simple remark of his well beloved, and
+the young mate hoped that there would be no more of a dialogue,
+every syllable of which was a dagger to his feelings. But nature was
+stronger than reflection in Mrs. Budd and Biddy, and the latter
+spoke again, after a pause of near a quarter of an hour.
+
+"Pray for me, Missus," she said, moaningly, "that I may sleep. A bit
+of sleep would do a body almost as much good as a bit of bread--I
+won't say as much as a dhrap of wather."
+
+"Be quiet, Biddy, and we will pray for you," answered Rose, who
+fancied by her breathing that her aunt was about to forget her
+sufferings for a brief space, in broken slumbers.
+
+"Is it for you I'll do that--and sure will I, Miss Rose. Niver would
+I have quitted Ireland, could I have thought there was sich a spot
+on this earth as a place where no wather was to be had."
+
+This was the last of Biddy's audible complaints, for the remainder
+of this long and anxious watch of Mulford. He then set himself about
+an arrangement which shall be mentioned in its proper place. At
+twelve o'clock, or when he thought it was twelve, he called Jack
+Tier, who in turn called the mate again at four.
+
+"It looks dark and threatening," said Mulford, as he rose to his
+feet and began to look about him once more, "though there does not
+appear to be any wind."
+
+"It's a flat calm, Mr. Mate, and the darkness comes from yonder
+cloud, which seems likely to bring a little rain."
+
+"Rain! Then God is indeed with us here. You are right, Jack; rain
+must fall from that cloud. We must catch some of it, if it be only a
+drop to cool Rose's parched tongue."
+
+"In what?" answered Tier, gloomily. "She may wring her clothes when
+the shower is over, and in that way get a drop. I see no other
+method."
+
+"I have bethought me of all that, and passed most of my watch in
+making the preparations."
+
+Mulford then showed Tier what he had been about, in the long and
+solitary hours of the first watch. It would seem that the young man
+had dug a little trench with his knife, along the schooner's bottom,
+commencing two or three feet from the keel, and near the spot where
+Rose was lying, and carrying it as far as was convenient toward the
+run, until he reached a point where he had dug out a sort of
+reservoir to contain the precious fluid, should any be sent them by
+Providence. While doing this, there were no signs of rain; but the
+young man knew that a shower alone could save them from insanity, if
+not from death; and in speculating on the means of profiting by one,
+should it come, he had bethought him of this expedient. The large
+knife of a seaman had served him a good turn, in carrying on his
+work, to complete which there remained now very little to do, and
+that was in enlarging the receptacle for the water. The hole was
+already big enough to contain a pint, and it might easily be
+sufficiently enlarged to hold double that quantity.
+
+Jack was no sooner made acquainted with what had been done, than he
+out knife and commenced tearing splinter after splinter from the
+planks, to help enlarge the reservoir. This could only be done by
+cutting on the surface, for the wood was not three inches in
+thickness, and the smallest hole through the plank, would have led
+to the rapid escape of the air and to the certain sinking of the
+wreck. It required a good deal of judgment to preserve the necessary
+level also, and Mulford was obliged to interfere more than once to
+prevent his companion from doing more harm than good. He succeeded,
+however, and had actually made a cavity that might contain more than
+a quart of water, when the first large drop fell from the heavens.
+This cavity was not a hole, but a long, deep trench--deep for the
+circumstances--so nicely cut on the proper level, as to admit of its
+holding a fluid in the quantity mentioned.
+
+"Rose--dearest--rise, and be ready to drink," said Mulford, tenderly
+disturbing the uneasy slumbers of his beloved. "It is about to rain,
+and God is with us here, as he might be on the land."
+
+"Wather!" exclaimed Biddy, who was awoke with the same call. "What a
+blessed thing is good swate wather, and sure am I we ought all to be
+thankful that there is such a precious gift in the wor-r-ld."
+
+"Come, then," said Mulford, hurriedly, "it will soon rain--I hear it
+pattering on the sea. Come hither, all of you, and drink, as a
+merciful God furnishes the means."
+
+This summons was not likely to be neglected. All arose in haste, and
+the word "water" was murmured from every lip. Biddy had less
+self-command than the others, and she was heard saying aloud,--"Och!
+and did n't I dhrame of the blessed springs and wells of Ireland the
+night, and haven't I dhrunk at 'em all? but now it's over, and I am
+awake, no good has't done me, and I'm ready to die for one dhrap of
+wather."
+
+That drop soon came, however, and with it the blessed relief which
+such a boon bestows. Mulford had barely time to explain his
+arrangements, and to place the party on their knees, along his
+little reservoir and the gutter which led to it, when the pattering
+of the rain advanced along the sea, with a deep rushing sound.
+Presently, the uplifted faces and open mouths caught a few heavy
+straggling drops, to cool the parched tongues, when the water came
+tumbling down upon them in a thousand little streams. There was
+scarcely any wind, and merely the skirt of a large black cloud
+floated over the wreck, on which the rain fell barely one minute.
+But it fell as rain comes down within the tropics, and in sufficient
+quantities for all present purposes. Everybody drank, and found
+relief, and, when all was over, Mulford ascertained by examination
+that his receptacle for the fluid was still full to overflowing. The
+abstinence had not been of sufficient length, nor the quantity taken
+of large enough amount, to produce injury, though the thirst was
+generally and temporarily appeased. It is probable that the coolness
+of the hour, day dawning as the cloud moved past, and the
+circumstance that the sufferers were wetted to their skins,
+contributed to the change.
+
+"Oh, blessed, blessed wather!" exclaimed Biddy, as she rose from her
+knees; "America, afther all, isn't as dhry a country as some say.
+I've niver tasted swater wather in Ireland itself!"
+
+Rose murmured her thanksgiving in more appropriate language. A few
+exclamations also escaped Mrs. Budd, and Jack Tier had his
+sententious eulogy on the precious qualities of sweet water.
+
+The wind rose as the day advanced, and a swell began to heave the
+wreck with a power that had hitherto been dormant. Mulford
+understood this to be a sign that there had been a blow at some
+distance from them, that had thrown the sea into a state of
+agitation, which extended itself beyond the influence of the wind.
+Eagerly did the young mate examine the horizon, as the curtain of
+night arose, inch by inch, as it might be, on the watery panorama,
+in the hope that a vessel of some sort or other might be brought
+within the view. Nor was he wholly disappointed. The strange sail
+seen the previous evening was actually there; and what was more, so
+near as to allow her hull to be distinctly visible. It was a ship,
+under her square canvas, standing from between divided portions of
+the reef, as if getting to the northward, in order to avoid the
+opposing current of the Gulf Stream. Vessels bound to Mobile, New
+Orleans, and other ports along the coast of the Republic, in that
+quarter of the ocean, often did this; and when the young mate first
+caught glimpses of the shadowy outline of this ship, he supposed it
+to be some packet, or cotton-droger, standing for her port on the
+northern shore. But a few minutes removed the veil, and with it the
+error of this notion. A seaman could no longer mistake the craft.
+Her length, her square and massive hamper, with the symmetry of her
+spars, and the long, straight outline of the hull, left no doubt
+that it was a cruiser, with her hammocks unstowed. Mulford now
+cheerfully announced to his companions, that the ship they so
+plainly saw, scarcely a gun-shot distant from them, was the
+sloop-of-war which had already become a sort of an acquaintance.
+
+"If we can succeed in making them see our signal," cried Mulford,
+"all will yet be well. Come, Jack, and help me to put abroad this
+shawl, the only ensign we can show."
+
+The shawl of Rose was the signal spread. Tier and Mulford stood on
+the keel, and holding opposite corners, let the rest of the cloth
+blow out with the wind. For near an hour did these two extend their
+arms, and try all possible expedients to make their signal
+conspicuous. But, unfortunately, the wind blew directly toward the
+cruiser, and instead of exposing a surface of any breadth to the
+vision of those on board her, it must, at most, have offered little
+more than a flitting, waving line.
+
+As the day advanced, sail was made on the cruiser. She had stood
+through the passage, in which she had been becalmed most of the
+night, under short canvas; but now she threw out fold after fold of
+her studding-sails, and moved away to the westward, with the stately
+motion of a ship before the wind. No sooner had she got far enough
+to the northward of the reef, than she made a deviation from her
+course as first seen, turning her stern entirely to the wreck, and
+rapidly becoming less and less distinct to the eyes of those who
+floated on it.
+
+Mulford saw the hopelessness of their case, as it respected relief
+from this vessel; still, he persevered in maintaining his position
+on the keel, tossing and waving the shawl, in all the variations
+that his ingenuity could devise. He well knew, however, that their
+chances of being seen would have been trebled could they have been
+ahead instead of astern of the ship. Mariners have few occasions to
+look behind them, while a hundred watchful eyes are usually turned
+ahead, more especially when running near rocks and shoals. Mrs. Budd
+wept like an infant when she saw the sloop-of-war gliding away,
+reaching a distance that rendered sight useless, in detecting an
+object that floated as low on the water as the wreck. As for Biddy,
+unable to control her feelings, the poor creature actually called to
+the crew of the departing vessel, as if her voice had the power to
+make itself heard, at a distance which already exceeded two leagues.
+It was only by means of the earnest remonstrances of Rose, that the
+faithful creature could be quieted.
+
+"Why will ye not come to our relaif?" she cried at the top of her
+voice. "Here are we, helpless as new-born babies, and ye sailing
+away from us in a conthrary way! D'ye not bethink you of the missus,
+who is much of a sailor, but not sich a one as to sail on a wrack;
+and poor Miss Rose, who is the char-rm and delight of all eyes. Only
+come and take off Miss Rose, and lave the rest of us, if ye so
+likes; for it's a sin and a shame to lave the likes of her to die in
+the midst of the ocean, as if she was no betther nor a fish. Then it
+will be soon that we shall ag'in feel the want of wather, and that,
+too, with nothing but wather to be seen on all sides of us."
+
+"It is of no use," said Harry, mournfully, stepping down from the
+keel, and laying aside the shawl. "They cannot see us, and the
+distance is now so great as to render it certain they never will.
+There is only one hope left. We are evidently set to and fro by the
+tides, and it is possible that by keeping in or near this passage,
+some other craft may appear, and we be more fortunate. The relief of
+the rain is a sign that we are not forgotten by Divine Providence,
+and with such a protector we ought not to despair."
+
+A gloomy and scanty breaking of the fast succeeded. Each person had
+one large mouthful of bread, which was all that prudence would
+authorize Mulford to distribute. He attempted a pious fraud,
+however, by placing his own allowance along with that of Rose's,
+under the impression that her strength might not endure privation as
+well as his own. But the tender solicitude of Rose was not to be
+thus deceived. Judging of his wishes and motives by her own, she at
+once detected the deception, and insisted on retaining no more than
+her proper share. When this distribution was completed, and the
+meagre allowance taken, only sufficient bread remained to make one
+more similar scanty meal, if meal a single mouthful could be termed.
+As for the water, a want of which would be certain to be felt as
+soon as the sun obtained its noon-day power, the shawl was extended
+over it, in a way to prevent evaporation as much as possible, and at
+the same time to offer some resistance to the fluid's being washed
+from its shallow receptacle by the motion of the wreck, which was
+sensibly increasing with the increase of the wind and waves.
+
+Mulford had next an anxious duty to perform. Throughout the whole of
+the preceding day he had seen the air escaping from the hull, in an
+incessant succession of small bubbles, which were formidable through
+their numbers, if not through their size. The mate was aware that
+this unceasing loss of the buoyant property of the wreck, must
+eventually lead to their destruction, should no assistance come, and
+he had marked the floating line, on the bottom of the vessel with
+his knife, ere darkness set in, on the previous evening. No sooner
+did his thoughts recur to this fact, after the excitement of the
+first hour of daylight was over, than he stepped to the different
+places thus marked, and saw, with an alarm that it would be
+difficult to describe, that the wreck had actually sunk into the
+water several inches within the last few hours. This was, indeed,
+menacing their security in a most serious manner, setting a limit to
+their existence, which rendered all precaution on the subject of
+food and water useless. By the calculations of the mate, the wreck
+could not float more than eight-and-forty hours, should it continue
+to lose the air at the rate at which it had been hitherto lost. Bad
+as all this appeared, things were fated to become much more serious.
+The motion of the water quite sensibly increased, lifting the wreck
+at times in a way greatly to increase the danger of their situation.
+The reader will understand this movement did not proceed from the
+waves of the existing wind, but from what is technically called a
+ground-swell, or the long, heavy undulations that are left by the
+tempest that is past, or by some distant gale. The waves of the
+present breeze were not very formidable, the reef making a lee;
+though they might possibly become inconvenient from breaking on the
+weather side of the wreck, as soon as the drift carried the latter
+fairly abreast of the passage already mentioned. But the dangers
+that proceeded from the heavy ground-swell, which now began to give
+a considerable motion to the wreck, will best explain itself by
+narrating the incidents as they occurred.
+
+Harry had left his marks, and had taken his seat on the keel at
+Rose's side, impatiently waiting for any turn that Providence might
+next give to their situation, when a heavy roll of the wreck first
+attracted his attention to this new circumstance.
+
+"If any one is thirsty," he observed quietly, "he or she had better
+drink now, while it may be done. Two or three more such rolls as
+this last will wash all the water from our gutters."
+
+"Wather is a blessed thing," said Biddy, with a longing expression
+of the eyes, "and it would be betther to swallow it than to let it
+be lost."
+
+"Then drink, for Heaven's sake, good woman--it may be the last
+occasion that will offer."
+
+"Sure am I that I would not touch a dhrap, while the missus and Miss
+Rosy was a sufferin'."
+
+"I have no thirst at all," answered Rose, sweetly, "and have already
+taken more water than was good for me, with so little food on my
+stomach."
+
+"Eat another morsel of the bread, beloved," whispered Harry, in a
+manner so urgent that Rose gratefully complied. "Drink, Biddy, and
+we will come and share with you before the water is wasted by this
+increasing motion."
+
+Biddy did as desired, and each knelt in turn and took a little of
+the grateful fluid, leaving about a gill in the gutters for the use
+of those whose lips might again become parched.
+
+"Wather is a blessed thing," repeated Biddy, for the twentieth
+time--"a blessed, blessed thing is wather!"
+
+A little scream from Mrs. Budd, which was dutifully taken up by the
+maid, interrupted the speech of the latter, and every eye was turned
+on Mulford, as if to ask an explanation of the groaning sound that
+had been heard within the wreck. The young mate comprehended only
+too well. The rolling of the wreck had lifted a portion of the open
+hatchway above the undulating surface of the sea, and a large
+quantity of the pent air within the hold had escaped in a body. The
+entrance of water to supply the vacuum had produced the groan.
+Mulford had made new marks on the vessel's bottom with his knife,
+and he stepped down to them, anxious and nearly heart-broken, to
+note the effect. That one surging of the wreck had permitted air
+enough to escape to lower it in the water several inches. As yet,
+however, the visible limits of their floating foundation had not
+been sufficiently reduced to attract the attention of the females;
+and the young man said nothing on the subject. He thought that Jack
+Tier was sensible of the existence of this new source of danger, but
+if he were, that experienced mariner imitated his own reserve, and
+made no allusion to it. Thus passed the day. Occasionally the wreck
+rolled heavily, when more air escaped, the hull settling lower and
+lower in the water as a necessary consequence. The little bubbles
+continued incessantly to rise, and Mulford became satisfied that
+another day must decide their fate. Taking this view of their
+situation, he saw no use in reserving their food, but encouraged his
+companions to share the whole of what remained at sunset. Little
+persuasion was necessary, and when night once more came to envelope
+them in darkness, not a mouthful of food or a drop of water remained
+to meet the necessities of the coming morn. It had rained again for
+a short time, in the course of the afternoon, when enough water had
+been caught to allay their thirst, and what was almost of as much
+importance to the females now, a sufficiency of sun had succeeded to
+dry their clothes, thus enabling them to sleep without enduring the
+chilling damps that might otherwise have prevented it. The wind had
+sensibly fallen, and the ground-swell was altogether gone, but
+Mulford was certain that the relief had come too late. So much air
+had escaped while it lasted as scarce to leave him the hope that the
+wreck could float until morning. The rising of the bubbles was now
+incessant, the crevices by which they escaped having most probably
+opened a little, in consequence of the pressure and the unceasing
+action of the currents, small as the latter were.
+
+Just as darkness was shutting in around them for the second time,
+Rose remarked to Mulford that it seemed to her that they had not as
+large a space for their little world as when they were first placed
+on it. The mate, however, successfully avoided an explanation; and
+when the watch was again set for the night, the females lay down to
+seek their repose, more troubled with apprehensions for a morrow of
+hunger and thirst, than by any just fears that might so well have
+arisen from the physical certainty that the body which alone kept
+them from being engulfed in the sea, could float but a few hours
+longer. This night Tier kept the look-out until Jupiter reached the
+zenith, when Mulford was called to hold the watch until light
+returned.
+
+It may seem singular that any could sleep at all in such a
+situation. But we get accustomed, in an incredibly short time, to
+the most violent changes; and calamities that seem insupportable,
+when looked at from a distance, lose half their power if met and
+resisted with fortitude. The last may, indeed, be too insignificant
+a word to be applied to all of the party on the wreck, on the
+occasion of which we are writing, though no one of them all betrayed
+fears that were troublesome. Of Mulford it is unnecessary to speak.
+His deportment had been quiet, thoughtful, and full of a manly
+interest in the comfort of others, from the first moment of the
+calamity. That Rose should share the largest in his attentions was
+natural enough, but he neglected no essential duty to her
+companions. Rose, herself, had little hope of being rescued. Her
+naturally courageous character, however, prevented any undue
+exhibitions of despair, and now it was that the niece became the
+principal support of the aunt, completely changing the relations
+that had formerly existed between them. Mrs. Budd had lost all the
+little buoyancy of her mind. Not a syllable did she now utter
+concerning ships and their manoeuvres. She had been, at first, a
+little disposed to be querulous and despairing, but the soothing and
+pious conversation of Rose awakened a certain degree of resolution
+in her, and habit soon exercised its influence over even her
+inactive mind. Biddy was a strange mixture of courage, despair,
+humility, and consideration for others. Not once had she taken her
+small allowance of food without first offering it, and that, too, in
+perfect good faith, to her "Missus and Miss Rosy;" yet her moanings
+for this sort of support, and her complaints of bodily suffering
+much exceeded that of all the rest of the party put together. As for
+Jack Tier, his conduct singularly belied his appearance. No one
+would have expected any great show of manly resolution from the
+little rotund, lymphatic figure of Tier; but he had manifested a
+calmness that denoted either great natural courage, or a resolution
+derived from familiarity with danger. In this particular, even
+Mulford regarded his deportment with surprise, not unmingled with
+respect.
+
+"You have had a tranquil watch, Jack," said Harry, when he was
+called by the person named, and had fairly aroused himself from his
+slumbers. "Has the wind stood as it is since sunset?"
+
+"No change whatever, sir. It has blown a good working breeze the
+whole watch, and what is surprising not as much lipper has got up as
+would frighten a colt on a sea-beach."
+
+"We must be near the reef, by that. I think the only currents we
+feel come from the tide, and they seem to be setting us back and
+forth, instead of carrying us in any one settled direction."
+
+"Quite likely, sir; and this makes my opinion of what I saw an hour
+since all the more probable."
+
+"What you saw! In the name of a merciful Providence, Tier, do not
+trifle with me! Has any thing been seen near by?"
+
+"Don't talk to me of your liquors and other dhrinks," murmured Biddy
+in her sleep. "It's wather that is a blessed thing; and I wish I
+lived, the night and the day, by the swate pump that's in our own
+yard, I do."
+
+"The woman has been talking in her sleep, in this fashion, most of
+the watch," observed Jack, coolly, and perhaps a little
+contemptuously. "But, Mr. Mulford, unless my eyes have cheated me,
+we are near that boat again. The passage through the reef is close
+aboard us, here, on our larboard bow, as it might be, and the
+current has sucked us in it in a fashion to bring it in a sort of
+athwart-hawse direction to us."
+
+"If that boat, after all, should be sent by Providence to our
+relief! How long is it since you saw it, Jack."
+
+"But a bit since, sir; or, for that matter, I think I see it now.
+Look hereaway, sir, just where the dead-eyes of the fore-rigging
+would bear from us, if the craft stood upon her legs, as she ought
+to do. If that isn't a boat, it's a rock out of water."
+
+Mulford gazed through the gloom of midnight, and saw, or fancied he
+saw, an object that might really be the boat. It could not be very
+distant either; and his mind was instantly made up as to the course
+he would pursue. Should it actually turn out to be that which he now
+so much hoped for, and its distance in the morning did not prove too
+great for human powers, he was resolved to swim for it at the hazard
+of his life. In the meantime, or until light should return, there
+remained nothing to do but to exercise as much patience as could be
+summoned, and to confide in God, soliciting his powerful succour by
+secret prayer.
+
+Mulford was no sooner left alone, as it might be, by Tier's seeking
+a place in which to take his rest, than he again examined the state
+of the wreck. Little as he had hoped from its long-continued
+buoyancy, he found matters even worse than he apprehended they would
+be. The hull had lost much air, and had consequently sunk in the
+water in an exact proportion to this loss. The space that was
+actually above the water, was reduced to an area not more than six
+or seven feet in one direction, by some ten or twelve in the other.
+This was reducing its extent, since the evening previous, by fully
+one-half; and there could be no doubt that the air was escaping, in
+consequence of the additional pressure, in a ratio that increased by
+a sort of arithmetical progression. The young man knew that the
+whole wreck, under its peculiar circumstances, might sink entirely
+beneath the surface, and yet possess sufficient buoyancy to sustain
+those that were on it for a time longer, but this involved the
+terrible necessity of leaving the females partly submerged
+themselves.
+
+Our mate heard his own heart beat, as he became satisfied of the
+actual condition of the wreck, and of the physical certainty that
+existed of its sinking, at least to the point last mentioned, ere
+the sun came to throw his glories over the last view that the
+sufferers would be permitted to take of the face of day. It appeared
+to him that no time was to be lost. There lay the dim and shapeless
+object that seemed to be the boat, distant, as he thought, about a
+mile. It would not have been visible at all but for the perfect
+smoothness of the sea, and the low position occupied by the
+observer. At times it did disappear altogether, when it would rise
+again, as if undulating in the ground-swell. This last circumstance,
+more than any other, persuaded Harry that it was not a rock, but
+some floating object that he beheld. Thus encouraged, he delayed no
+longer. Every moment was precious, and all might be lost by
+indecision. He did not like the appearance of deserting his
+companions, but, should he fail, the motive would appear in the act.
+Should he fail, every one would alike soon be beyond the reach of
+censure, and in a state of being that would do full justice to all.
+
+Harry threw off most of his clothes, reserving only his shirt and a
+pair of light summer trowsers. He could not quit the wreck, however,
+without taking a sort of leave of Rose. On no account would he awake
+her, for he appreciated the agony she would feel during the period
+of his struggles. Kneeling at her side, he made a short prayer, then
+pressed his lips to her warm cheek, and left her. Rose murmured his
+name at that instant, but it was as the innocent and young betray
+their secrets in their slumbers. Neither of the party awoke.
+
+It was a moment to prove the heart of man, that in which Harry
+Mulford, in the darkness of midnight, alone, unsustained by any
+encouraging eye, or approving voice, with no other aid than his own
+stout arm, and the unknown designs of a mysterious Providence,
+committed his form to the sea. For an instant he paused, after he
+had waded down on the wreck to a spot where the water already
+mounted to his breast, but it was not in misgivings. He calculated
+the chances, and made an intelligent use of such assistance as could
+be had. There had been no sharks near the wreck that day, but a
+splash in the water might bring them back again in a crowd. They
+were probably prowling over the reef, near at hand. The mate used
+great care, therefore, to make no noise. There was the distant
+object, and he set it by a bright star, that wanted about an hour
+before it would sink beneath the horizon. That star was his beacon,
+and muttering a few words in earnest prayer, the young man threw his
+body forward, and left the wreck, swimming lightly but with vigour.
+
+JACK TIER.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  The night has been unruly: where we lay,
+  Our chimneys were blown down: and, as they say,
+  Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death;
+  And prophesying, with accents terrible,
+  Of dire combustion, and confused events,
+  New hatched to the woful time.
+
+
+_Macbeth_.
+
+It is seldom that man is required to make an exertion as desperate
+and appalling, in all its circumstances, as that on which Harry
+Mulford was now bent. The night was starlight, it was true, and it
+was possible to see objects near by with tolerable distinctness;
+still, it was midnight, and the gloom of that hour rested on the
+face of the sea, lending its solemn mystery and obscurity to the
+other trying features of the undertaking. Then there was the
+uncertainty whether it was the boat at all, of which he was in
+pursuit; and, if the boat, it might drift away from him as fast as
+he could follow it. Nevertheless, the perfect conviction that,
+without some early succour, the party on the wreck, including Rose
+Budd, must inevitably perish, stimulated him to proceed, and a
+passing feeling of doubt, touching the prudence of his course, that
+came over the young mate, when he was a few yards from the wreck,
+vanished under a vivid renewal of this last conviction. On he swam,
+therefore, riveting his eye on the "thoughtful star" that guided his
+course, and keeping his mind as tranquil as possible, in order that
+the exertions of his body might be the easier.
+
+Mulford was an excellent swimmer. The want of food was a serious
+obstacle to his making one of his best efforts, but, as yet, he was
+not very sensible of any great loss of strength. Understanding fully
+the necessity of swimming easily, if he would swim long, he did not
+throw out all his energy at first, but made the movements of his
+limbs as regular, continued, and skilful as possible. No strength
+was thrown away, and his progress was in proportion to the prudence
+of this manner of proceeding. For some twenty minutes he held on his
+course, in this way, when he began to experience a little of that
+weariness which is apt to accompany an unremitted use of the same
+set of muscles, in a monotonous and undeviating mode. Accustomed to
+all the resources of his art, he turned on his back, for the double
+purpose of relieving his arms for a minute, and of getting a glimpse
+of the wreck, if possible, in order to ascertain the distance he had
+overcome. Swim long in this new manner, however, he could not with
+prudence, as the star was necessary in order to keep the direct line
+of his course. It may be well to explain to some of our readers,
+that, though the surface of the ocean may be like glass, as
+sometimes really happens, it is never absolutely free from the long,
+undulating motion that is known by the name of a "ground swell."
+This swell, on the present occasion, was not very heavy, but it was
+sufficient to place our young mate, at moments, between two dark
+mounds of water, that limited his view in either direction to some
+eighty or a hundred yards; then it raised him on the summit of a
+rounded wave, that enabled him to see, far as his eye could reach
+under that obscure light. Profiting by this advantage, Mulford now
+looked behind him, in quest of the wreck, but uselessly. It might
+have been in the trough, while he was thus on the summit of the
+waves, or it might be that it floated so low as to be totally lost
+to the view of one whose head was scarcely above the surface of the
+water. For a single instant, the young man felt a chill at his
+heart, as he fancied that the wreck had already sunk; but it passed
+away when he recalled the slow progress by which the air escaped,
+and he saw the certainty that the catastrophe, however inevitable,
+could not yet have really arrived. He waited for another swell to
+lift him on its summit, when, by "treading water," he raised his
+head and shoulders fairly above the surface of the sea, and strained
+his eyes in another vain effort to catch a glimpse of the wreck. He
+could not see it. In point of fact, the mate had swum much further
+than he had supposed, and was already so distant as to render any
+such attempt hopeless. He was fully a third of a mile distant from
+the point of his departure.
+
+Disappointed, and in a slight degree disheartened, Mulford turned,
+and swam in the direction of the sinking star. He now looked
+anxiously for the boat. It was time that it came more plainly into
+view, and a new source of anxiety beset him, as he could discover no
+signs of its vicinity. Certain that he was on the course, after
+making a due allowance for the direction of the wind, the
+stout-hearted young man swam on. He next determined not to annoy
+himself by fruitless searches, or vain regrets, but to swim steadily
+for a certain time, a period long enough to carry him a material
+distance, ere he again looked for the object of his search.
+
+For twenty minutes longer did that courageous and active youth
+struggle with the waste of waters, amid the obscurity and solitude
+of midnight. He now believed himself near a mile from the wreck, and
+the star which had so long served him for a beacon was getting near
+to the horizon. He took a new observation of another of the heavenly
+bodies nigh it, to serve him in its stead when it should disappear
+altogether, and then he raised himself in the water, and looked
+about again for the boat. The search was in vain. No boat was very
+near him, of a certainty, and the dreadful apprehension began to
+possess his mind, of perishing uselessly in that waste of gloomy
+waters. While thus gazing about him, turning his eyes in every
+quarter, hoping intently to catch some glimpse of the much-desired
+object in the gloom, he saw two dark, pointed objects, that
+resembled small stakes, in the water within twenty feet of him.
+Mulford knew them at a glance, and a cold shudder passed through his
+frame, as he recognised them. They were, out of all question, the
+fins of an enormous shark; an animal that could not measure less
+than eighteen or twenty feet in length.
+
+It is scarcely necessary to say, that when our young mate discovered
+the proximity of this dangerous animal, situated as he was, he gave
+himself up for lost. He possessed his knife, however, and had heard
+of the manner in which even sharks were overcome, and that too in
+their own element, by the skilful and resolute. At first, he was
+resolved to make one desperate effort for life, before he submitted
+to a fate as horrible as that which now menaced him; but the
+movements of his dangerous neighbour induced him to wait. It did not
+approach any nearer, but continued swimming back and fro, on the
+surface of the water, according to the known habits of the fish, as
+if watching his own movements. There being no time to be wasted, our
+young mate turned on his face, and began again to swim in the
+direction of the setting star, though nearly chilled by despair. For
+ten minutes longer did he struggle on, beginning to feel exhaustion,
+however, and always accompanied by those two dark, sharp and gliding
+fins. There was no difficulty in knowing the position of the animal,
+and Mulford's eyes were oftener on those fins than on the beacon
+before him. Strange as it may appear, he actually became accustomed
+to the vicinity of this formidable creature, and soon felt his
+presence a sort of relief against the dreadful solitude of his
+situation. He had been told by seamen of instances, and had once
+witnessed a case himself, in which a shark had attended a swimming
+man for a long distance, either forbearing to do him harm, from
+repletion, or influenced by that awe which nature has instilled into
+all of the inferior, for the highest animal of the creation. He
+began to think that he was thus favoured, and really regarded the
+shark as a friendly neighbour, rather than as a voracious foe. In
+this manner did the two proceed, nearly another third of a mile, the
+fins sometimes in sight ahead, gliding hither and thither, and
+sometimes out of view behind the swimmer, leaving him in dreadful
+doubts as to the movements of the fish, when Mulford suddenly felt
+something hard hit his foot. Believing it to be the shark, dipping
+for his prey, a slight exclamation escaped him. At the next instant
+both feet hit the unknown substance again, and he stood erect, the
+water no higher than his waist! Quick, and comprehending everything
+connected with the sea, the young man at once understood that he was
+on a part of the reef where the water was so shallow as to admit of
+his wading.
+
+Mulford felt that he had been providentially rescued from death. His
+strength had been about to fail him, when he was thus led, unknown
+to himself, to a spot where his life might yet be possibly prolonged
+for a few more hours, or days. He had leisure to look about him, and
+to reflect on what was next to be done. Almost unwittingly, he
+turned in quest of his terrible companion, in whose voracious mouth
+he had actually believed himself about to be immolated, a few
+seconds before. There the two horn-like fins still were, gliding
+about above the water, and indicating the smallest movement of their
+formidable owner. The mate observed that they went a short distance
+ahead of him, describing nearly a semi-circle, and then returned,
+doing the same thing in his rear, repeating the movements
+incessantly, keeping always on his right. This convinced him that
+shoaler water existed on his left hand, and he waded in that
+direction, until he reached a small spot of naked rock.
+
+For a time, at least, he was safe! The fragment of coral on which
+the mate now stood, was irregular in shape, but might have contained
+a hundred feet square in superficial measurement, and was so little
+raised above the level of the water as not to be visible, even by
+daylight, at the distance of a hundred yards. Mulford found it was
+perfectly dry, however, an important discovery to him, as by a close
+calculation he had made of the tides, since quitting the Dry
+Tortugas, he knew it must be near high water. Could he have even
+this small portion of bare rock secure, it made him, for the moment,
+rich as the most extensive landholder living. A considerable
+quantity of sea-weed had lodged on the rock, and, as most of this
+was also quite dry, it convinced the young sailor that the place was
+usually bare. But, though most of this sea-weed was dry, there were
+portions of the more recent accessions there that still lay in, or
+quite near to the water, which formed exceptions. In handling these
+weeds, in order to ascertain the facts, Mulford caught a small
+shell-fish, and finding it fresh and easy to open, he swallowed it
+with the eagerness of a famishing man. Never had food proved half so
+grateful to him as that single swallow of a very palatable
+testaceous animal. By feeling further, he found several others of
+the same family, and made quite as large a meal, as, under the
+circumstances, was probably good for him. Then, grateful for his
+escape, but overcome by fatigue, he hastily arranged a bed of
+sea-weed, drew a portion of the plant over his body, to keep him
+warm, and fell into a deep sleep that lasted for hours.
+
+Mulford did not regain his consciousness until the rays of the
+rising sun fell upon his eye-lids, and the genial warmth of the
+great luminary shed its benign influence over his frame. At first
+his mind was confused, and it required a few seconds to bring a
+perfect recollection of the past, and a true understanding of his
+real situation. They came, however, and the young man moved to the
+highest part of his little domain, and cast an anxious, hurried look
+around in quest of the wreck. A knowledge of the course in which he
+had swum, aided by the position of the sun, told him on what part of
+the naked waste to look for the object he sought. God had not yet
+forsaken them! There was the wreck; or, it might be more exact to
+say, there were those whom the remaining buoyancy of the wreck still
+upheld from sinking into the depths of the gulf. In point of fact,
+but a very little of the bottom of the vessel actually remained
+above water, some two or three yards square at most, and that little
+was what seamen term nearly awash. Two or three hours must bury that
+small portion of the still naked wood beneath the surface of the
+sea, though sufficient buoyancy might possibly remain for the entire
+day still to keep the living from death.
+
+There the wreck was, however, yet floating; and, though not visible
+to Mulford, with a small portion of it above water. He saw the four
+persons only; and what was more, they saw him. This was evident by
+Jack Tier's waving his hat like a man cheering. When Mulford
+returned this signal, the shawl of Rose was tossed into the air, in
+a way to leave no doubt that he was seen and known. The explanation
+of this early recognition and discovery of the young mate was very
+simple. Tier was not asleep when Harry left the wreck, though,
+seeing the importance of the step the other was taking, he had
+feigned to be so. When Rose awoke, missed her lover, and was told
+what had happened, her heart was kept from sinking by his
+encouraging tale and hopes. An hour of agony had succeeded,
+nevertheless, when light returned and no Mulford was to be seen. The
+despair that burst upon the heart of our heroine was followed by the
+joy of discovering him on the rock.
+
+It is scarcely necessary to say how much the parties were relieved
+on ascertaining their respective positions. Faint as were the hopes
+of each of eventual delivery, the two or three minutes that
+succeeded seemed to be minutes of perfect happiness. After this rush
+of unlooked-for joy, Mulford continued his intelligent examination
+of surrounding objects.
+
+The wreck was fully half a mile from the rock of the mate, but much
+nearer to the reef than it had been the previous night. "Could it
+but ground on the rocks," thought the young man, "it would be a most
+blessed event." The thing was possible, though the first half hour
+of his observations told him that its drift was in the direction of
+the open passage so often named, rather than toward the nearest
+rocks. Still, that drift brought Rose each minute nearer and nearer
+to himself again. In looking round, however, the young man saw the
+boat. It was a quarter of a mile distant, with open water between
+them, apparently grounded on a rock, for it was more within the reef
+than he was himself. He must have passed it in the dark, and the
+boat had been left to obey the wind and currents, and to drift to
+the spot where it then lay.
+
+Mulford shouted aloud when he saw the boat, and at once determined
+to swim in quest of it, as soon as he had collected a little
+refreshment from among the sea-weed. On taking a look at his rock by
+daylight, he saw that its size was quadrupled to the eye by the
+falling of the tide, and that water was lying in several of the
+cavities of its uneven surface. At first he supposed this to be
+sea-water, left by the flood; but, reflecting a moment, he
+remembered the rain, and hoped it might be possible that one little
+cavity, containing two or three gallons of the fluid, would turn out
+to be fresh. Kneeling beside it, he applied his lips in feverish
+haste, and drank the sweetest draught that had ever passed his lips.
+Slaking his thirst, which had begun again to be painfully severe, he
+arose with a heart overflowing with gratitude--could he only get
+Rose to that narrow and barren rock, it would seem to be an earthly
+paradise. Mulford next made his scanty, but, all things considered,
+sufficient meal, drank moderately afterward, and then turned his
+attention and energies toward the boat, which, though now aground
+and fast, might soon float on the rising tide, and drift once more
+beyond his reach. It was his first intention to swim directly for
+his object; but, just when about to enter the water, he saw with
+horror the fins of at least a dozen sharks, which were prowling
+about in the deeper water of the reef, and almost encircling his
+hold. To throw himself in the midst of such enemies would be
+madness, and he stopped to reflect, and again to look about him. For
+the first time that morning, he took a survey of the entire horizon,
+to see if anything were in sight; for, hitherto, his thoughts had
+been too much occupied with Rose and her companions, to remember
+anything else. To the northward and westward he distinctly saw the
+upper sails of a large ship, that was standing on a wind to the
+northward and eastward. As there was no port to which a vessel of
+that character would be likely to be bound in the quarter of the
+Gulf to which such a course would lead, Mulford at once inferred it
+was the sloop-of-war, which, after having examined the islets, at
+the Dry Tortugas, and finding them deserted, was beating up, either
+to go into Key West, or to pass to the southward of the reef again,
+by the passage through which she had come as lately as the previous
+day. This was highly encouraging; and could he only get to the boat,
+and remove the party from the wreck before it sunk, there was now
+every prospect of a final escape.
+
+To the southward, also, the mate fancied he saw a sail. It was
+probably a much smaller vessel than the ship in the north-west, and
+at a greater distance. It might, however, be the lofty sails of some
+large craft; standing along the reef, going westward, bound to New
+Orleans, or to that new and important port, Point Isabel: or it
+might be some wrecker, or other craft, edging away into the passage.
+As it was, it appeared only as a speck in the horizon; and was too
+far off to offer much prospect of succour.
+
+Thus acquainted with the state of things around him, Mulford gave
+his attention seriously to his duties. He was chiefly afraid that
+the returning tide might lift the boat from the rock on which it had
+grounded, and that it would float beyond his reach. Then there was
+the frightful and ever-increasing peril of the wreck, and the
+dreadful fate that so inevitably menaced those that it held, were
+not relief prompt. This thought goaded him nearly to desperation,
+and he felt at moments almost ready to plunge into the midst of the
+sharks, and fight his way to his object.
+
+But reflection showed him a less hazardous way of making an effort
+to reach the boat. The sharks' fins described a semicircle only, as
+had been the case of his single attendant during the night, and he
+thought that the shealness of the water prevented their going
+further than they did, in a south-easterly direction, which was that
+of the boat. He well knew that a shark required sufficient water to
+sink beneath its prey, ere it made its swoop, and that it uniformly
+turned on its back, and struck upward whenever it gave one of its
+voracious bites. This was owing to the greater length of its upper
+than of its lower jaw, and Mulford had heard it was a physical
+necessity of its formation. Right or wrong, he determined to act on
+this theory, and began at once to wade along the part of the reef
+that his enemies seemed unwilling to approach.
+
+Had our young mate a weapon of any sort larger than his knife, he
+would have felt greater confidence in his success. As it was,
+however, he drew that knife, and was prepared to sell his life
+dearly should a foe assail him. No sooner was his step heard in the
+water, than the whole group of sharks were set in violent motion,
+glancing past, and frequently quite near him, as if aware their
+intended prey was about to escape. Had the water deepened much,
+Harry would have returned at once, for a conflict with such numbers
+would have been hopeless; but it did not; on the contrary, it
+shoaled again, after a very short distance, at which it had been
+waist-deep; and Mulford found himself wading over a long, broad
+surface of rock, and that directly toward the boat, through water
+that seldom rose above his knees, and which, occasionally, scarce
+covered his feet. There was no absolutely naked rock near him, but
+there seemed to be acres of that which might be almost said to be
+awash. Amid the greedy throng that endeavoured to accompany him, the
+mate even fancied he recognised the enormous fins of his old
+companion, who sailed to and fro in the crowd in a stately manner,
+as if merely a curious looker-on of his own movements. It was the
+smaller, and probably the younger sharks, that betrayed the greatest
+hardihood and voracity. One or two of these made fierce swoops
+toward Harry, as if bent on having him at every hazard; but they
+invariably glided off when they found their customary mode of attack
+resisted by the shoalness of the water.
+
+Our young mate got ahead but slowly, being obliged to pay a cautious
+attention to the movements of his escort. Sometimes he was compelled
+to wade up to his arms in order to cross narrow places, that he
+might get on portions of the rock that were nearly bare; and once he
+was actually compelled to swim eight or ten yards. Nevertheless, he
+did get on, and after an hour of this sort of work, he found himself
+within a hundred yards of the boat, which lay grounded near a low
+piece of naked rock, but separated from it by a channel of deep
+water, into which all the sharks rushed in a body, as if expressly
+to cut off his escape. Mulford now paused to take breath, and to
+consider what ought to be done. On the spot where he stood he was
+quite safe, though ancle-deep in the sea, the shallow water
+extending to a considerable distance on all sides of him, with the
+single exception of the channel in his front. He stood on the very
+verge of that channel, and could see in the pellucid element before
+him, that it was deep enough to float a vessel of some size.
+
+To venture into the midst of twenty sharks required desperation, and
+Harry was not yet reduced to that. He had been so busy in making his
+way to the point where he stood as to have no leisure to look for
+the wreck; but he now turned his eyes in quest of that
+all-interesting object. He saw the shawl fluttering in the breeze,
+and that was all he could see. Tier had contrived to keep it flying
+as a signal where he was to be found, but the hull of the schooner
+had sunk so low in the water that they who were seated on its keel
+were not visible even at the short distance which now separated them
+from Mulford. Encouraged by this signal, and animated by the revived
+hope of still saving his companions, Harry turned toward the
+channel, half inclined to face every danger rather than to wait any
+longer. At that moment the fins were all gliding along the channel
+from him, and in the same direction. Some object drew the sharks
+away in a body, and the young mate let himself easily into the
+water, and swam as noiselessly as he could toward the boat.
+
+It was a fearful trial, but Mulford felt that everything depended on
+his success. Stimulated by his motive, and strengthened by the food
+and water taken an hour before, never had he shown so much skill and
+power in the water. In an incredibly short period he was half-way
+across the channel, still swimming strong and unharmed. A few
+strokes more sent him so near the boat that hope took full
+possession of his soul, and he shouted in exultation. That
+indiscreet but natural cry, uttered so near the surface of the sea,
+turned every shark upon him, as the pack springs at the fox in view.
+Mulford was conscious of the folly of his cry the instant it escaped
+him, and involuntarily he turned his head to note the effect on his
+enemies. Every fin was gliding toward him--a dark array of swift and
+furious foes. Ten thousand bayonets, levelled in their line, could
+not have been one-half as terrible, and the efforts of the young man
+became nearly frantic. But strong as he was, and ready in the
+element, what is the movement of a man in the water compared to that
+of a vigorous and voracious fish? Mulford could see those fins
+coming on like a tempest, and he had just given up all hope, and was
+feeling his flesh creep with terror, when his foot hit the rock.
+Giving himself an onward plunge, he threw his body upward toward the
+boat, and into so much shoaler water, at least a dozen feet by that
+single effort. Recovering his legs as soon as possible, he turned to
+look behind him. The water seemed alive with fins, each pair gliding
+back and forth, as the bull-dog bounds in front of the ox's muzzle.
+Just then a light-coloured object glanced past the young man, so
+near as almost to touch him. It was a shark that had actually turned
+on its back to seize its prey, and was only prevented from
+succeeding by being driven from the line of its course by hitting
+the slimy rock, over which it was compelled to make its plunge. The
+momentum with which it came on, added to the inclination of the
+rock, forced the head and half of the body of this terrible
+assailant into the air, giving the intended victim an opportunity of
+seeing from what a fate he had escaped. Mulford avoided this fish
+without much trouble, however, and the next instant he threw himself
+into the boat, on the bottom of which he lay panting with the
+violence of his exertions, and unable to move under the reaction
+which now came over his system.
+
+The mate lay in the bottom of the boat, exhausted and unable to
+rise, for several minutes; during that space he devoutly returned
+thanks to God for his escape, and bethought him of the course he was
+next to pursue, in order to effect the rescue of his companions. The
+boat was larger than common. It was also well equipped--a mast and
+sail lying along with the oars, on its thwarts. The rock placed
+Harry to windward of the wreck, and by the time he felt sufficiently
+revived to rise and look about him, his plan of proceeding was fully
+arranged in his own mind. Among other things that he saw, as he
+still lay in the bottom of the boat, was a breaker which he knew
+contained fresh water, and a bread-bag. These were provisions that
+it was customary for the men to make, when employed on boat duty;
+and the articles had been left where he now saw them, in the hurry
+of the movements, as the brig quitted the islets.
+
+Harry rose the instant he felt his strength returning. Striking the
+breaker with his foot, and feeling the basket with a hand, he
+ascertained that the one held its water, and the other its bread.
+This was immense relief, for by this time the sufferings of the
+party on the wreck must be returning with redoubled force. The mate
+then stepped the mast, and fitted the sprit to the sail, knowing
+that the latter would be seen fluttering in the wind by those on the
+wreck, and carry joy to their hearts. After this considerate act, he
+began to examine into the position of the boat. It was still
+aground, having been left by the tide; but the water had already
+risen several inches, and by placing himself on a gunwale, so as to
+bring the boat on its bilge, and pushing with an oar, he soon got it
+into deep water. It only remained to haul aft the sheet, and right
+the helm, to be standing through the channel, at a rate that
+promised a speedy deliverance to his friends, and, most of all, to
+Rose.
+
+Mulford glanced past the rocks and shoals, attended by the whole
+company of the sharks. They moved before, behind, and on each side
+of him, as if unwilling to abandon their prey, even after he had got
+beyond the limits of their power to do him harm. It was not an easy
+thing to manage the boat in that narrow and crooked channel, with no
+other guide for the courses than the eye, and it required so much of
+the mate's vigilance to keep clear of the sharp angles of the rocks,
+that he could not once cast his eyes aside, to look for the
+fluttering shawl, which now composed the standing signal of the
+wreck. At length the boat shot through the last passage of the reef,
+and issued into open water. Mulford knew that he must come out half
+a mile at least to leeward of his object, and, without even raising
+his head, he flattened in the sheet, put his helm down, and luffed
+close to the wind. Then, and then only, did he venture to look
+around him.
+
+Our mate felt his heart leap toward his mouth, as he observed the
+present state of the wreck. It was dead to windward of him, in the
+first place, and it seemed to be entirely submerged. He saw the
+shawl fluttering as before; for Tier had fastened one corner to a
+button-hole of his own jacket, and another to the dress of Biddy,
+leaving the part which might be called the fly, to rise at moments
+almost perpendicularly in the air, in a way to render it visible at
+some distance. He saw also the heads and the bodies of those on the
+schooner's bottom, but to him they appeared to be standing in, or
+on, the water. The distance may have contributed a little to this
+appearance, but no doubt remained that so much air had escaped from
+the hold of the vessel, as to permit it to sink altogether beneath
+the surface of the sea. It was time, indeed, to proceed to the
+relief of the sufferers.
+
+Notwithstanding the boat sailed particularly fast, and worked
+beautifully, it could not equal the impatience of Mulford to get on.
+Passing away to the north-east a sufficient distance, as he thought,
+to weather on the wreck, the young man tacked at last, and had the
+happiness to see that every foot he proceeded was now in a direct
+line toward Rose. It was only while tacking he perceived that all
+the fins had disappeared. He felt little doubt that they had
+deserted him, in order to push for the wreck, which offered so much
+larger, and so much more attainable prey. This increased his
+feverish desire to get on, the boat seeming to drag, in his eyes, at
+the very moment it was leaving a wake full of eddies and little
+whirlpools. The wind was steady, but it seemed to Mulford that the
+boat was set to leeward of her course by a current, though this
+could hardly have been the case, as the wreck, the sole mark of his
+progress, would have had at least as great a drift as the boat. At
+length Mulford--to him it appeared to be an age; in truth it was
+after a run of about twenty minutes--came near the goal he so
+earnestly sought, and got an accurate view of the state of the
+wreck, and of those on it. The hull of the schooner had, in truth,
+sunk entirely beneath the surface of the sea; and the party it
+sustained stood already knee-deep in the water. This was
+sufficiently appalling; but the presence of the sharks, who were
+crowding around the spot, rendered the whole scene frightful. To the
+young mate it seemed as if he must still be too late to save Rose
+from a fate more terrible than drowning, for his boat fell so far to
+leeward as to compel him to tack once more. As he swept past the
+wreck, he called out to encourage his friends, begging them to be of
+good heart for five minutes longer, when he should be able to reach
+them. Rose held out her arms entreatingly, and the screams of Mrs.
+Budd and Biddy, which were extorted by the closer and closer
+approach of the sharks, proclaimed the imminency of the danger they
+ran, and the importance of not losing a moment of time.
+
+Mulford took his distance with a seaman's eye, and the boat went
+about like a top. The latter fell off, and the sail filled on the
+other tack. Then the young mariner saw, with a joy no description
+can pourtray, that he looked to windward of the fluttering shawl,
+toward which his little craft was already flying. He afterward
+believed that shawl alone prevented the voracious party of fish from
+assailing those on the wreck, for, though there might not yet be
+sufficient depth of water to allow of their customary mode of
+attack, creatures of their voracity did not always wait for such
+conveniences. But the boat was soon in the midst of the fins,
+scattering them in all directions; and Mulford let go his sheet, put
+his helm down, and sprang forward to catch the extended arms of
+Rose.
+
+It might have been accident, or it might have been the result of
+skill and interest in our heroine, but certain it is, that the bows
+of the boat came on the wreck precisely at the place where Rose
+stood, and her hand was the first object that the young man touched.
+
+"Take my aunt first," cried Rose, resisting Mulford's efforts to
+lift her into the boat; "she is dreadfully alarmed, and can stand
+with difficulty."
+
+Although two of Rose's activity and lightness might have been drawn
+into the boat, while the process was going on in behalf of the
+widow, Mulford lost no time in discussion, but did as he was
+desired. First directing Tier to hold on to the painter, he applied
+his strength to the arms of Mrs. Budd, and, assisted by Rose and
+Biddy, got her safely into the boat, over its bows. Rose now waited
+not for assistance, but followed her aunt with a haste that proved
+fear lent her strength in despite her long fast. Biddy came next,
+though clumsily, and not without trouble, and Jack Tier followed the
+instant he was permitted so to do. Of course, the boat, no longer
+held by its painter, drifted away from the spot, and the hull of the
+schooner, relieved from the weight of four human beings, rose so
+near the surface again as to bring a small line of its keel out of
+water. No better evidence could have been given of the trifling
+power which sustained it, and of the timely nature of the succour
+brought by Mulford. Had the boat remained near the schooner, it
+would have been found half an hour later that the hull had sunk
+slowly out of sight, finding its way, doubtless, inch by inch,
+toward the bottom of the Gulf.
+
+By this time the sun was well up, and the warmth of the hour,
+season, and latitude, was shed on the sufferers. There was an old
+sail in the boat, and in this the party dried their limbs and feet,
+which were getting to be numb by their long immersion. Then the mate
+produced the bag and opened it, in quest of bread. A small portion
+was given to each, and, on looking farther, the mate discovered that
+a piece of boiled ship's beef had been secreted in this receptacle.
+Of this also he gave each a moderate slice, taking a larger portion
+for himself, as requiring less precaution. The suffering of the
+party from hunger was far less than that they endured from thirst.
+Neither had been endured long enough seriously to enfeeble them or
+render a full meal very dangerous, but the thirst had been much the
+hardest to be borne. Of this fact Biddy soon gave audible evidence.
+
+"The mate is good," she said, "and the bread tastes swate and
+refreshing, but wather is a blessed thing. Can you no give us one
+dhrap of the wather that falls from heaven, Mr. Mulford; for this
+wather of the saa is of no use but to drown Christians in?"
+
+In an instant the mate had opened a breaker, and filled the tin pot
+which is almost always to be found in a boat. Biddy said no more,
+but her eyes pleaded so eloquently, that Rose begged the faithful
+creature might have the first drink. One eager swallow went down,
+and then a cry of disappointment succeeded. The water was salt, and
+had been put in the breaker for ballast. The other breaker was tried
+with the same success.
+
+"It is terrible to be without one drop of water," murmured Rose,
+"and this food makes it more necessary than ever."
+
+"Patience, patience, dearest Rose--patience for ten minutes, and you
+shall all drink," answered the mate, filling the sail and keeping
+the boat away while speaking. "There is water, God be praised, on
+the rock to which I first swam, and we will secure it before another
+day's sun help to make it evaporate."
+
+This announcement quieted the longings of those who endured a thirst
+which disappointment rendered doubly hard to bear; and away the boat
+glided toward the rock. As he now flew over the distance, lessened
+more than one-half by the drift of the wreck, Mulford recalled the
+scene through which he had so painfully passed the previous night.
+As often happens, he shuddered at the recollection of things which,
+at the moment, a desperate resolution had enabled him to encounter
+with firmness. Still, he thought nothing less than the ardent desire
+to save Rose could have carried him through the trial with the
+success which attended his struggles. The dear being at his side
+asked a few explanations of what had passed; and she bowed her head
+and wept, equally with pain and delight, as imagination pictured to
+her the situation of her betrothed, amid that waste of water, with
+his fearful companions, and all in the hours of deep night.
+
+But that was over now. There was the rock--the blessed rock on which
+Mulford had so accidentally struck, close before them--and presently
+they were all on it. The mate took the pot and ran to the little
+reservoir, returning with a sweet draught for each of the party.
+
+"A blessed, blessed thing, is wather!" exclaimed Biddy, this time
+finding the relief she sought, "and a thousand blessings on _you,_
+Mr. Mulford, who have niver done us anything but good."
+
+Rose looked a still higher eulogy on the young man, and even Mrs.
+Budd had something commendatory and grateful to say. Jack Tier was
+silent, but he had all his eyes about him, as he now proved.
+
+"We've all on us been so much taken up with our own affairs,"
+remarked the steward's assistant, "that we've taken but little
+notice of the neighbourhood. If that is n't the brig, Mr. Mulford,
+running through this very passage, with stun'sails set alow and
+aloft, I do n't know the Molly Swash when I see her!"
+
+"The brig!" exclaimed the mate, recollecting the vessels he had seen
+at the break-of-day, for the first time in hours. "Can it be
+possible that the craft I made out to the southward, is the brig?"
+
+"Look, and judge for yourself, sir. There she comes, like a
+race-horse, and if she holds her present course, she must pass
+somewhere within a mile or so of us, if we stay where we are."
+
+Mulford did look, as did all with him. There was the Swash, sure
+enough, coming down before the wind, and under a cloud of canvas.
+She might be still a league, or a league and a half distant, but, at
+the rate at which she was travelling, that distance would soon be
+past. She was running through the passage, no doubt with a view to
+proceed to the Dry Tortugas, to look after the schooner, Spike
+having the hope that he had dodged his pursuers on the coast of
+Cuba. The mate now looked for the ship, in the north-western board,
+believing, as he did, that she was the sloop-of-war. That vessel had
+gone about, and was standing to the southward, on a taut bowline.
+She was still a long way off, three or four leagues at least, but
+the change she had made in her position, since last seen, proved
+that she was a great sailer. Then she was more than hull down,
+whereas, now, she was near enough to let the outline of a long,
+straight fabric be discovered beneath her canvas.
+
+"It is hardly possible that Spike should not see the vessel here in
+the northern board," Mulford observed to Tier, who had been
+examining the ship with him. "The lookout is usually good on board
+the Swash, and, just now, should certainly be as good as common.
+Spike is no dawdler with serious business before him."
+
+"He's a willain!" muttered Jack Tier.
+
+The mate regarded his companion with some surprise. Jack was a very
+insignificant-looking personage in common, and one would scarcely
+pause to give him a second look, unless it might be to laugh at his
+rotundity and little waddling legs. But, now, the mate fancied he
+was swelling with feelings that actually imparted somewhat more than
+usual stature and dignity to his appearance. His face was full of
+indignation, and there was something about the eye, that to Mulford
+was inexplicable. As Rose, however, had related to him the scene
+that took place on the islet, at the moment when Spike was
+departing, the mate supposed that Jack still felt a portion of the
+resentment that such a collision would be apt to create. From the
+expression of Jack's countenance at that instant, it struck him
+Spike might not be exactly safe, should accident put it in the power
+of the former to do him an injury.
+
+It was now necessary to decide on the course that ought to be
+pursued. The bag contained sufficient food to last the party several
+days, and a gallon of water still remained in the cavity of the
+rock. This last was collected and put in one of the breakers, which
+was emptied of the salt water in order to receive it. As water,
+however, was the great necessity in that latitude, Mulford did not
+deem it prudent to set sail with so small a supply, and he
+accordingly commenced a search, on some of the adjacent rocks, Jack
+Tier accompanying him. They succeeded in doubling their stock of
+water, and collected several shell-fish, that the females found
+exceedingly grateful and refreshing. On the score of hunger and
+thirst, indeed, no one was now suffering. By judiciously sipping a
+little water at a time, and retaining it in the mouth before
+swallowing, the latter painful feeling had been gotten rid of; and
+as for food, there was even more than was actually needed, and that
+of a very good quality. It is probable that standing in the water
+for hours, as Rose, and her aunt, and Biddy had been obliged to do,
+had contributed to lessen the pain endured from thirst, though they
+had all suffered a good deal from that cause, especially while the
+sun shone.
+
+Mulford and Tier were half an hour in obtaining the water. By the
+end of that period the brigantine was so near as to render her hull
+distinctly visible. It was high time to decide on their future
+course. The sail had been brailed when the boat reached the rock,
+and the boat itself lay on the side of the latter opposite to the
+brig, and where no part of it could be seen to those on board the
+Swash, with the exception of the mast. Under the circumstances,
+therefore, Mulford thought it wisest to remain where they were, and
+let the vessel pass, before they attempted to proceed toward Key
+West, their intended place of refuge. In order to do this, however,
+it was necessary to cause the whole party to lie down, in such a way
+as to be hid by the inequalities in the rock, as it was now very
+evident the brig would pass within half a mile of them. Hitherto, it
+was not probable that they had been seen, and by using due caution,
+the chances of Spike's overlooking them altogether amounted nearly
+to certainty.
+
+The necessary arrangements were soon made, the boat's masts
+unstepped, the party placed behind their covers, and the females
+comfortably bestowed in the spare sail, where they might got a
+little undisturbed sleep after the dreadful night, or morning, they
+had passed. Even Jack Tier lay down to catch his nap, as the most
+useful manner of bestowing himself for a couple of hours; the time
+Mulford had mentioned as the period of their stay where they were.
+
+As for the mate, vigilance was his portion, and he took his
+position, hid like all the rest, where he could watch the movements
+of his old craft. In about twenty minutes, the brig was quite near;
+so near that Mulford not only saw the people on board her, who
+showed themselves in the rigging, but fancied he could recognise
+their persons. As yet, nothing had occurred in the way of change,
+but, just as the Swash got abreast of the rock, she began to take in
+her studding-sails, and that hurriedly, as is apt to occur on board
+a vessel in sudden emergencies. Our young man was a little alarmed
+at first, believing that they might have been discovered, but he was
+soon induced to think that the crew of the brigantine had just then
+begun to suspect the character of the ship to the northward. That
+vessel had been drawing near all this time, and was now only some
+three leagues distant. Owing to the manner in which she headed, or
+bows on, it was not a very easy matter to tell the character of this
+stranger, though the symmetry and squareness of his yards rendered
+it nearly certain he was a cruiser. Though Spike could not expect to
+meet his old acquaintance here, after the chase he had so lately led
+her, down on the opposite coast, he might and would have his
+misgivings, and Mulford thought it was his intention to haul up
+close round the northern angle of the reef, and maintain his
+advantage of the wind, over the stranger. If this were actually
+done, it might expose the boat to view, for the brig would pass
+within a quarter of a mile of it, and on the side of the rock on
+which it lay. It was too late, however, to attempt a change, since
+the appearance of human beings in such a place would be certain to
+draw the brig's glasses on them, and the glasses must at once let
+Spike know who they were. It remained, therefore, only to await the
+result as patiently as possible.
+
+A very few minutes removed all doubt. The brig hauled as close round
+the reef as she dared to venture, and in a very short time the boat
+lay exposed to view to all on board her. The vessel was now so near
+that Mulford plainly saw the boatswain get upon the coach-house, or
+little hurricane-house deck, where Spike stood examining the ship
+with his glass, and point out the boat, where it lay at the side of
+the rock. In an instant, the glass was levelled at the spot, and the
+movements on board the brig immediately betrayed to Mulford that the
+boat was recognised. Sail was shortened on board the Swash, and men
+were seen preparing to lower her stern boat, while everything
+indicated that the vessel was about to be hove-to. There was no time
+now to be lost, but the young man immediately gave the alarm.
+
+No sooner did the party arise and show themselves, than the crew of
+the Swash gave three cheers. By the aid of the glass, Spike
+doubtless recognised their persons, and the fact was announced to
+the men, by way of stimulating their exertions. This gave an
+additional spur to the movements of those on the rock, who hastened
+into their own boat, and made sail as soon as possible.
+
+It was far easier to do all that has been described, than to
+determine on the future course. Capture was certain if the fugitives
+ventured into the open water, and their only hope was to remain on
+the reef. If channels for the passage of the boat could be found,
+escape was highly probable, as the schooner's boat could sail much
+faster than the brig's boat could row, fast as Mulford knew the last
+to be. But the experience of the morning had told the mate that the
+rock rose too near the surface, in many places, for the boat, small
+as it was, to pass over it; and he must trust a great deal to
+chance. Away he went, however, standing along a narrow channel,
+through which the wind just permitted him to lay, with the sail
+occasionally shaking.
+
+By this time the Swash had her boat in the water, manned with four
+powerful oars, Spike steering it in his own person. Our young mate
+placed Tier in the bows, to point out the deepest water, and kept
+his sail a rap full, in order to get ahead as fast as possible.
+Ahead he did get, but it was on a course that soon brought him out
+in the open water of the main passage through the reef, leaving
+Spike materially astern. The latter now rose in his boat, and made a
+signal with his hat, which the boatswain perfectly understood. The
+latter caused the brig to ware short round on her heel, and boarded
+his foretack in chase, hauling up into the passage as soon as he
+could again round the reef. Mulford soon saw that it would never do
+for him to venture far from the rocks, the brig going two feet to
+his one, though not looking quite as high as he did in the boat. But
+the Swash had her guns, and it was probable they would be used
+rather than he should escape. When distant two hundred yards from
+the reef, therefore, he tacked. The new course brought the fugitives
+nearly at right angles to that steered by Spike, who stood directly
+on, as if conscious that, sooner or later, such a rencounter must
+occur. It would seem that the tide was setting through the passage,
+for when the boat of Mulford again reached the reef, it was
+considerably to windward of the channel out of which she had issued,
+and opposite to another which offered very opportunely for her
+entrance. Into this new channel, then, the mate somewhat blindly
+ran, feeling the necessity of getting out of gun-shot of the brig at
+every hazard. She at least could not follow him among the rocks, let
+Spike, in his boat, proceed as he might.
+
+According to appearances, Spike was not likely to be very
+successful. He was obliged to diverge from his course, in order to
+go into the main passage at the very point where Mulford had just
+before done the same thing, and pull along the reef to windward, in
+order to get into the new channel, into which the boat he was
+pursuing had just entered. This brought him not only astern again,
+but a long bit astern, inasmuch as he was compelled to make the
+circuit described. On he went, however, as eager in the chase as the
+hound with his game in view.
+
+Mulford's boat seemed to fly, and glided ahead at least three feet
+to that of Spike's two. The direction of the channel it was in,
+brought it pretty close to the wind, but the water was quite smooth,
+and our mate managed to keep the sail full, and his little craft at
+the same time quite near the weatherly side of the rocks. In the
+course of ten minutes the fugitives were fully a mile from the brig,
+which was unable to follow them, but kept standing off and on, in
+the main passage, waiting the result. At one time Mulford thought
+the channel would bring him out into open water again, on the
+northern side of the reef, and more than a mile to the eastward of
+the point where the ship-channel in which the Swash was plying
+commenced; but an accidental circumstance prevented his standing in
+far enough to ascertain the fact. That circumstance was as follows:
+
+In running a mile and a half over the reef, in the manner described,
+Mulford had left the boat of Spike quite half a mile astern. He was
+now out of gun-shot from the brig, or at least beyond the range of
+her grape, the only missile he feared, and so far to windward that
+he kept his eye on every opening to the southward, which he fancied
+might allow of his making a stretch deeper into the mazes of the
+reef, among which he believed it easiest for him to escape, and to
+weary the oarsmen of his pursuers. Two or three of these openings
+offered as he glided along, but it struck him that they all looked
+so high that the boat would not lay through them--an opinion in
+which he was right. At length he came abreast of one that seemed
+straight and clear of obstacles as far as he could see, and through
+which he might run with a flowing sheet. Down went his helm, and
+about went his boat, running away to the southward as fast as ever.
+
+Had Spike followed, doubled the same shoal, and kept away again in
+the same channel as had been done by the boat he chased, all his
+hopes of success must have vanished at once. This he did not
+attempt, therefore; but, sheering into one of the openings which the
+mate had rejected, he cut off quite half a mile in his distance.
+This was easy enough for him to accomplish, as a row-boat would pull
+even easier, near to the wind, than with the wind broad on its bow.
+In consequence of this short cut, therefore, Spike was actually
+crossing out into Mulford's new channel, just as the latter had
+handsomely cleared the mouth of the opening through which he
+effected his purpose.
+
+It is scarcely necessary to say that the two boats must have been
+for a few minutes quite near to each other; so near, indeed, did the
+fugitives now pass to their pursuers, that it would have been easy
+for them to have conversed, had they been so disposed. Not a word
+was spoken, however, but Mulford went by, leaving Spike about a
+hundred yards astern. This was a trying moment to the latter, and
+the devil tempted him to seek his revenge. He had not come unarmed
+on his enterprise, but three or four loaded muskets lay in the
+stern-sheets of his yawl. He looked at his men, and saw that they
+could not hold out much longer to pull as they had been pulling.
+Then he looked at Mulford's boat, and saw it gliding away from him
+at a rate that would shortly place it another half mile in advance.
+He seized a musket, and raised it to his shoulder, nay, was in the
+act of taking aim at his mate, when Rose, who watched his movements,
+threw herself before Harry, and if she did not actually save his
+life, at least prevented Spike's attempt on it for that occasion. In
+the course of the next ten minutes the fugitives had again so far
+gained on their pursuers, that the latter began to see that their
+efforts were useless. Spike muttered a few bitter curses, and told
+his men to lay on their oars.
+
+"It's well for the runaway," he added, "that the gal put herself
+between us, else would his grog have been stopped for ever. I've
+long suspected this; but had I been sure of it, the Gulf Stream
+would have had the keeping of his body, the first dark night we were
+in it together. Lay on your oars, men, lay on your oars; I'm afeared
+the villian will get through our fingers, a'ter all."
+
+The men obeyed, and then, for the first time, did they turn their
+heads, to look at those they had been so vehemently pursuing. The
+other boat was quite half a mile from them, and it had again tacked.
+This last occurrence induced Spike to pull slowly ahead, in quest of
+another short passage to cut the fugitives off; but no such opening
+offered.
+
+"There he goes about again, by George!" exclaimed Spike. "Give way,
+lads--give way; an easy stroke, for if he is embayed, he can't
+escape us!"
+
+Sure enough, poor Mulford _was_ embayed, and could see no outlet by
+which to pass ahead. He tacked his boat two or three times, and he
+wore round as often; but on every side shoals, or rocks that
+actually rose above the surface of the water, impeded his course.
+The fact was not to be concealed; after all his efforts, and so many
+promises of success, not only was his further progress ahead cut
+off, but equally so was retreat. The passage was not wide enough to
+admit the hope of getting by his pursuers, and the young man came to
+the conclusion that his better course was to submit with dignity to
+his fate. For himself he had no hope--he knew Spike's character too
+well for that; but he did not apprehend any great immediate danger
+to his companions. Spike had a coarse, brutal admiration for Rose!
+but her expected fortune, which was believed to be of more amount
+than was actually the case, was a sort of pledge that he would not
+willingly put himself in a situation that would prevent the
+possibility of enjoying it. Strange, hurried, and somewhat confused
+thoughts passed through Harry Mulford's mind, as he brailed his
+sail, and waited for his captors to approach and take possession of
+his boat and himself. This was done quietly, and with very few words
+on the part of Spike.
+
+Mulford would have liked the appearance of things better had his old
+commander cursed him, and betrayed other signs of the fury that was
+boiling in his very soul. On the contrary, never had Stephen Spike
+seemed more calm, or under better self-command. He smiled, and
+saluted Mrs. Budd, just as if nothing unpleasant had occurred, and
+alluded to the sharpness of the chase with facetiousness and seeming
+good-humour. The females were deceived by this manner, and hoped,
+after all, that the worst that would happen would be a return to
+their old position on board the Swash. This was being so much better
+off than their horrible situation on the wreck, that the change was
+not frightful to them.
+
+"What has become of the schooner, Mr. Mulford?" asked Spike, as the
+boats began to pass down the channel to return to the brig--two of
+the Swash's men taking their seats in that which had been captured,
+along with their commander, while the other two got a tow from the
+use of the sail. "I see you have the boat here that we used
+alongside of her, and suppose you know something of the craft
+itself."
+
+"She capsized with us in a squall," answered the mate, "and we only
+left the wreck this morning."
+
+"Capsized!--hum--that was a hard fate, to be sure, and denotes bad
+seamanship. Now I've sailed all sorts of craft these forty years, or
+five-and-thirty at least, and never cap-sized anything in my life.
+Stand by there for'ard to hold on by that rock."
+
+A solitary cap of the coral rose above the water two or three feet,
+close to the channel, and was the rock to which Spike alluded. It
+was only some fifty feet in diameter, and of an oval form, rising
+quite above the ordinary tides, as was apparent by its appearance.
+It is scarcely necessary to say it had no other fresh water than
+that which occasionally fell on its surface, which surface being
+quite smooth, retained very little of the rain it received. The boat
+was soon alongside of this rock, where it was held broadside-to by
+the two seamen.
+
+"Mr. Mulford, do me the favour to step up here," said Spike, leading
+the way on to the rock himself. "I have a word to say to you before
+we get on board the old Molly once more."
+
+Mulford silently complied, fully expecting that Spike intended to
+blow his brains out, and willing the bloody deed should be done in a
+way to be as little shocking to Rose as circumstances would allow.
+But Spike manifested no such intention. A more refined cruelty was
+uppermost in his mind; and his revenge was calculated, and took care
+to fortify itself with some of the quibbles and artifices of the
+law. He might not be exactly right in his legal reservations, but he
+did not the less rely on their virtue.
+
+"Hark'e, Mr. Mulford," said Spike, sharply, as soon as both were on
+the rock, "you have run from my brig, thereby showing your distaste
+for her; and I've no disposition to keep a man who wishes to quit
+me. Here you are, sir, on _terrum firm,_ as the scholars call it;
+and here you have my full permission to remain. I wish you a good
+morning, sir; and will not fail to report, when we get in, that you
+left the brig of your own pleasure."
+
+"You will not have the cruelty to abandon me on this naked rock,
+Captain Spike, and that without a morsel of food, or a drop of
+water."
+
+"Wather is a blessed thing!" exclaimed Biddy. "Do not think of
+lavin' the gentleman widout wather."
+
+"You left _me,_ sir, without food or water, and you can fit out your
+own rock--yes, d--e, sir, you left me _under fire,_ and that is a
+thing no true-hearted man would have thought of. Stand by to make
+sail, boys; and if he offer to enter the boat, pitch him out with
+the boat-hooks."
+
+Spike was getting angry, and he entered the boat again, without
+perceiving that Rose had left it. Light of foot, and resolute of
+spirit, the beautiful girl, handsomer than ever perhaps, by her
+excited feelings and dishevelled hair, had sprung on the rock, as
+Spike stepped into the boat forward, and when the latter turned
+round, after loosening the sail, he found he was drifting away from
+the very being who was the object of all his efforts. Mulford,
+believing that Rose was to be abandoned as well as himself, received
+the noble girl in his arms, though ready to implore Spike, on his
+knees, to return and at least to take her off. But Spike wanted no
+solicitation on that point. He returned of his own accord, and had
+just reached the rock again when a report of a gun drew all eyes
+toward the brig.
+
+The Swash had again run out of the passage, and was beating up,
+close to the reef as she dared to go, with a signal flying. All the
+seamen at once understood the cause of this hint. The strange sail
+was getting too near, and everybody could see that it was the
+sloop-of-war. Spike looked at Rose, a moment, in doubt. But Mulford
+raised his beloved in his arms, and carried her to the side of the
+rock, stepping on board the boat.
+
+Spike watched the movements of the young man with jealous vigilance,
+and no sooner was Rose placed on her seat, than he motioned
+significantly to the mate to quit the boat.
+
+"I cannot and will not voluntarily, Captain Spike," answered Harry,
+calmly. "It would be committing a sort of suicide."
+
+A sign brought two of the men to the captain's assistance. While the
+latter held Rose in her place, the sailors shoved Harry on the rock
+again. Had Mulford been disposed to resist, these two men could not
+very easily have ejected him from the boat, if they could have done
+it at all; but he knew there were others in reserve, and feared that
+blood might be shed, in the irritated state of Spike, in the
+presence of Rose. While, therefore, he would not be accessary to his
+own destruction, he would not engage in what he knew would prove not
+only a most harassing, but a bootless resistance. The consequence
+was that the boats proceeded, leaving him alone on the rock.
+
+It was perhaps fortunate for Rose that she fainted. Her condition
+occupied her aunt and Biddy, and Spike was enabled to reach his brig
+without any further interruption. Rose was taken on board still
+nearly insensible, while her two female companions were so much
+confused and distressed, that neither could have given a reasonably
+clear account of what had just occurred. Not so with Jack Tier,
+however. That singular being noted all that passed, seated in the
+eyes of the boat, away from the confusion that prevailed in its
+stern-sheets, and apparently undisturbed by it.
+
+As the party was sailing back toward the brig, the lighthouse boat
+towing the Swash's yawl, Jack took as good an observation of the
+channels of that part of the reef as his low position would allow.
+He tried to form in his mind a sort of chart of the spot, for, from
+the instant Mulford was thus deserted, the little fellow had formed
+a stern resolution to attempt his rescue. How that was to be done,
+however, was more than he yet knew; and when they reached the brig's
+side, Tier may be said to have been filled with good intentions,
+rather than with any very available knowledge to enable him to put
+them in execution.
+
+As respects the two vessels, the arrival of Spike on board his own
+was not a moment too soon. The Poughkeepsie, for the stranger to the
+northward was now ascertained to be that sloop-of-war, was within
+long gun-shot by this time, and near enough to make certain, by
+means of her glasses, of the character of the craft with which she
+was closing. Luckily for the brig she lay in the channel so often
+mentioned, and through which both she and her present pursuer had so
+lately come, on their way to the northward. This brought her to
+windward, as the wind then stood, with a clear passage before her.
+Not a moment was lost. No sooner were the females sent below, than
+sail was made on the brig, and she began to beat through the
+passage, making long legs and short ones. She was chased, as a
+matter of course, and that hard, the difference in sailing between
+the two crafts not being sufficiently great to render the
+brigantine's escape by any means certain, while absolutely within
+the range of those terrible missiles that were used by the
+man-of-war's men.
+
+But Spike soon determined not to leave a point so delicate as that
+of his own and his vessel's security to be decided by a mere
+superiority in the way of heels. The Florida Reef, with all its
+dangers, windings, and rocks, was as well known to him as the
+entrances to the port of New York. In addition to its larger
+channels, of which there are three or four, through which ships of
+size can pass, it had many others that would admit only vessels of a
+lighter draught of water. The brig was not flying light, it is true,
+but she was merely in good ballast trim, and passages would be
+available to her, into which the Poughkeepsie would not dare to
+venture. One of these lesser channels was favourably placed to
+further the escape of Spike, and he shoved the brig into it after
+the struggle had lasted less than an hour. This passage offered a
+shorter cut to the south side of the reef than the main channel, and
+the sloop-of-war, doubtless perceiving the uselessness of pursuit,
+under such circumstances, wore round on her heel, and came down
+through the main channel again, just entering the open water, near
+the spot where the schooner had sunk, as the sun was setting.
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_Shallow._ Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pound?
+
+_Evans._ Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny.
+
+_Shallow._ I know the young gentlewoman; she has good gifts.
+
+_Evans._ Seven hundred pounds, and possibilities, is good gifts.
+
+Shakspeare.
+
+As for Spike, he had no intention of going to the southward of the
+Florida Reef again until his business called him there. The lost bag
+of doubloons was still gleaming before his imagination, and no
+sooner did the Poughkeepsie bear up, than he shortened sail,
+standing back and forth in his narrow and crooked channel, rather
+losing ground than gaining, though he took great pains not to let
+his artifice be seen. When the Poughkeepsie was so far to the
+northward as to render it safe, he took in everything but one or two
+of his lowest sails, and followed easily in the same direction. As
+the sloop-of-war carried her light and loftier sails, she remained
+visible to the people of the Swash long after the Swash had ceased
+to be visible to her. Profiting by this circumstance, Spike entered
+the main channel again some time before it was dark, and selected a
+safe anchorage there that was well known to him; a spot where
+sufficient sand had collected on the coral to make good holding
+ground, and where a vessel would be nearly embayed, though always to
+windward of her channel going out, by the formation of the reef.
+Here he anchored, in order to wait until morning ere he ventured
+further north. During the whole of that dreadful day, Rose had
+remained in her cabin, disconsolate, nearly unable, as she was
+absolutely unwilling to converse. Now it was that she felt the total
+insufficiency of a mind feeble as that of her aunt's to administer
+consolation to misery like her own. Nevertheless, the affectionate
+solicitude of Mrs. Budd, as well as that of the faithful creature,
+Biddy, brought some relief, and reason and resignation began slowly
+to resume their influence. Yet was the horrible picture of Harry,
+dying by inches, deserted in the midst of the waters on his solitary
+rock, ever present to her thoughts, until, once or twice, her
+feelings verged on madness. Prayer brought its customary relief,
+however; and we do not think that we much exaggerate the fact, when
+we say that Rose passed fully one-half of that terrible afternoon on
+her knees.
+
+As for Jack Tier, he was received on board the brig much as if
+nothing had happened. Spike passed and repassed him fifty times,
+without even an angry look, or a word of abuse; and the
+deputy-steward dropped quietly into the duties of his office,
+without meeting with either reproach or hindrance. The only
+allusion, indeed, that was made to his recent adventures, took place
+in a conversation that was held on the subject in the galley, the
+interlocutors being Jack himself, Josh, the steward, and Simon, the
+cook.
+
+"Where you been scullin' to, 'bout on dat reef, Jack, wid dem' ere
+women, I won'er now?" demanded Josh, after tasting the cabin soup,
+in order to ascertain how near it was to being done. "It'ink it no
+great fun to dodge 'bout among dem rock in a boat, for anudder
+hurricane might come when a body least expeck him."
+
+"Oh," said Jack, cavalierly, "two hurricanes no more come in one
+month, than two shot in the same hole. We've been turtlin', that's
+all. I wish we had in your coppers, cook, some of the critturs that
+we fell in with in our cruise."
+
+"Wish'e had, master steward, wid all my heart," answered the fat,
+glistening potentate of the galley. "But, hark'ee, Jack; what became
+of our young mate, can 'e tell? Some say he get kill at'e Dry
+Tortugas, and some say he war' scullin' round in dat boat you hab,
+wid'e young woman, eh?"
+
+"Ah, boys," answered Jack, mournfully, "sure enough, what _has_
+become of him?"
+
+"You know, why can't you tell? What good to hab secret among
+friend."
+
+"_Are_ ye his friends, lads? Do you really feel as if you could give
+a poor soul in its agony a helpin' hand?"
+
+"Why not?" said Josh, in a reproachful way. "Misser Mulford'e bess
+mate dis brig ebber get; and I don't see why Cap'in Spike-want to be
+rid of him."
+
+"Because he's a willian!" returned Jack between his grated teeth.
+"D'ye know what that means in English, master Josh; and can you and
+cook here, both of whom have sailed with the man years in and years
+out, say whether my words be true or not?"
+
+"Dat as a body understand 'em. Accordin' to some rule, Stephen Spike
+not a werry honest man; but accordin' to 'nudder some, he as good as
+any body else."
+
+"Yes, dat just be upshot of de matter," put in Simon, approvingly.
+"De whole case lie in dat meanin'."
+
+"D'ye call it right to leave a human being to starve, or to suffer
+for water, on a naked rock, in the midst of the ocean?"
+
+"Who do dat?"
+
+"The willian who is captain of this brig; and all because he thinks
+young eyes and bloomin' cheeks prefar young eyes and bloomin' cheeks
+to his own grizzly beard and old look-outs."
+
+"Dat bad; dat werry bad," said Josh, shaking his head, a way of
+denoting dissatisfaction, in which Simon joined him; for no crime
+appeared sufficiently grave in the eyes of these two sleek and
+well-fed officials to justify such a punishment. "Dat mons'ous bad,
+and cap'in ought to know better dan do _dat_. I nebber starves a
+mouse, if I catches him in de bread-locker. Now, dat a sort of
+reason'ble punishment, too; but I nebber does it. If mouse eat my
+bread, it do seem right to tell mouse dat he hab enough, and dat he
+must not eat any more for a week, or a mont', but it too cruel for
+me, and I nebber does it; no, I t'rows de little debil overboard,
+and lets him drown like a gentle'em."
+
+"Y-e-s," drawled out Simon, in a philanthropical tone of voice,
+"dat'e best way. What good it do to torment a fellow critter? If
+Misser Mulford run, why put him down run, and let him go, I say,
+on'y mulk his wages; but what good it do anybody to starve him? Now
+dis is my opinion, gentle'em, and dat is, dat starwation be wuss dan
+choleric. Choleric kill, I knows, and so does starwation kill; but
+of de two, gib me de choleric fuss; if I gets well of dat, den try
+starwation if you can."
+
+"I'm glad to hear you talk in this manner, my hearties," put in
+Jack; "and I hope I may find you accommodatin' in a plan I've got to
+help the maty out of this difficulty. As a friend of Stephen Spike's
+I would do it; for it must be a terrible thing to die with such a
+murder on one's soul. Here's the boat that we pick'd up at the
+light-house, yonder, in tow of the brig at this minute; and there's
+everything in her comfortable for a good long run, as I know from
+having sailed in her; and what I mean is this: as we left Mr.
+Mulford, I took the bearings and distance of the rock he was on,
+d'ye understand, and think I could find my way back to it. You see
+the brig is travelin' slowly north ag'in, and afore long we shall be
+in the neighbourhood of that very rock. We, cook and stewards, will
+be called on to keep an anchor-watch, if the brig fetches up, as I
+heard the captain tell the Spanish gentleman he thought she would;
+and then we can take the boat that's in the water and go and have a
+hunt for the maty."
+
+The two blacks looked at Tier earnestly; then they turned their
+heads to look at each other. The idea struck each as bold and novel,
+but each saw serious difficulties in it. At length Josh, as became
+his superior station, took on himself the office of expressing the
+objections that occurred to his mind.
+
+"Dat nebber do!" exclaimed the steward. "We be's quite willin' to
+sarve'e mate, who's a good gentle'em, and as nice a young man as
+ever sung out, `hard a-lee," but we must t'ink little bit of number
+one; or, for dat matter, of number two, as Simon would be
+implercated as well as myself. If Cap'in Spike once knew we've lent
+a hand in sich a job, he'd never overlook it. I knows him, _well;_
+and that is sayin' as much as need be said of any man's character.
+You nebber catch _me_ runnin' myself into his jaws; would rather
+fight a shark widout any knife. No, no--I knows him _well_. Den
+comes anudder werry unanswerable objecsh'un, and dat is, dat'e brig
+owe bot' Simon and I money. Fifty dollars, each on us, if she owe
+one cent. Now, do you t'ink in cander, Jack, dat two colour'
+gentle'em, like us, can t'row away our fortins like two sons of a
+York merchant dat has inherited a hundred t'ousand dollar tudder
+day?"
+
+"There is no occasion for running at all, or for losing your wages."
+
+"How you get'e mate off, den? Can he walk away on de water? If so,
+let him go widout us. A werry good gentle'em is Misser Mulford, but
+not good enough to mulk Simon and me out of fifty dollar each."
+
+"You will not hear my project, Josh, and so will never know what I
+would be at."
+
+"Well, come, tell him jest as you surposes him. Now listen, Simon,
+so dat not a word be loss."
+
+"My plan is to take the boat, if we anchor, as anchor I know we
+shall, and go and find the rock and bring Mr. Mulford off; then we
+can come back to the brig, and get on board ourselves, and let the
+mate sail away in the boat by himself. On this plan nobody will run,
+and no wages be mulcted."
+
+"But dat take time and an anchor-watch last but two hour, surposin'
+even dat'ey puts all t'ree of us in de same watch."
+
+"Spike usually does that, you know. `Let the cook and the stewards
+keep the midnight watch,' he commonly says, `and that will give the
+foremost hands a better snooze."'
+
+"Yes, he do say _dat,_ Josh," put in Simon, "most ebbery time we
+comes-to."
+
+"I know he does, and surposes he will say it to-night, if he
+comes-to to-night. But a two hour watch may not be long enough to do
+all you wants; and den, jest t'ink for a moment, should 'e cap'in
+come on deck and hail'e forecastle, and find us all gone, I wouldn't
+be in your skin, Jack, for dis brig, in sich a kerlamity. I knows
+Cap'in Spike well; t'ree time I endebber to run myself, and each
+time he bring me up wid a round turn; so, now-a-days, I nebber
+t'inks of sich a projeck any longer."
+
+"But I do not intend to leave the forecastle without some one on it
+to answer a hail. No, all I want is a companion; for I do not like
+to go out on the reef at midnight, all alone. If one of you will go
+with me, the other can stay and answer the captain's hail, should he
+really come on deck in our watch--a thing very little likely to
+happen. When once his head is on his pillow, a'ter a hard day's
+work, it's not very apt to be lifted ag'in without a call, or a
+squall. If you do know Stephen Spike _well,_ Josh, I know him
+better."
+
+"Well, Jack, dis here is a new idee, d'ye see, and a body must take
+time to consider on it. If Simon and I do ship for dis v'y'ge, 't
+will be for lub of Mr. Mulford, and not for _his_ money or
+_your'n"_.
+
+This was all the encouragement of his project Jack Tier could
+obtain, on that occasion, from either his brother steward, or from
+the cook. These blacks were well enough disposed to rescue an
+innocent and unoffending man from the atrocious death to which Spike
+had condemned his mate, but neither lost sight of his own security
+and interest. They promised Tier not to betray him, however; and he
+had the fullest confidence in their pledges. They who live together
+in common, usually understand the feeling that prevails, on any
+given point, in their own set; and Jack felt pretty certain that
+Harry was a greater favourite in and about the camboose than the
+captain. On that feeling he relied, and he was fain to wait the
+course of events, ere he came to any absolute conclusion as to his
+own course.
+
+The interview in the galley took place about half an hour before the
+brig anchored for the night. Tier, who often assisted on such
+occasions, went aloft to help secure the royal, one of the gaskets
+of which had got loose, and from the yard he had an excellent
+opportunity to take a look at the reef, the situation of the vessel,
+and the probable bearings of the rock on which poor Mulford had been
+devoted to a miserable death. This opportunity was much increased by
+Spike's hailing him, while on the yard, and ordering him to take a
+good look at the sloop-of-war, and at the same time to ascertain if
+any boats were "prowlin' about, in order to make a set upon us in
+the night." On receiving this welcome order, Jack answered with a
+cheerful "Ay, ay, sir," and standing up on the yard, he placed an
+arm around the mast, and remained for a long time making his
+observations. The command to look-out for boats would have been a
+sufficient excuse had he continued on the yard as long as it was
+light.
+
+Jack had no difficulty in finding the Poughkeepsie, which was
+already through the passage, and no longer visible from the deck.
+She appeared to be standing to the northward and westward, under
+easy canvas, like a craft that was in no hurry. This fact was
+communicated to Spike in the usual way. The latter seemed pleased,
+and he answered in a hearty manner, just as if no difficulty had
+ever occurred between him and the steward's assistant.
+
+"Very well, Jack! bravo, Jack!--now take a good look for boats;
+you'll have light enough for that this half hour," cried the
+captain. "If any are out, you'll find them pulling down the channel,
+or maybe they'll try to shorten the cut, by attempting to pull
+athwart the reef. Take a good and steady look for them, my man."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir; I'll do all I can with naked eyes," answered Jack,
+"but I could do better, sir, if they would only send me up a glass
+by these here signal-halyards. With a glass, a fellow might speak
+with some sartainty."
+
+Spike seemed struck with the truth of this suggestion; and he soon
+sent a glass aloft by the signal-halyards. Thus provided, Jack
+descended as low as the cross-trees, where he took his seat, and
+began a survey at his leisure. While thus employed, the brig was
+secured for the night, her decks were cleared, and the people were
+ordered to get their suppers, previously to setting an anchor-watch,
+and turning-in for the night. No one heeded the movements of
+Tier,--for Spike had gone into his own state-room,--with the
+exception of Josh and Simon. Those two worthies were still in the
+galley, conversing on the subject of Jack's recent communications;
+and ever and anon one of them would stick his head out of the door
+and look aloft, withdrawing it, and shaking it significantly, as
+soon as his observations were ended.
+
+As for Tier, he was seated quite at his ease; and having slung his
+glass to one of the shrouds, in a way to admit of its being turned
+as on a pivot, he had every opportunity for observing accurately,
+and at his leisure. The first thing Jack did, was to examine the
+channel very closely, in order to make sure that no boats were in
+it, after which he turned the glass with great eagerness toward the
+reef, in the almost hopeless office of ascertaining something
+concerning Mulford. In point of fact, the brig had anchored quite
+three leagues from the solitary rock of the deserted mate, and,
+favoured as he was by his elevation, Jack could hardly expect to
+discern so small and low an object as that rock at so great a
+distance. Nevertheless, the glass was much better than common. It
+had been a present to Spike from one who was careful in his
+selections of such objects, and who had accidentally been under a
+serious obligation to the captain. Knowing the importance of a good
+look, as regards the boats, Spike had brought this particular
+instrument, of which, in common, he was very chary, from his own
+state-room, and sent it aloft, in order that Jack might have every
+available opportunity of ascertaining his facts. It was this glass,
+then, which was the means of the important discoveries the little
+fellow, who was thus perched on the fore-topmast cross-trees of the
+Swash, did actually succeed in making.
+
+Jack actually started, when he first ascertained how distinctly and
+near the glass he was using brought distant objects. The gulls that
+sailed across its disk, though a league off, appeared as if near
+enough to be touched by the hand, and even their feathers gave out
+not only their hues, but their forms. Thus, too, was it with the
+surface of the ocean, of which the little waves that agitated the
+water of the reef, might be seen tossing up and down, at more than
+twice the range of the Poughkeepsie's heaviest gun. Naked rocks, low
+and subdued as they were in colour, too, were to be noted, scattered
+up and down in the panorama. At length Tier fancied his glass
+covered a field that he recognized. It was distant, but might be
+seen from his present elevation. A second look satisfied him he was
+right; and he next clearly traced the last channel in which they had
+endeavoured to escape from Spike, or that in which the boat had been
+taken. Following it along, by slowly moving the glass, he actually
+hit the rock on which Mulford had been deserted. It was peculiar in
+shape, size, and elevation above the water, and connected with the
+circumstance of the channel, which was easily enough seen by the
+colour of the water, and more easily from his height than if he had
+been in it, he could not be mistaken. The little fellow's heart beat
+quick as he made the glass move slowly over its surface, anxiously
+searching for the form of the mate. It was not to be seen. A second,
+and a more careful sweep of the glass, made it certain that the rock
+was deserted.
+
+Although a little reflection might have satisfied any one Mulford
+was not to be sought in that particular spot, so long after he had
+been left there, Jack Tier felt grievously disappointed when he was
+first made certain of the accuracy of his observations. A minute
+later he began to reason on the matter, and he felt more encouraged.
+The rock on which the mate had been abandoned was smooth, and could
+not hold any fresh water that might have been left by the late
+showers. Jack also remembered that it had neither sea-weed nor
+shell-fish. In short, the utmost malice of Spike could not have
+selected, for the immolation of his victim, a more suitable place.
+Now Tier had heard Harry's explanation to Rose, touching the manner
+in which he had waded and swum about the reef that very morning, and
+it at once occurred to him that the young man had too much energy
+and spirit to remain helpless and inactive to perish on a naked
+rock, when there might be a possibility of at least prolonging
+existence, if not of saving it. This induced the steward to turn the
+glass slowly over the water, and along all the ranges of visible
+rock that he could find in that vicinity. For a long time the search
+was useless, the distance rendering such an examination not only
+difficult but painful. At length Jack, about to give up the matter
+in despair, took one sweep with the glass nearer to the brig, as
+much to obtain a general idea of the boat-channels of the reef, as
+in any hope of finding Mulford, when an object moving in the water
+came within the field of the glass. He saw it but for an instant, as
+the glass swept slowly past, but it struck him it was something that
+had life, and was in motion. Carefully going over the same ground
+again, after a long search, he again found what he so anxiously
+sought. A good look satisfied him that he was right. It was
+certainly a man wading along the shallow water of the reef, immersed
+to his waist--and it must be Mulford.
+
+So excited was Jack Tier by this discovery that he trembled like a
+leaf. A minute or two elapsed before he could again use the glass;
+and when he did, a long and anxious search was necessary before so
+small an object could be once more found. Find it he did, however,
+and then he got its range by the vessel, in a way to make sure of
+it. Yes, it was a man, and it was Mulford.
+
+Circumstances conspired to aid Jack in the investigation that
+succeeded. The sun was near setting, but a stream of golden light
+gleamed over the waters, particularly illuminating the portion which
+came within the field of the glass. It appeared then that Harry, in
+his efforts to escape from the rock, and to get nearer to the edge
+of the main channel, where his chances of being seen and rescued
+would be ten-fold what they were on his rock, had moved south, by
+following the naked reef and the shallow places, and was actually
+more than a league nearer to the brig than he would have been had he
+remained stationary. There had been hours in which to make this
+change, and the young man had probably improved them to the utmost.
+
+Jack watched the form that was wading slowly along with an interest
+he had never before felt in the movements of any human being.
+Whether Mulford saw the brig or not, it was difficult to say. She
+was quite two leagues from him, and, now that her sails were furled,
+she offered but little for the eye to rest on at that distance. At
+first, Jack thought the young man was actually endeavouring to get
+nearer to her, though it must have been a forlorn hope that should
+again place him in the hands of Spike. It was, however, a more
+probable conjecture that the young man was endeavouring to reach the
+margin of the passage, where a good deal of rock was above water,
+and near to which he had already managed to reach. At one time Jack
+saw that the mate was obliged to swim, and he actually lost sight of
+him for a time. His form, however, reappeared, and then it slowly
+emerged from the water, and stood erect on a bare rock of some
+extent. Jack breathed freer at this; for Mulford was now on the very
+margin of the channel, and might be easily reached by the boat,
+should he prevail on Josh, or Simon, to attempt the rescue.
+
+At first, Jack Tier fancied that Mulford had knelt to return thanks
+on his arrival at a place of comparative safety; but a second look
+satisfied him that Harry was drinking from one of the little pools
+of fresh water left by the late shower. When he rose from drinking,
+the young man walked about the place, occasionally stooping, signs
+that he was picking up shell-fish for his supper. Suddenly, Mulford
+darted forward, and passed beyond the field of the glass. When Jack
+found him again, he was in the act of turning a small turtle, using
+his knife on the animal immediately after. Had Jack been in danger
+of starvation himself, and found a source of food as ample and as
+grateful as this, he could scarcely have been more delighted. The
+light now began to wane perceptibly, still Harry's movements could
+be discerned. The turtle was killed and dressed, sufficiently at
+least for the mate's purposes, and the latter was seen collecting
+sea-weed, and bits of plank, boards, and sticks of wood, of which
+more or less, in drifting past, had lodged upon the rocks. "Is it
+possible," thought Jack, "that he is so werry partic'lar he can't
+eat his turtle raw! Will he, indeed, venture to light a fire, or has
+he the means?" Mulford was so particular, however, he did venture to
+light a fire, and he had the means. This may be said to be the age
+of matches--not in a connubial, though in an inflammatory sense--and
+the mate had a small stock in a tight box that he habitually carried
+on his person. Tier saw him at work over a little pile he had made
+for a long time, the beams of day departing now so fast as to make
+him fearful he should soon lose his object in the increasing
+obscurity of twilight. Suddenly a light gleamed, and the pile sent
+forth a clear flame. Mulford went to and fro, collecting materials
+to feed his fire, and was soon busied in cooking his turtle. All
+this Tier saw and understood, the light of the flames coming in
+proper time to supply the vacuum left by the departure of that of
+day.
+
+In a minute Tier had no difficulty in seeing the fire that Mulford
+had lighted on his low and insulated domains with the naked eye. It
+gleamed brightly in that solitary place; and the steward was much
+afraid it would be seen by some one on deck, get to be reported to
+Spike, and lead to Harry's destruction after all. The mate appeared
+to be insensible to his danger, however, occasionally casting piles
+of dry sea-weed on his fire, in a way to cause the flames to flash
+up, as if kindled anew by gunpowder. It now occurred to Tier that
+the young man had a double object in lighting this fire, which would
+answer not only the purposes of his cookery, but as a signal of
+distress to anything passing near. The sloop-of-war, though more
+distant than the brig, was in his neighbourhood; and she might
+possibly yet send relief. Such was the state of things when Jack was
+startled by a sudden hail from below. It was Spike's voice, and came
+up to him short and quick.
+
+"Fore-topmast cross-trees, there! What are ye about all this time,
+Master Jack Tier, in them fore-topmast cross-trees, I say?" demanded
+Spike.
+
+"Keeping a look-out for boats from the sloop-of-war, as you bade me,
+sir," answered Jack, coolly.
+
+"D'ye see any, my man? Is the water clear ahead of us, or not?"
+
+"It's getting to be so dark, sir, I can see no longer. While there
+was day-light, no boat was to be seen."
+
+"Come down, man--come down; I've business for you below. The sloop
+is far enough to the nor'ard, and we shall neither see nor hear from
+her to-night. Come down, I say, Jack--come down."
+
+Jack obeyed, and securing the glass, he began to descend the
+rigging. He was soon as low as the top, when he paused a moment to
+take another look. The fire was still visible, shining like a torch
+on the surface of the water, casting its beams abroad like "a good
+deed in a naughty world." Jack was sorry to see it, though he once
+more took its bearing from the brig, in order that he might know
+where to find the spot, in the event of a search for it. When on the
+stretcher of the fore-rigging, Jack stopped and again looked for his
+beacon. It had disappeared, having sunk below the circular formation
+of the earth. By ascending two or three ratlins, it came into view,
+and by going down as low as the stretcher again, it disappeared.
+Trusting that no one, at that hour, would have occasion to go aloft,
+Jack now descended to the deck, and went aft with the spy-glass.
+
+Spike and the Señor Montefalderon were under the coach-house, no one
+else appearing on any part of the quarter-deck. The people were
+eating their suppers, and Josh and Simon were busy in the galley. As
+for the females, they chose to remain in their own cabin, where
+Spike was well pleased to leave them.
+
+"Come this way, Jack," said the captain, in his best-humoured tone
+of voice, "I've a word to say to you. Put the glass in at my
+state-room window, and come hither."
+
+Tier did as ordered.
+
+"So you can make out no boats to the nor'ard, ha, Jack! nothing to
+be seen thereaway?"
+
+"Nothing in the way of a boat, sir."
+
+"Ay, ay, I dare say there's plenty of water, and some rock. The
+Florida Reef has no scarcity of either, to them that knows where to
+look for one, and to steer clear of the other. Hark'e, Jack; so you
+got the schooner under way from the Dry Tortugas, and undertook to
+beat her up to Key West, when she fancied herself a turtle, and over
+she went with you--is that it, my man?"
+
+"The schooner turned turtle with us, sure enough, sir; and we all
+came near drowning on her bottom."
+
+"No sharks in that latitude and longitude, eh Jack?"
+
+"Plenty on 'em, sir; and I thought they would have got us all, at
+one time. More than twenty set of fins were in sight at once, for
+several hours."
+
+"You could hardly have supplied the gentlemen with a leg, or an arm,
+each. But where was the boat all this time--you had the light-house
+boat in tow, I suppose?"
+
+"She had been in tow, sir; but Madam Budd talked so much dictionary
+to the painter, that it got adrift."
+
+"Yet I found you all in it."
+
+"Very true, sir. Mr. Mulford swam quite a mile to reach the rocks,
+and found the boat aground on one on 'em. As soon as he got the
+boat, he made sail, and came and took us off. We had reason to thank
+God he could do so."
+
+Spike looked dark and thoughtful. He muttered the words "swam," and
+"rocks," but was too cautious to allow any expressions to escape
+him, that might betray to the Mexican officer that which was
+uppermost in his mind. He was silent, however, for quite a minute,
+and Jack saw that he had awakened a dangerous source of distrust in
+the captain's breast.
+
+"Well, Jack," resumed Spike, after the pause, "can you tell us
+anything of the doubloons? I nat'rally expected to find them in the
+boat, but there were none to be seen. You scarcely pumped the
+schooner out, without overhauling her lockers, and falling in with
+them doubloons."
+
+"We found them, sure enough, and had them ashore with us, in the
+tent, down to the moment when we sailed."
+
+"When you took them off to the schooner, eh? My life for it, the
+gold was not forgotten."
+
+"It was not, sure enough, sir; but we took it off with us to the
+schooner, and it went down in her when she finally sunk."
+
+Another pause, during which Señor Montefalderon and Captain Spike
+looked significantly at each other.
+
+"Do you think, Jack, you could find the spot where the schooner went
+down?"
+
+"I could come pretty near it, sir, though not on the very spot
+itself. Water leaves no mark over the grave of a sunken ship."
+
+"If you can take us within a reasonable distance, we might find it
+by sweeping for it. Them doubloons are worth some trouble; and their
+recovery would be better than a long v'y'ge to us, any day."
+
+"They would, indeed, Don Esteban," observed the Mexican; "and my
+poor country is not in a condition to bear heavy losses. If Señor
+Jack Tier can find the wreck, and we regain the money, ten of those
+doubloons shall be his reward, though I take them from my own share,
+much diminished as it will be."
+
+"You hear, Jack--here is a chance to make your fortune! You say you
+sailed with me in old times--and old times were good times with this
+brig, though times has changed; but if you sailed with me, in _old_
+times, you must remember that whatever the Swash touched she turned
+to gold."
+
+"I hope you do n't doubt, Captain Spike, my having sailed in the
+brig, not only in old times, but in her best times."
+
+Jack seemed hurt as he put this question, and Spike appeared in
+doubt. The latter gazed at the little, rotund, queer-looking figure
+before him, as if endeavouring to recognise him; and when he had
+done, he passed his hand over his brow, like one who endeavoured to
+recall past objects by excluding those that are present.
+
+"You will then show us the spot where my unfortunate schooner did
+sink, Señor Jack Tier?" put in the Mexican.
+
+"With all my heart, señor, if it is to be found. I think I could
+take you within a cable's length of the place, though hunger, and
+thirst, and sharks, and the fear of drowning, will keep a fellow
+from having a very bright look-out for such a matter."
+
+"In what water do you suppose the craft to lie, Jack?" demanded the
+captain.
+
+"You know as much of that as I do myself, sir. She went down about a
+cable's length from the reef, toward which she was a settin' at the
+time; and had she kept afloat an hour longer, she might have
+grounded on the rocks."
+
+"She 's better where she is, if we can only find her by sweeping. On
+the rocks we could do nothing with her but break her up, and ten to
+one the doubloons would be lost. By the way, Jack, do you happen to
+know where that scoundrel of a mate of mine stowed the money?"
+
+"When we left the island, I carried it down to the boat myself--and
+a good lift I had of it. As sure as you are there, señor, I was
+obliged to take it on a shoulder. When it came out of the boat, Mr.
+Mulford carried it below; and I heard him tell Miss Rose, a'terwards
+that he had thrown it into a bread-locker."
+
+"Where we shall find it, Don Wan, notwithstanding all this veering
+and hauling. The old brig has luck when, doubloons are in question,
+and ever has had since I've commanded her. Jack, we shall have to
+call on the cook and stewards for an anchor-watch to-night. The
+people are a good deal fagged with boxing about this reef so much,
+and I shall want 'em all as fresh to-morrow as they can be got. You
+idlers had better take the middle watches, which will give the
+fore-castle chaps longer naps."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir; we'll manage that for 'em. Josh and Simon can go on at
+twelve, and I will take the watch at two, which will give the men
+all the rest they want, as I can hold out for four hours full. I'm
+as good for an anchor-watch as any man in the brig, Captain Spike."
+
+"That you are, Jack, and better than some on 'em. Take you all
+round, and round it is, you 're a rum 'un, my lad--the queerest
+little jigger that ever lay out on a royal-yard."
+
+Jack might have been a little offended at Spike's compliments, but
+he was certainly not sorry to find him so good-natured, after all
+that had passed. He now left the captain, and his Mexican companion,
+seemingly in close conference together, while he went below himself,
+and dropped as naturally into the routine of his duty, as if he had
+never left the brig. In the cabin he found the females, of course.
+Rose scarce raising her face from the shawl which lay on the bed of
+her own berth. Jack busied himself in a locker near this berth,
+until an opportunity occurred to touch Rose, unseen by her aunt or
+Biddy. The poor heart-stricken girl raised her face, from which all
+the colour had departed, and looked almost vacantly at Jack, as if
+to ask an explanation. Hope is truly, by a most benevolent provision
+of Providence, one of the very last blessings to abandon us. It is
+probable that we are thus gifted, in order to encourage us to rely
+on the great atonement to the last moment, since, without this
+natural endowment to cling to hope, despair might well be the fate
+of millions, who, there is reason to think, reap the benefit of that
+act of divine mercy. It would hardly do to say that anything like
+hope was blended with the look Rose now cast on Jack, but it was
+anxious and inquiring.
+
+The steward bent his head to the locker, bringing his face quite
+near to that of Rose, and whispered--"There is hope, Miss Rose--but
+do not betray me."
+
+These were blessed words for our heroine to hear, and they produced
+an immediate and great revolution in her feelings. Commanding
+herself, however, she looked her questions, instead of trusting even
+to a whisper. Jack did not say any more, just then; but, shortly
+after, he called Rose, whose eyes were now never off him, into the
+main cabin, which was empty. It was so much pleasanter to sleep in
+an airy state-room on deck, that Señor Montefalderon, indeed, had
+given up the use of this cabin, in a great measure, seldom appearing
+in it, except at meals, having taken possession of the deserted
+apartment of Mulford. Josh was in the galley, where he spent most of
+his time, and Rose and Jack had no one to disturb their conference.
+
+"He is safe, Miss Rose--God be praised!" whispered Jack. "Safe for
+the present, at least; with food, and water, and fire to keep him
+warm at night."
+
+It was impossible for Rose not to understand to whom there was
+allusion, though her head became dizzy under the painful confusion
+that prevailed in it. She pressed her temples with both hands, and
+asked a thousand questions with her eyes. Jack considerately handed
+her a glass of water before he proceeded. As soon as he found her a
+little more composed, he related the facts connected with his
+discovery of Mulford, precisely as they had occurred.
+
+"He is now on a large rock--a little island, indeed--where he is
+safe from the ocean unless it comes on to blow a hurricane,"
+concluded Jack, "has fresh water and fresh turtle in the bargain. A
+man might live a month on one such turtle as I saw Mr. Mulford
+cutting up this evening."
+
+"Is there no way of rescuing him from the situation you have
+mentioned, Jack? In a year or two I shall be my own mistress, and
+have money to do as I please with; put me only in the way of taking
+Mr. Mulford from that rock, and I will share all I am worth on earth
+with you, dear Jack."
+
+"Ay, so it is with the whole sex," muttered Tier; "let them only
+once give up their affections to a man, and he becomes dearer to
+them than pearls and rubies! But you know me, Miss Rose, and know
+_why_ and _how well_ I would sarve you. My story and my feelin's are
+as much your secret, as your story and your feelin's is mine. We
+shall pull together, if we do n't pull so very strong. Now, hearken
+to me, Miss Rose, and I will let you into the secret of my plan to
+help Mr. Mulford make a launch."
+
+Jack then communicated to his companion his whole project for the
+night. Spike had, of his own accord, given to him and his two
+associates, Simon and Josh, the care of the brig between midnight
+and morning. If he could prevail on either of these men to accompany
+him, it was his intention to take the light-house boat, which was
+riding by its painter astern of the brig, and proceed as fast as
+they could to the spot whither Mulford had found his way. By his
+calculations, if the wind stood as it then was, little more than an
+hour would be necessary to reach the rock, and about as much more to
+return. Should the breeze lull, of which there was no great danger,
+since the easterly trades were again blowing, Jack thought he and
+Josh might go over the distance with the oars in about double the
+time. Should both Josh and Simon refuse to accompany him, he thought
+he should attempt the rescue of the mate alone, did the wind stand,
+trusting to Mulford's assistance, should he need it, in getting back
+to the brig.
+
+"You surely would not come back here with Harry, did you once get
+him safe from off that rock!" exclaimed Rose.
+
+"Why, you know how it is with me, Miss Rose," answered Jack. "_My_
+business is here, on board the Swash, and I must attend to it.
+Nothing shall tempt me to give up the brig so long as she floats,
+and sartain folk float in her, unless it might be some such matter
+as that which happened on the bit of an island at the Dry Tortugas.
+Ah! he's a willian! But if I do come back, it will be only to get
+into my own proper berth ag'in, and not to bring Mr. Mulford into
+the lion's jaws. He will only have to put me back on board the Molly
+here, when he can make the best of his own way to Key West. Half an
+hour would place him out of harm's way; especially as I happen to
+know the course Spike means to steer in the morning."
+
+"I will go with you, Jack," said Rose, mildly, but with great
+firmness.
+
+"You, Miss Rose! But why should I show surprise! It's like all the
+sex, when they have given away their affections. Yes, woman will be
+woman, put her on a naked rock, or put her in silks and satins in
+her parlour at home. How different is it with men! They dote for a
+little while, and turn to a new face. It must be said, men's
+willians!"
+
+"Not Mulford, Jack--no, not Harry Mulford! A truer or a nobler heart
+never beat in a human breast; and you and I will drown together,
+rather than he should not be taken from that rock."
+
+"It shall be as you say," answered Jack, a little thoughtfully.
+"Perhaps it would be best that you should quit the brig altogether.
+Spike is getting desperate, and you will be safer with the young
+mate than with so great an old willian. Yes, you shall go with me,
+Miss Rose; and if Josh and Simon both refuse, we will go alone."
+
+"With you, Jack, but not with Mr. Mulford. I cannot desert my aunt,
+nor can I quit the Swash alone in company with her mate. As for
+Spike, I despise him too much to fear him. He must soon go into port
+somewhere, and at the first place where he touches we shall quit
+him. He dare not detain us--nay, he _cannot_--and I do not fear him.
+We will save Harry, but I shall remain with my aunt."
+
+"We'll see, Miss Rose, we'll see," said Tier, smiling. "Perhaps a
+handsome young man, like Mr. Mulford, will have better luck in
+persuading you than an old fellow like me. If he should fail, 't
+will be his own fault."
+
+So thought Jack Tier, judging of women as he had found them, but so
+did not think Rose Budd. The conversation ended here, however, each
+keeping in view its purport, and the serious business that was
+before them.
+
+The duty of the vessel went on as usual. The night promised to be
+clouded, but not very dark, as there was a moon. When Spike ordered
+the anchor-watches, he had great care to spare his crew as much as
+possible, for the next day was likely to be one of great toil to
+them. He intended to get the schooner up again, if possible; and
+though he might not actually pump her out so as to cause her to
+float, enough water was to be removed to enable him to get at the
+doubloons. The situation of the bread-locker was known, and as soon
+as the cabin was sufficiently freed from water to enable one to move
+about in it, Spike did not doubt his being able to get at the gold.
+With his resources and ingenuity, the matter in his own mind was
+reduced to one of toil and time. Eight-and-forty hours, and some
+hard labour, he doubted not would effect all he cared for.
+
+In setting the anchor-watches for the night, therefore, Stephen
+Spike bethought him as much of the morrow as of the present moment.
+Don Juan offered to remain on deck until midnight, and as he was as
+capable of giving an alarm as any one else, the offer was accepted.
+Josh and Simon were to succeed the Mexican, and to hold the lookout
+for two hours, when Jack was to relieve them, and to continue on
+deck until light returned, when he was to give the captain a call.
+This arrangement made, Tier turned in at once, desiring the cook to
+call him half an hour before the proper period of his watch
+commenced. That half hour Jack intended to employ in exercising his
+eloquence in endeavouring to persuade either Josh or Simon to be of
+his party. By eight o'clock the vessel lay in a profound quiet,
+Señor Montefalderon pacing the quarterdeck alone, while the deep
+breathing of Spike was to be heard issuing through the open window
+of his state-room; a window which it may be well to say to the
+uninitiated, opened in-board, or toward the deck, and not outboard,
+or toward the sea.
+
+For four solitary hours did the Mexican pace the deck of the
+stranger, resting himself for a few minutes at a time only, when
+wearied with walking. Does the reader fancy that a man so situated
+had not plenty of occupation for his thoughts? Don Juan
+Montefalderon was a soldier and a gallant cavalier; and love of
+country had alone induced him to engage in his present duties. Not
+that patriotism which looks to political preferment through a
+popularity purchased by the valgar acclamation which attends success
+in arms, even when undeserved, or that patriotism which induces men
+of fallen characters to endeavour to retrieve former offences by the
+shortest and most reckless mode, or that patriotism which shouts
+"our country right or wrong," regardless alike of God and his
+eternal laws, that are never to be forgotten with impunity; but the
+patriotism which would defend his home and fire-side, his altars and
+the graves of his fathers, from the ruthless steps of the invader.
+We shall not pretend to say how far this gentleman entered into the
+merits of the quarrel between the two republics, which no arts of
+European jealousy can ever conceal from the judgment of truth, for,
+with him, matters had gone beyond the point when men feel the
+necessity of reasoning, and when, perhaps, if such a condition of
+the mind is ever to be defended, he found his perfect justification
+in feeling. He had travelled, and knew life by observation, and not
+through traditions and books. He had never believed, therefore, that
+his countrymen could march to Washington, or even to the Sabine; but
+he had hoped for better things than had since occurred. The warlike
+qualities of the Americans of the North, as he was accustomed to
+call those who term themselves, _par excellence,_ Americans, a name
+they are fated to retain, and to raise high on the scale of national
+power and national pre-eminence, unless they fall by their own
+hands, had taken him by surprise, as they have taken all but those
+who knew the country well, and who understood its people. Little had
+he imagined that the small, widely-spread body of regulars, that
+figured in the blue books, almanacs and army-registers of America,
+as some six or seven thousand men, scattered along frontiers of a
+thousand leagues in extent, could, at the beck of the government,
+swell into legions of invaders, men able to carry war to the
+capitals of his own states, thousands of miles from their doors, and
+formidable alike for their energy, their bravery, their readiness in
+the use of arms, and their numbers. He saw what is perhaps justly
+called the boasting of the American character, vindicated by their
+exploits; and marches, conquests and victories that, if sober truth
+were alone to cover the pages of history, would far outdo in real
+labour and danger the boasted passage of the Alps under Napoleon,
+and the exploits that succeeded it.
+
+Don Juan Montefalderon was a grave and thoughtful man, of pure
+Iberian blood. He might have had about him a little of the
+exaltation of the Spanish character; the overflowings of a generous
+chivalry at the bottom; and, under its influence, he may have set
+too high an estimate on Mexico and her sons, but he was not one to
+shut his eyes to the truth. He saw plainly that the northern
+neighbours of his country were a race formidable and enterprising,
+and that of all the calumnies that had been heaped upon them by
+rivalries and European superciliousness, that of their not being
+military by temperament was, perhaps, the most absurd of all. On the
+contrary, he had himself, though anticipating evil, been astounded
+by the suddenness and magnitude of their conquests, which in a few
+short months after the breaking out of hostilities, had overrun
+regions larger in extent than many ancient empires. All this had
+been done, too, not by disorderly and barbarous hordes, seeking in
+other lands the abundance that was wanting at home; but with system
+and regularity, by men who had turned the ploughshare into the sword
+for the occasion, quitting abundance to encounter fatigue, famine,
+and danger. In a word, the Señor Montefalderon saw all the evils
+that environed his own land, and foresaw others, of a still graver
+character that menaced the future. On matters such as these did he
+brood in his walk, and bitter did he find the minutes of that sad
+and lonely watch. Although a Mexican, he could feel; although an
+avowed foe of this good republic of ours, he had his principles, his
+affections, and his sense of right. Whatever may be the merits of
+the quarrel, and we are not disposed to deny that our provocation
+has been great, a sense of right should teach every man that what
+may be patriotic in an American, would not be exactly the same thing
+in a Mexican, and that we ought to respect in others sentiments that
+are so much vaunted among ourselves. Midnight at length arrived,
+and, calling the cook and steward, the unhappy gentleman was
+relieved, and went to his berth to dream, in sorrow, over the same
+pictures of national misfortunes, on which, while waking, he had
+brooded in such deep melancholy.
+
+The watch of Josh and Simon was tranquil, meeting with no
+interruption until it was time to summon Jack. One thing these men
+had done, however, that was of some moment to Tier, under a pledge
+given by Josh, and which had been taken in return for a dollar in
+hand. They had managed to haul the light-house boat alongside, from
+its position astern, and this so noiselessly as not to give the
+alarm to any one. There it lay, when Jack appeared, ready at the
+main-rigging, to receive him at any moment he might choose to enter
+it.
+
+A few minutes after Jack appeared on deck, Rose and Biddy came
+stealthily out of the cabin, the latter carrying a basket filled
+with bread and broken meat, and not wanting in sundry little
+delicacies, such as woman's hands prepare, and, in this instance,
+woman's tenderness had provided. The whole party met at the galley,
+a place so far removed from the state-rooms aft as to be out of
+ear-shot. Here Jack renewed his endeavours to persuade either Josh
+or Simon to go in the boat, but without success. The negroes had
+talked the matter over in their watch, and had come to the
+conclusion the enterprise was too hazardous.
+
+"I tell you, Jack, you does n't know Cap'in Spike as well as I
+does," Josh said, in continuance of the discourse. "No, you does n't
+know him at all as well as I does. If he finds out that anybody has
+quit dis brig dis werry night, woful will come! It no good to try to
+run; I run t'ree time, an' Simon here run twice. What good it all
+do? We got cotched, and here we is, just as fast as ever. I knows
+Cap'in Spike, and does n't want to fall in athwart his hawse any
+more."
+
+"Y-e-s, dat my judgment too," put in the cook. "We wishes you well,
+Jack, and we wishes Miss Rose well, and Mr. Mulford well, but we
+can't, no how, run ath'art hawse, as Josh says. Dat is my judgment,
+too."
+
+"Well, if your minds are made up to this, my darkies, I s'pose
+there'll be no changing them," said Jack. "At all ewents you'll lend
+us a hand, by answering any hail that may come from aft, in my
+watch, and in keepin' our secret. There's another thing you can do
+for us, which may be of service. Should Captain Spike miss the boat,
+and lay any trap to catch us, you can just light this here bit of
+lantern and hang it over the brig's bows, where he'll not be likely
+to see it, that we may know matters are going wrong, and give the
+craft a wide berth."
+
+"Sartain," said Josh, who entered heartily into the affair, so far
+as good wishes for its success were concerned, at the very moment
+when he had a most salutary care of his own back. "Sartain; we do
+all dat, and no t'ank asked. It no great matter to answer a hail, or
+to light a lantern and sling him over de bows; and if Captain Spike
+want to know who did it, let him find out."
+
+Here both negroes laughed heartily, manifesting so little care to
+suppress their mirth, that Rose trembled lest their noise should
+awaken Spike. Accustomed sounds, however, seldom produce this effect
+on the ears of the sleeper, and the heavy breathing from the
+state-room, succeeded the merriment of the blacks, as soon as the
+latter ceased. Jack now announced his readiness to depart. Some
+little care and management were necessary to get into the boat
+noiselessly, more especially with Biddy. It was done however, with
+the assistance of the blacks, who cast off the painter, when Jack
+gave the boat a shove to clear the brig, and suffered it to drift
+astern for a considerable distance before he ventured to cast loose
+the sail.
+
+"I know Spike well," said Jack, in answer to a remonstrance from the
+impatient Rose concerning his delay: "A single flap of that canvas
+would wake him up, with the brig anchored, while he would sleep
+through a salute of heavy guns if it came in regular course. Quick
+ears has old Stephen, and it's best to humour them. In a minute more
+we'll set our canvas and be off."
+
+All was done as Jack desired, and the boat got away from the brig
+unheard and undetected. It was blowing a good breeze, and Jack Tier
+had no sooner got the sail on the boat, than away it started at a
+speed that would have soon distanced Spike in his yawl, and with his
+best oarsmen. The main point was to keep the course, though the
+direction of the wind was a great assistant. By keeping the wind
+abeam, Jack thought he should be going toward the rock of Mulford.
+In one hour, or even in less time, he expected to reach it, and he
+was guided by time, in his calculations, as much as by any other
+criterion. Previously to quitting the brig, he had gone up a few
+ratlins of the fore-rigging to take the bearings of the fire on
+Mulford's rock, but the light was no longer visible. As no star was
+to be seen, the course was a little vague, but Jack was navigator
+enough to understand that by keeping on the weather side of the
+channel he was in the right road, and that his great danger of
+missing his object was in over-running it.
+
+So much of the reef was above water, that it was not difficult to
+steer a boat along its margin. The darkness, to be sure, rendered it
+a little uncertain how near they were running to the rocks, but, on
+the whole, Jack assured Rose he had no great difficulty in getting
+along.
+
+"These trades are almost as good as compasses," he said, "and the
+rocks are better, if we can keep close aboard them without going on
+to them. I do not know the exact distance of the spot we seek from
+the brig, but I judged it to be about two leagues, as I looked at it
+from aloft. Now, this boat will travel them two leagues in an hour,
+with this breeze and in smooth water."
+
+"I wish you had seen the fire again before we left the brig," said
+Rose, too anxious for the result not to feel uneasiness on some
+account or other.
+
+"The mate is asleep, and the fire has burned down; that's the
+explanation. Besides, fuel is not too plenty on a place like that
+Mr. Mulford inhabits just now. As we get near the spot, I shall look
+out for embers, which may sarve as a light-house, or beacon, to
+guide us into port."
+
+"Mr. Mulford will be charmed to see us, now that we take him
+wather!" exclaimed Biddy. "Wather is a blessed thing, and it's hard
+will be the heart that does not fale gratitude for a planty of swate
+wather."
+
+"The maty has plenty of food and water where he is," said Jack.
+"I'll answer for both them sarcumstances. I saw him turn a turtle as
+plain as if I had been at his elbow, and I saw him drinking at a
+hole in the rock, as heartily as a boy ever pulled at a gimblet-hole
+in a molasses hogs-head."
+
+"But the distance was so great, Jack, I should hardly think you
+could have distinguished objects so small."
+
+"I went by the motions altogether. I saw the man, and I saw the
+movements, and I knowed what the last meant. It's true I couldn't
+swear to the turtle, though I saw something on the rock that I
+knowed, by the way in which it was handled, _must_ be a turtle. Then
+I saw the mate kneel, and put his head low, and then I knowed he was
+drinking."
+
+"Perhaps he prayed," said Rose, solemnly.
+
+"Not he. Sailors isn't so apt to pray, Miss Rose; not as apt as they
+ought to be. Women for prayers, and men for work. Mr. Mulford is no
+worse than many others, but I doubt if he be much given to _that_."
+
+To this Rose made no answer, but Biddy took the matter up, and, as
+the boat went briskly ahead, she pursued the subject.
+
+"Then more is the shame for him," said the Irish woman, "and Miss
+Rose, and missus, and even I prayin' _for_ him, all as if he was our
+own brudder. It's seldom I ask anything for a heretic, but I could
+not forget a fine young man like Mr. Mulford, and Miss Rose so
+partial to him, and he in so bad a way. He ought to be ashamed to
+make his brags that he is too proud to pray."
+
+"Harry has made no such wicked boast," put in Rose, mildly; "nor do
+we know that he has not prayed for us, as well as for himself. It
+may all be a mistake of Jack's, you know."
+
+"Yes," added Jack, coolly, "it _may_ be a mistake, a'ter all, for I
+was lookin' at the maty six miles off, and through a spy-glass. No
+one can be sure of anything at such a distance. So overlook the
+matter, my good Biddy, and carry Mr. Mulford the nice things you've
+mustered in that basket, all the same as if he was pope."
+
+"This is a subject we had better drop," Rose quietly observed.
+
+"Anything to oblige you, Miss Rose, though religion is a matter it
+would do me no harm to talk about once and awhile. It's many a long
+year since I've had time and opportunity to bring my thoughts to
+dwell on holy things. Ever since I left my mother's side, I've been
+a wanderer in my mind, as much as in my body."
+
+"Poor Jack! I understand and feel for your sufferings; but a better
+time will come, when you may return to the habits of your youth, and
+to the observances of your church."
+
+"I do n't know that, Miss Rose; I do n't know that," answered Tier,
+placing the elbow of his short arm on the seemingly shorter leg, and
+bending his head so low as to lean his face on the palm of the hand,
+an attitude in which he appeared to be suffering keenly through his
+recollections. "Childhood and innocence never come back to us in
+this world. What the grave may do, we shall all learn in time."
+
+"Innocence can return to all with repentance, Jack; and the heart
+that prompts you to do acts as generous as this you are now engaged
+in, must contain some good seed yet."
+
+"If Jack will go to a praste and just confess, when he can find a
+father, it will do his sowl good," said Biddy, who was touched by
+the mental suffering of the strange little being at her side.
+
+But the necessity of managing the boat soon compelled its coxswain
+to raise his head, and to attend to his duty. The wind sometimes
+came in puffs, and at such moments Jack saw that the large sail of
+the light-house boat required watching, a circumstance that induced
+him to shake off his melancholy, and give his mind more exclusively
+to the business before him. As for Rose, she sympathised deeply with
+Jack Tier, for she knew his history, his origin, the story of his
+youth, and the well-grounded causes of his contrition and regrets.
+From her, Jack had concealed nothing, the gentle commiseration of
+one like Rose being a balm to wounds that had bled for long and
+bitter years. The great poet of our language, and the greatest that
+ever lived, perhaps, short of the inspired writers of the Old
+Testament, and old Homer and Dante, has well reminded us that the
+"little beetle," in yielding its breath, can "feel a pang as great
+as when a giant dies." Thus is it, too, in morals. Abasement, and
+misery, and poverty, and sin, may, and all do, contribute to lower
+the tone of our moral existence; but the principle that has been
+planted by nature, can be eradicated by nature only. It exists as
+long as we exist; and if dormant for a time, under the pressure of
+circumstances, it merely lies, in the moral system, like the acorn,
+or the chestnut, in the ground, waiting its time and season to
+sprout, and bud, and blossom. Should that time never arrive, it is
+not because the seed is not there, but because it is neglected. Thus
+was it with the singular being of whose feelings we have just
+spoken. The germ of goodness had been implanted early in him, and
+was nursed with tenderness and care, until, self-willed, and
+governed by passion; he had thrown off the connections of youth and
+childhood, to connect himself with Spike--a connection that had left
+him what he was. Before closing our legend, we shall have occasion
+to explain it.
+
+"We have run our hour; Miss Rose," resumed Jack, breaking a
+continued silence, during which the boat had passed through a long
+line of water; "we have run our hour, and ought to be near the rock
+we are in search of. But the morning is so dark that I fear we shall
+have difficulty in finding it. It will never do to run past it, and
+we must haul closer into the reef, and shorten sail, that we may be
+sartain to make no such mistake."
+
+Rose begged her companion to omit no precaution, as it would be
+dreadful to fail in their search, after incurring so much risk in
+their own persons.
+
+"Harry may be sleeping on the sea-weed of which you spoke," she
+added, "and the danger of passing him will be much increased in such
+a case. What a gloomy and frightful spot is this, in which to
+abandon a human being! I fear, Jack, that we have come faster than
+we have supposed, and may already have passed the rock."
+
+"I hope not, Miss Rose--it seemed to me a good two leagues to the
+place where I saw him, and the boat is fast that will run two
+leagues in an hour."
+
+"We do not know the time, Jack, and are obliged to guess at that as
+well as at the distance. How very dark it is!"
+
+Dark, in one sense, it was not, though Rose's apprehensions,
+doubtless, induced her to magnify every evil. The clouds certainly
+lessened the light of the moon; but there was still enough of the
+last to enable one to see surrounding objects; and most especially
+to render distinct the character of the solitude that reigned over
+the place.
+
+The proximity of the reef, which formed a weather shore to the boat,
+prevented anything like a swell on the water, notwithstanding the
+steadiness and strength of the breeze, which had now blown for near
+twenty-four hours. The same wind, in open water, would have raised
+sea enough to cause a ship to pitch, or roll; whereas, the
+light-house boat, placed where she was, scarce rose and fell under
+the undulations of the channel through which she was glancing.
+
+"This is a good boat, and a fast boat too," observed Jack Tier,
+after he had luffed up several minutes, in order to make sure of his
+proximity to the reef; "and it might carry us all safe enough to Key
+West, or certainly back to the Dry Tortugas, was we inclined to try
+our hands at either."
+
+"I cannot quit my aunt," said Rose, quickly, "so we will not even
+think of any such thing."
+
+"No, 't would never do to abandon the missus," said Biddy, "and she
+on the wrack wid us, and falin' the want of wather as much as
+ourselves."
+
+"We three have sartainly gone through much in company," returned
+Jack, "and it ought to make us friends for life."
+
+"I trust it will, Jack; I hope, when we return to New York, to see
+you among us, anchored, as you would call it, for the rest of your
+days under my aunt's roof, or under my own, should I ever have one."
+
+"No, Miss Rose, my business is with the Swash and her captain. I
+shall stick by both, now I've found 'em again, until they once more
+desart me. A man's duty is _his_ duty, and a woman's duty is _her_
+duty."
+
+"You same to like the brig and her captain, Jack Tier," observed
+Biddy, "and there's no use in gainsaying such a likin'. What _will_
+come to pass, must come to pass. Captain Spike is a mighty great
+sailor, anyway."
+
+"He's a willian!" muttered Jack.
+
+"There!" cried Rose, almost breathless, "there is a rock above the
+water, surely. Do not fly by it so swiftly, Jack, but let us stop
+and examine it."
+
+"There is a rock, sure enough, and a large piece it is," answered
+Tier. "We will go alongside of it, and see what it is made of. Biddy
+shall be boat-keeper, while you and I, Miss Rose, explore."
+
+Jack had thrown the boat into the wind, and was shooting close
+alongside of the reef, even while speaking. The party found no
+difficulty in landing; the margin of the rock admitting the boat to
+lie close alongside of it, and its surface being even and dry. Jack
+had brailed the sail, and he brought the painter ashore, and
+fastened it securely to a fragment of stone, that made a very
+sufficient anchor. In addition to this precaution, a lazy painter
+was put into Biddy's hands, and she was directed not to let go of it
+while her companions were absent. These arrangements concluded, Rose
+and Jack commenced a hurried examination of the spot.
+
+A few minutes sufficed to give our adventurers a tolerably accurate
+notion of the general features of the place on which they had
+landed. It was a considerable portion of the reef that was usually
+above water, and which had even some fragments of soil, or sand, on
+which was a stinted growth of bushes. Of these last, however, there
+were very few, nor were there many spots of the sand. Drift-wood and
+sea-weed were lodged in considerable quantities about its margin,
+and, in places, piles of both had been tossed upon the rock itself,
+by the billows of former gales of wind. Nor was it long before Jack
+discovered a turtle that had been up to a hillock of sand, probably
+to deposit its eggs. There was enough of the sportsman in Jack,
+notwithstanding the business he was on, to turn this animal; though
+with what object, he might have been puzzled himself to say. This
+exploit effected, Jack followed Rose as fast as his short legs would
+permit, our heroine pressing forward eagerly, though almost without
+hope, in order to assertain if Mulford were there.
+
+"I am afraid this is not the rock," said Rose, nearly breathless
+with her own haste, when Jack had overtaken her. "I see nothing of
+him, and we have passed over most of the place."
+
+"Very true, Miss Rose," answered her companion, who was in a good
+humour on account of his capture of the turtle; "but there are other
+rocks besides this. Ha! what was that, yonder," pointing with a
+finger, "here, more toward the brig. As I'm a sinner, there was a
+flashing, as of fire."
+
+"If a fire, it must be that made by Harry. Let us go to the spot at
+once."
+
+Jack led the way, and, sure enough, he soon reached a place where
+the embers of what had been a considerable body of fire, were
+smouldering on the rock. The wind had probably caused some brand to
+kindle momentarily, which was the object that had caught Tier's eye.
+No doubt any longer remained of their having found the very place
+where the mate had cooked his supper, and lighted his beacon, though
+he himself was not near it. Around these embers were all the signs
+of Mulford's having made the meal, of which Jack had seen the
+preparations. A portion of the turtle, much the greater part of it,
+indeed, lay in its shell; and piles of wood and sea-weed, both dry,
+had been placed at hand, ready for use. A ship's topgallant-yard,
+with most of its rope attached, lay with a charred end near the
+fire, of where the fire had been, the wood having burned until the
+flames went out for want of contact with other fuel. There were many
+pieces of boards of pitch-pine in the adjacent heap, and two or
+three beautiful planks of the same wood, entire. In short, from the
+character and quantity of the materials of this nature that had thus
+been heaped together, Jack gave it as his opinion that some vessel,
+freighted with lumber, had been wrecked to windward, and that the
+adjacent rocks had been receiving the tribute of her cargo. Wrecks
+are of very, very frequent occurrence on the Florida Reef; and there
+are always moments when such gleanings are to be made in some part
+of it or other.
+
+"I see no better way to give a call to the mate, Miss Rose, than to
+throw some of this dry weed, and some of this lumber on the fire,"
+said Jack, after he had rummaged about the place sufficiently to
+become master of its condition. "There is plenty of amunition, and
+here goes for a broadside."
+
+Jack had no great difficulty in effecting his object. In a few
+minutes he succeeded in obtaining a flame, and then he fed it with
+such fragments of the brands and boards as were best adapted to his
+purpose. The flames extended gradually, and by the time Tier had
+dragged the topgallant-yard over the pile, and placed several
+planks, on their edges, alongside of it, the whole was ready to
+burst into a blaze. The light was shed athwart the rock for a long
+distance, and the whole place, which was lately so gloomy and
+obscure, now became gay, under the bright radiance of a blazing
+fire.
+
+"There is a beacon-light that might almost be seen on board!" said
+Jack, exulting in his success. If the mate is anywhere in this
+latitude, he will soon turn up."
+
+"I see nothing of him," answered Rose, in a melancholy voice.
+"Surely, surely, Jack, he cannot have left the rock just as we have
+come to rescue him!"
+
+Rose and her companion had turned their faces from the fire to look
+in an opposite direction in quest of him they sought. Unseen by
+them, a human form advanced swiftly toward the fire, from a point on
+its other side. It advanced nearer, then hesitated, afterward rushed
+forward with a tread that caused the two to turn, and at the next
+moment, Rose was clasped to the heart of Mulford.
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  I might have pass'd that lovely cheek,
+  Nor, perchance, my heart have left me;
+  But the sensitive blush that came trembling there,
+  Of my heart it for ever bereft me.
+  Who could blame had I loved that face,
+  Ere my eyes could twice explore her;
+  Yet it is for the fairy intelligence there,
+  And her warm, warm heart I adore her.
+
+Wolfe.
+
+The stories of the respective parties who had thus so strangely met
+on that barren and isolated rock, were soon told. Harry confirmed
+all of Jack's statements as to his own proceedings, and Rose had
+little more to say than to add how much her own affections had led
+her to risk in his behalf. In a word, ten minutes made each fully
+acquainted with the other's movements. Then Tier considerately
+retired to the boat, under the pretence of minding it, and seeing
+everything ready for a departure, but as much to allow the lovers
+the ten or fifteen minutes of uninterrupted discourse that they now
+enjoyed, as for any other reason.
+
+It was a strange scene that now offered on the rock. By this time
+the fire was burning not only brightly, but fiercely, shedding its
+bright light far and near. Under its most brilliant rays stood Harry
+and Rose, both smiling and happy, delighted in their meeting, and,
+for the moment, forgetful of all but their present felicity. Never,
+indeed, had Rose appeared more lovely than under these
+circumstances. Her face was radiant with those feelings which had so
+recently changed from despair to delight--a condition that is ever
+most propitious to beauty; and charms that always appeared feminine
+and soft, now seemed elevated to a bright benignancy that might best
+be likened to our fancied images of angels. The mild, beaming,
+serene and intelligent blue eyes, the cheeks flushed with happiness,
+the smiles that came so easily, and were so replete with tenderness,
+and the rich hair, deranged by the breeze, and moistened by the air
+of the sea, each and all, perhaps, borrowed some additional lustre
+from the peculiar light under which they were exhibited. As for
+Harry, happiness had thrown all the disadvantages of exposure, want
+of dress, and a face that had not felt the razor for six-and-thirty
+hours, into the back-ground. When he left the wreck, he had cast
+aside his cap and his light summer jacket, in order that they might
+not encumber him in swimming, but both had been recovered when he
+returned with the boat to take off his friends. In his ordinary sea
+attire, then, he now stood, holding Rose's two hands in front of the
+fire, every garment clean and white as the waters of the ocean could
+make them, but all betraying some of the signs of his recent trials.
+His fine countenance was full of the love he bore for the intrepid
+and devoted girl who had risked so much in his behalf; and a painter
+might have wished to preserve the expression of ardent, manly
+admiration which glowed in his face, answering to the gentle
+sympathy and womanly tenderness it met in that of Rose.
+
+The back-ground of this picture was the wide, even surface of the
+coral reef, with its exterior setting of the dark and gloomy sea. On
+the side of the channel, however, appeared the boat, already winded,
+with Biddy still on the rock, looking kindly at the lovers by the
+fire, while Jack was holding the painter, beginning to manifest a
+little impatience at the delay.
+
+"They'll stay there an hour, holding each other's hands, and looking
+into each other's faces," half grumbled the little, rotund,
+assistant-steward, anxious to be on his way back to the brig,
+"unless a body gives 'em a call. Captain Spike will be in no very
+good humour to receive you and me on board ag'in, if he should find
+out what sort of a trip we've been making hereaway."
+
+"Let 'em alone--let 'em alone, Jacky," answered the good-natured and
+kind-hearted Irish woman. "It's happy they bees, jist now, and it
+does my eyes good to look at 'em."
+
+"Ay, they're happy enough, _now;_ I only hope it may last."
+
+"Last! what should help its lasting? Miss Rose is so good, and so
+handsome--and she's a fortin', too; and the mate so nice a young
+man. Think of the likes of them, Jack, wantin' the blessed gift of
+wather, and all within one day and two nights. Sure it's Providence
+that takes care of, and not we ourselves! Kings on their thrones is
+n't as happy as _them_ at this moment."
+
+"Men's willians!" growled Jack; "and more fools women for trustin'
+'em."
+
+"Not sich a nice young man as our mate, Jacky; no, not he. Now the
+mate of the ship I came from Liverpool in, this time ten years
+agone, he was a villain. He grudged us our potaties, and our own
+bread; and he grudged us every dhrap of swate wather that went into
+our mouths. Call him a villain, if you will, Jack; but niver call
+the likes of Mr. Mulford by so hard a name."
+
+"I wish him well, and nothing else; and for that very reason must
+put a stop to his looking so fondly into that young woman's face.
+Time wont stand still, Biddy, to suit the wishes of lovers; and
+Stephen Spike is a man not to be trifled with. Halloo, there, maty!
+It's high time to think of getting under way."
+
+At this summons both Harry and Rose started, becoming aware of the
+precious moments they were losing. Carrying a large portion of the
+turtle, the former moved toward the craft, in which all were seated
+in less than three minutes, with the sail loose, and the boat in
+motion. For a few moments the mate was so much occupied with Rose,
+that he did not advert to the course; but one of his experience
+could not long be misled on such a point, and he turned suddenly to
+Tier, who was steering, to remonstrate.
+
+"How's this, Jack!" cried Mulford; "you've got the boat's head the
+wrong way."
+
+"Not I, sir. She's heading for the brig as straight as she can go.
+This wind favours us on both legs; and it's lucky it does, for't
+will be hard on upon daylight afore we are alongside of her. You'll
+want half an hour of dark, at the very least, to get a good start of
+the Swash, in case she makes sail a'ter you."
+
+"Straight for the brig!--what have we to do with the brig? Our
+course is for Key West, unless it might be better to run down before
+the wind to the Dry Tortugas again, and look for the sloop-of-war.
+Duty, and perhaps my own safety, tells me to let Captain Mull know
+what Spike is about with the Swash; and I shall not hesitate a
+moment about doing it, after all that has passed. Give me the helm,
+Jack, and let us ware short round on our heel."
+
+"Never, master maty--never. I must go back to the brig. Miss Rose,
+there, knows that my business is with Stephen Spike, and with him
+only."
+
+"And I must return to my aunt, Harry," put in Rose, herself. "It
+would never do for me to desert my aunt, you know."
+
+"And I have been taken from that rock, to be given up to the tender
+mercies of Spike again?"
+
+This was said rather in surprise, than in a complaining way; and it
+at once induced Rose to tell the young man the whole of their
+project.
+
+"Never, Harry, never," she said firmly. "It is our intention to
+return to the brig ourselves, and let you escape in the boat
+afterwards. Jack Tier is of opinion this can be done without much
+risk, if we use proper caution and do not lose too much time. On no
+account would I consent to place you in the hands of Spike
+again--death would be preferable to that, Harry!"
+
+"And on no account can or will I consent to place _you_ again in
+the hands of Spike, Rose," answered the young man. "Now that we know
+his intentions, such an act would be almost impious."
+
+"Remember my aunt, dear Harry. What would be her situation in the
+morning, when she found herself deserted by her niece and Biddy--by
+me, whom she has nursed and watched from childhood, and whom she
+loves so well."
+
+"I shall not deny your obligations to your aunt, Rose, and your duty
+to her under ordinary circumstances. But these are not ordinary
+circumstances; and it would be courting the direst misfortunes, nay,
+almost braving Providence, to place yourself in the hands of that
+scoundrel again, now that you are clear of them."
+
+"Spike's a willian!" muttered Jack.
+
+"And my desartin' the missus would be a sin that no praste would
+overlook aisily," put in Biddy. "When Miss Rose told me of this
+v'y'ge that she meant to make in the boat wid Jack Tier, I asked to
+come along, that I might take care of her, and see that there was
+plenty of wather; but ill-luck befall me if I would have t'ought of
+sich a thing, and the missus desarted."
+
+"We can then run alongside of the brig, and put Biddy and Jack on
+board of her," said Mulford, reflecting a moment on what had just
+been said, "when you and I can make the best of our way to Key West,
+where the means of sending government vessels out after the Swash
+will soon offer. In this way we can not only get our friends out of
+the lion's jaws, but keep out of them ourselves."
+
+"Reflect a moment, Harry," said Rose, in a low voice, but not
+without tenderness in its tones; "it would not do for me to go off
+alone with you in this boat."
+
+"Not when you have confessed your willingness to go over the wide
+world with me, Rose--with me, and with me only?"
+
+"Not even then, Harry. I know you will think better of this, when
+your generous nature has time to reason with your heart, on my
+account."
+
+"I can only answer in your own words, Rose--never. If you return to
+the Swash, I shall go on board with you, and throw defiance into the
+very teeth of Spike. I know the men do not dislike me, and, perhaps,
+assisted by Señor Montefalderon, and a few friends among the people,
+I can muster a force that will prevent my being thrown into the
+sea."
+
+Rose burst into tears, and then succeeded many minutes, during which
+Mulford was endeavouring, with manly tenderness, to soothe her. As
+soon as our heroine recovered her self-command, she began to discuss
+the matter at issue between them more coolly. For half an hour
+everything was urged by each that feeling, affection, delicacy, or
+distrust of Spike could well urge, and Mulford was slowly getting
+the best of the argument, as well he might, the truth being mostly
+of his side. Rose was bewildered, really feeling a strong reluctance
+to quit her aunt, even with so justifiable a motive, but principally
+shrinking from the appearance of going off alone in a boat, and
+almost in the open sea, with Mulford. Had she loved Harry less, her
+scruples might not have been so active, but the consciousness of the
+strength of her attachment, as well as her fixed intention to become
+his wife the moment it was in her power to give him her hand with
+the decencies of her sex, contributed strangely to prevent her
+yielding to the young man's reasoning. On the subject of the aunt,
+the mate made out so good a case, that it was apparent to all in the
+boat Rose would have to abandon that ground of refusal. Spike had no
+object to gain by ill-treating Mrs. Budd; and the probability
+certainly was that he would get rid of her as soon as he could, and
+in the most easy manner. This was so apparent to all, that Harry had
+little difficulty in getting Rose to assent to its probability. But
+there remained the reluctance to go off alone with the mate in a
+boat. This part of the subject was more difficult to manage than the
+other; and Mulford betrayed as much by the awkwardness with which he
+managed it. At length the discussion was brought to a close by Jack
+Tier suddenly saying,--
+
+"Yonder is the brig; and we are heading for her as straight as if
+she was the pole, and the keel of this boat was a compass. I see how
+it is, Miss Rose, and a'ter all, I must give in. I suppose some
+other opportunity will offer for me to get on board of the brig
+ag'in, and I'll trust to that. If you won't go off with the mate
+alone, I suppose you'll not refuse to go off in my company."
+
+"Will you accompany us, Jack? This is more than I had hoped for!
+Yes, Harry, if Jack Tier will be of the party, I will trust my aunt
+to Biddy, and go with you to Key West, in order to escape from
+Spike."
+
+This was said so rapidly, and so unexpectedly, as to take Mulford
+completely by surprise. Scarce believing what he heard, the young
+man was disposed, at first, to feel hurt, though a moment's
+reflection showed him that he ought to rejoice in the result let the
+cause be what it might.
+
+"More than I had hoped for!" he could not refrain from repeating a
+little bitterly; "is Jack Tier, then, of so much importance, that
+_his_ company is thought preferable to mine!"
+
+"Hush, Harry!" said Rose, laying her hand on Mulford's arm, by way
+of strengthening her appeal. "Do not say _that_. You are ignorant of
+circumstances; at another time you shall know them, but not now. Let
+it be enough for the present, that I promise to accompany you if
+Jack will be of our party."
+
+"Ay, ay, Miss Rose, I will be of the party, seeing there is no other
+way of getting the lamb out of the jaws of the wolf. A'ter all, it
+may be the wisest thing I can do, though back to the Swash I must
+and _will_ come, powder or no powder, treason or no treason, at the
+first opportunity. Yes, _my_ business is with the Molly, and to the
+Molly I shall return. It's lucky, Miss Rose, since you have made up
+your mind to ship for this new cruise, that I bethought me of
+telling Biddy to make up a bundle of duds for you. This carpet-bag
+has a change or two in it, and all owing to my forethought. Your
+woman said `Miss Rose will come back wid us, Jack, and what's the
+use of rumplin' the clothes for a few hours' sail in the boat;' but
+I knew womankind better, and foreseed that if master mate fell in
+alongside of you ag'in, you would not be apt to part company very
+soon."
+
+"I thank you, Jack, for the provision made for my comfort; though
+some money would have added to it materially. My purse has a little
+gold in it, but a very little, and I fear you are not much better
+off, Harry. It will be awkward to find ourselves in Key West
+penniless."
+
+"We shall not be quite that. I left the brig absolutely without a
+cent, but foreseeing that necessity might make them of use, I
+borrowed half a dozen of the doubloons from the bag of Señor
+Montefalderon, and, fortunately, they are still in my pocket. All I
+am worth in the world is in a bag of half-eagles, rather more than a
+hundred altogether, which I left in my chest, in my own state-room
+aboard the brig."
+
+"You'll find that in the carpet-bag too, master mate," said Jack,
+coolly.
+
+"Find what, man--not my money, surely?"
+
+"Ay, every piece of it. Spike broke into your chest this a'ternoon,
+and made me hold the tools while he was doing it. He found the bag,
+and overhauled it--a hundred and seven half, eleven quarter, and one
+full-grown eagle, was the count. When he had done the job, he put
+all back ag'in, a'ter giving me the full-grown eagle for my share of
+the plunder, and told me to say nothing of what I had seen. I did
+say nothing, but I did a good bit of work, for, while he was at
+supper. I confiserated that bag, as they call it--and you will find
+it there among Miss Rose's clothes, with the full-grown gentleman
+back in his nest ag'in."
+
+"This is being not only honest, Tier," cried Mulford, heartily, "but
+thoughtful. One-half that money shall be yours for this act."
+
+"I thank'e, sir; but I'll not touch a cent of it. It came hard, I
+know, Mr. Mulford; for my own hands have smarted too much with tar,
+not to know that the seaman `earns his money like the horse.'"
+
+"Still it would not be `spending it like an ass,' Jack, to give you
+a portion of mine. But there will be other opportunities to talk of
+this. It is a sign of returning to the concerns of life, Rose, that
+money begins to be of interest to us. How little did we think of the
+doubloons, or half-eagles, a few hours since, when on the wreck!"
+
+"It was wather that we t'ought of then," put in Biddy. "Goold is
+good in a market, or in a town, or to send back to Ireland, to help
+a body's aged fader or mudder in comfort wid; but wather is the
+blessed thing on a wrack!"
+
+"The brig is coming quite plainly into view, and you had better give
+me the helm, Jack. It is time to bethink us of the manner of
+approaching her, and how we are to proceed when alongside."
+
+This was so obviously true, that everybody felt disposed to forget
+all other matters, in order to conduct the proceedings of the next
+twenty minutes, with the necessary prudence and caution. When
+Mulford first took the helm, the brig was just coming clearly into
+view, though still looking a little misty and distant. She might
+then have been half a league distant, and would not have been
+visible at all by that light, but for the circumstance that she had
+no back-ground to swallow up her outlines. Drawn against clouds,
+above which the rays of the moon were shed, her tracery was to be
+discerned, however, and, minute by minute, it was getting to be more
+and more distinct, until it was now so plainly to be seen as to
+admonish the mate of the necessity of preparation in the manner
+mentioned.
+
+Tier now communicated to the mate his own proposed manner of
+proceeding. The brig tended to the trades, the tides having very
+little influence on her, in the bight of the reef where she lay. As
+the wind stood at about east south-east, the brig's stern pointed to
+about west north-west, while the boat was coming down the passage
+from a direction nearly north from her, having, as a matter of
+course, the wind just free enough to lay her course. Jack's plan was
+to pass the brig to windward, and having got well on her bow, to
+brail the sail, and drift down upon her, expecting to fall in
+alongside, abreast of the fore-chains, into which he had intended to
+help Biddy, and to ascend himself, when he supposed that Mulford
+would again make sail, and carry off his mistress. To this scheme
+the mate objected that it was awkward, and a little lubberly. He
+substituted one in its place that differed in seamanship, and which
+was altogether better. Instead of passing to wind-ward, Mulford
+suggested the expediency of approaching to leeward, and of coming
+alongside under the open bow-port, letting the sheet fly and
+brailing the sail, when the boat should be near enough to carry her
+to the point of destination without further assistance from her
+canvass.
+
+Jack Tier took his officer's improvement on his own plan in perfect
+good part, readily and cheerfully expressing his willingness to aid
+the execution of it all that lay in his power. As the boat sailed
+unusually well, there was barely time to explain to each individual
+his or her part in the approaching critical movements, ere the
+crisis itself drew near; then each of the party became silent and
+anxious, and events were regarded rather than words.
+
+It is scarcely necessary to say that Mulford sailed a boat well. He
+held the sheet in his hand, as the little craft came up under the
+lee-quarter of the brig, while Jack stood by the brail. The eyes of
+the mate glanced over the hull of the vessel to ascertain, if
+possible, who might be stirring; but not a sign of life could he
+detect on board her. This very silence made Mulford more distrustful
+and anxious, for he feared a trap was set for him. He expected to
+see the head of one of the blacks at least peering over the
+bulwarks, but nothing like a man was visible. It was too late to
+pause, however, and the sheet was slowly eased off, Jack hauling on
+the brail at the same time; the object being to prevent the sail's
+flapping, and the sound reaching the ears of Spike. As Mulford used
+great caution, and had previously schooled Jack on the subject, this
+important point was successfully achieved. Then the mate put his
+helm down, and the boat shot up under the brig's lee-bow. Jack was
+ready to lay hold of one of the bow-sprit shrouds, and presently the
+boat was breasted up under the desired port, and secured in that
+position. Mulford quitted the stern-sheets, and cast a look in upon
+deck. Nothing was to be seen, though he heard the heavy breathing of
+the blacks, both of whom were sound asleep on a sail that they had
+spread on the forecastle.
+
+The mate whispered for Biddy to come to the port. This the
+Irishwoman did at once, having kissed Rose, and taken her leave of
+her previously. Tier also came to the port, through which he passed,
+getting on deck with a view to assist Biddy, who was awkward, almost
+as a matter of course, to pass through the same opening. He had just
+succeeded, when the whole party was startled, some of them almost
+petrified, indeed, by a hail from the quarter-deck in the
+well-known, deep tones of Spike.
+
+"For'ard, there?" hailed the captain. Receiving no answer, he
+immediately repeated, in a shorter, quicker call, "Forecastle,
+there?"
+
+"Sir," answered Jack Tier, who by this time had come to his senses.
+
+"Who has the look-out on that forecastle?"
+
+"I have it, sir--I, Jack Tier. You know, sir, I was to have it from
+two 'till daylight."
+
+"Ay, ay, I remember now. How does the brig ride to her anchor?"
+
+"As steady as a church, sir. She's had no more sheer the whole watch
+than if she was moored head and starn."
+
+"Does the wind stand as it did?"
+
+"No change, sir. As dead a trade wind as ever blowed."
+
+"What hard breathing is that I hear for'ard?"
+
+"'T is the two niggers, sir. They've turned in on deck, and are
+napping it off at the rate of six knots. There's no keepin' way with
+a nigger in snorin'."
+
+"I thought I heard loud whispering, too, but I suppose it was a sort
+of half-dream. I'm often in that way now-a-days. Jack!"
+
+"Sir."
+
+"Go to the scuttle-butt and get me a pot of fresh water--my coppers
+are hot with hard thinking."
+
+Jack did as ordered, and soon stood beneath the coach-house deck
+with Spike, who had come out of his state-room, heated and uneasy at
+he knew not what. The captain drank a full pint of water at a single
+draught.
+
+"That's refreshing," he said, returning Jack the tinpot, "and I feel
+the cooler for it. How much does it want of daylight, Jack?"
+
+"Two hours, I think, sir. The order was passed to me to have all
+hands called as soon as it was broad day."
+
+"Ay, that is right. We must get our anchor and be off as soon as
+there is light to do it in. Doubloons may melt as well as flour, and
+are best cared for soon when cared for at all."
+
+"I shall see and give the call as soon as it is day. I hope, Captain
+Spike, I can take the liberty of an old ship-mate, however, and say
+one thing to you, which is this--look out for the Poughkeepsie,
+which is very likely to be on your heels when you least expect her."
+
+"That's your way of thinking, is it, Jack. Well, I thank you, old
+one, for the hint, but have little fear of that craft. We've had our
+legs together, and I think the brig has the longest."
+
+As the captain said this, he gaped like a hound, and went into his
+state-room. Jack lingered on the quarter-deck, waiting to hear him
+fairly in his berth, when he made a sign to Biddy, who had got as
+far aft as the galley, where she was secreted, to pass down into the
+cabin, as silently as possible. In a minute or two more, he moved
+forward, singing in a low, cracked voice, as was often his practice,
+and slowly made his way to the forecastle. Mulford was just
+beginning to think the fellow had changed his mind, and meant to
+stick by the brig, when the little, rotund figure of the
+assistant-steward was seen passing through the port, and to drop
+noiselessly on a thwart. Jack then moved to the bow, and cast off
+the painter, the head of the boat slowly falling off under the
+pressure of the breeze on that part of her mast and sail which rose
+above the hull of the Swash. Almost at the same moment, the mate let
+go the stern-fast, and the boat was free.
+
+It required some care to set the sail without the canvas flapping.
+It was done, however, before the boat fairly took the breeze, when
+all was safe. In half a minute the wind struck the sail, and away
+the little craft started, passing swiftly ahead of the brig. Soon as
+far enough off, Mulford put up his helm and wore short round,
+bringing the boat's head to the northward, or in its proper
+direction; after which they flew along before the wind, which seemed
+to be increasing in force, with a velocity that really appeared to
+defy pursuit. All this time the brig lay in its silence and
+solitude, no one stirring on board her, and all, in fact, Biddy
+alone excepted, profoundly ignorant of what had just been passing
+alongside of her. Ten minutes of running off with a flowing sheet,
+caused the Swash to look indistinct and hazy again; in ten minutes
+more she was swallowed up, hull, spars, and all, in the gloom of
+night.
+
+Mulford and Rose now felt something like that security, without the
+sense of which happiness itself is but an uneasy feeling, rendering
+the anticipations of evil the more painful by the magnitude of the
+stake. There they sat, now, in the stern-sheets by themselves, Jack
+Tier having placed himself near the bows of the boat, to look out
+for rocks, as well as to trim the craft. It was not long before Rose
+was leaning on Harry's shoulder, and ere an hour was past, she had
+fallen into a sweet sleep in that attitude, the young man having
+carefully covered her person with a capacious shawl, the same that
+had been used on the wreck. As for Jack, he maintained his post in
+silence, sitting with his arms crossed, and the hands thrust into
+the breast of his jacket, sailor fashion, a picture of nautical
+vigilance. It was some time after Rose had fallen asleep, that this
+singular being spoke for the first time.
+
+"Keep her away a bit, maty," he said, "keep her away, half a point
+or so. She's been travelin' like a racer since we left the brig; and
+yonder's the first streak of day."
+
+"By the time we have been running," observed Mulford, "I should
+think we must be getting near the northern side of the reef."
+
+"All of that, sir, depend on it. Here's a rock close aboard on us,
+to which we're comin' fast--just off here, on our weather-bow, that
+looks to me like the place where you landed a'ter that swim, and
+where we had stowed ourselves when Stephen Spike made us out, and
+gave chase."
+
+"It is surprising to me, Jack, that you should have any fancy to
+stick by a man of Spike's character. He is a precious rascal, as we
+all can see, now, and you are rather an honest sort of fellow."
+
+"Do you love the young woman there, that's lying in your arms, as it
+might be, and whom you say you wish to marry."
+
+"The question is a queer one, but it is easily answered. More than
+my life, Jack."
+
+"Well, how happens it that _you_ succeed, when the world has so many
+other young men who might please her as well as yourself."
+
+"It may be that no other loves her as well, and she has had the
+sagacity to discover it."
+
+"Quite likely. So it is with me and Stephen Spike. I fancy a man
+whom other folk despise and condemn. _Why_ I stand by him is my own
+secret; but stand by him I do and will."
+
+"This is all very strange, after your conduct on the island, and
+your conduct to-night. I shall not disturb your secret, however,
+Jack, but leave you to enjoy it by yourself. Is this the rock of
+which you spoke, that we are now passing?"
+
+"The same; and there's the spot in which we was stowed when they
+made us out from the brig; and here-away, a cable's length, more or
+less, the wreck of that Mexican craft must lie."
+
+"What is that rising above the water, thereaway, Jack; more on our
+weather-beam?"
+
+"I see what you mean, sir; it looks like a spar. By George! there's
+two on 'em; and they _do_ seem to be the schooner's masts."
+
+Sure enough! a second look satisfied Mulford that two mast-heads
+were out of water, and that within a hundred yards of the place the
+boat was running past. Standing on a short distance, or far enough
+to give himself room, the mate put his helm down, and tacked the
+boat. The flapping of the sail, and the little movement of shifting
+over the sheet, awoke Rose, who was immediately apprized of the
+discovery. As soon as round, the boat went glancing up to the spars,
+and presently was riding by one, Jack Tier having caught hold of a
+topmast-shroud, when Mulford let fly his sheet again, and luffed
+short up to the spot. By this time the increasing light was
+sufficiently strong to render objects distinct, when near by, and no
+doubt remained any longer in the mind of Mulford about the two
+mast-heads being those of the unfortunate Mexican schooner.
+
+"Well, of all I have ever seen I've never see'd the like of this
+afore!" exclaimed Jack. "When we left this here craft, sir, you'll
+remember, she had almost turned turtle, laying over so far as to
+bring her upper coamings under water; now she stands right side up,
+as erect as if docked! My navigation can't get along with this, Mr.
+Mulford, and it does seem like witchcraft."
+
+"It is certainly a very singular incident, Jack, and I have been
+trying to come at its causes."
+
+"Have you succeeded, Harry?" asked Rose, by this time wide awake,
+and wondering like the others.
+
+"It must have happened in this wise. The wreck was abandoned by us
+some little distance out here, to windward. The schooner's masts, of
+course, pointed to leeward, and when she drifted in here, they have
+first touched on a shelving rock, and as they have been shoved up,
+little by little, they have acted as levers to right the hull, until
+the cargo has shifted back into its proper berth, which has suddenly
+set the vessel up again."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," answered Jack, "all that might have happened had she
+been above water, or any part of her above water; but you'll
+remember, maty, that soon after we left her she went down."
+
+"Not entirely. The wreck settled in the water no faster after we had
+left it, than it had done before. It continued to sink, inch by
+inch, as the air escaped, and no faster after it had gone entirely
+out of sight than before; not as fast, indeed, as the water became
+denser the lower it got. The great argument against my theory, is
+the fact, that after the hull got beneath the surface, the wind
+could not act on it. This is true in one sense, however, and not in
+another. The waves, or the pressure of the water produced by the
+wind, might act on the hull for some time after we ceased to see it.
+But the currents have set the craft in here, and the hull floating
+always, very little force would cant the craft. If the rock were
+shelving and slippery, I see no great difficulty in the way; and the
+barrels may have been so lodged, that a trifle would set them
+rolling back again, each one helping to produce a change that would
+move another. As for the ballast, that, I am certain, could not
+shift, for it was stowed with great care. As the vessel righted, the
+air still in her moved, and as soon as the water permitted, it
+escaped by the hatches, when the craft went down, as a matter of
+course. This air may have aided in bringing the hull upright by its
+movements in the water."
+
+This was the only explanation to which the ingenuity of Mulford
+could help him, under the circumstances, and it may have been the
+right one, or not. There lay the schooner, however, in some five or
+six fathoms of water, with her two topmasts, and lower mast-heads
+out of the element, as upright as if docked! It may all have
+occurred as the mate fancied, or the unusual incident may have been
+owing to some of the many mysterious causes which baffle inquiry,
+when the agents are necessarily hidden from examination.
+
+"Spike intends to come and look for this wreck, you tell me, Jack;
+in the hope of getting at the doubloons it contains?" said Mulford;
+when the boat had lain a minute or two longer, riding by the
+mast-head.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir; that's his notion, sir, and he'll be in a great stew,
+as soon as he turns out, which must be about this time, and finds me
+missing; for I was to pilot him to the spot."
+
+"He'll want no pilot now. It will be scarcely possible to pass
+anywhere near this and not see these spars. But this discovery
+almost induces me to change my own plans. What say _you,_ Rose? We
+have now reached the northern side of the reef, when it is time to
+haul close by the wind, if we wish to beat up to Key West. There is
+a moral certainty, however, that the sloop-of-war is somewhere in
+the neighbourhood of the Dry Tortugas, which are much the most
+easily reached, being to leeward. We might run down to the
+light-house by mid-day, while it is doubtful if we could reach the
+town until to-morrow morning. I should like exceedingly to have five
+minutes conversation with the commander of the Poughkeepsie."
+
+"Ay, to let him know where he will be likely to fall in with the
+Molly Swash and her traitor master, Stephen Spike," cried Jack Tier.
+"Never mind, maty; let 'em come on; both the Molly and her master
+have got long legs and clean heels. Stephen Spike will show 'em how
+to thread the channels of a reef."
+
+"It is amazing to me, Jack, that you should stand by your old
+captain in feeling, while you are helping to thwart him, all you
+can, in his warmest wishes."
+
+"He's a willian!" muttered Jack--"a reg'lar willian is Stephen
+Spike!"
+
+"If a villain, why do you so evidently wish to keep him out of the
+hands of the law? Let him be captured and punished, as his crimes
+require."
+
+"Men's willians, all round," still muttered Jack. "Hark'e, Mr.
+Mulford, I've sailed in the brig longer than you, and know'd her in
+her comeliest and best days--when she was young, and blooming, and
+lovely to the eye, as the young creature at your side--and it would
+go to my heart to have anything happen to _her_. Then, I've know'd
+Stephen a long time, too, and old shipmates get a feelin' for each
+other, sooner or later. I tell you now, honestly, Mr. Mulford,
+Captain Adam Mull shall never make a prisoner of Stephen Spike, if I
+can prevent it."
+
+The mate laughed at this sally, but Rose appeared anxious to change
+the conversation, and she managed to open a discussion on the
+subject of the course it might be best to steer. Mulford had several
+excellent reasons to urge for wishing to run down to the islets, all
+of which, with a single exception, he laid before his betrothed. The
+concealed reason was one of the strongest of them all, as usually
+happens when there is a reason to conceal, but of that he took care
+to say nothing. The result was an acquiescence on the part of Rose,
+whose consent was yielded more to the influence of one particular
+consideration than to all the rest united. That one was this: Harry
+had pointed out to her the importance to himself of his appearing
+early to denounce the character and movements of the brig, lest,
+through his former situation in her, his own conduct might be
+seriously called in question.
+
+As soon as the matter was determined, Jack was told to let go his
+hold, the sheet was drawn aft, and away sped the boat. No sooner did
+Mulford cause the little craft to keep away than it almost flew, as
+if conscious it were bound to its proper home, skimming swiftly over
+the waves, like a bird returning eagerly to its nest. An hour later
+the party breakfasted. While at this meal, Jack Tier pointed out to
+the mate a white speck, in the south-eastern board, which he took to
+be the brig coming through the passage, on her way to the wreck.
+
+"No matter," returned the mate. "Though we can see her, she cannot
+see us. There is that much advantage in our being small, Rose, if it
+do prevent our taking exercise by walking the deck."
+
+Soon after, Mulford made a very distant sail in the north-western
+board, which he hoped might turn out to be the Poughkeepsie. It was
+but another speck, but its position was somewhat like that in which
+he had expected to meet the sloop-of-war. The two vessels were so
+far apart that one could not be seen from the other, and there was
+little hope that the Poughkeepsie would detect Spike at his toil on
+the wreck; but the mate fully expected that the ship would go into
+the anchorage, among the islets, in order to ascertain what had
+become of the schooner. If she did not go in herself, she would be
+almost certain to send in a boat.
+
+The party from the brigantine had run down before the wind more than
+two hours before the light-house began to show itself, just rising
+out of the waves. This gave them the advantage of a beacon, Mulford
+having steered hitherto altogether by the sun, the direction of the
+wind, and the treading of the reef. Now he had his port in sight, it
+being his intention to take possession of the dwelling of the
+light-house keeper, and to remain in it, until a favourable
+opportunity occurred to remove Rose to Key West. The young man had
+also another important project in view, which it will be in season
+to mention as it reaches the moment of its fulfillment.
+
+The rate of sailing of the light-house boat, running before a brisk
+trade wind, could not be much less than nine miles in the hour.
+About eleven o'clock, therefore, the lively craft shot through one
+of the narrow channels of the islets, and entered the haven. In a
+few minutes all three of the adventurers were on the little wharf
+where the light-house people were in the habit of landing. Rose
+proceeded to the house, while Harry and Jack remained to secure the
+boat. For the latter purpose a sort of slip, or little dock, had
+been made, and when the boat was hauled into it, it lay so snug that
+not only was the craft secure from injury, but it was actually hid
+from the view of all but those who stood directly above it.
+
+"This is a snug berth for the boat, Jack," observed the mate, when
+he had hauled it into the place mentioned, "and by unstepping the
+mast, a passer-by would not suspect such a craft of lying in it. Who
+knows what occasion there may be for concealment, and I'll e'en do
+that thing."
+
+To a casual listener, Harry, in unstepping the mast, might have
+seemed influenced merely by a motiveless impulse; but, in truth, a
+latent suspicion of Jack's intentions instigated him, and as he laid
+the mast, sprit and sail on the thwarts, he determined, in his own
+mind, to remove them all to some other place, as soon as an
+opportunity for doing so unobserved should occur. He and Jack now
+followed Rose to the house.
+
+The islets were found deserted and tenantless. Not a human being had
+entered the house since Rose left it, the evening she had remained
+so long ashore, in company with her aunt and the Señor
+Montefalderon. This our heroine knew from the circumstance of
+finding a slight fastening of the outer door in the precise
+situation in which she had left it with her own hands. At first a
+feeling of oppression and awe prevailed with both Harry and Rose,
+when they recollected the fate of those who had so lately been
+tenants of the place; but this gradually wore off, and each soon got
+to be more at home. As for Jack, he very coolly rummaged the
+lockers, as he called the drawers and closets of the place, and made
+his preparations for cooking a very delicious repast, in which
+_callipash_ and _callipee_ were to be material ingredients. The
+necessary condiments were easily enough found in that place, turtle
+being a common dish there, and it was not long before steams that
+might have quickened the appetite of an alderman filled the kitchen.
+Rose rummaged, too, and found a clean table-cloth, plates, glasses,
+bowls, spoons, and knives; in a word, all that was necessary to
+spread a plain but plentiful board. While all this was doing, Harry
+took some fishing-tackle, and proceeded to a favourable spot among
+the rocks. In twenty minutes he returned with a fine mess of that
+most delicious little fish that goes by the very unpoetical name of
+"hog-fish," from the circumstance of its giving a grunt not unlike
+that of a living porker, when rudely drawn from its proper element.
+Nothing was now wanting to not only a comfortable, but to what was
+really a most epicurian meal, and Jack just begged the lovers to
+have patience for an hour or so, when he promised them dishes that
+even New York could not furnish.
+
+Harry and Rose first retired to pay a little attention to their
+dress, and then they joined each other in a walk. The mate had found
+some razors, and was clean shaved. He had also sequestered a shirt,
+and made some other little additions to his attire, that contributed
+to give him the appearance of being, that which he really was, a
+very gentleman-like looking young sailor. Rose had felt no necessity
+for taking liberties with the effects of others, though a good deal
+of female attire was found in the dwelling. As was afterward
+ascertained, a family ordinarily dwelt there, but most of it had
+gone to Key West, on a visit, at the moment when the man and boy
+left in charge had fallen into the hands of the Mexicans, losing
+their lives in the manner mentioned.
+
+While walking together, Harry opened his mind to Rose, on the
+subject which lay nearest to his heart, and which had been at the
+bottom of this second visit to the islets of the Dry Tortugas.
+During the different visits of Wallace to the brig, the boat's crew
+of the Poughkeepsie had held more or less discourse with the people
+of the Swash. This usually happens on such occasions, and although
+Spike had endeavoured to prevent it, when his brig lay in this bay,
+he had not been entirely successful. Such discourse is commonly
+jocular, and sometimes witty; every speech, coming from which side
+it may, ordinarily commencing with "shipmate," though the
+interlocutors never saw each other before that interview. In one of
+the visits an allusion was made to cargo, when "the pretty gal aft,"
+was mentioned as being a part of the cargo of the Swash. In answer
+to this remark, the wit of the Poughkeepsie had told the brig's man,
+"you had better send her on board us, for we carry a chaplain, a
+regular-built one, that will be a bishop some day or other, perhaps,
+and we can get her spliced to one of our young officers." This
+remark had induced the sailor of the Molly to ask if a sloop-of-war
+really carried such a piece of marine luxury as a chaplain, and the
+explanation given went to say that the clergyman in question did not
+properly belong to the Poughkeepsie, but was to be put on board a
+frigate, as soon as they fell in with one that he named. Now, all
+this Mulford overheard, and he remembered it at a moment when it
+might be of use. Situated as he and Rose were, he felt the wisdom
+and propriety of their being united, and his present object was to
+persuade his companion to be of the same way of thinking. He doubted
+not that the sloop-of-war would come in, ere long, perhaps that very
+day, and he believed it would be an easy matter to induce her
+chaplain to perform the ceremony. America is a country in which
+every facility exists, with the fewest possible impediments, to
+getting married; and, we regret to be compelled to add, to getting
+unmarried also. There are no banns, no licenses, no consent of
+parents even, usually necessary, and persons who are of the age of
+discretion, which, as respects females and matrimony, is a very
+tender age indeed, may be married, if they see fit, almost without
+form or ceremony. There existed, therefore, no legal impediment to
+the course Mulford desired to take; and his principal, if not his
+only difficulty, would be with Rose. Over her scruples he hoped to
+prevail, and not without reason, as the case he could and did
+present, was certainly one of a character that entitled him to be
+heard with great attention.
+
+In the first place, Mrs. Budd had approved of the connection, and it
+was understood between them, that the young people were to be united
+at the first port in which a clergyman of their own persuasion could
+be found, and previously to reaching home. This had been the aunt's
+own project, for, weak and silly as she was, the relict had a
+woman's sense of the proprieties. It had occured to her that it
+would be more respectable to make the long journey which lay before
+them, escorted by a nephew and husband, than escorted by even an
+accepted lover. It is true that she had never anticipated a marriage
+in a light-house, and under the circumstances in which Rose was now
+placed, though it might be more reputable that her niece should quit
+the islets as the wife of Harry than as his betrothed. Then Mulford
+still apprehended Spike. In that remote part of the world, almost
+beyond the confines of society, it was not easy to foretell what
+claims he might set up, in the event of his meeting them there.
+Armed with the authority of a husband, Mulford could resist him, in
+any such case, with far better prospects of success than if he
+should appear only in the character of a suitor.
+
+Rose listened to these arguments, ardently and somewhat eloquently
+put, as a girl of her years and habits would be apt to listen to a
+favoured lover. She was much too sincere to deny her own attachment,
+which the events of the last few days had increased almost to
+intenseness, so apt is our tenderness to augment in behalf of those
+for whom we feel solicitude; and her judgment told her that the more
+sober part of Harry's reasoning was entitled to consideration. As
+his wife, her situation would certainly be much less equivocal and
+awkward, than while she bore a different name, and was admitted to
+be a single woman, and it might yet be weeks before the duty she
+owed her aunt would allow her to proceed to the north. But, after
+all, Harry prevailed more through the influence of his hold on
+Rose's affections, as would have been the case with almost every
+other woman, than through any force of reasoning. He truly loved,
+and that made him eloquent when he spoke of love; sympathy in all he
+uttered being his great ally. When summoned to the house, by the
+call of Jack, who announced that the turtle-soup was ready, they
+returned with the understanding that the chaplain of the
+Poughkeepsie should unite them, did the vessel come in, and would
+the functionary mentioned consent to perform the ceremony.
+
+"It would be awkward--nay, it would be distressing, Harry, to have
+him refuse," said the blushing Rose, as they walked slowly back to
+the house, more desirous to prolong their conversation than to
+partake of the bountiful provision of Jack Tier. The latter could
+not but be acceptable, nevertheless, to a young man like Mulford,
+who was in robust health, and who had fared so badly for the last
+eight-and-forty hours. When he sat down to the table, therefore,
+which was covered by a snow-white cloth, with smoking and most
+savoury viands on it, it will not be surprising if we say it was
+with a pleasure that was derived from one of the great necessities
+of our nature.
+
+Sancho calls for benediction "on the man who invented sleep." It
+would have been more just to have asked this boon in behalf of him
+who invented eating and turtle-soup. The wearied fall into sleep, as
+it might be unwittingly; sometimes against their will, and often
+against their interests; while many a man is hungry without
+possessing the means of appeasing his appetite. Still more daily
+feel hunger without possessing turtle-soup. Certain persons impute
+this delicious compound to the genius of some London alderman, but
+we rather think unjustly. Aldermanic genius is easily excited and
+rendered active, no doubt, by strong appeals on such a theme, but
+our own experience inclines us to believe that the tropics usually
+send their inventions to the less fruitful regions of the earth
+along with their products. We have little doubt, could the fact be
+now ascertained, that it would be found turtle-soup was originally
+invented by just some such worthy as Jack Tier, who in filling his
+coppers to tickle the captain's appetite, had used all the
+condiments within his reach; ventured on a sort of Regent's punch;
+and, as the consequence, had brought forth the dish so often
+eulogized, and so well beloved. It is a little extraordinary that in
+Paris, the seat of gastronomy, one rarely, if ever, hears of or sees
+this dish; while in London it is to be met in almost as great
+abundance as in one of our larger commercial towns. But so it is,
+and we cannot say we much envy a _cuisine_ its _patés,_ and
+_soufflets,_ and its _à la_ this and _à la_ thats, but which was
+never redolent with the odours of turtle-soup.
+
+"Upon my word, Jack, you have made out famously with your dinner, or
+supper, whichever you may please to call it," cried Mulford gaily,
+as he took his seat at table, after having furnished Rose with a
+chair. "Nothing appears to be wanting; but here is good pilot bread,
+potatoes even, and other little niceties, in addition to the turtle
+and the fish. These good people of the light seem to have lived
+comfortably, at any rate."
+
+"Why should they not, maty?" answered Jack, beginning to help to
+soup. "Living on one of these islets is like living afloat.
+Everything is laid in, as for an outward bound craft; then the reef
+must always furnish fish and turtle. I've overhauled the lockers
+pretty thoroughly, and find a plenty of stores to last _us_ a month.
+Tea, sugar, coffee, bread, pickles, potatoes, onions, and all other
+knick-knacks."
+
+"The poor people who own these stores will be heavy-hearted enough
+when they come to learn the reason why we have been put in
+undisturbed possession of their property," said Rose. "We must
+contrive some means of repaying them for such articles as we may
+use, Harry."
+
+"That's easily enough done, Miss Rose. Drop one of the half-eagles
+in a tea-pot, or a mug, and they'll be certain to fall in with it
+when they come back. Nothin' is easier than to pay a body's debts,
+when a body has the will and the means. Now, the worst enemy of
+Stephen Spike must own that his brig never quits port with unsettled
+bills. Stephen has his faults, like other mortals; but he has his
+good p'ints, too."
+
+"Still praising Spike, my good Jack," cried the mate, a little
+provoked at this pertinacity in the deputy-steward, in sticking to
+his ship and his shipmate. "I should have thought that you had
+sailed with him long enough to have found him out, and to wish never
+to put your foot in his cabin again."
+
+"Why, no, maty, a craft is a craft, and a body gets to like even the
+faults of one in which a body has gone through gales, and squalls,
+with a whole skin. I like the Swash, and, for sartain things I like
+her captain."
+
+"Meaning by that, it is your intention to get on board of the one,
+and to sail with the other, again, as soon as you can."
+
+"I do, Mr. Mulford, and make no bones in telling on't. You know that
+I came here without wishing it."
+
+"Well, Jack, no one will attempt to control your movements, but you
+shall be left your own master. I feel it to be a duty, however, as
+one who may know more of the law than yourself, as well as more of
+Stephen Spike, to tell you that he is engaged in a treasonable
+commerce with the enemy, and that he, and all who voluntarily remain
+with him, knowing this fact, may be made to swing for it."
+
+"Then I'll swing for it," returned Jack, sullenly.
+
+"There is a little obstinacy in this, my good fellow, and you must
+be reasoned out of it. I am under infinite obligations to you, Jack,
+and shall ever be ready to own them. Without you to sail the boat, I
+might have been left to perish on that rock,--for God only knows
+whether any vessel would have seen me in passing. Most of those who
+go through that passage keep the western side of the reef aboard,
+they tell me, on account of there being better water on that side of
+the channel, and the chance of a man's being seen on a rock, by
+ships a league or two off, would be small indeed. Yes, Jack, I owe
+my life to you, and am proud to own it."
+
+"You owe it to Miss Rose, maty, who put me up to the enterprise, and
+who shared it with me."
+
+"To her I owe more than life," answered Harry, looking at his
+beloved as she delighted in being regarded by him, "but even she,
+with all her wishes to serve me, would have been helpless without
+your skill in managing a boat. I owe also to your good-nature the
+happiness of having Rose with me at this moment; for without you she
+would not have come."
+
+"I'll not deny it, maty--take another ladle-full of the soup, Miss
+Rosy: a quart of it would n't hurt an infant--I'll not deny it, Mr.
+Mulford--I know by the way you've got rid of the first bowl-full
+that _you_ are ready for another, and there it is--I'll not deny it,
+and all I can say is that you are heartily welcome to my sarvices."
+
+"I thank you, Jack; but all this only makes me more desirous of
+being of use to you, now, when it's in my power. I wish you to stick
+by me, and not to return to the Swash. As soon as I get to New York
+I shall build or buy a ship, and the berth of steward in her shall
+always be open to you."
+
+"Thank'e, maty; thank'e, with all my heart. It's something to know
+that a port is open to leeward, and, though I cannot _now_ accept
+your offer, the day _may_ come when I shall be glad to do so."
+
+"If you like living ashore better, our house will always be ready to
+receive you. I should be glad to leave as handy a little fellow as
+yourself behind me whenever I went to sea. There are a hundred
+things in which you might be useful, and fully earn your biscuit, so
+as to have no qualms about eating the bread of idleness."
+
+"Thank'e, thank'e, maty," cried Jack, dashing a tear out of his eye
+with the back of his hand, "thank'e, sir, from the bottom of my
+heart. The time _may_ come, but not now. My papers is signed for
+this v'y'ge. Stephen Spike has a halter round his neck, as you say
+yourself, and it's necessary for me to be there to look to't. We all
+have our callin's and duties, and this is mine. I stick by the Molly
+and her captain until both are out of this scrape, or both are
+condemned. I know nothin' of treason; but if the law wants another
+victim, I must take my chance."
+
+Mulford was surprised at this steadiness of Jack's, in what he
+thought a very bad cause, and he was quite as much surprised that
+Rose did not join him, in his endeavours to persuade the steward not
+to be so foolhardy, as to endeavour to go back to the brig. Rose did
+not, however; sitting silently eating her dinner the whole time,
+though she occasionally cast glances of interest at both the
+speakers the while. In this state of things the mate abandoned the
+attempt, for the moment, intending to return to the subject, after
+having had a private conference with his betrothed.
+
+Notwithstanding the little drawback just related, that was a happy
+as well as a delicious repast. The mate did full justice to the
+soup, and afterward to the fish with the unpoetical name; and Rose
+ate more than she had done in the last three days. The habits of
+discipline prevented Jack from taking his seat at table, though
+pressed by both Rose and Harry to do so, but he helped himself to
+the contents of a bowl and did full justice to his own art, on one
+aside. The little fellow was delighted with the praises that were
+bestowed on his dishes; and for the moment, the sea, its dangers,
+its tornadoes, wrecks and races, were all forgotten in the security
+and pleasures of so savoury a repast.
+
+"Folk ashore do n't know how sailors sometimes live," said Jack,
+holding a large spoon filled with the soup ready to plunge into a
+tolerably capacious mouth.
+
+"Or how they sometimes starve," answered Rose. "Remember our own
+situation, less than forty-eight hours since!"
+
+"All very true, Miss Rose; yet, you see, turtle-soup brings us up,
+a'ter all. Would you like a glass of wine, maty?"
+
+"Very much indeed, Jack, after so luscious a soup; but wishing for
+it will not bring it here."
+
+"That remains to be seen, sir. I call this a bottle of something
+that looks wery much like a wine."
+
+"Claret, as I live! Why, where should light-house keepers get the
+taste for claret?"
+
+"I've thought of that myself, Mr. Mulford, and have supposed that
+some of Uncle Sam's officers have brought the liquor to this part of
+the world. I understand a party on 'em was here surveyin' all last
+winter. It seems they come in the cool weather, and get their sights
+and measure their distances, and go home in the warm weather, and
+work out their traverses in the shade, as it might be."
+
+"This seems likely, Jack; but, come whence it may it is welcome, and
+we will taste it."
+
+Mulford then drew the cork of this mild and grateful liquor, and
+helped his companions and himself. In this age of moral _tours de
+force,_ one scarcely dare say anything favourable of a liquid that
+even bears the name of wine, or extol the shape of a bottle. It is
+truly the era of exaggeration. Nothing is treated in the
+old-fashioned, natural, common sense way. Virtue is no longer
+virtue, unless it get upon stilts; and, as for sin's being confined
+to "transgression against the law of God," audacious would be the
+wretch who should presume to limit the sway of the societies by any
+dogma so narrow! A man may be as abstemious as an anchorite and get
+no credit for it, unless "he sigu the pledge;" or, signing the
+pledge, he may get fuddled in corners, and be cited as a miracle of
+sobriety. The test of morals is no longer in the abuse of the gifts
+of Providence, but in their use; prayers are deserting the closet
+for the corners of streets, and charity (not the giving of alms) has
+got to be so earnest in the demonstration of its nature, as to be
+pretty certain to "begin at home," and to end where it begins. Even
+the art of mendacity has been aroused by the great progress which is
+making by all around it, and many manifest the strength of their
+ambition by telling ten lies where their fathers would have been
+satisfied with telling only one. This art has made an extraordinary
+progress within the last quarter of a century, aspiring to an
+ascendency that was formerly conceded only to truth, until he who
+gains his daily bread by it has some such contempt for the sneaking
+wretch who does business on the small scale, as the slayer of his
+thousands in the field is known to entertain for him who kills only
+a single man in the course of a long life.
+
+At the risk of damaging the reputations of our hero and heroine, we
+shall frankly aver the fact that both Harry and Rose partook of the
+_vin de Bordeaux,_ a very respectable bottle of _Medoc,_ by the way,
+which had been forgotten by Uncle Sam's people, in the course of the
+preceding winter, agreeably to Jack Tier's conjecture. One glass
+sufficed for Rose, and, contrary as it may be to all modern theory,
+she was somewhat the better for it; while the mate and Jack Tier
+quite half emptied the bottle, being none the worse. There they sat,
+enjoying the security and abundance which had succeeded to their
+late danger, happy in that security, happy in themselves, and happy
+in the prospects of a bright future. It was just as practicable for
+them to remain at the Dry Tortugas, as it was for the family which
+ordinarily dwelt at the light. The place was amply supplied with
+everything that would be necessary for their wants, for months to
+come, and Harry caused his betrothed to blush, as he whispered to
+her, should the chaplain arrive, he should delight in passing the
+honey-moon where they then were.
+
+"I could tend the light," he added, smiling, "which would be not
+only an occupation, but a useful occupation; you could read all
+those books from beginning to end, and Jack could keep us suplied
+with fish. By the way, master steward, are you in the humour for
+motion, so soon after your hearty meal?"
+
+"Anything to be useful," answered Jack, cheerfully.
+
+"Then do me the favour to go up into the lantern of the light-house,
+and take a look for the sloop-of-war. If she's in sight at all,
+you'll find her off here to the northward; and while you are aloft
+you may as well make a sweep of the whole horizon. There hangs the
+light-house keeper's glass, which may help your eyes, by stepping
+into the gallery outside of the lantern."
+
+Jack willingly complied, taking the glass and proceeding forthwith
+to the other building. Mulford had two objects in view in giving
+this commission to the steward. He really wished to ascertain what
+was the chance of seeing the Poughkeepsie, in the neighbourhood of
+the islets, and felt just that indisposition to move himself, that
+is apt to come over one who has recently made a very bountiful meal,
+while he also desired to have another private conversation with
+Rose.
+
+A good portion of the time that Jack was gone, and he stayed quite
+an hour in the lantern, our lovers conversed as lovers are much
+inclined to converse; that is to say, of themselves, their feelings,
+and their prospects. Mulford told Rose of his hopes and fears, while
+he visited at the house of her aunt, previously to sailing, and the
+manner in which his suspicions had been first awakened in reference
+to the intentions of Spike--intentions, so far as they were
+connected with an admiration of his old commander's niece, and
+possibly in connection also with the little fortune she was known to
+possess, but not in reference to the bold project to which he had,
+in fact, resorted. No distrust of the scheme finally put in practice
+had ever crossed the mind of the young mate, until he received the
+unexpected order, mentioned in our opening chapter, to prepare the
+brig for the reception of Mrs. Budd and her party. Harry confessed
+his jealousy of one youth whom he dreaded far more even than he had
+ever dreaded Spike, and whose apparent favour with Rose, and actual
+favour with her aunt, had given him many a sleepless night.
+
+They next conversed of the future, which to them seemed full of
+flowers. Various were the projects started, discussed, and
+dismissed, between them, the last almost as soon as proposed. On one
+thing they were of a mind, as soon as proposed. Harry was to have a
+ship as quick as one could be purchased by Rose's means, and the
+promised bride laughingly consented to make one voyage to Europe
+along with her husband.
+
+"I wonder, dear Rose, my poverty has never presented any
+difficulties in the way of our union," said Harry, sensibly touched
+with the free way his betrothed disposed of her own money in his
+behalf; "but neither you nor Mrs. Budd has ever seemed to think of
+the difference there is between us in this respect."
+
+"What is the trifle I possess, Harry, set in the balance against
+your worth? My aunt, as you say, has thought I might even be the
+gainer by the exchange."
+
+"I am sure I feel a thousand times indebted to Mrs. Budd--"
+
+"_Aunt_ Budd. You must learn to say, `_my_ Aunt Budd,' Mr. Henry
+Mulford, if you mean to live in peace with her unworthy niece."
+
+"_Aunt_ Budd, then," returned Harry, laughing, for the laugh came
+easily that evening; "Aunt Budd, if you wish it, Rose. I can have no
+objection to call any relative of yours, uncle or aunt."
+
+"I think we are intimate enough, now, to ask you a question or two,
+Harry, touching my aunt," continued Rose, looking stealthily over
+her shoulder, as if apprehensive of being overheard. "You know how
+fond she is of speaking of the sea, and of indulging in nautical
+phrases?"
+
+"Any one must have observed that, Rose," answered the young man,
+gazing up at the wall, in order not to be compelled to look the
+beautiful creature before him in the eyes--"Mrs. Budd has very
+strong tastes that way."
+
+"Now tell me, Harry--that is, answer me frankly--I mean--she is not
+_always_ right, is she?"
+
+"Why, no; not absolutely so--that is, not absolutely _always_
+so--few persons are _always_ right, you know."
+
+Rose remained silent and embarrassed for a moment; after which she
+pursued the discourse.
+
+"But aunty does not know as much of the sea and of ships as she
+thinks she does?"
+
+"Perhaps not. We all overrate our own acquirements. I dare say that
+even I am not as good a seaman as I fancy myself to be."
+
+"Even Spike admits that you are what he calls `a prime seaman.' But
+it is not easy for a woman to get a correct knowledge of the use of
+all the strange, and sometimes uncouth, terms that you sailors use."
+
+"Certainly not, and for that reason I would rather you should never
+attempt it, Rose. We rough sons of the ocean would prefer to hear
+our wives make divers pretty blunders, rather than to be swaggering
+about like so many `old salts.'"
+
+"Mr. Mulford! Does Aunt Budd swagger like an old salt?"
+
+"Dearest Rose, I was not thinking of your aunt, but of _you_. Of
+you, as you are, feminine, spirited, lovely alike in form and
+character, and of you a graduate of the ocean, and full of its
+language and ideas."
+
+It was probable Rose was not displeased at this allusion to herself,
+for a smile struggled around her pretty mouth, and she did not look
+at all angry. After another short pause, she resumed the discourse.
+
+"My aunt did not very clearly comprehend those explanations of yours
+about the time of day, and the longitude," she said, "nor am I quite
+certain that I did myself."
+
+"You understood them far better than Mrs. Budd, Rose. Women are so
+little accustomed to _think_ on such subjects at all, that it is not
+surprising they sometimes get confused. I do wish, however, that
+your aunt could be persuaded to be more cautious in the presence of
+strangers, on the subject of terms she does not understand."
+
+"I feared it might be so, Harry," answered Rose, in a low voice, as
+if unwilling even he should know the full extent of her thoughts on
+this subject; "but my aunt's heart is most excellent, though she may
+make mistakes occasionally, I owe her a great deal, if not
+absolutely my education, certainly my health and comfort through
+childhood, and more prudent, womanly advice than you may suppose,
+perhaps, since I have left school. How she became the dupe of Spike,
+indeed, is to me unaccountable; for in all that relates to health,
+she is, in general, both acute and skilful."
+
+"Spike is a man of more art than he appears to be to superficial
+observers. On my first acquaintance with him, I mistook him for a
+frank, fearless but well-meaning sailor, who loved hazardous voyages
+and desperate speculation--a sort of innocent gambler; but I have
+learned to know better. His means are pretty much reduced to his
+brig, and she is getting old, and can do but little more service.
+His projects are plain enough, now. By getting you into his power,
+he hoped to compel a marriage, in which case both your fortune and
+your aunt's would contribute to repair his."
+
+"He might have killed me, but I never would have married him,"
+rejoined Rose, firmly. "Is not that Jack coming down the steps of
+the light-house?"
+
+"It is. I find that fellow's attachment to Spike very extraordinary,
+Rose. Can you, in any manner, account for it?"
+
+Rose at first seemed disposed to reply. Her lips parted, as if about
+to speak, and closed again, as glancing her eyes toward the open
+door, she seemed to expect the appearance of the steward's little,
+rotund form on its threshold, which held her tongue-tied. A brief
+interval elapsed, however, ere Jack actually arrived, and Rose,
+perceiving that Harry was curiously expecting her answer, said
+hurriedly--"It may be hatred, not attachment."
+
+The next instant Jack Tier entered the room. He had been gone rather
+more than an hour, not returning until just as the sun was about to
+set in a flame of fire.
+
+"Well, Jack, what news from the Poughkeepsie?" demanded the mate.
+"You have been gone long enough to make sure of your errand. Is it
+certain that we are not to see the man-of-war's-men to-night."
+
+"Whatever you see, my advice to you is to keep close, and to be on
+your guard," answered Jack, evasively.
+
+"I have little fear of any of Uncle Sam's craft. A plain story, and
+an honest heart, will make all clear to a well-disposed listener. We
+have not been accomplices in Spike's treasons, and cannot be made to
+answer for them."
+
+"Take my advice, maty, and be in no hurry to hail every vessel you
+see. Uncle Sam's fellows may not always be at hand to help you. Do
+you not know that this island will be tabooed to seamen for some
+time to come?"
+
+"Why so, Jack? The islet has done no harm, though others may have
+performed wicked deeds near it."
+
+"Two of the drowned men lie within a hundred yards of this spot, and
+sailors never go near new-made graves, if they can find any other
+place to resort to."
+
+"You deal in enigmas, Jack; and did I not know that you are very
+temperate, I might suspect that the time you have been gone has been
+passed in the company of a bottle of brandy."
+
+"That will explain my meanin'," said Jack, laconically, pointing as
+he spoke seemingly at some object that was to be seen without.
+
+The door of the house was wide open, for the admission of air. It
+faced the haven of the islets, and just as the mate's eyes were
+turned to it, the end of a flying-jib-boom, with the sail down, and
+fluttering beneath it, was coming into the view. "The Poughkeepsie!"
+exclaimed Mulford, in delight, seeing all his hopes realized, while
+Rose blushed to the eyes. A pause succeeded, during which Mulford
+drew aside, keeping his betrothed in the back-ground, and as much
+out of sight as possible. The vessel was shooting swiftly into view,
+and presently all there could see it was the Swash.
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  But no--he surely is not dreaming.
+  Another minute makes it clear,
+  A scream, a rush, a burning tear,
+  From Inez' cheek, dispel the fear
+  That bliss like his is only seeming.
+
+Washington Alston.
+
+A moment of appalled surprise succeeded the instant when Harry and
+Rose first ascertained the real character of the vessel that had
+entered the haven of the Dry Tortugas. Then the first turned toward
+Jack Tier, and sternly demanded an explanation of his apparent
+faithlessness.
+
+"Rascal," he cried, "has this treachery been intended? Did you not
+see the brig and know her?"
+
+"Hush, Harry--_dear_ Harry," exclaimed Rose, entreatingly. "My life
+for it, Jack has _not_ been faithless."
+
+"Why, then, has he not let us know that the brig was coming? For
+more than an hour has he been aloft, on the look-out, and here are
+we taken quite by surprise. Rely on it, Rose, he has seen the
+approach of the brig, and might have sooner put us on our guard."
+
+"Ay, ay, lay it on, maty," said Jack, coolly, neither angry nor
+mortified, so far as appearances went, at these expressions of
+dissatisfaction; "my back is used to it. If I did n't know what it
+is to get hard raps on the knuckles, I should be but a young
+steward. But, as for this business, a little reflection will tell
+you I am not to blame."
+
+"Give us your own explanations, for without them I shall trust you
+no longer."
+
+"Well, sir, what good would it have done, _had_ I told you the brig
+was standing for this place? There she came down, like a race-horse,
+and escape for you was impossible. As the wind is now blowin', the
+Molly would go two feet to the boat's one, and a chase would have
+been madness."
+
+"I do n't know that, sirrah" answered the mate." The boat might have
+got into the smaller passages of the reef, where the brig could not
+enter, or she might have dodged about among these islets, until it
+was night, and then escaped in the darkness."
+
+"I thought of all that, Mr. Mulford, but it came too late. When I
+first went aloft, I came out on the north-west side of the lantern,
+and took my seat, to look out for the sloop-of-war, as you bade me,
+sir. Well, there I was sweepin' the horizon with the glass for the
+better part of an hour, sometimes fancyin' I saw her, and then
+givin' it up; for to this moment I am not sartain there is n't a
+sail off here to the westward, turning up toward the light on a
+bowline; but if there be, she's too far off to know anything
+partic'lar about her. Well, sir, there I sat, looking for the
+Poughkeepsie, for the better part of an hour, when I thought I would
+go round on t' other side of the lantern and take a look to
+windward. My heart was in my mouth, I can tell you, Miss Rose, when
+I saw the brig; and I felt both glad and sorry. Glad on my own
+account, and sorry on your'n. There she was, however, and no help
+for it, within two miles of this very spot, and coming down as if
+she despised touching the water at all. Now, what could I do? There
+was n't time, Mr. Mulford, to get the boat out, and the mast
+stepped, afore we should have been within reach of canister, and
+Stephen Spike would not have spared _that,_ in order to get you
+again within his power."
+
+"Depend on it, Harry, this is all true," said Rose, earnestly. "I
+know Jack well, and can answer for his fidelity. He wishes to, and
+if he can he _will_ return to the brig, whither he thinks his duty
+calls him, but he will never willingly betray _us_--least of all,
+_me_. Do I speak as I ought, Jack?"
+
+"Gospel truth, Miss Rose, and Mr. Mulford will get over this squall,
+as soon as he comes to think of matters as he ought. There 's my
+hand, maty, to show I bear no malice."
+
+"I take it, Jack, for I must believe you honest, after all you have
+done for us. Excuse my warmth, which, if a little unreasonable, was
+somewhat natural under the circumstances. I suppose our case is now
+hopeless, and that we shall all be soon on board the brig again; for
+Spike will hardly think of abandoning me again on an island
+provisioned and fitted as is this!"
+
+"It's not so sartain, sir, that you fall into his hands at all," put
+in Jack. "The men of the brig will never come here of their own
+accord, depend on that, for sailors don't like graves. Spike has
+come in here a'ter the schooner's chain, that he dropped into the
+water when he made sail from the sloop-of-war, at the time he was
+here afore, and is not expectin' to find us here. No--no--he thinks
+we are beatin' up toward Key West this very minute, if, indeed, he
+has missed us at all. 'T is possible he believes the boat has got
+adrift by accident, and has no thought of our bein' out of the
+brig."
+
+"That is impossible, Jack. Do you suppose he is ignorant that Rose
+is missing?"
+
+"Sartain of it, maty, if Mrs. Budd has read the letter well that
+Miss Rose left for her, and Biddy has obeyed orders. If they've
+followed instructions, Miss Rose is thought to be in her state-room,
+mournin' for a young man who was abandoned on a naked rock, and Jack
+Tier, havin' eat somethin' that has disagreed with him, is in his
+berth. Recollect, Spike will not be apt to look into Miss Rose's
+state-room or my berth, to see if all this is true. The cook and
+Josh are both in my secret, and know I mean to come back, and when
+the fit is over I have only to return to duty, like any other hand.
+It is my calculation that Spike believes both Miss Rose and myself
+on board the Molly at this very moment."
+
+"And the boat--what can he suppose has become of the boat?"
+
+"Sartainly, the boat makes the only chance ag'in us. But the boat
+was ridin' by its painter astarn, and accidents sometimes happen to
+such craft. Then we two are the wery last he will suspect of havin'
+made off in the boat by ourselves. There'll be Mrs. Budd and Biddy
+as a sort of pledge that Miss Rose is aboard, and as for Jack Tier,
+he is too insignificant to occupy the captain's thoughts just now.
+He will probably muster the people for'ard, when he finds the boat
+is gone, but I do not think he'll trouble the cabins or
+state-rooms."
+
+Mulford admitted that this was _possible,_ though it scarcely seemed
+probable to him. There was no help, however, for the actual state of
+things, and they all now turned their attention to the brig, and to
+the movements of those on board her. Jack Tier had swung-to the
+outer-door of the house, as soon as the Swash came in view through
+it, and fortunately none of the windows on that side of the building
+had been opened at all. The air entered to windward, which was on
+the rear of the dwelling, so that it was possible to be comfortable
+and yet leave the front, in view from the vessel, with its deserted
+air. As for the brig, she had already anchored and got both her
+boats into the water. The yawl was hauled alongside, in readiness
+for any service that might be required of it, while the launch had
+been manned at once, and was already weighing the anchor, and
+securing the chain to which Tier had alluded. All this served very
+much to lessen the uneasiness of Mulford and Rose, as it went far to
+prove that Spike had not come to the Dry Tortugas in quest of them,
+as, at first, both had very naturally supposed. It might, indeed,
+turn out that his sole object was to obtain this anchor and chain,
+with a view to use them in raising the ill-fated vessel that had now
+twice gone to the bottom.
+
+"I wish an explanation with you, Jack, on one other point," said the
+mate, after all three had been for sometime observing the movements
+on board and around the Swash. "Do you actually intend to get on
+board the brig?"
+
+"If it's to be done, maty. My v'y'ge is up with you and Miss Rose. I
+may be said to have shipped for Key West and a market, and the
+market's found at this port."
+
+"You will hardly leave us _yet,_ Jack," said Rose, with a manner and
+emphasis that did not fail to strike her betrothed lover, though he
+could in no way account for either. That Rose should not wish to be
+left alone with him in that solitary place was natural enough; or,
+might rather be referred to education and the peculiar notions of
+her sex; but he could not understand why so much importance should
+be attached to the presence of a being of Jack Tier's mould and
+character. It was true, that there was little choice, under present
+circumstances, but it occurred to Mulford that Rose had manifested
+the same strange predilection when there might have been something
+nearer to a selection. The moment, however, was not one for much
+reflection on the subject.
+
+"You will hardly leave us yet, Jack?" said Rose, in the manner
+related.
+
+"it's now or never, Miss Rose. If the brig once gets away from this
+anchorage without me, I may never lay eyes on her ag'in. Her time is
+nearly up, for wood and iron wont hold together always, any more
+than flesh and blood. Consider how many years I've been busy in
+huntin' her up, and how hard 't will be to lose that which has given
+me so many weary days and sleepless nights to find."
+
+Rose said no more. If not convinced, she was evidently silenced,
+while Harry was left to wonder and surmise, as best he might. Both
+quitted the subject, to watch the people of the brig. By this time
+the anchor had been lifted, and the chain was heaving in on board
+the vessel, by means of a line that had been got around its bight.
+The work went on rapidly, and Mulford observed to Rose that he did
+not think it was the intention of Spike to remain long at the
+Tortugas, inasmuch as his brig was riding by a very short range of
+cable. This opinion was confirmed, half an hour later, when it was
+seen that the launch was hooked on and hoisted in again, as soon as
+the chain and anchor of the schooner were secured.
+
+Jack Tier watched every movement with palpable uneasiness. His
+apprehensions that Spike would obtain all he wanted, and be off
+before he could rejoin him, increased at each instant, and he did
+not scruple to announce an intention to take the boat and go
+alongside of the Swash at every hazard, rather than be left.
+
+"You do not reflect on what you say, Jack," answered Harry; "unless,
+indeed, it be your intention to betray us. How could you appear in
+the boat, at this place, without letting it be known that we must be
+hard by?"
+
+"That don't follow at all, maty," answered Jack. "Suppose I go
+alongside the brig and own to the captain that I took the boat last
+night, with the hope of findin' you, and that failin' to succeed, I
+bore up for this port, to look for provisions and water. Miss Rose
+he thinks on board at this moment, and in my judgment he would take
+me at my word, give me a good cursing, and think no more about it."
+
+"It would never do, Jack," interposed Rose, instantly. "It would
+cause the destruction of Harry, as Spike would not believe you had
+not found him, without an examination of this house."
+
+"What are they about with the yawl, Mr. Mulford?" asked Jack, whose
+eye was never off the vessel for a single moment. "It's gettin' to
+be so dark that one can hardly see the boat, but it seems as if
+they're about to man the yawl."
+
+"They are, and there goes a lantern into it. And that is Spike
+himself coming down the brig's side this instant."
+
+"They can only bring a lantern to search this house," exclaimed
+Rose. "Oh! Harry, you are lost!"
+
+"I rather think the lantern is for the light-house," answered
+Mulford, whose coolness, at what was certainly a most trying moment,
+did not desert him. "Spike may wish to keep the light burning, for
+once before, you will remember, he had it kindled after the keeper
+was removed. As for his sailing, he would not be apt to sail until
+the moon rises; and in beating back to the wreck the light may serve
+to let him know the bearings and position of the reef."
+
+"There they come," whispered Rose, half breathless with alarm. "The
+boat has left the brig, and is coming directly hither!"
+
+All this was true enough. The yawl had shoved off, and with two men
+to row it, was pulling for the wharf in front of the house, and
+among the timbers of which lay the boat, pretty well concealed
+beneath a sort of bridge. Mulford would not retreat, though he
+looked to the fastenings of the door as a means of increasing his
+chances of defence. In the stern-sheets of the boat sat two men,
+though it was not easy to ascertain who they were by the fading
+light. One was known to be Spike, however, and the other, it was
+conjectured, must be Don Juan Montefalderon, from the circumstance
+of his being in the place of honour. Three minutes solved this
+question, the boat reaching the wharf by that time. It was instantly
+secured, and all four of the men left it. Spike was now plainly to
+be discerned by means of the lantern which he carried in his own
+hands, He gave some orders, in his customary authoritative way, and
+in a high key, after which he led the way from the wharf, walking
+side by side with the Señor Montefalderon. These two last came up
+within a yard of the door of the house, where they paused, enabling
+those within not only to see their persons and the working of their
+countenances, but to hear all that was said; this last the more
+especially, since Spike never thought it necessary to keep his
+powerful voice within moderate limits.
+
+"It's hardly worth while, Don Wan, for you to go into the
+light-house," said Spike. "'T is but a greasy, dirty place at the
+best, and one's clothes are never the better for dealin' with ile.
+Here, Bill, take the lantern, and get a filled can, that we may go
+up and trim and fill the lamp, and make a blaze. Bear a hand, lads,
+and I'll be a'ter ye afore you reach the lantern. Be careful with
+the flame about the ile, for seamen ought never to wish to see a
+lighthouse destroyed."
+
+"What do you expect to gain by lighting the lamps above, Don
+Esteban?" demanded the Mexican, when the sailors had disappeared in
+the light-house, taking their own lantern with them.
+
+"It's wisest to keep things reg'lar about this spot, Don Wan, which
+will prevent unnecessary suspicions. But, as the brig stretches in
+toward the reef to-night, on our way back, the light will be a great
+assistance. I am short of officers, you know, and want all the help
+of this sort I can get."
+
+"To be sincere with you, Don Esteban, I greatly regret you _are_ so
+short of officers, and do not yet despair of inducing you to go and
+take off the mate, whom I hear you have left on a barren rock. He
+was a fine young fellow, Señor Spike, and the deed was not one that
+you will wish to remember a few years hence."
+
+"The fellow run, and I took him at his word, Don Wan. I'm not
+obliged to receive back a deserter unless it suits me."
+
+"We are all obliged to see we do not cause a fellow creature the
+loss of life. This will prove the death of the charming young woman
+who is so much attached to him, unless you relent and are merciful!"
+
+"Women have tender looks but tough hearts," answered Spike,
+carelessly, though Mulford felt certain, by the tone of his voice,
+that great bitterness of feeling lay smothered beneath the affected
+indifference of his manner; "few die of love."
+
+"The young lady has not been on deck all day; and the Irish woman
+tells me that she does nothing but drink water--the certain proof of
+a high fever."
+
+"Ay, ay, she keeps her room if you will, Don Wan, but she is not
+about to make a dupe of me by any such tricks. I must go and look to
+the lamps, however, and you will find the graves you seek in the
+rear of this house, about thirty yards behind it, you'll remember.
+That's a very pretty cross you've made, señor, and the skipper of
+the schooner's soul will be all the better for settin' it up at the
+head of his grave."
+
+"It will serve to let those who come after us know that a Christian
+sleeps beneath the sand, Don Esteban," answered the Mexican, mildly.
+"I have no other expectation from this sacred symbol."
+
+The two now separated, Spike going into the light-house, little in a
+hurry, while Don Juan Montefalderon walked round the building to its
+rear in quest of the grave. Mulford waited a moment for Spike to get
+a short distance up the stairs of the high tower he had to ascend,
+when placing the arm of Rose within his own, he opened the door in
+the rear of the house, and walked boldly toward the Mexican. Don
+Juan was actually forcing the pointed end of his little cross into
+the sand, at the head of his countryman's grave, when Mulford and
+his trembling companion reached the spot. Although night had shut
+in, it was not so dark that persons could not be recognised at small
+distances. The Señor Montefalderon was startled at an apparition so
+sudden and unexpected, when Mulford saluted him by name; but
+recognising first the voice of Harry, and then the persons of
+himself and his companion, surprise, rather than alarm, became the
+emotion that was uppermost. Notwithstanding the strength of the
+first of these feelings, he instantly saluted the young couple with
+the polished ease that marked his manner, which had much of the
+courtesy of a Castilian in it, tempered a little, perhaps, by the
+greater flexibility of a Southern American.
+
+"I _see_ you," exclaimed Don Juan, "and must believe my eyes.
+Without their evidence, however, I could scarce believe it can be
+you two, one of whom I thought on board the brig, and the other
+suffering a most miserable death on a naked rock."
+
+"I am aware of your kind feelings in our behalf, Don Juan," said
+Mulford, "and it is the reason I now confide in you. I was taken off
+that rock by means of the boat, which you doubtless have missed; and
+this is the gentle being who has been the means of saving my life.
+To her and Jack Tier, who is yonder, under the shadows of the house,
+I owe my not being the victim of Spike's cruelty."
+
+"I now comprehend the whole matter, Don Henriquez. Jack Tier has
+managed the boat for the señorita; and those whom we were told were
+too ill to be seen on deck, have been really out of the brig!"
+
+"Such are the facts, señor, and from _you_ there is no wish to
+conceal them. We are then to understand that the absence of Rose and
+Jack from the brig is not known to Spike."
+
+"I believe not, señor. He has alluded to both, once or twice to-day,
+as being ill below; but would you not do well to retire within the
+shade of the dwelling, lest a glance from the lantern might let
+those in it know that I am not alone."
+
+"There is little danger, Don Juan, as they who stand near a light
+cannot well see those who are in the darkness. Beside, they are high
+in the air, while we are on the ground, which will greatly add to
+the obscurity down here. We can retire, nevertheless, as I have a
+few questions to ask, which may as well be put in perfect security,
+as put where there is any risk."
+
+The three now drew near the house, Rose actually stepping within its
+door, though Harry remained on its exterior, in order to watch the
+proceedings of those in the light-house. Here the Señor
+Montefalderon entered into a more detailed explanation of what had
+occurred on board the brig, since the appearance of day, that very
+morning. According to his account of the matter, Spike had
+immediately called upon the people to explain the loss of the boat.
+Tier was not interrogated on this occasion, it being understood he
+had gone below and turned in, after having the look-out for fully
+half the night. As no one could, or would, give an account of the
+manner in which the boat was missing, Josh was ordered to go below
+and question Jack on the subject. Whether it was from consciousness
+of his connection with the escape of Jack, and apprehensions of the
+consequences, or from innate good-nature, and a desire to befriend
+the lovers, this black now admitted that Jack confessed to him that
+the boat had got away from him while endeavouring to shift the turns
+of its painter from a cleet where they ought not to be, to their
+proper place. This occurred early in Jack's watch, according to
+Josh's story, and had not been reported, as the boat did not
+properly belong to the brig, and was an incumbrance rather than an
+advantage. The mate admired the negro's cunning, as Don Juan related
+this part of his story, which put him in a situation to throw all
+the blame on Jack's mendacity in the event of a discovery, while it
+had the effect to allow the fugitives more time for their escape.
+The result was, that Spike bestowed a few hearty curses, as usual,
+on the clumsiness of Jack Tier, and seemed to forget all about the
+matter. It is probable he connected Jack's abstaining from showing
+himself on deck, and his alleged indisposition, with his supposed
+delinquency in this matter of the boat. From that moment the captain
+appeared to give himself no further concern on the subject, the boat
+having been, in truth, an incumbrance rather than a benefit, as
+stated.
+
+As for Rose, her keeping her room, under the circumstances, was so
+very natural, that the Señor Montefalderon had been completely
+deceived, as, from his tranquillity on this point, there was no
+question was the case with Spike also. Biddy appeared on deck,
+though the widow did not, and the Irish woman shook her head
+anxiously when questioned about her young mistress, giving the
+spectators reason to suppose that the latter was in a very bad way.
+
+As respects the brig and her movements, Spike had got under way as
+soon as there was light enough to find his course, and had run
+through the passage. It is probable that the boat was seen; for
+something that was taken for a small sail had just been made out for
+a single instant, and then became lost again. This little sail was
+made, if made at all, in the direction of the Dry Tortugas, but so
+completely was all suspicion at rest in the minds of those on the
+quarter-deck of the Swash, that neither Spike nor the Mexican had
+the least idea what it was. When the circumstance was reported to
+the former, he answered that it was probably some small wrecker, of
+which many were hovering about the reef, and added, laughingly,
+though in a way to prove how little he thought seriously on the
+subject at all, "who knows but the light-house boat has fallen into
+their hands, and that they've made sail on _her;_ if they have, my
+word for it, that she goes, hull, spars, rigging, canvas, and cargo,
+all in a lump, for salvage."
+
+As the brig came out of the passage, in broad day, the heads of the
+schooner's masts were seen, as a matter of course. This induced
+Spike to heave-to, lower a boat, and to go in person to examine the
+condition of the wreck. It will be seen that Jack's presence could
+now be all the better dispensed with. The examination, with the
+soundings, and other calculations connected with raising the vessel,
+occupied hours. When they were completed, Spike returned on board,
+run up his boat, and squared away for the Dry Tortugas. Señor
+Montefalderon confirmed the justice of Jack Tier's surmises, as to
+the object of this unexpected visit. The brig had come solely for
+the chain and anchor mentioned, and having secured them, it was
+Spike's intention to get under way and beat up to the wreck again as
+soon as the moon rose. As for the sloop-of-war, he believed she had
+given him up; for by this time she must know that she had no chance
+with the brig, so long as the latter kept near the reef, and that
+she ran the constant hazard of shipwreck, while playing so near the
+dangers herself.
+
+Before the Señor Montefalderon exhausted all he had to communicate,
+he was interrupted by Jack Tier with a singular proposition. Jack's
+great desire was to get on board the Swash; and he now begged the
+Mexican to let Mulford take the yawl and scull him off to the brig,
+and return to the islet before Spike and his companions should
+descend from the lantern of the light-house. The little fellow
+insisted there was sufficient time for such a purpose, as the three
+in the lantern had not yet succeeded in filling the lamps with the
+oil necessary to their burning for a night--a duty that usually
+occupied the regular keeper for an hour. Five or six minutes would
+suffice for him; and if he were seen going up the brig's side, it
+would be easy for him to maintain that he had come ashore in the
+boat. No one took such precise note of what was going on; as to be
+able to contradict him; and as to Spike and the men with him, they
+would probably never hear anything about it.
+
+Don Juan Montefalderon was struck with the boldness of Jack Tier's
+plan, but refused his assent to it. He deemed it too hazardous, but
+substituted a project of his own. The moon would not rise until near
+eleven, and it wanted several hours before the time of sailing. When
+they returned to the brig, he would procure his cloak, and scull
+himself ashore, being perfectly used to managing a boat in this way,
+under the pretence of wishing to pass an hour longer near the grave
+of his countryman. At the expiration of that hour he would take Jack
+off, concealed beneath his cloak--an exploit of no great difficulty
+in the darkness, especially as no one would be on deck but a hand or
+two keeping the anchor-watch. With this arrangement, therefore, Jack
+Tier was obliged to be content.
+
+Some fifteen or twenty minutes more passed; during which the Mexican
+again alluded to his country, and his regrets at her deplorable
+situation. The battles of the 8th and 9th of May; two combats that
+ought to, and which will reflect high honour on the little army that
+won them, as well as on that hardly worked, and in some respects
+hardly used, service to which they belong, had been just fought. Don
+Juan mentioned these events without reserve; and frankly admitted
+that success had fallen to the portion of much the weaker party. He
+ascribed the victory to the great superiority of the American
+officers of inferior rank; it being well known that in the service
+of the "Republic of the North," as he termed America, men who had
+been regularly educated at the military academy, and who had reached
+the period of middle life, were serving in the stations of captains,
+and sometimes in that of lieutenants; men who, in many cases, were
+fitted to command regiments and brigades, having been kept in these
+lower stations by the tardiness with which promotion comes in an
+army like that of this country.
+
+Don Juan Montefalderon was not sufficiently conversant with the
+subject, perhaps, else he might have added, that when occasions _do_
+offer to bestow on these gentlemen the preferment they have so
+hardly and patiently earned, they are too often neglected, in order
+to extend the circle of vulgar political patronage. He did not know
+that when a new regiment of dragoons was raised, one permanent in
+its character, and intended to be identified with the army in all
+future time, that, instead of giving its commissions to those who
+had fairly earned them by long privations and faithful service, they
+were given, with one or two exceptions, to strangers.
+
+No government trifles more with its army and navy than our own. So
+niggardly are the master-spirits at Washington of the honours justly
+earned by military men, that we have fleets still commanded by
+captains, and armies by officers whose regular duty it would be to
+command brigades. The world is edified with the sight of forces
+sufficient, in numbers, and every other military requisite, to make
+one of Napoleon's _corps de armée,_ led by one whose commission
+would place him properly at the head of a brigade, and nobly led,
+too. Here, when so favourable an occasion offers to add a regiment
+or two to the old permanent line of the army, and thus infuse new
+life into its hope deferred, the opportunity is overlooked, and the
+rank and file are to be obtained by cramming, instead of by a
+generous regard to the interests of the gallant gentlemen who have
+done so much for the honour of the American name, and, unhappily, so
+little for themselves. The extra-patriots of the nation, and they
+form a legion large enough to trample the "Halls of the Montezumas"
+under their feet, tell us that the reward of those other patriots
+beneath the shadows of the Sierra Madre, is to be in the love and
+approbation of their fellow citizens, at the very moment when they
+are giving the palpable proof of the value of this esteem, and of
+the inconstancy of popular applause, by pointing their fingers, on
+account of an inadvertent expression in a letter, at the gallant
+soldier who taught, in our own times, the troops of this country to
+stand up to the best appointed regiments of England, and to carry
+off victory from the pride of Europe, in fair field-fights. Alas!
+alas! it is true of nations as well as of men, in their simplest and
+earliest forms of association, that there are "secrets in all
+families;" and it will no more do to dwell on our own, than it would
+edify us to expose those of poor Mexico.
+
+The discourse between the Señor Montefalderon and Mulford was
+interesting, as it ever has been when the former spoke of his
+unfortunate country. On the subject of the battles of May he was
+candid, and admitted his deep mortification and regrets. He had
+expected more from the force collected on the Rio Grande, though,
+understanding the northern character better than most of his
+countrymen, he had not been as much taken by surprise as the great
+bulk of his own nation.
+
+"Nevertheless, Don Henrique," he concluded, for the voice of Spike
+was just then heard as he was descending the stairs of the
+light-house, "nevertheless, Don Henrique, there is one thing that
+your people, brave, energetic, and powerful as I acknowledge them to
+be, would do well to remember, and it is this--no nation of the
+numbers of ours can be, or ever was conquered, unless by the force
+of political combinations. In a certain state of society a
+government may be overturned, or a capital taken, and carry a whole
+country along with it, but our condition is one not likely to bring
+about such a result. We are of a race different from the
+Anglo-Saxon, and it will not be easy either to assimilate us to your
+own, or wholly to subdue us. In those parts of the country, where
+the population is small, in time, no doubt, the Spanish race might
+be absorbed, and your sway established; but ages of war would be
+necessary entirely to obliterate our usages, our language, and our
+religion from the peopled portions of Mexico."
+
+It might be well for some among us to reflect on these matters. The
+opinions of Don Juan, in our judgment, being entitled to the
+consideration of all prudent and considerate men.
+
+As Spike descended to the door of the light-house, Harry, Rose, and
+Jack Tier retired within that of the dwelling. Presently the voice
+of the captain was heard hailing the Mexican, and together they
+walked to the wharf, the former boasting to the latter of his
+success in making a brilliant light. Brilliant it was, indeed; so
+brilliant as to give Mulford many misgivings on the subject of the
+boat. The light from the lantern fell upon the wharf, and he could
+see the boat from the window where he stood, with Spike standing
+nearly over it, waiting for the men to get his own yawl ready. It is
+true, the captain's back was toward the dangerous object, and the
+planks of the bridge were partly between him and it; but there was a
+serious danger that was solely averted by the circumstance that
+Spike was so earnestly dilating on some subject to Don Juan, as to
+look only at that gentleman's face. A minute later they were all in
+the yawl, which pulled rapidly toward the brig.
+
+Don Juan Montefalderon was not long absent. Ten minutes sufficed for
+the boat to reach the Swash, for him to obtain his cloak, and to
+return to the islet alone, no one in the vessel feeling a desire to
+interfere with his imaginary prayers. As for the people, it was not
+probable that one in the brig could have been induced to accompany
+him to the graves at that hour; though everybody but Josh had
+turned-in, as he informed Mulford, to catch short naps previously to
+the hour of getting the brig under way. As for the steward, he had
+been placed on the look-out as the greatest idler on board. All this
+was exceedingly favourable to Jack Tier's project, since Josh was
+already in the secret of his absence, and would not be likely to
+betray his return. After a brief consultation, it was agreed to wait
+half an hour or an hour, in order to let the sleepers lose all
+consciousness, when Don Juan proposed returning to the vessel with
+his new companion.
+
+The thirty or forty minutes that succeeded were passed in general
+conversation. On this occasion the Señor Montefalderon spoke more
+freely than he had yet done of recent events. He let it be plainly
+seen how much he despised Spike, and how irksome to him was the
+intercourse he was obliged to maintain, and to which he only
+submitted through a sense of duty. The money known to be in the
+schooner, was of a larger amount than had been supposed; and every
+dollar was so important to Mexico, at that moment, that he did not
+like to abandon it, else, did he declare, that he would quit the
+brig at once, and share in the fortunes of Harry and Rose. He
+courteously expressed his best wishes for the happiness of the young
+couple, and delicately intimated that, under the circumstances, he
+supposed that they would be united as soon as they could reach a
+place where the marriage rite could be celebrated. This was said in
+the most judicious way possible; so delicately as not to wound any
+one's feelings, and in a way to cause it to resemble the
+announcement of an expectation, rather than the piece of paternal
+advice for which it was really intended. Harry was delighted with
+this suggestion of his Mexican friend--the most loyal American may
+still have a sincere friend of Mexican birth and Mexican feelings,
+too--since it favoured not only his secret wishes, but his secret
+expectations also.
+
+At the appointed moment, Don Juan Montefalderon and Jack Tier took
+their leave of the two they left behind them. Rose manifested what
+to Harry seemed a strange reluctance to part with the little
+steward; but Tier was bent on profiting by this excellent
+opportunity to get back to the brig. They went, accordingly, and the
+anxious listeners, who watched the slightest movement of the yawl,
+from the shore, had reason to believe that Jack was smuggled in
+without detection. They heard the familiar sound of the oar falling
+in the boat, and Mulford said that Josh's voice might be
+distinguished, answering to a call from Don Juan. No noise or
+clamour was heard, such as Spike would certainly have made, had he
+detected the deception that had been practised on himself.
+
+Harry and Rose were now alone. The former suggested that the latter
+should take possession of one of the little bed-rooms that are
+usually to be found in American dwellings of the dimensions and
+humble character of the lighthouse abode, while he kept watch until
+the brig should sail. Until Spike was fairly off, he would not trust
+himself to sleep; but there was no sufficient reason why Rose should
+not endeavour to repair the evil of a broken night's rest, like that
+which had been passed in the boat. With this understanding, then,
+our heroine took possession of her little apartment, where she threw
+herself on the bed in her clothes, while Mulford walked out into the
+air, as the most effective means of helping to keep his eyes open.
+
+It was now some time past ten, and before eleven the moon would
+rise. The mate consequently knew that his watch could not be long
+before Spike would quit the neighbourhood--a circumstance pregnant
+with immense relief to him, at least. So long as that unscrupulous,
+and now nearly desperate, man remained anywhere near Rose, he felt
+that she could not be safe; and as he paced the sands, on the off,
+or outer side of the islet, in order to be beyond the influence of
+the light in the lantern, his eye was scarcely a moment taken away
+from the Swash, so impatiently and anxiously did he wait for the
+signs of some movement on board her.
+
+The moon rose, and Mulford heard the well-known raps on the
+booby-hatch, which precedes the call of "all hands," on board a
+merchant-man. "All hands up anchor, ahoy!" succeeded, and in less
+than five minutes the bustle on board the brig announced the fact,
+that her people were "getting the anchor." By this time it had got
+to be so light that the mate deemed it prudent to return to the
+house, in order that he might conceal his person within its shadows.
+Awake Rose he would not, though he knew she would witness the
+departure of the Swash with a satisfaction little short of his own.
+He thought he would wait, that when he did speak to her at all, it
+might be to announce their entire safety. As regarded the aunt, Rose
+was much relieved on her account, by the knowledge that Jack Tier
+would not fail to let Mrs. Budd know everything connected with her
+own situation and prospects. The desertion of Jack, after coming so
+far with her, had pained our heroine in a way we cannot at present
+explain; but go he would, probably feeling assured there was no
+longer any necessity for his continuance with the lovers, in order
+to prevail on Rose to escape from Spike.
+
+The Swash was not long in getting her ground-tackle, and the brig
+was soon seen with her topsail aback, waiting to cat the anchor.
+This done, the yards swung round, and the topsail filled. It was
+blowing just a good breeze for such a craft to carry whole sail on a
+bow-line with, and away the light and active craft started, like the
+racer that is galloping for daily exercise. Of course there were
+several passages by which a vessel might quit the group of islets,
+some being larger, and some smaller, but all having sufficient water
+for a brigantine of the Molly's draught. Determined not to lose an
+inch of distance unnecessarily, Spike luffed close up to the wind,
+making an effort to pass out to windward of the light. In order to
+do this, however, it became necessary for him to make two short
+tacks within the haven, which brought him far enough to the
+southward and eastward to effect his purpose. While this was doing,
+the mate, who perfectly understood the object of the manoeuvres,
+passed to the side of the light-house that was opposite to that on
+which the dwelling was placed, with a view to get a better sight of
+the vessel as she stood out to sea. In order to do this, however, it
+was necessary for the young man to pass through a broad bit of
+moonlight but he trusted for his not being seen, to the active
+manner in which all hands were employed on board the vessel. It
+would seem that, in this respect, Mulford trusted without his host,
+for as the vessel drew near, he perceived that six or eight figures
+were on the guns of the Swash, or in her rigging, gesticulating
+eagerly, and seemingly pointing to the very spot where he stood.
+When the brig got fairly abeam of the light, she would not be a
+hundred yards distant from it, and fearful to complete the exposure
+of his person, which he had so inadvertently and unexpectedly
+commenced, our mate drew up close to the wall of the light-house,
+against which he sustained himself in a position as immovable as
+possible. This movement had been seen by a single seaman on board
+the Swash, and the man happened to be one of those who had landed
+with Spike only two hours before. His name was Barlow.
+
+"Captain Spike, sir," called out Barlow, who was coiling up rigging
+on the forecastle, and was consequently obliged to call out so loud
+as to be heard by all on board, "yonder is a man at the foot of the
+light-house."
+
+By this time, the moon coming out bright through an opening in the
+clouds, Mulford had become conscious of the risk he ran, and was
+drawn up, as immovable as the pile itself, against the stones of the
+light-house. Such an announcement brought everybody to leeward, and
+every head over the bulwarks. Spike himself sprang into the lee
+main-chains, where his view was unobstructed, and where Mulford saw
+and recognised him, even better than he was seen and recognised in
+his own person. All this time the brig was moving ahead.
+
+"A man, Barlow!" exclaimed Spike, in the way one a little bewildered
+by an announcement expresses his surprise. "A man! that can never
+be. There is no one at the light-house, you know."
+
+"There he stands, sir, with his back to the tower, and his face this
+way. His dark figure against the white-washed stones is plain enough
+to be seen. Living, or dead, sir, that is the mate!"
+
+"_Living_ it cannot be," answered Spike, though he gulped at the
+words the next moment.
+
+A general exclamation now showed that everybody recognised the mate,
+whose figure, stature, dress, and even features, were by this time
+all tolerably distinct. The fixed attitude, however, the immovable
+statue-like rigidity of the form, and all the other known
+circumstances of Harry's case, united to produce a common and
+simultaneous impression among the superstitious mariners, that what
+they saw was but the ghostly shadow of one lately departed to the
+world of spirits. Even Spike was not free from this illusion, and
+his knees shook beneath him, there where he stood, in the channels
+of a vessel that he had handled like a top in so many gales and
+tempests. With him, however, the illusion was neither absolute nor
+lasting. A second thought told him it could scarcely be so, and then
+he found his voice. By this time the brig was nearly abreast of
+where Harry stood.
+
+"You Josh!" called out Spike, in a voice of thunder, loud enough to
+startle even Mrs. Budd and Biddy in their berths.
+
+"Lor' help us all!" answered the negro, "what _will_ come next
+t'ing aboard dis wessel! Here I be, sir."
+
+"Pass the fowling-piece out of my state-room. Both barrels are
+loaded with ball; I'll try him, though the bullets _are_ only lead."
+
+A common exclamation of dissatisfaction escaped the men, while Josh
+was obeying the order. "It's no use."
+
+"You never can hurt one of them things," "Something will befall the
+brig on account of this," and "It's the mate's sperit, and sperits
+can't be harmed by lead or iron," were the sort of remarks made by
+the seamen, during the short interval between the issuing the order
+for the fowling-piece and its execution.
+
+"There 't is, Cap'in Spike," said Josh, passing the piece up through
+the rigging, "but 't will no more shoot _that_ thing, than one of
+our carronades would blow up Gibraltar."
+
+By this time Spike was very determined, his lips being compressed
+and his teeth set, as he took the gun and cocked it. Then he hailed.
+As all that passed occurred, as it might be, at once, the brig even
+at that moment was little more than abreast of the immovable mate,
+and about eighty yards from him.
+
+"Light-house, there!" cried Spike--"Living or dead, answer or I
+fire."
+
+No answer came, and no motion appeared in the dark figure that was
+now very plainly visible, under a bright moon, drawn in high relief
+against the glittering white of the tower. Spike dropped the muzzle
+to its aim, and fired.
+
+So intense was the attention of all in the Swash, that a wink of
+Harry's could almost have been seen, had he betrayed even that
+slight sign of human infirmity at the flash and the report. The ball
+was flattened against a stone of the building, within a foot of the
+mate's body; but he did not stir. All depended now on his perfect
+immovability, as he well knew; and he so far commanded himself, as
+to remain rigid as if of stone himself.
+
+"There! one can see how it is--no life in that being," said one. "I
+know'd how it would end," added another. "Nothing but silver, and
+that cast on purpose, will ever lay it," continued a third. But
+Spike disregarded all. This time he was resolved that his aim should
+be better, and he was inveterately deliberate in getting it. Just as
+he pulled the trigger, however, Don Juan Montefalderon touched his
+elbow, the piece was fired, and there stood the immovable figure as
+before, fixed against the tower. Spike was turning angrily to chide
+his Mexican friend for deranging his aim, when the report of an
+answering musket came back like an echo. Every eye was turned toward
+the figure, but it moved not. Then the humming sound of an advancing
+ball was heard, and a bullet passed, whistling hoarsely, through the
+rigging, and fell some distance to windward. Every head disappeared
+below the bulwarks. Even Spike was so far astonished as to spring in
+upon deck, and, for a single instant, not a man was to be seen above
+the monkey-rail of the brig. Then Spike recovered himself and jumped
+upon a gun. His first look was toward the light-house, now on the
+vessel's lee-quarter; but the spot where had so lately been seen the
+form of Mulford, showed nothing but the glittering brightness of the
+white-washed stones!
+
+The reader will not be surprised to learn that all these events
+produced a strange and deep impression on board the Molly Swash. The
+few who might have thrown a little light on the matter were
+discreetly silent, while all that portion of the crew which was in
+the dark, firmly believed that the spirit of the murdered mate was
+visiting them, in order to avenge the wrongs inflicted on it in the
+flesh. The superstition of sailors is as deep as it is general. All
+those of the Molly, too, were salts of the old school, sea-dogs of a
+past generation, properly speaking, and mariners who had got their
+notions in the early part of the century, when the spirit of
+progress was less active than it is at present.
+
+Spike himself might have had other misgivings, and believed that he
+had seen the living form of his intended victim, but for the
+extraordinary and ghost-like echo of his last discharge. There was
+nothing visible, or intelligible, from which that fire could have
+come, and he was perfectly bewildered by the whole occurrence. An
+intention to round-to, as soon as through the passage, down boat and
+land, which had been promptly conceived when he found that his first
+aim had failed, was as suddenly abandoned, and he gave the command
+to "board fore-tack;" immediately after, his call was to "pack on the
+brig," and not without a little tremour in his voice, as soon as he
+perceived that the figure had vanished. The crew was not slow to
+obey these orders, and in ten minutes, the Swash was a mile from the
+light, standing to the northward and eastward, under a press of
+canvas, and with a freshening breeze.
+
+To return to the islets. Harry, from the first, had seen that
+everything depended on his remaining motionless. As the people of
+the brig were partly in shadow, he could not, and did not, fully
+understand how completely he was himself exposed, in consequence of
+the brightness of all around him, and he had at first hoped to be
+mistaken for some accidental resemblance to a man. His nerves were
+well tried by the use of the fowling-piece, but they proved equal to
+the necessities of the occasion. But, when an answering report came
+from the rear, or from the opposite side of the islet, he darted
+round the tower, as much taken by surprise, and overcome by wonder,
+as any one else who heard it. It was this rapid movement which
+caused his flight to be unnoticed, all the men of the brig dodging
+below their own bulwarks at that precise instant.
+
+As the light-house was now between the mate and the brig, he had no
+longer any motive for trying to conceal himself. His first thought
+was of Rose, and, strange as it may seem, for some little time he
+fancied that she had found a musket in the dwelling, and discharged
+it, in order to aid his escape. The events had passed so swiftly,
+that there was no time for the cool consideration of anything, and
+it is not surprising that some extravagances mingled with the first
+surmises of all these.
+
+On reaching the door of the house, therefore, Harry was by no means
+surprised at seeing Rose standing in it, gazing at the swiftly
+receding brigantine. He even looked for the musket, expecting to see
+it lying at her feet, or leaning against the wall of the building.
+Rose, however, was entirely unarmed, and as dependent on him for
+support, as when he had parted from her, an hour or two before.
+
+"Where did you find that musket, Rose, and what have you done with
+it?" inquired Harry, as soon as he had looked in every place he
+thought likely to hold such an implement.
+
+"Musket, Harry! I have had no musket, though the report of
+fire-arms, near by, awoke me from a sweet sleep."
+
+"Is this possible! I had imprudently trusted myself on the other
+side of the light-house, while the moon was behind clouds, and when
+they broke suddenly away, its light betrayed me to those on board
+the brig. Spike fired at me twice, without injuring me; when, to my
+astonishment, an answering report was heard from the islet. What is
+more, the piece was charged with a ball-cartridge, for I heard the
+whistling of the bullet as it passed on its way to the brig."
+
+"And you supposed I had fired that musket?"
+
+"Whom else could I suppose had done it? You are not a very likely
+person to do such a thing, I will own, my love; but there are none
+but us two here."
+
+"It must be Jack Tier," exclaimed Rose suddenly.
+
+"That is impossible, since he has left us."
+
+"One never knows. Jack understood how anxious I was to retain him
+with us, and he is so capricious and full of schemes, that he may
+have contrived to get out of the brig, as artfully as he got on
+board her."
+
+"If Jack Tier be actually on this islet, I shall set him down as
+little else than a conjuror."
+
+"Hist!" interrupted Rose, "what noise is that in the direction of
+the wharf? It sounds like an oar falling in a boat."
+
+Mulford heard that well-known sound, as well as his companion, and,
+followed by Rose, he passed swiftly through the house, coming out at
+the front, next the wharf. The moon was still shining bright, and
+the mystery of the echoing report, and answering shot, was
+immediately explained. A large boat, one that pulled ten oars, at
+least, was just coming up to the end of the wharf, and the manner in
+which its oars were unshipped and tossed, announced to the mate that
+the crew were man-of-war's men. He walked hastily forward to meet
+them.
+
+Three officers first left the boat together. The gold bands of their
+caps showed that they belonged to the quarter-deck, a fact that the
+light of the moon made apparent at once, though it was not strong
+enough to render features distinct. As Mulford continued to advance,
+however, the three officers saluted him.
+
+"I see you have got the light under way once more," observed the
+leader of the party. "Last night it was as dark as Erebus in your
+lantern."
+
+"The light-house keeper and his assistant have both been drowned,"
+answered Mulford. "The lamps have been lit to-night by the people of
+the brig which has just gone out."
+
+"Pray, sir, what brig may that be?"
+
+"The Molly Swash, of New York; a craft that I lately belonged to
+myself, but which I have left on account of her evil doings."
+
+"The Molly Swash, Stephen Spike master and owner, bound to Key West
+and a market, with a cargo of eight hundred barrels of flour, and
+that of a quality so lively and pungent that it explodes like
+gunpowder! I beg your pardon, Mr. Mate, for not recognising you
+sooner. Have you forgotten the Poughkeepsie, Captain Mull, and her
+far-reaching Paixhans?"
+
+"I ought to ask your pardon, Mr. Wallace, for not recognising _you_
+sooner, too. But one does not distinguish well by moonlight. I am
+delighted to see you, sir, and now hope that, with my assistance, a
+stop can be put to the career of the brig."
+
+"What, Mr. Mate, do _you_ turn against your craft?" said Wallace,
+under the impulsive feeling which induces all loyal men to have a
+distaste for treachery of every sort, "the seaman should love the
+very planks of his vessel."
+
+"I fully understand you, Mr. Wallace, and will own that, for a long
+time, I was tied to rascality by the opinions to which you allude.
+But, when you come to hear my explanation, I do not fear your
+judgment in the least."
+
+Mulford now led the way into the house, whither Rose had already
+retreated, and where she had lighted candles, and made other womanly
+arrangements for receiving her guests. At Harry's suggestion, some
+of the soup was placed over coals, to warm up for the party, and our
+heroine made her preparations to comfort them also with a cup of
+tea. While she was thus employed, Mulford gave the whole history of
+his connection with the brig, his indisposition to quit the latter,
+the full exposure of Spike's treason, his own desertion, if
+desertion it could be called, the loss of the schooner, and his
+abandonment on the rock, and the manner in which he had been finally
+relieved. It was scarcely possible to relate all these matters, and
+altogether avoid allusions to the schemes of Spike in connection
+with Rose, and the relation in which our young man himself stood
+toward her. Although Mulford touched on these points with great
+delicacy, it was as a seaman talking to seamen, and he could not
+entirely throw aside the frankness of the profession. Ashore, men
+live in the privacy of their own domestic circles, and their
+secrets, and secret thoughts, are "family secrets," of which it has
+passed into a proverb to say, that there are always some, even in
+the best of these communities. On shipboard, or in the camp, it is
+very different. The close contact in which men are brought with each
+other, the necessity that exists for opening the heart and expanding
+the charities, gets in time to influence the whole character, and a
+certain degree of frankness and simplicity, takes the place of the
+reserve and acting that might have been quickened in the same
+individual, under a different system of schooling. But Mulford was
+frank by nature, as well as by his sea-education, and his companions
+on this occasion were pretty well possessed of all his wishes and
+plans, in reference to Rose, even to his hope of falling in with the
+chaplain of the Poughkeepsie, by the time his story was all told.
+The fact that Rose was occupied in another room, most of the time,
+had made these explanations all the easier, and spared her many a
+blush. As for the man-of-war's men, they listened to the tale, with
+manly interest and a generous sympathy.
+
+"I am glad to hear your explanation, Mr. Mate," said Wallace,
+cordially, as soon as Harry had done, "and there's my hand, in proof
+that I approve of your course. I own to a radical dislike of a
+turncoat, or a traitor to his craft, Brother Hollins"--looking at
+the elder of his two companions, one of whom was the midshipman who
+had originally accompanied him on board the Swash--"and am glad to
+find that our friend Mulford here is neither. A true-hearted sailor
+can be excused for deserting even his own ship, under such
+circumstances."
+
+"I am glad to hear even this little concession from you, Wallace,"
+answered Hollins, good-naturedly, and speaking with a mild
+expression of benevolence, on a very calm and thoughtful
+countenance. "Your mess is as heteredox as any I ever sailed with,
+on the subject of our duties, in this respect."
+
+"I hold it to be a sailor's duty to stick by his ship, reverend and
+dear sir."
+
+This mode of address, which was used by the "ship's gentleman" in
+the cant of the ward-room, as a pleasantry of an old shipmate, for
+the two had long sailed together in other vessels, at once announced
+to Harry that he saw the very chaplain for whose presence he had
+been so anxiously wishing. The "reverend and dear sir" smiled at the
+sally of his friend, a sort of thing to which he was very well
+accustomed, but he answered with a gravity and point that, it is to
+be presumed, he thought befitting his holy office.
+
+It may be well to remark here, that the Rev. Mr. Hollins was not one
+of the "lunch'd chaplains," that used to do discredit to the navy of
+this country, or a layman dubbed with such a title, and rated that
+he might get the pay and become a boon companion of the captain, at
+the table and in his frolics ashore. Those days are gone by, and
+ministers of the gospel are now really employed to care for the
+souls of the poor sailors, who so long have been treated by others,
+and have treated themselves, indeed, as if they were beings without
+souls, altogether. In these particulars, the world has certainly
+advanced, though the wise and the good, in looking around them, may
+feel more cause for astonishment in contemplating what it once was,
+than to rejoice in what it actually is. But intellect has certainly
+improved in the aggregate, if not in its especial dispensations, and
+men will not now submit to abuses that, within the recollections of
+a generation, they even cherished. In reference to the more
+intellectual appointments of a ship of war, the commander excepted,
+for we contend he who directs all, ought to possess the most
+capacity, but, in reference to what are ordinarily believed to be
+the more intellectual appointments of a vessel of war, the surgeon
+and the chaplain, we well recollect opinions that were expressed to
+us, many years since, by two officers of the highest rank known to
+the service. "When I first entered the navy," said one of these old
+Benbows, "if I had occasion for the amputation of a leg, and the
+question lay between the carpenter and the doctor, d--e, but I would
+have tried the carpenter first, for I felt pretty certain he would
+have been the most likely to get through with the job." "In old
+times," said the other, "when a chaplain joined a ship, the question
+immediately arose, whether the mess were to convert the chaplain, or
+the chaplain, the mess; and the mess generally got the best of it."
+There was very little exaggeration in either of these opinions. But,
+happily, all this is changed vastly for the better, and a
+navy-surgeon is necessarily a man of education and experience; in
+very many instances, men of high talents are to be found among them;
+while chaplains can do something better than play at backgammon, eat
+terrapins, when in what may be called terra-pin-ports, and drink
+brandy and water, or pure Bob Smith.1
+
+"It is a great mistake, Wallace, to fancy that the highest duty a
+man owes, is either to his ship or to his country," observed the
+Rey. Mr. Hollins, quietly. "The highest duty of each and all of us,
+is to God; and whatever conflicts with that duty, must be avoided as
+a transgression of his laws, and consequently as sin."
+
+"You surprise me, reverend and dear sir! I do not remember ever to
+have heard you broach such opinions before, which might be
+interpreted to mean that a fellow might be disloyal to his flag."
+
+"Because the opinion might be liable to misinterpretation. Still, I
+do not go as far as many of my friends on this subject. If Decatur
+ever really said, `Our country, right or wrong,' he said what might
+be just enough, and creditable enough, in certain cases, and taken
+with the fair limitations that he probably intended should accompany
+the sentiment; but, if he meant it as an absolute and controlling
+principle, it was not possible to be more in error. In this last
+sense, such a rule of conduct might, and in old times often would,
+have justified idolatry; nay, it _is_ a species of idolatry in
+itself, since it is putting country before God. Sailors may not
+always be able to make the just distinctions in these cases, but the
+quarter-deck should be so, irreverend and dear sir."
+
+Wallace laughed, and then he turned the discourse to the subject
+more properly before them.
+
+"I understand you to say, Mr. Mulford," he remarked, "that, in your
+opinion, the Swash has gone to try to raise the unfortunate Mexican
+schooner, a second time, from the depths of the ocean?"
+
+"From the rock on which she lies. Under the circumstances, I hardly
+think he would have come hither for the chain and cable, unless with
+some such object. We know, moreover, thut such _was_ his intention
+when we left the brig."
+
+"And you can take us to the very spot where that wreck lies?"
+
+"Without any difficulty. Her masts are partly out of water, and we
+hung on to them, in our boat, no later than last night, or this
+morning rather."
+
+"So far, well. Your conduct in all this affair will be duly
+appreciated, and Captain Mull will not fail to represent it in a
+right point of view to the government."
+
+"Where is the ship, sir? I looked for her most anxiously, without
+success, last evening; nor had Jack Tier, the little fellow I have
+named to you, any better luck; though I sent him aloft, as high as
+the lantern in the light-house, for that purpose."
+
+"The ship is off here to the northward and westward, some six
+leagues or so. At sunset she may have been a little further. We have
+supposed that the Swash would be coming back hither, and had laid a
+trap for her, which came very near taking her alive."
+
+"What is the trap you mean, sir--though taking Stephen Spike alive,
+is sooner said than done."
+
+"Our plan has been to catch him with our boats. With the greater
+draft of water of the Poughkeepsie, and the heels of your brig, sir,
+a regular chase about these reefs, as we knew from experience, would
+be almost hopeless. It was, therefore, necessary to use head-work,
+and some man-of-war traverses, in order to lay hold of him.
+Yesterday afternoon we hoisted out three cutters, manned them, and
+made sail in them all, under our luggs, working up against the
+trades. Each boat took its own course, one going off, the west end
+of the reef, one going more to the eastward, while I came this way,
+to look in at the Dry Tortugas. Spike will be lucky if he do not
+fall in with our third cutter, which is under the fourth lieutenant,
+should he stand on far on the same tack as that on which he left
+this place. Let him try his fortune, however. As for our boat, as
+soon as I saw the lamps burning in the lantern, I made the best of
+my way hither, and got sight of the brig, just as she loosened her
+sails. Then I took in my own luggs, and came on with the oars. Had
+we continued under our canvas, with this breeze, I almost think we
+might have overhauled the rascal."
+
+"It would have been impossible, sir. The moment he got a sight of
+your sails, he would have been off in a contrary direction, and that
+brig really seems to fly, whenever there is a pressing occasion for
+her to move. You did the wisest thing you could have done, and
+barely missed him, as it was. He has not seen you at all, as it is,
+and will be all the less on his guard, against the next visit from
+the ship."
+
+"Not seen me! Why, sir, the fellow fired at us _t_wice with a
+musket; why he did not use a carronade, is more than I can tell."
+
+"Excuse me, Mr. Wallace; those two shots were intended for me,
+though I now fully comprehend why you answered them."
+
+"Answered them! yes, indeed; who would not answer such a salute, and
+gun for gun, if he had a chance. I certainly thought he was firing
+at us, and having a musket between my legs, I let fly in return, and
+even the chaplain here will allow that was returning `good for
+evil.' But explain your meaning."
+
+Mulford now went into the details of the incidents connected with
+his coming into the moon-light, at the foot of the light-house. That
+he was not mistaken as to the party for whom the shots were
+intended, was plain enough to him, from the words that passed aloud
+among the people of the Swash, as well as from the circumstance that
+both balls struck the stones of the tower quite near him. This
+statement explained everything to Wallace, who now fully
+comprehended the cause and motive of each incident.
+
+It was now near eleven, and Rose had prepared the table for supper.
+The gentlemen of the Poughkeepsie manifested great interest in the
+movements of the Hebe-like little attendant who was caring for their
+wants. When the cloth was to be laid, the midshipman offered his
+assistance, but his superior directed him to send a hand or two up
+from the wharf, where the crew of the cutter were lounging or
+sleeping after their cruise. These men had been thought of, too; and
+a vessel filled with smoking soup was taken to them, by one of their
+own number.
+
+The supper was as cheerful as it was excellent. The dry humour of
+Wallace, the mild intelligence of the chaplain, the good sense of
+Harry, and the spirited information of Rose, contributed, each in
+its particular way, to make the meal memorable in more senses than
+one. The laugh came easily at that table, and it was twelve o'clock,
+before the party thought of breaking up.
+
+The dispositions for the night were soon made. Rose returned to her
+little room, where she could now sleep in comfort, and without
+apprehension. The gentlemen made the disposition of their persons,
+that circumstances allowed; each finding something on which to
+repose, that was preferable to a plank. As for the men, they were
+accustomed to hard fare, and enjoyed their present good-luck, to the
+top of their bent. It was quite late, before they had done "spinning
+their yarns," and "cracking their jokes," around the pot of
+turtle-soup, and the can of grog that succeeded it. By half-past
+twelve, however, everybody was asleep.
+
+Mulford was the first person afoot the following morning. He left
+the house just as the sun rose, and perceiving that the "coast was
+clear" of sharks, he threw off his light attire, and plunged into
+the sea. Refreshed with this indulgence, he was returning toward the
+building, when he met the chaplain coming in quest of him. This
+gentleman, a man of real piety, and of great discretion, had been
+singularly struck, on the preceding night, with the narrative of our
+young mate; and he had not failed to note the allusions, slight as
+they were, and delicately put as they had been, to himself. He saw,
+at once, the propriety of marrying a couple so situated, and now
+sought Harry, with a view to bring about so desirable an event, by
+intimating his entire willingness to officiate. It is scarcely
+necessary to say that very few words were wanting, to persuade the
+young man to fall into his views; and as to Rose, he had handed her
+a short note on the same subject, which he was of opinion, would be
+likely to bring her to the same way of thinking.
+
+An hour later, all the officers, Harry and Rose, were assembled in
+what might be termed the light-house parlour. The Rev. Mr. Hollins
+had neither band, gown, nor surplice; but he had what was far
+better, feeling and piety. Without a prayer-book he never moved; and
+he read the marriage ceremony with a solemnity that was communicated
+to all present. The ring was that which had been used at the
+marriage of Rose's parents, and which she wore habitually, though
+not on the left hand. In a word, Harry and Rose were as firmly and
+legally united, on that solitary and almost unknown islet, as could
+have been the case, had they stood up before the altar of mother
+Trinity itself, with a bishop to officiate, and a legion of
+attendants. After the compliments which succeeded the ceremony, the
+whole party sat down to breakfast.
+
+If the supper had been agreeable, the morning meal was not less so.
+Rose was timid and blushing, as became a bride, though she could not
+but feel how much more respectable her position became under the
+protection of Harry as his wife, than it had been while she was only
+his betrothed. The most delicate deportment, on the part of her
+companions, soon relieved her embarrassment however, and the
+breakfast passed off without cause for an unhappy moment.
+
+"The ship's standing in toward the light, sir," reported the
+cockswain of the cutter, as the party was still lingering around the
+table, as if unwilling to bring so pleasant a meal to a close.
+"Since the mist has broke away, we see her, sir, even to her ports
+and dead-eyes."
+
+"In that case, Sam, she can't be very far off," answered Wallace.
+"Ay, there goes a gun from her, at this moment, as much as to say,
+`what has become of all of my boats?' Run down and let off a musket;
+perhaps she will make out to hear that, as we must be rather to
+windward, if anything."
+
+The signal was given and understood. A quarter of an hour later, the
+Poughkeepsie began to shorten sail. Then Wallace stationed himself
+in the cutter, in the centre of one of the passages, signalling the
+ship to come on. Ten minutes later still, the noble craft came into
+the haven, passing the still burning light, with her topsails just
+lifting, and making a graceful sweep under very reduced sail, she
+came to the wind, very near the spot where the Swash had lain only
+ten hours before, and dropped an anchor.
+
+1. In the palmy days of the service, when Robert Smith was so long
+Secretary of the Navy, the ship's whisky went by this familiar
+_sobriquet_.
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  The gull has found her place on shore;
+  The sun gone down again to rest;
+  And all is still but ocean's roar;
+  There stands the man unbless'd.
+  But see, he moves--he turns, as asking where
+  His mates? Why looks he with that piteous stare?
+
+Dana.
+
+Superstition would seem to be a consequence of a state of being, in
+which so much is shadowed forth, while so little is accurately
+known. Our far-reaching thoughts range over the vast fields of
+created things, without penetrating to the secret cause of the
+existence of even a blade of grass. We can analyze all substances
+that are brought into our crucibles, tell their combinations and
+tendencies, give a scientific history of their formation, so far as
+it is connected with secondary facts, their properties, and their
+uses; but in each and all, there is a latent natural cause, that
+baffles all our inquiries, and tells us that we are merely men. This
+is just as true in morals, as in physics--no man living being equal
+to attaining the very faith that is necessary to his salvation,
+without the special aid of the spirit of the godhead; and even with
+that mighty support, trusting implicitly for all that is connected
+with a future that we are taught to believe is eternal, to "the
+substance of things _hoped_ for, and the evidence of things
+_unseen_." In a word, this earthly probation of ours, was intended
+for finite beings, in the sense of our present existence, leaving
+far more to be conjectured, than is understood.
+
+Ignorance and superstition ever bear a close, and even a
+mathematical relation to each other. The degrees of the one, are
+regulated by the degrees of the other. He who knows the least
+believes the most; while he who has seen the most, without the
+intelligence to comprehend that which he has seen, feels, perhaps,
+the strongest inclination to refer those things which to him are
+mysteries, to the supernatural and marvellous. Sailors have been,
+from time immemorial, more disposed than men of their class on the
+land, to indulge in this weakness, which is probably heightened by
+the circumstance of their living constantly and vividly in the
+presence of powers that menace equally their lives and their means,
+without being in any manner subject to their control.
+
+Spike, for a seaman of his degree of education, was not particularly
+addicted to the weakness to which we have just alluded.
+Nevertheless, he was not altogether free from it; and recent
+circumstances contributed to dispose him so much the more to admit a
+feeling which, like sin itself, is ever the most apt to insinuate
+itself at moments of extraordinary moral imbecility, and through the
+openings left by previous transgression. As his brig stood off from
+the light, the captain paced the deck, greatly disturbed by what had
+just passed, and unable to account for it. The boat of the
+Poughkeepsie was entirely concealed by the islet, and there existing
+no obvious motive for wishing to return, in order to come at the
+truth, not a thought to that effect, for one moment, crossed the
+mind of the smuggler. So far from this, indeed, were his wishes,
+that the Molly did not seem to him to go half as fast as usual, in
+his keen desire to get further and further from a spot where such
+strange incidents had occurred.
+
+As for the men forward, no argument was wanting to make _them_
+believe that something supernatural had just passed before their
+eyes. It was known to them all, that Mulford had been left on a
+naked rock, some thirty miles from that spot; and it was not easy to
+understand how he could now be at the Dry Tortugas, planted, as it
+might be, on purpose to show himself to the brig, against the tower,
+in the bright moonlight, "like a pictur' hung up for his old
+shipmates to look at."
+
+Sombre were the tales that were related that night among them, many
+of which related to the sufferings of men abandoned on desert
+islands; and all of which bordered, more or less, on the
+supernatural. The crew connected the disappearance of the boat with
+Mulford's apparition, though the logical inference would have been,
+that the body which required planks to transport it, could scarcely
+be classed with anything of the world of spirits. The links in
+arguments, however, are seldom respected by the illiterate and
+vulgar, who jump to their conclusions, in cases of the marvellous,
+much as politicians find an expression of the common mind in the
+prepared opinions of the few who speak for them, totally
+disregarding the dissenting silence of the million. While the men
+were first comparing their opinions on that which, to them, seemed
+to be so extraordinary, the Señor Montefalderon joined the captain
+in his walk, and dropped into a discourse touching the events which
+had attended their departure from the haven of the Dry Tortugas. In
+this conversation, Don Juan most admirably preserved his
+countenance, as well as his self-command, effectually preventing the
+suspicion of any knowledge on his part, that was not common to them
+both.
+
+"You did leave the port with the salutes observed," the Mexican
+commenced, with the slightest accent of a foreigner, or just enough
+to show that he was not speaking in his mother tongue; "salutes paid
+and returned."
+
+"Do you call that saluting, Don Wan? To me, that infernal shot
+sounded more like an echo, than anything else."
+
+"And to what do _you_ ascribe it, Don Esteban?"
+
+"I wish I could answer that question. Sometimes I begin to wish I
+had not left my mate on that naked rock."
+
+"There is still time to repair the last wrong; we shall go within a
+few miles of the place where the Señor Enrique was left; and I can
+take the yawl, with two men, and go in search of him, while you are
+at work on the wreck."
+
+"Do you believe it possible that he can be still there?" demanded
+Spike, looking suddenly and intently at his companion, while his
+mind was strangely agitated between hatred and dread. "If he is
+there, who and what was _he_ that we all saw so plainly at the foot
+of the light-house?"
+
+"How should he have left the rock? He was without food or water; and
+no man, in all his vigour, could swim this distance. I see no means
+of his getting here."
+
+"Unless some wrecker, or turtler, fell in with him, and took him
+off. Ay, ay, Don Wan; I left him that much of a chance, at least. No
+man can say I _murdered_ my mate."
+
+"I am not aware, Don Esteban, that any one _has_ said so hard a
+thing of you. Still, we have seen neither wrecker nor turtler since
+we have been here; and that lessens the excellent chance you left
+Don Enrique."
+
+"There is no occasion, señor, to be so particular," growled Spike, a
+little sullenly, in reply. "The chance, I say, was a _good_ one,
+when you consider how many of them devils of wreckers hang about
+these reefs. Let this brig only get fast on a rock, and they would
+turn up, like sharks, all around us, each with his maw open for
+salvage. But this is neither here nor there; what puzzles me, was
+what we saw at the light, half an hour since, and the musket that
+was fired back at us! I _know_ that the figure at the foot of the
+tower did not fire, for my eye was on him from first to last; and he
+had no arms. You were on the island a good bit, and must have known
+if the light-house keeper was there or not, Don Wan?"
+
+"The light-house keeper _was_ there, Don Esteban--but he was in his
+_grave_."
+
+"Ay, ay, one, I know, was drowned, and buried with the rest of them;
+there might, however, have been more than one. You saw none of the
+people that had gone to Key West, in or about the house, Don Wan?"
+
+"None. If any persons have left the Tortugas to go to Key West,
+within a few days, not one of them has yet returned."
+
+"So I supposed. No, it can be none of _them_. Then I saw his face as
+plainly as ever I saw it by moon-light, from aft, for'ard. What is
+your opinion about seeing the dead walk on the 'arth, Don Wan?"
+
+"That I have never seen any such thing myself, Don Esteban, and
+consequently know nothing about it."
+
+"So I supposed; I find it hard to believe it, I do. It may be a
+warning to keep us from-coming any more to the Dry Tortugas; and I
+must say I have little heart for returning to this place, after all
+that has fell out here. We can go to the wreck, fish up the
+doubloons, and be off for Yucatan. Once in one of your ports, I make
+no question that the merits of the Molly will make themselves
+understood, and that we shall soon agree on a price."
+
+"What use could we put the brig to, Don Esteban, if we had her all
+ready for sea?"
+
+"That is a strange question to ask in time of war! Give _me_ such a
+craft as the Molly, with sixty or eighty men on board her, in a war
+like this, and her 'arnin's should not fall short of half a million
+within a twelvemonth."
+
+"Could we engage you to take charge of her, Don Esteban?"
+
+"That would be ticklish work, Don Wan. But we can see. No one knows
+what he will do until he is tried. In for a penny, in for a pound. A
+fellow never knows! Ha! ha! ha! Don Wan, we live in a strange
+world--yes, in a strange world."
+
+"We live in strange _times,_ Don Esteban, as the situation of my
+poor country proves. But let us talk this matter over a little more
+in confidence."
+
+And they did thus discuss the subject. It was a singular spectacle
+to see an honourable man, one full of zeal of the purest nature in
+behalf of his own country, sounding a traitor as to the terms on
+which he might be induced to do all the harm he could, to those who
+claimed his allegiance. Such sights, however, are often seen; our
+own especial objects too frequently blinding us to the obligations
+that we owe morality, so far as not to be instrumental in effecting
+even what we conceive to be good, by questionable agencies. But the
+Señor Montefalderon kept in view, principally, his desire to be
+useful to Mexico, blended a little too strongly, perhaps, with the
+wishes of a man who was born near the sun, to avenge his wrongs,
+real or fancied.
+
+While this dialogue was going on between Spike and his passenger, as
+they paced the quarter-deck, one quite as characteristic occurred in
+the galley, within twenty feet of them--Simon, the cook, and Josh,
+the steward, being the interlocutors. As they talked secrets, they
+conferred together with closed doors, though few were ever disposed
+to encounter the smoke, grease, and fumes of their narrow domains,
+unless called thither by hunger.
+
+"What _you_ t'ink of dis matter Josh?" demanded Simon, whose skull
+having the well-known density of his race, did not let internal
+ideas out, or external ideas in as readily as most men's. "Our young
+mate _was_ at de light-house beyond all controwersy; and how can he
+be den on dat rock over yonder, too?"
+
+"Dat is imposserbul," answered Josh; "derefore I says it is n't
+true. I surposes you know dat what is imposserbul is n't true,
+Simon. Nobody can't be out yonder and down here at de same time. Dat
+is imposserble, Simon. But what I wants to intermate to you, will
+explain all dis difficulty; and it do show de raal super'ority of a
+coloured man over de white poperlation. Now, you mark my words,
+cook, and be full of admiration! Jack Tier came back along wid de
+Mexican gentle'em, in my anchor-watch, dis very night! You see, in
+de first place, ebbery t'ing come to pass in nigger's watch."
+
+Here the two dark-skinned worthies haw-haw'd to their heart's
+content; laughing very much as a magistrate or a minister of the
+gospel might be fancied to laugh, the first time he saw a clown at a
+circus. The merriment of a negro will have its course, in spite of
+ghosts, or of anything else; and neither the cook nor the steward
+dreamed of puting in another syllable, until their laugh was fairly
+and duly ended. Then the cook made his remarks.
+
+"How Jack Tier comin' back explain der differculty, Josh?" asked
+Simon.
+
+"Did n't Jack go away wid Miss Rose and de mate, in de boat dat got
+adrift, you know, in Jack's watch on deck?"
+
+Here the negroes laughed again, their imaginations happening to
+picture to each, at the same instant, the mystification about the
+boat; Biddy having told Josh in confidence, the manner in which the
+party had returned to the brig, while he and Simon were asleep;
+which fact the steward had already communicated to the cook. To
+these two beings, of an order in nature different from all around
+them, and of a simplicity and of habits that scarce placed them on a
+level with the intelligence of the humblest white man, all these
+circumstances had a sort of mysterious connection, out of which
+peeped much the most conspicuously to their faculties, the absurdity
+of the captain's imagining that a boat had got adrift, which had, in
+truth, been taken away by human hands. Accordingly, they laughed it
+out; and when they had done laughing, they returned again to the
+matter before them with renewed interest in the subject.
+
+"Well, how all dat explain dis differculty?" repeated Simon.
+
+"In dis wery manner, cook," returned the steward, with a little
+dignity in his manner. "Ebbery t'ing depend on understandin', I
+s'pose you know. If Mr. Mulford got taken off dat rock by Miss Rose
+and Jack Tier, wid de boat, and den dey comes here altogedder; and
+den Jack Tier, he get on board and tell Biddy all dis matter, and
+den Biddy tell Josh, and den Josh tell de cook--what for you
+surprise, you black debbil, one bit?"
+
+"Dat all!" exclaimed Simon.
+
+"Dat just all--dat ebbery bit of it, do n't I say."
+
+Here Simon burst into such a fit of loud laughter, that it induced
+Spike himself to shove aside the galley-door, and thrust his own
+frowning visage into the dark hole within, to inquire the cause.
+
+"What's the meaning of this uproar?" demanded the captain, all the
+more excited because he felt that things had reached a pass that
+would not permit him to laugh himself. "Do you fancy yourself on the
+Hook, or at the Five Points?"
+
+The Hook and the Five Points are two pieces of tabooed territory
+within the limits of the good town of Manhattan, that are getting to
+be renowned for their rascality and orgies. They probably want
+nothing but the proclamation of a governor in vindication of their
+principles, annexed to a pardon of some of their unfortunate
+children, to render both classical. If we continue to make much
+further progress in political logic, and in the same direction as
+that in which we have already proceeded so far, neither will
+probably long be in want of this illustration. Votes can be given by
+the virtuous citizens of both these purlieus, as well as by the
+virtuous citizens of the anti-rent districts, and votes contain the
+essence of all such principles, as well as of their glorification.
+
+"Do you fancy yourselves on the Hook, or at the Five Points?"
+demanded Spike, angrily.
+
+"Lor', no sir!" answered Simon, laughing at each pause with all his
+heart. "Only laughs a little at _ghost_--dat all, sir."
+
+"Laugh at ghost! Is that a subject to laugh at? Have a care, you
+black rascal, or he will visit you in your galley here, when you
+will least want to see him."
+
+"No care much for _him,_ sir," returned Simon, laughing away as hard
+as ever. "_Sich_ a ghost ought n't to skear little baby."
+
+"_Such_ a ghost? And what do you know of _this_ ghost more than any
+other?"
+
+"Well, I seed him, Cap'in Spike; and what a body sees, he is
+acquainted wid."
+
+"You saw an image that looked as much like Mr. Mulford, my late
+mate, as one timber-head in this brig is like another."
+
+"Yes, sir, he like enough--must say _dat_--so wery like, could n't
+see any difference."
+
+As Simon concluded this remark, he burst out into another fit of
+laughter, in which Josh joined him, heart and soul, as it might be.
+The uninitiated reader is not to imagine the laughter of those
+blacks to be very noisy, or to be raised on a sharp, high key. They
+_could_ make the welkin ring, in sudden bursts of merriment, on
+occasion; but, at a time like this, they rather caused their
+diversion to be developed by sounds that came from the depths of
+their chests. A gleam of suspicion that these blacks were acquainted
+with some fact that it might be well for him to know, shot across
+the mind of Spike; but he was turned from further inquiry by a
+remark of Don Juan, who intimated that the mirth of such persons
+never had much meaning to it, expressing at the same time a desire
+to pursue the more important subject in which they were engaged.
+Admonishing the blacks to be more guarded in their manifestations of
+merriment, the captain closed the door on them, and resumed his walk
+up and down the quarter-deck. As soon as left to themselves, the
+blacks broke out afresh, though in a way so guarded, as to confine
+their mirth to the galley.
+
+"Cap'in Spike t'ink _dat_ a ghost!" exclaimed Simon, with contempt.
+
+"Guess if he see _raal_ ghost, he find 'e difference," answered
+Josh. "One look at raal sperit wort' two at dis object."
+
+Simon's eyes now opened like two saucers, and they gleamed, by the
+light of the lamp they had, like dark balls of condensed curiosity,
+blended with awe, on his companion.
+
+"You ebber see him, Josh?" he asked, glancing over each shoulder
+hurriedly, as it might be, to make sure that he could not see "him,"
+too.
+
+"How you t'ink I get so far down the wale of life, Simon, and nebber
+see sich a t'ing? I seed t'ree of the crew of the `Maria
+Sheffington,' that was drowned by deir boat's cap-sizin', when we
+lay at Gibraltar, jest as plain as I see you now. Then--"
+
+But it is unnecessary to repeat Josh's experiences in this way, with
+which he continued to entertain and terrify Simon for the next
+half-hour. This is just the difference between ignorance and
+knowledge. While Spike himself, and every man in his brig who
+belonged forward, had strong misgivings as to the earthly character
+of the figure they had seen at the foot of the light-house, these
+negroes laughed at their delusion, because they happened to be in
+the secret of Mulford's escape from the rock, and of that of his
+actual presence at the Tortugas. When, however, the same
+superstitious feeling was brought to bear on circumstances that lay
+_without_ the sphere of their exact information, they became just as
+dependent and helpless as all around them; more so, indeed, inasmuch
+as their previous habits and opinions disposed them to a more
+profound credulity.
+
+It was midnight before any of the crew of the Swash sought their
+rest that night. The captain had to remind them that a day of
+extraordinary toil was before them, ere he could get one even to
+quit the deck; and when they did go below, it was to continue to
+discuss the subject of what they had seen at the Dry Tortugas. It
+appeared to be the prevalent opinion among the people, that the late
+event foreboded evil to the Swash, and long as most of these men had
+served in the brig, and much as they had become attached to her, had
+she gone into port that night, nearly every man forward would have
+run before morning. But fatigue and wonder, at length, produced
+their effect, and the vessel was silent as was usual at that hour.
+Spike himself lay down in his clothes, as he had done ever since
+Mulford had left him; and the brig continued to toss the spray from
+her bows, as she bore gallantly up against the trades, working her
+way to windward. The light was found to be of great service, as it
+indicated the position of the reef, though it gradually sunk in the
+western horizon, until near morning it fell entirely below it.
+
+At this hour Spike appeared on deck again, where, for the first time
+since their interview on the morning of Harry's and Rose's escape,
+he laid his eyes on Jack Tier. The little dumpling-looking fellow
+was standing in the waist, with his arms folded sailor-fashion, as
+composedly as if nothing had occurred to render his meeting with the
+captain any way of a doubtful character. Spike approached near the
+person of the steward, whom he surveyed from head to foot, with a
+sort of contemptuous superiority, ere he spoke.
+
+"So, Master Tier," at length the captain commenced, "you have
+deigned to turn out at last, have you? I hope the day's duty you've
+forgotten, will help to pay for the light-house boat, that I
+understand you've lost for me, also."
+
+"What signifies a great clumsy boat that the brig could n't hoist in
+nor tow," answered Jack, coolly, turning short round at the same
+time, but not condescending to "uncoil" his arms as he did so, a
+mark of indifference that would probably have helped to mystify the
+captain, had he even actually suspected that anything was wrong
+beyond the supposed accident to the boat in question. "If you had
+had the boat astarn, Captain Spike, an order would have been given
+to cut it adrift the first time the brig made sail on the wind."
+
+"Nobody knows, Jack; that boat would have been very useful to us
+while at work about the wreck. You never even turned out this
+morning to let me know where that craft lay, as you promised to do,
+but left us to find it out by our wits."
+
+"There was no occasion for my tellin' you anything about it, sir,
+when the mast-heads was to be seen above water. As soon as I heard
+that them 'ere mast-heads was out of water, I turned over and went
+to sleep upon it. A man can't be on the doctor's list and on duty at
+the same time."
+
+Spike looked hard at the little steward, but he made no further
+allusion to his being off duty, or to his failing to stand pilot to
+the brig as she came through the passage in quest of the schooner's
+remains. The fact was, that he had discovered the mast-heads
+himself, just as he was on the point of ordering Jack to be called,
+having allowed him to remain in his berth to the last moment after
+his watch, according to a species of implied faith that is seldom
+disregarded among seamen. Once busied on the wreck, Jack was
+forgotten, having little to do in common with any one on board, but
+that which the captain termed the "women's mess."
+
+"Come aft, Jack," resumed Spike, after a considerable pause, during
+the whole of which he had stood regarding the little steward as if
+studying his person, and through that his character. "Come aft to
+the trunk; I wish to catechise you a bit."
+
+"Catechise!" repeated Tier, in an under tone, as he followed the
+captain to the place mentioned. "It's a long time since I've done
+anything at _that!_"
+
+"Ay, come hither," resumed Spike, seating himself at his ease on the
+trunk, while Jack stood near by, his arms still folded, and his
+rotund little form as immovable, under the plunges that the lively
+brig made into the head-seas that she was obliged to meet, as if a
+timber-head in the vessel itself. "You keep your sea-legs well,
+Jack, short as they are."
+
+"No wonder for that, Captain Spike; for the last twenty years I've
+scarce passed a twelvemonth ashore; and what I did before that, no
+one can better tell than yourself, since we was ten good years
+shipmates."
+
+"So you say, Jack, though I do not remember _you_ as well as you
+seem to remember _me_. Do you not make the time too long?"
+
+"Not a day, sir. Ten good and happy years did we sail together,
+Captain Spike; and all that time in this very--"
+
+"Hush--h-u-s-h, man, hush! There is no need of telling the Molly's
+age to everybody. I may wish to sell her some day, and then her
+great experience will be no recommendation. You should recollect
+that the Molly is a female, and the ladies do not like to hear of
+their ages after five-and-twenty."
+
+Jack made no answer, but he dropped his arms to their natural
+position, seeming to wait the captain's communication, first
+referring to his tobacco-box and taking a fresh quid.
+
+"If you was with me in the brig, Jack, at the time you mention,"
+continued Spike, after another long and thoughtful pause, "you must
+remember many little things that I do n't wish to have known;
+especially while Mrs. Budd and her handsome niece is aboard here."
+
+"I understand you, Captain Spike. The ladies shall l'arn no more
+from me than they know already."
+
+"Thank 'e for that Jack--thank 'e with all my heart Shipmates of our
+standing ought to be fast friends; and so you'll find me, if you'll
+only sail under the true colours, my man."
+
+At that moment Jack longed to let the captain know how strenuously
+he had insisted that very night on rejoining his vessel; and this at
+a time, too, when the brig was falling into disrepute. But this he
+could not do, without betraying the secret of the lovers--so he
+chose to say nothing.
+
+"There is no use in blabbing all a man knows, and the galley is a
+sad place for talking. Galley news is poor news, I suppose you know,
+Jack."
+
+"I've hear'n say as much on board o' man-of-war. It's a great place
+for the officers to meet and talk, and smoke, in Uncle Sam's crafts;
+and what a body hears in such places, is pretty much newspaper
+stuff, I do suppose."
+
+"Ay, ay, that's it; not to be thought of half-an-hour after it has
+been spoken. Here's a doubloon for you, Jack; and all for the sake
+of old times. Now, tell me, my litle fellow, how do the ladies come
+on? Does n't Miss Rose get over her mourning on account of the mate?
+Ar' n't we to have the pleasure of seein' her on deck soon?"
+
+"I can't answer for the minds and fancies of young women, Captain
+Spike. They are difficult to understand; and I would rather not
+meddle with what I can't understand."
+
+"Poh, poh, man; you must get over that. You might be of great use to
+me, Jack, in a very delicate affair--for you know how it is with
+women; they must be handled as a man would handle this brig among
+breakers; Rose, in partic'lar, is as skittish as a colt."
+
+"Stephen Spike," said Jack, solemnly, but on so low a key that it
+entirely changed his usually harsh and cracked voice to one that
+sounded soft, if not absolutely pleasant, "do you never think of
+hereafter? Your days are almost run; a very few years, in your
+calling it may be a very few weeks, or a few hours, and time will be
+done with you, and etarnity will commence.--Do you never think of a
+hereafter?"
+
+Spike started to his feet, gazing at Jack intently; then he wiped
+the perspiration from his face, and began to pace the deck rapidly,
+muttering to himself--"this has been a most accursed night! First
+the mate, and now _this!_ Blast me, but I thought it was a voice
+from the grave! Graves! can't they keep those that belong to them,
+or have rocks and waves no graves?"
+
+What more passed through the mind of the captain must remain a
+secret, for he kept it to himself; nor did he take any further
+notice of his companion. Jack, finding that he was unobserved,
+passed quietly below, and took the place in his berth, which he had
+only temporarily abandoned.
+
+Just as the day dawned, the Swash reached the vicinity of the wreck
+again. Sail was shortened, and the brig stood in until near enough
+for the purpose of her commander, when she was hove-to, so near the
+mast-heads that, by lowering the yawl, a line was sent out to the
+fore-mast, and the brig was hauled close alongside. The direction of
+the reef at that point formed a lee; and the vessel lay in water
+sufficiently smooth for her object.
+
+This was done soon after the sun had risen, and Spike now ordered
+all hands called, and began his operations in earnest. By sounding
+carefully around the schooner when last here, he had ascertained her
+situation to his entire satisfaction. She had settled on a shelf of
+the reef, in such a position that her bows lay in a sort of cradle,
+while her stern was several feet nearer to the surface than the
+opposite extremity. This last fact was apparent, indeed, by the
+masts themselves, the lower mast aft being several feet out of
+water, while the fore-mast was entirely buried, leaving nothing but
+the fore-topmast exposed. On these great premises Spike had laid the
+foundation of the practical problem he intended to solve.
+
+No expectation existed of ever getting the schooner afloat again.
+All that Spike and the Señor Montefalderon now aimed at, was to
+obtain the doubloons, which the former thought could be got at in
+the following manner. He knew that it would be much easier handling
+the wreck, so far as its gravity was concerned, while the hull
+continued submerged. He also knew that one end could be raised with
+a comparatively trifling effort, so long as the other rested on the
+rock. Under these circumstances, therefore, he proposed merely to
+get slings around the after body of the schooner, as near her
+stern-post, indeed, as would be safe, and to raise that extremity of
+the vessel to the surface, leaving most of the weight of the craft
+to rest on the bows. The difference between the power necessary to
+effect this much, and that which would be required to raise the
+whole wreck, would be like the difference in power necessary to turn
+over a log with one end resting on the ground, and turning the same
+log by lifting it bodily in the arms, and turning it in the air.
+With the stern once above water, it would be easy to come at the bag
+of doubloons, which Jack Tier had placed in a locker above the
+transoms.
+
+The first thing was to secure the brig properly, in order that she
+might bear the necessary strain. This was done very much as has been
+described already, in the account of the manner in which she was
+secured and supported in order to raise the schooner at the Dry
+Tortugas. An anchor was laid abreast and to windward, and purchases
+were brought to the masts, as before. Then the bight of the chain
+brought from the Tortugas, was brought under the schooner's keel,
+and counter-purchases, leading from both the fore-mast and main-mast
+of the brig, were brought to it, and set taut. Spike now carefully
+examined all his fastenings, looking to his cables as well as his
+mechanical power aloft, heaving in upon this, and veering out upon
+that, in order to bring the Molly square to her work; after which he
+ordered the people to knock-off for their dinners. By that time, it
+was high noon.
+
+While Stephen Spike was thus employed on the wreck, matters and
+things were not neglected at the Tortugas. The Poughkeepsie had no
+sooner anchored, than Wallace went on board and made his report.
+Capt. Mull then sent for Mulford, with whom he had a long personal
+conference. This officer was getting grey, and consequently he had
+acquired experience. It was evident to Harry, at first, that he was
+regarded as one who had been willingly engaged in an unlawful
+pursuit, but who had abandoned it to push dearer interests in
+another quarter. It was some time before the commander of the
+sloop-of-war could divest himself of this opinion, though it
+gradually gave way before the frankness of the mate's manner, and
+the manliness, simplicity, and justice of his sentiments. Perhaps
+Rose had some influence also in bringing about this favourable
+change.
+
+Wallace did not fail to let it be known that turtle-soup was to be
+had ashore; and many was the guest our heroine had to supply with
+that agreeable compound, in the course of the morning. Jack Tier had
+manifested so much skill in the preparation of the dish, that its
+reputation soon extended to the cabin, and the captain was induced
+to land, in order to ascertain how far rumour was or was not a liar,
+on this interesting occasion. So ample was the custom, indeed, that
+Wallace had the consideration to send one of the ward-room servants
+to the light-house, in order to relieve Rose from a duty that was
+getting to be a little irksome. She was "seeing company" as a bride,
+in a novel and rather unpleasant manner; and it was in consequence
+of a suggestion of the "ship's gentleman," that the remains of the
+turtle were transferred to the vessel, and were put into the
+coppers, _secundum artem,_ by the regular cooks.
+
+It was after tickling his palate with a bowl of the soup, and
+enjoying a half-hour's conversation with Rose, that Capt. Mull
+summoned Harry to a final consultation on the subject of their
+future proceedings. By this time the commander of the Poughkeepsie
+was in a better humour with his new acquaintance, more disposed to
+believe him, and infinitely more inclined to listen to his
+suggestions and advice, than he had been in their previous
+interviews. Wallace was present in his character of "ship's
+gentleman," or, as having nothing to do, while his senior, the first
+lieutenant, was working like a horse on board the vessel, in the
+execution of his round of daily duties.
+
+At this consultation, the parties came into a right understanding of
+each other's views and characters. Capt. Mull was slow to yield his
+confidence, but when he did bestow it, he bestowed it
+sailor-fashion, or with all his heart. Satisfied at last that he had
+to do with a young man of honour, and one who was true to the flag,
+he consulted freely with our mate, asked his advice, and was greatly
+influenced in the formation of his final decision by the opinions
+that Harry modestly advanced, maintaining them, however, with solid
+arguments, and reasons that every seaman could comprehend.
+
+Mulford knew the plans of Spike by means of his own communications
+with the Señor Montefalderon. Once acquainted with the projects of
+his old commander, it was easy for him to calculate the time it
+would require to put them in execution, with the means that were to
+be found on board the Swash. "It will take the brig until near
+morning," he said, "to beat up to the place where the wreck lies.
+Spike will wait for light to commence operations, and several hours
+will be necessary to moor the brig, and get out the anchors with
+which he will think it necessary to stay his masts. Then he will
+hook on, and he may partly raise the hull before night return. More
+than this he can never do; and it would not surprise me were he
+merely to get everything ready for heaving on his purchases
+to-morrow, and suspend further proceedings until the next day, in
+preference to having so heavy a strain on his spars all night. He
+has not the force, however, to carry on such duty to a very late
+hour; and you may count with perfect security, Captain Mull, on his
+being found alongside of the wreck at sunrise the next day after
+to-morrow, in all probability with his anchors down, and fast to the
+wreck. By timing your own arrival well, nothing will be easier than
+to get him fairly under your guns, and once under your guns, the
+brig must give up. When you chased her out of this very port, a few
+days since, you would have brought her up could you have kept her
+within range of those terrible shells ten minutes longer."
+
+"You would then advise my not sailing from this place immediately,"
+said Mull.
+
+"It will be quite time enough to get under way late in the
+afternoon, and then under short canvas. Ten hours will be ample time
+for this ship to beat up to that passage in, and it will be
+imprudent to arrive too soon; nor do I suppose you will wish to be
+playing round the reef in the dark."
+
+To the justice of all this Capt. Mull assented; and the plan of
+proceedings was deliberately and intelligently formed. As it was
+necessary for Mulford to go in the ship, in order to act as pilot,
+no one else on board knowing exactly where to find the wreck, the
+commander of the Poughkeepsie had the civility to offer the young
+couple the hospitalities of his own cabin, with one of his
+state-rooms. This offer Harry gratefully accepted, it being
+understood that the ship would land them at Key West, as soon as the
+contemplated duty was executed. Rose felt so much anxiety about her
+aunt, that any other arrangement would scarcely have pacified her
+fears.
+
+In consequence of these arrangements, the Poughkeepsie lay quietly
+at her anchors until near sunset. In the interval her boats were out
+in all directions, parties of the officers visiting the islet where
+the powder had exploded, and the islet where the tent, erected for
+the use of the females, was still standing. As for the light-house
+island, an order of Capt. Mull's prevented it from being crowded in
+a manner unpleasant to Rose, as might otherwise have been the case.
+The few officers who did land there, however, appeared much struck
+with the ingenuous simplicity and beauty of the bride, and a manly
+interest in her welfare was created among them all, principally by
+means of the representations of the second lieutenant and the
+chaplain. About five o'clock she went off to the ship, accompanied
+by Harry, and was hoisted on board in the manner usually practised
+by vessels of war which have no accommodation-ladder rigged. Rose
+was immediately installed in her state-room, where she found every
+convenience necessary to a comfortable though small apartment.
+
+It was quite late in the afternoon, when the boatswain and his mate
+piped "all hands up anchor!" Harry hastened into the state-room for
+his charming bride, anxious to show her the movements of a vessel of
+war on such an occasion. Much as she had seen of the ocean, and of a
+vessel, within the last few weeks, Rose now found that she had yet a
+great deal to learn, and that a ship of war had many points to
+distinguish her from a vessel engaged in commerce.
+
+The Poughkeepsie was only a sloop-of-war, or a corvette, in
+construction, number of her guns, and rate; but she was a ship of
+the dimensions of an old-fashioned frigate, measuring about one
+thousand tons. The frigates of which we read half a century since,
+were seldom ever as large as this, though they were differently
+built in having a regular gun-deck, or one armed deck that was
+entirely covered, with another above it; and on the quarter-deck and
+forecastle of the last of which were also batteries of lighter guns.
+To the contrary of all this, the Poughkeepsie had but one armed
+deck, and on that only twenty guns. These pieces, however, were of
+unusually heavy calibre, throwing thirty-two pound shot, with the
+exception of the Paixhans, or Columbiads, which throw shot of even
+twice that weight. The vessel had a crew of two hundred souls, all
+told; and she had the spars, anchors, and other equipments of a
+light frigate.
+
+In another great particular did the Poughkeepsie differ from the
+corvette-built vessels that were so much in favour at the beginning
+of the century; a species of craft obtained from the French, who
+have taught the world so much in connection with naval science, and
+who, after building some of the best vessels that ever floated, have
+failed in knowing how to handle them, though not always in that. The
+Poughkeepsie, while she had no spar, or upper deck, properly
+speaking, had a poop and a topgallant-forecastle. Within the last
+were the cabins and other accommodations of the captain; an
+arrangement that was necessary for a craft of her construction, that
+carried so many officers, and so large a crew. Without it,
+sufficient space would not be had for the uses of the last. One gun
+of a side was in the main cabin, there being a very neat and amply
+spacious after-cabin between the state-rooms, as is ordinarily the
+case in all vessels from the size of frigates up to that of
+three-deckers. It may be well to explain here, while on this subject
+of construction, that in naval parlance, a ship is called a
+single-decked vessel; a _two-_decker, or a _three-_ decker, not from
+the number of decks she actually possesses, but from the number of
+_gun-_decks that she has, or of those that are _fully_ armed. Thus a
+frigate has four decks, the spar, gun, berth, and orlop (or haul-up)
+decks; but she is called a "single-decked ship," from the
+circumstance that only one of these four decks has a complete range
+of batteries. The two-decker has two of these fully armed decks, and
+the three-deckers three; though, in fact, the two-decker has five,
+and the three-decker six decks. Asking pardon for this little
+digression, which we trust will be found useful to a portion of our
+readers, we return to the narrative.
+
+Harry conducted Rose to the poop of the Poughkeepsie, where she
+might enjoy the best view of the operation of getting so large a
+craft under way, man-of-war fashion. The details were mysteries, of
+course, and Rose knew no more of the process by which the chain was
+brought to the capstan, by the intervention of what is called a
+messenger, than if she had not been present. She saw two hundred men
+distributed about the vessel, some at the capstan, some on the
+forecastle, some in the tops, and others in the waist, and she heard
+the order to "heave round." Then the shrill fife commenced the
+lively air of "the girl I left behind me," rather more from a habit
+in the fifer, than from any great regrets for the girls left at the
+Dry Tortugas, as was betrayed to Mulford by the smiles of the
+officers, and the glances they cast at Rose. As for the latter, she
+knew nothing of the air, and was quite unconscious of the sort of
+parody that the gentlemen of the quarter-deck fancied it conveyed on
+her own situation.
+
+Rose was principally struck with the quiet that prevailed in the
+ship, Captain Mull being a silent man himself, and insisting on
+having a quiet vessel. The first lieutenant was not a noisy officer,
+and from these two, everybody else on board received their cues. A
+simple "all ready, sir," uttered by the first to the captain, in a
+common tone of voice, answered by a "very well, sir, get your
+anchor," in the same tone, set everything in motion. "Stamp and go,"
+soon followed, and taking the whole scene together, Rose felt a
+strange excitement come over her. There were the shrill, animating
+music of the fife; the stamping time of the men at the bars; the
+perceptible motion of the ship, as she drew ahead to her anchor, and
+now and then the call between Wallace, who stood between the
+knight-heads, as commander-in-chief on the forecastle, (the second
+lieutenant's station when the captain does not take the trumpet, as
+very rarely happens,) and the "executive officer" aft, was "carrying
+on duty," all conspiring to produce this effect. At length, and it
+was but a minute or two from the time when the "stamp and go"
+commenced, Wallace called out "a short stay-peak, sir." "Heave and
+pull," followed, and the men left their bars.
+
+The process of making sail succeeded. There was no "letting fall" a
+fore-topsail here, as on board a merchant-man, but all the canvas
+dropped from the yards, into festoons, at the same instant. Then the
+three topsails were sheeted home and hoisted, all at once, and all
+in a single minute of time; the yards were counter-braced, and the
+capstan-bars were again manned. In two more minutes it was "heave
+and she's up and down." Then "heave and in sight," and "heave and
+pull again." The cat-fall was ready, and it was "hook on," when the
+fife seemed to turn its attention to another subject as the men
+catted the anchor. Literally, all this was done in less time than we
+have taken to write it down in, and in very little more time than
+the reader has wasted in perusing what we have here written.
+
+The Poughkeepsie was now "free of bottom," as it is called, with her
+anchor catted and fished, and her position maintained in the basin
+where she lay, by the counter-bracing of her yards, and the
+counteracting force of the wind on her sails. It only remained to
+"fill away," by bracing her head-yards sharp up, when the vast mass
+overcame its inertia, and began to move through the water. As this
+was done, the jib and spanker were set. The two most beautiful
+things with which we are acquainted, are a graceful and high-bred
+woman entering or quitting a drawing-room, more particularly the
+last, and a man-of-war leaving her anchorage in a moderate breeze,
+and when not hurried for time. On the present occasion, Captain Mull
+was in no haste, and the ship passed out to windward of the light,
+as the Swash had done the previous night, under her three topsails,
+spanker and jib, with the light sails loose and flowing, and the
+courses hanging in the brails.
+
+A great deal is said concerning the defective construction of the
+light cruisers of the navy, of late years, and complaints are made
+that they will not sail, as American cruisers ought to sail, and
+were wont to sail in old times. That there has been some ground for
+these complaints, we believe; though the evil has been greatly
+exaggerated, and some explanation may be given, we think, even in
+the cases in which the strictures are not altogether without
+justification. The trim of a light, sharp vessel is easily deranged;
+and officers, in their desire to command as much as possible, often
+get their vessels of this class too deep. They are, generally, for
+the sort of cruiser, over-sparred, over-manned, and
+over-provisioned; consequently, too deep. We recollect a case in
+which one of these delicate craft, a half-rigged brig, was much
+abused for "having lost her sailing." She did, indeed, lose her
+fore-yard, and, after that, she sailed like a witch, until she got a
+new one! If the facts were inquired into, in the spirit which ought
+to govern such inquiries, it would be found that even most of the
+much-abused "ten sloops" proved to be better vessels than common.
+The St. Louis, the Vincennes, the Concord, the Fairfield, the
+Boston, and the Falmouth, are instances of what we mean. In behalf
+of the Warren, and the Lexington, we believe no discreet man was
+ever heard to utter one syllable, except as wholesome crafts. But
+the Poughkeepsie was a very different sort of vessel from any of the
+"ten sloops." She was every way a good ship, and, as Jack expressed
+it, was "a good goer." The most severe nautical critic could
+scarcely have found a fault in her, as she passed out between the
+islets, on the evening of the day mentioned, in the sort of undress
+we have described. The whole scene, indeed, was impressive, and of
+singular maritime characteristics.
+
+The little islets scattered about, low, sandy, and untenanted, were
+the only land in sight--all else was the boundless waste of waters.
+The solitary light rose like an aquatic monument, as if purposely to
+give its character to the view. Captain Mull had caused its lamps to
+be trimmed and lighted for the very reason that had induced Spike to
+do the same thing, and the dim star they presented was just
+struggling into existence, as it might be, as the briliance left by
+the setting sun was gradually diminished, and finally disappeared.
+As for the ship, the hull appeared dark, glossy, and graceful, as is
+usual with a vessel of war. Her sails were in soft contrast to the
+colour of the hull, and they offered the variety and divergence from
+straight lines which are thought necessary to perfect beauty. Those
+that were set, presented the symmetry in their trim, the flatness in
+their hoist, and the breadth that distinguish a man-of-war; while
+those that were loose, floated in the air in every wave and
+cloud-like swell, that we so often see in light canvas that is
+released from the yards in a fresh breeze. The ship had an undress
+look from this circumstance, but it was such an undress as denotes
+the man or woman of the world. This undress appearance was increased
+by the piping down of the hammocks, which left the nettings loose,
+and with a negligent but still knowing look about them.
+
+When half a mile from the islets, the main-yard was braced aback,
+and the maintopsail was laid to the mast. As soon as the ship had
+lost her way, two or three boats that had been towing astern, each
+with its boat-sitter, or keeper, in it, were hauled up alongside, or
+to the quarters, were "hooked on," and "run up" to the whistling of
+the call. All was done at once, and all was done in a couple of
+minutes. As soon as effected, the maintopsail was again filled, and
+away the ship glided.
+
+Captain Mull was not in the habit of holding many consultations with
+his officers. If there be wisdom in a "multitude of counsellors," he
+was of opinion it was not on board a man-of-war. Napoleon is
+reported to have said that _one_ bad general was better than _two_
+good ones; meaning that one head to an army, though of inferior
+quality, is better than a hydra of Solomons, or Cæsars. Captain Mull
+was much of the same way of thinking, seldom troubling his
+subordinates with anything but orders. He interfered very little
+with "working Willy," though he saw effectually that he did his
+duty. "The ship's gentleman" might enjoy his joke as much as he
+pleased, so long as he chose his time and place with discretion, but
+in the captain's presence joking was not tolerated, unless it were
+after dinner, at his own table, and in his own cabin. Even there it
+was not precisely such joking as took place daily, not to say
+hourly, in the midshipmen's messes.
+
+In making up his mind as to the mode of proceeding on the present
+occasion, therefore, Captain Mull, while he had heard all that
+Mulford had to tell him, and had even encouraged Wallace to give his
+opinions, made up his decision for himself. After learning all that
+Harry had to communicate, he made his own calculations as to time
+and distance, and quietly determined to carry whole sail on the ship
+for the next four hours. This he did as the wisest course of making
+sure of getting to windward while he could, and knowing that the
+vessel could be brought under short canvas at any moment when it
+might be deemed necessary. The light was a beacon to let him know
+his distance with almost mathematical precision. It could be seen so
+many miles at sea, each mile being estimated by so many feet of
+elevation, and having taken that elevation, he was sure of his
+distance from the glittering object, so long as it could be seen
+from his own poop. It was also of use by letting him know the range
+of the reef, though Captain Mull, unlike Spike, had determined to
+make one leg off to the northward and eastward until he had brought
+the light nearly to the horizon, and then to make another to the
+southward and eastward, believing that the last stretch would bring
+him to the reef, almost as far to windward as he desired to be. In
+furtherance of this plan, the sheets of the different sails were
+drawn home, as soon as the boats were in, and the Poughkeepsie,
+bending a little to the breeze, gallantly dashed the waves aside, as
+she went through and over them, at a rate of not less than ten good
+knots in the hour. As soon as all these arrangements were made, the
+watch went below, and from that time throughout the night, the ship
+offered nothing but the quiet manner in which ordinary duty is
+carried on in a well-regulated vessel of war at sea, between the
+hours of sun and sun. Leaving the good craft to pursue her way with
+speed and certainty, we must now return to the Swash.
+
+Captain Spike had found the mooring of his brig a much more
+difficult task, on this occasion, than on that of his former attempt
+to raise the schooner. Then he had to lift the wreck bodily, and he
+knew that laying the Swash a few feet further ahead or astern, could
+be of no great moment, inasmuch as the moment the schooner was off
+the bottom, she would swing in perpendicularly to the purchases. But
+now one end of the schooner, her bows, was to remain fast, and it
+became of importance to be certain that the purchases were so placed
+as to bring the least strain on the masts while they acted most
+directly on the after body of the vessel to be lifted. This point
+gave Spike more trouble than he had anticipated. Fully one half of
+the remainder of the day, even after he had begun to heave upon his
+purchases, was spent in rectifying mistakes in connection with this
+matter, and in getting up additional securities to his masts.
+
+In one respect Spike had, from the first, made a good disposition.
+The masts of the brig raked materially, and by bringing the head of
+the Swash in the direction of the schooner, he converted this fact,
+which might otherwise have been of great disadvantage, into a
+circumstance that was favourable. In consequence of the brig's
+having been thus moored, the strain, which necessarily led forward,
+came nearly in a line with the masts, and the latter were much
+better able to support it. Notwithstanding this advantage, however,
+it was found expedient to get up preventer-stays, and to give the
+spars all the additional support could be conveniently bestowed.
+Hours were passed in making these preliminary, or it might be better
+to say, secondary arrangements.
+
+It was past five in the afternoon when the people of the Swash began
+to heave on their purchases as finally disposed. After much
+creaking, and the settling of straps and lashings into their places,
+it was found that everything stood, and the work went on. In ten
+minutes Spike found he had the weight of the schooner, so far as he
+should be obliged to sustain it at all, until the stern rose above
+the surface; and he felt reasonably secure of the doubloons. Further
+than this he did not intend to make any experiment on her, the Señor
+Montefalderon having abandoned all idea of recovering the vessel
+itself, now so much of the cargo was lost. The powder was mostly
+consumed, and that which remained in the hull must, by this time, be
+injured by dampness, if not ruined. So reasoned Don Juan at least.
+
+As the utmost care was necessary, the capstan and wind-lass were
+made to do their several duties with great caution. As inch by inch
+was gained, the extra supports of the masts were examined, and it
+was found that a much heavier strain now came on the masts than when
+the schooner was raised before. This was altogether owing to the
+direction in which it came, and to the fact that the anchor planted
+off abeam was not of as much use as on the former occasion, in
+consequence of its not lying so much in a straight line with the
+direction of the purchases. Spike began to have misgivings on
+account of his masts, and this so much the more because the wind
+appeared to haul a little further to the northward, and the weather
+to look unsettled. Should a swell roll into the bight of the reef
+where the brig lay, by raising the hull a little too rudely, there
+would be the imminent danger of at least springing, if not of
+absolutely carrying away both the principal spars. It was therefore
+necessary to resort to extraordinary precautions, in order to
+obviate this danger.
+
+The captain was indebted to his boatswain, who was now in fact
+acting as his mate, for the suggestion of the plan next adopted. Two
+of the largest spare spars of the brig were got out, with their
+heads securely lashed to the links of the chain by which the wreck
+was suspended, one on each side of the schooner. Pig-iron and shot
+were lashed to the heels of these spars, which carried them to the
+bottom. As the spars were of a greater length than was necessary to
+reach the rock, they necessarily lay at an inclination, which was
+lessened every inch the after body of the wreck was raised, thus
+forming props to the hull of the schooner.
+
+Spike was delighted with the success of this scheme, of which he was
+assured by a single experiment in heaving. After getting the spars
+well planted at their heels, he even ordered the men to slacken the
+purchases a little, and found that he could actually relieve the
+brig from the strain, by causing the wreck to be supported
+altogether by these shores. This was a vast relief from the cares of
+the approaching night, and indeed alone prevented the necessity of
+the work's going on without interruption, or rest, until the end was
+obtained.
+
+The people of the Swash were just assured of the comfortable fact
+related, as the Poughkeepsie was passing out from among the islets
+of the Dry Tortugas. They imagined themselves happy in having thus
+made a sufficient provision against the most formidable of all the
+dangers that beset them, at the very moment when the best laid plan
+for their destruction was on the point of being executed. In this
+respect, they resembled millions of others of their fellows, who
+hang suspended over the vast abyss of eternity, totally unconscious
+of the irretrievable character of the fall that is so soon to occur.
+Spike, as has been just stated, was highly pleased with his own
+expedient, and he pointed it out with exultation to the Señor
+Montefalderon, as soon as it was completed.
+
+"A nicer fit was never made by a Lunnun leg-maker, Don Wan," the
+captain cried, after going over the explanations connected with the
+shores--"there she stands, at an angle of fifty, with two as good
+limbs under her as a body could wish. I could now cast off
+everything, and leave the wreck in what they call `_statu quo,_'
+which, I suppose, means on its pins, like a statue. The tafferel is
+not six inches below the surface of the water, and half an hour of
+heaving will bring the starn in sight."
+
+"Your work seems ingeniously contrived to get up one extremity of
+the vessel, Don Esteban," returned the Mexican; "but are you quite
+certain that the doubloons are in her?"
+
+This question was put because the functionary of a government in
+which money was very apt to stick in passing from hand to hand was
+naturally suspicious, and he found it difficult to believe that
+Mulford, Jack Tier, and even Biddy, under all the circumstances, had
+not paid special attention to their own interests.
+
+"The bag was placed in one of the transom-lockers before the
+schooner capsized," returned the captain, "as Jack Tier informs me;
+if so, it remains there still. Even the sharks will not touch gold,
+Don Wan."
+
+"Would it not be well to call Jack, and hear his account of the
+matter once more, now we appear to be so near the Eldorado of our
+wishes?"
+
+Spike assented, and Jack was summoned to the quarter-deck. The
+little fellow had scarce showed himself throughout the day, and he
+now made his appearance with a slow step, and reluctantly.
+
+"You've made no mistake about them 'ere doubloons, I take it, Master
+Tier?" said Spike, in a very nautical sort of style of addressing an
+inferior. "You _know_ them to be in one of the transom-lockers?"
+
+Jack mounted on the breech of one of the guns, and looked over the
+bulwarks at the dispositions that had been made about the wreck. The
+tafferel of the schooner actually came in sight, when a little swell
+passed over it, leaving it for an instant in the trough. The steward
+thus caught a glimpse again of the craft on board which he had seen
+so much hazard, and he shook his head and seemed to be thinking of
+anything but the question which had just been put to him.
+
+"Well, about that gold?" asked Spike, impatiently.
+
+"The sight of that craft has brought other thoughts than gold into
+my mind, Captain Spike," answered Jack, gravely, "and it would be
+well for all us mariners, if we thought less of gold and more of the
+dangers we run. For hours and hours did I stand over etarnity, on
+the bottom of that schooner, Don Wan, holdin' my life, as it might
+be, at the marcy of a few bubbles of air."
+
+"What has all that to do with the gold? Have you deceived me about
+that locker, little rascal?"
+
+"No, sir, I've _not_ deceived you--no, Captain Spike, _no_. The bag
+is in the upper transom-locker, on the starboard side. There I put
+it with my own hands, and a good lift it was; and there you'll find
+it, if you'll cut through the quarter-deck at the spot I can p'int
+out to you."
+
+This information seemed to give a renewed energy to all the native
+cupidity of the captain, who called the men from their suppers, and
+ordered them to commence heaving anew. The word was passed to the
+crew that "it was now for doubloons," and they went to the bars and
+handspikes, notwithstanding the sun had set, cheerfully and
+cheering.
+
+All Spike's expedients admirably answered the intended purposes. The
+stern of the schooner rose gradually, and at each lift the heels of
+the shores dropped in more perpendicularly, carried by the weights
+attached to them, and the spars stood as firm props to secure all
+that was gained. In a quarter of an hour, most of that part of the
+stern which was within five or six feet of the tafferel, rose above
+the water, coming fairly in view.
+
+Spike now shouted to the men to "pall!" then he directed the falls
+to be very gradually eased off, in order to ascertain if the shores
+would still do their duty. The experiment was successful, and
+presently the wreck stood in its upright position, sustained
+entirely by the two spars. As the last were now nearly
+perpendicular, they were capable of bearing a very heavy weight, and
+Spike was so anxious to relieve his own brig from the strain she had
+been enduring, that he ordered the lashings of the blocks to be
+loosened, trusting to his shores to do their duty. Against this
+confidence the boatswain ventured a remonstrance, but the gold was
+too near to allow the captain to listen or reply. The carpenter was
+ordered over on the wreck with his tools, while Spike, the Señor
+Montefalderon, and two men to row the boat and keep it steady, went
+in the yawl to watch the progress of the work. Jack Tier was ordered
+to stand in the chains, and to point out, as nearly as possible, the
+place where the carpenter was to cut.
+
+When all was ready, Spike gave the word, and the chips began to fly.
+By the use of the saw and the axe, a hole large enough to admit two
+or three men at a time, was soon made in the deck, and the sounding
+for the much-coveted locker commenced. By this time, it was quite
+dark; and a lantern was passed down from the brig, in order to
+enable those who searched for the locker to see. Spike had breasted
+the yawl close up to the hole, where it was held by the men, while
+the captain himself passed the lantern and his own head into the
+opening to reconnoitre.
+
+"Ay, it's all right!" cried the voice of the captain from within his
+cell-like cavity. "I can just see the lid of the locker that Jack
+means, and we shall soon have what we are a'ter. Carpenter, you may
+as well slip off your clothes at once, and go inside; I will point
+out to you the place where to find the locker. You're certain, Jack,
+it was the starboard locker?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir, the starboard locker, and no other."
+
+The carpenter had soon got into the hole, as naked as when he was
+born. It was a gloomy-looking place for a man to descend into at
+that hour, the light from the lantern being no great matter, and
+half the time it was shaded by the manner in which Spike was
+compelled to hold it.
+
+"Take care and get a good footing, carpenter," said the captain, in
+a kinder tone than common, "before you let go with your hands; but I
+suppose you can swim, as a matter of course?"
+
+"No, sir, not a stroke--I never could make out in the water at all."
+
+"Have the more 'care, then. Had I known as much, I would have sent
+another hand down; but mind your footing. More to the left,
+man--more to the left. That is the lid of the locker--your hand is
+on it; why do you not open it?"
+
+"It is swelled by the water, sir, and will need a chisel, or some
+tool of that sort. Just call out to one of the men, sir, if you
+please, to pass me a chisel from my tool-chest. A good stout one
+will be best."
+
+This order was given, and, during the delay it caused, Spike
+encouraged the carpenter to be cool, and above all to mind his
+footing. His own eagerness to get at the gold was so great that he
+kept his head in at the hole, completely cutting off the man within
+from all communication with the outer world.
+
+"What's the matter with you?" demanded Spike, a little sternly. "You
+shiver, and yet the water cannot be cold in this latitude. No, my
+hand makes it just the right warmth to be pleasant."
+
+"It's not the water, Captain Spike--I wish they would come with the
+chisel. Did you hear nothing, sir? I'm certain I did!"
+
+"Hear!--what is there here to be heard, unless there may be some
+fish inside, thrashing about to get out of the vessel's hold?"
+
+"I am sure I heard something like a groan, Captain Spike. I wish you
+would let me come out, sir, and I'll go for the chisel myself; them
+men will never find it."
+
+"Stay where you are, coward! are you afraid of dead men standing
+against walls? Stay where you are. Ah! here is the chisel--now let
+us see what you can do with it."
+
+"I am certain I heard another groan, Captain Spike. I cannot work,
+sir. I'm of no use here--_do_ let me come out, sir, and send a hand
+down that can swim."
+
+Spike uttered a terrible malediction on the miserable carpenter, one
+we do not care to repeat; then he cast the light of the lantern full
+in the man's face. The quivering flesh, the pallid face, and the
+whole countenance wrought up almost to a frenzy of terror,
+astonished, as well as alarmed him.
+
+"What ails you, man?" said the captain in a voice of thunder. "Clap
+in the chisel, or I'll hurl you off into the water. There is nothing
+here, dead or alive, to harm ye!"
+
+"The groan, sir--I hear it again! _Do_ let me come out, Captain
+Spike."
+
+Spike himself, this time, heard what even _he_ took for a groan. It
+came from the depths of the vessel, apparently, and was sufficiently
+distinct and audible. Astonished, yet appalled, he thrust his
+shoulders into the aperture, as if to dare the demon that tormented
+him, and was met by the carpenter endeavouring to escape. In the
+struggle that ensued, the lantern was dropped into the water,
+leaving the half-frenzied combatants contending in the dark. The
+groan was renewed, when the truth flashed on the minds of both.
+
+"The shores! the shores!" exclaimed the carpenter from within. "The
+shores!" repeated Spike, throwing himself back into the boat, and
+shouting to his men to "see all clear of the wreck!" The grating of
+one of the shores on the coral beneath was now heard plainer than
+ever, and the lower extremity slipped outward, not astern, as had
+been apprehended, letting the wreck slowly settle to the bottom
+again. One piercing shriek arose from the narrow cavity within; then
+the gurgling of water into the aperture was heard, when naught of
+sound could be distinguished but the sullen and steady wash of the
+waves of the gulf over the rocks of the reef.
+
+The impression made by this accident was most profound. A fatality
+appeared to attend the brig; and most of the men connected the sad
+occurrence of this night with the strange appearance of the previous
+evening. Even the Señor Montefalderon was disposed to abandon the
+doubloons, and he urged Spike to make the best of his way for
+Yucatan, to seek a friendly harbour. The captain wavered, but
+avarice was too strong a passion in him to be easily diverted from
+its object, and he refused to give up his purpose.
+
+As the wreck was entirely free from the brig when it went down for
+the third time, no injury was sustained by the last on this
+occasion. By renewing the lashings, everything would be ready to
+begin the work anew--and this, Spike was resolved to attempt in the
+morning. The men were too much fatigued, and it was too dark to
+think of pushing matters any further that night; and it was very
+questionable whether they could have been got to work. Orders were
+consequently given for all hands to turn in, the captain, relieved
+by Don Juan and Jack Tier, having arranged to keep the watches of
+the night.
+
+"This is a sad accident, Don Esteban," observed the Mexican, as he
+and Spike paced the quarter-deck together, just before the last
+turned in; "a sad accident! My miserable schooner seems to be
+deserted by its patron saint. Then your poor carpenter!"
+
+"Yes, he was a good fellow enough with a saw, or an adze," answered
+Spike, yawning. "But we get used to such things at sea. It's neither
+more nor less than a carpenter expended. Good night, Señor Don Wan;
+in the morning we'll be at that gold ag'in."
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  She's in a scene of nature's war,
+  The winds and waters are at strife;
+  And both with her contending for
+  The brittle thread of human life.
+
+Miss Gould.
+
+Spike was sleeping hard in his berth, quite early on the following
+morning, before the return of light, indeed, when he suddenly
+started up, rubbed his eyes, and sprang upon deck like a man
+alarmed. He had heard, or fancied he had heard, a cry. A voice once
+well known and listened to, seemed to call him in the very portals
+of his ear. At first he had listened to its words in wonder,
+entranced like the bird by the snake, the tones recalling scenes and
+persons that had once possessed a strong control over his rude
+feelings. Presently the voice became harsher in its utterance, and
+it said.
+
+"Stephen Spike, awake! The hour is getting late, and you have
+enemies nearer to you than you imagine. Awake, Stephen, awake!"
+
+When the captain was on his feet, and had plunged his head into a
+basin of water that stood ready for him in the state-room, he could
+not have told, for his life, whether he had been dreaming or waking,
+whether what he had heard was the result of a feverish imagination,
+or of the laws of nature. The call haunted him all that morning, or
+until events of importance so pressed upon him as to draw his
+undivided attention to them alone.
+
+It was not yet day. The men were still in heavy sleep, lying about
+the decks, for they avoided the small and crowded forecastle in that
+warm climate, and the night was apparently at its deepest hour.
+Spike walked forward to look for the man charged with the
+anchor-watch. It proved to be Jack Tier, who was standing near the
+galley, his arms folded as usual, apparently watching the few signs
+of approaching day that were beginning to be apparent in the western
+sky. The captain was in none of the best humours with the steward's
+assistant; but Jack had unaccountably got an ascendency over his
+commander, which it was certainly very unusual for any subordinate
+in the Swash to obtain. Spike had deferred more to Mulford than to
+any mate he had ever before employed; but this was the deference due
+to superior information, manners, and origin. It was common-place,
+if not vulgar; whereas, the ascendency obtained by little Jack Tier
+was, even to its subject, entirely inexplicable. He was unwilling to
+admit it to himself in the most secret manner, though he had begun
+to feel it on all occasions which brought them in contact, and to
+submit to it as a thing not to be averted.
+
+"Jack Tier," demanded the captain, now that he found himself once
+more alone with the other, desirous of obtaining his opinion on a
+point that harassed him, though he knew not why; "Jack Tier, answer
+me one thing. Do you believe that we saw the form of a dead or of a
+living man at the foot of the light-house?"
+
+"The dead are never seen leaning against walls in that manner,
+Stephen Spike," answered Jack, coolly, not even taking the trouble
+to uncoil his arms. "What you saw was a living man; and you would do
+well to be on your guard against him. Harry Mulford is not your
+friend--and there is reason for it."
+
+"Harry Mulford, and living! How can that be, Jack? You know the port
+in which he chose to run."
+
+"I know the rock on which you chose to abandon him, Captain Spike."
+
+"If so, how could he be living and at the Dry Tortugas. The thing is
+impossible!"
+
+"The thing is so. You saw Harry Mulford, living and well, and ready
+to hunt you to the gallows. Beware of him, then; and beware of his
+handsome wife!"
+
+"Wife! the fellow has no wife--he has always professed to be a
+single man!"
+
+"The man is married--and I bid you beware of his handsome wife. She,
+too, will be a witness ag'in you."
+
+"This will be news, then, for Rose Budd. I shall delight in telling
+it to _her,_ at least."
+
+"'T will be _no_ news to Rose Budd. She was present at the wedding,
+and will not be taken by surprise. Rose loves Harry too well to let
+him marry, and she not present at the wedding."
+
+"Jack, you talk strangely! What is the meaning of all this? I am
+captain of this craft, and will not be trifled with--tell me at once
+your meaning, fellow."
+
+"My meaning is simple enough, and easily told. Rose Budd is the wife
+of Harry Mulford."
+
+"You're dreaming, fellow, or are wishing to trifle with me!"
+
+"It may be a dream, but it is one that will turn out to be true. If
+they have found the Poughkeepsie sloop-of-war, as I make no doubt
+they have by this time, Mulford and Rose are man and wife."
+
+"Fool! you know not what you say! Rose is at this moment in her
+berth, sick at heart on account of the young gentleman who preferred
+to live on the Florida Reef rather than to sail in the Molly!"
+
+"Rose is _not_ in her berth, sick or well; neither is she on board
+this brig at all. She went off in the light-house boat to deliver
+her lover from the naked rock--and well did she succeed in so doing.
+God was of her side, Stephen Spike; and a body seldom fails with
+such a friend to support one."
+
+Spike was astounded at these words, and not less so at the cool and
+confident manner with which they were pronounced. Jack spoke in a
+certain dogmatical, oracular manner, it is true, one that might have
+lessened his authority with a person over whom he had less
+influence; but this in no degree diminished its effect on Spike. On
+the contrary, it even disposed the captain to yield an implicit
+faith to what he heard, and all so much the more because the facts
+he was told appeared of themselves to be nearly impossible. It was
+half a minute before he had sufficiently recovered from his surprise
+to continue the discourse.
+
+"The light-house boat!" Spike then slowly repeated. "Why, fellow,
+you told me the light-house boat went adrift from your own hands!"
+
+"So it did," answered Jack, coolly, "since I cast off the
+painter--and what is more, went in it."
+
+"You! This is impossible. You are telling me a fabricated lie. If
+you had gone away in that boat, how could you now be here? No,
+no--it is a miserable lie, and Rose is below!"
+
+"Go and look into her state-room, and satisfy yourself with your own
+eyes."
+
+Spike did as was suggested. He went below, took a lamp that was
+always suspended, lighted in the main cabin, and, without ceremony,
+proceeded to Rose's state-room, where he soon found that the bird
+had really flown. A direful execration followed this discovery, one
+so loud as to awaken Mrs. Budd and Biddy. Determined not to do
+things by halves, he broke open the door of the widow's state-room,
+and ascertained that the person he sought was not there. A fierce
+explosion of oaths and denunciations followed, which produced an
+answer in the customary screams. In the midst of this violent scene,
+however, questions were put, and answers obtained, that not only
+served to let the captain know that Jack had told him nothing but
+truth, but to put an end to everything like amicable relations
+between himself and the relict of his old commander. Until this
+explosion, appearances had been observed between them; but, from
+that moment, there must necessarily be an end of all professions of
+even civility. Spike was never particularly refined in his
+intercourse with females, but he now threw aside even its
+pretension. His rage was so great that he totally forgot his
+manhood, and lavished on both Mrs. Budd and Biddy epithets that were
+altogether inexcusable, and many of which it will not do to repeat.
+Weak and silly as was the widow, she was not without spirit; and on
+this occasion she was indisposed to submit to all this unmerited
+abuse in silence. Biddy, as usual, took her cue from her mistress,
+and between the two, their part of the wordy conflict was kept up
+with a very respectable degree of animation.
+
+"I know you--I know you, now!" screamed the widow, at the tope of
+her voice; "and you can no longer deceive me, unworthy son of
+Neptune as you are! You are unfit to be a lubber, and would be
+log-booked for an or'nary by every gentleman on board ship. You, a
+full-jiggered sea-man! No, you are not even half-jiggered, sir; and
+I tell you so to your face."
+
+"Yes, and it is n't _half_ that might be tould the likes of yees!"
+put in Biddy, as her mistress stopped to breathe. "And it's Miss
+Rose you'd have for a wife, when Biddy Noon would be too good for
+ye! We knows ye, and all about ye, and can give yer history as
+complate from the day ye was born down to the prisent moment; and
+not find a good word to say in yer favour in all that time--and a
+precious time it is, too, for a gentleman that would marry pretthy,
+_young_ Miss Rose! Och! I scorn to look at ye, yer so ugly!"
+
+"And trying to persuade me you were a friend of my poor, dear Mr.
+Budd, whose shoe you are unworthy to touch, and who had the heart
+and soul for the noble profession you disgrace," cut in the widow,
+the moment Biddy gave her a chance, by pausing to make a wry face as
+she pronounced the word "ugly." "I now believe you capasided them
+poor Mexicans, in order to get their money; and the moment we cast
+anchor in a road-side, I'll go ashore, and complain of you for
+murder, I will."
+
+"Do, missus, dear, and I'll be your bail, will I, and swear to all
+that happened, and more too. Och! yer a wretch, to wish to be the
+husband of Miss Rose, and she so young and pretthy, and you so ould
+and ugly!"
+
+"Come away--come away, Stephen Spike, and do not stand wrangling
+with women, when you and your brig, and all that belongs to you, are
+in danger," called out Jack Tier from the companion-way. "Day is
+come; and what is much worse for you, your most dangerous enemy is
+coming with it."
+
+Spike was almost livid with rage, and ready to burst out in awful
+maledictions; but at this summons he sprang to the ladder, and was
+on deck in a moment. At first, he felt a strong disposition to wreak
+his vengeance on Tier, but, fortunately for the latter, as the
+captain's foot touched the quarter-deck, his eye fell on the
+Poughkeepsie, then within half a league of the Swash, standing in
+toward the reef, though fully half a mile to leeward. This spectre
+drove all other subjects from his mind, leaving the captain of the
+Swash in the only character in which he could be said to be
+respectable, or that of a seaman. Almost instinctively he called all
+hands, then he gave one brief minute to a survey of his situation.
+
+It was, indeed, time for the Swash to be moving. There she lay, with
+three anchors down, including that of the schooner, all she had, in
+fact, with the exception of her best bower, and one kedge, with the
+purchases aloft, in readiness for hooking on to the wreck, and all
+the extra securities up that had been given to the masts. As for the
+sloop-of-war, she was under the very same canvas as that with which
+she had come out from the Dry Tortugas, or her three top-sails,
+spanker, and jib; but most of her other sails were loose, even to
+her royals and flying-jibs; though closely gathered into their spars
+by means of the running gear. In a word, every sailor would know, at
+a glance, that the ship was merely waiting for the proper moment to
+spread her wings, when she would be flying through the water at the
+top of her speed. The weather looked dirty, and the wind was
+gradually increasing, threatening to blow heavily as the day
+advanced.
+
+"Unshackle, unshackle!" shouted Spike to the boat-swain, who was the
+first man that appeared on deck. "The bloody sloop-of-war is upon
+us, and there is not a moment to lose. We must get the brig clear of
+the ground in the shortest way we can, and abandon everything.
+Unshackle, and cast off for'ard and aft, men."
+
+A few minutes of almost desperate exertion succeeded. No men work
+like sailors, when the last are in a hurry, their efforts being
+directed to counteracting squalls, and avoiding emergencies of the
+most pressing character. Thus was it now with the crew of the Swash.
+The clanking of chains lasted but a minute, when the parts attached
+to the anchors were thrust through the hawse-holes, or were dropped
+into the water from other parts of the brig. This at once released
+the vessel, though a great deal remained to be done to clear her for
+working, and to put her in the best trim.
+
+"Away with this out-hauler!" again shouted Spike, casting loose the
+main-brails as he did so; "loose the jibs!"
+
+All went on at once, and the Swash moved away from the grave of the
+poor carpenter with the ease and facility of motion that marked all
+her evolutions. Then the top-sail was let fall, and presently all
+the upper square-sails were sheeted home, and hoisted, and the
+fore-tack was hauled aboard. The Molly was soon alive, and jumping
+into the seas that met her with more power than was common, as she
+drew out from under the shelter of the reef into rough water. From
+the time when Spike gave his first order, to that when all his
+canvas was spread, was just seven minutes.
+
+The Poughkeepsie, with her vastly superior crew, was not idle the
+while. Although the watch below was not disturbed, she tacked
+beautifully, and stood off the reef, in a line parallel to the
+course of the brig, and distant from her about half a mile. Then
+sail was made, her tacks having been boarded in stays. Spike knew
+the play of his craft was short legs, for she was so nimble in her
+movements that he believed she could go about in half the time that
+would be required for a vessel of the Poughkeepsie's length. "Ready
+about," was his cry, therefore, when less than a mile distant from
+the reef--"ready about, and let her go round." Round the Molly did
+go, like a top, being full on the other tack in just fifty-six
+seconds. The movement of the corvette was more stately, and somewhat
+more deliberate. Still, she stayed beautifully, and both Spike and
+the boatswain shook their heads, as they saw her coming into the
+wind with her sails all lifting and the sheets flowing.
+
+"That fellow will fore-reach a cable's length before he gets about!"
+exclaimed Spike. "He will prove too much for us at this sport! Keep
+her away, my man--keep the brig away for the passage. We must run
+through the reef, instead of trusting ourselves to our heels in open
+water."
+
+The brig was kept away accordingly, and sheets were eased off, and
+braces just touched, to meet the new line of sailing. As the wind
+stood, it was possible to lay through the passage on an easy
+bowline, though the breeze, which was getting to be fresher than
+Spike wished it to be, promised to haul more to the southward of
+east, as the day advanced. Nevertheless, this was the Swash's best
+point of sailing, and all on board of her had strong hopes of her
+being too much for her pursuer, could she maintain it. Until this
+feeling began to diffuse itself in the brig, not a countenance was
+to be seen on her decks that did not betray intense anxiety; but now
+something like grim smiles passed among the crew, as their craft
+seemed rather to fly than force her way through the water, toward
+the entrance of the passage so often adverted to in this narrative.
+
+On the other hand, the Poughkeepsie was admirably sailed and
+handled. Everybody was now on deck, and the first lieutenant had
+taken the trumpet. Captain Mull was a man of method, and a thorough
+man-of-war's man. Whatever he did was done according to rule, and
+with great system. Just as the Swash was about to enter the passage,
+the drum of the Poughkeepsie beat to quarters. No sooner were the
+men mustered, in the leeward, or the starboard batteries, than
+orders were sent to cast loose the guns, and to get them ready for
+service. Owing to the more leeward position of his vessel, and to
+the fact that she always head-reached so much in stays, Captain Mull
+knew that she would not lose much by luffing into the wind, or by
+making half-boards, while he might gain everything by one
+well-directed shot.
+
+The strife commenced by the sloop-of-war, firing her weather
+bow-gun, single-shotted, at the Swash. No damage was done, though
+the fore-yard of the brig had a very narrow escape. This experiment
+was repeated three times, without even a rope-yarn being carried
+away, though the gun was pointed by Wallace himself, and well
+pointed, too. But it is possible for a shot to come very near its
+object and still to do no injury. Such was the fact on this
+occasion, though the "ship's gentleman" was a good deal mortified by
+the result. Men look so much at success as the test of merit, that
+few pause to inquire into the reasons of failures, though it
+frequently happens that adventures prosper by means of their very
+blunders. Captain Mull now determined on a half-board, for his ship
+was more to leeward than he desired. Directions were given to the
+officers in the batteries to be deliberate, and the helm was put
+down. As the ship shot into the wind, each gun was fired, as it
+could be brought to bear, until the last of them all was discharged.
+Then the course of the vessel was changed, the helm being righted
+before the ship had lost her way, and the sloop-of-war fell off
+again to her course.
+
+All this was done in such a short period of time as scarcely to
+cause the Poughkeepsie to lose anything, while it did the Swash the
+most serious injury. The guns had been directed at the brig's spars
+and sails, Captain Mull desiring no more than to capture his chase,
+and the destruction they produced aloft was such as to induce Spike
+and his men, at first, to imagine that the whole hamper above their
+heads was about to come clattering down on deck. One shot carried
+away all the weather fore-top-mast rigging of the brig, and would no
+doubt have brought about the loss of the mast, if another, that
+almost instantly succeeded it, had not cut the spar itself in two,
+bringing down, as a matter of course, everything above it. Nearly
+half of the main-mast was gouged out of that spar, and the gaff was
+taken fairly out of its jaws. The fore-yard was cut in the slings,
+and various important ropes were carried away in different parts of
+the vessel.
+
+Flight, under such circumstances, was impossible, unless some
+extraordinary external assistance was to be obtained. This Spike saw
+at once, and he had recourse to the only expedient that remained;
+which might possibly yet save him. The guns were still belching
+forth their smoke and flames, when he shouted out the order to put
+the helm hard up. The width of the passage in which the vessels were
+was not so great but that he might hope to pass across it, and to
+enter a channel among the rocks, which was favourably placed for
+such a purpose, ere the sloop-of-war could overtake him. Whither
+that channel led, what water it possessed, or whether it were not a
+shallow _cul de sac,_ were all facts of which Spike was ignorant.
+The circumstances, however, would not admit of an alternative.
+
+Happily for the execution of Spike's present design, nothing from
+aloft had fallen into the water, to impede the brig's way. Forward,
+in particular, she seemed all wreck; her fore-yard having come down
+altogether, so as to encumber the forecastle, while her top-mast,
+with its dependent spars and gear, was suspended but a short
+distance above. Still, nothing had gone over the side, so as
+actually to touch the water, and the craft obeyed her helm as usual.
+Away she went, then, for the lateral opening in the reef just
+mentioned, driven ahead by the pressure of a strong breeze on her
+sails, which still offered large surfaces to the wind, at a rapid
+rate. Instead of keeping away to follow, the Poughkeepsie maintained
+her luff, and just as the Swash entered the unknown passage, into
+which she was blindly plunging, the sloop-of-war was about a quarter
+of a mile to windward, and standing directly across her stern.
+Nothing would have been easier, now, than for Captain Mull to
+destroy his chase; but humanity prevented his firing. He knew that
+her career must be short, and he fully expected to see her anchor;
+when it would be easy for him to take possession with his boats.
+With this expectation, indeed, he shortened sail, furling
+top-gallant-sails, and hauling up his courage. By this time, the
+wind had so much freshened, as to induce him to think of putting in
+a reef, and the step now taken had a double object in view.
+
+To the surprise of all on board the man-of-war, the brig continued
+on, until she was fully a mile distant, finding her way deeper and
+deeper among the mazes of the reef without meeting with any
+impediment! This fact induced Captain Mull to order his Paixhans to
+throw their shells beyond her, by way of a hint to anchor. While the
+guns were getting ready, Spike stood on boldly, knowing it was neck
+or nothing, and beginning to feel a faint revival of hope, as he
+found himself getting further and further from his pursuers, and the
+rocks not fetching him up. Even the men, who had begun to murmur at
+what seemed to them to be risking too much, partook, in a slight
+degree, of the same feeling, and began to execute the order they had
+received to try to get the launch into the water, with some
+appearance of an intention to succeed. Previously, the work could
+scarcely be said to go on at all; but two or three of the older
+seamen now bestirred themselves, and suggestions were made and
+attended to, that promised results. But it was no easy thing to get
+the launch out of a half-rigged brig, that had lost her fore-yard,
+and which carried nothing square abaft. A derrick was used in
+common, to lift the stern of the boat, but a derrick would now be
+useless aft, without an assistant forward. While these things were
+in discussion, under the superintendence of the boatswain, and Spike
+was standing between the knight-heads, conning the craft, the
+sloop-of-war let fly the first of her hollow shot. Down came the
+hurtling mass upon the Swash, keeping every head elevated and all
+eyes looking for the dark object, as it went booming through the air
+above their heads. The shot passed fully a mile to leeward, where it
+exploded. This great range had been given to the first shot, with a
+view to admonish the captain how long he must continue under the
+guns of the ship, and as advice to come to. The second gun followed
+immediately. Its shot was seem to ricochet, directly in a line with
+the brig, making leaps of about half a mile in length. It struck the
+water about fifty yards astern of the vessel, bounded directly over
+her decks, passing through the main-sail and some of the fallen
+hamper forward, and exploded about a hundred yards ahead. As usually
+happens with such projectiles, most of the fragments were either
+scattered laterally, or went on, impelled by the original momentum.
+
+The effect of this last gun on the crew of the Swash was
+instantaneous and deep. The faint gleamings of hope vanished at
+once, and a lively consciousness of the desperate nature of their
+condition succeeded in every mind. The launch was forgotten, and,
+after conferring together for a moment, the men went in a body, with
+the boatswain at their head, to the forecastle, and offered a
+remonstrance to their commander, on the subject of holding out any
+longer, under circumstances so very hazardous, and which menaced
+their lives in so many different ways. Spike listened to them with
+eyes that fairly glared with fury. He ordered them back to their
+duty in a voice of thunder, tapping the breast of his jacket, where
+he was known to carry revolvers, with a significance that could
+convey but one meaning.
+
+It is wonderful the ascendency that men sometimes obtain over their
+fellows, by means of character, the habits of command, and
+obedience, and intimidation. Spike was a stern disciplinarian,
+relying on that and ample pay for the unlimited control he often
+found it necessary to exercise over his crew. On the present
+occasion, his people were profoundly alarmed, but habitual deference
+and submission to their leader counteracted the feeling, and held
+them in suspense. They were fully aware of the nature of the
+position they occupied in a legal sense, and were deeply reluctant
+to increase the appearances of crime; but most of them had been
+extricated from so many grave difficulties in former instances, by
+the coolness, nerve and readiness of the captain, that a latent ray
+of hope was perhaps dimly shining in the rude breast of every old
+sea-dog among them. As a consequence of these several causes, they
+abandoned their remonstrance, for the moment at least, and made a
+show of returning to their duty; though it was in a sullen and moody
+manner.
+
+It was easier, however, to make a show of hoisting out the launch,
+than to effect the object. This was soon made apparent on trial, and
+Spike himself gave the matter up. He ordered the yawl to be lowered,
+got alongside, and to be prepared for the reception of the crew, by
+putting into it a small provision of food and water. All this time
+the brig was rushing madly to leeward, among rocks and breakers,
+without any other guide than that which the visible dangers
+afforded. Spike knew no more where he was going than the meanest man
+in his vessel. His sole aim was to get away from his pursuers, and
+to save his neck from the rope. He magnified the danger of
+punishment that he really ran, for he best knew the extent and
+nature of his crimes, of which the few that have been laid before
+the reader, while they might have been amongst the most prominent,
+as viewed through the statutes and international law, were far from
+the gravest he had committed in the eyes of morals.
+
+About this time the Señor Montefalderon went forward to confer with
+Spike. The calmness of this gentleman's demeanour, the simplicity
+and coolness of his movements, denoted a conscience that saw no
+particular ground for alarm. He wished to escape captivity, that he
+might continue to serve his country, but no other apprehension
+troubled him.
+
+"Do you intend to trust yourself in the yawl, Don Esteban?" demanded
+the Mexican quietly. "If so, is she not too small to contain so many
+as we shall make altogether?"
+
+Spike's answer was given in a low voice; and it evidently came from
+a very husky throat.
+
+"Speak lower, Don Wan," he said. "The boat would be greatly
+overloaded with all hands in it, especially among the breakers, and
+blowing as it does; but we may leave some of the party behind."
+
+"The brig _must_ go on the rocks, sooner or later, Don Esteban; when
+she does, she will go to pieces in an hour.
+
+"I expect to hear her strike every minute, señor; the moment she
+does, we must be off. I have had my eye on that ship for some time,
+expecting to see her lower her cutters and gigs to board us. _You_
+will not be out of the way, Don Wan; but there is no need of being
+talkative on the subject of our escape."
+
+Spike now turned his back on the Mexican, looking anxiously ahead,
+with the desire to get as far into the reef as possible with his
+brig, which he conned with great skill and coolness. The Señor
+Montefalderon left him. With the chivalry and consideration of a man
+and a gentleman, he went in quest of Mrs. Budd and Biddy. A hint
+sufficed for them, and gathering together a few necessaries they
+were in the yawl in the next three minutes. This movement was unseen
+by Spike, or he might have prevented it. His eyes were now riveted
+on the channel ahead. It had been fully his original intention to
+make off in the boat, the instant the brig struck, abandoning not
+only Don Juan, with Mrs. Budd and Biddy to their fates, but most of
+the crew. A private order had been given to the boatswain, and three
+of the ablest-bodied among the seamen, each and all of whom kept the
+secret with religious fidelity, as it was believed their own
+personal safety might be connected with the success of this plan.
+
+Nothing is so contagious as alarm. It requires not only great
+natural steadiness of nerve, but much acquired firmness to remain
+unmoved when sudden terror has seized on the minds of those around
+us. Habitual respect had prevented the crew from interfering with
+the movements of the Mexican, who not only descended into the boat
+with his female companions uninterrupted, but also took with him the
+little bag of doubloons which fell to his share from the first
+raising of the schooner. Josh and Jack Tier assisted in getting Mrs.
+Budd and Biddy over the side, and both took their own places in the
+yawl, as soon as this pious duty was discharged. This served as a
+hint to others near at hand; and man after man left his work to
+steal into the yawl, until every living being had disappeared from
+the deck of the Swash, Spike himself excepted. The man at the wheel
+had been the last to desert his post, nor would he have done so
+then, but for a signal from the boatswain, with whom he was a
+favourite.
+
+It is certain there was a secret desire among the people of the
+Swash, who were now crowded into a boat not large enough to contain
+more than half their number with safety, to push off from the brig's
+side, and abandon her commander and owner to his fate. All had
+passed so soon, however, and events succeeded each other with so
+much rapidity, that little time was given for consultation. Habit
+kept them in their places, though the appearances around them were
+strong motives for taking care of themselves.
+
+Notwithstanding the time necessary to relate the foregoing events, a
+quarter of an hour had not elapsed, from the moment when the Swash
+entered this unknown channel among the rocks, ere she struck. No
+sooner was her helm deserted than she broached-to, and Spike was in
+the act of denouncing the steerage, ignorant of its cause, when the
+brig was thrown, broadside-to, on a sharp, angular bed of rocks. It
+was fortunate for the boat, and all in it, that it was brought to
+leeward by the broaching-to of the vessel, and that the water was
+still sufficiently deep around them to prevent the waves from
+breaking. Breakers there were, however, in thousands, on every side;
+and the seamen understood that their situation was almost
+desperately perilous, without shipwreck coming to increase the
+danger.
+
+The storm itself was scarcely more noisy and boisterous than was
+Spike, when he ascertained the manner in which his people had
+behaved. At first, he believed it was their plan to abandon him to
+his fate; but, on rushing to the lee-gangway, Don Juan Montefalderon
+assured him that no such intention existed, and that he would not
+allow the boat to be cast off until the captain was received on
+board. This brief respite gave Spike a moment to care for his
+portion of the doubloons; and he rushed to his state-room to secure
+them, together with his quadrant.
+
+The grinding of the brig's bottom on the coral, announced a speedy
+breaking up of the craft, while her commander was thus employed. So
+violent were some of the shocks with which she came down on the hard
+bed in which she was now cradled, that Spike expected to see her
+burst asunder, while he was yet on her decks. The cracking of
+timbers told him that all was over with the Swash, nor had he got
+back as far as the gangway with his prize, before he saw plainly
+that the vessel had broken her back, as it is termed, and that her
+plank-sheer was opening in a way that threatened to permit a
+separation of the craft into two sections, one forward and the other
+aft. Notwithstanding all these portentous proofs that the minutes of
+the Molly were numbered, and the danger that existed of his being
+abandoned by his crew, Spike paused a moment, ere he went over the
+vessel's side, to take a hasty survey of the reef. His object was to
+get a general idea of the position of the breakers, with a view to
+avoid them. As much of the interest of that which is to succeed is
+connected with these particular dangers, it may be well to explain
+their character, along with a few other points of a similar bearing.
+
+The brig had gone ashore fully two miles within the passage she had
+entered, and which, indeed, terminated at the very spot where she
+had struck. The Poughkeepsie was standing off and on, in the main
+channel, with her boats in the water, evidently preparing to carry
+the brig in that mode. As for the breakers, they whitened the
+surface of the ocean in all directions around the wreck, far as the
+eye could reach, but in two. The passage in which the Poughkeepsie
+was standing to and fro was clear of them, of course; and about a
+mile and a half to the northward, Spike saw that he should be in
+open water, or altogether on the northern side of the reef, could he
+only get there. The gravest dangers would exist in the passage,
+which led among breakers on all sides, and very possibly among rocks
+so near the surface as absolutely to obstruct the way. In one sense,
+however, the breakers were useful. By avoiding them as much as
+possible, and by keeping in the unbroken water, the boat would be
+running in the channels of the reef, and consequently would be the
+safer. The result of the survey, short as it was, and it did not
+last a minute, was to give Spike something like a plan; and when he
+went over the side, and got into the boat, it was with a
+determination to work his way out of the reef to its northern edge,
+as soon as possible, and then to skirt it as near as he could, in
+his flight toward the Dry Tortugas.
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+  The screams of rage, the groan, the strife,
+  The blow, the grasp, the horrid cry,
+  The panting, throttled prayer for life,
+  The dying's heaving sigh,
+  The murderer's curse, the dead man's fixed, still glare,
+  And fear's and death's cold sweat--they all are there.
+
+Matthew Lee.
+
+It was high time that Captain Spike should arrive when his foot
+touched the bottom of the yawl. The men were getting impatient and
+anxious to the last degree, and the power of Señor Montefalderon to
+control them was lessening each instant. They heard the rending of
+timber, and the grinding on the coral, even more distinctly than the
+captain himself, and feared that the brig would break up while they
+lay alongside of her, and crush them amid the ruins. Then the spray
+of the seas that broke over the weather side of the brig, fell like
+rain upon them; and everybody in the boat was already as wet as if
+exposed to a violent shower. It was well, therefore, for Spike that
+he descended into the boat as he did, for another minute's delay
+might have brought about his own destruction.
+
+Spike felt a chill at his heart when he looked about him and saw the
+condition of the yawl. So crowded were the stern-sheets into which
+he had descended, that it was with difficulty he found room to place
+his feet; it being his intention to steer, Jack was ordered to get
+into the eyes of the boat, in order to give him a seat. The thwarts
+were crowded, and three or four of the people had placed themselves
+in the very bottom of the little craft, in order to be as much as
+possible out of the way, as well as in readiness to bail out water.
+So seriously, indeed, were all the seamen impressed with the gravity
+of this last duty, that nearly every man had taken with him some
+vessel fit for such a purpose. Rowing was entirely out of the
+question, there being no space for the movement of the arms. The
+yawl was too low in the water, moreover, for such an operation in so
+heavy a sea. In all, eighteen persons were squeezed into a little
+craft that would have been sufficiently loaded, for moderate weather
+at sea, with its four oarsmen and as many sitters in the
+stern-sheets, with, perhaps, one in the eyes to bring her more on an
+even keel. In other words, she had twice the weight in her, in
+living freight, that it would have been thought prudent to receive
+in so small a craft, in an ordinary time, in or out of a port. In
+addition to the human beings enumerated, there was a good deal of
+baggage, nearly every individual having had the forethought to
+provide a few clothes for a change. The food and water did not
+amount to much, no more having been provided than enough for the
+purposes of the captain, together with the four men with whom it had
+been his intention to abandon the brig. The effect of all this cargo
+was to bring the yawl quite low in the water; and every sea-faring
+man in her had the greatest apprehensions about her being able to
+float at all when she got out from under the lee of the Swash, or
+into the troubled water. Try it she must, however, and Spike, in a
+reluctant and hesitating manner, gave the final order to "Shove
+off!"
+
+The yawl carried a lugg, as is usually the case with boats at sea,
+and the first blast of the breeze upon it satisfied Spike that his
+present enterprise was one of the most dangerous of any in which he
+had ever been engaged. The puffs of wind were quite as much as the
+boat would bear; but this he did not mind, as he was running off
+before it, and there was little danger of the yawl capsizing with
+such a weight in her. It was also an advantage to have swift way on,
+to prevent the combing waves from shooting into the boat, though the
+wind itself scarce outstrips the send of the sea in a stiff blow. As
+the yawl cleared the brig and began to feel the united power of the
+wind and waves, the following short dialogue occurred between the
+boatswain and Spike.
+
+"I dare not keep my eyes off the breakers ahead," the captain
+commenced, "and must trust to you, Strand, to report what is going
+on among the man-of-war's men. What is the ship about?"
+
+"Reefing her top-sails just now, sir. All three are on the caps, and
+the vessel is laying-to, in a manner."
+
+"And her boats?"
+
+"I see none, sir--ay, ay, there they come from alongside of her in a
+little fleet! There are four of them, sir, and all are coming down
+before the wind, wing and wing, carrying their luggs reefed."
+
+"Ours ought to be reefed by rights, too, but we dare not stop to do
+it; and these infernal combing seas seem ready to glance aboard us
+with all the way we can gather. Stand by to bail, men; we must pass
+through a strip of white water--there is no help for it. God send
+that we go clear of the rocks!"
+
+All this was fearfully true. The adventurers were not yet more than
+a cable's length from the brig, and they found themselves so
+completely environed with the breakers as to be compelled to go
+through them. No man in his senses would ever have come into such a
+place at all, except in the most unavoidable circumstances; and it
+was with a species of despair that the seamen of the yawl now saw
+their little craft go plunging into the foam.
+
+But Spike neglected no precaution that experience or skill could
+suggest. He had chosen his spot with coolness and judgment. As the
+boat rose on the seas he looked eagerly ahead, and by giving it a
+timely sheer, he hit a sort of channel, where there was sufficient
+water to carry them clear of the rock, and where the breakers were
+less dangerous than in the shoaler places. The passage lasted about
+a minute; and so serious was it, that scarce an individual breathed
+until it was effected. No human skill could prevent the water from
+combing in over the gunwales; and when the danger was passed, the
+yawl was a third filled with water. There was no time or place to
+pause, but on the little craft was dragged almost gunwale to, the
+breeze coming against the lugg in puffs that threatened to take the
+mast out of her. All hands were bailing; and even Biddy used her
+hands to aid in throwing out the water.
+
+"This is no time to hesitate, men," said Spike, sternly. "Everything
+must go overboard but the food and water. Away with them at once,
+and with a will."
+
+It was a proof how completely all hands were alarmed by this, the
+first experiment in the breakers, that not a man stayed his hand a
+single moment, but each threw into the sea, without an instant of
+hesitation, every article he had brought with him and had hoped to
+save. Biddy parted with the carpet-bag, and Señor Montefalderon,
+feeling the importance of example, committed to the deep a small
+writing-desk that he had placed on his knees. The doubloons alone
+remained, safe in a little locker where Spike had deposited them
+along with his own.
+
+"What news astern, boatswain?" demanded the captain, as soon as this
+imminent danger was passed, absolutely afraid to turn his eyes off
+the dangers ahead for a single instant. "How come on the
+man-of-war's men?"
+
+"They are running down in a body toward the wreck, though one of
+their boats does seem to be sheering out of the line, as if getting
+into our wake. It is hard to say, sir, for they are still a good bit
+to windward of the wreck."
+
+"And the Molly, Strand?"
+
+"Why, sir, the Molly seems to be breaking up fast; as well as I can
+see, she has broke in two just abaft the forechains, and cannot hold
+together in any shape at all many minutes longer."
+
+This information drew a deep groan from Spike, and the eye of every
+seaman in the boat was turned in melancholy on the object they were
+so fast leaving behind them. The yawl could not be said to be
+sailing very rapidly, considering the power of the wind, which was a
+little gale, for she was much too deep for that, but she left the
+wreck so fast as already to render objects on board her indistinct.
+Everybody saw that, like an overburthened steed, she had more to get
+along with than she could well bear; and, dependent as seamen
+usually are on the judgment and orders of their superiors, even in
+the direst emergencies, the least experienced man in her saw that
+their chances of final escape from drowning were of the most
+doubtful nature. The men looked at each other in a way to express
+their feelings; and the moment seemed favourable to Spike to confer
+with his confidential sea-dogs in private; but more white water was
+also ahead, and it was necessary to pass through it, since no
+opening was visible by which to avoid it. He deferred his purpose,
+consequently, until this danger was escaped.
+
+On this occasion Spike saw but little opportunity to select a place
+to get through the breakers, though the spot, as a whole, was not of
+the most dangerous kind. The reader will understand that the
+preservation of the boat at all, in white water, was owing to the
+circumstance that the rocks all around it lay so near the surface of
+the sea as to prevent the possibility of agitating the element very
+seriously, and to the fact that she was near the lee side of the
+reef. Had the breakers been of the magnitude of those which are seen
+where the deep rolling billows of the ocean first meet the weather
+side of shoals or rocks, a craft of that size, and so loaded, could
+not possibly have passed the first line of white water without
+filling. As it was, however, the breakers she had to contend with
+were sufficiently formidable, and they brought with them the
+certainty that the boat was in imminent danger of striking the
+bottom at any moment. Places like those in which Mulford had waded
+on the reef, while it was calm, would now have proved fatal to the
+strongest frame, since human powers were insufficient long to
+withstand the force of such waves as did glance over even these
+shallows.
+
+"Look out!" cried Spike, as the boat again plunged in among the
+white water. "Keep bailing, men--keep bailing."
+
+The men did bail, and the danger was over almost as soon as
+encountered. Something like a cheer burst out of the chest of Spike,
+when he saw deeper water around him, and fancied he could now trace
+a channel that would carry him quite beyond the extent of the reef.
+It was arrested, only half uttered, however, by a communication from
+the boatswain, who sat on a midship thwart, his arms folded, and his
+eye on the brig and the boats.
+
+"There goes the Molly's masts, sir! Both have gone together; and as
+good sticks was they, before them bomb-shells passed through our
+rigging, as was ever stepped in a keelson."
+
+The cheer was changed to something like a groan, while a murmur of
+regret passed through the boat.
+
+"What news from the man-of-war's men, boatswain? Do they still stand
+down on a mere wreck?"
+
+"No, sir; they seem to give it up, and are getting out their oars to
+pull back to their ship. A pretty time they'll have of it, too. The
+cutter that gets to windward half a mile in an hour, ag'in such a
+sea, and such a breeze, must be well pulled and better steered. One
+chap, however, sir, seems to hold on."
+
+Spike now ventured to look behind him, commanding an experienced
+hand to take the helm. In order to do this he was obliged to change
+places with the man he had selected to come aft, which brought him
+on a thwart alongside of the boatswain and one or two other of his
+confidants. Here a whispered conference took place, which lasted
+several minutes, Spike appearing to be giving instructions to the
+men.
+
+By this time the yawl was more than a mile from the wreck, all the
+man-of-war boats but one had lowered their sails, and were pulling
+slowly and with great labour back toward the ship, the cutter that
+kept on, evidently laying her course after the yawl, instead of
+standing on toward the wreck. The brig was breaking up fast, with
+every probability that nothing would be left of her in a few more
+minutes. As for the yawl, while clear of the white water, it got
+along without receiving many seas aboard, though the men in its
+bottom were kept bailing without intermission. It appeared to Spike
+that so long as they remained on the reef, and could keep clear of
+breakers--a most difficult thing, however--they should fare better
+than if in deeper water, where the swell of the sea, and the combing
+of the waves, menaced so small and so deep-loaded a craft with
+serious danger. As it was, two or three men could barely keep the
+boat clear, working incessantly, and much of the time with a foot or
+two of water in her.
+
+Josh and Simon had taken their seats, side by side, with that sort
+of dependence and submission that causes the American black to
+abstain from mingling with the whites more than might appear seemly.
+They were squeezed on to one end of the thwart by a couple of robust
+old sea-dogs, who were two of the very men with whom Spike had been
+in consultation. Beneath that very thwart was stowed another
+confidant, to whom communications had also been made. These men had
+sailed long in the Swash, and having been picked up in various
+ports, from time to time, as the brig had wanted hands, they were of
+nearly as many different nations as they were persons. Spike had
+obtained a great ascendency over them by habit and authority, and
+his suggestions were now received as a sort of law. As soon as the
+conference was ended, the captain returned to the helm.
+
+A minute more passed, during which the captain was anxiously
+surveying the reef ahead, and the state of things astern. Ahead was
+more white water--the last before they should get clear of the reef;
+and astern it was now settled that the cutter that held on through
+the dangers of the place, was in chase of the yawl. That Mulford was
+in her Spike made no doubt; and the thought embittered even his
+present calamities. But the moment had arrived for something
+decided. The white water ahead was much more formidable than any
+they had passed; and the boldest seamen there gazed at it with
+dread. Spike made a sign to the boatswain, and commenced the
+execution of his dire project.
+
+"I say, you Josh," called out the captain, in the authoritative
+tones that are so familiar to all on board a ship, "pull in that
+fender that is dragging alongside."
+
+Josh leaned over the gunwale, and reported that there was no fender
+out. A malediction followed, also so familiar to those acquainted
+with ships, and the black was told to look again. This time, as had
+been expected, the negro leaned with his head and body far over the
+side of the yawl, to look for that which had no existence, when two
+of the men beneath the thwart shoved his legs after them. Josh
+screamed, as he found himself going into the water, with a sort of
+confused consciousness of the truth; and Spike called out to Simon
+to "catch hold of his brother-nigger." The cook bent forward to
+obey, when a similar assault on _his_ legs from beneath the thwart,
+sent him headlong after Josh. One of the younger seamen, who was not
+in the secret, sprang up to rescue Simon, who grasped his extended
+hand, when the too generous fellow was pitched headlong from the
+boat.
+
+All this occurred in less than ten seconds of time, and so
+unexpectedly and naturally, that not a soul beyond those who were in
+the secret, had the least suspicion it was anything but an accident.
+Some water was shipped, of necessity, but the boat was soon bailed
+free. As for the victims of this vile conspiracy, they disappeared
+amid the troubled waters of the reef, struggling with each other.
+Each and all met the common fate so much the sooner, from the manner
+in which they impeded their own efforts.
+
+The yawl was now relieved from about five hundred pounds of the
+weight it had carried--Simon weighing two hundred alone, and the
+youngish seaman being large and full. So intense does human
+selfishness get to be, in moments of great emergency, that it is to
+be feared most of those who remained, secretly rejoiced that they
+were so far benefited by the loss of their fellows. The Señor
+Montefalderon was seated on the aftermost thwart, with his legs in
+the stern-sheets, and consequently with his back toward the negroes,
+and he fully believed that what had happened was purely accidental.
+
+"Let us lower our sail, Don Esteban," he cried, eagerly, "and save
+the poor fellows."
+
+Something very like a sneer gleamed on the dark countenance of the
+captain, but it suddenly changed to a look of assent.
+
+"Good!" he said, hastily--"spring forward, Don Wan, and lower the
+sail--stand by the oars, men!"
+
+Without pausing to reflect, the generous-hearted Mexican stepped on
+a thwart, and began to walk rapidly forward, steadying himself by
+placing his hands on the heads of the men. He was suffered to get as
+far as the second thwart or past most of the conspirators, when his
+legs were seized from behind. The truth now flashed on him, and
+grasping two of the men in his front, who knew nothing of Spike's
+dire scheme, he endeavoured to save himself by holding to their
+jackets. Thus assailed, those men seized others with like intent,
+and an awful struggle filled all that part of the craft. At this
+dread instant the boat glanced into the white water, shipping so
+much of the element as nearly to swamp her, and taking so wild a
+sheer as nearly to broach-to. This last circumstance probably saved
+her, fearful as was the danger for the moment. Everybody in the
+middle of the yawl was rendered desperate by the amount and nature
+of the danger incurred, and the men from the bottom rose in their
+might, underneath the combatants, when a common plunge was made by
+all who stood erect, one dragging overboard another, each a good
+deal hastened by the assault from beneath, until no less than five
+were gone. Spike got his helm up, the boat fell off, and away from
+the spot it flew, clearing the breakers, and reaching the northern
+wall-like margin of the reef at the next instant. There was now a
+moment when those who remained could breathe, and dared to look
+behind them.
+
+The great plunge had been made in water so shoal, that the boat had
+barely escaped being dashed to pieces on the coral. Had it not been
+so suddenly relieved from the pressure of near a thousand pounds in
+weight, it is probable that this calamity would have befallen it,
+the water received on board contributing so much to weight it down.
+The struggle between these victims ceased, however, the moment they
+went over. Finding bottom for their feet, they released each other,
+in a desperate hope of prolonging life by wading. Two or three held
+out their arms, and shouted to Spike to return and pick them up.
+This dreadful scene lasted but a single instant, for the waves
+dashed one after another from his feet, continually forcing them
+all, as they occasionally regained their footing, toward the margin
+of the reef, and finally washing them off it into deep water. No
+human power could enable a man to swim back to the rocks, once to
+leeward of them, in the face of such seas, and so heavy a blow; and
+the miserable wretches disappeared in succession, as their strength
+became exhausted, in the depths of the Gulf.
+
+Not a word had been uttered while this terrific scene was in the
+course of occurrence; not a word was uttered for some time
+afterward. Gleams of grim satisfaction had been seen on the
+countenances of the boatswain and his associates, when the success
+of their nefarious project was first assured; but they soon
+disappeared in looks of horror, as they witnessed the struggles of
+the drowning men. Nevertheless, human selfishness was strong within
+them all, and none there was so ignorant as not to perceive how much
+better were the chances of the yawl now than it had been on quitting
+the wreck. The weight of a large ox had been taken from it, counting
+that of all the eight men drowned; and as for the water shipped, it
+was soon bailed back again into the sea. Not only, therefore, was
+the yawl in a better condition to resist the waves, but it sailed
+materially faster than it had done before. Ten persons still
+remained in it, however, which brought it down in the water below
+its proper load-line; and the speed of a craft so small was
+necessarily a good deal lessened by the least deviation from its
+best sailing, or rowing trim. But Spike's projects were not yet
+completed.
+
+All this time the man-of-war's cutter had been rushing as madly
+through the breakers, in chase, as the yawl had done in the attempt
+to escape. Mulford was, in fact, on board it; and his now fast
+friend, Wallace, was in command. The latter wished to seize a
+traitor, the former to save the aunt of his weeping bride. Both
+believed that they might follow wherever Spike dared to lead. This
+reasoning was more bold than judicious notwithstanding, since the
+cutter was much larger, and drew twice as much water as the yawl. On
+it came, nevertheless, faring much better in the white water than
+the little craft it pursued, but necessarily running a much more
+considerable risk of hitting the coral, over which it was glancing
+almost as swiftly as the waves themselves; still it had thus far
+escaped--and little did any in it think of the danger. This cutter
+pulled ten oars; was an excellent sea boat; had four armed marines
+in it, in addition to its crew, but carried all through the
+breakers, receiving scarcely a drop of water on board, on account of
+the height of its wash-boards, and the general qualities of the
+craft. It may be well to add here, that the Poughkeepsie had shaken
+out her reefs, and was betraying the impatience of Captain Mull to
+make sail in chase, by firing signal-guns to his boats to bear a
+hand and return. These signals the three boats under their oars were
+endeavouring to obey, but Wallace had got so far to leeward as now
+to render the course he was pursuing the wisest.
+
+Mrs. Budd and Biddy had seen the struggle in which the Señor
+Montefalderon had been lost, in a sort of stupid horror. Both had
+screamed, as was their wont, though neither probably suspected the
+truth. But the fell designs of Spike extended to them, as well as to
+those whom he had already destroyed. Now the boat was in deep water,
+running along the margin of the reef, the waves were much increased
+in magnitude, and the comb of the sea was far more menacing to the
+boat. This would not have been the case had the rocks formed a lee;
+but they did not, running too near the direction of the trades to
+prevent the billows that got up a mile or so in the offing, from
+sending their swell quite home to the reef. It was this swell,
+indeed, which caused the line of white water along the northern
+margin of the coral, washing on the rocks by a sort of lateral
+effort, and breaking, as a matter of course. In many places, no boat
+could have lived to pass through it.
+
+Another consideration influenced Spike to persevere. The cutter had
+been overhauling him, hand over hand, but since the yawl was
+relieved of the weight of no less than eight men, the difference in
+the rate of sailing was manifestly diminished. The man-of-war's boat
+drew nearer, but by no means as fast as it had previously done. A
+point was now reached in the trim of the yawl, when a very few
+hundreds in weight might make the most important change in her
+favour; and this change the captain was determined to produce. By
+this time the cutter was in deep water, as well as himself, safe
+through all the dangers of the reef, and she was less than a quarter
+of a mile astern. On the whole, she was gaining, though so slowly as
+to require the most experienced eye to ascertain the fact.
+
+"Madame Budd," said Spike, in a hypocritical tone, "we are in great
+danger, and I shall have to ask you to change your seat. The boat is
+too much by the starn, now we've got into deep water, and your
+weight amidships would be a great relief to us. Just give your hand
+to the boatswain, and he will help you to step from thwart to
+thwart, until you reach the right place, when Biddy shall follow."
+
+Now Mrs. Budd had witnessed the tremendous struggle in which so many
+had gone overboard, but so dull was she of apprehension, and so
+little disposed to suspect anything one-half so monstrous as the
+truth, that she did not hesitate to comply. She was profoundly awed
+by the horrors of the scene through which she was passing, the
+raging billows of the Gulf, as seen from so small a craft, producing
+a deep impression on her; still a lingering of her most inveterate
+affectation was to be found in her air and language, which presented
+a strange medley of besetting weakness, and strong, natural, womanly
+affection.
+
+"Certainly, Captain Spike," she answered, rising. "A craft should
+never go astern, and I am quite willing to ballast the boat. We have
+seen such terrible accidents today, that all should lend their aid
+in endeavouring to get under way, and in averting all possible
+hamper. Only take me to my poor, dear Rosy, Captain Spike, and
+everything shall be forgotten that has passed between us. This is
+not a moment to bear malice; and I freely pardon you all and
+everything. The fate of our unfortunate friend, Mr. Montefalderon,
+should teach us charity, and cause us to prepare for untimely ends."
+
+All the time the good widow was making this speech, which she
+uttered in a solemn and oracular sort of manner, she was moving
+slowly toward the seat the men had prepared for her, in the middle
+of the boat, assisted with the greatest care and attention by the
+boatswain and another of Spike's confidants. When on the second
+thwart from aft, and about to take her seat, the boatswain cast a
+look behind him, and Spike put the helm down. The boat luffed and
+lurched, of course, and Mrs. Budd would probably have gone overboard
+to leeward, by so sudden and violent a change, had not the impetus
+thus received been aided by the arms of the men who held her two
+hands. The plunge she made into the water was deep, for she was a
+woman of great weight for her stature. Still, she was not
+immediately gotten rid of. Even at that dread instant, it is
+probable that the miserable woman did not suspect the truth, for she
+grasped the hand of the boatswain with the tenacity of a vice, and,
+thus dragged on the surface of the boiling surges, she screamed
+aloud for Spike to save her. Of all who had yet been sacrificed to
+the captain's selfish wish to save himself, this was the first
+instance in which any had been heard to utter a sound, after falling
+into the sea. The appeal shocked even the rude beings around her,
+and Biddy chiming in with a powerful appeal to "save the missus!"
+added to the piteous nature of the scene.
+
+"Cast off her hand," said Spike reproachfully, "she'll swamp the
+boat by her struggles--get rid of her at once! Cut her fingers off,
+if she wont let go!"
+
+The instant these brutal orders were given, and that in a fierce,
+impatient tone, the voice of Biddy was heard no more. The truth
+forced itself on her dull imagination, and she sat a witness of the
+terrible scene, in mute despair. The struggle did not last long. The
+boatswain drew his knife across the wrist of the hand that grasped
+his own, one shriek was heard, and the boat plunged into the trough
+of a sea, leaving the form of poor Mrs. Budd struggling with the
+wave on its summit, and amid the foam of its crest. This was the
+last that was ever seen of the unfortunate relict.
+
+"The boat has gained a good deal by that last discharge of cargo,"
+said Spike to the boatswain, a minute after they had gotten rid of
+the struggling woman--"she is much more lively, and is getting
+nearer to her load-line. If we can bring her to _that,_ I shall have
+no fear of the man-of-war's men; for this yawl is one of the fastest
+boats that ever floated."
+
+"A very little _now,_ sir, would bring us to our true trim."
+
+"Ay, we must get rid of more cargo. Come, good woman," turning to
+Biddy, with whom he did not think it worth his while to use much
+circumlocution, "_your_ turn is next. It's the maid's duty to follow
+her mistress."
+
+"I know'd it _must_ come," said Biddy, meekly. "If there was no
+mercy for the missus, little could I look for. But ye'll not take
+the life of a Christian woman widout giving her so much as one
+minute to say her prayers?"
+
+"Ay, pray away," answered Spike, his throat becoming dry and husky,
+for, strange to say, the submissive quiet of the Irish woman, so
+different from the struggle he had anticipated with _her,_ rendered
+him more reluctant to proceed than he had hitherto been in all of
+that terrible day. As Biddy kneeled in the bottom of the
+stern-sheets, Spike looked behind him, for the double purpose of
+escaping the painful spectacle at his feet, and that of ascertaining
+how his pursuers came on. The last still gained, though very slowly,
+and doubts began to come over the captain's mind whether he could
+escape such enemies at all. He was too deeply committed, however, to
+recede, and it was most desirable to get rid of poor Biddy, if it
+were for no other motive than to shut her mouth. Spike even fancied
+that some idea of what had passed was entertained by those in the
+cutter. There was evidently a stir in that boat, and two forms that
+he had no difficulty, now, in recognizing as those of Wallace and
+Mulford, were standing on the grating in the eyes of the cutter, or
+forward of the foresail. The former appeared to have a musket in his
+hand, and the other a glass. The last circumstance admonished him
+that all that was now done would be done before dangerous witnesses.
+It was too late to draw back, however, and the captain turned to
+look for the Irish woman.
+
+Biddy arose from her knees, just as Spike withdrew his eyes from his
+pursuers. The boatswain and another confidant were in readiness to
+cast the poor creature into the sea, the moment their leader gave
+the signal. The intended victim saw and understood the arrangement,
+and she spoke earnestly and piteously to her murderers.
+
+"It's not wanting will be violence!" said Biddy, in a quiet tone,
+but with a saddened countenance. "I know it's my turn, and I will
+save yer sowls from a part of the burden of this great sin. God, and
+His Divine Son, and the Blessed Mother of Jesus have mercy on me if
+it be wrong; but I would far radder jump into the saa widout having
+the rude hands of man on me, than have the dreadful sight of the
+missus done over ag'in. It's a fearful thing is wather, and
+sometimes we have too little of it, and sometimes more than we
+want--"
+
+"Bear a hand, bear a hand, good woman," interrupted the boatswain,
+impatiently. "We must clear the boat of you, and the sooner it is
+done the better it will be for all of us."
+
+"Don't grudge a poor morthal half a minute of life, at the last
+moment," answered Biddy. "It's not long that I'll throuble ye, and
+so no more need be said."
+
+The poor creature then got on the quarter of the boat, without any
+one's touching her; there she placed herself with her legs outboard,
+while she sat on the gunwale. She gave one moment to the thought of
+arranging her clothes with womanly decency, and then she paused to
+gaze with a fixed eye, and pallid cheek, on the foaming wake that
+marked the rapid course of the boat. The troughs of the sea seemed
+less terrible to her than their combing crests, and she waited for
+the boat to descend into the next.
+
+"God forgive ye all, this deed, as I do!" said Biddy, earnestly, and
+bending her person forward, she fell, as it might be "without
+hands," into the gulf of eternity. Though all strained their eyes,
+none of the men, Jack Tier excepted, ever saw more of Biddy Noon.
+Nor did Jack see much. He got a frightful glimpse of an arm,
+however, on the summit of a wave, but the motion of the boat was too
+swift, and the water of the ocean too troubled, to admit of aught
+else.
+
+A long pause succeeded this event. Biddy's quiet submission to her
+fate had produced more impression on her murderers than the
+desperate, but unavailing, struggles of those who had preceded her.
+Thus it is ever with men. When opposed, the demon within blinds them
+to consequences as well as to their duties; but, unresisted, the
+silent influence of the image of God makes itself felt, and a better
+spirit begins to prevail. There was not one in that boat who did
+not, for a brief space, wish that poor Biddy had been spared. With
+most, that feeling, the last of human kindness they ever knew,
+lingered until the occurrence of the dread catastrophe which, so
+shortly after, closed the scene of this state of being on their
+eyes.
+
+"Jack Tier," called out Spike, some five minutes after Biddy was
+drowned, but not until another observation had made it plainly
+apparent to him that the man-of-war's men still continued to draw
+nearer, being now not more than fair musket-shot astern.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," answered Jack, coming quietly out of his hole, from
+forward of the mast, and moving aft as if indifferent to the danger,
+by stepping lightly from thwart to thwart, until he reached the
+stern-sheets.
+
+"It is your turn, little Jack," said Spike, as if in a sort of
+sorrowful submission to a necessity that knew no law, "we cannot
+spare you the room."
+
+"I have expected this, and am ready. Let me have my own way, and I
+will cause you no trouble. Poor Biddy has taught me how to die.
+Before I go, however, Stephen Spike, I must leave you this letter.
+It is written by myself, and addressed to you. When I am gone, read
+it, and think well of what it contains. And now, may a merciful God
+pardon the sins of both, through love for His Divine Son. I forgive
+you, Stephen; and should you live to escape from those who are now
+bent on hunting you to the death, let this day cause you no grief on
+my account. Give me but a moment of time, and I will cause you no
+trouble."
+
+Jack now stood upon the seat of the stern-sheets, balancing himself
+with one foot on the stern of the boat. He waited until the yawl had
+risen to the summit of a wave, when he looked eagerly for the
+man-of-war's cutter. At that moment she was lost to view in the
+trough of the sea. Instead of springing overboard, as all expected,
+he asked another instant of delay. The yawl sank into the trough
+itself, and rose on the succeeding billow. Then he saw the cutter,
+and Wallace and Mulford standing in its bows. He waved his hat to
+them, and sprang high into the air, with the intent to make himself
+seen; when he came down the boat had shot her length away from the
+place, leaving him to buffet with the waves. Jack now managed
+admirably, swimming lightly and easily, but keeping his eyes on the
+crests of the waves, with a view to meet the cutter. Spike now saw
+this well-planned project to avoid death, and regretted his own
+remissness in not making sure of Jack. Everybody in the yawl was
+eagerly looking after the form of Tier.
+
+"There he is on the comb of that sea, rolling over like a keg!"
+cried the boatswain.
+
+"He 's through it," answered Spike, "and swimming with great
+strength and coolness."
+
+Several of the men started up involuntarily and simultaneously to
+look, hitting their shoulders and bodies together. Distrust was at
+its most painful height; and bull-dogs do not spring at the ox's
+muzzle more fiercely than those six men throttled each other. Oaths,
+curses, and appeals for help, succeeded; each man endeavouring, in
+his frenzied efforts, to throw all the others overboard, as the only
+means of saving himself. Plunge succeeded plunge; and when that
+combat of demons ended, no one remained of them all but the
+boatswain. Spike had taken no share in the struggle, looking on in
+grim satisfaction, as the Father of Lies may be supposed to regard
+all human strife, hoping good to himself, let the result be what it
+might to others. Of the five men who thus went overboard, not one
+escaped. They drowned each other by continuing their maddened
+conflict in an element unsuited to their natures.
+
+Not so with Jack Tier. His leap had been seen, and a dozen eyes in
+the cutter watched for his person, as that boat came foaming down
+before the wind. A shout of "There he is!" from Mulford succeeded;
+and the little fellow was caught by the hair, secured, and then
+hauled into the boat by the second lieutenant of the Poughkeepsie
+and our young mate.
+
+Others in the cutter had noted the incident of the hellish fight.
+The fact was communicated to Wallace, and Mulford said, "That yawl
+will outsail this loaded cutter, with only two men in it."
+
+"Then it is time to try what virtue there is in lead," answered
+Wallace. "Marines, come forward, and give the rascal a volley."
+
+The volley was fired; one ball passed through the head of the
+boatswain, killing him dead on the spot. Another went through the
+body of Spike. The captain fell in the stern-sheets, and the boat
+instantly broached-to.
+
+The water that came on board apprised Spike fully of the state in
+which he was now placed, and by a desperate effort, he clutched the
+tiller, and got the yawl again before the wind. This could not last,
+however. Little by little, his hold relaxed, until his hand
+relinquished its grasp altogether, and the wounded man sank into the
+bottom of the stern-sheets, unable to raise even his head. Again the
+boat broached-to. Every sea now sent its water aboard, and the yawl
+would soon have filled, had not the cutter come glancing down past
+it, and rounding-to under its lee, secured the prize.
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  Man hath a weary pilgrimage,
+  As through the world he wends;
+  On every stage, from youth to age,
+  Still discontent attends;
+  With heaviness he casts his eye,
+  Upon the road before,
+  And still remembers with a sigh
+  The days that are no more.
+
+Southey.
+
+It has now become necessary to advance the time three entire days,
+and to change the scene to Key West. As this latter place may not be
+known to the world at large, it may be well to explain that it is a
+small seaport, situate on one of the largest of the many low islands
+that dot the Florida Reef, that has risen into notice, or indeed
+into existence as a town, since the acquisition of the Floridas by
+the American Republic. For many years it was the resort of few
+besides wreckers, and those who live by the business dependent on
+the rescuing and repairing of stranded vessels, not forgetting the
+salvages. When it is remembered that the greater portion of the
+vessels that enter the Gulf of Mexico stand close along this reef,
+before the trades, for a distance varying from one to two hundred
+miles, and that nearly everything which quits it, is obliged to beat
+down its rocky coast in the Gulf Stream for the same distance, one
+is not to be surprised that the wrecks, which so constantly occur,
+can supply the wants of a considerable population. To live at Key
+West is the next thing to being at sea. The place has sea air, no
+other water than such as is preserved in cisterns, and no soil, or
+so little as to render even a head of lettuce a rarity. Turtle is
+abundant, and the business of "turtling" forms an occupation
+additional to that of wrecking. As might be expected, in such
+circumstances, a potato is a far more precious thing than a turtle's
+egg, and a sack of the tubers would probably be deemed a sufficient
+remuneration for enough of the materials of callipash and callipee
+to feed all the aldermen extant.
+
+Of late years, the government of the United States has turned its
+attention to the capabilities of the Florida Reef, as an advanced
+naval station; a sort of Downs, or St. Helen's Roads, for the West
+Indian seas. As yet little has been done beyond making the
+preliminary surveys, but the day is not probably very distant when
+fleets will lie at anchor among the islets described in our earlier
+chapters, or garnish the fine waters of Key West. For a long time it
+was thought that even frigates would have a difficulty in entering
+and quitting the port of the latter, but it is said that recent
+explorations have discovered channels capable of admitting anything
+that floats. Still Key West is a town yet in its chrysalis state,
+possessing the promise rather than the fruition of the prosperous
+days which are in reserve. It may be well to add, that it lies a
+very little north of the 24th degree of latitude, and in a longitude
+quite five degrees west from Washington. Until the recent conquests
+in Mexico it was the most southern possession of the American
+government, on the eastern side of the continent; Cape St. Lucas, at
+the extremity of Lower California, however, being two degrees
+farther south.
+
+It will give the foreign reader a more accurate notion of the
+character of Key West, if we mention a fact of quite recent
+occurrence. A very few weeks after the closing scenes of this tale,
+the town in question was, in a great measure, washed away! A
+hurricane brought in the sea upon all these islands and reefs, water
+running in swift currents over places that within the memory of man
+were never before submerged. The lower part of Key West was
+converted into a raging sea, and everything in that quarter of the
+place disappeared. The foundation being of rock, however, when the
+ocean retired the island came into view again, and industry and
+enterprise set to work to repair the injuries.
+
+The government has established a small hospital for seamen at Key
+West. Into one of the rooms of the building thus appropriated our
+narrative must now conduct the reader. It contained but a single
+patient, and that was Spike. He was on his narrow bed, which was to
+be but the pucursor of a still narrower tenement, the grave. In the
+room with the dying man were two females, in one of whom our readers
+will at once recognize the person of Rose Budd, dressed in deep
+mourning for her aunt. At first sight, it is probable that a casual
+spectator would mistake the second female for one of the ordinary
+nurses of the place. Her attire was well enough, though worn
+awkwardly, and as if its owner were not exactly at ease in it. She
+had the air of one in her best attire, who was unaccustomed to be
+dressed above the most common mode. What added to the singularity of
+her appearance, was the fact, that while she wore no cap, her hair
+had been cut into short, gray bristles, instead of being long, and
+turned up, as is usual with females. To give a sort of climax to
+this uncouth appearance, this strange-looking creature chewed
+tobacco.
+
+The woman in question, equivocal as might be her exterior, was
+employed in one of the commonest avocations of her sex--that of
+sewing. She held in her hand a coarse garment, one of Spike's, in
+fact, which she seemed to be intently busy in mending; although the
+work was of a quality that invited the use of the palm and
+sail-needle, rather than that of the thimble and the smaller
+implement known to seamstresses, the woman appeared awkward in her
+business, as if her coarse-looking and dark hands refused to lend
+themselves to an occupation so feminine. Nevertheless, there were
+touches of a purely womanly character about this extraordinary
+person, and touches that particularly attracted the attention, and
+awakened the sympathy of the gentle Rose, her companion. Tears
+occasionally struggled out from beneath her eyelids, crossed her
+dark, sun-burnt cheek, and fell on the coarse canvas garment that
+lay in her lap. It was after one of these sudden and strong
+exhibitions of feeling that Rose approached her, laid her own
+little, fair hand, in a friendly way, though unheeded, on the
+other's shoulder, and spoke to her in her kindest and softest tones.
+
+"I do really think he is reviving, Jack," said Rose, "and that you
+may yet hope to have an intelligent conversation with him."
+
+"They all agree he _must_ die," answered Jack Tier--for it was _he,_
+appearing in the garb of his proper sex, after a disguise that had
+now lasted fully twenty years--"and he will never know who I am, and
+that I forgive him. He must think of me in another world, though he
+is n't able to do it in this; but it would be a great relief to his
+soul to know that I forgive him."
+
+"To be sure, a man must like to take a kind leave of his own wife
+before he closes his eyes for ever; and I dare say it would be a
+great relief to you to tell him that you have forgotten his
+desertion of you, and all the hardships it has brought upon you in
+searching for him, and in earning your own livelihood as a common
+sailor."
+
+"I shall not tell him I've _forgotten_ it, Miss Rose; that would be
+untrue--and there shall be no more deception between us; but I shall
+tell him that I _forgive_ him, as I hope God will one day forgive me
+all _my_ sins."
+
+"It is, certainly, not a light offence to desert a wife in a foreign
+land, and then to seek to deceive another woman," quietly observed
+Rose.
+
+"He's a willian!" muttered the wife--"but--but--"
+
+"You forgive him, Jack--yes, I'm sure you do. You are too good a
+Christian to refuse to forgive him."
+
+"I'm a woman a'ter all, Miss Rose; and that, I believe, is the truth
+of it. I suppose I ought to do as you say, for the reason you
+mention; but I'm his wife--and once he loved me, though that has
+long been over. When I first knew Stephen, I'd the sort of feelin's
+you speak of, and was a very different creatur' from what you see me
+to-day. Change comes over us all with years and sufferin'."
+
+Rose did not answer, but she stood looking intently at the speaker
+more than a minute. Change had, indeed, come over her, if she had
+ever possessed the power to please the fancy of any living man. Her
+features had always seemed diminutive and mean for her assumed sex,
+as her voice was small and cracked; but, making every allowance for
+the probabilities, Rose found it difficult to imagine that Jack Tier
+had ever possessed, even under the high advantages of youth and
+innocence, the attractions so common to her sex. Her skin had
+acquired the tanning of the sea; the expression of her face had
+become hard and worldly; and her habits contributed to render those
+natural consequences of exposure and toil even more than usually
+marked and decided. By saying "habits," however, we do not mean that
+Jack had ever drunk to excess, as happens with so many seamen, for
+this would have been doing her injustice, but she smoked and
+chewed--practices that intoxicate in another form, and lead nearly
+as many to the grave as excess in drinking. Thus all the accessories
+about this singular being, partook of the character of her recent
+life and duties. Her walk was between a waddle and a seaman's roll,
+her hands were discoloured with tar, and had got to be full of
+knuckles, and even her feet had degenerated into that flat,
+broad-toed form that, perhaps, sooner distinguishes caste, in
+connection with outward appearances, than any one other physical
+peculiarity. Yet this being _had_ once been young--had once been
+even _fair;_ and had once possessed that feminine air and lightness
+of form, that as often belongs to the youthful American of her sex,
+perhaps, as to the girl of any other nation on earth. Rose continued
+to gaze at her companion for some time, when she walked musingly to
+a window that looked out upon the port.
+
+"I am not certain whether it would do him good or not to see this
+sight," she said, addressing the wife kindly, doubtful of the effect
+of her words even on the latter. "But here are the sloop-of-war, and
+several other vessels."
+
+"Ay, she is _there;_ but never will his foot be put on board the
+Swash ag'in. When he bought that brig I was still young, and
+agreeable to him; and he gave her my maiden name, which was Mary, or
+Molly Swash. But that is all changed; I wonder he did not change the
+name with his change of feelin's."
+
+"Then you did really sail in the brig in former times, and knew the
+seaman whose name you assumed?"
+
+"Many years. Tier, with whose name I made free, on account of his
+size, and some resemblance to me in form, died under my care; and
+his protection fell into my hands, which first put the notion into
+my head of hailing as his representative. Yes, I knew Tier in the
+brig, and we were left ashore at the same time; I, intentionally, I
+make no question; he, because Stephen Spike was in a hurry, and did
+not choose to wait for a man. The poor fellow caught the yellow
+fever the very next day, and did not live eight-and-forty hours. So
+the world goes; them that wish to live, die; and them that wants to
+die, live!"
+
+"You have had a hard time for one of your sex, poor Jack--quite
+twenty years a sailor, did you not tell me?"
+
+"Every day of it, Miss Rose--and bitter years have they been; for
+the whole of that time have I been in chase of my husband, keeping
+my own secret, and slaving like a horse for a livelihood."
+
+"You could not have been old when he left--that is--when you
+parted."
+
+"Call it by its true name, and say at once, when he desarted me. I
+was under thirty by two or three years, and was still like my own
+sex to look at. All _that_ is changed since; but I _was_ comely
+_then_."
+
+"_Why_ did Captain Spike abandon you, Jack; you have never told me
+_that_."
+
+"Because he fancied another. And ever since that time he has been
+fancying others, instead of remembering me. Had he got _you,_ Miss
+Rose, I think he would have been content for the rest of his days."
+
+"Be certain, Jack, I should never have consented to marry Captain
+Spike."
+
+"You're well out of his hands," answered Jack, sighing heavily,
+which was the most feminine thing she had done during the whole
+conversation, "well out of his hands--and God be praised it is so.
+He should have died, before I would let him carry you off the
+island--husband or no husband."
+
+"It might have exceeded your power to prevent it under other
+circumstances, Jack."
+
+Rose now continued looking out of the window in silence. Her
+thoughts reverted to her aunt and Biddy, and tears rolled down her
+cheeks as she remembered the love of one, and the fidelity of the
+other. Their horrible fate had given her a shock that, at first,
+menaced her with a severe fit of illness; but her strong, good
+sense, and excellent constitution, both sustained by her piety and
+Harry's manly tenderness, had brought her through the danger, and
+left her, as the reader now sees her, struggling with her own
+griefs, in order to be of use to the still more unhappy woman who
+had so singularly become her friend and companion.
+
+The reader will readily have anticipated that Jack Tier had early
+made the females on board the Swash her confidants. Rose had known
+the outlines of her history from the first few days they were at sea
+together, which is the explanation of the visible intimacy that had
+caused Mulford so much surprise. Jack's motive in making his
+revelations might possibly have been tinctured with jealousy, but a
+desire to save one as young and innocent as Rose was at its bottom.
+Few persons but a wife would have supposed our heroine could have
+been in any danger from a lover like Spike; but Jack saw him with
+the eyes of her own youth, and of past recollections, rather than
+with those of truth. A movement of the wounded man first drew Rose
+from the window. Drying her eyes hastily, she turned toward him,
+fancying she might prove the better nurse of the two,
+notwithstanding Jack's greater interest in the patient.
+
+"What place is this--and why am I here?" demanded Spike, with more
+strength of voice than could have been expected, after all that had
+passed. "This is not a cabin--not the Swash--it looks like a
+hospital."
+
+"It is a hospital, Captain Spike," said Rose, gently drawing near
+the bed; "you have been hurt, and have been brought to Key West, and
+placed in the hospital. I hope you feel better, and that you suffer
+no pain."
+
+"My head is n't right--I do n't know--everything seems turned round
+with me--perhaps it will all come out as it should. I begin to
+remember--where is my brig?"
+
+"She is lost on the rocks. The seas have broken her into fragments."
+
+"That's melancholy news, at any rate. Ah! Miss Rose! God bless
+you--I've had terrible dreams. Well, it's pleasant to be among
+friends--what creature is that--where does _she_ come from?"
+
+"That is Jack Tier," answered Rose, steadily. "She turns out to be a
+woman, and has put on her proper dress, in order to attend on you
+during your illness. Jack has never left your bedside since we have
+been here."
+
+A long silence succeeded this revelation. Jack's eyes twinkled, and
+she hitched her body half aside, as if to conceal her features,
+where emotions that were unusual were at work with the muscles. Rose
+thought it might be well to leave the man and wife alone--and she
+managed to get out of the room unobserved.
+
+Spike continued to gaze at the strange-looking female, who was now
+his sole companion. Gradually his recollection returned, and with it
+the full consciousness of his situation. He might not have been
+fully aware of the absolute certainty of his approaching death, but
+he must have known that his wound was of a very grave character, and
+that the result might early prove fatal. Still that strange and
+unknown figure haunted him; a figure that was so different from any
+he had ever seen before, and which, in spite of its present dress,
+seemed to belong quite as much to one sex as to the other. As for
+Jack, we call Molly, or Mary Swash by her masculine appellation, not
+only because it is more familiar, but because the other name seems
+really out of place, as applied to such a person--as for Jack, then,
+she sat with her face half averted, thumbing the canvas, and
+endeavouring to ply the needle, but perfectly mute. She was
+conscious that Spike's eyes were on her; and a lingering feeling of
+her sex told her how much time, exposure, and circumstances, had
+changed her person--and she would gladly have hidden the defects in
+her appearance.
+
+Mary Swash was the daughter as well as the wife of a ship-master. In
+her youth, as has been said before, she had even been pretty, and
+down to the day when her husband deserted her, she would have been
+thought a female of a comely appearance rather than the reverse. Her
+hair in particular, though slightly coarse, perhaps, had been rich
+and abundant; and the change from the long, dark, shining, flowing
+locks which she still possessed in her thirtieth year, to the short,
+grey bristles that now stood exposed without a cap, or covering of
+any sort, was one very likely to destroy all identity of appearance.
+Then Jack had passed from what might be called youth to the verge of
+old age, in the interval that she had been separated from her
+husband. Her shape had changed entirely; her complexion was utterly
+gone; and her features, always unmeaning, though feminine, and
+suitable to her sex, had become hard and slightly coarse. Still
+there was something of her former self about Jack that bewildered
+Spike; and his eyes continued fastened on her for quite a quarter of
+an hour in profound silence.
+
+"Give me some water," said the wounded man, "I wish some water to
+drink."
+
+Jack arose, filled a tumbler and brought it to the side of the bed.
+Spike took the glass and drank, but the whole time his eyes were
+riveted on the strange nurse. When his thirst was appeased, he
+asked--
+
+"Who are you? How came you here?"
+
+"I am your nurse. It is common to place nurses at the bedsides of
+the sick."
+
+"Are you man or woman?"
+
+"That is a question I hardly know how to answer. Sometimes I think
+myself each; sometimes neither."
+
+"Did I ever see you before?"
+
+"Often, and quite lately. I sailed with you in your last voyage."
+
+"You! That cannot be. If so, what is your name?"
+
+"Jack Tier."
+
+A long pause succeeded this announcement, which induced Spike to
+muse as intently as his condition would allow, though the truth did
+not yet flash on his understanding. At length the bewildered man
+again spoke.
+
+"Are _you_ Jack Tier?" he said slowly, like one who doubted. "Yes--I
+now see the resemblance, and it was _that_ which puzzled me. Are
+they so rigid in this hospital that you have been obliged to put on
+woman's clothes in order to lend me a helping hand?"
+
+"I am dressed as you see, and for good reasons."
+
+"But Jack Tier run, like that rascal Mulford--ay, I remember now;
+you were in the boat when I overhauled you all on the reef."
+
+"Very true; I was in the boat. But I never run, Stephen Spike. It
+was _you_ who abandoned _me,_ on the islet in the Gulf, and that
+makes the second time in your life that you left me ashore, when it
+was your duty to carry me to sea."
+
+"The first time I was in a hurry, and could not wait for you; this
+last time you took sides with the women. But for your interference,
+I should have got Rose, and married her, and all would now have been
+well with me."
+
+This was an awkward announcement for a man to make to his legal
+wife. But after all Jack had endured, and all Jack had seen during
+the late voyage, she was not to be overcome by this avowal. Her
+self-command extended so far as to prevent any open manifestation of
+emotion, however much her feelings were excited.
+
+"I took sides with the women, because I am a woman myself," she
+answered, speaking at length with decision, as if determined to
+bring matters to a head at once. "It is natural for us all to take
+sides with our kind."
+
+"You a woman, Jack! That is very remarkable. Since when have you
+hailed for a woman? You have shipped with me twice, and each time as
+a man--though I've never thought you able to do seaman's duty."
+
+"Nevertheless, I am what you see; a woman born and edicated; one
+that never had on man's dress until I knew you. _You_ supposed me to
+be a man, when I came off to you in the skiff to the eastward of
+Riker's Island, but I was then what you now see."
+
+"I begin to understand matters," rejoined the invalid, musingly.
+"Ay, ay, it opens on me; and I now see how it was you made such fair
+weather with Madam Budd and pretty, pretty Rose. Rose _is_ pretty,
+Jack; you _must_ admit _that,_ though you be a woman."
+
+"Rose _is_ pretty--I do admit it; and what is better, Rose is
+_good."_ It required a heavy draft on Jack's justice and
+magnanimity, however, to make this concession.
+
+"And you told Rose and Madam Budd about your sex; and that was the
+reason they took to you so on the v'y'ge?"
+
+"I told them who I was, and why I went abroad as a man. They know my
+whole story."
+
+"Did Rose approve of your sailing under false colours, Jack?"
+
+"You must ask that of Rose herself. My story made her my friend; but
+she never said anything for or against my disguise."
+
+"It was no great disguise a'ter all, Jack. Now you're fitted out in
+your own clothes, you've a sort of half-rigged look; one would be as
+likely to set you down for a man under jury-canvas, as for a woman."
+
+Jack made no answer to this, but she sighed very heavily. As for
+Spike himself, he was silent for some little time, not only from
+exhaustion, but because he suffered pain from his wound. The needle
+was diligently but awkwardly plied in this pause.
+
+Spike's ideas were still a little confused; but a silence and rest
+of a quarter of an hour cleared them materially. At the end of that
+time he again asked for water. When he had drunk, and Jack was once
+more seated, with his side-face toward him, at work with the needle,
+the captain gazed long and intently at this strange woman. It
+happened that the profile of Jack preserved more of the resemblance
+to her former self, than the full face; and it was this resemblance
+that now attracted Spike's attention, though not the smallest
+suspicion of the truth yet gleamed upon him. He saw something that
+was familiar, though he could not even tell what that something was,
+much less to what or whom it bore any resemblance. At length he
+spoke.
+
+"I was told that Jack Tier was dead," he said; "that he took the
+fever, and was in his grave within eight-and-forty hours after we
+sailed. That was what they told me of _him_."
+
+"And what did they tell you of your own wife, Stephen Spike. She
+that you left ashore at the time Jack was left?"
+
+"They said she did not die for three years later. I heard of her
+death at New Or_leens,_ three years later."
+
+"And how could you leave her ashore--she, your true and lawful
+wife?"
+
+"It was a bad thing," answered Spike, who, like all other mortals,
+regarded his own past career, now that he stood on the edge of the
+grave, very differently from what he had regarded it in the hour of
+his health and strength. "Yes, it _was_ a very bad thing; and I wish
+it was ondone. But it is too late now. She died of the fever,
+too--that's some comfort; had she died of a broken heart, I could
+not have forgiven myself. Molly was not without her faults--great
+faults, I considered them; but, on the whole, Molly was a good
+creatur'."
+
+"You liked her, then, Stephen Spike?"
+
+"I can truly say that when I married Molly, and old Captain Swash
+put his da'ghter's hand into mine, that the woman was n't living who
+was better in my judgment, or handsomer in my eyes."
+
+"Ay, ay--when you _married_ her; but how was it a'terwards?--when
+you was tired of her, and saw another that was fairer in your eyes?"
+
+"I desarted her; and God has punished me for the sin! Do you know,
+Jack, that luck has never been with me since that day. Often and
+often have I bethought me of it; and sartain as you sit there, no
+great luck has ever been with me, or my craft, since I went off,
+leaving my wife ashore. What was made in one v'y'ge, was lost in the
+next. Up and down, up and down the whole time, for so many, many
+long years, that grey hairs set in, and old age was beginning to get
+close aboard--and I as poor as ever. It has been rub and go with me
+ever since; and I have had as much as I could do to keep the brig in
+motion, as the only means that was left to make the two ends meet."
+
+"And did not all this make you think of your poor wife--she whom you
+had so wronged?"
+
+"I thought of little else, until I heard of her death at New
+Or_leens_--and then I gave it up as useless. Could I have fallen in
+with Molly at any time a'ter the first six months of my desartion,
+she and I would have come together again, and everything would have
+been forgotten. I knowed her very nature, which was all forgiveness
+to me at the bottom, though seemingly so spiteful and hard."
+
+"Yet you wanted to have this Rose Budd, who is only too young, and
+handsome, and good for you."
+
+"I was tired of being a widower, Jack; and Rose _is_ wonderful
+pretty. She has money, too, and might make the evening of my days
+comfortable. The brig was old, as you must know, and has long been
+off of all the Insurance Offices' books; and she could n't hold
+together much longer. But for this sloop-of-war, I should have put
+her off on the Mexicans; and they would have lost her to our people
+in a month."
+
+"And was it an honest thing to sell an old and worn-out craft to any
+one, Stephen Spike?"
+
+Spike had a conscience that had become hard as iron by means of
+trade. He who traffics much, most especially if his dealings be on
+so small a scale as to render constant investigations of the minor
+qualities of things necessary, must be a very fortunate man, if he
+preserve his conscience in any better condition. When Jack made this
+allusion, therefore, the dying man--for death was much nearer to
+Spike that even be supposed, though he no longer hoped for his own
+recovery--when Jack made this allusion, then, the dying man was a
+good deal at a loss to comprehend it. He saw no particular harm in
+making the best bargain he could; nor was it easy for him to
+understand why he might not dispose of anything he possessed for the
+highest price that was to be had. Still he answered in an apologetic
+sort of way.
+
+"The brig was old, I acknowledge," he said, "but she was strong, and
+_might_ have run a long time. I only spoke of her capture as a thing
+likely to take place soon, if the Mexicans got her; so that her
+qualities were of no great account, unless it might be her
+speed--and that you know was excellent, Jack."
+
+"And you regret that brig, Stephen Spike, lying as you do on your
+death-bed, more than anything else."
+
+"Not as much as I do pretty Rose Budd, Jack; Rosy is so delightful
+to look at!"
+
+The muscles of Jack's face twitched a little, and she looked deeply
+mortified; for, to own the truth, she hoped that the conversation
+had so far turned her delinquent husband's thoughts to the past, as
+to have revived in him some of his former interest in herself. It is
+true, he still believed her dead; but this was a circumstance Jack
+overlooked--so hard is it to hear the praises of a rival, and be
+just. She felt the necessity of being more explicit, and determined
+at once to come to the point.
+
+"Stephen Spike," she said, steadily, drawing near to the bed-side,
+"you should be told the truth, when you are heard thus extolling the
+good looks of Rose Budd, with less than eight-and-forty hours of
+life remaining. Mary Swash did not die, as you have supposed, three
+years a'ter you desarted her, but is living at this moment. Had you
+read the letter I gave you in the boat, just before you made me jump
+into the sea, _that_ would have told you where she is to be found."
+
+Spike stared at the speaker intently; and when her cracked voice
+ceased, his look was that of a man who was terrified as well as
+bewildered. This did not arise still from any gleamings of the real
+state of the case, but from the soreness with which his conscience
+pricked him, when he heard that his much-wronged wife was alive. He
+fancied, with a vivid and rapid glance at the probabilities, all
+that a woman abandoned would be likely to endure in the course of so
+many long and suffering years.
+
+"Are you sure of what you say, Jack? You would n't take advantage of
+my situation to tell me an untruth?"
+
+"As certain of it as of my own existence. I have seen her quite
+lately--talked with her of _you_--in short, she is now at Key West,
+knows your state, and has a wife's feelin's to come to your
+bed-side."
+
+Notwithstanding all this, and the many gleamings he had had of the
+facts during their late intercourse on board the brig, Spike did not
+guess at the truth. He appeared astounded, and his terror seemed to
+increase.
+
+"I have another thing to tell you," continued Jack, pausing but a
+moment to collect her own thoughts. "Jack Tier--the real Jack
+Tier--he who sailed with you of old, and whom you left ashore at the
+same time you desarted your wife, _did_ die of the fever, as you was
+told, in eight-and-forty hours a'ter the brig went to sea."
+
+"Then who, in the name of Heaven, are you? How came you to hail by
+another's name as well as by another sex?"
+
+"What could a woman do, whose husband had desarted her in a strange
+land?"
+
+"That is remarkable! So _you_'ve been married? I should not have
+thought _that_ possible; and your husband desarted you, too. Well,
+such things _do_ happen."
+
+Jack now felt a severe pang. She could not but see that her
+ungainly--we had almost said her unearthly appearance--prevented the
+captain from even yet suspecting the truth; and the meaning of his
+language was not easily to be mistaken. That any one should have
+married _her,_ seemed to her husband as improbable as it was
+probable he would run away from her as soon as it was in his power
+after the ceremony.
+
+"Stephen Spike," resumed Jack, solemnly, "_I_ am Mary Swash--_I_ am
+your wife!"
+
+Spike started in his bed; then he buried his face in the
+coverlet--and he actually groaned. In bitterness of spirit the woman
+turned away and wept. Her feelings had been blunted by misfortune
+and the collisions of a selfish world; but enough of former self
+remained to make this the hardest of all the blows she had ever
+received. Her husband, dying as he was, as he must and did know
+himself to be, shrunk from one of her appearance, unsexed as she had
+become by habits, and changed by years and suffering.
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+  The trusting heart's repose, the paradise
+  Of home, with all its loves, doth fate allow
+  The crown of glory unto woman's brow.
+
+
+Mrs. Hemans.
+
+It has again become necessary to advance the time; and we shall take
+the occasion thus offered to make a few explanations touching
+certain events which have been passed over without notice.
+
+The reason why Captain Mull did not chase the yawl of the brig in
+the Poughkeepsie herself, was the necessity of waiting for his own
+boats that were endeavouring to regain the sloop-of-war. It would
+not have done to abandon them, inasmuch as the men were so much
+exhausted by the pull to windward, that when they reached the vessel
+all were relieved from duty for the rest of the day. As soon,
+however, as the other boats were hoisted in, or run up, the ship
+filled away, stood out of the passage and ran down to join the
+cutter of Wallace, which was endeavouring to keep its position, as
+much as possible, by making short tacks under close-reefed luggs.
+
+Spike had been received on board the sloop-of-war, sent into her
+sick bay, and put under the care of the surgeon and his assistants.
+From the first, these gentlemen pronounced the hurt mortal. The
+wounded man was insensible most of the time, until the ship had beat
+up and gone into Key West, where he was transferred to the regular
+hospital, as has already been mentioned.
+
+The wreckers went out the moment the news of the calamity of the
+Swash reached their ears. Some went in quest of the doubloons of the
+schooner, and others to pick up anything valuable that might be
+discovered in the neighbourhood of the stranded brig. It may be
+mentioned here, that not much was ever obtained from the brigantine,
+with the exception of a few spars, the sails, and a little rigging;
+but, in the end, the schooner was raised, by means of the chain
+Spike had placed around her, the cabin was ransacked, and the
+doubloons were recovered. As there was no one to claim the money, it
+was quietly divided among the conscientious citizens present at its
+re-visiting "the glimpses of the moon," making gold plenty.
+
+The doubloons in the yawl would have been lost but for the sagacity
+of Mulford. He too well knew the character of Spike to believe he
+would quit the brig without taking the doubloons with him.
+Acquainted with the boat, he examined the little locker in the
+stern-sheets, and found the two bags, one of which was probably the
+lawful property of Captain Spike, while the other, in truth,
+belonged to the Mexican government. The last contained the most
+gold, but the first amounted to a sum that our young mate knew to be
+very considerable. Rose had made him acquainted with the sex of Jack
+Tier since their own marriage; and he at once saw that the claims of
+this uncouth wife, who was so soon to be a widow, to the gold in
+question, might prove to be as good in law, as they unquestionably
+were in morals. On representing the facts of the case to Captain
+Mull and the legal functionaries at Key West, it was determined to
+relinquish this money to the heirs of Spike, as, indeed, they must
+have done under process, there being no other claimant. These
+doubloons, however, did not amount to the full price of the flour
+and powder that composed the cargo of the Swash. The cargo had been
+purchased with Mexican funds; and all that Spike or his heirs could
+claim, was the high freight for which he had undertaken the delicate
+office of transporting those forbidden articles, contraband of war,
+to the Dry Tortugas.
+
+Mulford by this time was high in the confidence and esteem of all on
+board the Poughkeepsie. He had frankly explained his whole connexion
+with Spike, not even attempting to conceal the reluctance he had
+felt to betray the brig after he had fully ascertained the fact of
+his commander's treason. The manly gentlemen with whom he was now
+brought in contact entered into his feelings, and admitted that it
+was an office no one could desire, to turn against the craft in
+which he sailed. It is true, they could not and would not be
+traitors, but Mulford had stopped far short of this; and the
+distinction between such a character and that of an informer was
+wide enough to satisfy all their scruples.
+
+Then Rose had the greatest success with the gentlemen of the
+Poughkeepsie. Her youth, beauty, and modesty, told largely in her
+favour; and the simple, womanly affection she unconsciously betrayed
+in behalf of Harry, touched the heart of every observer. When the
+intelligence of her aunt's fate reached her, the sorrow she
+manifested was so profound and natural, that every one sympathized
+with her grief. Nor would she be satisfied unless Mulford would
+consent to go in search of the bodies. The latter knew the
+hopelessness of such an excursion, but he could not refuse to
+comply. He was absent on that melancholy duty, therefore, at the
+moment of the scene related in our last chapter, and did not return
+until after that which we are now about to lay before the reader.
+Mrs. Budd, Biddy, and all of those who perished after the yawl got
+clear of the reef, were drowned in deep water, and no more was ever
+seen of any of them; or, if wreckers did pass them, they did not
+stop to bury the dead. It was different, however, with those, who
+were first sacrificed to Spike's selfishness. They were drowned on
+the reef, and Harry did actually recover the bodies of the Señor
+Montefalderon, and of Josh, the steward. They had washed upon a rock
+that is bare at low water. He took them both to the Dry Tortugas,
+and had them interred along with the other dead at that place. Don
+Juan was placed side by side with his unfortunate countryman, the
+master of his equally unfortunate schooner.
+
+While Harry was absent and thus employed, Rose wept much and prayed
+more. She would have felt herself almost alone in the world, but for
+the youth to whom she had so recently, less than a week before,
+plighted her faith in wedlock. That new tie, it is true, was of
+sufficient importance to counteract many of the ordinary feelings of
+her situation; and she now turned to it as the one which absorbed
+most of the future duties of her life. Still she missed the
+kindness, the solicitude, even the weaknesses of her aunt; and the
+terrible manner in which Mrs. Budd had perished, made her shudder
+with horror whenever she thought of it. Poor Biddy, too, came in for
+her share of the regrets. This faithful creature, who had been in
+the relict's service ever since Rose's infancy, had become endeared
+to her, in spite of her uncouth manners and confused ideas, by the
+warmth of her heart, and the singular truth of her feelings. Biddy,
+of all her family, had come to America, leaving behind her not only
+brothers and sisters, but parents living. Each year did she remit to
+the last a moiety of her earnings, and many a half-dollar that had
+come from Rose's pretty little hand, had been converted into gold,
+and forwarded on the same pious errand to the green island of her
+nativity. Ireland, unhappy country! at this moment what are not the
+dire necessities of thy poor! Here, from the midst of abundance, in
+a land that God has blessed in its productions far beyond the limits
+of human wants, a land in which famine was never known, do we at
+this moment hear thy groans, and listen to tales of suffering that
+to us seem almost incredible. In the midst of these chilling
+narratives, our eyes fall on an appeal to the English nation, that
+appears in what it is the fashion of some to term the first journal
+of Europe (!) in behalf of thy suffering people. A worthy appeal to
+the charity of England seldom fails; but it seems to us that one
+sentiment of this might have been altered, if not spared. The
+English are asked to be "_forgetful_ of the past," and to come
+forward to the relief of their suffering fellow-subjects. We should
+have written "_mindful_ of the past," in its stead. We say this in
+charity, as well as in truth. We come of English blood, and if we
+claim to share in all the ancient renown of that warlike and
+enlightened people, we are equally bound to share in the reproaches
+that original misgovernment has inflicted on thee. In this latter
+sense, then, thou hast a right to our sympathies, and they are not
+withheld.
+
+As has been already said, we now advance the time eight-and-forty
+hours, and again transfer the scene to that room in the hospital
+which was occupied by Spike. The approaches of death, during the
+interval just named, had been slow but certain. The surgeons had
+announced that the wounded man could not possibly survive the coming
+night; and he himself had been made sensible that his end was near.
+It is scarcely necessary to add that Stephen Spike, conscious of his
+vigour and strength, in command of his brig, and bent on the
+pursuits of worldly gains, or of personal gratification, was a very
+different person from him who now lay stretched on his pallet in the
+hospital of Key West, a dying man. By the side of his bed still sat
+his strange nurse, less peculiar in appearance, however, than when
+last seen by the reader.
+
+Rose Budd had been ministering to the ungainly externals of Jack
+Tier. She now wore a cap, thus concealing the short, grey bristles
+of hair, and lending to her countenance a little of that softness
+which is a requisite of female character. Some attention had also
+been paid to the rest of her attire; and Jack was, altogether, less
+repulsive in her exterior than when, unaided, she had attempted to
+resume the proper garb of her sex. Use and association, too, had
+contributed a little to revive her woman's nature, if we may so
+express it, and she had begun, in particular, to feel the sort of
+interest in her patient which we all come in time to entertain
+toward any object of our especial care. We do not mean that Jack had
+absolutely ever ceased to love her husband; strange as it may seem,
+such had not literally been the case; on the contrary, her interest
+in him and in his welfare had never ceased, even while she saw his
+vices and detested his crimes; but all we wish to say here is, that
+she was getting, in addition to the long-enduring feelings of a
+wife, some of the interest of a nurse.
+
+During the whole time which had elapsed between Jack's revealing her
+true character, and the moment of which we are now writing, Spike
+had not once spoken to his wife. Often had she caught his eyes
+intently riveted on her, when he would turn them away, as she
+feared, in distaste; and once or twice he groaned deeply, more like
+a man who suffered mental than bodily pain. Still the patient did
+not speak once in all the time mentioned. We should be representing
+poor Jack as possessing more philosophy, or less feeling, than the
+truth would warrant, were we to say that she was not hurt at this
+conduct in her husband.
+
+On the contrary, she felt it deeply; and more than once it had so
+far subdued her pride, as to cause her bitterly to weep. This
+shedding of tears, however, was of service to Jack in one sense, for
+it had the effect of renewing old impressions, and in a certain way,
+of reviving the nature of her sex within her--a nature which had
+been sadly weakened by her past life.
+
+But the hour had at length come when this long and painful silence
+was to be broken. Jack and Rose were alone with the patient, when
+the last again spoke to his wife.
+
+"Molly--poor Molly!" said the dying man, his voice continuing full
+and deep to the last, "what a sad time you must have had of it after
+I did you that wrong!"
+
+"It is hard upon a woman, Stephen, to turn her out, helpless, on a
+cold and selfish world," answered Jack, simply, much too honest to
+affect a reserve she did not feel.
+
+"It was hard, indeed; may God forgive me for it, as I hope ye do,
+Molly."
+
+No answer was made to this appeal; and the invalid looked anxiously
+at his wife. The last sat at her work, which had now got to be less
+awkward to her, with her eyes bent on her needle,--her countenance
+rigid, and, so far as the eye could discern, her feelings unmoved.
+
+"Your husband speaks to you, Jack Tier," said Rose, pointedly.
+
+"May _yours_ never have occasion to speak to you, Rose Budd, in the
+same way," was the solemn answer. "I do not flatter myself that I
+ever was as comely as you, or that yonder poor dying wretch was a
+Harry Mulford in his youth; but we were young and happy, and
+respected once, and loved each other, yet you see what it's all come
+to!"
+
+Rose was silenced, though she had too much tenderness in behalf of
+her own youthful and manly bridegroom to dread a fate similar to
+that which had overtaken poor Jack. Spike now seemed disposed to say
+something, and she went to the side of his bed, followed by her
+companion, who kept a little in the back-ground, as if unwilling to
+let the emotion she really felt be seen, and, perhaps, conscious
+that her ungainly appearance did not aid her in recovering the lost
+affections of her husband.
+
+"I have been a very wicked man, I fear," said Spike, earnestly.
+
+"There are none without sin," answered Rose. "Place your reliance on
+the mediation of the Son of God, and sins even far deeper than yours
+may be pardoned."
+
+The captain stared at the beautiful speaker, but self-indulgence,
+the incessant pursuit of worldly and selfish objects for forty
+years, and the habits of a life into which the thought of God and
+the dread hereafter never entered, had encased his spiritual being
+in a sort of brazen armour, through which no ordinary blow of
+conscience could penetrate. Still he had fearful glimpses of recent
+events, and his soul, hanging as it was over the abyss of eternity,
+was troubled.
+
+"What has become of your aunt?" half whispered Spike--"my old
+captain's widow. She ought to be here; and Don Wan Montezuma--where
+is he?"
+
+Rose turned aside to conceal her tears--but no one answered the
+questions of the dying man. Then a gleaming of childhood shot into
+the recollection of Spike, and, clasping his hands, he tried to
+pray. But, like others who have lived without any communication with
+their Creator through long lives of apathy to his existence and
+laws, thinking only of the present time, and daily, hourly
+sacrificing principles and duty to the narrow interests of the
+moment, he now found how hard it is to renew communications with a
+being who has been so long neglected. The fault lay in himself,
+however, for a gracious ear was open, even over the death-bed of
+Stephen Spike, could that rude spirit only bring itself to ask for
+mercy in earnestness and truth. As his companions saw his struggles,
+they left him for a few minutes to his own thoughts.
+
+"Molly," Spike at length uttered, in a faint tone, the voice of one
+conscious of being very near his end, "I hope you will forgive me,
+Molly. I know you must have a hard, hard time of it."
+
+"It is hard for a woman to unsex herself, Stephen; to throw off her
+very natur', as it might be, and to turn man."
+
+"It has changed you sadly--even your speech is altered. Once your
+voice was soft and womanish--more like that of Rose Budd's than it
+is now."
+
+"I speak as them speak among whom I've been forced to live. The
+forecastle and steward's pantry, Stephen Spike, are poor schools to
+send women to l'arn language in."
+
+"Try and forget it all, poor Molly! Say to me, so that I can hear
+you, `I forget and forgive, Stephen.' I am afraid God will not
+pardon my sins, which begin to seem dreadful to me, if my own wife
+refuse to forget and forgive, on my dying bed."
+
+Jack was much mollified by this appeal. Her interest in her
+offending husband had never been entirely extinguished. She had
+remembered him, and often with woman's kindness, in all her
+wanderings and sufferings, as the preceding parts of our narrative
+must show; and though resentment had been mingled with the grief and
+mortification she felt at finding how much he still submitted to
+Rose's superior charms, in a breast as really generous and humane as
+that of Jack Tier's, such a feeling was not likely to endure in the
+midst of a scene like that she was now called to witness. The
+muscles of her countenance twitched, the hard-looking, tanned face
+began to lose its sternness, and every way she appeared like one
+profoundly disturbed.
+
+"Turn to Him whose goodness and marcy may sarve you, Stephen," she
+said, in a milder and more feminine tone than she had used now for
+years, making her more like herself than either her husband or Rose
+had seen her since the commencement of the late voyage; "my sayin'
+that I forget and forgive cannot help a man on his death-bed."
+
+"It will settle my mind, Molly, and leave me freer to turn my
+thoughts to God."
+
+Jack was much affected, more by the countenance and manner of the
+sufferer, perhaps, than by his words. She drew nearer to the side of
+her husband's pallet, knelt, took his hands, and said solemnly,
+
+"Stephen Spike, from the bottom of my heart, I _do_ forgive you; and
+I shall pray to God that he will pardon your sins as freely and more
+marcifully than I now pardon all, and try to forget all that you
+have done to me."
+
+Spike clasped his hands, and again he tried to pray; but the habits
+of a whole life are not to be thrown off at will; and he who
+endeavours to regain, in his extremity, the moments that have been
+lost, will find, in bitter reality, that he has been heaping
+mountains on his own soul, by the mere practice of sin, which were
+never laid there by the original fall of his race. Jack, however,
+had disburthened her spirit of a load that had long oppressed it,
+and, burying her face in the rug, she wept.
+
+"I wish, Molly," said the dying man, several minutes later, "I wish
+I had never seen the brig. Until I got that craft, no thought of
+wronging human being ever crossed my mind."
+
+"It was the Father of Lies that tempts all to do evil, Stephen, and
+not the brig which caused the sins."
+
+"I wish I could live a year longer--_only_ one year; that is not
+much to ask for a man who is not yet sixty."
+
+"It is hopeless, poor Stephen. The surgeons say you cannot live one
+day."
+
+Spike groaned--for the past, blended fearfully with the future,
+gleamed on his conscience with a brightness that appalled him. And
+what is that future, which is to make us happy or miserable through
+an endless vista of time? Is it not composed of an existence, in
+which conscience, released from the delusions and weaknesses of the
+body, sees all in its true colours, appreciates all, and punishes
+all? Such an existence would make every man the keeper of the record
+of his own transgressions, even to the most minute exactness. It
+would of itself mete out perfect justice, since the sin would be
+seen amid its accompanying facts, every aggravating or extenuating
+circumstance. Each man would be strictly punished according to his
+talents. As no one is without sin, it makes the necessity of an
+atonement indispensable, and, in its most rigid interpretation, it
+exhibits the truth of the scheme of salvation in the clearest
+colours. The soul, or conscience, that can admit the necessary
+degree of faith in that atonement, and in admitting, _feels_ its
+efficacy, throws the burthen of its own transgressions away, and
+remains for ever in the condition of its original existence, pure,
+and consequently happy.
+
+We do not presume to lay down a creed on this mighty and mysterious
+matter, in which all have so deep an interest, and concerning which
+so very small a portion of the human race think much, or think with
+any clearness when it does become the subject of their passing
+thoughts at all We too well know our own ignorance to venture on
+dogmas which it has probably been intended that the mind of man
+should not yet grapple with and comprehend. To return to our
+subject.
+
+Stephen Spike was now made to feel the incubus-load, which
+perseverance in sin heaps on the breast of the reckless offender.
+What was the most grievous of all, his power to shake off this dead
+weight was diminished in precisely the same proportion as the
+burthen was increased, the moral force of every man lessening in a
+very just ratio to the magnitude of his delinquencies. Bitterly did
+this deep offender struggle with his conscience, and little did his
+half-unsexed wife know how to console or aid him. Jack had been
+superficially instructed in the dogmas of her faith, in childhood
+and youth, as most persons are instructed in what are termed
+Christian communities--had been made to learn the Catechism, the
+Lord's Prayer, and the Creed--and had been left to set up for
+herself on this small capital, in the great concern of human
+existence, on her marriage and entrance on the active business of
+life. When the manner in which she had passed the last twenty years
+is remembered, no one can be surprised to learn that Jack was of
+little assistance to her husband in his extremity. Rose made an
+effort to administer hope and consolation, but the terrible nature
+of the struggle she witnessed, induced her to send for the chaplain
+of the Poughkeepsie. This divine prayed with the dying man; but even
+he, in the last moments of the sufferer, was little more than a
+passive but shocked witness of remorse, suspended over the abyss of
+eternity in hopeless dread. We shall not enter into the details of
+the revolting scene, but simply add that curses, blasphemy,
+tremulous cries for mercy, agonized entreaties to be advised, and
+sullen defiance, were all strangely and fearfully blended. In the
+midst of one of these revolting paroxysms, Spike breathed his last.
+A few hours later, his body was interred in the sands of the shore.
+It may be well to say in this place, that the hurricane of 1846,
+which is known to have occurred only a few months later, swept off
+the frail covering, and that the body was washed away to leave its
+bones among the wrecks and relics of the Florida Reef.
+
+Mulford did not return from his fruitless expedition in quest of the
+remains of Mrs. Budd, until after the death and interment of Spike.
+As nothing remained to be done at Key West, he and Rose accompanied
+by Jack Tier, took passage for Charleston in the first convenient
+vessel that offered. Two days before they sailed, the Poughkeepsie
+went out to cruise in the Gulf, agreeably to her general orders. The
+evening previously Captain Mull, Wallace, and the chaplain, passed
+with the bridegroom and bride, when the matter of the doubloons
+found in the boat was discussed. It was agreed that Jack Tier should
+have them; and into her hands the bag was now placed. On this
+occasion, to oblige the officers, Jack went into a narrative of all
+she had seen and suffered, from the moment when abandoned by her
+late husband down to that when she found him again. It was a strange
+account, and one filled with surprising adventures. In most of the
+vessels in which she had served, Jack had acted in the steward's
+department, though she had frequently done duty as a fore-mast hand.
+In strength and skill she admitted that she had often failed; but in
+courage, never. Having been given reason to think her husband was
+reduced to serving in a vessel of war, she had shipped on board a
+frigate bound to the Mediterranean, and had actually made a whole
+cruise as a ward-room boy on that station. While thus employed, she
+had met with two of the gentlemen present; Captain Mull and Mr.
+Wallace. The former was then first-lieutenant of the frigate, and
+the latter a passed-midshipman; and in these capacities both had
+been well known to her. As the name she then bore was the same as
+that under which she now "hailed," these officers were soon made to
+recollect her, though Jack was no longer the light, trim-built lad
+he had then appeared to be. Neither of the gentlemen named had made
+the whole cruise in the ship, but each had been promoted and
+transferred to another craft, after being Jack's shipmate rather
+more than a year. This information greatly facilitated the affair of
+the doubloons.
+
+From Charleston the travellers came north by rail-road. Harry made
+several stops by the way, in order to divert the thoughts of his
+beautiful young bride from dwelling too much on the fate of her
+aunt. He knew that home would revive all these recollections
+painfully, and wished to put off the hour of their return, until
+time had a little weakened Rose's regrets. For this reason, he
+passed a whole week in Washington, though it was a season of the
+year that the place is not in much request. Still, Washington is
+scarce a town, at any season. It is much the fashion to deride the
+American capital, and to treat it as a place of very humble
+performance with very sounding pretensions. Certainly, Washington
+has very few of the peculiarities of a great European capital, but
+few as these are, they are more than belong to any other place in
+this country. We now allude to the _distinctive_ characteristics of
+a capital, and not to a mere concentration of houses and shops
+within a given space. In this last respect, Washington is much
+behind fifty other American towns, even while it is the only place
+in the whole republic which possesses specimens of architecture, on
+a scale approaching that of the higher classes of the edifices of
+the old world. It is totally deficient in churches, and theatres,
+and markets; or those it does possess are, in an architectural
+sense, not at all above the level of village or countrytown
+pretensions, but one or two of its national edifices do approach the
+magnificence and grandeur of the old world. The new Treasury
+Buildings are unquestionably, on the score of size, embellishments
+and finish, _the_ American edifice that comes nearest to first class
+architecture on the other side of the Atlantic. The Capitol comes
+next, though it can scarce be ranked, relatively, as high. As for
+the White House, it is every way sufficient for its purposes and the
+institutions; and now that its grounds are finished, and the
+shrubbery and trees begin to tell, one sees about it something that
+is not unworthy of its high uses and origin. Those grounds, which so
+long lay a reproach to the national taste and liberality, are now
+fast becoming beautiful, are already exceedingly pretty, and give to
+a structure that is destined to become historical, having already
+associated with it the names of Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, and
+Quincy Adams, together with the _ci polloi_ of the later Presidents,
+an _entourage_ that is suitable to its past recollections and its
+present purposes. They are not quite on a level with the parks of
+London, it is true; or even with the Tuileries, or Luxembourg, or
+the Boboli, or the Villa Reale, or fifty more grounds and gardens,
+of a similar nature, that might be mentioned; but, seen in the
+spring and early summer, they adorn the building they surround, and
+lend to the whole neighbourhood a character of high civilization,
+that no other place in America can show, in precisely the same form,
+or to the same extent.
+
+This much have we said on the subject of the White House and its
+precincts, because we took occasion, in a former work, to berate the
+narrow-minded parsimony which left the grounds of the White House in
+a condition that was discreditable to the republic. How far our
+philippic may have hastened the improvements which have been made,
+is more than we shall pretend to say; but having made the former
+strictures, we are happy to have an occasion to say (though nearly
+twenty years have intervened between the expressions of the two
+opinions) that they are no longer merited.
+
+And here we will add another word, and that on a subject that is not
+sufficiently pressed on the attention of a people, who, by position,
+are unavoidably provincial. We invite those whose gorges rise at any
+stricture on anything American, and who fancy it is enough to belong
+to the great republic to be great in itself, to place themselves in
+front of the State Department, as it now stands, and to examine its
+dimensions, material and form with critical eyes, then to look along
+the adjacent Treasury Buildings, to fancy them completed, by a
+junction with new edifices of a similar construction to contain the
+department of state; next to fancy similar works completed for the
+two opposite departments; after which, to compare the past and
+present with the future as thus finished, and remember how recent
+has been the partial improvement which even now exists. If this
+examination and comparison do not show, directly to the sense of
+sight, how much there was and is to criticise, as put in contrast
+with other countries, we shall give up the individuals in question,
+as too deeply dyed in the provincial wool ever to be whitened. The
+present Trinity church, New York, certainly not more than a third
+class European church, if as much, compared with its village-like
+predecessor, may supply a practical homily of the same degree of
+usefulness. There may be those among us, however, who fancy it
+patriotism to maintain that the old Treasury Buildings were quite
+equal to the new, and of these intense Americans we cry their mercy!
+
+Rose felt keenly on reaching her late aunt's very neat dwelling in
+Fourteenth Street, New York. But the manly tenderness of Mulford was
+a great support to her, and a little time brought her to think of
+that weak-minded, but well-meaning and affectionate relative, with
+gentle regret, rather than with grief. Among the connexions of her
+young husband, she found several females of a class in life
+certainly equal to her own, and somewhat superior to the latter in
+education and habits. As for Harry, he very gladly passed the season
+with his beautiful bride, though a fine ship was laid down for him,
+by means of Rose's fortune, now much increased by her aunt's death,
+and he was absent in Europe when his son was born; an event that
+occurred only two months since.
+
+The Swash, and the shipment of gunpowder, were thought of no more in
+the good town of Manhattan. This great emporium--we beg pardon, this
+great _commercial_ emporium--has a trick of forgetting, condensing
+all interests into those of the present moment. It is much addicted
+to believing that which never had an existence, and of overlooking
+that which is occurring directly under its nose. So marked is this
+tendency to forgetfulness, we should not be surprised to hear some
+of the Manhattanese pretend that our legend is nothing but a
+fiction, and deny the existence of the Molly, Captain Spike, and
+even of Biddy Noon. But we know them too well to mind what they say,
+and shall go on and finish our narrative in our own way, just as if
+there were no such raven-throated commentators at all.
+
+Jack Tier, still known by that name, lives in the family of Captain
+Mulford. She is fast losing the tan on her face and hands, and every
+day is improving in appearance. She now habitually wears her proper
+attire, and is dropping gradually into the feelings and habits of
+her sex. She never can become what she once was, any more than the
+blackamoor can become white, or the leopard change his spots; but
+she is no longer revolting. She has left off chewing and smoking,
+having found a refuge in snuff. Her hair is permitted to grow, and
+is already turned up with a comb, though constantly concealed
+beneath a cap. The heart of Jack, alone, seems unaltered. The
+strange, tiger-like affection that she bore for Spike, during twenty
+years of abandonment, has disappeared in regrets for his end. It is
+succeeded by a most sincere attachment for Rose, in which the little
+boy, since his appearance on the scene, is becoming a large
+participator. This child Jack is beginning to love intensely; and
+the doubloons, well invested, placing her above the feeling of
+dependence, she is likely to end her life, once so errant and
+disturbed, in tranquillity and a home-like happiness.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, JACK TIER OR THE FLORIDA REEF ***
+
+This file should be named 8tier10.txt or 8tier10.zip
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diff --git a/old/2003-12-8tier10.zip b/old/2003-12-8tier10.zip
new file mode 100644
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/2003-12-8tier10.zip
diff --git a/old/4796-h.htm.2021-01-27 b/old/4796-h.htm.2021-01-27
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+++ b/old/4796-h.htm.2021-01-27
@@ -0,0 +1,20342 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Jack Tier;, by James Fenimore Cooper
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+Project Gutenberg's Jack Tier or The Florida Reef, by James Fenimore Cooper
+
+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: Jack Tier or The Florida Reef
+
+Author: James Fenimore Cooper
+
+Release Date: December, 2003 [EBook #4796]
+Last Updated: March 11, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JACK TIER OR THE FLORIDA REEF ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Aldarondo and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      JACK TIER;
+    </h1>
+    <h3>
+      OR
+    </h3>
+    <h2>
+      THE FLORIDA REEF
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By James Fenimore Cooper
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        By The Author Of &ldquo;The Pilot,&rdquo; &ldquo;Red Rover,&rdquo; &ldquo;Two Admirals,&rdquo; &ldquo;Wing And
+        Wing,&rdquo; &ldquo;Miles Wallingford,&rdquo; Etc.
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> <big><b>VOLUME I.</b></big> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> <big><b>VOLUME II.</b></big> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER V. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER VI. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER VII. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER VIII. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER IX. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      PREFACE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      This work has already appeared in Graham's Magazine, under the title of
+      &ldquo;Rose Budd.&rdquo; The change of name is solely the act of the author, and
+      arises from a conviction that the appellation given in this publication is
+      more appropriate than the one laid aside. The necessity of writing to a
+      name, instead of getting it from the incidents of the book itself, has
+      been the cause of this departure from the ordinary rules.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When this book was commenced, it was generally supposed that the Mexican
+      war would end, after a few months of hostilities. Such was never the
+      opinion of the writer. He has ever looked forward to a protracted
+      struggle; and, now that Congress has begun to interfere, sees as little
+      probability of its termination, as on the day it commenced. Whence
+      honourable gentlemen have derived their notions of the constitution, when
+      they advance the doctrine that Congress is an American Aulic council,
+      empowered to encumber the movements of armies, and, as old Blucher
+      expressed it in reference to the diplomacy of Europe, &ldquo;to spoil with the
+      pen the work achieved by the sword,&rdquo; it is difficult to say more than
+      this, that they do not get them from the constitution itself. It has
+      generally been supposed that the present executive was created in order to
+      avoid the very evils of a distracted and divided council, which this new
+      construction has a direct tendency to revive. But a presidential election
+      has ever proved, and probably will ever prove, stronger than any written
+      fundamental law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have had occasion to refer often to Mexico in these pages. It has been
+      our aim to do so in a kind spirit; for, while we have never doubted that
+      the factions which have possessed themselves of the government in that
+      country have done us great wrong, wrong that would have justified a much
+      earlier appeal to arms, we have always regarded the class of Mexicans who
+      alone can properly be termed the 'people,' as mild, amiable, and disposed
+      to be on friendly terms with us. Providence, however, directs all to the
+      completion of its own wise ends. If the crust which has so long encircled
+      that nation, enclosing it in bigotry and ignorance, shall now be
+      irretrievably broken, letting in light, even Mexico herself may have cause
+      hereafter to rejoice in her present disasters. It was in this way that
+      Italy has been, in a manner, regenerated; the conquests of the French
+      carrying in their train the means and agencies which have, at length,
+      aroused that glorious portion of the earth to some of its ancient spirit.
+      Mexico, in certain senses, is the Italy of this continent; and war,
+      however ruthless and much to be deplored, may yet confer on her the
+      inestimable blessings of real liberty, and a religion released from &ldquo;feux
+      d'artifice,&rdquo; as well as all other artifices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A word on the facts of our legend. The attentive observer of men and
+      things has many occasions to note the manner in which ordinary lookers on
+      deceive themselves, as well as others. The species of treason portrayed in
+      these pages is no uncommon occurrence; and it will often be found that the
+      traitor is the loudest in his protestations of patriotism. It is a pretty
+      safe rule to suspect the man of hypocrisy who makes a parade of his
+      religion, and the partisan of corruption and selfishness, who is clamorous
+      about the rights of the people. Captain Spike was altogether above the
+      first vice; though fairly on level, as respects the second, with divers
+      patriots who live by their deity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      VOLUME I.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Pros.
+
+      Why, that's my spirit!
+     But was not this nigh shore?
+
+     Ariel.
+
+      Close by, my master.
+
+     Pros.
+
+      But are they, Ariel, safe?
+
+     Ariel.
+
+      Not a hair perished:
+
+     Tempest.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;D'ye here there, Mr. Mulford?&rdquo; called out Capt. Stephen Spike, of the
+      half-rigged, brigantine Swash, or Molly Swash, as was her registered name,
+      to his mate&mdash;&ldquo;we shall be dropping out as soon as the tide makes, and
+      I intend to get through the Gate, at least, on the next flood. Waiting for
+      a wind in port is lubberly seamanship, for he that wants one should go
+      outside and look for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This call was uttered from a wharf of the renowned city of Manhattan, to
+      one who was in the trunk-cabin of a clipper-looking craft, of the name
+      mentioned, and on the deck of which not a soul was visible. Nor was the
+      wharf, though one of those wooden piers that line the arm of the sea that
+      is called the East River, such a spot as ordinarily presents itself to the
+      mind of the reader, or listener, when an allusion is made to a wharf of
+      that town which it is the fashion of the times to call the Commercial
+      Emporium of America&mdash;as if there might very well be an emporium of
+      any other character. The wharf in question had not a single vessel of any
+      sort lying at, or indeed very near it, with the exception of the Molly
+      Swash. As it actually stood on the eastern side of the town, it is
+      scarcely necessary to say that such a wharf could only be found high up,
+      and at a considerable distance from the usual haunts of commerce. The brig
+      lay more than a mile above the Hook (Corlaer's, of course, is meant&mdash;not
+      Sandy Hook) and quite near to the old Alms House&mdash;far above the
+      ship-yards, in fact. It was a solitary place for a vessel, in the midst of
+      a crowd. The grum top-chain voice of Captain Spike had nothing there to
+      mingle with, or interrupt its harsh tones, and it instantly brought on
+      deck Harry Mulford, the mate in question, apparently eager to receive his
+      orders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you hail, Captain Spike?&rdquo; called out the mate, a tight, well-grown,
+      straight-built, handsome sailor-lad of two or three-and-twenty&mdash;one
+      full of health, strength and manliness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hail! If you call straining a man's throat until he's hoarse, hailing, I
+      believe I did. I flatter myself, there is not a man north of Hatteras that
+      can make himself heard further in gale of wind than a certain gentleman
+      who is to be found within a foot of the spot where I stand. Yet, sir, I've
+      been hailing the Swash these five minutes, and thankful am I to find some
+      one at last who is on board to answer me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are your orders, Capt. Spike?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To see all clear for a start as soon as the flood makes. I shall go
+      through the Gate on the next young flood, and I hope you'll have all the
+      hands aboard in time. I see two or three of them up at that Dutch
+      beer-house, this moment, and can tell'em; in plain language, if they come
+      here with their beer aboard them, they'll have to go ashore again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have an uncommonly sober crew, Capt. Spike,&rdquo; answered the young man,
+      with great calmness. &ldquo;During the whole time I have been with them, I have
+      not seen a man among them the least in the wind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I hope it will turn out that I've an uncommonly sober mate in the
+      bargain. Drunkenness I abominate, Mr. Mulford, and I can tell you, short
+      metre, that I will not stand it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I inquire if you ever saw me, the least in the world, under the
+      influence of liquor, Capt. Spike?&rdquo; demanded the mate, rather than asked,
+      with a very fixed meaning in his manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I keep no log-book of trifles, Mr. Mulford, and cannot say. No man is the
+      worse for bowsing out his jib when off duty, though a drunkard's a thing I
+      despise. Well, well&mdash;remember, sir, that the Molly Swash casts off on
+      the young flood, and that Rose Budd and the good lady, her aunt, take
+      passage in her, this v'y'ge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it possible that you have persuaded them into that, at last!&rdquo;
+       exclaimed the handsome mate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Persuaded! It takes no great persuasion, sir, to get the ladies to try
+      their luck in that brig. Lady Washington herself, if she was alive and
+      disposed to a sea-v'y'ge, might be glad of the chance. We've a ladies'
+      cabin, you know, and it's suitable that it should have some one to occupy
+      it. Old Mrs. Budd is a sensible woman, and takes time by the forelock.
+      Rose is ailin'&mdash;pulmonary they call it, I believe, and her aunt
+      wishes to try the sea for her constitution&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rose Budd has no more of a pulmonary constitution than I have myself,&rdquo;
+       interrupted the mate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that's as people fancy. You must know, Mr. Mulford, they've got all
+      sorts of diseases now-a-days, and all sorts of cures for'em. One sort of a
+      cure for consumption is what they tarm the Hyder-Ally&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you must mean hydropathy, sir&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well it's something of the sort, no matter what&mdash;but cold water is
+      at the bottom of it, and they do say it's a good remedy. Now Rose's aunt
+      thinks if cold water is what is wanted, there is no place where it can be
+      so plenty as out on the ocean. Sea-air is good, too, and by taking a
+      v'y'ge her niece will get both requisites together, and cheap.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does Rose Budd think herself consumptive, Capt. Spike?&rdquo; asked Mulford,
+      with interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not she&mdash;you know it will never do to alarm a pulmonary, so Mrs.
+      Budd has held her tongue carefully on the subject before the young woman.
+      Rose fancies that her aunt is out of sorts, and that the v'y'ge is tried
+      on her account&mdash;but the aunt, the cunning thing, knows all about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford almost nauseated the expression of his commander's countenance
+      while Spike uttered the last words. At no time was that countenance very
+      inviting, the features being coarse and vulgar, while the color of the
+      entire face was of an ambiguous red, in which liquor and the seasons would
+      seem to be blended in very equal quantities. Such a countenance, lighted
+      up by a gleam of successful management, not to say with hopes and wishes
+      that it will hardly do to dwell on, could not but be revolting to a youth
+      of Harry Mulford's generous feelings, and most of all to one who
+      entertained the sentiments which he was quite conscious of entertaining
+      for Rose Budd. The young man made no reply, but turned his face toward the
+      water, in order to conceal the expression of disgust that he was sensible
+      must be strongly depicted on it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The river, as the well-known arm of the sea in which the Swash was lying
+      is erroneously termed, was just at that moment unusually clear of craft,
+      and not a sail, larger than that of a boat, was to be seen between the end
+      of Blackwell's Island and Corlaer's Hook, a distance of about a league.
+      This stagnation in the movement of the port, at that particular point, was
+      owing to the state of wind and tide. Of the first, there was little more
+      than a southerly air, while the last was about two-thirds ebb. Nearly
+      everything that was expected on that tide, coast-wise, and by the way of
+      the Sound, had already arrived, and nothing could go eastward, with that
+      light breeze and under canvas, until the flood made. Of course it was
+      different with the steamers, who were paddling about like so many ducks,
+      steering in all directions, though mostly crossing and re-crossing at the
+      ferries. Just as Mulford turned away from his commander, however, a large
+      vessel of that class shoved her bows into the view, doubling the Hook, and
+      going eastward. The first glance at this vessel sufficed to drive even
+      Rose Budd momentarily out of the minds of both master and mate, and to
+      give a new current to their thoughts. Spike had been on the point of
+      walking up the wharf, but he now so far changed his purpose as actually to
+      jump on board of the brig and spring up alongside of his mate, on the
+      taffrail, in order to get a better look at the steamer. Mulford, who
+      loathed so much in his commander, was actually glad of this, Spike's rare
+      merit as a seaman forming a sort of attraction that held him, as it might
+      be against his own will, bound to his service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What will they do next, Harry?&rdquo; exclaimed the master, his manner and
+      voice actually humanized, in air and sound at least, by this unexpected
+      view of something new in his calling&mdash;&ldquo;What will they do next?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see no wheels, sir, nor any movement in the water astern, as if she
+      were a propeller,&rdquo; returned the young man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She's an out-of-the-way sort of a hussy! She's a man-of-war, too&mdash;one
+      of Uncle Sam's new efforts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That can hardly be, sir. Uncle Sam has but three steamers, of any size or
+      force, now the Missouri is burned; and yonder is one of them, lying at the
+      Navy Yard, while another is, or was lately, laid up at Boston. The third
+      is in the Gulf. This must be an entirely new vessel, if she belong to
+      Uncle Sam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;New! She's as new as a Governor, and they tell me they've got so now that
+      they choose five or six of them, up at Albany, every fall. That craft is
+      sea-going, Mr. Mulford, as any one can tell at a glance. She's none of
+      your passenger-hoys.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's plain enough, sir&mdash;and she's armed. Perhaps she's English,
+      and they've brought her here into this open spot to try some new
+      machinery. Ay, ay! she's about to set her ensign to the navy men at the
+      yard, and we shall see to whom she belongs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A long, low, expressive whistle from Spike succeeded this remark, the
+      colours of the steamer going up to the end of a gaff on the sternmost of
+      her schooner-rigged masts, just as Mulford ceased speaking. There was just
+      air enough, aided by the steamer's motion, to open the bunting, and let
+      the spectators see the design. There were the stars and stripes, as usual,
+      but the last ran perpendicularly, instead of in a horizontal direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Revenue, by George!&rdquo; exclaimed the master, as soon as his breath was
+      exhausted in the whistle. &ldquo;Who would have believed they could screw
+      themselves up to doing such a thing in that bloody service?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I now remember to have heard that Uncle Sam was building some large
+      steamers for the revenue service, and, if I mistake not, with some new
+      invention to get along with, that is neither wheel nor propeller. This
+      must be one of these new craft, brought out here, into open water, just to
+      try her, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're right, sir, you're right. As to the natur' of the beast, you see
+      her buntin', and no honest man can want more. If there's anything I do
+      hate, it is that flag, with its unnat'ral stripes, up and down, instead of
+      running in the true old way. I have heard a lawyer say, that the revenue
+      flag of this country is onconstitutional, and that a vessel carrying it on
+      the high seas might be sent in for piracy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Although Harry Mulford was neither Puffendorf, nor Grotius, he had too
+      much common sense, and too little prejudice in favour of even his own
+      vocation, to swallow such a theory, had fifty Cherry Street lawyers sworn
+      to its justice. A smile crossed his fine, firm-looking mouth, and
+      something very like a reflection of that smile, if smiles can be reflected
+      in one's own countenance, gleamed in his fine, large, dark eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be somewhat singular, Capt, Spike,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;if a vessel
+      belonging to any nation should be seized as a pirate. The fact that she is
+      national in character would clear her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let her carry a national flag, and be d&mdash;d to her,&rdquo; answered
+      Spike fiercely. &ldquo;I can show you law for what I say, Mr. Mulford. The
+      American flag has its stripes fore and aft by law, and this chap carries
+      his stripes parpendic'lar. If I commanded a cruiser, and fell in with one
+      of these up and down gentry, blast me if I wouldn't just send him into
+      port, and try the question in the old Alms-House.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford probably did not think it worth while to argue the point any
+      further, understanding the dogmatism and stolidity of his commander too
+      well to deem it necessary. He preferred to turn to the consideration of
+      the qualities of the steamer in sight, a subject on which, as seamen, they
+      might better sympathize.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's a droll-looking revenue cutter, after all, Capt. Spike,&rdquo; he said&mdash;&ldquo;a
+      craft better fitted to go in a fleet, as a look-out vessel, than to chase
+      a smuggler in-shore.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And no goer in the bargain! I do not see how she gets along, for she
+      keeps all snug under water; but, unless she can travel faster than she
+      does just now, the Molly Swash would soon lend her the Mother Carey's
+      Chickens of her own wake to amuse her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has the tide against her, just here, sir; no doubt she would do
+      better in still water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike muttered something between his teeth, and jumped down on deck,
+      seemingly dismissing the subject of the revenue entirely from his mind.
+      His old, coarse, authoritative manner returned, and he again spoke to his
+      mate about Rose Budd, her aunt, the &ldquo;ladies' cabin,&rdquo; the &ldquo;young flood,&rdquo;
+       and &ldquo;casting off,&rdquo; as soon as the last made. Mulford listened
+      respectfully, though with a manifest distaste for the instructions he was
+      receiving. He knew his man, and a feeling of dark distrust came over him,
+      as he listened to his orders concerning the famous accommodations he
+      intended to give to Rose Budd and that &ldquo;capital old lady, her aunt;&rdquo; his
+      opinion of &ldquo;the immense deal of good sea-air and a v'y'ge would do Rose,&rdquo;
+       and how &ldquo;comfortable they both would be on board the Molly Swash.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I honour and respect, Mrs. Budd, as my captain's lady, you see, Mr.
+      Mulford, and intend to treat her accordin'ly. She knows it&mdash;and Rose
+      knows it&mdash;and they both declare they'd rather sail with me, since
+      sail they must, than with any other ship-master out of America.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You sailed once with Capt. Budd yourself, I think I have heard you say,
+      sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The old fellow brought me up. I was with him from my tenth to my
+      twentieth year, and then broke adrift to see fashions. We all do that, you
+      know, Mr. Mulford, when we are young and ambitious, and my turn came as
+      well as another's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Capt. Budd must have been a good deal older than his wife, sir, if you
+      sailed with him when a boy,&rdquo; Mulford observed a little drily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; I own to forty-eight, though no one would think me more than five or
+      six-and-thirty, to look at me. There was a great difference between old
+      Dick Budd and his wife, as you say, he being about fifty, when he married,
+      and she less than twenty. Fifty is a good age for matrimony, in a man,
+      Mulford; as is twenty in a young woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rose Budd is not yet nineteen, I have heard her say,&rdquo; returned the mate,
+      with emphasis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Youngish, I will own, but that's a fault a liberal-minded man can
+      overlook. Every day, too, will lessen it. Well, look to the cabins, and
+      see all clear for a start. Josh will be down presently with a cart-load of
+      stores, and you'll take 'em aboard without delay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Spike uttered this order, his foot was on the plank-sheer of the
+      bulwarks, in the act of passing to the wharf again. On reaching the shore,
+      he turned and looked intently at the revenue steamer, and his lips moved,
+      as if he were secretly uttering maledictions on her. We say maledictions,
+      as the expression of his fierce ill-favoured countenance too plainly
+      showed that they could not be blessings. As for Mulford, there was still
+      something on his mind, and he followed to the gangway ladder and ascended
+      it, waiting for a moment when the mind of his commander might be less
+      occupied to speak. The opportunity soon occurred, Spike having satisfied
+      himself with the second look at the steamer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you don't mean to sail again without a second mate, Capt. Spike?&rdquo;
+       he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do though, I can tell you. I hate Dickies&mdash;they are always in the
+      way, and the captain has to keep just as much of a watch with one as
+      without one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will depend on his quality. You and I have both been Dickies in our
+      time, sir; and my time was not long ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay&mdash;ay&mdash;I know all about it&mdash;but you didn't stick to it
+      long enough to get spoiled. I would have no man aboard the Swash who made
+      more than two v'y'ges as second officer. As I want no spies aboard my
+      craft, I'll try it once more without a Dicky.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Saying this in a sufficiently positive manner, Capt. Stephen Spike rolled
+      up the wharf, much as a ship goes off before the wind, now inclining to
+      the right, and then again to the left. The gait of the man would have
+      proclaimed him a sea-dog, to any one acquainted with that animal, as far
+      as he could be seen. The short squab figure, the arms bent nearly at right
+      angles at the elbow, and working like two fins with each roll of the body,
+      the stumpy, solid legs, with the feet looking in the line of his course
+      and kept wide apart, would all have contributed to the making up of such
+      an opinion. Accustomed as he was to this beautiful sight, Harry Mulford
+      kept his eyes riveted on the retiring person of his commander, until it
+      disappeared behind a pile of lumber, waddling always in the direction of
+      the more thickly peopled parts of the town. Then he turned and gazed at
+      the steamer, which, by this time, had fairly passed the brig, and seemed
+      to be actually bound through the Gate. That steamer was certainly a
+      noble-looking craft, but our young man fancied she struggled along through
+      the water heavily. She might be quick at need, but she did not promise as
+      much by her present rate of moving. Still, she was a noble-looking craft,
+      and, as Mulford descended to the deck again, he almost regretted he did
+      not belong to her; or, at least, to anything but the Molly Swash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two hours produced a sensible change in and around that brigantine. Her
+      people had all come back to duty, and what was very remarkable among
+      seafaring folk, sober to a man. But, as has been said, Spike was a
+      temperance man, as respects all under his orders at least, if not strictly
+      so in practice himself. The crew of the Swash was large for a half-rigged
+      brig of only two hundred tons, but, as her spars were very square, and all
+      her gear as well as her mould seemed constructed for speed, it was
+      probable more hands than common were necessary to work her with facility
+      and expedition. After all, there were not many persons to be enumerated
+      among the &ldquo;people of the Molly Swash,&rdquo; as they called themselves; not more
+      than a dozen, including those aft, as well as those forward. A peculiar
+      feature of this crew, however, was the circumstance that they were all
+      middle-aged men, with the exception of the mate, and all thorough-bred
+      sea-dogs. Even Josh, the cabin-boy, as he was called, was an old,
+      wrinkled, gray-headed negro, of near sixty. If the crew wanted a little in
+      the elasticity of youth, it possessed the steadiness and experience of
+      their time of life, every man appearing to know exactly what to do, and
+      when to do it. This, indeed, composed their great merit; an advantage that
+      Spike well knew how to appreciate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stores had been brought alongside of the brig in a cart, and were
+      already showed in their places. Josh had brushed and swept, until the
+      ladies' cabin could be made no neater. This ladies' cabin was a small
+      apartment beneath a trunk, which was, ingeniously enough, separated from
+      the main cabin by pantries and double doors. The arrangement was unusual,
+      and Spike had several times hinted that there was a history connected with
+      that cabin; though what the history was Mulford never could induce him to
+      relate. The latter knew that the brig had been used for a forced trade on
+      the Spanish Main, and had heard something of her deeds in bringing off
+      specie, and proscribed persons, at different epochs in the revolutions of
+      that part of the world, and he had always understood that her present
+      commander and owner had sailed in her, as mate, for many years before he
+      had risen to his present station. Now, all was regular in the way of
+      records, bills of sale, and other documents; Stephen Spike appearing in
+      both the capacities just named. The register proved that the brig had been
+      built as far back as the last English war, as a private cruiser, but
+      recent and extensive repairs had made her &ldquo;better than new,&rdquo; as her owner
+      insisted, and there was no question as to her sea-worthiness. It is true
+      the insurance offices blew upon her, and would have nothing to do with a
+      craft that had seen her two score years and ten; but this gave none who
+      belonged to her any concern, inasmuch as they could scarcely have been
+      underwritten in their trade, let the age of the vessel be what it might.
+      It was enough for them that the brig was safe and exceedingly fast,
+      insurances never saving the lives of the people, whatever else might be
+      their advantages. With Mulford it was an additional recommendation, that
+      the Swash was usually thought to be of uncommonly just proportions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By half-past two, P. M., everything was ready for getting the brigantine
+      under way. Her fore-topsail&mdash;or foretawsail as Spike called it&mdash;was
+      loose, the fasts were singled, and a spring had been carried to a post in
+      the wharf, that was well forward of the starboard bow, and the brig's head
+      turned to the southwest, or down the stream, and consequently facing the
+      young flood. Nothing seemed to connect the vessel with the land but a
+      broad gangway plank, to which Mulford had attached life-lines, with more
+      care than it is usual to meet with on board of vessels employed in short
+      voyages. The men stood about the decks with their arms thrust into the
+      bosoms of their shirts, and the whole picture was one of silent, and
+      possibly of somewhat uneasy expectation. Nothing was said, however;
+      Mulford walking the quarter-deck alone, occasionally looking up the still
+      little tenanted streets of that quarter of the suburbs, as if to search
+      for a carriage. As for the revenue-steamer, she had long before gone
+      through the southern passage of Blackwell's, steering for the Gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat's dem, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo; Josh at length cried, from the look-out he had
+      taken in a stern-port, where he could see over the low bulwarks of the
+      vessel. &ldquo;Yes, dat's dem, sir. I know dat old gray horse dat carries his
+      head so low and sorrowful like, as a horse has a right to do dat has to
+      drag a cab about this big town. My eye! what a horse it is, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Josh was right, not only as to the gray horse that carried his head
+      &ldquo;sorrowful like,&rdquo; but as to the cab and its contents. The vehicle was soon
+      on the wharf, and in its door soon appeared the short, sturdy figure of
+      Capt. Spike, backing out, much as a bear descends a tree. On top of the
+      vehicle were several light articles of female appliances, in the shape of
+      bandboxes, bags, &amp;c., the trunks having previously arrived in a cart.
+      Well might that over-driven gray horse appear sorrowful, and travel with a
+      lowered head. The cab, when it gave up its contents, discovered a load of
+      no less than four persons besides the driver, all of weight, and of
+      dimensions in proportion, with the exception of the pretty and youthful
+      Rose Budd. Even she was plump, and of a well-rounded person; though still
+      light and slender. But her aunt was a fair picture of a ship-master's
+      widow; solid, comfortable and buxom. Neither was she old, nor ugly. On the
+      contrary, her years did not exceed forty, and being well preserved, in
+      consequence of never having been a mother, she might even have passed for
+      thirty-five. The great objection to her appearance was the somewhat
+      indefinite character of her shape, which seemed to blend too many of its
+      charms into one. The fourth person, in the fare, was Biddy Noon, the Irish
+      servant and factotum of Mrs. Budd, who was a pock-marked, red-faced, and
+      red-armed single woman, about her mistress's own age and weight, though
+      less stout to the eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of Rose we shall not stop to say much here. Her deep-blue eye, which was
+      equally spirited and gentle, if one can use such contradictory terms,
+      seemed alive with interest and curiosity, running over the brig, the
+      wharf, the arm of the sea, the two islands, and all near her, including
+      the Alms-House, with such a devouring rapidity as might be expected in a
+      town-bred girl, who was setting out on her travels for the first time. Let
+      us be understood; we say town-bred, because such was the fact; for Rose
+      Budd had been both born and educated in Manhattan, though we are far from
+      wishing to be understood that she was either very well-born, or highly
+      educated. Her station in life may be inferred from that of her aunt, and
+      her education from her station. Of the two, the last was, perhaps, a
+      trifle the highest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have said that the fine blue eye of Rose passed swiftly over the
+      various objects near her, as she alighted from the cab, and it naturally
+      took in the form of Harry Mulford, as he stood in the gangway, offering
+      his arm to aid her aunt and herself in passing the brig's side. A smile of
+      recognition was exchanged between the young people, as their eyes met, and
+      the colour, which formed so bright a charm in Rose's sweet face, deepened,
+      in a way to prove that that colour spoke with a tongue and eloquence of
+      its own. Nor was Mulford's cheek mute on the occasion, though he helped
+      the hesitating, half-doubting, half-bold girl along the plank with a
+      steady hand and rigid muscles. As for the aunt, as a captain's widow, she
+      had not felt it necessary to betray any extraordinary emotions in
+      ascending the plank, unless, indeed, it might be those of delight on
+      finding her foot once more on the deck of a vessel!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Something of the same feeling governed Biddy, too, for, as Mulford civilly
+      extended his hand to her also, she exclaimed&mdash;&ldquo;No fear of me, Mr.
+      Mate&mdash;I came from Ireland by wather, and knows all about ships and
+      brigs, I do. If you could have seen the times we had, and the saas we
+      crossed, you'd not think it nadeful to say much to the likes iv me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike had tact enough to understand he would be out of his element in
+      assisting females along that plank, and he was busy in sending what he
+      called &ldquo;the old lady's dunnage&rdquo; on board, and in discharging the cabman.
+      As soon as this was done, he sprang into the main-channels, and thence vid
+      the bulwarks, on deck, ordering the plank to be hauled aboard. A solitary
+      labourer was paid a quarter to throw off the fasts from the ring-bolts and
+      posts, and everything was instantly in motion to cast the brig loose. Work
+      went on as if the vessel were in haste, and it consequently went on with
+      activity. Spike bestirred himself, giving his orders in a way to denote he
+      had been long accustomed to exercise authority on the deck of a vessel,
+      and knew his calling to its minutiæ. The only ostensible difference
+      between his deportment to-day and on any ordinary occasion, perhaps, was
+      in the circumstance that he now seemed anxious to get clear of the wharf,
+      and that in a way which might have attracted notice in any suspicious and
+      attentive observer. It is possible that such a one was not very distant,
+      and that Spike was aware of his presence, for a respectable-looking,
+      well-dressed, middle-aged man had come down one of the adjacent streets,
+      to a spot within a hundred yards of the wharf, and stood silently watching
+      the movements of the brig, as he leaned against a fence. The want of
+      houses in that quarter enabled any person to see this stranger from the
+      deck of the Swash, but no one on board her seemed to regard him at all,
+      unless it might be the master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, bear a hand, my hearty, and toss that bow-fast clear,&rdquo; cried the
+      captain, whose impatience to be off seemed to increase as the time to do
+      so approached nearer and nearer. &ldquo;Off with it, at once, and let her go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man on the wharf threw the turns of the hawser clear of the post, and
+      the Swash was released forward. A smaller line, for a spring, had been run
+      some distance along the wharves, ahead of the vessel, and brought in aft.
+      Her people clapped on this, and gave way to their craft, which, being
+      comparatively light, was easily moved, and was very manageable. As this
+      was done, the distant spectator who had been leaning on the fence moved
+      toward the wharf with a step a little quicker than common. Almost at the
+      same instant, a short, stout, sailor-like looking little person, waddled
+      down the nearest street, seeming to be in somewhat of a hurry, and
+      presently he joined the other stranger, and appeared to enter into
+      conversation with him; pointing toward the Swash as he did so. All this
+      time, both continued to advance toward the wharf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile, Spike and his people were not idle. The tide did not run
+      very strong near the wharves and in the sort of a bight in which the
+      vessel had lain; but, such as it was, it soon took the brig on her inner
+      bow, and began to cast her head off shore. The people at the spring pulled
+      away with all their force, and got sufficient motion on their vessel to
+      overcome the tide, and to give the rudder an influence. The latter was put
+      hard a-starboard, and helped to cast the brig's head to the southward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Down to this moment, the only sail that was loose on board the Swash was
+      the fore-topsail, as mentioned. This still hung in the gear, but a hand
+      had been sent aloft to overhaul the buntlines and clewlines, and men were
+      also at the sheets. In a minute the sail was ready for hoisting. The Swash
+      carried a wapper of a fore-and-aft mainsail, and, what is more, it was
+      fitted with a standing gaff, for appearance in port. At sea, Spike knew
+      better than to trust to this arrangement; but in fine weather, and close
+      in with the land, he found it convenient to have this sail haul out and
+      brail like a ship's spanker. As the gaff was now aloft, it was only
+      necessary to let go the brails to loosen this broad sheet of canvas, and
+      to clap on the out-hauler, to set it. This was probably the reason why the
+      brig was so unceremoniously cast into the stream, without showing more of
+      her cloth. The jib and flying-jibs, however, did at that moment drop
+      beneath their booms, ready for hoisting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was the state of things as the two strangers came first upon the
+      wharf. Spike was on the taffrail, overhauling the main-sheet, and Mulford
+      was near him, casting the foretopsail braces from the pins, preparatory to
+      clapping on the halyards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo; asked the captain, &ldquo;did you ever see either of them
+      chaps afore? These jokers on the wharf, I mean.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not to my recollection, sir,&rdquo; answered the mate, looking over the
+      taffrail to examine the parties. &ldquo;The little one is a burster! The
+      funniest-looking little fat old fellow I've seen in many a day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, them fat little bursters, as you call 'em, are sometimes full of
+      the devil. I do n't like either of the chaps, and am right glad we are
+      well cast, before they got here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not think either would be likely to do us much harm, Capt. Spike.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's no knowing sir. The biggest fellow looks as if he might lug out a
+      silver oar at any moment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe the silver oar is no longer used, in this country at least,&rdquo;
+       answered Mulford, smiling. &ldquo;And if it were, what have we to fear from it?
+      I fancy the brig has paid her reckoning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She do n't owe a cent, nor ever shall for twenty-four hours after the
+      bill is made out, while I own her. They call me ready-money Stephen, round
+      among the ship-chandlers and caulkers. But I do n't like them chaps, and
+      what I do n't relish I never swallow, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They 'll hardly try to get aboard us, sir; you see we are quite clear of
+      the wharf, and the mainsail will take now, if we set it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike ordered the mate to clap on the outhauler, and spread that broad
+      sheet of canvas at once to the little breeze there was. This was almost
+      immediately done, when the sail filled, and began to be felt on the
+      movement of the vessel. Still, that movement was very slow, the wind being
+      so light, and the vis inertioe of so large a body remaining to be
+      overcome. The brig receded from the wharf, almost in a line at right
+      angles to its face, inch by inch, as it might be, dropping slowly up with
+      the tide at the same time. Mulford now passed forward to set the jibs, and
+      to get the topsail on the craft, leaving Spike on the taffrail, keenly
+      eyeing the strangers, who, by this time, had got down nearly to the end of
+      the wharf, at the berth so lately occupied by the Swash. That the captain
+      was uneasy was evident enough, that feeling being exhibited in his
+      countenance, blended with a malignant ferocity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has that brig any pilot?&rdquo; asked the larger and better-looking of the two
+      strangers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's that to you, friend?&rdquo; demanded Spike, in return. &ldquo;Have you a
+      Hell-Gate branch?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I may have one, or I may not. It is not usual for so large a craft to run
+      the Gate without a pilot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! my gentleman's below, brushing up his logarithms. We shall have him
+      on deck to take his departure before long, when I'll let him know your
+      kind inquiries after his health.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man on the wharf seemed to be familiar with this sort of sea-wit, and
+      he made no answer, but continued that close scrutiny of the brig, by
+      turning his eyes in all directions, now looking below, and now aloft,
+      which had in truth occasioned Spike's principal cause for uneasiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is not that Capt. Stephen Spike, of the brigantine Molly Swash?&rdquo; called
+      out the little, dumpling-looking person, in a cracked, dwarfish sort of a
+      voice, that was admirably adapted to his appearance. Our captain fairly
+      started; turned full toward the speaker; regarded him intently for a
+      moment; and gulped the words he was about to utter, like one confounded.
+      As he gazed, however, at little dumpy, examining his bow-legs, red broad
+      cheeks, and coarse snub nose, he seemed to regain his self-command, as if
+      satisfied the dead had not really returned to life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you acquainted with the gentleman you have named?&rdquo; he asked, by way
+      of answer. &ldquo;You speak of him like one who ought to know him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A body is apt to know a shipmate. Stephen Spike and I sailed together
+      twenty years since, and I hope to live to sail with him again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You sail with Stephen Spike? when and where, may I ask, and in what
+      v'y'ge, pray?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The last time was twenty years since. Have you forgotten little Jack
+      Tier, Capt. Spike?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike looked astonished, and well he might, for he had supposed Jack to be
+      dead fully fifteen years. Time and hard service had greatly altered him,
+      but the general resemblance in figure, stature, and waddle, certainly
+      remained. Notwithstanding, the Jack Tier that Spike remembered was quite a
+      different person from this Jack Tier. That Jack had worn his intensely
+      black hair clubbed and curled, whereas this Jack had cut his locks into
+      short bristles, which time had turned into an intense gray. That Jack was
+      short and thick, but he was flat and square; whereas this Jack was just as
+      short, a good deal thicker, and as round as a dumpling. In one thing,
+      however, the likeness still remained perfect. Both Jacks chewed tobacco,
+      to a degree that became a distinct feature in their appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike had many reasons for wishing Jack Tier were not resuscitated in this
+      extraordinary manner, and some for being glad to see him. The fellow had
+      once been largely in his confidence, and knew more than was quite safe for
+      any one to remember but himself, while he might be of great use to him in
+      his future, operations. It is always convenient to have one at your elbow
+      who thoroughly understands you, and Spike would have lowered a boat and
+      sent it to the wharf to bring Jack off, were it not for the gentleman who
+      was so inquisitive about pilots. Under the circumstances, he determined to
+      forego the advantages of Jack's presence, reserving the right to hunt him
+      up on his return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader will readily enough comprehend, that the Molly Swash was not
+      absolutely standing still while the dialogue related was going on, and the
+      thoughts we have recorded were passing through her master's mind. On the
+      contrary, she was not only in motion, but that motion was gradually
+      increasing, and by the time all was said that has been related, it had
+      become necessary for those who spoke to raise their voices to an
+      inconvenient pitch in order to be heard. This circumstance alone would
+      soon have put an end to the conversation, had not Spike's pausing to
+      reflect brought about the same result, as mentioned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time, Mulford had got the canvas spread. Forward, the Swash
+      showed all the cloth of a full-rigged brig, even to royals and flying jib;
+      while aft, her mast was the raking, tall, naked pole of an American
+      schooner. There was a taunt topmast, too, to which a gaff-topsail was set,
+      and the gear proved that she could also show, at need, a staysail in this
+      part of her, if necessary. As the Gate was before them, however, the
+      people had set none but the plain, manageable canvas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Molly Swash kept close on a wind, luffing athwar the broad reach she
+      was in, until far enough to weather Blackwell's, when she edged off to her
+      course, and went through the southern passage. Although the wind remained
+      light, and a little baffling, the brig was so easily impelled, and was so
+      very handy, that there was no difficulty in keeping her perfectly in
+      command. The tide, too, was fast increasing in strength and volocity, and
+      the movement from this cause alone was getting to be sufficiently rapid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for the passengers, of whom we have lost sight in order to get the brig
+      under way, they were now on deck again. At first, they had all gone below,
+      under the care of Josh, a somewhat rough groom of the chambers, to take
+      possession of their apartment, a sufficiently neat, and exceedingly
+      comfortable cabin, supplied with everything that could be wanted at sea,
+      and, what was more, lined on two of its sides with state-rooms. It is
+      true, all these apartments were small, and the state-rooms were very low,
+      but no fault could be found with their neatness and general arrangements,
+      when it was recollected that one was on board a vessel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here ebbery t'ing heart can wish,&rdquo; said Josh, exultingly, who, being an
+      old-school black, did not disdain to use some of the old-school dialect of
+      his caste. &ldquo;Yes, ladies, ebbery t'ing. Let Cap'n Spike alone for dat! He
+      won'erful at accommodation! Not a bed-bug aft&mdash;know better dan come
+      here; jest like de people, in dat respects, and keep deir place forrard.
+      You nebber see a pig come on de quarter-deck, nudder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must maintain excellent discipline, Josh,&rdquo; cried Rose, in one of the
+      sweetest voices in the world, which was easily attuned to merriment&mdash;&ldquo;and
+      we are delighted to learn what you tell us. How do you manage to keep up
+      these distinctions, and make such creatures know their places so well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nuttin easier, if you begin right, miss. As for de pig, I teach dem wid
+      scaldin' water. Wheneber I sees a pig come aft, I gets a little water from
+      de copper, and just scald him wid it. You can't t'ink, miss, how dat mend
+      his manners, and make him squeel fuss, and t'ink arter. In dat fashion I
+      soon get de ole ones in good trainin', and den I has no more trouble with
+      dem as comes fresh aboard; for de ole hog tell de young one, and 'em
+      won'erful cunnin', and know how to take care of 'emself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose Budd's sweet eyes were full of fun and expectation, and she could no
+      more repress her laugh than youth and spirits can always be discreet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, with the pigs,&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;that might do very well; but how is it
+      with those&mdash;other creatures?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rosy, dear,&rdquo; interrupted the aunt, &ldquo;I wish you would say no more about
+      such shocking things. It's enough for us that Capt. Spike has ordered them
+      all to stay forward among the men, which is always done on board well
+      disciplined vessels. I've heard your uncle say, a hundred times, that the
+      quarter-deck was sacred, and that might be enough to keep such animals off
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was barely necessary to look at Mrs. Budd in the face to get a very
+      accurate general notion of her character. She was one of those inane,
+      uncultivated beings who seem to be protected by a benevolent Providence in
+      their pilgrimage on earth, for they do not seem to possess the power to
+      protect themselves. Her very countenance expressed imbecility and mental
+      dependence, credulity and a love of gossip. Notwithstanding these radical
+      weaknesses, the good woman had some of the better instincts of her sex,
+      and was never guilty of anything that could properly convey reproach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was no monitress for Rose, however, the niece much oftener influencing
+      the aunt, than the aunt influencing the niece. The latter had been
+      fortunate in having had an excellent instructress, who, though incapable
+      of teaching her much in the way of accomplishments, had imparted a great
+      deal that was respectable and useful. Rose had character, and strong
+      character, too, as the course of our narrative will show; but her worthy
+      aunt was a pure picture of as much mental imbecility as at all comported
+      with the privileges of self-government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conversation about &ldquo;those other creatures&rdquo; was effectually checked by
+      Mrs. Budd's horror of the &ldquo;animals,&rdquo; and Josh was called on deck so
+      shortly after as to prevent its being renewed. The females staid below a
+      few minutes, to take possession, and then they re-appeared on deck, to
+      gaze at the horrors of the Hell Gate passage. Rose was all eyes, wonder
+      and admiration of everything she saw. This was actually the first time she
+      had ever been on the water, in any sort of craft, though born and brought
+      up in sight of one of the most thronged havens in the world. But there
+      must be a beginning to everything, and this was Rose Budd's beginning on
+      the water. It is true the brigantine was a very beautiful, as well as an
+      exceedingly swift vessel; but all this was lost on Rose, who would have
+      admired a horse-jockey bound to the West Indies, in this the incipient
+      state of her nautical knowledge. Perhaps the exquisite neatness that
+      Mulford maintained about everything that came under his care, and that
+      included everything on deck, or above-board, and about which neatness
+      Spike occasionally muttered an oath, as so much senseless trouble,
+      contributed somewhat to Rose's pleasure; but her admiration would scarcely
+      have been less with anything that had sails, and seemed to move through
+      the water with a power approaching that of volition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was very different with Mrs. Budd, She, good woman, had actually made
+      one voyage with her late husband, and she fancied that she knew all about
+      a vessel. It was her delight to talk on nautical subjects, and never did
+      she really feel her great superiority over her niece, so very
+      unequivocally, as when the subject of the ocean was introduced, about
+      which she did know something, and touching which Rose was profoundly
+      ignorant, or as ignorant as a girl of lively imagination could remain with
+      the information gleaned from others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not surprised you are astonished at the sight of the vessel, Rosy,&rdquo;
+       observed the self-complacent aunt at one of her niece's exclamations of
+      admiration. &ldquo;A vessel is a very wonderful thing, and we are told what
+      extr'orny beings they are that 'go down to the sea in ships.' But you are
+      to know this is not a ship at all, but only a half-jigger rigged, which is
+      altogether a different thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was my uncle's vessel, The Rose In Bloom, then, very different from the
+      Swash?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very different indeed, child! Why, The Rose In Bloom was a full-jiggered
+      ship, and had twelve masts&mdash;and this is only a half-jiggered brig,
+      and has but two masts. See, you may count them&mdash;one&mdash;two!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Harry Mulford was coiling away a top-gallant-brace, directly in front of
+      Mrs. Budd and Rose, and, at hearing this account of the wonderful
+      equipment of The Rose In Bloom, he suddenly looked up, with a lurking
+      expression about his eye that the niece very well comprehended, while he
+      exclaimed, without much reflection, under the impulse of surprise&mdash;&ldquo;Twelve
+      masts! Did I understand you to say, ma'am, that Capt. Budd's ship had
+      twelve masts?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir, twelve! and I can tell you all their names, for I learnt them
+      by heart&mdash;it appearing to me proper that a ship-master's wife should
+      know the names of all the masts in her husband's vessel. Do you wish to
+      hear their names, Mr. Mulford?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Harry Mulford would have enjoyed this conversation to the top of his bent,
+      had it not been for Rose. She well knew her aunt's general weakness of
+      intellect, and especially its weakness on this particular subject, but she
+      would suffer no one to manifest contempt for either, if in her power to
+      prevent it. It is seldom one so young, so mirthful, so ingenuous and
+      innocent in the expression of her countenance, assumed so significant and
+      rebuking a frown as did pretty Rose Budd when she heard the mate's
+      involuntary exclamation about the &ldquo;twelve masts.&rdquo; Harry, who was not
+      easily checked by his equals, or any of his own sex, submitted to that
+      rebuking frown with the meekness of a child, and stammered out, in answer
+      to the well-meaning, but weak-minded widow's question&mdash;&ldquo;If you
+      please, Mrs. Budd&mdash;just as you please, ma'am&mdash;only twelve is a
+      good many masts&mdash;&rdquo; Rose frowned again&mdash;&ldquo;that is&mdash;more than
+      I'm used to seeing&mdash;that's all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare say, Mr. Mulford&mdash;for you sail in only a half-jigger; but
+      Capt. Budd always sailed in a full-jigger&mdash;and his full-jiggered ship
+      had just twelve masts, and, to prove it to you, I'll give you the names&mdash;first
+      then, there were the fore, main, and mizen masts&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;yes&mdash;ma'am,&rdquo; stammered Harry, who wished the twelve masts
+      and The Rose In Bloom at the bottom of the ocean, since her owner's niece
+      still continued to look coldly displeased&mdash;&ldquo;that's right, I can
+      swear!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true, sir, and you'll find I am right as to all the rest. Then,
+      there were the fore, main, and mizen top-masts&mdash;they make six, if I
+      can count, Mr. Mulford?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; exclaimed the mate, laughing, in spite of Rose's frowns, as the
+      manner in which the old sea-dog had quizzed his wife became apparent to
+      him. &ldquo;I see how it is&mdash;you are quite right, ma'am&mdash;I dare say
+      The Rose In Bloom had all these masts, and some to spare.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir&mdash;I knew you would be satisfied. The fore, main and mizen
+      top-gallant-masts make nine&mdash;and the fore, main and mizen royals make
+      just twelve. Oh, I'm never wrong in anything about a vessel, especially if
+      she is a full-jiggered ship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford had some difficulty in restraining his smiles each time the
+      full-jigger was mentioned, but Rose's expression of countenance kept him
+      in excellent order&mdash;and she, innocent creature, saw nothing
+      ridiculous in the term, though the twelve masts had given her a little
+      alarm. Delighted that the old lady had got through her enumeration of the
+      spars with so much success, Rose cried, in the exuberance of her spirits&mdash;&ldquo;Well,
+      aunty, for my part, I find a half-jigger vessel, so very, very beautiful,
+      that I do not know how I should behave were I to go on board a
+      full-jigger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford turned abruptly away, the circumstance of Rose's making herself
+      ridiculous giving him sudden pain, though he could have laughed at her
+      aunt by the hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, my dear, that is on account of your youth and inexperience&mdash;but
+      you will learn better in time. I was just so, myself, when I was of your
+      age, and thought the fore-rafters were as handsome as the squared-jiggers,
+      but soon after I married Capt. Budd I felt the necessity of knowing more
+      than I did about ships, and I got him to teach me. He did n't like the
+      business, at first, and pretended I would never learn; but, at last, it
+      came all at once like, and then he used to be delighted to hear me 'talk
+      ship,' as he called it. I've known him laugh, with his cronies, as if
+      ready to die, at my expertness in sea-terms, for half an hour together&mdash;and
+      then he would swear&mdash;that was the worst fault your uncle had, Rosy&mdash;he
+      would swear, sometimes, in a way that frightened me, I do declare!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But he never swore at you, aunty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't say that he did exactly do that, but he would swear all round me,
+      even if he did n't actually touch me, when things went wrong&mdash;but it
+      would have done your heart good to hear him laugh! he had a most excellent
+      heart, just like your own, Rosy dear; but, for that matter, all the Budds
+      have excellent hearts, and one of the commonest ways your uncle had of
+      showing it was to laugh, particularly when we were together and talking.
+      Oh, he used to delight in hearing me converse, especially about vessels,
+      and never failed to get me at it when he had company. I see his
+      good-natured, excellent-hearted countenance at this moment, with the tears
+      running down his fat, manly cheeks, as he shook his very sides with
+      laughter. I may live a hundred years, Rosy, before I meet again with your
+      uncle's equal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a subject that invariably silenced Rose. She remembered her
+      uncle, herself, and remembered his affectionate manner of laughing at her
+      aunt, and she always wished the latter to get through her eulogiums on her
+      married happiness, as soon as possible, whenever the subject was
+      introduced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time the Molly Swash kept in motion. Spike never took a pilot
+      when he could avoid it, and his mind was too much occupied with his duty,
+      in that critical navigation, to share at all in the conversation of his
+      passengers, though he did endeavour to make himself agreeable to Rose, by
+      an occasional remark, when a favourable opportunity offered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as he had worked his brig over into the south or weather passage
+      of Blackwell's, however, there remained little for him to do, until she
+      had drifted through it, a distance of a mile or more; and this gave him
+      leisure to do the honours. He pointed out the castellated edifice on
+      Blackwell's as the new penitentiary, and the hamlet of villas, on the
+      other shore, as Ravenswood, though there is neither wood nor ravens to
+      authorize the name. But the &ldquo;Sunswick,&rdquo; which satisfied the Delafields and
+      Gibbses of the olden, time, and which distinguished their lofty halls and
+      broad lawns, was not elegant enough for the cockney tastes of these latter
+      days, so &ldquo;wood&rdquo; must be made to usurp the place of cherries and apples,
+      and &ldquo;ravens&rdquo; that of gulls, in order to satisfy its cravings. But all this
+      was lost on Spike. He remembered the shore as it had been twenty years
+      before, and he saw what it was now, but little did he care for the change.
+      On the whole, he rather preferred the Grecian Temples, over which the
+      ravens would have been compelled to fly, had there been any ravens in that
+      neighbourhood, to the old-fashioned and highly respectable residence that
+      once alone occupied the spot. The point he did understand, however, and on
+      the merits of which he had something to say, was a little farther ahead.
+      That, too, had been re-christened&mdash;the Hallet's Cove of the mariner
+      being converted into Astoria&mdash;not that bloody-minded place at the
+      mouth of the Oregon, which has come so near bringing us to blows with our
+      &ldquo;ancestors in England,&rdquo; as the worthy denizens of that quarter choose to
+      consider themselves still, if one can judge by their language. This
+      Astoria was a very different place, and is one of the many suburban
+      villages that are shooting up, like mushrooms in a night, around the great
+      Commercial Emporium. This spot Spike understood perfectly, and it was not
+      likely that he should pass it without communicating a portion of his
+      knowledge to Rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, Miss Rose,&rdquo; he said, with a didactic sort of air, pointing with
+      his short, thick finger at the little bay which was just opening to their
+      view; &ldquo;there's as neat a cove as a craft need bring up in. That used to be
+      a capital place to lie in, to wait for a wind to pass the Gate; but it has
+      got to be most too public for my taste. I'm rural, I tell Mulford, and
+      love to get in out-of-the-way berths with my brig, where she can see
+      salt-meadows, and smell the clover. You never catch me down in any of the
+      crowded slips, around the markets, or anywhere in that part of the town,
+      for I do love country air. That's Hallet's Cove, Miss Rose, and a pretty
+      anchorage it would be for us, if the wind and tide didn't sarve to take us
+      through the Gate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we near the Gate, Capt. Spike?&rdquo; asked Rose, the fine bloom on her
+      cheek lessening a little, under the apprehension that formidable name is
+      apt to awaken in the breasts of the inexperienced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Half a mile, or so. It begins just at the other end of this island on our
+      larboard hand, and will be all over in about another half mile, or so.
+      It's no such bad place, a'ter all, is Hell-Gate, to them that's used to
+      it. I call myself a pilot in Hell-Gate, though I have no branch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish, Capt. Spike, I could teach you to give that place its proper and
+      polite name. We call it Whirl-Gate altogether now,&rdquo; said the relict.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that's new to me,&rdquo; cried Spike. &ldquo;I have heard some chicken-mouthed
+      folk say Hurl-Gate, but this is the first time I ever heard it called
+      Whirl-Gate&mdash;they'll get it to Whirligig-Gate next. I do n't think
+      that my old commander, Capt. Budd, called the passage anything but honest
+      up and down Hell-Gate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That he did&mdash;that he did&mdash;and all my arguments and reading
+      could not teach him any better. I proved to him that it was Whirl-Gate, as
+      any one can see that it ought to be. It is full of whirlpools, they say,
+      and that shows what Nature meant the name to be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, aunty,&rdquo; put in Rose, half reluctantly, half anxious to speak, &ldquo;what
+      has gate to do with whirlpools? You will remember it is called a gate&mdash;the
+      gate to that wicked place I suppose is meant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rose, you amaze me! How can you, a young woman of only nineteen, stand up
+      for so vulgar a name as Hell-Gate!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think it as vulgar as Hurl-Gate, aunty?&rdquo; To me it always seems the
+      most vulgar to be straining at gnats.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Spike sentimentally, &ldquo;I'm quite of Miss Rose's way of thinking&mdash;straining
+      at gnats is very ill-manners, especially at table. I once knew a man who
+      strained in this way, until I thought he would have choked, though it was
+      with a fly to be sure; but gnats are nothing but small flies, you know,
+      Miss Rose. Yes, I'm quite of your way of thinking, Miss Rose; it is very
+      vulgar to be straining at gnats and flies, more particularly at table. But
+      you'll find no flies or gnats aboard here, to be straining at, or brushing
+      away, or to annoy you. Stand by there, my hearties, and see all clear to
+      run through Hell-Gate. Do n't let me catch you straining at anything,
+      though it should be the fin of a whale!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The people forward looked at each other, as they listened to this novel
+      admonition, though they called out the customary &ldquo;ay, ay, sir,&rdquo; as they
+      went to the sheets, braces and bowlines. To them the passage of no
+      Hell-Gate conveyed the idea of any particular terror, and with the one
+      they were about to enter, they were much too familiar to care anything
+      about it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The brig was now floating fast, with the tide, up abreast of the east end
+      of Blackwell's, and in two or three more minutes she would be fairly in
+      the Gate. Spike was aft, where he could command a view of everything
+      forward, and Mulford stood on the quarter-deck, to look after the
+      head-braces. An old and trustworthy seaman, who acted as a sort of
+      boatswain, had the charge on the forecastle, and was to tend the sheets
+      and tack. His name was Rove.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See all clear,&rdquo; called out Spike. &ldquo;D'ye hear there, for'ard! I shall make
+      a half-board in the Gate, if the wind favour us, and the tide prove strong
+      enough to hawse us to wind'ard sufficiently to clear the Pot&mdash;so mind
+      your&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The captain breaking off in the middle of this harangue, Mulford turned
+      his head, in order to see what might be the matter. There was Spike,
+      levelling a spy-glass at a boat that was pulling swiftly out of the north
+      channel, and shooting like an arrow directly athwart the brig's bows into
+      the main passage of the Gate. He stepped to the captain's elbow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just take a look at them chaps, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo; said Spike, handing his
+      mate the glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They seem in a hurry,&rdquo; answered Harry, as he adjusted the glass to his
+      eye, &ldquo;and will go through the Gate in less time than it will take to
+      mention the circumstance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you make of them, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The little man who called himself Jack Tier is in the stern-sheets of the
+      boat, for one,&rdquo; answered Mulford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the other, Harry&mdash;what do you make of the other?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems to be the chap who hailed to know if we had a pilot. He means to
+      board us at Riker's Island, and make us pay pilotage, whether we want his
+      services or not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Blast him and his pilotage too! Give me the glass&rdquo;&mdash;taking another
+      long look at the boat, which by this time was glancing, rather than
+      pulling, nearly at right angles across his bows. &ldquo;I want no such pilot
+      aboard here, Mr. Mulford. Take another look at him&mdash;here, you can see
+      him, away on our weather bow, already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford did take another look at him, and this time his examination was
+      longer and more scrutinizing than before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not easy to cover him with the glass,&rdquo; observed the young man&mdash;&ldquo;the
+      boat seems fairly to fly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We're forereaching too near the Hog's Back, Capt. Spike,&rdquo; roared the
+      boatswain, from forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ready about&mdash;hard a lee,&rdquo; shouted Spike. &ldquo;Let all fly, for'ard&mdash;help
+      her round, boys, all you can, and wait for no orders! Bestir yourselves&mdash;bestir
+      yourselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was time the crew should be in earnest. While Spike's attention had
+      been thus diverted by the boat, the brig had got into the strongest of the
+      current, which, by setting her fast to windward, had trebled the power of
+      the air, and this was shooting her over toward one of the greatest dangers
+      of the passage on a flood tide. As everybody bestirred themselves,
+      however, she was got round and filled on the opposite tack, just in time
+      to clear the rocks. Spike breathed again, but his head was still full of
+      the boat. The danger he had just escaped as Scylla met him as Charybdis.
+      The boatswain again roared to go about. The order was given as the vessel
+      began to pitch in a heavy swell. At the next instant she rolled until the
+      water came on deck, whirled with her stern down the tide, and her bows
+      rose as if she were about to leap out of water. The Swash had hit the Pot
+      Rock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Watch. If we know him to be a thief, shall we not lay hands
+     on him?
+
+     Dogb. Truly, by your office, you may; but I think they that
+     touch pitch will be defiled; the most peaceable way for you,
+     if you do take a thief, is, to let him show himself what he
+     is, and steal out of your company.&rdquo;
+
+     Much Ado About Nothing.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      We left the brigantine of Capt. Spike in a very critical situation, and
+      the master himself in great confusion of mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A thorough seaman, this accident would never have happened, but for the
+      sudden appearance of the boat and its passengers; one of whom appeared to
+      be a source of great uneasiness to him. As might be expected, the
+      circumstance of striking a place as dangerous as the Pot Rock in
+      Hell-Gate, produced a great sensation on board the vessel. This sensation
+      betrayed itself in various ways, and according to the characters, habits,
+      and native firmness of the parties. As for the ship-master's relict, she
+      seized hold of the main-mast, and screamed so loud and perseveringly, as
+      to cause the sensation to extend itself into the adjacent and thriving
+      village of Astoria, where it was distinctly heard by divers of those who
+      dwelt near the water. Biddy Noon had her share in this clamour, lying down
+      on the deck in order to prevent rolling over, and possibly to scream more
+      at her leisure, while Rose had sufficient self-command to be silent,
+      though her cheeks lost their colour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor was there anything extraordinary in females betraying this alarm, when
+      one remembers the somewhat astounding signs of danger by which these
+      persons were surrounded. There is always something imposing in the swift
+      movement of a considerable body of water. When this movement is aided by
+      whirlpools and the other similar accessories of an interrupted current, it
+      frequently becomes startling, more especially to those who happen to be on
+      the element itself. This is peculiarly the case with the Pot Rock, where,
+      not only does the water roll and roar as if agitated by a mighty wind, but
+      where it even breaks, the foam seeming to glance up stream, in the rapid
+      succession of wave to wave. Had the Swash remained in her terrific berth
+      more than a second or two, she would have proved what is termed a &ldquo;total
+      loss;&rdquo; but she did not. Happily, the Pot Rock lies so low that it is not
+      apt to fetch up anything of a light draught of water, and the brigantine's
+      fore-foot had just settled on its summit, long enough to cause the vessel
+      to whirl round and make her obeisance to the place, when a succeeding
+      swell lifted her clear, and away she went down stream, rolling as if
+      scudding in a gale, and, for a moment, under no command whatever. There
+      lay another danger ahead, or it would be better to say astern, for the
+      brig was drifting stern foremost; and that was in an eddy under a bluff,
+      which bluff lies at an angle in the reach, where it is no uncommon thing
+      for craft to be cast ashore, after they have passed all the more imposing
+      and more visible dangers above. It was in escaping this danger, and in
+      recovering the command of his vessel, that Spike now manifested the sort
+      of stuff of which he was really made, in emergencies of this sort. The
+      yards were all sharp up when the accident occurred, and springing to the
+      lee braces, just as a man winks when his eye is menaced, he seized the
+      weather fore-brace with his own hands, and began to round in the yard,
+      shouting out to the man at the wheel to &ldquo;port his helm&rdquo; at the same time.
+      Some of the people flew to his assistance, and the yards were not only
+      squared, but braced a little up on the other tack, in much less time than
+      we have taken to relate the evolution. Mulford attended to the main-sheet,
+      and succeeded in getting the boom out in the right direction. Although the
+      wind was in truth very light, the velocity of the drift filled the canvas,
+      and taking the arrow-like current on her lee bow, the Swash, like a
+      frantic steed that is alarmed with the wreck made by his own madness, came
+      under command, and sheered out into the stream again, where she could
+      drift clear of the apprehended danger astern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sound the pumps!&rdquo; called out Spike to Mulford, the instant he saw he had
+      regained his seat in the saddle. Harry sprang amidships to obey, and the
+      eye of every mariner in that vessel was on the young man, as, in the midst
+      of a death-like silence, he performed this all-important duty. It was like
+      the physician's feeling the pulse of his patient before he pronounces on
+      the degree of his danger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sir?&rdquo; cried out Spike, impatiently, as the rod reappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, sir,&rdquo; answered Harry, cheerfully&mdash;&ldquo;the well is nearly
+      empty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold on a moment longer, and give the water time to find its way
+      amidships, if there be any.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The mate remained perched up on the pump, in order to comply, while Spike
+      and his people, who now breathed more freely again, improved the leisure
+      to brace up and haul aft, to the new course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Biddy,&rdquo; said Mrs. Budd considerately, during this pause in the incidents,
+      &ldquo;you need n't scream any longer. The danger seems to be past, and you may
+      get up off the deck now. See, I have let go of the mast. The pumps have
+      been sounded, and are found tight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Biddy, like an obedient and respectful servant, did as directed, quite
+      satisfied if the pumps were tight. It was some little time, to be sure,
+      before she was perfectly certain whether she were alive or not&mdash;but,
+      once certain of this circumstance, her alarm very sensibly abated, and she
+      became reasonable. As for Mulford, he dropped the sounding rod again, and
+      had the same cheering report to make.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The brig is as tight as a bottle, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much the better,&rdquo; answered Spike. &ldquo;I never had such a whirl in her
+      before in my life, and I thought she was going to stop and pass the night
+      there. That's the very spot on which 'The Hussar' frigate was wrecked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I have heard, sir. But she drew so much water that she hit slap
+      against the rock, and started a butt. We merely touched on its top with
+      our fore-foot, and slid off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the simple explanation of the Swash's escape, and, everybody
+      being now well assured that no harm had been done, things fell into their
+      old and regular train again. As for Spike, his gallantry, notwithstanding,
+      was upset for some hours, and glad enough was he when he saw all three of
+      his passengers quit the deck to go below. Mrs. Budd's spirits had been so
+      much agitated that she told Rose she would go down into the cabin and rest
+      a few minutes on its sofa. We say sofa, for that article of furniture,
+      now-a-days, is far more common in vessels than it was thirty years ago in
+      the dwellings of the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, Mulford,&rdquo; growled Spike, pointing ahead of the brig, to an object
+      on the water that was about half a mile ahead of them, &ldquo;there's that
+      bloody boat&mdash;d'ye see? I should like of all things to give it the
+      slip. There's a chap in that boat I do n't like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do n't see how that can be very well done, sir, unless we anchor,
+      repass the Gate at the turn of the tide, and go to sea by the way of Sandy
+      Hook.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will never do. I've no wish to be parading the brig before the town.
+      You see, Mulford, nothing can be more innocent and proper than the Molly
+      Swash, as you know from having sailed in her these twelve months. You'll
+      give her that character, I'll be sworn?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know no harm of her, Capt. Spike, and hope I never shall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir&mdash;you know no harm of her, nor does any one else. A nursing
+      infant is not more innocent than the Molly Swash, or could have a clearer
+      character if nothing but truth was said of her. But the world is so much
+      given to lying, that one of the old saints, of whom we read in the good
+      book, such as Calvin and John Rogers, would be vilified if he lived in
+      these times. Then, it must be owned, Mr. Mulford, whatever may be the raal
+      innocence of the brig, she has a most desperate wicked look.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, yes, sir&mdash;it must be owned she is what we sailors call a
+      wicked-looking craft. But some of Uncle Sam's cruisers have that
+      appearance, also.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it&mdash;I know it, sir, and think nothing of looks myself. Men
+      are often deceived in me, by my looks, which have none of your long-shore
+      softness about 'em, perhaps; but my mother used to say I was one of the
+      most tender-hearted boys she had ever heard spoken of&mdash;like one of
+      the babes in the woods, as it might be. But mankind go so much by
+      appearances that I do n't like to trust the brig too much afore their
+      eyes. Now, should we be seen in the lower bay, waiting for a wind, or for
+      the ebb tide to make, to carry us over the bar, ten to one but some
+      philotropic or other would be off with a complaint to the District
+      Attorney that we looked like a slaver, and have us all fetched up to be
+      tried for our lives as pirates. No, no&mdash;I like to keep the brig in
+      out-of-the-way places, where she can give no offence to your 'tropics,
+      whether they be philos, or of any other sort.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sir, we are to the eastward of the Gate, and all's safe. That boat
+      cannot bring us up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forget, Mr. Mulford, the revenue-craft that steamed up, on the ebb.
+      That vessel must be off Sands' Point by this time, and she may hear
+      something to our disparagement from the feller in the boat, and take it
+      into her smoky head to walk us back to town. I wish we were well to the
+      eastward of that steamer! But there's no use in lamentations. If there is
+      really any danger, it's some distance ahead yet, thank Heaven!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have no fears of the man who calls himself Jack Tier, Capt. Spike?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None in the world. That feller, as I remember him, was a little bustlin'
+      chap that I kept in the cabin, as a sort of steward's mate. There was
+      neither good nor harm in him, to the best of my recollection. But Josh can
+      tell us all about him&mdash;just give Josh a call.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The best thing in the known history of Spike was the fact that his steward
+      had sailed with him for more than twenty years. Where he had picked up
+      Josh no one could say, but Josh and himself, and neither chose to be very
+      communicative on the subject. But Josh had certainly been with him as long
+      as he had sailed the Swash, and that was from a time actually anterior to
+      the birth of Mulford. The mate soon had the negro in the council.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say, Josh,&rdquo; asked Spike, &ldquo;do you happen to remember such a hand aboard
+      here as one Jack Tier?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lor' bless you, yes sir&mdash;'members he as well as I do the pea soup
+      that was burnt, and which you t'rowed all over him, to scald him for
+      punishment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've had to do that so often, to one careless fellow or other, that the
+      circumstance does n't recall the man. I remember him&mdash;but not as
+      clear as I could wish. How long did he sail with us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sebberal v'y'ge, sir, and got left ashore down on the main, one night,
+      when'e boat were obliged to shove off in a hurry. Yes, 'members little
+      Jack, right well I does.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you see the man that spoke us from the wharf, and hailed for this
+      very Jack Tier?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see'd a man, sir, dat was won'erful Jack Tier built like, sir, but I
+      did n't hear the conwersation, habbin' the ladies to 'tend to. But Jack
+      was oncommon short in his floor timbers, sir, and had no length of keel at
+      all. His beam was won'erful for his length, altogedder&mdash;what you call
+      jolly-boat, or bum-boat build, and was only good afore'e wind, Cap'n
+      Spike.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was he good for anything aboard ship, Josh? Worth heaving-to for, should
+      he try to get aboard of us again?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, sir, can't say much for him in dat fashion. Jack was handy in the
+      cabin, and capital feller to carry soup from the gally, aft. You see, sir,
+      he was so low-rigged that the brig's lurchin' and pitchin' could n't get
+      him off his pins, and he stood up like a church in the heaviest wea'der.
+      Yes, sir, Jack was right good for dat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike mused a moment&mdash;then he rolled the tobacco over in his mouth,
+      and added, in the way a man speaks when his mind is made up&mdash;&ldquo;Ay ay!
+      I see into the fellow. He'll make a handy lady's maid, and we want such a
+      chap just now. It's better to have an old friend aboard, than to be
+      pickin' up strangers, 'long shore. So, should this Jack Tier come off to
+      us, from any of the islands or points ahead, Mr. Mulford, you'll round to
+      and take him aboard. As for the steamer, if she will only pass out into
+      the Sound where there's room, it shall go hard with us but I get to the
+      eastward of her, without speaking. On the other hand, should she anchor
+      this side of the fort, I'll not attempt to pass her. There is deep water
+      inside of most of the islands, I know, and we'll try and dodge her in that
+      way, if no better offer. I've no more reason than another craft to fear a
+      government vessel, but the sight of one of them makes me oncomfortable;
+      that's all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford shrugged his shoulders and remained silent, perceiving that his
+      commander was not disposed to pursue the subject any further. In the mean
+      time, the brig had passed beyond the influence of the bluff, and was
+      beginning to feel a stronger breeze, that was coming down the wide opening
+      of Flushing Bay. As the tide still continued strong in her favour, and her
+      motion through the water was getting to be four or five knots, there was
+      every prospect of her soon reaching Whitestone, the point where the tides
+      meet, and where it would become necessary to anchor; unless, indeed, the
+      wind, which was now getting to the southward and eastward, should come
+      round more to the south. All this Spike and his mate discussed together,
+      while the people were clearing the decks, and making the preparations that
+      are customary on board a vessel before she gets into rough water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time it was ascertained that the brig had received no damage by
+      her salute of the Pot Rock, and every trace of uneasiness on that account
+      was removed. But Spike kept harping on the boat, and &ldquo;the pilot-looking
+      chap who was in her.&rdquo; As they passed Riker's Island, all hands expected a
+      boat would put off with a pilot, or to demand pilotage; but none came, and
+      the Swash now seemed released from all her present dangers, unless some
+      might still be connected with the revenue steamer. To retard her advance,
+      however, the wind came out a smart working breeze from the southward and
+      eastward, compelling her to make &ldquo;long legs and short ones&rdquo; on her way
+      towards Whitestone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is beating the wind, Rosy dear,&rdquo; said Mrs. Budd, complacently, she
+      and her niece having returned to the deck a few minutes after this change
+      had taken place. &ldquo;Your respected uncle did a great deal of this in his
+      time, and was very successful in it. I have heard him say, that in one of
+      his voyages between Liverpool and New York, he beat the wind by a whole
+      fortnight, everybody talking of it in the insurance offices, as if it was
+      a miracle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, Madam Budd,&rdquo; put in Spike, &ldquo;I'll answer for that. They're
+      desperate talkers in and about them there insurance offices in Wall
+      street. Great gossips be they, and they think they know everything. Now
+      just because this brig is a little old or so, and was built for a
+      privateer in the last war, they'd refuse to rate her as even B, No. 2, and
+      my blessing on 'em.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, B, No. 2, that's just what your dear uncle used to call me, Rosy&mdash;his
+      charming B, No. 2, or Betsy, No. 2; particularly when he was in a loving
+      mood. Captain Spike, did you ever beat the wind in a long voyage?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't say I ever did, Mrs. Budd,&rdquo; answered Spike, looking grimly
+      around, to ascertain if any one dared to smile at his passenger's mistake;
+      &ldquo;especially for so long a pull as from New York to Liverpool.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then your uncle used to boast of the Rose In Bloom's wearing and
+      attacking. She would attack anything that came in her way, no matter who,
+      and as for wearing, I think he once told me she would wear just what she
+      had a mind to, like any human being.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose was a little mystified, but she looked vexed at the same time, as if
+      she distrusted all was not right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember all my sea education,&rdquo; continued the unsuspecting widow, &ldquo;as
+      if it had been learnt yesterday. Beating the wind and attacking ship, my
+      poor Mr. Budd used to say, were nice manoeuvres, and required most of his
+      tactics, especially in heavy weather. Did you know, Rosy dear, that
+      sailors weigh the weather, and know when it is heavy and when it is
+      light?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not, aunt; nor do I understand now how it can very well be done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! child, before you have been at sea a week, you will learn so many
+      things that are new, and get so many ideas of which you never had any
+      notion before, that you'll not be the same person. My captain had an
+      instrument he called a thermometer, and with that he used to weigh the
+      weather, and then he would write down in the log-book 'today, heavy
+      weather, or to-morrow, light weather,' just as it happened, and that
+      helped him mightily along in his voyages.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mrs. Budd has merely mistaken the name of the instrument&mdash;the
+      'barometer' is what she wished to say,&rdquo; put in Mulford, opportunely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose looked grateful, as well as relieved. Though profoundly ignorant on
+      these subjects herself, she had always suspected her aunt's knowledge. It
+      was, consequently, grateful to her to ascertain that, in this instance,
+      the old lady's mistake had been so trifling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, it may have been the barometer, for I know he had them both,&rdquo;
+       resumed the aunt. &ldquo;Barometer, or thermometer, it do n't make any great
+      difference; or quadrant, or sextant. They are all instruments, and
+      sometimes he used one, and sometimes another. Sailors take on board the
+      sun, too, and have an instrument for that, as well as one to weigh the
+      weather with. Sometimes they take on board the stars, and the moon, and
+      'fill their ships with the heavenly bodies,' as I've heard my dear husband
+      say, again and again! But the most curious thing at sea, as all sailors
+      tell me, is crossing the line, and I do hope we shall cross the line,
+      Rosy, that you and I may see it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the line, aunty, and how do vessels cross it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The line, my dear, is a place in the ocean where the earth is divided
+      into two parts, one part being called the North Pole, and the other part
+      the South Pole. Neptune lives near this line, and he allows no vessel to
+      go out of one pole into the other, without paying it a visit. Never!
+      never!&mdash;he would as soon think of living on dry land as think of
+      letting even a canoe pass, without visiting it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you suppose there is such a being, really, as Neptune, aunty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure I do; he is king of the sea. Why should n't there be? The sea
+      must have a king, as well as the land.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sea may be a republic, aunty, like this country; then, no king is
+      necessary. I have always supposed Neptune to be an imaginary being.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh that's impossible&mdash;the sea is no republic; there are but two
+      republics, America and Texas. I've heard that the sea is a highway, it is
+      true&mdash;the 'highway of nations,' I believe it is called, and that must
+      mean something particular. But my poor Mr. Budd always told me that
+      Neptune was king of the seas, and he was always so accurate, you might
+      depend on everything he said. Why, he called his last Newfoundland dog
+      Neptune; and do you think, Rosy, that your dear uncle would call his dog
+      after an imaginary being?&mdash;and he a man to beat the wind, and attack
+      ship, and take the sun, moon and stars aboard! No, no, child; fanciful
+      folk may see imaginary beings, but solid folk see solid beings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Even Spike was dumfounded at this, and there is no knowing what he might
+      have said, had not an old sea-dog, who had just come out of the
+      fore-topmast cross-trees, come aft, and, hitching up his trowsers with one
+      hand while he touched his hat with the other, said with immoveable
+      gravity,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The revenue-steamer has brought up just under the fort, Capt. Spike.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you know that, Bill?&rdquo; demanded the captain, with a rapidity that
+      showed how completely Mrs. Budd and all her absurdities were momentarily
+      forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was up on the fore-topgallant yard, sir, a bit ago, just to look to the
+      strap of the jewel-block, which wants some sarvice on it, and I see'd her
+      over the land, blowin' off steam and takin' in her kites. Afore I got out
+      of the cross-trees, she was head to wind under bare-poles, and if she had
+      n't anchored, she was about to do so. I'm sartin 't was she, sir, and that
+      she was about to bring up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike gave a long, low whistle, after his fashion, and he walked away from
+      the females, with the air of a man who wanted room to think in. Half a
+      minute later, he called out&mdash;&ldquo;Stand by to shorten sail, boys. Man
+      fore-clew-garnets, flying jib down haul, topgallant sheets, and
+      gaff-topsail gear. In with 'em all, my lads&mdash;in with everything, with
+      a will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      An order to deal with the canvas in any way, on board ship, immediately
+      commands the whole attention of all whose duty it is to attend to such
+      matters, and there was an end of all discourse while the Swash was
+      shortening sail. Everybody understood, too, that it was to gain time, and
+      prevent the brig from reaching Throg's Neck sooner than was desirable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep the brig off,&rdquo; called out Spike, &ldquo;and let her ware&mdash;we're too
+      busy to tack just now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man at the wheel knew very well what was wanted, and he put his helm
+      up, instead of putting it down, as he might have done without this
+      injunction. As this change brought the brig before the wind, and Spike was
+      in no hurry to luff up on the other tack, the Swash soon ran over a mile
+      of the distance she had already made, putting her back that much on her
+      way to the Neck. It is out of our power to say what the people of the
+      different craft in sight thought of all this, but an opportunity soon
+      offered of putting them on a wrong scent. A large coasting schooner,
+      carrying everything that would draw on a wind, came sweeping under the
+      stern of the Swash, and hailed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has anything happened, on board that brig?&rdquo; demanded her master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Man overboard,&rdquo; answered Spike&mdash;&ldquo;you hav'nt seen his hat, have you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;no,&rdquo; came back, just as the schooner, in her onward course,
+      swept beyond the reach of the voice. Her people collected together, and
+      one or two ran up the rigging a short distance, stretching their necks, on
+      the look-out for the &ldquo;poor fellow,&rdquo; but they were soon called down to
+      &ldquo;'bout ship.&rdquo; In less than five minutes, another vessel, a rakish coasting
+      sloop, came within hail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did n't that brig strike the Pot Rock, in passing the Gate?&rdquo; demanded her
+      captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay!&mdash;and a devil of a rap she got, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This satisfied him; there being nothing remarkable in a vessel's acting
+      strangely that had hit the Pot Rock in passing Hell Gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think we may get in our mainsail on the strength of this, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo;
+       said Spike. &ldquo;There can be nothing oncommon in a craft's shortening sail,
+      that has a man overboard, and which has hit the Pot Rock. I wonder I never
+      thought of all this before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      'Here is a skiff trying to get alongside of us, Capt. Spike,&rdquo; called out
+      the boatswain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Skiff be d&mdash;d! I want no skiff here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The man that called himself Jack Tier is in her, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The d&mdash;l he is!&rdquo; cried Spike, springing over to the opposite side of
+      the deck to take a look for himself. To his infinite satisfaction he
+      perceived that Tier was alone in the skiff, with the exception of a negro,
+      who pulled its sculls, and that this was a very different boat from that
+      which had glanced through Hell Gate, like an arrow darting from its bow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Luff, and shake your topsail,&rdquo; called out Spike. &ldquo;Get a rope there to
+      throw to this skiff.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The orders were obeyed, and Jack Tier, with his clothes-bag, was soon on
+      the deck of the Swash. As for the skiff and the negro, they were cast
+      adrift the instant the latter had received his quarter. The meeting
+      between Spike and his quondam steward's mate was a little remarkable. Each
+      stood looking intently at the other, as if to note the changes which time
+      had made. We cannot say that Spike's hard, red, selfish countenance
+      betrayed any great feeling, though such was not the case with Jack Tier's.
+      The last, a lymphatic, puffy sort of a person at the best, seemed really a
+      little touched, and he either actually brushed a tear from his eye, or he
+      affected so to do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So, you are my old shipmate, Jack Tier, are ye?&rdquo; exclaimed Spike, in a
+      half-patronizing, half-hesitating way&mdash;&ldquo;and you want to try the old
+      craft ag'in. Give us a leaf of your log, and let me know where you have
+      been this many a day, and what you have been about? Keep the brig off, Mr.
+      Mulford. We are in no particular hurry to reach Throg's, you'll remember,
+      sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Tier gave an account of his proceedings, which could have no interest with
+      the reader. His narrative was anything but very clear, and it was
+      delivered in a cracked, octave sort of a voice, such as little dapper
+      people not unfrequently enjoy&mdash;tones between those of a man and a
+      boy. The substance of the whole story was this. Tier had been left ashore,
+      as sometimes happens to sailors, and, by necessary connection, was left to
+      shift for himself. After making some vain endeavours to rejoin his brig,
+      he had shipped in one vessel after another, until he accidentally found
+      himself in the port of New York, at the same time as the Swash. He know'd
+      he never should be truly happy ag'in until he could once more get aboard
+      the old hussy, and had hurried up to the wharf, where he understood the
+      brig was lying. As he came in sight, he saw she was about to cast off,
+      and, dropping his clothes-bag, he had made the best of his way to the
+      wharf, where the conversation passed that has been related.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The gentleman on the wharf was about to take boat, to go through the
+      Gate,&rdquo; concluded Tier, &ldquo;and so I begs a passage of him. He was
+      good-natured enough to wait until I could find my bag, and as soon
+      a'terwards as the men could get their grog we shoved off. The Molly was
+      just getting in behind Blackwell's as we left the wharf, and, having four
+      good oars, and the shortest road, we come out into the Gate just ahead on
+      you. My eye! what a place that is to go through in a boat, and on a strong
+      flood! The gentleman, who watched the brig as a cat watches a mouse, says
+      you struck on the Pot, as he called it, but I says 'no,' for the Molly
+      Swash was never know'd to hit rock or shoal in my time aboard her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where did you quit that gentleman, and what has become of him?&rdquo; asked
+      Spike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He put me ashore on that point above us, where I see'd a nigger with his
+      skiff, who I thought would be willin' to 'arn his quarter by giving me a
+      cast alongside. So here I am, and a long pull I've had to get here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As this was said, Jack removed his hat and wiped his brow with a
+      handkerchief, which, if it had never seen better days, had doubtless been
+      cleaner. After this, he looked about him, with an air not entirely free
+      from exultation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This conversation had taken place in the gangway, a somewhat public place,
+      and Spike beckoned to his recruit to walk aft, where he might be
+      questioned without being overheard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What became of the gentleman in the boat, as you call him?&rdquo; demanded
+      Spike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He pulled ahead, seeming to be in a hurry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know who he was?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a bit of it. I never saw the man before, and he did n't tell me his
+      business, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had he anything like a silver oar about him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I saw nothing of the sort, Capt. Spike, and knows nothing consarning
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What sort of a boat was he in, and where did he get it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, as to the boat, sir, I can say a word, seein' it was so much to my
+      mind, and pulled so wonderful smart. It was a light ship's yawl, with four
+      oars, and came round the Hook just a'ter you had got the brig's head round
+      to the eastward. You must have seen it, I should think, though it kept
+      close in with the wharves, as if it wished to be snug.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then the gentleman, as you call him, expected that very boat to come and
+      take him off?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose so, sir, because it did come and take him off. That's all I
+      knows about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had you no jaw with the gentleman? You was n't mnm the whole time you was
+      in the boat with him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a bit of it, sir. Silence and I does n't agree together long, and so
+      we talked most of the time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what did the stranger say of the brig?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lord, sir, he catechised me like as if I had been a child at
+      Sunday-school. He asked me how long I had sailed in her; what ports we'd
+      visited, and what trade we'd been in. You can't think the sight of
+      questions he put, and how cur'ous he was for the answers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what did you tell him in your answers? You said nothin' about our
+      call down on the Spanish Main, the time you were left ashore, I hope,
+      Jack?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not I, sir. I played him off surprisin'ly. He got nothin' to count upon
+      out of me. Though I do owe the Molly Swash a grudge, I'm not goin' to
+      betray her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You owe the Molly Swash a grudge! Have I taken an enemy on board her,
+      then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack started, and seemed sorry he had said so much; while Spike eyed him
+      keenly. But the answer set all right. It was not given, however, without a
+      moment for recollection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you knows what I mean, sir. I owe the old hussy a grudge for having
+      desarted me like; but it's only a love quarrel atween us. The old Molly
+      will never come to harm by my means.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope not, Jack. The man that wrongs the craft he sails in can never be
+      a true-hearted sailor. Stick by your ship in all weathers is my rule, and
+      a good rule it is to go by. But what did you tell the stranger?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! I told him I'd been six v'y'ges in the brig. The first was to
+      Madagascar&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The d&mdash;l you did? Was he soft enough to believe that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's more than I knows, sir. I can only tell you what I said; I do n't
+      pretend to know how much he believed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heave ahead&mdash;what next?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I told him we went to Kamschatka for gold dust and ivory.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whe-e-ew! What did the man say to that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, he smiled a bit, and a'ter that he seemed more cur'ous than ever to
+      hear all about it. I told him my third v'y'ge was to Canton, with a cargo
+      of broom-corn, where we took in salmon and dun-fish for home. A'ter that
+      we went to Norway with ice, and brought back silks and money. Our next run
+      was to the Havana, with salt and 'nips&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Nips! what the devil be they?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Turnips, you knows, sir. We always calls 'em 'nips in cargo. At the
+      Havana I told him we took in leather and jerked beef, and came home. Oh!
+      he got nothin' from me, Capt. Spike, that'll ever do the brig a morsel of
+      harm!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad of that, Jack. You must know enough of the seas to understand
+      that a close mouth is sometimes better for a vessel than a clean bill of
+      health. Was there nothing said about the revenue-steamer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now you name her, sir, I believe there was&mdash;ay, ay, sir, the
+      gentleman did say, if the steamer fetched up to the westward of the fort,
+      that he should overhaul her without difficulty, on this flood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That'll do, Jack; that'll do, my honest fellow. Go below, and tell Josh
+      to take you into the cabin again, as steward's mate. You're rather too
+      Dutch built, in your old age, to do much aloft.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One can hardly say whether Jack received this remark as complimentary, or
+      not. He looked a little glum, for a man may be as round as a barrel, and
+      wish to be thought genteel and slender; but he went below, in quest of
+      Josh, without making any reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The succeeding movements of Spike appeared to be much influenced by what
+      he had just heard. He kept the brig under short canvas for near two hours,
+      sheering about in the same place, taking care to tell everything which
+      spoke him that he had lost a man overboard. In this way, not only the
+      tide, but the day itself, was nearly spent. About the time the former
+      began to lose its strength, however, the fore-course and the main-sail
+      were got on the brigantine, with the intention of working her up toward
+      Whitestone, where the tides meet, and near which the revenue-steamer was
+      known to be anchored. We say near, though it was, in fact, a mile or two
+      more to the eastward, and close to the extremity of the Point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding these demonstrations of a wish to work to windward, Spike
+      was really in no hurry. He had made up his mind to pass the steamer in the
+      dark, if possible, and the night promised to favour him; but, in order to
+      do this, it might be necessary not to come in sight of her at all; or, at
+      least, not until the obscurity should in some measure conceal his rig and
+      character. In consequence of this plan, the Swash made no great progress,
+      even after she had got sail on her, on her old course. The wind lessened,
+      too, after the sun went down, though it still hung to the eastward, or
+      nearly ahead. As the tide gradually lost its force, moreover, the set to
+      windward became less and less, until it finally disappeared altogether.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is necessarily a short reach in this passage, where it is always
+      slack water, so far as current is concerned. This is precisely where the
+      tides meet, or, as has been intimated, at Whitestone, which is somewhat
+      more than a mile to the westward of Throgmorton's Neck, near the point of
+      which stands Fort Schuyler, one of the works recently erected for the
+      defence of New York. Off the pitch of the point, nearly mid-channel, had
+      the steamer anchored, a fact of which Spike had made certain, by going
+      aloft himself, and reconnoitering her over the land, before it had got to
+      be too dark to do so. He entertained no manner of doubt that this vessel
+      was in waiting for him, and he well knew there was good reason for it; but
+      he would not return and attempt the passage to sea by way of Sandy Hook.
+      His manner of regarding the whole matter was cool and judicious. The
+      distance to the Hook was too great to be made in such short nights ere the
+      return of day, and he had no manner of doubt he was watched for in that
+      direction, as well as in this. Then he was particularly unwilling to show
+      his craft at all in front of the town, even in the night. Moreover, he had
+      ways of his own for effecting his purposes, and this was the very spot and
+      time to put them in execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While these things were floating in his mind, Mrs. Budd and her handsome
+      niece were making preparations for passing the night, aided by Biddy Noon.
+      The old lady was factotum, or factota, as it might be most classical to
+      call her, though we are entirely without authorities on the subject, and
+      was just as self-complacent and ambitious of seawomanship below decks, as
+      she had been above board. The effect, however, gave Spike great
+      satisfaction, since it kept her out of sight, and left him more at liberty
+      to carry out his own plans. About nine, however, the good woman came on
+      deck, intending to take a look at the weather, like a skilful marineress
+      as she was, before she turned in. Not a little was she astonished at what
+      she then and there beheld, as she whispered to Rose and Biddy, both of
+      whom stuck close to her side, feeling the want of good pilotage, no doubt,
+      in strange waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Molly Swash was still under her canvas, though very little sufficed
+      for her present purposes. She was directly off Whitestone, and was making
+      easy stretches across the passage, or river, as it is called, having
+      nothing set but her huge fore-and-aft mainsail and the jib. Under this
+      sail she worked like a top, and Spike sometimes fancied she travelled too
+      fast for his purposes, the night air having thickened the canvas as usual,
+      until it &ldquo;held the wind as a bottle holds water.&rdquo; There was nothing in
+      this, however, to attract the particular attention of the ship-master's
+      widow, a sail, more or less, being connected with observation much too
+      critical for her schooling, nice as the last had been. She was surprised
+      to find the men stripping the brig forward, and converting her into a
+      schooner. Nor was this done in a loose and slovenly manner, under favour
+      of the obscurity. On the contrary, it was so well executed that it might
+      have deceived even a seaman under a noon-day sun, provided the vessel were
+      a mile or two distant. The manner in which the metamorphosis was made was
+      as follows: the studding-sail booms had been taken off the topsail-yard,
+      in order to shorten it to the eye, and the yard itself was swayed up about
+      half-mast, to give it the appearance of a schooner's fore-yard. The brig's
+      real lower yard was lowered on the bulwarks, while her royal yard was sent
+      down altogether, and the topgallant-mast was lowered until the heel rested
+      on the topsail yard, all of which, in the night, gave the gear forward
+      very much the appearance of that of a fore-topsail schooner, instead of
+      that of a half-rigged brig, as the craft really was. As the vessel carried
+      a try-sail on her foremast, it answered very well, in the dark, to
+      represent a schooner's foresail. Several other little dispositions of this
+      nature were made, about which it might weary the uninitiated to read, but
+      which will readily suggest themselves to the mind of a sailor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These alterations were far advanced when the females re-appeared on deck.
+      They at once attracted their attention, and the captain's widow felt the
+      imperative necessity, as connected with her professional character, of
+      proving the same. She soon found Spike, who was bustling around the deck,
+      now looking around to see that his brig was kept in the channel, now and
+      then issuing an order to complete her disguise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captain Spike, what can be the meaning of all these changes? The tamper
+      of your vessel is so much altered that I declare I should not have known
+      her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it, by George! Then she is just in the state I want her to be in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why have you done it&mdash;and what does it all mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Molly's going to bed for the night, and she's only undressing herself&mdash;that's
+      all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Rosy dear, Captain Spike is right. I remember that my poor Mr. Budd
+      used to talk about The Rose In Bloom having her clothes on, and her
+      clothes off, just as if she was a born woman! But do n't you mean to
+      navigate at all in the night, Captain Spike? Or will the brig navigate
+      without sails?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's it&mdash;she's just as good in the dark, under one sort of canvas,
+      as under another. So, Mr. Mulford, we'll take a reef in that mainsail; it
+      will bring it nearer to the size of our new foresail, and seem more
+      ship-shape and Brister fashion&mdash;then I think she'll do, as the night
+      is getting to be rather darkish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captain Spike,&rdquo; said the boatswain, who had been set to look-out for that
+      particular change&mdash;&ldquo;the brig begins to feel the new tide, and sets to
+      windward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let her go, then&mdash;now is as good a time as another. We've got to run
+      the gantlet, and the sooner it is done the better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the moment seemed propitious, not only Mulford, but all the people,
+      heard this order with satisfaction. The night was star-light, though not
+      very clear at that. Objects on the water, however, were more visible than
+      those on the land, while those on the last could be seen well enough, even
+      from the brig, though in confused and somewhat shapeless piles. When the
+      Swash was brought close by the wind, she had just got into the last reach
+      of the &ldquo;river,&rdquo; or that which runs parallel with the Neck for near a mile,
+      doubling where the Sound expands itself, gradually, to a breadth of many
+      leagues. Still the navigation at the entrance of this end of the Sound was
+      intricate and somewhat dangerous, rendering it indispensable for a vessel
+      of any size to make a crooked course. The wind stood at south-east, and
+      was very scant to lay through the reach with, while the tide was so slack
+      as barely to possess a visible current at that place. The steamer lay
+      directly off the Point, mid-channel, as mentioned, showing lights, to mark
+      her position to anything which might be passing in or out. The great thing
+      was to get by her without exciting her suspicion. As all on board, the
+      females excepted, knew what their captain was at, the attempt was made
+      amid an anxious and profound silence; or, if any one spoke at all, it was
+      only to give an order in a low tone, or its answer in a simple
+      monosyllable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although her aunt assured her that everything which had been done already,
+      and which was now doing, was quite in rule, the quick-eyed and
+      quick-witted Rose noted these unusual proceedings, and had an opinion of
+      her own on the subject. Spike had gone forward, and posted himself on the
+      weather-side of the forecastle, where he could get the clearest look
+      ahead, and there he remained most of the time, leaving Mulford on the
+      quarter-deck, to work the vessel, Perceiving this, she managed to get near
+      the mate, without attracting her aunt's attention, and at the same time
+      out of ear-shot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why is everybody so still and seemingly so anxious, Harry Mulford?&rdquo; she
+      asked, speaking in a low tone herself, as if desirous of conforming to a
+      common necessity. &ldquo;Is there any new danger here? I thought the Gate had
+      been passed altogether, some hours ago?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it has. D'ye see that large dark mass on the water, off the Point,
+      which seems almost as huge as the fort, with lights above it? That is a
+      revenue-steamer which came out of York a few hours before us. We wish to
+      get past her without being troubled by any of her questions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what do any in this brig care about her questions? They can be
+      answered, surely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, Rose&mdash;they may be answered, as you say, but the answers
+      sometimes are unsatisfactory. Captain Spike, for some reason or other, is
+      uneasy, and would rather not have anything to say to her. He has the
+      greatest aversion to speaking the smallest craft when on a coast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that's the reason he has undressed his Molly, as he calls her, that
+      he might not be known.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford turned his head quickly toward his companion, as if surprised by
+      her quickness of apprehension, but he had too just a sense of his duty to
+      make any reply. Instead of pursuing the discourse, he adroitly contrived
+      to change it, by pointing out to Rose the manner in which they were
+      getting on, which seemed to be very successfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the Swash was under much reduced canvas, she glided along with
+      great ease and with considerable rapidity of motion. The heavy night air
+      kept her canvas distended, and the weatherly set of the tide, trifling as
+      it yet was, pressed her up against the breeze, so as to turn all to
+      account. It was apparent enough, by the manner in which objects on the
+      land were passed, that the crisis was fast approaching. Rose rejoined her
+      aunt, in order to await the result, in nearly breathless expectation. At
+      that moment, she would have given the world to be safe on shore. This wish
+      was not the consequence of any constitutional timidity, for Rose was much
+      the reverse from timid, but it was the fruit of a newly-awakened and
+      painful, though still vague, suspicion. Happy, thrice happy was it for one
+      of her naturally confiding and guileless nature, that distrust was thus
+      opportunely awakened, for she was without a guardian competent to advise
+      and guide her youth, as circumstances required.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The brig was not long in reaching the passage that opened to the Sound. It
+      is probable she did this so much the sooner because Spike kept her a
+      little off the wind, with a view of not passing too near the steamer. At
+      this point, the direction of the passage changes at nearly a right angle,
+      the revenue-steamer lying on a line with the Neck, and leaving a sort of
+      bay, in the angle, for the Swash to enter. The land was somewhat low in
+      all directions but one, and that was by drawing a straight line from the
+      Point, through the steamer, to the Long Island shore. On the latter, and
+      in that quarter, rose a bluff of considerable elevation, with deep water
+      quite near it; and, under the shadows of that bluff, Spike intended to
+      perform his nicest evolutions. He saw that the revenue vessel had let her
+      fires go down, and that she was entirely without steam. Under canvas, he
+      had no doubt of beating her hand over hand, could he once fairly get to
+      windward; and then she was at anchor, and would lose some time in getting
+      under way, should she even commence a pursuit. It was all important,
+      therefore, to gain as much to windward as possible, before the people of
+      the government vessel took the alarm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There can be no doubt that the alterations made on board the Swash served
+      her a very good turn on this occasion. Although the night could not be
+      called positively dark, there was sufficient obscurity to render her hull
+      confused and indistinct at any distance, and this so much the more when
+      seen from the steamer outside, or between her and the land. All this Spike
+      very well understood, and largely calculated on. In effect he was not
+      deceived; the look-outs on board the revenue craft could trace little of
+      the vessel that was approaching beyond the spars and sails which rose
+      above the shores, and these seemed to be the spars and sails of a common
+      foretopsail schooner. As this was not the sort of craft for which they
+      were on the watch, no suspicion was awakened, nor did any reports go from
+      the quarter-deck to the cabin. The steamer had her quarter watches, and
+      officers of the deck, like a vessel of war, the discipline of which was
+      fairly enough imitated, but even a man-of-war may be overreached on an
+      occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike was only great in a crisis, and then merely as a seaman. He
+      understood his calling to its minutiæ, and he understood the Molly Swash
+      better than he understood any other craft that floated. For more than
+      twenty years had he sailed her, and the careful parent does not better
+      understand the humours of the child, than he understood exactly what might
+      be expected from his brig. His satisfaction sensibly increased, therefore,
+      as she stole along the land, toward the angle mentioned, without a sound
+      audible but the gentle gurgling of the water, stirred by the stem, and
+      which sounded like the ripple of the gentlest wave, as it washes the
+      shingle of some placid beach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the brig drew nearer to the bluff, the latter brought the wind more
+      ahead, as respected the desired course. This was unfavourable, but it did
+      not disconcert her watchful commander.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let her come round, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo; said this pilot-captain, in a low voice&mdash;&ldquo;we
+      are as near in as we ought to go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The helm was put down, the head sheets started, and away into the wind
+      shot the Molly Swash, fore-reaching famously in stays, and, of course,
+      gaining so much on her true course. In a minute she was round, and filled
+      on the other tack. Spike was now so near the land, that he could perceive
+      the tide was beginning to aid him, and that his weatherly set was getting
+      to be considerable. Delighted at this, he walked aft, and told Mulford to
+      go about again as soon as the vessel had sufficient way to make sure of
+      her in stays. The mate inquired if he did not think the revenue people
+      might suspect something, unless they stood further out toward mid-channel,
+      but Spike reminded him that they would be apt to think the schooner was
+      working up under the southern shore, because the ebb first made there.
+      This reason satisfied Mulford, and, as soon as they were half-way between
+      the bluff and the steamer, the Swash was again tacked, with her head to
+      the former. This manoeuvre was executed when the brig was about two
+      hundred yards from the steamer, a distance that was sufficient to
+      preserve, under all the circumstances, the disguise she had assumed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They do not suspect us, Harry!&rdquo; whispered Spike to his mate. &ldquo;We shall
+      get to windward of 'em, as sartain as the breeze stands. That boatin'
+      gentleman might as well have staid at home, as for any good his hurry done
+      him or his employers!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whom do you suppose him to be, Captain Spike?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who,&mdash;a feller that lives by his own wicked deeds. No matter who he
+      is. An informer, perhaps. At any rate, he is not the man to outwit the
+      Molly Swash, and her old, stupid, foolish master and owner, Stephen Spike.
+      Luff, Mr. Mulford, luff. Now's the time to make the most of your leg&mdash;Luff
+      her up and shake her. She is setting to windward fast, the ebb is sucking
+      along that bluff like a boy at a molasses hogshead. All she can drift on
+      this tack is clear gain; there is no hurry, so long as they are asleep
+      aboard the steamer. That's it&mdash;make a half-board at once, but take
+      care and not come round. As soon as we are fairly clear of the bluff, and
+      open the bay that makes up behind it, we shall get the wind more to the
+      southward, and have a fine long leg for the next stretch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course Mulford obeyed, throwing the brig up into the wind, and allowing
+      her to set to windward, but filling again on the same tack, as ordered.
+      This, of course, delayed her progress toward the land, and protracted the
+      agony, but it carried the vessel in the direction she most wished to go,
+      while it kept her not only end on to the steamer, but in a line with the
+      bluff, and consequently in the position most favourable to conceal her
+      true character. Presently, the bay mentioned, which was several miles
+      deep, opened darkly toward the south, and the wind came directly out of
+      it, or more to the southward. At this moment the Swash was near a quarter
+      of a mile from the steamer, and all that distance dead to windward of her,
+      as the breeze came out of the bay. Spike tacked his vessel himself now,
+      and got her head up so high that she brought the steamer on her lee
+      quarter, and looked away toward the island which lies northwardly from the
+      Point, and quite near to which all vessels of any draught of water are
+      compelled to pass, even with the fairest winds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shake the reef out of the mainsail, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo; said Spike, when the
+      Swash was fairly in motion again on this advantageous tack. &ldquo;We shall pass
+      well to windward of the steamer, and may as well begin to open our cloth
+      again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it not a little too soon, sir?&rdquo; Mulford ventured to remonstrate; &ldquo;the
+      reef is a large one, and will make a great difference in the size of the
+      sail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They'll not see it at this distance. No, no, sir, shake out the reef, and
+      sway away on the topgallant-mast rope; I'm for bringing the Molly Swash
+      into her old shape again, and make her look handsome once more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you dress the brig, as well as undress her, o'mights; Captain Spike?&rdquo;
+       inquired the ship-master's reliet, a little puzzled with this fickleness
+      of purpose. &ldquo;I do not believe my poor Mr. Budd ever did that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fashions change, madam, with the times&mdash;ay, ay, sir&mdash;shake out
+      the reef, and sway away on that mast-rope, boys, as soon as you have
+      manned it. We'll convart our schooner into a brig again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As these orders were obeyed, of course, a general bustle now took place.
+      Mulford soon had the reef out, and the sail distended to the utmost, while
+      the topgallant-mast was soon up and fidded. The next thing was to sway
+      upon the fore-yard, and get that into its place. The people were busied at
+      this duty, when a hoarse hail came across the water on the heavy night
+      air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brig ahoy!&rdquo; was the call.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sway upon that fore-yard,&rdquo; said Spike, unmoved by this summons&mdash;&ldquo;start
+      it, start it at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The steamer hails us, sir,&rdquo; said the mate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not she. She is hailing a brig; we are a schooner yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A moment of active exertion succeeded, during which the fore-yard went
+      into its place. Then came a second hail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Schooner, ahoy!&rdquo; was the summons this time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The steamer hails us again, Captain Spike.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The devil a bit. We're a brig now, and she hails a schooner. Come boys,
+      bestir yourselves, and get the canvas on Molly for'ard. Loose the
+      fore-course before you quit the yard there, then up aloft and loosen
+      everything you can find.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All was done as ordered, and done rapidly, as is ever the case on board a
+      well-ordered vessel when there is occasion for exertion. That occasion now
+      appeared to exist in earnest, for while the men were sheeting home the
+      topsail, a flash of light illuminated the scene, when the roar of a gun
+      came booming across the water, succeeded by the very distinct whistling of
+      its shot. We regret that the relict of the late Captain Budd did not
+      behave exactly as became a shipmaster's widow, under fire. Instead of
+      remaining silent and passive, even while frightened, as was the case with
+      Rose, she screamed quite as loud as she had previously done that very day
+      in Hell-Gate. It appeared to Spike, indeed, that practice was making her
+      perfect; and, as for Biddy, the spirit of emulation became so powerful in
+      her bosom, that, if anything, she actually outshrieked her mistress.
+      Hearing this, the widow made a second effort, and fairly recovered the
+      ground some might have fancied she had lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! Captain Spike,&rdquo; exclaimed the agitated widow, &ldquo;do not&mdash;do not,
+      if you love me, do not let them fire again!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How am I to help it!&rdquo; asked the captain, a good deal to the point, though
+      he overlooked the essential fact, that, by heaving-to, and waiting for the
+      steamer's boat to board him, he might have prevented a second shot, as
+      completely as if he had the ordering of the whole affair. No second shot
+      was fired, however. As it afterward appeared, the screams of Mrs. Budd and
+      Biddy were heard on board the steamer, the captain of which, naturally
+      enough, supposing that the slaughter must be terrible where such cries had
+      arisen, was satisfied with the mischief he had already done, and directed
+      his people to secure their gun and go to the capstan-bars, in order to
+      help lift the anchor. In a word, the revenue vessel was getting under way,
+      man-of-war fashion, which means somewhat expeditiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike understood the sounds that reached him, among which was the call of
+      the boatswain, and he bestirred himself accordingly. Experienced as he was
+      in chases and all sorts of nautical artifices, he very well knew that his
+      situation was sufficiently critical. It would have been so, with a steamer
+      at his heels, in the open ocean; but, situated as he was, he was compelled
+      to steer but one course, and to accept the wind on that course as it might
+      offer. If he varied at all in his direction it was only in a trifling way,
+      though he did make some of these variations. Every moment was now
+      precious, however, and he endeavoured to improve the time to the utmost.
+      He knew that he could greatly outsail the revenue vessel, under canvas,
+      and some time would be necessary to enable her to get up her steam; half
+      an hour at the very least. On that half hour, then, depended the fate of
+      the Molly Swash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Send the booms on the yards, and set stun'sails at once, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo;
+       said Spike, the instant the more regular canvas was spread forward. &ldquo;This
+      wind will be free enough for all but the lower stun'sail, and we must
+      drive the brig on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we not looking up too high, Captain Spike? The Stepping-Stones are
+      ahead of us, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know that very well, Mulford. But it's nearly high water, and the
+      brig's in light trim, and we may rub and go. By making a short cut here,
+      we shall gain a full mile on the steamer; that mile may save us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you really think it possible to get away from that craft, which can
+      always make a fair wind of it, in these narrow waters, Captain Spike?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One don't know, sir. Nothin' is done without tryin', and by tryin' more
+      is often done than was hoped for. I have a scheme in my head, and
+      Providence may favour me in bringing it about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Providence! The religionist quarrels with the philosopher if the latter
+      happen to remove this interposition of a higher power, even so triflingly
+      as by the intervention of secondary agencies, while the biggest rascal
+      dignifies even his success by such phrases as Providential aid! But it is
+      not surprising men should misunderstand terms, when they make such sad
+      confusion in the acts which these terms are merely meant to represent.
+      Spike had his Providence as well as a priest, and we dare say he often
+      counted on its succour, with quite as rational grounds of dependence as
+      many of the pharisees who are constantly exclaiming, &ldquo;The Temple of the
+      Lord, the Temple of the Lord are these.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sail was made on board the Swash with great rapidity, and the brig made a
+      bold push at the Stepping-Stones. Spike was a capital pilot. He insisted
+      if he could once gain sight of the spar that was moored on those rocks for
+      a buoy, he should run with great confidence. The two lights were of great
+      assistance, of course; but the revenue vessel could see these lights as
+      well as the brig, and she, doubtless, had an excellent pilot on board. By
+      the time the studding-sails were set on board the Swash, the steamer was
+      aweigh, and her long line of peculiar sails became visible. Unfortunately
+      for men who were in a hurry, she lay so much within the bluff as to get
+      the wind scant, and her commander thought it necessary to make a stretch
+      over to the southern shore, before he attempted to lay his course. When he
+      was ready to tack, an operation of some time with a vessel of her great
+      length, the Swash was barely visible in the obscurity, gliding off upon a
+      slack bowline, at a rate which nothing but the damp night air, the
+      ballast-trim of the vessel, united to her excellent sailing qualities,
+      could have produced with so light a breeze.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first half hour took the Swash completely out of sight of the steamer.
+      In that time, in truth, by actual superiority in sailing, by her greater
+      state of preparation, and by the distance saved by a bold navigation, she
+      had gained fully a league on her pursuer. But, while the steamer had lost
+      sight of the Swash, the latter kept the former in view, and that by means
+      of a signal that was very portentous. She saw the light of the steamer's
+      chimneys, and could form some opinion of her distance and position.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was about eleven o'clock when the Swash passed the light at Sands'
+      Point, close in with the land. The wind stood much as it had been. If
+      there was a change at all, it was half a point more to the southward, and
+      it was a little fresher. Such as it was, Spike saw he was getting, in that
+      smooth water, quite eight knots out of his craft, and he made his
+      calculations thereon. As yet, and possibly for half an hour longer, he was
+      gaining, and might hope to continue to gain on the steamer. Then her turn
+      would come. Though no great traveller, it was not to be expected that,
+      favoured by smooth water and the breeze, her speed would be less than ten
+      knots, while there was no hope of increasing his own without an increase
+      of the wind. He might be five miles in advance, or six at the most; these
+      six miles would be overcome in three hours of steaming, to a dead
+      certainty, and they might possibly be overcome much sooner. It was
+      obviously necessary to resort to some other experiment than that of dead
+      sailing, if an escape was to be effected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Sound was now several miles in width, and Spike, at first, proposed to
+      his mate, to keep off dead before the wind, and by crossing over to the
+      north shore, let the steamer pass ahead, and continue a bootless chase to
+      the eastward. Several vessels, however, were visible in the middle of the
+      passage, at distances varying from one to three miles, and Mulford pointed
+      out the hopelessness of attempting to cross the sheet of open water, and
+      expect to go unseen by the watchful eyes of the revenue people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What you say is true enough, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo; answered Spike, after a moment
+      of profound reflection, &ldquo;and every foot that they come nearer, the less
+      will be our chance. But here is Hempstead Harbour a few leagues ahead; if
+      we can reach that before the blackguards close, we may do well enough. It
+      is a deep bay, and has high land to darken the view. I don't think the
+      brig could be seen at midnight by anything outside; if she was once fairly
+      up that water a mile or two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is our chance, sir!&rdquo; exclaimed Mulford cheerfully. &ldquo;Ay, ay, I know
+      the spot; and everything is favourable&mdash;try that, Captain Spike; I'll
+      answer for it that we go clear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike did try it. For a considerable time longer he stood on, keeping as
+      close to the land as he thought it safe to run, and carrying everything
+      that would draw. But the steamer was on his heels, evidently gaining fast.
+      Her chimneys gave out flames, and there was every sign that her people
+      were in earnest. To those on board the Swash these flames seemed to draw
+      nearer each instant, as indeed was the fact, and just as the breeze came
+      fresher out of the opening in the hills, or the low mountains, which
+      surround the place of refuge in which they designed to enter, Mulford
+      announced that by aid of the night-glass he could distinguish both sails
+      and hull of their pursuer. Spike took a look, and throwing down the
+      instrument, in a way to endanger it, he ordered the studding-sails taken
+      in. The men went aloft like cats, and worked as if they could stand in
+      air. In a minute or two the Swash was under what Mrs. Budd might have
+      called her &ldquo;attacking&rdquo; canvas, and was close by the wind, looking on a
+      good leg well up the harbour. The brig seemed to be conscious of the
+      emergency, and glided ahead at capital speed. In five minutes she had shut
+      in the flaming chimneys of the steamer. In five minutes more Spike tacked,
+      to keep under the western side of the harbour, and out of sight as long as
+      possible, and because he thought the breeze drew down fresher where he was
+      than more out in the bay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All now depended on the single fact whether the brig had been seen from
+      the steamer or not, before she hauled into the bay. If seen, she had
+      probably been watched; if not seen, there were strong grounds for hoping
+      that she might still escape. About a quarter of an hour after Spike hauled
+      up, the burning chimneys came again into view. The brig was then half a
+      league within the bay, with a fine dark background of hills to throw her
+      into shadow. Spike ordered everything taken in but the trysail, under
+      which the brig was left to set slowly over toward the western side of the
+      harbour. He now rubbed his hands with delight, and pointed out to Mulford
+      the circumstance that the steamer kept on her course directly athwart the
+      harbour's mouth! Had she seen the Swash, no doubt she would have turned
+      into the bay also. Nevertheless, an anxious ten minutes succeeded, during
+      which the revenue vessel steamed fairly past, and shut in her flaming
+      chimneys again by the eastern headlands of the estuary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  The western wave was all a flame,
+  The day was well nigh done,
+  Almost upon the western wave
+  Rested the broad bright sun;
+  When that strange ship drove suddenly
+  Betwixt us and the sun.
+
+  The Ancient Mariner.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      At that hour, on the succeeding morning, when the light of day is just
+      beginning to chase away the shadows of night, the Molly Swash became
+      visible within the gloom of the high land which surrounds so much of the
+      bay of Hempstead, under easy sail, backing and filling, in order to keep
+      within her hiding-place, until a look could be had at the state of things
+      without. Half an hour later, she was so near the entrance of the estuary,
+      as to enable the look-outs aloft to ascertain that the coast was clear,
+      when Spike ordered the helm to be put up, and the brig to be kept away to
+      her course. At this precise moment, Rose appeared on deck, refreshed by
+      the sleep of a quiet night; and with cheeks tinged with a colour even more
+      delicate than that which was now glowing in the eastern sky, and which was
+      almost as brilliant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We stopped in this bit of a harbour for the night, Miss Rose, that is
+      all;&rdquo; said Spike, observing that his fair passenger was looking about her,
+      in some little surprise, at finding the vessel so near the land, and
+      seemingly so much out of her proper position. &ldquo;Yes, we always do that,
+      when we first start on a v'y'ge, and before the brig gets used to
+      travelling&mdash;do n't we, Mr. Mulford?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Mulford, who knew how hopeless was the attempt to mystify Rose, as one
+      might mystify her credulous and weak-minded aunt, and who had no
+      disposition to deal any way but fairly by the beautiful, and in one sense
+      now helpless young creature before him, did not see fit to make any reply.
+      Offend Spike he did not dare to do, more especially under present
+      circumstances; and mislead Rose he would not do. He affected not to hear
+      the question, therefore, but issuing an order about the head-sails, he
+      walked forward as if to see it executed. Rose herself was not under as
+      much restraint as the young mate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is convenient, Captain Spike,&rdquo; she coolly answered for Mulford, &ldquo;to
+      have stopping-places, for vessels that are wearied, and I remember the
+      time when my uncle used to tell me of such matters, very much in the same
+      vein; but, it was before I was twelve years old.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike hemmed, and he looked a little foolish, but Clench, the boatswain,
+      coming aft to say something to him in confidence, just at that moment, he
+      was enabled to avoid the awkwardness of attempting to explain. This man
+      Clench, or Clinch, as the name was pronounced, was deep in the captain's
+      secrets; far more so than was his mate, and would have been filling
+      Mulford's station at that very time, had he not been hopelessly ignorant
+      of navigation. On the present occasion, his business was to point out to
+      the captain, two or three lines of smoke, that were visible above the
+      water of the Sound, in the eastern board; one of which he was apprehensive
+      might turn out to be the smoke of the revenue craft, from which they had
+      so recently escaped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Steamers are no rarities in Long Island Sound, Clench,&rdquo; observed the
+      captain, levelling his glass at the most suspected of the smokes. &ldquo;That
+      must be a Providence, or Stonington chap, coming west with the Boston
+      train.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Either of them would have been further west, by this time, Captain
+      Spike,&rdquo; returned the doubting, but watchful boatswain. &ldquo;It's a large
+      smoke, and I fear it is the revenue fellow coming back, after having had a
+      look well to the eastward, and satisfying himself that we are not to be
+      had in that quarter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike growled out his assent to the possibility of such a conjecture, and
+      promised vigilance. This satisfied his subordinate for the moment, and he
+      walked forward, or to the place where he belonged. In the mean time, the
+      widow came on deck, smiling, and snuffing the salt air, and ready to be
+      delighted with anything that was maritime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good morning, Captain Spike,&rdquo; she cried&mdash;&ldquo;Are we in the offing, yet?&mdash;you
+      know I desired to be told when we are in the offing, for I intend to write
+      a letter to my poor Mr. Budd's sister, Mrs. Sprague, as soon as we get to
+      the offing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the offing, aunt?&rdquo; inquired the handsome niece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why you have hardly been at sea long enough to understand me, child,
+      should I attempt to explain. The offing, however, is the place where the
+      last letters are always written to the owners, and to friends ashore. The
+      term comes, I suppose, from the circumstance that the vessel is about to
+      be off, and it is natural to think of those we leave behind, at such a
+      moment. I intend to write to your aunt Sprague, my dear, the instant I
+      hear we are in the offing; and what is more, I intend to make you my
+      amanuensis.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how will the letter be sent, aunty?&mdash;I have no more objections
+      to writing than any one else, but I do not see how the letter is to be
+      sent. Really, the sea is a curious region, with its stopping-places for
+      the night, and its offings to write letters at!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it's all as you say, Rose&mdash;a most remarkable region is the sea!
+      You'll admire it, as I admire it, when you come to know it better; and as
+      your poor uncle admired it, and as Captain Spike admires it, too. As for
+      the letters, they can be sent ashore by the pilot, as letters are always
+      sent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, aunty, there is no pilot in the Swash&mdash;for Captain Spike
+      refused to take one on board.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rose!&mdash;you don't understand what you are talking about! No vessel
+      ever yet sailed without a pilot, if indeed any can. It's opposed to the
+      law, not to have a pilot; and now I remember to have heard your dear uncle
+      say it wasn't a voyage if a vessel didn't take away a pilot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But if they take them away, aunty, how can they send the letters ashore
+      by them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poh! poh! child; you don't know what you're saying; but you'll overlook
+      it, I hope, Captain Spike, for Rose is quick, and will soon learn to know
+      better. As if letters couldn't be sent ashore by the pilot, though he was
+      a hundred thousand miles from land! But, Captain Spike, you must let me
+      know when we are about to get off the Sound, for I know that the pilot is
+      always sent ashore with his letters, before the vessel gets off the
+      Sound.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; returned the captain, a little mystified by the widow, though
+      he knew her so well, and understood her so well&mdash;&ldquo;you shall know,
+      ma'am, when we get off soundings, for I suppose that is what you mean.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the difference? Off the Sound, or off the soundings, of course,
+      must mean the same thing. But, Rosy, we will go below and write to your
+      aunt at once, for I see a light-house yonder, and light-houses are always
+      put just off the soundings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose, who always suspected her aunt's nautical talk, though she did not
+      know how to correct it, and was not sorry to put an end to it, now, by
+      going below, and spreading her own writing materials, in readiness to
+      write, as the other dictated. Biddy Noon was present, sewing on some of
+      her own finery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now write, as I tell you, Rose,&rdquo; commenced the widow&mdash;&ldquo;My dear
+      sister Sprague&mdash;Here we are, at last, just off the soundings, with
+      light-houses all round us, and so many capes and islands in sight, that it
+      does seem as if the vessel never could find its way through them all. Some
+      of these islands must be the West Indies&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Aunty, that can never
+      be!&rdquo; exclaimed Rose&mdash;&ldquo;we left New York only yesterday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What of that? Had it been old times, I grant you several days might be
+      necessary to get a sight of the West Indies, but, now, when a letter can
+      be written to a friend in Boston, and an answer received in half an hour,
+      it requires no such time to go to the West Indies. Besides, what other
+      islands are there in this part of the world?&mdash;they can't be England&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;no,&rdquo;&mdash;said Rose, at once seeing it would be preferable to
+      admit they were the West Indies; so the letter went on:&mdash;&ldquo;Some of
+      these islands must be the West Indies, and it is high time we saw some of
+      them, for we are nearly off the Sound, and the light-houses are getting to
+      be quite numerous. I think we have already seen four since we left the
+      wharf. But, my dear sister Sprague, you will be delighted to hear how much
+      better Rose's health is already becoming&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My health, aunty! Why, I never knew an ill day in my life!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't tell me that, my darling; I know too well what all these deceptive
+      appearances of health amount to. I would not alarm you for the world, Rosy
+      dear, but a careful parent&mdash;and I'm your parent in affection, if not
+      by nature&mdash;but a careful parent's eye is not to be deceived. I know
+      you look well, but you are ill, my child; though, Heaven be praised, the
+      sea air and hydropathy are already doing you a monstrous deal of good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Mrs. Budd concluded, she wiped her eyes, and appeared really glad that
+      her niece had a less consumptive look than when she embarked. Rose sat,
+      gazing at her aunt, in mute astonishment. She knew how much and truly she
+      was beloved, and that induced her to be more tolerant of her connection's
+      foibles than even duty demanded. Feeling was blended with her respect, but
+      it was almost too much for her, to learn that this long, and in some
+      respects painful voyage, was undertaken on her account, and without the
+      smallest necessity for it. The vexation, however, would have been largely
+      increased, but for certain free communications that had occasionally
+      occurred between her and the handsome mate, since the moment of her coming
+      on board the brig. Rose knew that Harry Mulford loved her, too, for he had
+      told her as much with a seaman's frankness; and though she had never let
+      him know that his partiality was returned, her woman's heart was fast
+      inclining toward him, with all her sex's tenderness. This made the mistake
+      of her aunt tolerable, though Rose was exceedingly vexed it should ever
+      have occurred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, my dearest aunt,&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;they told me it was on your account
+      that this voyage was undertaken!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know they did, poor, dear Rosy, and that was in order not to alarm you.
+      Some persons of delicate constitutions&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But my constitution is not in the least delicate, aunt; on the contrary,
+      it is as good as possible; a blessing for which, I trust, I am truly
+      grateful, I did not know but you might be suffering, though you do look so
+      well, for they all agreed in telling me you had need of a sea-voyage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I, a subject for hydropathy! Why, child, water is no more necessary to me
+      than it is to a cat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But going to sea, aunty, is not hydropathy&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't say that, Rosy; do not say that, my dear. It is hydropathy on a
+      large scale, as Captain Spike says; and when he gets us into blue water,
+      he has promised that you shall have all the benefits of the treatment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose was silent and thoughtful; after which she spoke quickly, like one to
+      whom an important thought had suddenly occurred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Captain Spike, then, was consulted in my case?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was, my dear, and you have every reason to be grateful to him. He was
+      the first to discover a change in your appearance, and to suggest a sea
+      voyage. Marine Hydropathy, he said, he was sure would get you up again;
+      for Captain Spike thinks your constitution good at the bottom, though the
+      high colour you have proves too high a state of habitual excitement.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was Dr. Monson consulted at all, aunt?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all. You know the doctors are all against hydropathy, and
+      mesmerism, and the magnetic telegraph, and everything that is new; so we
+      thought it best not to consult him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And my aunt Sprague?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, she was consulted after everything was settled, and when I knew her
+      notions could not undo what had been already done. But she is a seaman's
+      widow, as well as myself, and has a great notion of the virtue of sea
+      air.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then it would seem that Doctor Spike was the principal adviser in my
+      case!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I own that he was, Rosy dear. Captain Spike was brought up by your uncle,
+      who has often told me what a thorough seaman he was. 'There's Spike, now,'
+      he said to me one day, 'he can almost make his brig talk'&mdash;this very
+      brig too, your uncle meant, Rosy, and, of course, one of the best vessels
+      in the world to take hydropathy in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, aunty,&rdquo; returned Rose, playing with the pen, while her air proved
+      how little her mind was in her words. &ldquo;Well, what shall I say next to my
+      aunt Sprague?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rose's health is already becoming confirmed,&rdquo; resumed the widow, who
+      thought it best to encourage her niece by as strong terms as she could
+      employ, &ldquo;and I shall extol hydropathy to the skies, as long as I live. As
+      soon as we reach our port of destination, my dear sister Sprague, I shall
+      write you a line to let you know it, by the magnetic telegraph&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But there is no magnetic telegraph on the sea, aunty,&rdquo; interrupted Rose,
+      looking up from the paper, with her clear, serene, blue eyes, expressing
+      even her surprise, at this touch of the relict's ignorance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't tell me that, Rosy, child, when everybody says the sparks will fly
+      round the whole earth, just as soon as they will fly from New York to
+      Philadelphia.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But they must have something to fly on, aunty; and the ocean will not
+      sustain wires, or posts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, there is no need of being so particular; if there is no telegraph,
+      the letter must come by mail. You can say telegraph, here, and when your
+      aunt gets the letter, the postmark will tell her how it came. It looks
+      better to talk about telegraphic communications, child.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose resumed her pen, and wrote at her aunt's dictation, as follows:&mdash;&ldquo;By
+      the magnetic telegraph, when I hope to be able to tell you that our dear
+      Rose is well. As yet, we both enjoy the ocean exceedingly; but when we get
+      off the Sound, into blue water, and have sent the pilot ashore, or
+      discharged him, I ought to say, which puts me in mind of telling you that
+      a cannon was discharged at us only last night, and that the ball whistled
+      so near me, that I heard it as plain as ever you heard Rose's piano.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had I not better first tell my aunt Sprague what is to be done when the
+      pilot is discharged?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; tell her about the cannon that was discharged, first, and about the
+      ball that I heard. I had almost forgot that adventure, which was a very
+      remarkable one, was it not, Biddy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed, Missus, and it was! and Miss Rose might put in the letter how we
+      both screamed at that cannon, and might have been heard as plainly, every
+      bit of it, as the ball.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say nothing on the subject, Rose, or we shall never hear the last of it.
+      So, darling, you may conclude in your own way, for I believe I have told
+      your aunt all that comes to mind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose did as desired, finishing the epistle in a very few words, for,
+      rightly enough, she had taken it into her head there was no pilot to be
+      discharged, and consequently that the letter would never be sent. Her
+      short but frequent conferences with Mulford were fast opening her eyes,
+      not to say her heart, and she was beginning to see Captain Spike in his
+      true character, which was that of a great scoundrel. It is true, that the
+      mate had not long judged his commander quite so harshly; but had rather
+      seen his beautiful brig, and her rare qualities, in her owner and
+      commander, than the man himself; but jealousy had quickened his
+      observation of late, and Stephen Spike had lost ground sensibly with Harry
+      Mulford, within the last week. Two or three times before, the young man
+      had thought of seeking another berth, on account of certain distrusts of
+      Spike's occupations; but he was poor, and so long as he remained in the
+      Swash, Harry's opportunities of meeting Rose were greatly increased. This
+      circumstance, indeed, was the secret of his still being in the &ldquo;Molly,&rdquo; as
+      Spike usually called his craft; the last voyage having excited suspicions
+      that were rather of a delicate nature. Then the young man really loved the
+      brig, which, if she could not be literally made to talk, could be made to
+      do almost everything else. A vessel, and a small vessel, too, is rather
+      contracted as to space, but those who wish to converse can contrive to
+      speak together often, even in such narrow limits. Such had been the fact
+      with Rose Budd and the handsome mate. Twenty times since they sailed,
+      short as that time was, had Mulford contrived to get so near to Rose, as
+      to talk with her, unheard by others. It is true, that he seldom ventured
+      to do this, so long as the captain was in sight, but Spike was often
+      below, and opportunities were constantly occurring. It was in the course
+      of these frequent but brief conversations, that Harry had made certain
+      dark hints touching the character of his commander, and the known
+      recklessness of his proceedings. Rose had taken the alarm, and fully
+      comprehending her aunt's mental imbecility, her situation was already
+      giving her great uneasiness. She had some undefined hopes from the revenue
+      steamer; though, strangely enough as it appeared to her, her youngest and
+      most approved suitor betrayed a strong desire to escape from that craft,
+      at the very moment he was expressing his apprehensions on account of her
+      presence in the brig. This contradiction arose from a certain esprit de
+      corps, which seldom fails, more or less, to identify the mariner with his
+      ship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the writing was finished, and the letter sealed with wax, Mrs. Budd
+      being quite as particular in that ceremony as Lord Nelson, when the
+      females again repaired on deck. They found Spike and his mate sweeping the
+      eastern part of the Sound with their glasses, with a view to look out for
+      enemies; or, what to them, just then, was much the same thing, government
+      craft. In this occupation, Rose was a little vexed to see that Mulford was
+      almost as much interested as Spike himself, the love of his vessel
+      seemingly overcoming his love for her, if not his love of the right&mdash;she
+      knew of no reason, however, why the captain should dread any other vessel,
+      and felt sufficiently provoked to question him a little on the subject, if
+      it were only to let him see that the niece was not as completely his dupe
+      as the aunt. She had not been on deck five minutes, therefore, during
+      which time several expressions had escaped the two sailors touching their
+      apprehensions of vessels seen in the distance, ere she commenced her
+      inquiries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why should we fear meeting with other vessels?&rdquo; Rose plainly demanded&mdash;&ldquo;here
+      in Long Island Sound, and within the power of the laws of the country?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fear?&rdquo; exclaimed Spike, a little startled, and a good deal surprised at
+      this straight-forward question&mdash;&ldquo;Fear, Miss Rose! You do not think we
+      are afraid, though there are many reasons why we do not wish to be spoken
+      by certain craft that are hovering about. In the first place, you know it
+      is war time&mdash;I suppose you know, Madam Budd, that America is at war
+      with Mexico?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; answered the widow, with dignity&mdash;&ldquo;and that is a
+      sufficient reason, Rose, why one vessel should chase, and another should
+      run. If you had heard your poor uncle relate, as I have done, all his
+      chasings and runnings away, in the war times, child, you would understand
+      these things better. Why, I've heard your uncle say that, in some of his
+      long voyages, he has run thousands and thousands of miles, with sails set
+      on both sides, and all over his ship!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, aunty, and so have I, but that was 'running before the wind,' as he
+      used to call it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I s'pose, however, Miss Rose,&rdquo; put in Spike, who saw that the niece would
+      soon get the better of the aunt;&mdash;&ldquo;I s'pose, Miss Rose, that you'll
+      acknowledge that America is at war with Mexico?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry to say that such is the fact, but I remember to have heard you
+      say, yourself, Captain Spike, when my aunt was induced to undertake this
+      voyage, that you did not consider there was the smallest danger from any
+      Mexicans.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you did, Captain Spike,&rdquo; added the aunt&mdash;&ldquo;you did say there was
+      no danger from Mexicans.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor is there a bit, Madam Budd, if Miss Rose, and your honoured self,
+      will only hear me. There is no danger, because the brig has the heels of
+      anything Mexico can send to sea. She has sold her steamers, and, as for
+      anything else under her flag, I would not care a straw.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The steamer from which we ran, last evening, and which actually fired off
+      a cannon at us, was not Mexican, but American,&rdquo; said Rose, with a pointed
+      manner that put Spike to his trumps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! that steamer&mdash;&rdquo; he stammered&mdash;&ldquo;that was a race&mdash;only a
+      race, Miss Rose, and I wouldn't let her come near me, for the world. I
+      should never hear the last of it, in the insurance offices, and on
+      'change, did I let her overhaul us. You see, Miss Rose&mdash;you see,
+      Madam Budd&mdash;&rdquo; Spike ever found it most convenient to address his
+      mystifying discourse to the aunt, in preference to addressing it to the
+      niece&mdash;&ldquo;You see, Madam Budd, the master of that craft and I are old
+      cronies&mdash;sailed together when boys, and set great store by each
+      other. We met only last evening, just a'ter I had left your own agreeable
+      mansion, Madam Budd, and says he, 'Spike, when do you sail?' 'To-morrow's
+      flood, Jones,' says I&mdash;his name is Jones;&mdash;Peter Jones, and as
+      good a fellow as ever lived. 'Do you go by the Hook, or by Hell-Gate&mdash;'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hurl-Gate, Captain Spike, if you please&mdash;or Whirl-Gate, which some
+      people think is the true sound; but the other way of saying it is awful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, the captain, my old master, always called it Hell-Gate, and I
+      learned the trick from him&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know he did, and so do all sailors; but genteel people, now-a-days, say
+      nothing but Hurl-Gate, or Whirl-Gate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose smiled at this; as did Mulford; but neither said anything, the
+      subject having once before been up between them. As for ourselves, we are
+      still so old-fashioned as to say, and write, Hell-Gate, and intend so to
+      do, in spite of all the Yankees that have yet passed through it, or who
+      ever shall pass through it, and that is saying a great deal. We do not
+      like changing names to suit their uneasy spirits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Call the place Hurl-Gate, and go on with your story,&rdquo; said the widow,
+      complacently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Madam Budd&mdash;'Do you go by the Hook, or by Whirl-Gate?' said
+      Jones. 'By Whirl-a-Gig-Gate,' says I. 'Well,' says he, 'I shall go through
+      the Gate myself, in the course of the morning. We may meet somewhere to
+      the eastward, and, if we do, I'll bet you a beaver,' says he, 'that I show
+      you my stern.' 'Agreed,' says I, and we shook hands upon it. That's the
+      whole history of our giving the steamer the slip, last night, and of my
+      not wishing to let her speak me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you went into a bay, and let her go past you,&rdquo; said Rose, coolly
+      enough as to manner, but with great point as to substance. &ldquo;Was not that a
+      singular way of winning a race?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It does seem so, Miss Rose, but it's all plain enough, when understood. I
+      found that steam was too much for sails, and I stood up into the bay to
+      let them run past us, in hopes they would never find out the trick. I care
+      as little for a hat as any man, but I do care a good deal about having it
+      reported on 'change that the Molly was beat, by even a steamer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This ended the discourse for the moment, Clench again having something to
+      say to his captain in private.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How much of that explanation am I to believe, and how much disbelieve?&rdquo;
+       asked Rose, the instant she was left alone with Harry. &ldquo;If it be all
+      invention, it was a ready and ingenious story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No part of it is true. He no more expected that the steamer would pass
+      through Hell-Gate, than I expected it myself. There was no bet, or race,
+      therefore; but it was our wish to avoid Uncle Sam's cruiser, that was
+      all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why should you wish any such thing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On my honour, I can give you no better reason, so far as I am concerned,
+      than the fact that, wishing to keep clear of her, I do not like to be
+      overhauled. Nor can I tell you why Spike is so much in earnest in holding
+      the revenue vessel at arm's length; I know he dislikes all such craft, as
+      a matter of course, but I can see no particular reason for it just now. A
+      more innocent cargo was never stuck into a vessel's hold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Flour; and no great matter of that. The brig is not half full, being just
+      in beautiful ballast trim, as if ready for a race. I can see no sufficient
+      reason, beyond native antipathy, why Captain Spike should wish to avoid
+      any craft, for it is humbug his dread of a Mexican, and least of all,
+      here, in Long Island Sound. All that story about Jones is a tub for
+      whales.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you for the allusion; my aunt and myself being the whales.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know I do mean&mdash;can mean nothing, Rose, that is disrespectful to
+      either yourself or your aunt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose looked up, and she looked pleased. Then she mused in silence, for
+      some time, when she again spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why have you remained another voyage with such a man, Harry?&rdquo; she asked,
+      earnestly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because, as his first officer, I have had access to your house, when I
+      could not have had it otherwise; and because I have apprehended that he
+      might persuade Mrs. Budd, as he had boasted to me it was his intention to
+      do, to make this voyage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose now looked grateful; and deeply grateful did she feel, and had reason
+      to feel. Harry had concealed no portion of his history from her. Like
+      herself, he was a shipmaster's child, but one better educated and better
+      connected than was customary for the class. His father had paid a good
+      deal of attention to the youth's early years, but had made a seaman of
+      him, out of choice. The father had lost his all, however, with his life,
+      in a shipwreck; and Harry was thrown upon his own resources, at the early
+      age of twenty. He had made one or two voyages as a second mate, when
+      chance threw him in Spike's way, who, pleased with some evidences of
+      coolness and skill, that he had shown in a foreign port, on the occasion
+      of another loss, took him as his first officer; in which situation he had
+      remained ever since, partly from choice and partly from necessity. On the
+      other hand, Rose had a fortune; by no means a large one, but several
+      thousands in possession, from her own father, and as many more in
+      reversion from her uncle. It was this money, taken in connection with the
+      credulous imbecility of the aunt, that had awakened the cupidity, and
+      excited the hopes of Spike. After a life of lawless adventure, one that
+      had been chequered by every shade of luck, he found himself growing old,
+      with his brig growing old with him, and little left beside his vessel and
+      the sort of half cargo that was in her hold. Want of means, indeed, was
+      the reason that the flour-barrels were not more numerous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose heard Mulford's explanation favourably, as indeed she heard most of
+      that which came from him, but did not renew the discourse, Spike's
+      conference with the boatswain just then terminating. The captain now came
+      aft, and began to speak of the performances of his vessel in a way to show
+      that he took great pride in them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are travelling at the rate of ten knots, Madam Budd,&rdquo; he said
+      exultingly, &ldquo;and that will take us clear of the land, before night shuts
+      in ag'in. Montauk is a good place for an offing; I ask for no better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we then have two offings, this voyage, Captain Spike?&rdquo; asked Rose,
+      a little sarcastically. &ldquo;If we are in the offing now, and are to be in the
+      offing when we reach Montauk, there must be two such places.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rosy, dear, you amaze me!&rdquo; put in the aunt. &ldquo;There is no offing until the
+      pilot is discharged, and when he's discharged there is nothing but offing.
+      It's all offing. On the Sound, is the first great change that befalls a
+      vessel as she goes to sea; then comes the offing; next the pilot is
+      discharged&mdash;then&mdash;then&mdash;what comes next, Captain Spike?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then the vessel takes her departure&mdash;an old navigator like yourself,
+      Madam Budd, ought not to forget the departure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite true, sir. The departure is a very important portion of a seaman's
+      life. Often and often have I heard my poor dear Mr. Budd talk about his
+      departures. His departures, and his offings and his&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Land-falls,&rdquo; added Spike, perceiving that the shipmaster's relict was a
+      little at fault.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, sir; the hint is quite welcome. His landfalls, also, were
+      often in his mouth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is a land-fall, aunty?&rdquo; inquired Rose&mdash;&ldquo;It appears a strange
+      term to be used by one who lives on the water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! there is no end to the curiosities of sailors! A 'land-fall,' my
+      dear, means a shipwreck, of course. To fall on the land, and a very
+      unpleasant fall it is, when a vessel should keep on the water. I've heard
+      of dreadful land-falls in my day, in which hundreds of souls have been
+      swept into eternity, in an instant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; yes, Madam Budd&mdash;there are such accidents truly, and serious
+      things be they to encounter,&rdquo; answered Spike, hemming a little to clear
+      his throat, as was much his practice whenever the widow ran into any
+      unusually extravagant blunder; &ldquo;yes, serious things to encounter. But the
+      land-fall that I mean is a different sort of thing; being, as you well
+      know, what we say when we come in sight of land, a'ter a v'y'ge; or,
+      meaning the land we may happen first to see. The departure is the
+      beginning of our calculation when we lose sight of the last cape or
+      headland, and the land-fall closes it, by letting us know where we are, at
+      the other end of our journey, as you probably remember.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there not such a thing as clearing out in navigation?&rdquo; asked Rose,
+      quickly, willing to cover a little confusion that was manifest in her
+      aunt's manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not exactly in navigation, Miss Rose, but clearing out, with honest folk,
+      ought to come first, and navigation a'terwards. Clearing out means going
+      through the Custom-House, accordin' to law.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the Molly Swash has cleared out, I hope?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sartain&mdash;a more lawful clearance was never given in Wall Street;
+      it's for Key West and a market. I did think of making it Havana and a
+      market, but port-charges are lightest at Key West.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then Key West is the place to which we are bound?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It ought to be, agreeable to papers; though vessels sometimes miss the
+      ports for which they clear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose put no more questions; and her aunt, being conscious that she had not
+      appeared to advantage in the affair of the &ldquo;land-fall,&rdquo; was also disposed
+      to be silent. Spike and Mulford had their attention drawn to the vessel,
+      and the conversation dropped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader can readily suppose that the Molly Swash had not been standing
+      still all this time. So far from this, she was running &ldquo;down Sound,&rdquo; with
+      the wind on her quarter, or at south-west, making great head-way, as she
+      was close under the south shore, or on the island side of the water she
+      was in. The vessel had no other motion than that of her speed, and the
+      females escaped everything like sea-sickness, for the time being. This
+      enabled them to attend to making certain arrangements necessary to their
+      comforts below, previously to getting into rough water. In acquitting
+      herself of this task, Rose received much useful advice from Josh, though
+      his new assistant, Jack Tier, turned out to be a prize indeed, in the
+      cabins. The first was only a steward; but the last proved himself not only
+      a handy person of his calling, but one full of resources&mdash;a genius,
+      in his way. Josh soon became so sensible of his own inferiority, in
+      contributing to the comforts of females, that he yielded the entire
+      management of the &ldquo;ladies' cabin,&rdquo; as a little place that might have been
+      ten feet square, was called, to his uncouth-looking, but really expert
+      deputy. Jack waddled about below, as if born and brought up in such a
+      place, and seemed every way fitted for his office. In height, and in build
+      generally, there was a surprising conformity between the widow and the
+      steward's deputy, a circumstance which might induce one to think they must
+      often have been in each other's way, in a space so small; though, in point
+      of fact, Jack never ran foul of any one. He seemed to avoid this
+      inconvenience by a species of nautical instinct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Towards the turn of the day, Rose had everything arranged, and was
+      surprised to find how much room she had made for her aunt and herself, by
+      means of Jack's hints, and how much more comfortable it was possible to
+      be, in that small cabin, than she had at first supposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After dinner, Spike took his siesta. He slept in a little state-room that
+      stood on the starboard side of the quarter-deck, quite aft; as Mulford did
+      in one on the larboard. These two state-rooms were fixtures; but a light
+      deck overhead, which connected them, shipped and unshipped, forming a
+      shelter for the man at the wheel, when in its place, as well as for the
+      officer of the watch, should he see fit to use it, in bad weather. This
+      sort of cuddy, Spike termed his &ldquo;coach-house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The captain had no sooner gone into his state-room, and closed its window,
+      movements that were understood by Mulford, than the latter took occasion
+      to intimate to Rose, by means of Jack Tier, the state of things on deck,
+      when the young man was favoured with the young lady's company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has turned in for his afternoon's nap, and will sleep for just one
+      hour, blow high, or blow low,&rdquo; said the mate, placing himself at Rose's
+      side on the trunk, which formed the usual seat for those who could presume
+      to take the liberty of sitting down on the quarter-deck. &ldquo;It's a habit
+      with him, and we can count on it, with perfect security.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His doing so, now, is a sign that he has no immediate fears of the
+      revenue steamer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The coast is quite clear of her. We have taken good looks at every smoke,
+      but can see nothing that appears like our late companion. She has
+      doubtless gone to the eastward, on duty, and merely chased us, on her
+      road.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why should she chase us, at all?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because we ran. Let a dog run, or a man run, or a cat run, ten to one but
+      something starts in chase. It is human nature, I believe, to give chase;
+      though I will admit there was something suspicious about that steamer's
+      movements&mdash;her anchoring off the Fort, for instance. But let her go,
+      for the present; are you getting things right, and to your mind, below
+      decks?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very much so. The cabin is small, and the two state-rooms the merest
+      drawers that ever were used, but, by putting everything in its place, we
+      have made sufficient room, and no doubt shall be comfortable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry you did not call on me for assistance. The mate has a
+      prescriptive right to help stow away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We made out without your services,&rdquo; returned Rose, slightly blushing&mdash;&ldquo;Jack
+      Tier, as he is called, Josh's assistant, is a very useful person, and has
+      been our adviser and manager. I want no better for such services.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a queer fellow, all round. Take him altogether, I hardly ever saw
+      so droll a being! As thick as he's long, with a waddle like a duck, a
+      voice that is cracked, hair like bristles, and knee high; the man might
+      make a fortune as a show. Tom Thumb is scarcely a greater curiosity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is singular in 'build,' as you call it,&rdquo; returned Rose, laughing,
+      &ldquo;but, I can assure you that he is a most excellent fellow in his way&mdash;worth
+      a dozen of Josh. Do you know, Harry, that I suspect he has strong feelings
+      towards Captain Spike; though whether of like or dislike, friendship or
+      enmity, I am at a loss to say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why do you think that he has any feeling at all? I have heard Spike
+      say he left the fellow ashore, somewhere down on the Spanish Main, or in
+      the Islands, quite twenty years since; but a sailor would scarce carry a
+      grudge so long a time, for such a thing as that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not know&mdash;but feeling there is, and much of it, too; though,
+      whether hostile or friendly, I will not undertake to say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll look to the chap, now you tell me this. It is a little odd, the
+      manner in which he got on board us, taken in connection with the company
+      he was in, and a discovery may be made. Here he is, however; and, as I
+      keep the keys of the magazine, he can do us no great harm, unless he
+      scuttles the brig.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Magazine! Is there such a thing here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure there is, and ammunition enough in it to keep eight carronades
+      in lively conversation for a couple of hours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A carronade is what you call a gun, is it not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A piece of a one&mdash;being somewhat short, like your friend, Jack Tier,
+      who is shaped a good deal like a carronade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose smiled&mdash;nay, half laughed, for Harry's pleasantries almost took
+      the character of wit in her eyes, but she did not the less pursue her
+      inquiries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Guns! And where are they, if they be on this vessel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not use such a lubberly expression, my dear Rose, if you respect your
+      father's profession. On a vessel, is a new-fangled Americanism, that is
+      neither fish, flesh, nor red-herring, as we sailors say&mdash;neither
+      English nor Greek.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What should I say, then? My wish is not to parade sea-talk, but to use it
+      correctly, when I use it at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The expression is hardly 'sea-talk,' as you call it, but every-day
+      English&mdash;that is, when rightly used. On a vessel is no more English
+      than it is nautical&mdash;no sailor ever used such an expression.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me what I ought to say, and you will find me a willing, if not an
+      apt scholar. I am certain of having often read it, in the newspapers, and
+      that quite lately.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll answer for that, and it's another proof of its being wrong. In a
+      vessel is as correct as in a coach, and on a vessel as wrong as can be;
+      but you can say on board a vessel, though not 'on the boards of a vessel;'
+      as Mrs. Budd has it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Mulford!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I beg a thousand pardons, Rose, and will offend no more&mdash;though she
+      does make some very queer mistakes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My aunt thinks it an honour to my uncle's memory, to be able to use the
+      language of his professional life, and if she does sometimes make mistakes
+      that are absurd, it is with motives so respectable that no sailor should
+      deride them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am rebuked for ever. Mrs. Budd may call the anchor a silver spoon,
+      hereafter, without my even smiling. But if the aunt has this kind
+      remembrance of a seaman's life, why cannot the niece think equally well of
+      it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps she does,&rdquo; returned Rose, smiling again&mdash;&ldquo;seeing all its
+      attractions through the claims of Captain Spike.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think half the danger from him gone, now that you seem so much on your
+      guard. What an odious piece of deception, to persuade Mrs. Budd that you
+      were fast falling into a decline!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One so odious that I shall surely quit the brig at the first port we
+      enter, or even in the first suitable vessel that we may speak.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Mrs. Budd&mdash;could you persuade her to such a course?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You scarce know us, Harry Mulford. My aunt commands, when there is no
+      serious duty to perform, but we change places when there is. I can
+      persuade her to anything that is right, in ten minutes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You might persuade a world!&rdquo; cried Harry, with strong admiration
+      expressed in his countenance; after which he began to converse with Rose,
+      on a subject so interesting to themselves, that we do not think it prudent
+      to relate any more of the discourse, forgetting all about the guns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About four o'clock, of a fine summer's afternoon, the Swash went through
+      the Race, on the best of the ebb, and with a staggering south-west wind.
+      Her movement by the land, just at that point, could not have been less
+      than at the rate of fifteen miles in the hour. Spike was in high spirits,
+      for his brig had got on famously that day, and there was nothing in sight
+      to the eastward. He made no doubt, as he had told his mate, that the
+      steamer had gone into the Vineyard Sound, and that she was bound over the
+      shoals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They want to make political capital out of her,&rdquo; he added, using one of
+      the slang phrases, that the &ldquo;business habits&rdquo; of the American people are
+      so rapidly incorporating with the common language of the country&mdash;&ldquo;They
+      want to make political capital out of her, Harry, and must show her off to
+      the Boston folk, who are full of notions. Well, let them turn her to as
+      much account in that way as they please, so long as they keep her clear of
+      the Molly. Your sarvant, Madam Budd&rdquo;&mdash;addressing the widow, who just
+      at that moment came on deck&mdash;&ldquo;a fine a'ternoon, and likely to be a
+      clear night to run off the coast in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Clear nights are desirable, and most of all at sea, Captain Spike,&rdquo;
+       returned the relict, in her best, complacent manner, &ldquo;whether it be to run
+      off a coast, or to run on a coast. In either case, a clear night, or a
+      bright moon must be useful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Spike rolled his tobacco over in his mouth, and cast a furtive
+      glance at the mate, but he did not presume to hazard any further
+      manifestations of his disposition to laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Madam Budd,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;it is quite as you say, and I am only
+      surprised where you have picked up so much of what I call useful nautical
+      knowledge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We live and learn, sir. You will recollect that this is not my first
+      voyage, having made one before, and that I passed a happy, happy, thirty
+      years, in the society of my poor, dear husband, Rose's uncle. One must
+      have been dull, indeed, not to have picked up, from such a companion, much
+      of a calling that was so dear to him, and the particulars of which were so
+      very dear to him. He actually gave me lessons in the 'sea dialect,' as he
+      called it, which probably is the true reason I am so accurate and general
+      in my acquisitions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Madam Budd&mdash;yes&mdash;hem&mdash;you are&mdash;yes, you are
+      wonderful in that way. We shall soon get an offing, now, Madam Budd&mdash;yes,
+      soon get an offing, now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And take in our departure, Captain Spike&mdash;&rdquo; added the widow, with a
+      very intelligent smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, take our departure. Montauk is yonder, just coming in sight; only
+      some three hours' run from this spot. When we get there, the open ocean
+      will lie before us; and give me the open sea, and I'll not call the king
+      my uncle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was he your uncle, Captain Spike?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only in a philanthropic way, Madam Budd. Yes, let us get a good offing,
+      and a rapping to'gallant breeze, and I do not think I should care much for
+      two of Uncle Sam's new-fashioned revenue craft, one on each side of me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How delightful do I find such conversation, Rose! It's as much like your
+      poor, dear uncle's, as one pea is like another. 'Yes,' he used to say,
+      too, 'let me only have one on each side of me, and a wrapper round the
+      topgallant sail to hold the breeze, and I'd not call the king my uncle.'
+      Now I think of it, he used to talk about the king as his uncle, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was all talk, aunty. He had no uncle, and, what is more, he had no
+      king.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's quite true, Miss Rose,&rdquo; rejoined Spike, attempting a bow, which
+      ended in a sort of jerk. &ldquo;It is not very becoming in us republicans to be
+      talking of kings, but a habit is a habit. Our forefathers had kings, and
+      we drop into their ways without thinking of what we are doing.
+      Fore-topgallant yard, there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep a bright look-out, ahead. Let me know the instant you make anything
+      in the neighbourhood of Montauk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I was saying, Madam Budd, we seamen drop into our forefathers' ways.
+      Now, when I was a youngster, I remember, one day, that we fell in with a
+      ketch&mdash;you know, Miss Rose, what a ketch is, I suppose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not the least notion of it, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rosy, you amaze me!&rdquo; exclaimed the aunt&mdash;&ldquo;and you a ship-master's
+      niece, and a ship-master's daughter! A catch is a trick that sailors have,
+      when they quiz landsmen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Madam Budd, yes; we have them sort of catches, too; but I now mean
+      the vessel with a peculiar rig, which we call a ketch, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it the full-jigger, or the half-jigger sort, that you mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike could hardly stand this, and he had to hail the topgallant-yard
+      again, in order to keep the command of his muscles, for he saw by the
+      pretty frown that was gathering on the brow of Rose, that she was
+      regarding the matter a little seriously. Luckily, the answer of the man on
+      the yard diverted the mind of the widow from the subject, and prevented
+      the necessity of any reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's a light, of course, sir, on Montauk, is there not, Captain
+      Spike?&rdquo; demanded the seaman who was aloft.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure there is&mdash;every head-land, hereabouts, has its light; and
+      some have two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir&mdash;it's that which puzzles me; I think I see one
+      light-house, and I'm not certain but I see two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If there is anything like a second, it must be a sail. Montauk has but
+      one light.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford sprang into the fore-rigging, and in a minute was on the yard. He
+      soon came down, and reported the lighthouse in sight, with the afternoon's
+      sun shining on it, but no sail near.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My poor, dear Mr. Budd used to tell a story of his being cast away on a
+      light-house, in the East Indies,&rdquo; put in the relict, as soon as the mate
+      had ended his report, &ldquo;which always affected me. It seems there were three
+      ships of them together, in an awful tempest directly off the land&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was comfortable, any how,&rdquo; cried Spike;&mdash;&ldquo;if it must blow hard,
+      let it come off the land, say I.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir, it was directly off the land, as my poor husband always said,
+      which made it so much the worse you must know, Rosy; though Captain
+      Spike's gallant spirit would rather encounter danger than not. It blew
+      what they call a Hyson, in the Chinese seas&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A what, aunty?&mdash;Hyson is the name of a tea, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A Hyson, I'm pretty sure it was; and I suppose the wind is named after
+      the tea, or the tea after the wind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The ladies do get in a gale, sometimes, over their tea,&rdquo; said Spike
+      gallantly. &ldquo;But I rather think Madam Budd must mean a Typhoon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's it&mdash;a Typhoon, or a Hyson&mdash;there is not much difference
+      between them, you see. Well, it blew a Typhoon, and they are always mortal
+      to somebody. This my poor Mr. Budd well knew, and he had set his
+      chronometer for that Typhoon&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Excuse me, aunty, it was the barometer that he was watching&mdash;the
+      chronometer was his watch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it was&mdash;his watch on deck was his chronometer, I declare. I am
+      forgetting a part of my education. Do you know the use of a chronometer,
+      now, Rose? You have seen your uncle's often, but do you know how he used
+      it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not in the least, aunty. My uncle often tried to explain it, but I never
+      could understand him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must have been, then, because Captain Budd did not try to make himself
+      comprehended,&rdquo; said Mulford, &ldquo;for I feel certain nothing would be easier
+      than to make you understand the uses of the chronometer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should like to learn it from you, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo; answered the charming
+      girl, with an emphasis so slight on the 'you,' that no one observed it but
+      the mate, but which was clear enough to him, and caused every nerve to
+      thrill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can attempt it,&rdquo; answered the young man, &ldquo;if it be agreeable to Mrs.
+      Budd, who would probably like to hear it herself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly, Mr. Mulford; though I fancy you can say little on such a
+      subject that I have not often heard already, from my poor, dear Mr. Budd.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This was not very encouraging, truly; but Rose continuing to look
+      interested, the mate proceeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The use of the chronometer is to ascertain the longitude,&rdquo; said Harry,
+      &ldquo;and the manner of doing it is, simply this: A chronometer is nothing more
+      nor less than a watch, made with more care than usual, so as to keep the
+      most accurate time. They are of all sizes, from that of a clock, down to
+      this which I wear in my fob, and which is a watch in size and appearance.
+      Now, the nautical almanacs are all calculated to some particular meridian&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; interrupted the relict, &ldquo;Mr. Budd had a great deal to say about
+      meridians.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That of London, or Greenwich, being the meridian used by those who use
+      the English Almanacs, and those of Paris or St. Petersburg, by the French
+      and Russians. Each of these places has an observatory, and chronometers
+      that are kept carefully regulated, the year round. Every chronometer is
+      set by the regulator of the particular observatory or place to which the
+      almanac used is calculated.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How wonderfully like my poor, dear Mr. Budd, all this is, Rosy!
+      Meridians, and calculated, and almanacs! I could almost think I heard your
+      uncle entertaining me with one of his nautical discussions, I declare!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now the sun rises earlier in places east, than in places west of us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It rises earlier in the summer, but later in the winter, everywhere, Mr.
+      Mulford.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my dear Madam; but the sun rises earlier every day, in London, than
+      it does in New York.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is impossible,&rdquo; said the widow, dogmatically&mdash;&ldquo;Why should not
+      the sun rise at the same time in England and America?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because England is east of America, aunty. The sun does not move, you
+      know, but only appears to us to move, because the earth turns round from
+      west to east, which causes those who are farthest east to see it first.
+      That is what Mr. Mulford means.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rose has explained it perfectly well,&rdquo; continued the mate. &ldquo;Now the earth
+      is divided into 360 degrees, and the day is divided into 24 hours. If 360
+      be divided by 24, the quotient will be 15. If follows that, for each
+      fifteen degrees of longitude, there is a difference of just one hour in
+      the rising of the sun, all over the earth, where it rises at all. New York
+      is near five times 15 degrees west of Greenwich, and the sun consequently
+      rises five hours later at New York than at London.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There must be a mistake in this, Rosy,&rdquo; said the relict, in a tone of
+      desperate resignation, in which the desire to break out in dissent, was
+      struggling oddly enough with an assumed dignity of deportment. &ldquo;I've
+      always heard that the people of London are some of the latest in the
+      world. Then, I've been in London, and know that the sun rises in New York,
+      in December, a good deal earlier than it does in London, by the clock&mdash;yes,
+      by the clock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True enough, by the clock, Mrs. Budd, for London is more than ten degrees
+      north of New York, and the farther north you go, the later the sun rises
+      in winter, and the earlier in summer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The relict merely shrugged her shoulders, as much as to say that she knew
+      no such thing; but Rose, who had been well taught, raised her serene eyes
+      to her aunt's face, and mildly said&mdash;&ldquo;All true, aunty, and that is
+      owing to the fact that the earth is smaller at each end than in the
+      middle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fiddle faddle with your middles and ends, Rose&mdash;I've been in London,
+      dear, and know that the sun rises later there than in New York, in the
+      month of December, and that I know by the clock, I tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The reason of which is,&rdquo; resumed Mulford, &ldquo;because the clocks of each
+      place keep the time of that place. Now, it is different with the
+      chronometers; they are set in the observatory of Greenwich, and keep the
+      time of Greenwich. This watch chronometer was set there, only six months
+      since; and this time, as you see, is near nine o'clock, when in truth it
+      is only about four o'clock here, where we are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder you keep such a watch, Mr. Mulford!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I keep it,&rdquo; returned the mate, smiling, &ldquo;because I know it to keep good
+      time. It has the Greenwich time; and, as your watch has the New York time,
+      by comparing them together, it is quite easy to find the longitude of New
+      York.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you, then, keep watches to compare with your chronometers?&rdquo; asked
+      Rose, with interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly not; as that would require a watch for every separate part of
+      the ocean, and then we should only get known longitudes. It would be
+      impracticable, and load a ship with nothing but watches. What we do is
+      this: We set our chronometers at Greenwich, and thus keep the Greenwich
+      true time wherever we go. The greatest attention is paid to the
+      chronometers, to see that they receive no injuries; and usually there are
+      two, and often more of them, to compare one with another, in order to see
+      that they go well. When in the middle of the ocean, for instance, we find
+      the true time of the day at that spot, by ascertaining the height of the
+      sun. This we do by means of our quadrants, or sextants; for, as the sun is
+      always in the zenith at twelve o'clock, nothing is easier than to do this,
+      when the sun can be seen, and an arc of the heavens measured. At the
+      instant the height of the sun is ascertained by one observer, he calls to
+      another, who notes the time on the chronometer. The difference in these
+      two times, or that of the chronometer and that of the sun, gives the
+      distance in degrees and minutes, between the longitude of Greenwich and
+      that of the place on the ocean where the observer is; and that gives him
+      his longitude. If the difference is three hours and twenty minutes, in
+      time, the distance from Greenwich is fifty degrees of longitude, because
+      the sun rises three hours and twenty minutes sooner in London, than in the
+      fiftieth degree of west longitude.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A watch is a watch, Rosy,&rdquo; put in the aunt, doggedly&mdash;&ldquo;and time is
+      time.&mdash;When it's four o'clock at our house, it's four o'clock at your
+      aunt Sprague's, and it's so all over the world. The world may turn round&mdash;I'll
+      not deny it, for your uncle often said as much as that, but it cannot turn
+      in the way Mr. Mulford says, or we should all fall off it, at night, when
+      it was bottom upwards. No, sir, no; you've started wrong. My poor, dear,
+      late Mr. Budd, always admitted that the world turned round, as the books
+      say; but when I suggested to him the difficulty of keeping things in their
+      places, with the earth upside down, he acknowledged candidly&mdash;for he
+      was all candour, I must say that for him&mdash;and owned that he had made
+      a discovery by means of his barometer, which showed that the world did not
+      turn round in the way you describe, or by rolling over, but by whirling
+      about, as one turns in a dance. You must remember your uncle's telling me
+      this, Rose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose did remember her uncle's telling her aunt this, as well as a great
+      many other similar prodigies. Captain Budd had married his silly wife on
+      account of her pretty face, and when the novelty of that was over, he
+      often amused himself by inventing all sorts of absurdities, to amuse both
+      her and himself. Among other things, Rose well remembered his quieting her
+      aunt's scruples about falling off the earth, by laying down the theory
+      that the world did not &ldquo;roll over,&rdquo; but &ldquo;whirl round.&rdquo; But Rose did not
+      answer the question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Objects are kept in their places on the earth by means of attraction,&rdquo;
+       Mulford ventured to say, with a great deal of humility of manner. &ldquo;I
+      believe it is thought there is no up or down, except as we go from or
+      towards the earth; and that would make the position of the last a matter
+      of indifference, as respects objects keeping on it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Attractions are great advantages, I will own, sir, especially to our sex.
+      I think it will be acknowledged there has been no want of them in our
+      family, any more than there has been of sense and information. Sense and
+      information we pride ourselves on; attractions being gifts from God, we
+      try to think less of them. But all the attractions in the world could not
+      keep Rosy, here, from falling off the earth, did it ever come bottom
+      upwards. And, mercy on me, where would she fall to!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford saw that argument was useless, and he confined his remarks, during
+      the rest of the conversation, to showing Rose the manner in which the
+      longitude of a place might be ascertained, with the aid of the
+      chronometer, and by means of observations to get the true time of day, at
+      the particular place itself. Rose was so quick-witted, and already so well
+      instructed, as easily to comprehend the principles; the details being
+      matters of no great moment to one of her sex and habits. But Mrs. Budd
+      remained antagonist to the last. She obstinately maintained that twelve
+      o'clock was twelve o'clock; or, if there was any difference, &ldquo;London hours
+      were notoriously later than those of New York.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Against such assertions arguments were obviously useless, and Mulford,
+      perceiving that Rose began to fidget, had sufficient tact to change the
+      conversation altogether.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And still the Molly Swash kept in swift motion. Montauk was by this time
+      abeam, and the little brigantine began to rise and fall, on the long
+      swells of the Atlantic, which now opened before her, in one vast sheet of
+      green and rolling waters. On her right lay the termination of Long Island;
+      a low, rocky cape, with its light, and a few fields in tillage, for the
+      uses of those who tended it. It was the &ldquo;land's end&rdquo; of New York, while
+      the island that was heaving up out of the sea, at a distance of about
+      twenty miles to the eastward, was the property of Rhode Island, being
+      called Blok Island. Between the two, the Swash shaped her course for the
+      ocean.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike had betrayed uneasiness, as his brig came up with Montauk; but the
+      coast seemed clear, with not even a distant sail in sight, and he came
+      aft, rubbing his hands with delight, speaking cheerfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo; he cried&mdash;&ldquo;everything ship-shape and
+      brister-fashion&mdash;not even a smack fishing here-away, which is a
+      little remarkable. Ha!&mdash;what are you staring at, over the quarter,
+      there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look here, sir, directly in the wake of the setting sun, which we are now
+      opening from the land&mdash;is not that a sail?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sail! Impossible, sir. What should a sail be doing in there, so near
+      Montauk&mdash;no man ever saw a sail there in his life. It's a spot in the
+      sun, Madam Budd, that my mate has got a glimpse at, and, sailor-like, he
+      mistakes it for a sail! Ha&mdash;ha&mdash;ha&mdash;yes, Harry, it's a spot
+      in the sun.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a spot on the sun, as you say, but it's a spot made by a vessel&mdash;and
+      here is a boat pulling towards her, might and main; going from the light,
+      as if carrying news.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was no longer possible for Spike's hopes to deceive him. There was a
+      vessel, sure enough; though, when first seen, it was so directly in a line
+      with the fiery orb of the setting sun, as to escape common observation. As
+      the brig went foaming on towards the ocean, however, the black speck was
+      soon brought out of the range of the orb of day, and Spike's glass was
+      instantly levelled at it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just as one might expect, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo; cried the captain, lowering his
+      glass, and looking aloft to see what could be done to help his craft
+      along; &ldquo;a bloody revenue cutter, as I'm a wicked sinner! There she lies,
+      sir, within musket shot of the shore, hid behind the point, as it might be
+      in waiting for us, with her head to the southward, her helm hard down,
+      topsail aback, and foresail brailed; as wicked looking a thing as Free
+      Trade and Sailor's Rights ever ran from. My life on it, sir, she's been
+      put in that precise spot, in waiting for the Molly to arrive. You see, as
+      we stand on, it places her as handsomely to windward of us, as the heart
+      of man could desire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a revenue cutter, sir; now she's out of the sun's wake, that is
+      plain enough. And that is her boat, which has been sent to the light to
+      keep a look-out for us. Well, sir, she's to windward; but we have
+      everything set for our course, and as we are fairly abeam, she must be a
+      great traveller to overhaul us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought these bloody cutters were all down in the Gulf,&rdquo; growled the
+      captain, casting his eyes aloft again, to see that everything drew. &ldquo;I'm
+      sure the newspapers have mentioned as many as twenty that are down there,
+      and here is one, lying behind Montauk, like a snake in the grass!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At any rate, by the time he gets his boat up we shall get the start of
+      him&mdash;ay, there he fills and falls off, to go and meet her. He'll soon
+      be after us, Captain Spike, at racing speed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Everything occurred as those two mariners had foreseen. The revenue
+      cutter, one of the usual fore-top-sail schooners that are employed in that
+      service, up and down the coast, had no sooner hoisted up her boat, than
+      she made sail, a little off the wind, on a line to close with the Swash.
+      As for the brig, she had hauled up to an easy bowline, as she came round
+      Montauk, and was now standing off south southeast, still having the wind
+      at south-west. The weatherly position of the cutter enabled her to steer
+      rather more than one point freer. At the commencement of this chase, the
+      vessels were about a mile and a half apart, a distance too great to enable
+      the cutter to render the light guns she carried available, and it was
+      obvious from the first, that everything depended on speed. And speed it
+      was, truly; both vessels fairly flying; the Molly Swash having at last met
+      with something very like her match. Half an hour satisfied both Spike and
+      Mulford that, by giving the cutter the advantage of one point in a freer
+      wind, she would certainly get alongside of them, and the alternative was
+      therefore to keep off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A starn chase is a long chase, all the world over,&rdquo; cried Spike&mdash;&ldquo;edge
+      away, sir; edge away, sir, and bring the cutter well on our quarter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This order was obeyed; but to the surprise of those in the Swash, the
+      cutter did not exactly follow, though she kept off a little more. Her
+      object seemed to be to maintain her weatherly position, and in this manner
+      the two vessels ran on for an hour longer, until the Swash had made most
+      of the distance between Montauk and Blok Island. Objects were even
+      becoming dimly visible on the last, and the light on the point was just
+      becoming visible, a lone star above a waste of desert, the sun having been
+      down now fully a quarter of an hour, and twilight beginning to draw the
+      curtain of night over the waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A craft under Blok,&rdquo; shouted the look-out, that was still kept aloft as a
+      necessary precaution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What sort of a craft?&rdquo; demanded Spike, fiercely; for the very mention of
+      a sail, at that moment, aroused all his ire. &ldquo;Arn't you making a frigate
+      out of an apple-orchard?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's the steamer, sir. I can now see her smoke. She's just clearing the
+      land, on the south side of the island, and seems to be coming round to
+      meet us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A long, low, eloquent whistle from the captain, succeeded this
+      announcement. The man aloft was right. It was the steamer, sure enough;
+      and she had been lying hid behind Blok Island, exactly as her consort had
+      been placed behind Montauk, in waiting for their chase to arrive. The
+      result was, to put the Molly Swash in exceeding jeopardy, and the reason
+      why the cutter kept so well to windward was fully explained. To pass out
+      to sea between these two craft was hopeless. There remained but a single
+      alternative from capture by one or by the other,&mdash;and that Spike
+      adopted instantly. He kept his brig dead away, setting studding-sails on
+      both sides. This change of course brought the cutter nearly aft, or
+      somewhat on the other quarter, and laid the brig's head in a direction to
+      carry her close to the northern coast of the island. But the principal
+      advantage was gained over the steamer, which could not keep off, without
+      first standing a mile or two, or even more, to the westward, in order to
+      clear the land. This was so much clear gain to the Swash, which was
+      running off at racing speed, on a north-east course, while her most
+      dangerous enemy was still heading to the westward. As for the cutter, she
+      kept away; but it was soon apparent that the brig had the heels of her,
+      dead before the wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Darkness now began to close around the three vessels; the brig and the
+      schooner soon becoming visible to each other principally by means of their
+      night-glasses; though the steamer's position could be easily distinguished
+      by means of her flaming chimney. This latter vessel stood to the westward
+      for a quarter of an hour, when her commander appeared to become suddenly
+      conscious of the ground he was losing, and he wore short round, and went
+      off before the wind, under steam and canvas; intending to meet the chase
+      off the northern side of the island. The very person who had hailed the
+      Swash, as she was leaving the wharf, who had passed her in Hell-Gate, with
+      Jack Tier in his boat, and who had joined her off Throgmorton's, was now
+      on her deck, urging her commander by every consideration not to let the
+      brig escape. It was at his suggestion that the course was changed.
+      Nervous, and eager to seize the brig, he prevailed on the commander of the
+      steamer to alter his course. Had he done no more than this, all might have
+      been well; but so exaggerated were his notions of the Swash's sailing,
+      that, instead of suffering the steamer to keep close along the eastern
+      side of the island, he persuaded her commander of the necessity of
+      standing off a long distance to the northward and eastward, with a view to
+      get ahead of the chase. This was not bad advice, were there any certainly
+      that Spike would stand on, of which, however, he had no intention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night set in dark and cloudy; and, the instant that Spike saw, by
+      means of the flaming chimney, that the steamer had wore, and was going to
+      the eastward of Blok, his plan was laid. Calling to Mulford, he
+      communicated it to him, and was glad to find that his intelligent mate was
+      of his own way of thinking. The necessary orders were given, accordingly,
+      and everything was got ready for its execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meantime, the two revenue craft were much in earnest. The schooner
+      was one of the fastest in the service, and had been placed under Montauk,
+      as described, in the confident expectation of her being able to compete
+      with even the Molly Swash successfully, more especially if brought upon a
+      bowline. Her commander watched the receding form of the brig with the
+      closest attention, until it was entirely swallowed up in the darkness,
+      under the land, towards which he then sheered himself, in order to prevent
+      the Swash from hauling up, and turning to windward, close in under the
+      shadow of the island. Against this manoeuvre, however, the cutter had now
+      taken an effectual precaution, and her people were satisfied that escape
+      in that way was impossible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the other hand, the steamer was doing very well. Driven by the breeze,
+      and propelled by her wheels, away she went, edging further and further
+      from the island, as the person from the Custom-House succeeded, as it
+      might be, inch by inch, in persuading the captain of the necessity of his
+      so doing. At length a sail was dimly seen ahead, and then no doubt was
+      entertained that the brig had got to the northward and eastward of them.
+      Half an hour brought the steamer alongside of this sail, which turned out
+      to be a brig that had come over the shoals, and was beating into the
+      ocean, on her way to one of the southern ports. Her captain said there had
+      nothing passed to the eastward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Round went the steamer, and in went all her canvas. Ten minutes later the
+      look-out saw a sail to the westward, standing before the wind. Odd as it
+      might seem, the steamer's people now fancied they were sure of the Swash.
+      There she was, coming directly for them, with squared yards! The distance
+      was short, or a vessel could not have been seen by that light, and the two
+      craft were soon near each other. A gun was actually cleared on board the
+      steamer, ere it was ascertained that the stranger was the schooner! It was
+      now midnight, and nothing was in sight but the coasting brig. Reluctantly,
+      the revenue people gave the matter up; the Molly Swash having again eluded
+      them, though by means unknown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  &ldquo;Leander dived for love, Leucadia's cliff
+  The Lesbian Sappho leap'd from in a miff,
+  To punish Phaon; Icarus went dead,
+  Because the wax did not continue stiff;
+  And, had he minded what his father said,
+  He had not given a name unto his watery bed.&rdquo;
+
+  Sands.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      We must now advance the time several days, and change the scene to a
+      distant part of the ocean; within the tropics indeed. The females had
+      suffered slight attacks of sea-sickness, and recovered from them, and the
+      brig was safe from all her pursuers. The manner of Spike's escape was
+      simple enough, and without any necromancy. While the steamer, on the one
+      hand, was standing away to the northward and eastward, in order to head
+      him off, and the schooner was edging in with the island, in order to
+      prevent his beating up to windward of it, within its shadows, the brig had
+      run close round the northern margin of the land, and hauled up to leeward
+      of the island, passing between it and the steamer. All this time, her
+      movements were concealed from the schooner by the island itself, and from
+      the steamer, by its shadow and dark back-ground, aided by the distance. By
+      making short tacks, this expedient answered perfectly well; and, at the
+      very moment when the two revenue vessels met, at midnight, about three
+      leagues to leeward of Blok Island, the brigantine, Molly Swash, was just
+      clearing its most weatherly point, on the larboard tack, and coming out
+      exactly at the spot where the steamer was when first seen that afternoon.
+      Spike stood to the westward, until he was certain of having the island
+      fairly between him and his pursuers, when he went about, and filled away
+      on his course, running out to sea again on an easy bowline. At sunrise the
+      next day he was fifty miles to the southward and eastward of Montauk; the
+      schooner was going into New London, her officers and people quite
+      chop-fallen; and the steamer was paddling up the Sound, her captain being
+      fully persuaded that the runaways had returned in the direction from which
+      they had come, and might yet be picked up in that quarter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The weather was light, just a week after the events related in the close
+      of the last chapter. By this time the brig had got within the influence of
+      the trades; and, it being the intention of Spike to pass to the southward
+      of Cuba, he had so far profited by the westerly winds, as to get well to
+      the eastward of the Mona Passage, the strait through which he intended to
+      shape his course on making the islands. Early on that morning Mrs. Budd
+      had taken her seat on the trunk of the cabin, with a complacent air, and
+      arranged her netting, some slight passages of gallantry, on the part of
+      the captain, having induced her to propose netting him a purse. Biddy was
+      going to and fro, in quest of silks and needles, her mistress having
+      become slightly capricious in her tastes of late, and giving her, on all
+      such occasions, at least a double allowance of occupation. As for Rose,
+      she sat reading beneath the shade of the coach-house deck, while the
+      handsome young mate was within three feet of her, working up his
+      logarithms, but within the sanctuary of his own state-room; the open door
+      and window of which, however, gave him every facility he could desire to
+      relieve his mathematics, by gazing at the sweet countenance of his
+      charming neighbor. Jack Tier and Josh were both passing to and fro, as is
+      the wont of stewards, between the camboose and the cabin, the breakfast
+      table being just then in the course of preparation. In all other respects,
+      always excepting the man at the wheel, who stood within a fathom of Rose,
+      Spike had the quarter-deck to himself, and did not fail to pace its
+      weather-side with an air that denoted the master and owner. After
+      exhibiting his sturdy, but short, person in this manner, to the admiring
+      eyes of all beholders, for some time, the captain suddenly took a seat at
+      the side of the relict, and dropped into the following discourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The weather is moderate, Madam Budd; quite moderate,&rdquo; observed Spike, a
+      sentimental turn coming over him at the moment. &ldquo;What I call moderate and
+      agreeable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much the better for us; the ladies are fond of moderation, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not in admiration, Madam Budd&mdash;ha! ha! ha! no, not in admiration.
+      Immoderation is what they like when it comes to that. I'm a single man,
+      but I know that the ladies like admiration&mdash;mind where you're
+      sheering to,&rdquo; the captain said, interrupting himself a little fiercely,
+      considering the nature of the subject, in consequence of Jack Tier's
+      having trodden on his toe in passing&mdash;&ldquo;or I'll teach you the
+      navigation of the quarter-deck, Mr. Burgoo!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Moderation&mdash;moderation, my good captain,&rdquo; said the simpering relict.
+      &ldquo;As to admiration, I confess that it is agreeable to us ladies; more
+      especially when it comes from gentlemen of sense, and intelligence, and
+      experience.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose fidgeted, having heard every word that was said, and her face
+      flushed; for she doubted not that Harry's ears were as good as her own. As
+      for the man at the wheel, he turned the tobacco over in his mouth, hitched
+      up his trousers, and appeared interested, though somewhat mystified&mdash;the
+      conversation was what he would have termed &ldquo;talking dictionary,&rdquo; and he
+      had some curiosity to learn how the captain would work his way out of it.
+      It is probable that Spike himself had some similar gleamings of the
+      difficulties of his position, for he looked a little troubled, though
+      still resolute. It was the first time he had ever lain yard-arm and
+      yard-arm with a widow, and he had long entertained a fancy that such a
+      situation was trying to the best of men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Madam Budd, yes,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;exper'ence and sense carry weight with
+      'em, wherever they go. I'm glad to find that you entertain these just
+      notions of us gentlemen, and make a difference between boys and them
+      that's seen and known exper'ence. For my part, I count youngsters under
+      forty as so much lumber about decks, as to any comfort and calculations in
+      keepin' a family, as a family ought to be kept.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Budd looked interested, but she remained silent on hearing this
+      remark, as became her sex.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every man ought to settle in life, some time or other, Madam Budd,
+      accordin' to my notion, though no man ought to be in a boyish haste about
+      it,&rdquo; continued the captain. &ldquo;Now, in my own case, I've been so busy all my
+      youth&mdash;not that I'm very old now, but I'm no boy&mdash;but all my
+      younger days have been passed in trying to make things meet, in a way to
+      put any lady who might take a fancy to me&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! captain&mdash;that is too strong! The ladies do not take fancies for
+      gentlemen, but the gentlemen take fancies for ladies!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well, you know what I mean, Madam Budd; and so long as the parties
+      understand each other, a word dropped, or a word put into a charter-party,
+      makes it neither stronger nor weaker. There's a time, howsomever, in every
+      man's life, when he begins to think of settling down, and of considerin'
+      himself as a sort of mooring-chain, for children and the likes of them to
+      make fast to. Such is my natur', I will own; and ever since I've got to be
+      intimate in your family, Madam Budd, that sentiment has grown stronger and
+      stronger in me, till it has got to be uppermost in all my idees. Bone of
+      my bone, and flesh of my flesh, as a body might say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Budd now looked more than interested, for she looked a little
+      confused, and Rose began to tremble for her aunt. It was evident that the
+      parties most conspicuous in this scene were not at all conscious that they
+      were overheard, the intensity of their attention being too much
+      concentrated on what was passing to allow of any observation without their
+      own narrow circle. What may be thought still more extraordinary, but what
+      in truth was the most natural of all, each of the parties was so intently
+      bent on his, or her, own train of thought, that neither in the least
+      suspected any mistake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Grown with your growth, and strengthened with your strength,&rdquo; rejoined
+      the relict, smiling kindly enough on the captain to have encouraged a much
+      more modest man than he happened to be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Madam Budd&mdash;very just that remark; grown with my strength, and
+      strengthened with my growth, as one might say; though I've not done much
+      at growing for a good many years. Your late husband, Captain Budd, often
+      remarked how very early I got my growth; and rated me as an 'able-bodied'
+      hand, when most lads think it an honour to be placed among the
+      'or'naries.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The relict looked grave; and she wondered at any man's being so singular
+      as to allude to a first husband, at the very moment he was thinking of
+      offering himself for a second. As for herself, she had not uttered as many
+      words in the last four years, as she had uttered in that very
+      conversation, without making some allusion to her &ldquo;poor dear Mr. Budd.&rdquo;
+       The reader is not to do injustice to the captain's widow, however, by
+      supposing for a moment that she was actually so weak as to feel any
+      tenderness for a man like Spike, which would be doing a great wrong to
+      both her taste and her judgment, as Rose well knew, even while most
+      annoyed by the conversation she could not but overhear. All that
+      influenced the good relict was that besetting weakness of her sex, which
+      renders admiration so universally acceptable; and predisposes a female, as
+      it might be, to listen to a suitor with indulgence, and some little show
+      of kindness, even when resolute to reject him. As for Rose, to own the
+      truth, her aunt did not give her a thought, as yet, notwithstanding Spike
+      was getting to be so sentimental.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, your late excellent and honourable consort always said that I got my
+      growth sooner than any youngster he ever fell in with,&rdquo; resumed the
+      captain, after a short pause; exciting fresh wonder in his companion, that
+      he would persist in lugging in the &ldquo;dear departed&rdquo; so very unseasonably.
+      &ldquo;I am a great admirer of all the Budd family, my good lady, and only wish
+      my connection with it had never tarminated; if tarminated it can be
+      called.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It need not be terminated, Captain Spike, so long as friendship exists in
+      the human heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, so it is always with you ladies; when a man is bent on suthin' closer
+      and more interestin' like, you're for putting it off on friendship. Now
+      friendship is good enough in its way, Madam Budd, but friendship is n't
+      love.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Love!&rdquo; echoed the widow, fairly starting, though she looked down at her
+      netting, and looked as confused as she knew how. &ldquo;That is a very decided
+      word, Captain Spike, and should never be mentioned to a woman's ear
+      lightly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the captain now appeared to think, too, for no sooner had he delivered
+      himself of the important monosyllable, than he left the widow's side, and
+      began to pace the deck, as it might be to moderate his own ardour. As for
+      Rose, she blushed, if her more practised aunt did not; while Harry Mulford
+      laughed heartily, taking good care, however, not to be heard. The man at
+      the wheel turned the tobacco again, gave his trousers another hitch, and
+      wondered anew whither the skipper was bound. But the drollest
+      manifestation of surprise came from Josh, the steward, who was passing
+      along the lee-side of the quarter-deck, with a tea-pot in his hand, when
+      the energetic manner of the captain sent the words &ldquo;friendship is n't
+      love&rdquo; to his ears. This induced him to stop for a single instant, and to
+      cast a wondering glance behind him; after which he moved on toward the
+      galley, mumbling as he went&mdash;&ldquo;Lub! what he want of lub, or what lub
+      want of him! Well, I do t'ink Captain Spike bowse his jib out pretty 'arly
+      dis mornin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Spike soon got over the effects of his effort, and the confusion
+      of the relict did not last any material length of time. As the former had
+      gone so far, however, he thought the present an occasion as good as
+      another to bring matters to a crisis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our sentiments sometimes get to be so strong, Madam Budd,&rdquo; resumed the
+      lover, as he took his seat again on the trunk, &ldquo;that they run away with
+      us. Men is liable to be run away with as well as ladies. I once had a ship
+      run away with me, and a pretty time we had of it. Did you ever hear of a
+      ship's running away with her people, Madam Budd, just as your horse ran
+      away with your buggy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose I must have heard of such things, sir, my education having been
+      so maritime, though just at this moment I cannot recall an instance. When
+      my horse ran away, the buggy was cap-asided. Did your vessel cap-aside on
+      the occasion you mention?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Madam Budd, no. The ship was off the wind at the time I mean, and
+      vessels do not capsize when off the wind. I'll tell you how it happened.
+      We was a scuddin' under a goose-wing foresail&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; interrupted the relict, eagerly. &ldquo;I've often heard of that
+      sail, which is small, and used only in tempests.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heavy weather, Madam Budd&mdash;only in heavy weather.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is amazing to me, captain, how you seamen manage to weigh the weather.
+      I have often heard of light weather and heavy weather, but never fairly
+      understood the manner of weighing it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why we do make out to ascertain the difference,&rdquo; replied the captain, a
+      little puzzled for an answer; &ldquo;and I suppose it must be by means of the
+      barometer, which goes up and down like a pair of scales. But the time I
+      mean, we was a scuddin' under a goose-wing foresail&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A sail made of goose's wings, and a beautiful object it must be; like
+      some of the caps and cloaks that come from the islands, which are all of
+      feathers, and charming objects are they. I beg pardon&mdash;you had your
+      goose's wings spread&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Madam Budd, yes; we was steering for a Mediterranean port, intending
+      to clear a mole-head, when a sea took us under the larboard-quarter, gave
+      us such a sheer to-port as sent our cat-head ag'in a spile, and raked away
+      the chain-plates of the top-mast back-stays, bringing down all the forrard
+      hamper about our ears.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This description produced such a confusion in the mind of the widow, that
+      she was glad when it came to an end. As for the captain, fearful that the
+      &ldquo;goose's wings&rdquo; might be touched upon again, he thought it wisest to
+      attempt another flight on those of Cupid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I was sayin', Madam Budd, friendship is n't love; no, not a bit of it!
+      Friendship is a common sort of feelin': but love, as you must know by
+      exper'ence, Madam Budd, is an uncommon sort of feelin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fie, Captain Spike, gentlemen should never allude to ladies knowing any
+      thing about love. Ladies respect, and admire, and esteem, and have a
+      regard for gentlemen; but it is almost too strong to talk about their
+      love.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Madam Budd, yes; I dare say it is so, and ought to be so; and I ask
+      pardon for having said as much as I did. But my love for your niece is of
+      so animated and lastin' a natur', that I scarce know what I did say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captain Spike, you amaze me! I declare I can hardly breathe for
+      astonishment. My niece! Surely you do not mean Rosy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who else should I mean? My love for Miss Rose is so very decided and
+      animated, I tell you, Madam Budd, that I will not answer for the
+      consequences, should you not consent to her marryin' me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can scarce believe my ears! You, Stephen Spike, and an old friend of
+      her uncle's, wishing to marry his niece!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just so, Madam Budd; that's it, to a shavin'. The regard I have for the
+      whole family is so great, that nothin' less than the hand of Miss Rose in
+      marriage can, what I call, mitigate my feelin's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the relict had not one spark of tenderness herself in behalf of Spike;
+      while she did love Rose better than any human being, her own self
+      excepted. But she had viewed all the sentiment of that morning, and all
+      the fine speeches of the captain, very differently from what the present
+      state of things told her she ought to have viewed them; and she felt the
+      mortification natural to her situation. The captain was so much bent on
+      the attainment of his own object, that he saw nothing else, and was even
+      unconscious that his extraordinary and somewhat loud discourse had been
+      overheard. Least of all did he suspect that his admiration had been
+      mistaken; and that in what he called &ldquo;courtin'&rdquo; the niece, he had been all
+      the while &ldquo;courtin'&rdquo; the aunt. But little apt as she was to discover any
+      thing, Mrs. Budd had enough of her sex's discernment in a matter of this
+      sort, to perceive that she had fallen into an awkward mistake, and enough
+      of her sex's pride to resent it. Taking her work in her hand, she left her
+      seat, and descended to the cabin, with quite as much dignity in her manner
+      as it was in the power of one of her height and &ldquo;build&rdquo; to express. What
+      is the most extraordinary, neither she nor Spike ever ascertained that
+      their whole dialogue had been overheard. Spike continued to pace the
+      quarter-deck for several minutes, scarce knowing what to think of the
+      relict's manner, when his attention was suddenly drawn to other matters by
+      the familiar cry of &ldquo;sail-ho!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was positively the first vessel with which the Molly Swash had fallen
+      in since she lost sight of two or three craft that had passed her in the
+      distance, as she left the American coast. As usual, this cry brought all
+      hands on deck, and Mulford out of his state-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been stated already that the brig was just beginning to feel the
+      trades, and it might have been added, to see the mountains of San Domingo.
+      The winds had been variable for the last day or two, and they still
+      continued light, and disposed to be unsteady, ranging from north-east to
+      south-east, with a preponderance in favour of the first point. At the cry
+      of &ldquo;sail-ho!&rdquo; everybody looked in the indicated direction, which was west,
+      a little northerly, but for a long time without success. The cry had come
+      from aloft, and Mulford went up as high as the fore-top before he got any
+      glimpse of the stranger at all. He had slung a glass, and Spike was
+      unusually anxious to know the result of his examination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Mr. Mulford, what do you make of her?&rdquo; he called out as soon as the
+      mate announced that he saw the strange vessel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait a moment, sir, till I get a look,&mdash;she's a long way off, and
+      hardly visible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sir, well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can only see the heads of her top-gallant sails. She seems a ship
+      steering to the southward, with as many kites flying as an Indiaman in the
+      trades. She looks as if she were carrying royal stun'-sails, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The devil she does! Such a chap must not only be in a hurry, but he must
+      be strong-handed to give himself all this trouble in such light and
+      var'able winds. Are his yards square?&mdash;Is he man-of-war-ish?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's no telling, sir, at this distance; though I rather think its
+      stun'-sails that I see. Go down and get your breakfast, and in half an
+      hour I'll give a better account of him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was done, Mrs. Budd appearing at the table with great dignity in her
+      manner. Although she had so naturally supposed that Spike's attentions had
+      been intended for herself, she was rather mortified than hurt on
+      discovering her mistake. Her appetite, consequently, was not impaired,
+      though her stomach might have been said to be very full. The meal passed
+      off without any scene, notwithstanding, and Spike soon re-appeared on
+      deck, still masticating the last mouthful like a man in a hurry, and a
+      good deal, l'Amricaine. Mulford saw his arrival, and immediately levelled
+      his glass again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what news now, sir?&rdquo; called out the captain. &ldquo;You must have a
+      better chance at him by this time, for I can see the chap from off the
+      coach-house here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir; he's a bit nearer, certainly. I should say that craft is a
+      ship under stun'-sails, looking to the eastward of south, and that there
+      are caps with gold bands on her quarter-deck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How low down can you see her?&rdquo; demanded Spike, in a voice of thunder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So emphatic and remarkable was the captain's manner in putting this
+      question, that the mate cast a look of surprise beneath him ere he
+      answered it. A look with the glass succeeded, when the reply was given.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir; there can be no mistake&mdash;it's a cruiser, you may depend
+      on it. I can see the heads of her topsails now, and they are so square and
+      symmetrical, that gold bands are below beyond all doubt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps he's a Frenchman&mdash;Johnny Crapaud keeps cruisers in these
+      seas as well as the rest on'em.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Johnny Crapaud's craft don't spread such arms, sir. The ship is either
+      English or American; and he's heading for the Mona Passage as well as
+      ourselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come down, sir, come down&mdash;there's work to be done as soon as you
+      have breakfasted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford did come down, and he was soon seated at the table, with both Josh
+      and Jack Tier for attendants. The aunt and the niece were in their own
+      cabin, a few yards distant, with the door open.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a fuss'e cap'in make 'bout dat sail,&rdquo; grumbled Josh, who had been in
+      the brig so long that he sometimes took liberties with even Spike himself.
+      &ldquo;What good he t'ink t'will do to measure him inch by inch? Bye'm by he get
+      alongside, and den 'e ladies even can tell all about him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He nat'rally wishes to know who gets alongside,&rdquo; put in Tier, somewhat
+      apologetically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What matter dat. All sort of folk get alongside of Molly Swash; and what
+      good it do 'em? Yoh! yoh! yoh! I do remem'er sich times vid'e ole hussy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What old hussy do you mean?&rdquo; demanded Jack Tier a little fiercely, and in
+      a way to draw Mulford's eyes from the profile of Rose's face to the
+      visages of his two attendants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, come, gentlemen, if you please; recollect where you are,&rdquo;
+       interrupted the mate authoritatively. &ldquo;You are not now squabbling in your
+      galley, but are in the cabin. What is it to you, Tier, if Josh does call
+      the brig an old hussy; she is old, as we all know, and years are
+      respectable; and as for her being a 'hussy,' that is a term of endearment
+      sometimes. I've heard the captain himself call the Molly a 'hussy,' fifty
+      times, and he loves her as he does the apple of his eye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This interference put an end to the gathering storm as a matter of course,
+      and the two disputants shortly after passed on deck. No sooner was the
+      coast clear than Rose stood in the door of her own cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think the strange vessel is an American?&rdquo; she asked eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is impossible to say&mdash;English or American I make no doubt. But
+      why do you inquire?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But my aunt and myself desire to quit the brig, and if the stranger
+      should prove to be an American vessel of war, might not the occasion be
+      favourable?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what reason can you give for desiring to do so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What signifies a reason,&rdquo; answered Rose with spirit. &ldquo;Spike is not our
+      master, and we can come and go as we may see fit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But a reason must be given to satisfy the commander of the vessel of war.
+      Craft of that character are very particular about the passengers they
+      receive; nor would it be altogether wise in two unprotected females to go
+      on board a cruiser, unless in a case of the most obvious necessity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will not what has passed this morning be thought a sufficient reason,&rdquo;
+       added Rose, drawing nearer to the mate, and dropping her voice so as not
+      to be heard by her aunt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford smiled as he gazed at the earnest but attractive countenance of
+      his charming companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who could tell it, or how could it be told? Would the commander of a
+      vessel of war incur the risk of receiving such a person as yourself on
+      board his vessel, for the reason that the master of the craft she was in
+      when he fell in with her desired to marry her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose appeared vexed, but she was at once made sensible that it was not
+      quite as easy to change her vessel at sea, as to step into a strange door
+      in a town. She drew slowly back into her own cabin silent and thoughtful;
+      her aunt pursuing her netting the whole time with an air of dignified
+      industry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Mr. Mulford, well,&rdquo; called out Spike at the head of the cabin
+      stairs, &ldquo;what news from the coffee?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All ready, sir,&rdquo; answered the mate, exchanging significant glances with
+      Rose. &ldquo;I shall be up in a moment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That moment soon came, and Mulford was ready for duty. While below, Spike
+      had caused certain purchases to be got aloft, and the main-hatch was open
+      and the men collected around it, in readiness to proceed with the work.
+      Harry asked no questions, for the preparations told him what was about to
+      be done, but passing below, he took charge of the duty there, while the
+      captain superintended the part that was conducted on deck. In the course
+      of the next hour eight twelve-pound carronades were sent up out of the
+      hold, and mounted in as many of the ports which lined the bulwarks of the
+      brigantine. The men seemed to be accustomed to the sort of work in which
+      they were now engaged, and soon had their light batteries in order, and
+      ready for service. In the mean time the two vessels kept on their
+      respective courses, and by the time the guns were mounted, there was a
+      sensible difference in their relative positions. The stranger had drawn so
+      near the brigantine as to be very obvious from the latter's deck, while
+      the brigantine had drawn so much nearer to the islands of San Domingo and
+      Porto Rico, as to render the opening between them, the well-known Mona
+      Passage, distinctly visible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of all this Spike appeared to be fully aware, for he quitted the work
+      several times before it was finished, in order to take a look at the
+      stranger, and at the land. When the batteries were arranged, he and
+      Mulford, each provided with a glass, gave a few minutes to a more
+      deliberate examination of the first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's the Mona ahead of us,&rdquo; said the captain; &ldquo;of that there can be no
+      question, and a very pretty land-fall you've made of it, Harry. I'll allow
+      you to be as good a navigator as floats.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nevertheless, sir, you have not seen fit to let me know whither the brig
+      is really bound this voyage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No matter for that, young man&mdash;no matter, as yet. All in good time.
+      When I tell you to lay your course for the Mona, you can lay your course
+      for the Mona; and, as soon as we are through the passage, I'll let you
+      know what is wanted next&mdash;if that bloody chap, who is nearing us,
+      will let me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why should any vessel wish to molest us on our passage, Captain
+      Spike?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, sure enough! It's war-times, you know, and war-times always bring
+      trouble to the trader&mdash;though it sometimes brings profit, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Spike concluded, he gave his mate a knowing wink, which the other
+      understood to mean that he expected himself some of the unusual profit to
+      which he alluded. Mulford did not relish this secret communication, for
+      the past had induced him to suspect the character of the trade in which
+      his commander was accustomed to engage. Without making any sort of reply,
+      or encouraging the confidence by even a smile, he levelled his glass at
+      the stranger, as did Spike, the instant he ceased to grin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's one of Uncle Sam's fellows!&rdquo; exclaimed the captain, dropping the
+      glass. &ldquo;I'd swear to the chap in any admiralty court on 'arth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'T is a vessel of war, out of all doubt,&rdquo; returned the mate, &ldquo;and under a
+      cloud of canvas. I can make out the heads of her courses now, and see that
+      she is carrying hard, for a craft that is almost close-hauled.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay; no merchantmen keeps his light stun'-sails set, as near the wind
+      as that fellow's going. He's a big chap, too&mdash;a frigate, at least, by
+      his canvas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not know, sir&mdash;they build such heavy corvettes now-a-days, that
+      I should rather take her for one of them. They tell me ships are now sent
+      to sea which mount only two-and-twenty guns, but which measure quite a
+      thousand tons.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With thunderin' batteries, of course.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With short thirty-twos and a few rapping sixty-eight Paixhans&mdash;or
+      Columbiads, as they ought in justice to be called.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you think this chap likely to be a craft of that sort?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing is more probable, sir. Government has several, and, since this
+      war has commenced, it has been sending off cruiser after cruiser into the
+      Gulf. The Mexicans dare not send a vessel of war to sea, which would be
+      sending them to Norfolk, or New York, at once; but no one can say when
+      they may begin to make a prey of our commerce.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They have taken nothing as yet, Mr. Mulford, and, to tell you the truth,
+      I'd much rather fall in with one of Don Montezuma's craft than one of
+      Uncle Sam's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a singular taste, for an American, Captain Spike, unless you
+      think, now our guns are mounted, we can handle a Mexican,&rdquo; returned
+      Mulford coldly. &ldquo;At all events, it is some answer to those who ask 'What
+      is the navy about?' that months of war have gone by, and not an American
+      has been captured. Take away that navy, and the insurance offices in
+      Wall-street would tumble like a New York party-wall in a fire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nevertheless, I'd rather take my chance, just now, with Don Montezuma
+      than with Uncle Sam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford did not reply, though the earnest manner in which Spike expressed
+      himself, helped to increase his distrust touching the nature of the
+      voyage. With him the captain had no further conference, but it was
+      different as respects the boatswain. That worthy was called aft, and for
+      half an hour he and Spike were conversing apart, keeping their eyes
+      fastened on the strange vessel most of the time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was noon before all uncertainly touching the character of the stranger
+      ceased. By that time, however, both vessels were entering the Mona
+      Passage; the brig well to windward, on the Porto Rico side; while the ship
+      was so far to leeward as to be compelled to keep everything close-hauled,
+      in order to weather the island. The hull of the last could now be seen,
+      and no doubt was entertained about her being a cruiser, and one of some
+      size, too. Spike thought she was a frigate; but Mulford still inclined to
+      the opinion that she was one of the new ships; perhaps a real corvette, or
+      with a light spar-deck over her batteries. Two or three of the new vessels
+      were known to be thus fitted, and this might be one. At length all doubt
+      on the subject ceased, the stranger setting an American ensign, and
+      getting so near as to make it apparent that she had but a single line of
+      guns. Still she was a large ship, and the manner that she ploughed through
+      the brine, close-hauled as she was, extorted admiration even from Spike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We had better begin to shorten sail, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo; the captain at length
+      most reluctantly remarked. &ldquo;We might give the chap the slip, perhaps, by
+      keeping close in under Porto Rico, but he would give us a long chase, and
+      might drive us away to windward, when I wish to keep off between Cuba and
+      Jamaica. He's a traveller; look, how he stands up to it under that could
+      of canvas!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford was slow to commence on the studding-sails, and the cruiser was
+      getting nearer and nearer. At length a gun was fired, and a heavy shot
+      fell about two hundred yards short of the brig, and a little out of line
+      with her. On this hint, Spike turned the hands up, and began to shorten
+      sail. In ten minutes the Swash was under her topsail, mainsail and jib,
+      with her light sails hanging in the gear, and all the steering canvas in.
+      In ten minutes more the cruiser was so near as to admit of the faces of
+      the three or four men whose heads were above the hammock-cloths being
+      visible, when she too began to fold her wings. In went her royals,
+      topgallant-sails, and various kites, as it might be by some common
+      muscular agency; and up went her courses. Everything was done at once. By
+      this time she was crossing the brig's wake, looking exceedingly beautiful,
+      with her topsails lifting, her light sails blowing out, and even her heavy
+      courses fluttering in the breeze. There flew the glorious stars and
+      stripes also; of brief existence, but full of recollections! The moment
+      she had room, her helm went up, her bows fell off, and down she came, on
+      the weather quarter of the Swash, so near as to render a trumpet nearly
+      useless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On board the brig everybody was on deck; even the relict having forgotten
+      her mortification in curiosity. On board the cruiser no one was visible,
+      with the exception of a few men in each top, and a group of gold-banded
+      caps on the poop. Among these officers stood the captain, a red-faced,
+      middle-aged man, with the usual signs of his rank about him; and at his
+      side was his lynx-eyed first lieutenant. The surgeon and purser were also
+      there, though they stood a little apart from the more nautical
+      dignitaries. The hail that followed came out of a trumpet that was thrust
+      through the mizzen-rigging; the officer who used it taking his cue from
+      the poop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What brig is that?&rdquo; commenced the discourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Molly Swash, of New York, Stephen Spike, master.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where from, and whither bound?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From New York, and bound to Key West and a market.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A pause succeeded this answer, during which the officers on the poop of
+      the cruiser held some discourse with him of the trumpet. During the
+      interval the cruiser ranged fairly up abeam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are well to windward of your port, sir,&rdquo; observed he of the trumpet
+      significantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it; but it's war times, and I didn't know but there might be
+      piccaroons hovering about the Havanna.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The coast is clear, and our cruisers will keep it so. I see you have a
+      battery, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay; some old guns that I've had aboard these ten years: they're
+      useful, sometimes, in these seas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true. I'll range ahead of you, and as soon as you've room, I'll
+      thank you to heave-to. I wish to send a boat on board you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike was sullen enough on receiving this order, but there was no help for
+      it. He was now in the jaws of the lion, and his wisest course was to
+      submit to the penalties of his position with the best grace he could. The
+      necessary orders were consequently given, and the brig no sooner got room
+      than she came by the wind and backed her topsail. The cruiser went about,
+      and passing to windward, backed her main-topsail just forward of the
+      Swash's beam. Then the latter lowered a boat, and sent it, with a
+      lieutenant and a midshipman in its stern-sheets, on board the brigantine.
+      As the cutter approached, Spike went to the gangway to receive the
+      strangers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although there will be frequent occasion to mention this cruiser, the
+      circumstances are of so recent occurrence, that we do not choose to give
+      either her name, or that of any one belonging to her. We shall,
+      consequently, tell the curious, who may be disposed to turn to their
+      navy-lists and blue-books, that the search will be of no use, as all the
+      names we shall use, in reference to this cruiser, will be fictitious. As
+      much of the rest of our story as the reader please may be taken for
+      gospel; but we tell him frankly, that we have thought it most expedient to
+      adopt assumed names, in connection with this vessel and all her officers.
+      There are good reasons for so doing; and, among others, is that of
+      abstaining from arming a clique to calumniate her commander, (who, by the
+      way, like another commander in the Gulf that might be named, and who has
+      actually been exposed to the sort of tracasserie to which there is
+      allusion, is one of the very ablest men in the service,) in order to put
+      another in his place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The officer who now came over the side of the Swash we shall call Wallace;
+      he was the second lieutenant of the vessel of war. He was about thirty,
+      and the midshipman who followed him was a well-grown lad of nineteen. Both
+      had a decided man-of-war look, and both looked a little curiously at the
+      vessel they had boarded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your servant, sir,&rdquo; said Wallace, touching his cap in reply to Spike's
+      somewhat awkward bow. &ldquo;Your brig is the Molly Swash, Stephen Spike, bound
+      from New York to Key West and a market.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've got it all as straight, lieutenant, as if you was a readin' it
+      from the log.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The next thing, sir, is to know of what your cargo is composed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Flour; eight hundred barrels of flour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Flour! Would you not do better to carry that to Liverpool? The
+      Mississippi must be almost turned into paste by the quantity of flour it
+      floats to market.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Notwithstanding that, lieutenant, I know Uncle Sam's economy so well, as
+      to believe I shall part with every barrel of my flour to his contractors,
+      at a handsome profit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You read Whig newspapers principally, I rather think, Mr. Spike,&rdquo;
+       answered Wallace, in his cool, deliberate way, smiling, however, as he
+      spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We may just as well say here, that nature intended this gentleman for a
+      second lieutenant, the very place he filled. He was a capital second
+      lieutenant, while he would not have earned his rations as first. So well
+      was he assured of this peculiarity in his moral composition, that he did
+      not wish to be the first lieutenant of anything in which he sailed. A
+      respectable seaman, a well-read and intelligent man, a capital deck
+      officer, or watch officer, he was too indolent to desire to be anything
+      more, and was as happy as the day was long, in the easy berth he filled.
+      The first lieutenant had been his messmate as a midshipman, and ranked him
+      but two on the list in his present commission; but he did not envy him in
+      the least. On the contrary, one of his greatest pleasures was to get.
+      &ldquo;Working Willy,&rdquo; as he called his senior, over a glass of wine, or a
+      tumbler of &ldquo;hot stuff,&rdquo; and make him recount the labours of the day. On
+      such occasions, Wallace never failed to compare the situation of &ldquo;Working
+      Willy&rdquo; with his own gentlemanlike ease and independence. As second
+      lieutenant, his rank raised him above most of the unpleasant duty of the
+      ship, while it did not raise him high enough to plunge him into the
+      never-ending labours of his senior. He delighted to call himself the
+      &ldquo;ship's gentleman,&rdquo; a sobriquet he well deserved, on more accounts than
+      one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You read Whig newspapers principally, I rather think, Mr. Spike,&rdquo;
+       answered the lieutenant, as has been just mentioned, &ldquo;while we on board
+      the Poughkeepsie indulge in looking over the columns of the Union, as well
+      as over those of the Intelligencer, when by good luck we can lay our hands
+      on a stray number.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That ship, then, is called the Poughkeepsie, is she, sir?&rdquo; inquired
+      Spike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such is her name, thanks to a most beneficent and sage provision of
+      Congress, which has extended its parental care over the navy so far as to
+      imagine that a man chosen by the people to exercise so many of the
+      functions of a sovereign, is not fit to name a ship. All our two and three
+      deckers are to be called after states; the frigates after rivers; and the
+      sloops after towns. Thus it is that our craft has the honour to be called
+      the United States ship the 'Poughkeepsie,' instead of the 'Arrow,' or the
+      'Wasp,' or the 'Curlew,' or the 'Petrel,' as might otherwise have been the
+      case. But the wisdom of Congress is manifest, for the plan teaches us
+      sailors geography.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir, yes, one can pick up a bit of l'arnin' in that way cheap. The
+      Poughkeepsie, Captain&mdash;?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The United States' ship Poughkeepsie, 20, Captain Adam Mull, at your
+      service. But, Mr. Spike, you will allow me to look at your papers. It is a
+      duty I like, for it can be performed quietly, and without any fuss.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike looked distrustfully at his new acquaintance, but went for his
+      vessel's papers without any very apparent hesitation. Every thing was en
+      regle, and Wallace soon got through with the clearance, manifest, &amp;c.
+      Indeed the cargo, on paper at least, was of the simplest and least
+      complicated character, being composed of nothing but eight hundred barrels
+      of flour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It all looks very well on paper, Mr. Spike,&rdquo; added the boarding officer.
+      &ldquo;With your permission, we will next see how it looks in sober reality. I
+      perceive your main hatch is open, and I suppose it will be no difficult
+      matter just to take a glance at your hold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here is a ladder, sir, that will take us at once to the half-deck, for I
+      have no proper 'twixt decks in this craft; she's too small for that sort
+      of outfit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No matter, she has a hold, I suppose, and that can contain cargo. Take me
+      to it by the shortest road, Mr. Spike, for I am no great admirer of
+      trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike now led the way below, Wallace following, leaving the midshipman on
+      deck, who had fallen into conversation with the relict and her pretty
+      niece. The half-deck of the brigantine contained spare sails, provisions,
+      and water, as usual, while quantities of old canvas lay scattered over the
+      cargo; more especially in the wake of the hatches, of which there were two
+      besides that which led from the quarter-deck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Flour to the number of eight hundred barrels,&rdquo; said Wallace, striking his
+      foot against a barrel that lay within his reach. &ldquo;The cargo is somewhat
+      singular to come from New York, going to Key West, my dear Spike?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose you know what sort of a place Key West is, sir; a bit of an
+      island in which there is scarce so much as a potatoe grows.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir; I know Key West very well, having been in and out a dozen
+      times. All eatables are imported, turtle excepted. But flour can be
+      brought down the Mississippi so much cheaper than it can be brought from
+      New York.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you any idee, lieutenant, what Uncle Sam's men are paying for it at
+      New Orleens, just to keep soul and bodies together among the so'gers?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That may be true, sir&mdash;quite true, I dare say, Mr. Spike. Have n't
+      you a bit of a chair that a fellow can sit down on&mdash;this half-deck of
+      your's is none of the most comfortable places to stand in. Thank you, sir&mdash;thank
+      you with all my heart. What lots of old sails you have scattered about the
+      hold, especially in the wake of the hatches!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, the craft being little more than in good ballast trim, I keep the
+      hatches off to air her; and the spray might spit down upon the flour at
+      odd times but for them 'ere sails.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, a prudent caution. So you think Uncle Sam's people will be after this
+      flour as soon as they learn you have got it snug in at Key West?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What more likely, sir? You know how it is with our government&mdash;always
+      wrong, whatever it does! and I can show you paragraphs in letters written
+      from New Orleens, which tell us that Uncle Sam is paying seventy-five and
+      eighty per cent. more for flour than anybody else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must be a flush old chap to be able to do that, Spike.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Flush! I rather think he is. Do you know that he is spendin', accordin'
+      to approved accounts, at this blessed moment, as much as half a million a
+      day? I own a wish to be pickin' up some of the coppers while they are
+      scattered about so plentifully.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Half a million a day! why that is only at the rate of $187,000,000 per
+      annum; a mere trifle, Spike, that is scarce worth mentioning among us
+      mariners.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's so in the newspapers, I can swear, lieutenant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, and the newspapers will swear to it, too, and they that gave the
+      newspapers their cue. But no matter, our business is with this flour. Will
+      you sell us a barrel or two for our mess? I heard the caterer say we
+      should want flour in the course of a week or so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike seemed embarrassed, though not to a degree to awaken suspicion in
+      his companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never sold cargo at sea, long as I've sailed and owned a craft,&rdquo; he
+      answered, as if uncertain what to do. &ldquo;If you'll pay the price I expect to
+      get in the Gulf, and will take ten barrels, I do n't know but we may make
+      a trade on't. I shall only ask expected prices.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which will be&mdash;?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ten dollars a barrel. For one hundred silver dollars I will put into your
+      boat ten barrels of the very best brand known in the western country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is dealing rather more extensively than I anticipated, but we will
+      reflect on it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Wallance now indolently arose and ascended to the quarter-deck, followed
+      by Spike, who continued to press the flour on him, as if anxious to make
+      money. But the lieutenant hesitated about paying a price as high as ten
+      dollars, or to take a quantity as large as ten barrels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our mess is no great matter after all,&rdquo; he said carelessly. &ldquo;Four
+      lieutenants, the purser, two doctors, the master, and a marine officer,
+      and you get us all. Nine men could never eat ten barrels of flour, my dear
+      Spike, you will see for yourself, with the quantity of excellent bread we
+      carry. You forget the bread.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a bit of it, Mr. Wallace, since that is your name. But such flour as
+      this of mine has not been seen in the Gulf this many a day. I ought in
+      reason to ask twelve dollars for it, and insist on such a ship as your'n's
+      taking twenty instead of the ten barrels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you, sir, the ten will more than suffice; unless, indeed, the
+      captain wants some for the cabin. How is it with your steerage messes, Mr.
+      Archer&mdash;do you want any flour?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We draw a little from the ship, according to rule, sir, but we can't go
+      as many puddings latterly as we could before we touched last at the
+      Havanna,&rdquo; answered the laughing midshipman. &ldquo;There is n't a fellow among
+      us, sir, that could pay a shore-boat for landing him, should we go in
+      again before the end of another month. I never knew such a place as
+      Havanna. They say midshipmen's money melts there twice as soon as
+      lieutenants' money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's clear, then, you'll not take any of the ten. I am afraid after all,
+      Mr. Spike, we cannot trade, unless you will consent to let me have two
+      barrels. I'll venture on two at ten dollars, high as the price is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should n't forgive myself in six months for making so had a bargain,
+      lieutenant, so we'll say no more about it if you please.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here is a lady that wishes to say a word to you, Mr. Wallace, before we
+      go back to the ship, if you are at leisure to hear her, or them&mdash;for
+      there are two of them,&rdquo; put in Archer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment Mrs. Budd was approaching with a dignified step, while Rose
+      followed timidly a little in the rear. Wallace was a good deal surprised
+      at this application, and Spike was quite as much provoked. As for Mulford,
+      he watched the interview from a distance, a great deal more interested in
+      its result than he cared to have known, more especially to his commanding
+      officer. Its object was to get a passage in the vessel of war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are an officer of that Uncle Sam vessel,&rdquo; commenced Mrs. Budd, who
+      thought that she would so much the more command the respect and attention
+      of her listener, by showing him early how familiar she was with even the
+      slang dialect of the seas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have the honour, ma'am, to belong to that Uncle Sam craft,&rdquo; answered
+      Wallace gravely, though he bowed politely at the same time, looking
+      intently at the beautiful girl in the back-ground as he so did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I've been told, sir. She's a beautiful vessel, lieutenant, and is full
+      jiggered, I perceive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For the first time in his life, or at least for the first time since his
+      first cruise, Wallace wore a mystified look, being absolutely at a loss to
+      imagine what &ldquo;full jiggered&rdquo; could mean. He only looked, therefore, for he
+      did not answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mrs. Budd means that you've a full rigged craft,&rdquo; put in Spike, anxious
+      to have a voice in the conference, &ldquo;this vessel being only a half-rigged
+      brig.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! ay; yes, yes&mdash;the lady is quite right. We are full jiggered from
+      our dead-eyes to our eye-bolts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought as much, sir, from your ground hamper and top-tackles,&rdquo; added
+      the relict smiling. &ldquo;For my part there is nothing in nature that I so much
+      admire as a full jiggered ship, with her canvas out of the bolt-ropes, and
+      her clew-lines and clew-garnets braced sharp, and her yards all abroad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, ma'am, it is just as you say, a very charming spectacle. Our baby
+      was born full grown, and with all her hamper aloft just as you see her.
+      Some persons refer vessels to art, but I think you are quite right in
+      referring them to nature.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing can be more natural to me, lieutenant, than a fine ship standing
+      on her canvas. It's an object to improve the heart and to soften the
+      understanding.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I should think, ma'am,&rdquo; returned Wallace, a little quizzically,
+      &ldquo;judging from the effect on yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This speech, unfortunately timed as it was, wrought a complete change in
+      Rose's feelings, and she no longer wished to exchange the Swash for the
+      Poughkeepsie. She saw that her aunt was laughed at in secret, and that was
+      a circumstance that never failed to grate on every nerve in her system.
+      She had been prepared to second and sustain the intended application&mdash;she
+      was now determined to oppose it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir,&rdquo; resumed the unconscious relict, &ldquo;and to soften the
+      understanding. Lieutenant, did you ever cross the Capricorn?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No less than six times; three going and three returning, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And did Neptune come on board you, and were you shaved?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everything was done secundem artem, ma'am. The razor was quite an example
+      of what are called in poetry 'thoughts too deep for tears.' &rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That must have been delightful. As for me, I'm quite a devotee of
+      Neptune's; but I'm losing time, for no doubt your ship is all ready to
+      pull away and carry on sail&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aunt, may I say a word to you before you go any further,&rdquo; put in Rose in
+      her quiet but very controlling way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The aunt complied, and Wallace, as soon as left alone, felt like a man who
+      was released from a quick-sand, into which every effort to extricate
+      himself only plunged him so much the deeper. At this moment the ship
+      hailed, and the lieutenant took a hasty leave of Spike, motioned to the
+      midshipman to precede him, and followed the latter into his boat. Spike
+      saw his visiter off in person, tending the side and offering the man-ropes
+      with his own hands. For this civility Wallace thanked him, calling out as
+      his boat pulled him from the brig's side&mdash;&ldquo;If we 'pull away,'&rdquo;
+       accenting the &ldquo;pull&rdquo; in secret derision of the relict's mistake, &ldquo;you can
+      pull away; our filling the topsail being a sign for you to do the same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There you go, and joy go with you,&rdquo; muttered Spike, as he descended from
+      the gangway. &ldquo;A pretty kettle of fish would there have been cooked had I
+      let him have his two barrels of flour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man-of-war's cutter was soon under the lee of the ship, where it
+      discharged its freight, when it was immediately run up. During the whole
+      time Wallace had been absent, Captain Mull and his officers remained on
+      the poop, principally occupied in examining and discussing the merits of
+      the Swash. No sooner had their officer returned, however, than an order
+      was given to fill away, it being supposed that the Poughkeepsie had no
+      further concern with the brigantine. As for Wallace, he ascended to the
+      poop and made the customary report.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a queer cargo to be carrying to Key West from the Atlantic coast,&rdquo;
+       observed the captain in a deliberating sort of manner, as if the
+      circumstance excited suspicion; &ldquo;Yet the Mexicans can hardly be in want of
+      any such supplies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you see the flour, Wallace?&rdquo; inquired the first lieutenant, who was
+      well aware of his messmate's indolence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir, and felt it too. The lower hold of the brig is full of flour,
+      and of nothing else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ware round, sir&mdash;ware round and pass athwart the brig's wake,&rdquo;
+       interrupted the captain. &ldquo;There's plenty of room now, and I wish to pass
+      as near that craft as we can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This manoeuvre was executed. The sloop-of-war no sooner filled her
+      maintop-sail than she drew ahead, leaving plenty of room for the
+      brigantine to make sail on her course. Spike did not profit by this
+      opening, however, but he sent several men aloft forward, where they
+      appeared to be getting ready to send down the upper yards and the
+      topgallant-mast. No sooner was the sloop-of-war's helm put up than that
+      vessel passed close along the brigantine's weather side, and kept off
+      across her stern on her course. As she did this the canvas was fluttering
+      aboard her, in the process of making sail, and Mull held a short discourse
+      with Spike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is anything the matter aloft?&rdquo; demanded the man-of-war's man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay; I've sprung my topgallant-mast, and think this a good occasion to
+      get another up in its place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I lend you a carpenter or two, Mr. Spike?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank'ee, sir, thank'ee with all my heart; but we can do without them.
+      It's an old stick, and it's high time a better stood where it does. Who
+      knows but I may be chased and feel the want of reliable spars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Mull smiled and raised his cap in the way of an adieu, when the
+      conversation ended; the Poughkeepsie sliding off rapidly with a free wind,
+      leaving the Swash nearly stationary. In ten minutes the two vessels were
+      more than a mile apart; in twenty, beyond the reach of shot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding the natural and common-place manner in which this
+      separation took place, there was much distrust on board each vessel, and a
+      good deal of consummate management on the part of Spike. The latter knew
+      that every foot the sloop-of-war went on her course, carried her just so
+      far to leeward, placing his own brig, in-so-much, dead to windward of her.
+      As the Swash's best point of sailing, relatively considered, was
+      close-hauled, this was giving to Spike a great security against any change
+      of purpose on the part of the vessel of war. Although his people were
+      aloft and actually sent down the topgallant-mast, it was only to send it
+      up again, the spar being of admirable toughness, and as sound as the day
+      it was cut.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo; said the captain sarcastically, &ldquo;that Uncle
+      Sam's glasses are good enough to tell the difference in wood at two
+      leagues' distance, so we'll trust to the old stick a little longer. Ay,
+      ay, let 'em run off before it, we'll find another road by which to reach
+      our port.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sloop-of-war is going round the south side of Cuba, Captain Spike,&rdquo;
+       answered the mate, &ldquo;and I have understood you to say that you intended to
+      go by the same passage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A body may change his mind, and no murder. Only consider, Harry, how
+      common it is for folks to change their minds. I did intend to pass between
+      Cuba and Jamaica, but I intend it no longer. Our run from Montauk has been
+      oncommon short, and I've time enough to spare to go to the southward of
+      Jamaica too, if the notion takes me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would greatly prolong the passage, Captain Spike,&mdash;a week at
+      least.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What if it does&mdash;I've a week to spare; we're nine days afore our
+      time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our time for what, sir? Is there any particular time set for a vessel's
+      going into Key West?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't be womanish and over-cur'ous, Mulford. I sail with sealed orders,
+      and when we get well to windward of Jamaica, 't will be time enough to
+      open them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike was as good as his word. As soon as he thought the sloop-of-war was
+      far enough to leeward, or when she was hull down, he filled away and made
+      sail on the wind to get nearer to Porto Rico. Long ere it was dark he had
+      lost sight of the sloop-of-war, when he altered his course to
+      south-westerly, which was carrying him in the direction he named, or to
+      windward of Jamaica.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While this artifice was being practised on board the Molly Swash, the
+      officers of the Poughkeepsie were not quite satisfied with their own mode
+      of proceeding with the brigantine. The more they reasoned on the matter,
+      the more unlikely it seemed to them that Spike could be really carrying a
+      cargo of flour from New York to Key West, in the expectation of disposing
+      of it to the United States' contractors, and the more out of the way did
+      he seem to be in running through the Mona Passage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His true course should have been by the Hole in the Wall, and so down
+      along the north side of Cuba, before the wind,&rdquo; observed the first
+      lieutenant. &ldquo;I wonder that never struck you, Wallace; you, who so little
+      like trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly I knew it, but we lazy people like running off before the wind,
+      and I did not know but such were Mr. Spike's tastes,&rdquo; answered the &ldquo;ship's
+      gentleman.&rdquo; &ldquo;In my judgment, the reluctance he showed to letting us have
+      any of his flour, is much the most suspicious circumstance in the whole
+      affair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These two speeches were made on the poop, in the presence of the captain,
+      but in a sort of an aside that admitted of some of the ward-room
+      familiarity exhibited. Captain Mull was not supposed to hear what passed,
+      though hear it he in fact did, as was seen by his own remarks, which
+      immediately succeeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understood you to say, Mr. Wallace,&rdquo; observed the captain, a little
+      drily, &ldquo;that you saw the flour yourself?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I saw the flour-barrels, sir; and as regularly built were they as any
+      barrels that ever were branded. But a flour-barrel may have contained
+      something beside flour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Flour usually makes itself visible in the handling; were these barrels
+      quite clean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Far from it, sir. They showed flour on their staves, like any other
+      cargo. After all, the man may have more sense than we give him credit for,
+      and find a high market for his cargo.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Mull seemed to muse, which was a hint for his juniors not to
+      continue the conversation, but rather to seem to muse, too. After a short
+      pause, the captain quietly remarked&mdash;&ldquo;Well, gentlemen, he will be
+      coming down after us, I suppose, as soon as he gets his new
+      topgallant-mast on-end, and then we can keep a bright look-out for him. We
+      shall cruise off Cape St. Antonio for a day or two, and no doubt shall get
+      another look at him. I should like to have one baking from his flour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Spike had no intention to give the Poughkeepsie the desired
+      opportunity. As has been stated, he stood off to the southward on a wind,
+      and completely doubled the eastern end of Jamaica, when he put his helm
+      up, and went, with favouring wind and current, toward the northward and
+      westward. The consequence was, that he did not fall in with the
+      Poughkeepsie at all, which vessel was keeping a sharp look-out for him in
+      the neighbourhood of Cape St. Antonio and the Isle of Pines, at the very
+      moment he was running down the coast of Yucatan. Of all the large maritime
+      countries of the world, Mexico, on the Atlantic, is that which is the most
+      easily blockaded, by a superior naval power. By maintaining a proper force
+      between Key West and the Havanna, and another squadron between Cape St.
+      Antonio and Loggerhead Key, the whole country, the Bay of Honduras
+      excepted, is shut up, as it might be in a band-box. It is true the Gulf
+      would be left open to the Mexicans, were not squadrons kept nearer in;
+      but, as for anything getting out into the broad Atlantic, it would be next
+      to hopeless. The distance to be watched between the Havanna and Key West
+      is only about sixty miles, while that in the other direction is not much
+      greater.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the Swash was making the circuit of Jamaica, as described, her
+      captain had little communication with his passengers. The misunderstanding
+      with the relict embarrassed him as much as it embarrassed her; and he was
+      quite willing to let time mitigate her resentment. Rose would be just as
+      much in his power a fortnight hence as she was today. This cessation in
+      the captain's attentions gave the females greater liberty, and they
+      improved it, singularly enough as it seemed to Mulford, by cultivating a
+      strange sort of intimacy with Jack Tier. The very day that succeeded the
+      delicate conversation with Mrs. Budd, to a part of which Jack had been an
+      auditor, the uncouth-looking steward's assistant was seen in close
+      conference with the pretty Rose; the subject of their conversation being,
+      apparently, of a most engrossing nature. From that hour, Jack got to be
+      not only a confidant, but a favourite, to Mulford's great surprise. A less
+      inviting subject for tête-à-tête and confidential dialogues, thought the
+      young man, could not well exist; but so it was; woman's caprices are
+      inexplicable; and not only Rose and her aunt, but even the captious and
+      somewhat distrustful Biddy, manifested on all occasions not only
+      friendship, but kindness and consideration for Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You quite put my nose out o' joint, you Jack Tier, with 'e lady,&rdquo;
+       grumbled Josh, the steward de jure, if not now de facto, of the craft,
+      &ldquo;and I neber see nuttin' like it! I s'pose you expect ten dollar, at
+      least, from dem passenger, when we gets in. But I'd have you to know,
+      Misser Jack, if you please, dat a steward be a steward, and he do n't like
+      to hab trick played wid him, afore he own face.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poh! poh! Joshua,&rdquo; answered Jack good-naturedly, &ldquo;do n't distress
+      yourself on a consail. In the first place, you've got no nose to be put
+      out of joint; or, if you have really a nose, it has no joint. It's nat'ral
+      for folks to like their own colour, and the ladies prefar me, because I'm
+      white.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No so werry white as all dat, nudder,&rdquo; grumbled Josh. &ldquo;I see great many
+      whiter dan you. But, if dem lady like you so much as to gib you ten
+      dollar, as I expects, when we gets in, I presumes you'll hand over half,
+      or six dollar, of dat money to your superior officer, as is law in de
+      case.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you call six the half of ten, Joshua, my scholar, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, den, seven, if you like dat better. I wants just half, and just
+      half I means to git.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And half you shall have, maty. I only wish you would just tell me where
+      we shall be, when we gets in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How I know, white man? Dat belong to skipper, and better ask him. If he
+      do n't gib you lick in de chop, p'rhaps he tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Jack Tier had no taste for &ldquo;licks in the chops,&rdquo; he did not follow
+      Josh's advice. But his agreeing to give half of the ten dollars to the
+      steward kept peace in the cabins. He was even so scrupulous of his word,
+      as to hand to Josh a half-eagle that very day; money he had received from
+      Rose; saying he would trust to Providence for his own half of the expected
+      douceur. This concession placed Jack Tier on high grounds with his
+      &ldquo;superior officer,&rdquo; and from that time the former was left to do the whole
+      of the customary service of the ladies' cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As respects the vessel, nothing worthy of notice occurred until she had
+      passed Loggerhead Key, and was fairly launched in the Gulf of Mexico.
+      Then, indeed, Spike took a step that greatly surprised his mate. The
+      latter was directed to bring all his instruments, charts, &amp;c., and
+      place them in the captain's state-room, where it was understood they were
+      to remain until the brig got into port. Spike was but an indifferent
+      navigator, while Mulford was one of a higher order than common. So much
+      had the former been accustomed to rely on the latter, indeed, as they
+      approached a strange coast, that he could not possibly have taken any
+      step, that was not positively criminal, which would have given his mate
+      more uneasiness than this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first, Mulford naturally enough suspected that Spike intended to push
+      for some Mexican port, by thus blinding his eyes as to the position of the
+      vessel. The direction steered, however, soon relieved the mate from this
+      apprehension. From the eastern extremity of Yucatan, the Mexican coast
+      trends to the westward, and even to the south of west, for a long
+      distance, whereas the course steered by Spike was north, easterly. This
+      was diverging from the enemy's coast instead of approaching it, and the
+      circumstance greatly relieved the apprehensions of Mulford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor was the sequestration of the mate's instruments the only suspicious
+      act of Spike. He caused the brig's paint to be entirely altered, and even
+      went so far toward disguising her, as to make some changes aloft. All this
+      was done as the vessel passed swiftly on her course, and everything had
+      been effected, apparently to the captain's satisfaction, when the cry of
+      &ldquo;land-ho!&rdquo; was once more heard. The land proved to be a cluster of low,
+      small islands, part coral, part sand, that might have been eight or ten in
+      number, and the largest of which did not possess a surface of more than a
+      very few acres. Many were the merest islets imaginable, and on one of the
+      largest of the cluster rose a tall, gaunt light-house, having the
+      customary dwelling of its keeper at its base. Nothing else was visible;
+      the broad expanse of the blue waters of the Gulf excepted. All the land in
+      sight would not probably have made one field of twenty acres in extent,
+      and that seemed cut off from the rest of the world, by a broad barrier of
+      water. It was a spot of such singular situation and accessories, that
+      Mulford gazed at it with a burning desire to know where he was, as the
+      brig steered through a channel between two of the islets, into a capacious
+      and perfectly safe basin, formed by the group, and dropped her anchor in
+      its centre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  &ldquo;He sleeps; but dreams of massy gold,
+    And heaps of pearl. He stretch'd his hands&mdash;
+  He hears a voice&mdash;
+
+  &ldquo;Ill man withhold!'
+    A pale one near him stands.&rdquo;
+
+   Dana.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was near night-fall when the Swash anchored among the low and small
+      islets mentioned. Rose had been on deck, as the vessel approached this
+      singular and solitary haven, watching the movements of those on board, as
+      well as the appearance of objects on the land, with the interest her
+      situation would be-likely to awaken. She saw the light and manageable
+      craft glide through the narrow and crooked passages that led into the
+      port, the process of anchoring, and the scene of tranquil solitude that
+      succeeded; each following the other as by a law of nature. The light-house
+      next attracted her attention, and, as soon as the sun disappeared, her
+      eyes were fastened on the lantern, in expectation of beholding the
+      watchful and warning fires gleaming there, to give the mariner notice of
+      the position of the dangers that surrounded the place. Minute went by
+      after minute, however, and the customary illumination seemed to be
+      forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why is not this light shining?&rdquo; Rose asked of Mulford, as the young man
+      came near her, after having discharged his duty in helping to moor the
+      vessel, and in clearing the decks. &ldquo;All the light-houses we have passed,
+      and they have been fifty, have shown bright lights at this hour, but
+      this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot explain it; nor have I the smallest notion where we are. I have
+      been aloft, and there was nothing in sight but this cluster of low islets,
+      far or near. I did fancy, for a moment, I saw a speck like a distant sail,
+      off here, to the northward and eastward, but I rather think it was a gull,
+      or some other sea-bird glancing upward on the wing. I mentioned it to the
+      captain when I came down, and he appeared to believe it a mistake. I have
+      watched that light-house closely, too, ever since we came in, and I have
+      not seen the smallest sign of life about it. It is altogether an
+      extraordinary place!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One suited to acts of villany, I fear, Harry!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of that we shall be better judges to-morrow. You, at least, have one
+      vigilant friend, who will die sooner than harm shall come to you. I
+      believe Spike to be thoroughly unprincipled; still he knows he can go so
+      far and no further, and has a wholesome dread of the law. But the
+      circumstance that there should be such a port as this, with a regular
+      light-house, and no person near the last, is so much out of the common
+      way, that I do not know what to make of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps the light-house keeper is afraid to show himself, in the presence
+      of the Swash?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That can hardly be, for vessels must often enter the port, if port it can
+      be called. But Spike is as much concerned at the circumstance that the
+      lamps are not lighted, as any of us can be. Look, he is about to visit the
+      building in the boat, accompanied by two of his oldest sea-dogs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why might we not raise the anchor, and sail out of this place, leaving
+      Spike ashore?&rdquo; suggested Rose, with more decision and spirit than
+      discretion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For the simple reason that the act would be piracy, even if I could get
+      the rest of the people to obey my orders, as certainly I could not. No,
+      Rose: you, and your aunt, and Biddy, however, might land at these
+      buildings, and refuse to return, Spike having no authority over his
+      passengers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still he would have the power to make us come back to his brig. Look, he
+      has left the vessel's side, and is going directly toward the light-house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford made no immediate answer, but remained at Rose's side, watching
+      the movements of the captain. The last pulled directly to the islet with
+      the buildings, a distance of only a few hundred feet, the light-house
+      being constructed on a rocky island that was nearly in the centre of the
+      cluster, most probably to protect it from the ravages of the waves. The
+      fact, however, proved, as Mulford did not fail to suggest to his
+      companion, that the beacon had been erected less to guide vessels into the
+      haven, than to warn mariners at a distance, of the position of the whole
+      group.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In less than five minutes after he had landed, Spike himself was seen in
+      the lantern, in the act of lighting its lamps. In a very short time the
+      place was in a brilliant blaze, reflectors and all the other parts of the
+      machinery of the place performing their duties as regularly as if tended
+      by the usual keeper. Soon after Spike returned on board, and the
+      anchor-watch was set. Then everybody sought the rest that it was customary
+      to take at that hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford was on deck with the appearance of the sun; but he found that
+      Spike had preceded him, had gone ashore again, had extinguished the lamps,
+      and was coming alongside of the brig on his return. A minute later the
+      captain came over the side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You were right about your sail, last night, a'ter all, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo; said
+      Spike, on coming aft. &ldquo;There she is, sure enough; and we shall have her
+      alongside to strike cargo out and in, by the time the people have got
+      their breakfasts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Spike pointed toward the light-house while speaking, the mate changed
+      his position a little, and saw that a schooner was coming down toward the
+      islets before the wind. Mulford now began to understand the motives of the
+      captain's proceedings, though a good deal yet remained veiled in mystery.
+      He could not tell where the brig was, nor did he know precisely why so
+      many expedients were adopted to conceal the transfer of a cargo as simple
+      as that of flour. But he who was in the secret left but little time for
+      reflection; for swallowing a hasty breakfast on deck, he issued orders
+      enough to his mate to give him quite as much duty as he could perform,
+      when he again entered the yawl, and pulled toward the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose soon appeared on deck, and she naturally began to question Harry
+      concerning their position and prospects. He was confessing his ignorance,
+      as well as lamenting it, when his companion's sweet face suddenly flushed.
+      She advanced a step eagerly toward the open window of Spike's state-room,
+      then compressed her full, rich under-lip with the ivory of her upper
+      teeth, and stood a single instant, a beautiful statue of irresolution
+      instigated by spirit. The last quality prevailed; and Mulford was really
+      startled when he saw Rose advance quite to the window, thrust in an arm,
+      and turn toward him with his own sextant in her hand. During the course of
+      the passage out, the young man had taught Rose to assist him in observing
+      the longitude; and she was now ready to repeat the practice. Not a moment
+      was lost in executing her intention. Sights were had, and the instrument
+      was returned to its place without attracting the attention of the men, who
+      were all busy in getting up purchases, and in making the other necessary
+      dispositions for discharging the flour. The observations answered the
+      purpose, though somewhat imperfectly made. Mulford had a tolerable notion
+      of their latitude, having kept the brig's run in his head since quitting
+      Yutacan; and he now found that their longitude was about 83 o west from
+      Greenwich. After ascertaining this fact, a glance at the open chart, which
+      lay on Spike's desk, satisfied him that the vessel was anchored within the
+      group of the Dry Tortugas, or at the western termination of the
+      well-known, formidable, and extensive Florida Reef. He had never been in
+      that part of the world before, but had heard enough in sea-gossip, and had
+      read enough in books, to be at once apprised of the true character of
+      their situation. The islets were American; the light-house was American;
+      and the haven in which the Swash lay was the very spot in the
+      contemplation of government for an outer man-of-war harbour, where fleets
+      might rendezvous in the future wars of that portion of the world. He now
+      saw plainly enough the signs of the existence of a vast reef, a short
+      distance to the southward of the vessel, that formed a species of
+      sea-wall, or mole, to protect the port against the waves of the gulf in
+      that direction. This reef he knew to be miles in width.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was little time for speculation, Spike soon bringing the strange
+      schooner directly alongside of the brig. The two vessels immediately
+      became a scene of activity, one discharging, and the other receiving the
+      flour as fast as it could be struck out of the hold of the Swash and
+      lowered upon the deck of the schooner. Mulford, however, had practised a
+      little artifice, as the stranger entered the haven, which drew down upon
+      him an anathema or two from Spike, as soon as they were alone. The mate
+      had set the brig's ensign, and this compelled the stranger to be markedly
+      rude, or to answer the compliment. Accordingly he had shown the ancient
+      flag of Spain. For thus extorting a national symbol from the schooner, the
+      mate was sharply rebuked at a suitable moment, though nothing could have
+      been more forbearing than the deportment of his commander when they first
+      met.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Spike returned to his own vessel, he was accompanied by a
+      dark-looking, well-dressed, and decidedly gentleman-like personage, whom
+      he addressed indifferently, in his very imperfect Spanish, as Don Wan,
+      (Don Juan, or John,) or Se¤or Montefalderon. By the latter appellation he
+      even saw fit to introduce the very respectable-looking stranger to his
+      mate. This stranger spoke English well, though with an accent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don Wan has taken all the flour, Mr. Mulford, and intends shoving it over
+      into Cuba, without troubling the custom-house, I believe; but that is not
+      a matter to give us any concern, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The wink, and the knowing look by which this speech was accompanied,
+      seemed particularly disagreeable to Don Juan, who now paid his compliments
+      to Rose, with no little surprise betrayed in his countenance, but with the
+      ease and reserve of a gentleman. Mulford thought it strange that a
+      smuggler of flour should be so polished a personage, though his duty did
+      not admit of his bestowing much attention on the little trifling of the
+      interview that succeeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For about an hour the work went steadily and rapidly on. During that time
+      Mulford was several times on board the schooner, as, indeed, was Josh,
+      Jack Tier, and others belonging to the Swash. The Spanish vessel was
+      Baltimore, or clipper built, with a trunk-cabin, and had every appearance
+      of sailing fast. Mulford was struck with her model, and, while on board of
+      her, he passed both forward and aft to examine it. This was so natural in
+      a seaman, that Spike, while he noted the proceeding, took it in good part.
+      He even called out to his mate, from his own quarter-deck, to admire this
+      or that point in the schooner's construction. As is customary with the
+      vessels of southern nations, this stranger was full of men, but they
+      continued at their work, some half dozen of brawny negroes among them,
+      shouting their songs as they swayed at the falls, no one appearing to
+      manifest jealousy or concern. At length Tier came near the mate, and said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Uncle Sam will not be pleased when he hears the reason that the keeper is
+      not in his light-house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what is that reason, Jack? If you know it, tell it to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go aft and look down the companion-way, maty, and see it for yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford did go aft, and he made an occasion to look down into the
+      schooner's cabin, where he caught a glimpse of the persons of a man and a
+      boy, whom he at once supposed had been taken from the light-house. This
+      one fact of itself doubled his distrust of the character of Spike's
+      proceedings. There was no sufficient apparent reason why a mere smuggler
+      should care about the presence of an individual more or less in a foreign
+      port. Everything that had occurred, looked like pre-concert between the
+      brig and the schooner; and the mate was just beginning to entertain the
+      strongest distrust that their vessel was holding treasonable communication
+      with the enemy, when an accident removed all doubt on the subject, from
+      his own mind at least. Spike had, once or twice, given his opinion that
+      the weather was treacherous, and urged the people of both crafts to
+      extraordinary exertions, in order that the vessels might get clear of each
+      other as soon as possible. This appeal had set various expedients in
+      motion to second the more regular work of the purchases. Among other
+      things, planks had been laid from one vessel to the other, and barrels
+      were rolled along them with very little attention to the speed or the
+      direction. Several had fallen on the schooner's deck with rude shocks, but
+      no damage was done, until one, of which the hoops had not been properly
+      secured, met with a fall, and burst nearly at Mulford's feet. It was at
+      the precise moment when the mate was returning, from taking his glance
+      into the cabin, toward the side of the Swash. A white cloud arose, and
+      half a dozen of the schooner's people sprang for buckets, kids, or dishes,
+      in order to secure enough of the contents of the broken barrel to furnish
+      them with a meal. At first nothing was visible but the white cloud that
+      succeeded the fall, and the scrambling sailors in its midst. No sooner,
+      however, had the air got to be a little clear, than Mulford saw an object
+      lying in centre of the wreck, that he at once recognised for a keg of the
+      gunpowder! The captain of the schooner seized this keg, gave a knowing
+      look at Mulford, and disappeared in the hold of his own vessel, carrying
+      with him, what was out of all question, a most material part of the true
+      cargo of the Swash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the moment when the flour-barrel burst, Spike was below, in close
+      conference with his Spanish, or Mexican guest; and the wreck being so soon
+      cleared away, it is probable that he never heard of the accident. As for
+      the two crews, they laughed a little among themselves at the revelation
+      which had been made, as well as at the manner; but to old sea-dogs like
+      them, it was a matter of very little moment, whether the cargo was, in
+      reality, flour or gunpowder. In a few minutes the affair seemed to be
+      forgotten. In the course of another hour the Swash was light, having
+      nothing in her but some pig-lead, which she used for ballast, while the
+      schooner was loaded to her hatches, and full. Spike now sent a boat, with
+      orders to drop a kedge about a hundred yards from the place where his own
+      brig lay. The schooner warped up to this kedge, and dropped an anchor of
+      her own, leaving a very short range of cable out, it being a flat calm.
+      Ordinarily, the trades prevail at the Dry Tortugas, and all along the
+      Florida Reef. Sometimes, indeed, this breeze sweeps across the whole width
+      of the Gulf of Mexico, blowing home, as it is called&mdash;reaching even
+      to the coast of Texas. It is subject, however, to occasional interruptions
+      everywhere, varying many points in its direction, and occasionally ceasing
+      entirely. The latter was the condition of the weather about noon on this
+      day, or when the schooner hauled off from the brig, and was secured at her
+      own anchor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Mulford,&rdquo; said Spike, &ldquo;I do not like the state of the atmosphere.
+      D'ye see that fiery streak along the western horizon&mdash;well, sir, as
+      the sun gets nearer to that streak, there'll be trouble, or I'm no judge
+      of weather.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You surely do not imagine, Captain Spike, that the sun will be any nearer
+      to that fiery streak, as you call it, when he is about to set, than he is
+      at this moment?&rdquo; answered the mate, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sure of one thing, young man, and that is, that old heads are better
+      than young ones. What a man has once seen, he may expect to see again, if
+      the same leading signs offer. Man the boat, sir, and carry out the kedge,
+      which is still in it, and lay it off here, about three p'ints on our
+      larboard bow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford had a profound respect for Spike's seamanship, whatever he might
+      think of his principles. The order was consequently obeyed. The mate was
+      then directed to send down various articles out of the top, and to get the
+      top-gallant and royal yards on deck. Spike carried his precautions so far,
+      as to have the mainsail lowered, it ordinarily brailing at that season of
+      the year, with a standing gaff. With this disposition completed, the
+      captain seemed more at his ease, and went below to join Se¤or
+      Montefalderon in a siesta. The Mexican, for such, in truth, was the
+      national character of the owner of the schooner, had preceded him in this
+      indulgence; and most of the people of the brig having laid themselves down
+      to sleep under the heat of the hour, Mulford soon enjoyed another
+      favourable opportunity for a private conference with Rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Harry,&rdquo; commenced the latter, as soon as they were alone; &ldquo;I have much to
+      tell you. While you have been absent I have overheard a conversation
+      between this Spanish gentleman and Spike, that shows the last is in treaty
+      with the other for the sale of the brig. Spike extolled his vessel to the
+      skies, while Don Wan, as he calls him, complains that the brig is old, and
+      cannot last long; to which Spike answered 'to be sure she is old, Se¤or
+      Montefalderon, but she will last as long as your war, and under a bold
+      captain might be made to return her cost a hundred fold!' What war can he
+      mean, and to what does such a discourse tend?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The war alludes to the war now existing between America and Mexico, and
+      the money to be made is to be plundered at sea, from our own
+      merchant-vessels. If Don Juan Montefalderon is really in treaty for the
+      purchase of the brig, it is to convert her into a Mexican cruiser, either
+      public or private.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this would be treason on the part of Spike!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not more so than supplying the enemy with gunpowder, as he has just been
+      doing. I have ascertained the reason he was so unwilling to be overhauled
+      by the revenue steamer, as well as the reason why the revenue steamer
+      wished so earnestly to overhaul us. Each barrel of flour contains another
+      of gunpowder, and that has been sold to this Se¤or Montefalderon, who is
+      doubtless an officer of the Mexican government, and no smuggler.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has been at New York, this very summer, I know,&rdquo; continued Rose, &ldquo;for
+      he spoke of his visit, and made such other remarks, as leaves no doubt
+      that Spike expected to find him here, on this very day of the month. He
+      also paid Spike a large sum of money in doubloons, and took back the bag
+      to his schooner, when he had done so, after showing the captain enough was
+      left to pay for the brig could they only agree on the terms of their
+      bargain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay; it is all plain enough now, Spike has determined on a desperate
+      push for fortune, and foreseeing it might not soon be in his power to
+      return to New York in safety, he has included his designs on you and your
+      fortune, in the plot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My fortune! the trifle I possess can scarcely be called a fortune,
+      Harry!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be a fortune to Spike, Rose; and I shall be honest enough to own
+      it would be a fortune to me. I say this frankly, for I do believe you
+      think too well of me to suppose that I seek you for any other reason than
+      the ardent love I bear your person and character; but a fact is not to be
+      denied because it may lead certain persons to distrust our motives. Spike
+      is poor, like myself; and the brig is not only getting to be very old, but
+      she has been losing money for the last twelve months.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford and Rose now conversed long and confidentially, on their situation
+      and prospects. The mate neither magnified nor concealed the dangers of
+      both; but freely pointed out the risk to himself, in being on board a
+      vessel that was aiding and comforting the enemy. It was determined between
+      there that both would quit the brig the moment an opportunity offered; and
+      the mate even went so far as to propose an attempt to escape in one of the
+      boats, although he might incur the hazards of a double accusation, those
+      of mutiny and larceny, for making the experiment. Unfortunately, neither
+      Rose, nor her aunt, nor Biddy, nor Jack Tier had seen the barrel of
+      powder, and neither could testify as to the true character of Spike's
+      connection with the schooner. It was manifestly necessary, therefore,
+      independently of the risks that might be run by &ldquo;bearding the lion in his
+      den,&rdquo; to proceed with great intelligence and caution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This dialogue between Harry and Rose, occurred just after the turn in the
+      day, and lasted fully an hour. Each had been too much interested to
+      observe the heavens, but, as they were on the point of separating, Rose
+      pointed out to her companion the unusual and most menacing aspect of the
+      sky in the western horizon. It appeared as if a fiery heat was glowing
+      there, behind a curtain of black vapour; and what rendered it more
+      remarkable, was the circumstance that an extraordinary degree of placidity
+      prevailed in all other parts of the heavens. Mulford scarce knew what to
+      make of it; his experience not going so far as to enable him to explain
+      the novel and alarming appearance. He stepped on a gun, and gazed around
+      him for a moment. There lay the schooner, without a being visible on board
+      of her, and there stood the light-house, gloomy in its desertion and
+      solitude. The birds alone seemed to be alive and conscious of what was
+      approaching. They were all on the wing, wheeling wildly in the air, and
+      screaming discordantly, as belonged to their habits. The young man leaped
+      off the gun, gave a loud call to Spike, at the companion-way, and sprang
+      forward to call all hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One minute only was lost, when every seaman on board the Swash, from the
+      captain to Jack Tier, was on deck. Mulford met Spike at the cabin door,
+      and pointed toward the fiery column, that was booming down upon the
+      anchorage, with a velocity and direction that would now admit of no
+      misinterpretation. For one instant that sturdy old seaman stood aghast;
+      gazing at the enemy as one conscious of his impotency might have been
+      supposed to quail before an assault that he foresaw must prove
+      irresistible. Then his native spirit, and most of all the effects of
+      training, began to show themselves in him, and he became at once, not only
+      the man again, but the resolute, practised, and ready commander.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come aft to the spring, men&mdash;&rdquo; he shouted&mdash;&ldquo;clap on the spring,
+      Mr. Mulford, and bring the brig head to wind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This order was obeyed as seamen best obey, in cases of sudden and extreme
+      emergency; or with intelligence, aptitude and power. The brig had swung
+      nearly round, in the desired direction, when the tornado struck her. It
+      will be difficult, we do not know but it is impossible, to give a clear
+      and accurate account of what followed. As most of our readers have
+      doubtless felt how great is the power of the wind, whiffling and pressing
+      different ways, in sudden and passing gusts, they have only to imagine
+      this power increased many, many fold, and the baffling currents made
+      furious, as it might be, by meeting with resistance, to form some notion
+      of the appalling strength and frightful inconstancy with which it blew for
+      about a minute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding the circumstance of Spike's precaution had greatly
+      lessened the danger, every man on the deck of the Swash believed the brig
+      was gone when the gust struck her. Over she went, in fact, until the water
+      came pouring in above her half-ports, like so many little cascades, and
+      spouting up through her scupper-holes, resembling the blowing of young
+      whales. It was the whiffling energy of the tornado that alone saved her.
+      As if disappointed in not destroying its intended victim at one swoop, the
+      tornado &ldquo;let up&rdquo; in its pressure, like a dexterous wrestler, making a
+      fresh and desperate effort to overturn the vessel, by a slight variation
+      in its course. That change saved the Swash. She righted, and even rolled
+      in the other direction, or what might be called to windward, with her
+      decks full of water. For a minute longer these baffling, changing gusts
+      continued, each causing the brig to bow like a reed to their power, one
+      lifting as another pressed her down, and then the weight, or the more
+      dangerous part of the tornado was passed, though it continued to blow
+      heavily, always in whiffling blasts, several minutes longer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the weight of the gust, no one had leisure, or indeed inclination
+      to look to aught beyond its effect on the brig. Had one been otherwise
+      disposed, the attempt would have been useless, for the wind had filled the
+      air with spray, and near the islets even with sand. The lurid but fiery
+      tinge, too, interposed a veil that no human eye could penetrate. As the
+      tornado passed onward, however, and the winds lulled, the air again became
+      clear, and in five minutes after the moment when the Swash lay nearly on
+      her side, with her lower yard-arm actually within a few feet of the water,
+      all was still and placid around her, as one is accustomed to see the ocean
+      in a calm, of a summer's afternoon. Then it was that those who had been in
+      such extreme jeopardy could breathe freely and look about them. On board
+      the Swash all was well&mdash;not a rope-yarn had parted, or an eyebolt
+      drawn. The timely precautions of Spike had saved his brig, and great was
+      his joy thereat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the midst of the infernal din of the tornado, screams had ascended from
+      the cabin, and the instant he could quit the deck with propriety, Mulford
+      sprang below, in order to ascertain their cause. He apprehended that some
+      of the females had been driven to leeward when the brig went over, and
+      that part of the luggage or furniture had fallen on them. In the main
+      cabin, the mate found Se¤or Montefalderon just quitting his berth,
+      composed, gentleman-like, and collected. Josh was braced in a corner
+      nearly grey with fear, while Jack Tier still lay on the cabin floor, at
+      the last point to which he had rolled. One word sufficed to let Don Juan
+      know that the gust had passed, and the brig was safe, when Mulford tapped
+      at the deor of the inner cabin. Rose appeared, pale, but calm and unhurt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is any one injured?&rdquo; asked the young man, his mind relieved at once, as
+      soon as he saw that she who most occupied his thoughts was safe; &ldquo;we heard
+      screams from this cabin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My aunt and Biddy have been frightened,&rdquo; answered Rose, &ldquo;but neither has
+      been hurt. Oh, Harry, what terrible thing has happened to us? I heard the
+      roaring of&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo; 'T was a tornado,&rdquo; interrupted Mulford eagerly, &ldquo;but 't is over. 'T was
+      one of those sudden and tremendous gusts that sometimes occur within the
+      tropics, in which the danger is usually in the first shock. If no one is
+      injured in this cabin, no one is injured at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Mr. Mulford&mdash;dear Mr. Mulford!&rdquo; exclaimed the relict, from the
+      corner into which she had been followed and jammed by Biddy, &ldquo;Oh, Mr.
+      Mulford, are we foundered or not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heaven be praised, not, my dear ma'am, though we came nearer to it than I
+      ever was before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we cap-asided?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor that, Mrs. Budd; the brig is as upright as a church.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Upright!&rdquo; repeated Biddy, in her customary accent,&mdash;&ldquo;is it as a
+      church? Sure, then, Mr. Mate, 't is a Presbyterian church that you mane,
+      and that is always totterin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Catholic, or Dutch&mdash;no church in York is more completely up and down
+      than the brig at this moment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get off of me&mdash;get off of me, Biddy, and let me rise,&rdquo; said the
+      widow, with dignity. &ldquo;The danger is over I see, and, as we return our
+      thanks for it, we have the consolation of knowing that we have done our
+      duty. It is incumbent on all, at such moments, to be at their posts, and
+      to set examples of decision and prudence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Mulford saw all was well in the cabin, he hastened on deck, followed by
+      Se¤or Montefalderon. Just as they emerged from the companion-way, Spike
+      was hailing the forecastle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forecastle, there,&rdquo; he cried, standing on the trunk himself as he did so,
+      and moving from side to side, as if to catch a glimpse of some object
+      ahead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; came back from an old salt, who was coiling up rigging in that seat
+      of seamanship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where-away is the schooner? She ought to be dead ahead of us, as we tend
+      now&mdash;but blast me if I can see as much as her mast-heads.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this suggestion, a dozen men sprang upon guns or other objects, to look
+      for the vessel in question. The old salt forward, however, had much the
+      best chance, for he stepped on the heel of the bowsprit, and walked as far
+      out as the knight-heads, to command the whole view ahead of the brig.
+      There he stood half a minute, looking first on one side of the head-gear,
+      then the other, when he gave his trousers a hitch, put a fresh quid in his
+      mouth, and called out in a voice almost as hoarse as the tempest, that had
+      just gone by,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The schooner has gone down at her anchor, sir. There's her buoy watching
+      still, as if nothing had happened; but as for the craft itself, there's
+      not so much as a bloody yard-arm, or mast-head of her to be seen!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This news produced a sensation in the brig at once, as may be supposed.
+      Even Se¤or Montefalderon, a quiet, gentleman-like person, altogether
+      superior in deportment to the bustle and fuss that usually marks the
+      manners of persons in trade, was disturbed; for to him the blow was heavy
+      indeed. Whether he were acting for himself, or was an agent of the Mexican
+      government, the loss was much the same.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tom is right enough,&rdquo; put in Spike, rather coolly for the circumstances&mdash;&ldquo;that
+      there schooner of yourn has foundered, Don Wan, as any one can see. She
+      must have cap-sized and filled, for I obsarved they had left the hatches
+      off, meaning, no doubt, to make an end of the storage as soon as they had
+      done sleeping.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what has become of all her men, Don Esteban?&rdquo; for so the Mexican
+      politely called his companion. &ldquo;Have all my poor countrymen perished in
+      this disaster?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fear they have, Don Wan; for I see no head, as of any one swimming. The
+      vessel lay so near that island next to it, that a poor swimmer would have
+      no difficulty in reaching the place; but there is no living thing to be
+      seen. But man the boat, men; we will go to the spot, Se¤or, and examine
+      for ourselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There were two boats in the water, and along-side of the brig. One was the
+      Swash's yawl, a small but convenient craft, while the other was much
+      larger, fitted with a sail, and had all the appearance of having been
+      built to withstand breezes and seas. Mulford felt perfectly satisfied, the
+      moment he saw this boat, which had come into the haven in tow of the
+      schooner, that it had been originally in the service of the light-house
+      keeper. As there was a very general desire among those on the quarter-deck
+      to go to the assistance of the schooner, Spike ordered both boats manned,
+      jumping into the yawl himself, accompanied by Don Juan Montefalderon, and
+      telling Mulford to follow with the larger craft, bringing with him as many
+      of the females as might choose to accompany him. As Mrs. Budd thought it
+      incumbent on her to be active in such a scene, all did go, including
+      Biddy, though with great reluctance on the part of Rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the buoy for a guide, Spike had no difficulty in finding the spot
+      where the schooner lay. She had scarcely shifted her berth in the least,
+      there having been no time for her even to swing to the gust, but she had
+      probably cap-sized at the first blast, filled, and gone down instantly.
+      The water was nearly as clear as the calm, mild atmosphere of the tropics;
+      and it was almost as easy to discern the vessel, and all her hamper, as if
+      she lay on a beach. She had sunk as she filled, or on her side, and still
+      continued in that position. As the water was little more than three
+      fathoms deep, the upper side was submerged but a few inches, and her
+      yard-arms would have been out of the water, but for the circumstance that
+      the yards had canted under the pressure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first, no sign was seen of any of those who had been on board this
+      ill-fated schooner when she went down. It was known that twenty-one souls
+      were in her, including the man and the boy who had belonged to the
+      light-house. As the boat moved slowly over this sad ruin, however, a
+      horrible and startling spectacle came in view. Two bodies were seen,
+      within a few feet of the surface of the water, one grasped in the arms of
+      the other, in the gripe of despair. The man held in the grasp, was kept
+      beneath the water solely by the death-lock of his companion, who was
+      himself held where he floated, by the circumstance that one of his feet
+      was entangled in a rope. The struggle could not have been long over, for
+      the two bodies were slowly settling toward the bottom when first seen. It
+      is probable that both these men had more than once risen to the surface in
+      their dreadful struggle. Spike seized a boat-hook, and made an effort to
+      catch the clothes of the nearest body, but ineffectually, both sinking to
+      the sands beneath, lifeless, and without motion. There being no sharks in
+      sight, Mulford volunteered to dive and fasten a line to one of these
+      unfortunate men, whom Don Juan declared at once was the schooner's
+      captain. Some little time was lost in procuring a lead-line from the brig,
+      when the lead was dropped alongside of the drowned. Provided with another
+      piece of the same sort of line, which had a small running bowline around
+      that which was fastened to the lead, the mate made his plunge, and went
+      down with great vigour of arm. It required resolution and steadiness to
+      descend so far into salt water; but Harry succeeded, and rose with the
+      bodies, which came up with the slightest impulse. All were immediately got
+      into the boat, and away the latter went toward the light-house, which was
+      nearer and more easy of access than the brig.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is probable that one of these unfortunate men might have been revived
+      under judicious treatment; but he was not fated to receive it. Spike, who
+      knew nothing of such matters, undertook to direct everything, and, instead
+      of having recourse to warmth and gentle treatment, he ordered the bodies
+      to be rolled on a cask, suspended them by the heels, and resorted to a
+      sort of practice that might have destroyed well men, instead of
+      resuscitating those in whom the vital spark was dormant, if not actually
+      extinct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two hours later, Rose, seated in her own cabin, unavoidably overheard the
+      following dialogue, which passed in English, a language that Se¤or
+      Montefalderon spoke perfectly well, as has been said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Se¤or,&rdquo; said Spike, &ldquo;I hope this little accident will not prevent
+      our final trade. You will want the brig now, to take the schooner's
+      place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how am I to pay you for the brig, Se¤or Spike, even if I buy her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll ventur' to guess there is plenty of money in Mexico. Though they do
+      say the government is so backward about paying, I have always found you
+      punctual, and am not afraid to put faith in you ag'in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I have no longer any money to pay you half in hand, as I did for the
+      powder, when last in New York.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The bag was pretty well lined with doubloons when I saw it last, Se¤or.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And do you know where that bag is; and where there is another that holds
+      the same sum?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike started, and he mused in silence some little time, ere he again
+      spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had forgotten,&rdquo; he at length answered. &ldquo;The gold must have all gone
+      down in the schooner, along with the powder!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the poor men!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, as for the men, Se¤or, more may be had for the asking; but powder
+      and doubloons will be hard to find, when most wanted. Then the men were
+      poor men, accordin' to my idees of what an able seaman should be, or they
+      never would have let their schooner turn turtle with them as she did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will talk of the money, Don Esteban, if you please,&rdquo; said the Mexican,
+      with reserve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With all my heart, Don Wan&mdash;nothing is more agreeable to me than
+      money. How many of them doubloons shall fall to my share, if I raise the
+      schooner and put you in possession of your craft again?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can that be done, Se¤or?&rdquo; demanded Don Juan earnestly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A seaman can do almost anything, in that way, Don Wan, if you will give
+      him time and means. For one-half the doubloons I can find in the wrack,
+      the job shall be done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can have them,&rdquo; answered Don Juan, quietly, a good deal surprised
+      that Spike should deem it necessary to offer him any part of the sum he
+      might find. &ldquo;As for the powder, I suppose that is lost to my country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all, Don Wan. The flour is well packed around it, and I don't
+      expect it would take any harm in a month. I shall not only turn over the
+      flour to you, just as if nothing had happened, but I shall put four
+      first-rate hands aboard your schooner, who will take her into port for
+      you, with a good deal more sartainty than forty of the men you had. My
+      mate is a prime navigator.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This concluded the bargain, every word of which was heard by Rose, and
+      every word of which she did not fail to communicate to Mulford, the moment
+      there was an opportunity. The young man heard it with great interest,
+      telling Rose that he should do all he could to assist in raising the
+      schooner, in the hope that something might turn up to enable him to escape
+      in her, taking off Rose and her aunt. As for his carrying her into a
+      Mexican port, let them trust him for that! Agreeably to the arrangement,
+      orders were given that afternoon to commence the necessary preparations
+      for the work, and considerable progress was made in them by the time the
+      Swash's people were ordered to knock off work for the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the sun had set, the reaction in the currents again commenced, and
+      it blew for a few hours heavily, during the night. Toward morning,
+      however, it moderated, and when the sun re-appeared it scarcely ever
+      diffused its rays over a more peaceful or quiet day. Spike caused all
+      hands to be called, and immediately set about the important business he
+      had before him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In order that the vessel might be as free as possible, Jack Tier was
+      directed to skull the females ashore, in the brig's yawl; Se¤or
+      Montefalderon, a man of polished manners, as we maintain is very apt to be
+      the case with Mexican gentlemen, whatever may be the opinion of this good
+      republic on the subject just at this moment, asked permission to be of the
+      party. Mulford found an opportunity to beg Rose, if they landed at the
+      light, to reconnoitre the place well, with a view to ascertain what
+      facilities it could afford in an attempt to escape. They did land at the
+      light, and glad enough were Mrs. Budd, Rose and Biddy to place their feet
+      on terra  firma after so long a confinement to the narrow limits of a
+      vessel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Jack Tier, as they walked up to the spot where the buildings
+      stood, &ldquo;this is a rum place for a light'us, Miss Rose, and I don't wonder
+      the keeper and his mess-mates has cleared out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am very sorry to say,&rdquo; observed Se¤or Montefalderon, whose countenance
+      expressed the concern he really felt, &ldquo;that the keeper and his only
+      companion, a boy, were on board the schooner, and have perished in her, in
+      common with so many of my poor countrymen. There are the graves of two
+      whom we buried here last evening, after vain efforts to restore them to
+      life!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a dreadful catastrophe it has been, Se¤or,&rdquo; said Rose, whose sweet
+      countenance eloquently expressed the horror and regret she so naturally
+      felt&mdash;&ldquo;Twenty fellow-beings hurried into eternity without even an
+      instant for prayer!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You feel for them, Se¤orita&mdash;it is natural you should, and it is
+      natural that I, their countryman and leader, should feel for them, also. I
+      do not know what God has in reserve for my unfortunate country! We may
+      have cruel and unscrupulous men among us, Se¤orita, but we have thousands
+      who are just, and brave, and honourable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So Mr. Mulford tells me, Se¤or; and he has been much in your ports, on
+      the west coast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I like that young man, and wonder not a little at his and your situation
+      in this brig&mdash;&rdquo; rejoined the Mexican, dropping his voice so as not to
+      be heard by their companions, as they walked a little ahead of Mrs. Budd
+      and Biddy. &ldquo;The Se¤or Spike is scarcely worthy to be his commander or your
+      guardian.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet you find him worthy of your intercourse and trust, Don Juan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Mexican shrugged his shoulders, and smiled equivocally; still, in a
+      melancholy manner. It would seem he did not deem it wise to push this
+      branch of the subject further, since he turned to another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I like the Se¤or Mulford,&rdquo; he resumed, &ldquo;for his general deportment and
+      principles, so far as I can judge of him on so short an acquaintance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Excuse me, Se¤or,&rdquo; interrupted Rose, hurriedly&mdash;&ldquo;but you never saw
+      him until you met him here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never&mdash;I understand you, Se¤orita, and can do full justice to the
+      young man's character. I am willing to think he did not know the errand of
+      his vessel, or I should not have seen him now. But what I most like him
+      for, is this: Last night, during the gale, he and I walked the deck
+      together, for an hour. We talked of Mexico, and of this war, so
+      unfortunate for my country already, and which may become still more so,
+      when he uttered this noble sentiment&mdash;'My country is more powerful
+      than yours, Se¤or Montefalderon,' he said, 'and in this it has been more
+      favoured by God. You have suffered from ambitious rulers, and from
+      military rule, while we have been advancing under the arts of peace,
+      favoured by a most beneficent Providence. As for this war, I know but
+      little about it, though I dare say the Mexican government may have been
+      wrong in some things that it might have controlled and some that it might
+      not&mdash;but let right be where it will, I am sorry to see a nation that
+      has taken so firm a stand in favour of popular government, pressed upon so
+      hard by another that is supposed to be the great support of such
+      principles. America and Mexico are neighbours, and ought to be friends;
+      and while I do not, cannot blame my own country for pursuing the war with
+      vigour, nothing would please me more than to hear peace proclaimed.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is just like Harry Mulford,&rdquo; said Rose, thoughtfully, as soon as her
+      companion ceased to speak. &ldquo;I do wish, Se¤or, that there could be no use
+      for this powder, that is now buried in the sea.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Don Juan Montefalderon smiled, and seemed a little surprised that the fair
+      young thing at his side should have known of the treacherous contents of
+      the flour-barrels. No doubt he found it inexplicable, that persons like
+      Rose and Mulford should, seemingly, be united with one like Spike; but he
+      was too well bred, and, indeed, too effectually mystified, to push the
+      subject further than might be discreet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time they were near the entrance of the lighthouse, into which the
+      whole party entered, in a sort of mute awe at its silence and solitude. At
+      Se¤or Montefalderon's invitation, they ascended to the lantern, whence
+      they could command a wide and fair view of the surrounding waters. The
+      reef was much more apparent from that elevation than from below; and Rose
+      could see that numbers of its rocks were bare, while on other parts of it
+      there was the appearance of many feet of water. Rose gazed at it with
+      longing eyes, for, from a few remarks that had fallen from Mulford, she
+      suspected he had hopes of escaping among its channels and coral.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they descended and walked through the buildings, Rose also took good
+      heed of the supplies the place afforded. There were flour, and beef, and
+      pork, and many other of the common articles of food, as well as water in a
+      cistern, that caught it as it flowed from the roof of the dwelling. Water
+      was also to be found in casks&mdash;nothing like a spring or a well
+      existing among those islets. All these things Rose noted, putting them
+      aside in her memory for ready reference hereafter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time the mariners were not idle. Spike moved his brig, and
+      moored her, head and stern, alongside of the wreck, before the people got
+      their breakfasts. As soon as that meal was ended, both captain and mate
+      set about their duty in earnest. Mulford carried out an anchor on the
+      off-side of the Swash, and dropped it at a distance of about eighty
+      fathoms from the vessel's beam. Purchases were brought from both
+      mast-heads of the brig to the chain of this anchor, and were hove upon
+      until the vessel was given a heel of more than a streak, and the cable was
+      tolerably taut. Other purchases were got up opposite, and overhauled down,
+      in readiness to take hold of the schooner's masts. The anchor of the
+      schooner was weighed by its buoy-rope, and the chain, after being rove
+      through the upper or opposite hawse-hole, brought in on board the Swash.
+      Another chain was dropped astern, in such a way, that when the schooner
+      came upright, it would be sure to pass beneath her keel, some six or eight
+      feet from the rudder. Slings were then sunk over the mast-heads, and the
+      purchases were hooked on. Hours were consumed in these preliminary
+      labours, and the people went to dinner as soon as they were completed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the men had dined, Spike brought one of his purchases to the
+      windlass, and the other to the capstan, though not until each was bowsed
+      taut by hand; a few minutes having brought the strain so far on
+      everything, as to enable a seaman, like Spike, to form some judgment of
+      the likelihood that his preventers and purchases would stand. Some changes
+      were found necessary to equalize the strain, but, on the whole, the
+      captain was satisfied with his work, and the crew were soon ordered to
+      &ldquo;heave-away; the windlass best.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the course of half an hour the hull of the vessel, which lay on its
+      bilge, began to turn on its keel, and the heads of the spars to rise above
+      the water. This was the easiest part of the process, all that was required
+      of the purchases being to turn over a mass which rested on the sands of
+      the bay. Aided by the long levers afforded by the spars, the work advanced
+      so rapidly, that, in just one hour's time after his people had begun to
+      heave, Spike had the pleasure to see the schooner standing upright,
+      alongside of his own brig, though still sunk to the bottom. The wreck was
+      secured in this position, by means of guys and preventers, in order that
+      it might not again cant, when the order was issued to hook on the slings
+      that were to raise it to the surface. These slings were the chains of the
+      schooner, one of which went under her keel, while for the other the
+      captain trusted to the strength of the two hawse-holes, having passed the
+      cable out of one and in at the other, in a way to serve his purposes, as
+      has just been stated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When all was ready, Spike mustered his crew, and made a speech. He told
+      the men that he was about a job that was out of the usual line of their
+      duty, and that he knew they had a right to expect extra pay for such extra
+      work. The schooner contained money, and his object was to get at it. If he
+      succeeded, their reward would be a doubloon a man, which would be earning
+      more than a month's wages by twenty-four hours' work. This was enough. The
+      men wanted to hear no more; but they cheered their commander, and set
+      about their task in the happiest disposition possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader will understand that the object to be first achieved, was to
+      raise a vessel, with a hold filled with flour and gunpowder, from off the
+      bottom of the bay to its surface. As she stood, the deck of this vessel
+      was about six feet under water, and every one will understand that her
+      weight, so long as it was submerged in a fluid as dense as that of the
+      sea, would be much more manageable than if suspended in air. The barrels,
+      for instance, were not much heavier than the water they displaced, and the
+      wood work of the vessel itself, was, on the whole, positively lighter than
+      the element in which it had sunk. As for the water in the hold, that was
+      of the same weight as the water on the outside of the craft, and there had
+      not been much to carry the schooner down, beside her iron, the spars that
+      were out of water, and her ballast. This last, some ten or twelve tons in
+      weight, was in fact the principal difficulty, and alone induced Spike to
+      have any doubts about his eventual success. There was no foreseeing the
+      result until he had made a trial, however; and the order was again given
+      to &ldquo;heave away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To the infinite satisfaction of the Swash's crew, the weight was found
+      quite manageable, so long as the hull remained beneath the water. Mulford,
+      with three or four assistants, was kept on board the schooner lightening
+      her, by getting the other anchor off her bows, and throwing the different
+      objects overboard, or on the decks of the brig. By the time the bulwarks
+      reached the surface, as much was gained in this way, as was lost by having
+      so much of the lighter woodwork rise above the water. As a matter of
+      course, however, the weight increased as the vessel rose, and more
+      especially as the lower portion of the spars, the bowsprit, boom, &amp;c.,
+      from being buoyant assistants, became so much dead weight to be lifted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike kept a watchful eye on his spars, and the extra supports he had
+      given them. He was moving, the whole time, from point to point, feeling
+      shrouds and back-stays, and preventers, in order to ascertain the degree
+      of strain on each, or examining how the purchases stood. As for the crew,
+      they cheered at their toil, incessantly, passing from capstan bars to the
+      handspikes, and vice versa. They, too, felt that their task was increasing
+      in resistance as it advanced, and now found it more difficult to gain an
+      inch, than it had been at first to gain a foot. They seemed, indeed, to be
+      heaving their own vessel out, instead of heaving the other craft up, and
+      it was not long before they had the Swash heeling over toward the wreck
+      several streaks. The strain, moreover, on everything, became not only
+      severe, but somewhat menacing. Every shroud, back-stay, and preventer was
+      as taut as a bar of iron, and the chain-cable that led to the anchor
+      planted off abeam, was as straight as if the brig were riding by it in a
+      gale of wind. One or two ominous surges aloft, too, had been heard, and,
+      though no more than straps and slings settling into their places under
+      hard strains, they served to remind the crew that danger might come from
+      that quarter. Such was the state of things, when Spike called out to
+      &ldquo;heave and pall,&rdquo; that he might take a look at the condition of the wreck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although a great deal remained to be done, in order to get the schooner to
+      float, a great deal had already been done. Her precise condition was as
+      follows: Having no cabin windows, the water had entered her, when she
+      capsized, by the only four apertures her construction possessed. These
+      were the companion-way, or cabin-doors; the sky-light; the main-hatch, or
+      the large inlet amid-ships, by which cargo went up and down; and the
+      booby-hatch, which was the counterpart of the companion-way, forward;
+      being intended to admit of ingress to the forecastle, the apartment of the
+      crew. Each of these hatch-ways, or orifices, had the usual defences of
+      &ldquo;coamings,&rdquo; strong frame-work around their margins. These coamings rose
+      six or eight inches above the deck, and answered the double purpose of
+      strengthening the vessel, in a part, that without them would be weaker han
+      common, and of preventing any water that might be washing about the decks
+      from running below. As soon, therefore, as these three apertures, or their
+      coamings, could be raised above the level of the water of the basin, all
+      danger of the vessel's receiving any further tribute of that sort from the
+      ocean would be over. It was to this end, consequently, that Spike's
+      efforts had been latterly directed, though they had only in part
+      succeeded. The schooner possessed a good deal of sheer, as it is termed;
+      or, her two extremities rose nearly a foot above her centre, when on an
+      even keel. This had brought her extremities first to the surface, and it
+      was the additional weight which had consequently been brought into the air
+      that had so much increased the strain, and induced Spike to pause. The
+      deck forward, as far aft as the foremast, and aft as far forward as the
+      centre of the trunk, or to the sky-light, was above the water, or at least
+      awash; while all the rest of it was covered. In the vicinity of the
+      main-hatch there were several inches of water; enough indeed to leave the
+      upper edge of the coamings submerged by about an inch. To raise the keel
+      that inch by means of the purchases, Spike well knew would cost him more
+      labour, and would incur more risk than all that had been done previously,
+      and he paused before he would attempt it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The men were now called from the brig and ordered to come on board the
+      schooner. Spike ascertained by actual measurement how much was wanted to
+      bring the coamings of the main-hatch above the water, until which, he
+      knew, pumping and bailing would be useless. He found it was quite an inch,
+      and was at a great loss to know how that inch should be obtained. Mulford
+      advised another trial with the handspikes and bars, but to this Spike
+      would not consent. He believed that the masts of the brig had already as
+      much pressure on them as they would bear. The mate next proposed getting
+      the main boom off the vessel, and to lighten the craft by cutting away her
+      bowsprit and masts. The captain was well enough disposed to do this, but
+      he doubted whether it would meet with the approbation of &ldquo;Don Wan,&rdquo; who
+      was still ashore with Rose and her aunt, and who probably looked forward
+      to recovering his gunpowder by means of those very spars. At length the
+      carpenter hit upon a plan that was adopted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This plan was very simple, though it had its own ingenuity. It will be
+      remembered that water could now only enter the vessel's hold at the
+      main-hatch, all the other hatchways having their coamings above the
+      element. The carpenter proposed, therefore, that the main-hatches, which
+      had been off when the tornado occurred, but which had been found on deck
+      when the vessel righted, should now be put on, oakum being first laid
+      along in their rabbetings, and that the cracks should be stuffed with
+      additional oakum, to exclude as much water as possible. He thought that
+      two or three men, by using caulking irons for ten minutes, would make the
+      hatch-way so tight that very little water would penetrate. While this was
+      doing, he himself would bore as many holes forward and aft as he could,
+      with a two inch auger, out of which the water then in the vessel would be
+      certain to run. Spike was delighted with this project, and gave the
+      necessary orders on the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This much must be said of the crew of the Molly Swash&mdash;whatever they
+      did in their own profession, they did intelligently and well. On the
+      present occasion they maintained their claim to this character, and were
+      both active and expert. The hatches were soon on, and, in an imperfect
+      manner, caulked. While this was doing, the carpenter got into a boat, and
+      going under the schooner's bows, where a whole plank was out of water, he
+      chose a spot between two of the timbers, and bored a hole as near the
+      surface of the water as he dared to do. Not satisfied with one hole,
+      however, he bored many&mdash;choosing both sides of the vessel to make
+      them, and putting some aft as well as forward. In a word, in the course of
+      twenty minutes the schooner was tapped in at least a dozen places, and
+      jets of water, two inches in diameter, were spouting from her on each bow,
+      and under each quarter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike and Mulford noted the effect. Some water, doubtless, still worked
+      itself into the vessel about the main-hatch, but that more flowed from her
+      by means of the outlets just named, was quite apparent. After close
+      watching at the outlets for some time, Spike was convinced that the
+      schooner was slowly rising, the intense strain that still came from the
+      brig producing that effect as the vessel gradually became lighter. By the
+      end of half an hour, there could be no longer any doubt, the holes, which
+      had been bored within an inch of the water, being now fully two inches
+      above it. The auger was applied anew, still nearer to the surface of the
+      sea, and as fresh outlets were made, those that began to manifest a
+      dulness in their streams were carefully plugged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike now thought it was time to take a look at the state of things on
+      deck. Here, to his joy, he ascertained that the coamings had actually
+      risen a little above the water. The reader is not to suppose by this
+      rising of the vessel, that she had become sufficiently buoyant, in
+      consequence of the water that had run out of her, to float of herself.
+      This was far from being the case; but the constant upward pressure from
+      the brig, which, on mechanical principles, tended constantly to bring that
+      craft upright, had the effect to lift the schooner as the latter was
+      gradually relieved from the weight that pressed her toward the bottom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hatches were next removed, when it was found that the water in the
+      schooner's hold had so far lowered, as to leave a vacant space of quite a
+      foot between the lowest part of the deck and its surface. Toward the two
+      extremities of the vessel this space necessarily was much increased, in
+      consequence of the sheer. Men were now sent into the hatchway with orders
+      to hook on to the flour-barrels&mdash;a whip having been rigged in
+      readiness to hoist them on deck. At the same time gangs were sent to the
+      pumps, though Spike still depended for getting rid of the water somewhat
+      on the auger&mdash;the carpenter continuing to bore and plug his holes as
+      new opportunities offered, and the old outlets became useless. It was true
+      this expedient would soon cease, for the water having found its level in
+      the vessel's hold, was very nearly on a level also with that on the
+      outside. Bailing also was commenced, both forward and aft.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike's next material advantage was obtained by means of the cargo. By the
+      time the sun had set, fully two hundred barrels had been rolled into the
+      hatchway, and passed on deck, whence about half of them were sent in the
+      lighthouse boat to the nearest islet, and the remainder were transferred
+      to the deck of the brig. These last were placed on the off side of the
+      Swash, and aided in bringing her nearer upright. A great deal was gained
+      in getting rid of these barrels. The water in the schooner lowered just as
+      much as the space they had occupied,-and the vessel was relieved at once
+      of twenty tons in weight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just after the sun had set, Se¤or Don Juan Montefalderon and his party
+      returned on board. They had staid on the island to the last moment, at
+      Rose's request, for she had taken as close an observation of everything as
+      possible, in order to ascertain if any means of concealment existed, in
+      the event of her aunt, Biddy, and herself quitting the brig. The islets
+      were all too naked and too small, however; and she was compelled to return
+      to the Swash, without any hopes derived from this quarter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike had just directed the people to get their suppers as the Mexican
+      came on board. Together they descended to the schooner's deck, where they
+      had a long but secret conference. Se¤or Montefalderon was a calm, quiet
+      and reasonable man, and while he felt as one would be apt to feel who had
+      recently seen so many associates swept suddenly out of existence, the late
+      catastrophe did not in the least unman him. It is too much the habit of
+      the American people to receive their impressions from newspapers, which
+      throw off their articles unreflectingly, and often ignorantly, as crones
+      in petticoats utter their gossip. In a word, the opinions thus obtained
+      are very much on a level, in value, with the thoughts of those who are
+      said to think aloud, and who give utterance to all the crudities and
+      trivial rumours that may happen to reach their ears. In this manner, we
+      apprehend, very false notions of our neighbours of Mexico have become
+      circulated among us. That nation is a mixed race, and has necessarily the
+      various characteristics of such an origin, and it is unfortunately little
+      influenced by the diffusion of intelligence which certainly exists here.
+      Although an enemy, it ought to be acknowledged, however, that even Mexico
+      has her redeeming points. Anglo-Saxons as we are, we have no desire
+      unnecessarily to illustrate that very marked feature in the Anglo-Saxon
+      character, which prompts the mother stock to calumniate all who oppose it,
+      but would rather adopt some of that chivalrous courtesy of which so much
+      that is lofty and commendable is to be found among the descendants of Old
+      Spain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Se¤or Montefalderon was earnestly engaged in what he conceived to be
+      the cause of his country. It was scarcely possible to bring together two
+      men impelled by motives more distinct than Spike and this gentleman. The
+      first was acting under impulses of the lowest and most grovelling nature;
+      while the last was influenced by motives of the highest. However much
+      Mexico may, and has, weakened her cause by her own punic faith,
+      instability, military oppression, and political revolutions, giving to the
+      Texans in particular ample justification for their revolt, it was not
+      probable that Don Juan Montefalderon saw the force of all the arguments
+      that a casuist of ordinary ingenuity could certainly adduce against his
+      country; for it is a most unusual thing to find a man anywhere, who is
+      willing to admit that the positions of an opponent are good. He saw in the
+      events of the day, a province wrested from his nation; and, in his
+      reasoning on the subject, entirely overlooking the numerous occasions on
+      which his own fluctuating government had given sufficient justification,
+      not to say motives, to their powerful neighbours to take the law into
+      their own hands, and redress themselves, he fancied all that has occurred
+      was previously planned; instead of regarding it, as it truly is, as merely
+      the result of political events that no man could have foreseen, that no
+      man had originally imagined, or that any man could control.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Don Juan understood Spike completely, and quite justly appreciated not
+      only his character, but his capabilities. Their acquaintance was not of a
+      day, though it had ever been marked by that singular combination of
+      caution and reliance that is apt to characterize the intercourse between
+      the knave and the honest man, when circumstances compel not only
+      communication, but, to a certain extent, confidence. They now paced the
+      deck of the schooner, side by side, for fully an hour, during which time
+      the price of the vessel, the means, and the mode of payment and transfer,
+      were fully settled between them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what will you do with your passengers, Don Esteban?&rdquo; asked the
+      Mexican pleasantly, when the more material points were adjusted. &ldquo;I feel a
+      great interest in the young lady in particular, who is a charming
+      se¤orita, and who tells me that her aunt brought her this voyage on
+      account of her health. She looks much too blooming to be out of health,
+      and if she were, this is a singular voyage for an invalid to make!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't understand human natur' yet, altogether, I see, Don Wan,&rdquo;
+       answered Spike, chuckling and winking. &ldquo;As you and I are not only good
+      friends, but what a body may call old friends, I'll let you into a secret
+      in this affair, well knowing that you'll not betray it. It's quite true
+      that the old woman thinks her niece is a pulmonary, as they call it, and
+      that this v'y'ge is recommended for her, but the gal is as healthy as
+      she's handsom'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her constitution, then, must be very excellent, for it is seldom I have
+      seen so charming a young woman. But if the aunt is misled in this matter,
+      how has it been with the niece?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike did not answer in words, but he leered upon his companion, and he
+      winked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean to be understood that you are in intelligence with each other, I
+      suppose, Don Esteban,&rdquo; returned the Se¤or Montefalderon, who did not like
+      the captain's manner, and was willing to drop the discourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike then informed his companion, in confidence, that he and Rose were
+      affianced, though without the aunt's knowledge,&mdash;that he intended to
+      marry the niece the moment he reached a Mexican port with the brig, and
+      that it was their joint intention to settle in the country. He added that
+      the affair required management, as his intended had property, and expected
+      more, and he begged Don Juan to aid him, as things drew near to a crisis.
+      The Mexican evaded an answer, and the discourse dropped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon was now shining, and would continue to throw its pale light over
+      the scene for two or three hours longer. Spike profited by the
+      circumstance to continue the work of lightening the schooner. One of the
+      first things done next was to get up the dead, and to remove them to the
+      boat. This melancholy office occupied an hour, the bodies being landed on
+      the islet, near the powder, and there interred in the sands. Don Juan
+      Montefalderon attended on this occasion, and repeated some prayers over
+      the graves, as he had done in the morning, in the cases of the two who had
+      been buried near the light-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While this melancholy duty was in the course of performance, that of
+      pumping and bailing was continued, under the immediate personal
+      superintendence of Mulford. It would not be easy to define, with perfect
+      clearness, the conflicting feelings by which the mate of the Swash was now
+      impelled. He had no longer any doubt on the subject of Spike's treason,
+      and had it not been for Rose, he would not have hesitated a moment about
+      making off in the light-house boat for Key West, in order to report all
+      that had passed to the authorities. But not only Rose was there, and to be
+      cared for, but what was far more difficult to get along with, her aunt was
+      with her. It is true, Mrs. Budd was no longer Spike's dupe; but under any
+      circumstances she was a difficult subject to manage, and most especially
+      so in all matters that related to the sea. Then the young man submitted,
+      more or less, to the strange influence which a fine craft almost
+      invariably obtains over those that belong to her. He did not like the idea
+      of deserting the Swash, at the very moment he would not have hesitated
+      about punishing her owner for his many misdeeds. In a word, Harry was too
+      much of a tar not to feel a deep reluctance to turn against his cruise, or
+      his voyage, however much either might be condemned by his judgment, or
+      even by his principles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was quite nine o'clock when the Se¤or Montefalderon and Spike returned
+      from burying the dead. No sooner did the last put his foot on the deck of
+      his own vessel, than he felt the fall of one of the purchases which had
+      been employed in raising the schooner. It was so far slack as to satisfy
+      him that the latter now floated by her own buoyancy, though it might be
+      well to let all stand until morning, for the purposes of security. Thus
+      apprised of the condition of the two vessels, he gave the welcome order to
+      &ldquo;knock off for the night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  &ldquo;At the piping of all hands,
+  When the judgment signal's spread&mdash;
+  When the islands and the land,
+  And the seas give up their dead,
+  And the south and the north shall come;
+  When the sinner is dismayed,
+  And the just man is afraid,
+  Then heaven be thy aid,
+  Poor Tom.&rdquo;
+
+  Brainard.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The people had now a cessation from their toil. Of all the labour known to
+      sea-faring men, that of pumping is usually thought to be the most severe.
+      Those who work at it have to be relieved every minute, and it is only by
+      having gangs to succeed each other, that the duty can be done at all with
+      anything like steadiness. In the present instance, it is true, that the
+      people of the Swash were sustained by the love of gold, but glad enough
+      were they when Mulford called out to them to &ldquo;knock off, and turn in for
+      the night.&rdquo; It was high time this summons should be made, for not only
+      were the people excessively wearied, but the customary hours of labour
+      were so far spent, that the light of the moon had some time before begun
+      to blend with the little left by the parting sun. Glad enough were all
+      hands to quit the toil; and two minutes were scarcely elapsed ere most of
+      the crew had thrown themselves down, and were buried in deep sleep. Even
+      Spike and Mulford took the rest they needed, the cook alone being left to
+      look out for the changes in the weather. In a word, everybody but this
+      idler was exhausted with pumping and bailing, and even gold had lost its
+      power to charm, until nature was recruited by rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The excitement produced by the scenes through which they had so lately
+      passed, caused the females to sleep soundly, too. The death-like stillness
+      which pervaded the vessel contributed to their rest, and Rose never woke,
+      from the first few minutes after her head was on her pillow, until near
+      four in the morning. The deep quiet seemed ominous to one who had so
+      lately witnessed the calm which precedes the tornado, and she arose. In
+      that low latitude and warm season, few clothes were necessary, and our
+      heroine was on deck in a very few minutes. Here she found the same
+      grave-like sleep pervading everything. There was not a breath of air, and
+      the ocean seemed to be in one of its profoundest slumbers. The
+      hard-breathing of Spike could be heard through the open windows of his
+      state-room, and this was positively the only sound that was audible. The
+      common men, who lay scattered about the decks, more especially from the
+      mainmast forward, seemed to be so many logs, and from Mulford no breathing
+      was heard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The morning was neither very dark nor very light, it being easy to
+      distinguish objects that were near, while those at a distance were
+      necessarily lost in obscurity. Availing herself of the circumstance, Rose
+      went as far as the gangway, to ascertain if the cook were at his post. She
+      saw him lying near his galley, in as profound a sleep as any of the crew.
+      This she felt to be wrong, and she felt alarmed, though she knew not why.
+      Perhaps it was the consciousness of being the only person up and awake at
+      that hour of deepest night, in a vessel so situated as the Swash, and in a
+      climate in which hurricanes seem to be the natural offspring of the air.
+      Some one must be aroused, and her tastes, feelings, and judgment, all
+      pointed to Harry Mulford as the person she ought to awaken. He slept
+      habitually in his clothes&mdash;the lightest summer dress of the tropics;
+      and the window of his little state-room was always open for air. Moving
+      lightly to the place, Rose laid her own little, soft hand on the arm of
+      the young man, when the latter was on his feet in an instant. A single
+      moment only was necessary to regain his consciousness, when Mulford left
+      the state-room and joined Rose on the quarter-deck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why am I called, Rose,&rdquo; the young man asked, attempering his voice to the
+      calm that reigned around him; &ldquo;and why am I called by you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose explained the state of the brig, and the feeling which induced her to
+      awaken him. With woman's gentleness she now expressed her regret for
+      having robbed Harry of his rest; had she reflected a moment, she might
+      have kept watch herself, and allowed him to obtain the sleep he must
+      surely so much require.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Mulford laughed at this; protested he had never been awakened at a
+      more favourable moment, and would have sworn, had it been proper, that a
+      minute's further sleep would have been too much for him. After these first
+      explanations, Mulford walked round the decks, carefully felt how much
+      strain there was on the purchases, and rejoined Rose to report that all
+      was right, and that he did not consider it necessary to call even the
+      cook. The black was an idler in no sense but that of keeping watch, and he
+      had toiled the past day as much as any of the men, though it was not
+      exactly at the pumps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A long and semi-confidential conversation now occurred between Harry and
+      Rose. They talked of Spike, the brig, and her cargo, and of the delusion
+      of the captain's widow. It was scarcely possible that powder should be so
+      much wanted at the Havanna as to render smuggling, at so much cost, a
+      profitable adventure; and Mulford admitted his convictions that the
+      pretended flour was originally intended for Mexico. Rose related the tenor
+      of the conversation she had overheard between the two parties, Don Juan
+      and Don Esteban, and the mate no longer doubted that it was Spike's
+      intention to sell the brig to the enemy. She also alluded to what had
+      passed between herself and the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford took this occasion to introduce the subject of Jack Tier's
+      intimacy and favour with Rose. He even professed to feel some jealousy on
+      account of it, little as there might be to alarm most men in the rivalry
+      of such a competitor. Rose laughed, as girls will laugh when there is
+      question of their power over the other sex, and she fairly shook her rich
+      tresses as she declared her determination to continue to smile on Jack to
+      the close of the voyage. Then, as if she had said more than she intended,
+      she added with woman's generosity and tenderness,&mdash;&ldquo;After all, Harry,
+      you know how much I promised to you even before we sailed, and how much
+      more since, and have no just cause to dread even Jack. There is another
+      reason, however, that ought to set your mind entirely at case on his
+      account. Jack is married, and has a partner living at this very moment, as
+      he does not scruple to avow himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A hissing noise, a bright light, and a slight explosion, interrupted the
+      half-laughing girl, and Mulford, turning on his heel, quick as thought,
+      saw that a rocket had shot into the air, from a point close under the bows
+      of the brig. He was still in the act of moving toward the forecastle,
+      when, at the distance of several leagues, he saw the explosion of another
+      rocket high in the air. He knew enough of the practices of vessels of war,
+      to feel certain that these were a signal and its answer from some one in
+      the service of government. Not at all sorry to have the career of the
+      Swash arrested, before she could pass into hostile hands, or before evil
+      could befall Rose, Mulford reached the forecastle just in time to answer
+      the inquiry that was immediately put to him, in the way of a hail. A gig,
+      pulling four oars only, with two officers in its stern-sheets, was fairly
+      under the vessel's bows, and the mate could almost distinguish the
+      countenance of the officer who questioned him, the instant he showed his
+      head and shoulders above the bulwarks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What vessels are these?&rdquo; demanded the stranger, speaking in the
+      authoritative manner of one who acted for the state, but not speaking much
+      above the usual conversational tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;American and Spanish,&rdquo; was the answer. &ldquo;This brig is American&mdash;the
+      schooner alongside is a Spaniard, that turned turtle in a tornado, about
+      six-and-thirty hours since, and on which we have been hard at work trying
+      to raise her, since the gale which succeeded the tornado has blown its
+      pipe out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, that's the story, is it? I did not know what to make of you,
+      lying cheek by jowl, in this fashion. Was anybody lost on board the
+      schooner?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All hands, including every soul aft and forward, the supercargo excepted,
+      who happened to be aboard here. We buried seventeen bodies this afternoon
+      on the smallest of the Keys that you see near at hand, and two this
+      morning alongside of the light. But what boat is that, and where are you
+      from, and whom are you signalling?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The boat is a gig,&rdquo; answered the stranger, deliberately, &ldquo;and she belongs
+      to a cruiser of Uncle Sam's, that is off the reef, a short bit to the
+      eastward, and we signalled our captain. But I'll come on board you, sir,
+      if you please.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford walked aft to meet the stranger at the gangway, and was relieved,
+      rather than otherwise, at finding that Spike was already on the
+      quarter-deck. Should the vessel of war seize the brig, he could rejoice at
+      it, but so strong were his professional ideas of duty to the craft he
+      sailed in, that he did not find it in his heart to say aught against her.
+      Were any mishap to befall it, or were justice to be done, he preferred
+      that it might be done under Spike's own supervision, rather than under
+      his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Call all hands, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo; said Spike, as they met. &ldquo;I see a streak of
+      day coming yonder in the east&mdash;let all hands be called at once. What
+      strange boat is this we have alongside?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This question was put to the strangers, Spike standing on his
+      gangway-ladder to ask it, while the mate was summoning the crew. The
+      officer saw that a new person was to be dealt with, and in his quiet, easy
+      way, he answered, while stretching out his hands to take the man-rope&mdash;&ldquo;Your
+      servant, sir&mdash;we are man-of-war's men, belonging to one of Uncle
+      Sam's craft, outside, and have just come in to pay you a visit of
+      ceremony. I told one, whom I suppose was your mate, that I would just step
+      on board of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay&mdash;one at a time, if you please. It's war-time, and I cannot
+      suffer armed boat's crews to board me at night, without knowing something
+      about them. Come up yourself, if you please, but order your people to stay
+      in the boat. Here, muster about this gangway, half a dozen of you, and
+      keep an eye on the crew of this strange boat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These orders had no effect on the cool and deliberate lieutenant, who
+      ascended the brig's side, and immediately stood on her deck. No sooner had
+      he and Spike confronted each other, than each gave a little start, like
+      that of recognition, and the lieutenant spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay&mdash;I believe I know this vessel now. It is the Molly Swash, of
+      New York, bound to Key West, and a market; and I have the honour to see
+      Captain Stephen Spike again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Mr. Wallace, the second lieutenant of the sloop-of-war that had
+      boarded the brig in the Mona Passage, and to avoid whom Spike had gone to
+      the southward of Jamaica. The meeting was very mal-â-propos, but it would
+      not do to betray that the captain and owner of the vessel thought as much
+      as this; on the contrary, Wallace was warmly welcomed, and received, not
+      only as an old acquaintance, but as a very agreeable visiter. To have seen
+      the two, as they walked aft together, one might have supposed that the
+      meeting was conducive of nothing but a very mutual satisfaction, it was so
+      much like that which happens between those who keep up a hearty
+      acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I'm glad to see you again, Captain Spike,&rdquo; cried Wallace, after the
+      greetings were passed, &ldquo;if it be only to ask where you flew to, the day we
+      left you in the Mona Passage? We looked out for you with all our eyes,
+      expecting you would be down between San Domingo and Jamaica, but I hardly
+      think you got by us in the night. Our master thinks you must have dove,
+      and gone past loon-fashion. Do you ever perform that manoeuvre?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, we've kept above water the whole time, lieutenant,&rdquo; answered Spike,
+      heartily; &ldquo;and that is more than can be said of the poor fellow alongside
+      of us. I was so much afraid of the Isle of Pines, that I went round
+      Jamaica.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You might have given the Isle of Pines a berth, and still have passed to
+      the northward of the Englishmen,&rdquo; said Wallace, a little drily. &ldquo;However,
+      that island is somewhat of a scarecrow, and we have been to take a look at
+      it ourselves. All's right there, just now. But you seem light; what have
+      you done with your flour?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Parted with every barrel of it. You may remember I was bound to Key West,
+      and a market. Well, I found my market here, in American waters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have been lucky, sir. This 'emporium' does not seem to be exactly a
+      commercial emporium.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The fact is, the flour is intended for the Havanna; and I fancy it is to
+      be shipped for slavers. But I am to know nothing of all that, you'll
+      understand, lieutenant. If I sell my flour in American waters, at two
+      prices, it's no concern of mine what becomes of it a'terwards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unless it happen to pass into enemy's hands, certainly not; and you are
+      too patriotic to deal with Mexico, just now, I'm sure. Pray, did that
+      flour go down when the schooner turned turtle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every barrel of it; but Don Wan, below there, thinks that most of it may
+      yet be saved, by landing it on one of those Keys to dry. Flour, well
+      packed, wets in slowly. You see we have some of it on deck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who may Don Wan be, sir, pray? We are sent here to look after Dons
+      and Donas, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don Wan is a Cuban merchant, and deals in such articles as he wants. I
+      fell in with him among the reefs here, where he was rummaging about in
+      hopes of meeting with a wrack, he tells me, and thinking to purchase
+      something profitable in that way; but finding I had flour, he agreed to
+      take it out of me at this anchorage, and send me away in ballast at once.
+      I have found Don Wan Montefalderon ready pay, and very honourable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Wallace then requested an explanation of the disaster, to the details of
+      which he listened with a sailor's interest. He asked a great many
+      questions, all of which bore on the more nautical features of the event;
+      and, day having now fairly appeared, he examined the purchases and
+      backings of the Swash with professional nicety. The schooner was no lower
+      in the water than when the men had knocked off work the previous night;
+      and Spike set the people at the pumps and their bailing again, as the most
+      effectual method of preventing their making any indiscreet communications
+      to the man-of-war's men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About this time the relict appeared on deck, when Spike gallantly
+      introduced the lieutenant anew to his passengers. It is true he knew no
+      name to use, but that was of little moment, as he called the officer &ldquo;the
+      lieutenant,&rdquo; and nothing else.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Budd was delighted with this occasion to show-off, and she soon broke
+      out on the easy, indolent, but waggish Wallace, in a strain to surprise
+      him, notwithstanding the specimen of the lady's skill from which he had
+      formerly escaped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captain Spike is of opinion, lieutenant, that our cast-anchor here is
+      excellent, and I know the value of a good cast-anchor place; for my poor
+      Mr. Budd was a sea-faring man, and taught me almost as much of your noble
+      profession as he knew himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he taught you, ma'am,&rdquo; said Wallace, fairly opening his eyes, under
+      the influence of astonishment, &ldquo;to be very particular about cast-anchor
+      places!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed he did. He used to say, that roads-instead were never as good, for
+      such purposes, as land that's locked havens, for the anchors would return
+      home, as he called it, in roads-instead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, ma'am,&rdquo; answered Wallace, looking very queer at first, as if
+      disposed to laugh outright, then catching a glance of Rose, and changing
+      his mind; &ldquo;I perceive that Mr. Budd knew what he was about, and preferred
+      an anchorage where he was well land-locked, and where there was no danger
+      of his anchors coming home, as so often happens in your open roadsteads.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, that's just it! That was just his notion! You cannot feel how
+      delightful it is, Rose, to converse with one that thoroughly understands
+      such subjects! My poor Mr. Budd did, indeed, denounce roads-instead, at
+      all times calling them 'savage.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Savage, aunt,&rdquo; put in Rose, hoping to stop the good relict by her own
+      interposition&mdash;&ldquo;that is a strange word to apply to an anchorage!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all, young lady,&rdquo; said Wallace gravely. &ldquo;They are often wild
+      berths, and wild berths are not essentially different from wild beasts.
+      Each is savage, as a matter of course.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knew I was right!&rdquo; exclaimed the widow. &ldquo;Savage cast-anchors come of
+      wild births, as do savage Indians. Oh! the language of the ocean, as my
+      poor Mr. Budd used to say, is eloquence tempered by common sense!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Wallace stared again, but his attention was called to other things, just
+      at that moment. The appearance of Don Juan Montefalderon y Castro on deck,
+      reminded him of his duty, and approaching that gentleman he condoled with
+      him on the grave loss he had sustained. After a few civil expressions on
+      both sides, Wallace made a delicate allusion to the character of the
+      schooner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Under other circumstances,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;it might be my duty to inquire a
+      little particularly as to the nationality of your vessel, Se¤or, for we
+      are at war with the Mexicans, as you doubtless know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; answered Don Juan, with an unmoved air and great politeness
+      of manner, &ldquo;though it would be out of my power to satisfy you. Everything
+      was lost in the schooner, and I have not a paper of any sort to show you.
+      If it be your pleasure to make a prize of a vessel in this situation,
+      certainly it is in your power to do it. A few barrels of wet flour are
+      scarce worth disputing about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Wallace now seemed a little ashamed, the sang froid of the other throwing
+      dust in his eyes, and he was in a hurry to change the subject. Se¤or Don
+      Juan was very civilly condoled with again, and he was made to repeat the
+      incidents of the loss, as if his auditor took a deep interest in what he
+      said, but no further hint was given touching the nationality of the
+      vessel. The lieutenant's tact let him see that Se¤or Montefalderon was a
+      person of a very different calibre from Spike, as well as of different
+      habits; and he did not choose to indulge in the quiet irony that formed so
+      large an ingredient in his own character, with this new acquaintance. He
+      spoke Spanish himself, with tolerable fluency, and a conversation now
+      occurred between the two, which was maintained for some time with spirit
+      and a very manifest courtesy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This dialogue between Wallace and the Spaniard gave Spike a little leisure
+      for reflection. As the day advanced the cruiser came more and more plainly
+      in view, and his first business was to take a good survey of her. She
+      might have been three leagues distant, but approaching with a very light
+      breeze, at the rate of something less than two knots in the hour. Unless
+      there was some one on board her who was acquainted with the channels of
+      the Dry Tortugas, Spike felt little apprehension of the ship's getting
+      very near to him; but he very well understood that, with the sort of
+      artillery that was in modern use among vessels of war, he would hardly be
+      safe could the cruiser get within a league. That near Uncle Sam's craft
+      might certainly come without encountering the hazards of the channels, and
+      within that distance she would be likely to get in the course of the
+      morning, should he have the complaisance to wait for her. He determined,
+      therefore, not to be guilty of that act of folly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time the business of lightening the schooner proceeded. Although
+      Mulford earnestly wished that the man-of-war might get an accurate notion
+      of the true character and objects of the brig, he could not prevail on
+      himself to become an informer. In order to avoid the temptation so to do,
+      he exerted himself in keeping the men at their tasks, and never before had
+      pumping and bailing been carried on with more spirit. The schooner soon
+      floated of herself, and the purchases which led to the Swash were removed.
+      Near a hundred more barrels of the flour had been taken out of the hold of
+      the Spanish craft, and had been struck on the deck of the brig, or sent to
+      the Key by means of the boats. This made a material change in the buoyancy
+      of the vessel, and enabled the bailing to go on with greater facility. The
+      pumps were never idle, but two small streams of water were running the
+      whole time toward the scuppers, and through them into the sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length the men were ordered to knock off, and to get their breakfasts.
+      This appeared to arouse Wallace, who had been chatting, quite agreeably to
+      himself, with Rose, and seemed reluctant to depart, but who now became
+      sensible that he was neglecting his duty. He called away his boat's crew,
+      and took a civil leave of the passengers; after which he went over the
+      side. The gig was some little distance from the Swash, when Wallace rose
+      and asked to see Spike, with whom he had a word to say at parting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will soon return,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and bring you forty or fifty fresh men,
+      who will make light work with your wreck. I am certain our commander will
+      consent to my doing so, and will gladly send on board you two or three
+      boat's crews.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I let him,&rdquo; muttered Spike between his teeth, &ldquo;I shall be a poor,
+      miserable cast-anchor devil, that's all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To Wallace, however, he expressed his hearty acknowledgments; begged him
+      not to be in a hurry, as the worst was now over, and the row was still a
+      long one. If he got back toward evening it would be all in good time.
+      Wallace waved his hand, and the gig glided away. As for Spike, he sat down
+      on the plank-sheer where he had stood, and remained there ruminating
+      intently for two or three minutes. When he descended to the deck his mind
+      was fully made up. His first act was to give some private orders to the
+      boatswain, after which he withdrew to the cabin, whither he summoned Tier,
+      without delay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jack,&rdquo; commenced the captain, using very little circumlocution in opening
+      his mind, &ldquo;you and I are old shipmates, and ought to be old friends,
+      though I think your natur' has undergone some changes since we last met.
+      Twenty years ago there was no man in the ship on whom I could so certainly
+      depend as on Jack Tier; now, you seem given up altogether to the women.
+      Your mind has changed even more than your body.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Time does that for all of us, Captain Spike,&rdquo; returned Tier coolly. &ldquo;I am
+      not what I used to be, I'll own, nor are you yourself, for that matter.
+      When I saw you last, noble captain, you were a handsome man of forty, and
+      could go aloft with any youngster in the brig; but, now, you're heavy, and
+      not over-active.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I!&mdash;Not a bit of change has taken place in me for the last thirty
+      years. I defy any man to show the contrary. But that's neither here nor
+      there; you are no young woman, Jack, that I need be boasting of my health
+      and beauty before you. I want a bit of real sarvice from you, and want it
+      done in old-times fashion; and I mean to pay for it in old-times fashion,
+      too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Spike concluded, he put into Tier's hand one of the doubloons that he
+      had received from Se¤or Montefalderon, in payment for the powder. The
+      doubloons, for which so much pumping and bailing were then in process,
+      were still beneath the waters of the gulf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir,&rdquo; returned Jack, smiling and pocketing the gold, with a wink
+      of the eye, and a knowing look; &ldquo;this does resemble old times sum'at. I
+      now begin to know Captain Spike, my old commander again, and see that he's
+      more like himself than I had just thought him. What am I to do for this,
+      sir? speak plain, that I may be sartain to steer the true course.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, just a trifle, Jack&mdash;nothing that will break up the ground-tier
+      of your wits, my old shipmate. You see the state of the brig, and know
+      that she is in no condition for ladies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'T would have been better all round, sir, had they never come aboard at
+      all,&rdquo; answered Jack, looking dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike was surprised, but he was too much bent on his projects to heed
+      trifles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know what sort of flour they're whipping out of the schooner, and
+      must understand that the brig will soon be in a pretty litter. I do not
+      intend to let them send a single barrel of it beneath my hatches again,
+      but the deck and the islands must take it all. Now I wish to relieve my
+      passengers from the confinement this will occasion, and I have ordered the
+      boatswain to pitch a tent for them on the largest of these here Tortugas;
+      and what I want of you, is to muster food and water, and other women's
+      knicknacks, and go ashore with them, and make them as comfortable as you
+      can for a few days, or until we can get this schooner loaded and off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack Tier looked at his commander as if he would penetrate his most secret
+      thoughts. A short pause succeeded, during which the steward's mate was
+      intently musing, then his countenance suddenly brightened; he gave the
+      doubloon a fillip, and caught it on the palm of his hand as it descended,
+      and he uttered the customary &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir,&rdquo; with apparent cheerfulness.
+      Nothing more passed between these two worthies, who now parted, Jack to
+      make his arrangements, and Spike to &ldquo;tell his yarn,&rdquo; as he termed the
+      operation in his own mind, to Mrs. Budd, Rose, and Biddy. The widow
+      listened complacently, though she seemed half doubting, half ready to
+      comply. As for Rose, she received the proposal with delight&mdash;The
+      confinement of the vessel having become irksome to her. The principal
+      obstacle was in overcoming the difficulties made by the aunt, Biddy
+      appearing to like the notion quite as much as &ldquo;Miss Rosy.&rdquo; As for the
+      light-house, Mrs. Budd had declared nothing would induce her to go there;
+      for she did not doubt that the place would soon be, if it were not
+      already, haunted. In this opinion she was sustained by Biddy; and it was
+      the knowledge of this opinion that induced Spike to propose the tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you sure, Captain Spike, it is not a desert island?&rdquo; asked the widow;
+      &ldquo;I remember that my poor Mr. Budd always spoke of desert islands as horrid
+      places, and spots that every one should avoid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What if it is, aunty,&rdquo; said Rose eagerly, &ldquo;while we have the brig here,
+      close at hand. We shall suffer none of the wants of such a place, so long
+      as our friends can supply us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And such friends, Miss Rose,&rdquo; exclaimed Spike, a little sentimentally for
+      him, &ldquo;friends that would undergo hunger and thirst themselves, before you
+      should want for any comforts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do, now, Madam Budd,&rdquo; put in Biddy in her hearty way, &ldquo;it's an island,
+      ye'll remimber: and sure that's just what ould Ireland has ever been, God
+      bless it! Islands make the pleasantest risidences.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well I'll venture to oblige you and Biddy, Rosy, dear,&rdquo; returned the
+      aunt, still half reluctant to yield; &ldquo;but you'll remember, that if I find
+      it at all a desert island, I'll not pass the night on it on any account
+      whatever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With this understanding the party was transferred to the shore. The
+      boatswain had already erected a sort of a tent, on a favourable spot,
+      using some of the old sails that had covered the flour-barrels, not only
+      for the walls, but for a carpet of some extent also. This tent was
+      ingeniously enough contrived. In addition to the little room that was
+      entirely enclosed, there was a sort of piazza, or open verandah, which
+      would enable its tenants to enjoy the shade in the open air. Beneath this
+      verandah, a barrel of fresh water was placed, as well as three or four
+      ship's stools, all of which had been sent ashore with the materials for
+      constructing the tent. The boat had been going and coming for some time,
+      and the distance being short, the &ldquo;desert island&rdquo; was soon a desert no
+      longer. It is true that the supplies necessary to support three women for
+      as many days, were no great matter, and were soon landed, but Jack Tier
+      had made a provision somewhat more ample. A capital caterer, he had
+      forgotten nothing within the compass of his means, that could contribute
+      to the comfort of those who had been put especially under his care. Long
+      before the people &ldquo;knocked off&rdquo; for their dinners, the arrangements were
+      completed, and the boatswain was ready to take his leave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, ladies,&rdquo; said that grum old salt, &ldquo;I can do no more for you, as I
+      can see. This here island is now almost as comfortable as a ship that has
+      been in blue water for a month, and I do n't know how it can be made more
+      comfortabler.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was only according to the boatswain's notion of comfort; but Rose
+      thanked him for his care in her winning way, while her aunt admitted that,
+      &ldquo;for a place that was almost a desert island, things did look somewhat
+      promising.&rdquo; In a few minutes the men were all gone, and the islet was left
+      to the sole possession of the three females, and their constant companion,
+      Jack Tier. Rose was pleased with the novelty of her situation, though the
+      islet certainly did deserve the opprobrium of being a &ldquo;desert island.&rdquo;
+       There was no shade but that of the tent, and its verandah-like covering,
+      though the last, in particular, was quite extensive. There was no water,
+      that in the barrel and that of the ocean excepted. Of herbage there was
+      very little on this islet, and that was of the most meagre and coarse
+      character, being a long wiry grass, with here and there a few stunted
+      bushes. The sand was reasonably firm, however, more especially round the
+      shore, and the walking was far from unpleasant. Little did Rose know it,
+      but a week earlier, the spot would have been next to intolerable to her,
+      on account of the musquitoes, gallinippers, and other similar insects of
+      the family of tormentors; but everything of the sort had temporarily
+      disappeared in the currents of the tornado. To do Spike justice, he was
+      aware of this circumstance, or he might have hesitated about exposing
+      females to the ordinary annoyances of one of these spots. Not a musquito,
+      or anything of the sort was left, however, all having gone to leeward, in
+      the vortex which had come so near sweeping off the Mexican schooner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This place will do very well, aunty, for a day or two,&rdquo; cried Rose
+      cheerfully, as she returned from a short excursion, and threw aside her
+      hat, one made to shade her face from the sun of a warm climate, leaving
+      the sea-breeze that was just beginning to blow, to fan her blooming and
+      sunny cheeks. &ldquo;It is better than the brig. The worst piece of land is
+      better than the brig.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not say that, Rose&mdash;not if it's a desert island, dear; and this
+      is desperately like a desert island; I am almost sorry I ventured on it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will not be deserted by us, aunty, until we shall see occasion to do
+      so. Why not endeavour to get on board of yonder ship, and return to New
+      York in her; or at least induce her captain to put us ashore somewhere
+      near this, and go home by land. Your health never seemed better than it is
+      at this moment; and as for mine, I do assure you, aunty, dear, I am as
+      perfectly well as I ever was in my life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All from this voyage. I knew it would set you up, and am delighted to
+      hear you say as much. Biddy and I were talking of you this very morning,
+      my child, and we both agreed that you were getting to be yourself again.
+      Oh, ships, and brigs, and schooners, full-jigger or half-jigger, for
+      pulmonary complaints, say I! My poor Mr. Budd always maintained that the
+      ocean was the cure for all diseases, and I determined that to sea you
+      should go, the moment I became alarmed for your health.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The good widow loved Rose most tenderly, and she was obliged to use her
+      handkerchief to dry the tears from her eyes as she concluded. Those tears
+      sprung equally from a past feeling of apprehension, and a present feeling
+      of gratitude. Rose saw this, and she took a seat at her aunt's side,
+      touched herself, as she never failed to be on similar occasions with this
+      proof of her relative's affection. At that moment even Harry Mulford would
+      have lost a good deal in her kind feelings toward him, had he so much as
+      smiled at one of the widow's nautical absurdities. At such times, Rose
+      seemed to be her aunt's guardian and protectress, instead of reversing the
+      relations, and she entirely forgot herself the many reasons which existed
+      for wishing that she had been placed in childhood, under the care of one
+      better qualified than the well-meaning relict of her uncle, for the
+      performance of her duties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, aunty&mdash;thank'ee, dear aunty,&rdquo; said Rose, kissing the
+      widow affectionately. &ldquo;I know that you mean the best for me, though you
+      are a little mistaken in supposing me ill. I do assure you, dear,&rdquo; patting
+      her aunt's cheek, as if she herself had been merely a playful child, &ldquo;I
+      never was better; and if I have been pulmonary, I am entirely cured, and
+      am now ready to return home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God be praised for this, Rosy. Under His divine providence, it is all
+      owing to the sea. If you really feel so much restored, however, I do not
+      wish to keep you a moment longer on a ship's board than is necessary. We
+      owe something to Captain Spike's care, and cannot quit him too
+      unceremoniously; but as soon as he is at liberty to go into a harbour, I
+      will engage him to do so, and we can return home by land&mdash;unless,
+      indeed, the brig intends to make the home voyage herself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not like this brig, aunty, and now we are out of her, I wish we
+      could keep out of her. Nor do I like your Captain Spike, who seems to me
+      anything but an agreeable gentleman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's because you arn't accustomed to the sea. My poor Mr. Budd had his
+      ways, like all the rest of them; it takes time to get acquainted with
+      them. All sailors are so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose bent her face involuntarily, but so low as to conceal the increasing
+      brightness of her native bloom, as she answered,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Harry Mulford is not so, aunty, dear&mdash;and he is every inch a
+      sailor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, there is a difference, I must acknowledge, though I dare say Harry
+      will grow every day more and more like all the rest of them. In the end,
+      he will resemble Captain Spike.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never,&rdquo; said Rose, firmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can't tell, child. I never saw your uncle when he was Harry's age,
+      for I was n't born till he was thirty, but often and often has he pointed
+      out to me some slender, genteel youth, and say, 'just such a lad was I at
+      twenty,' though nothing could be less alike, at the moment he was
+      speaking, than they two. We all change with our years. Now I was once as
+      slender, and almost&mdash;not quite, Rosy, for few there are that be&mdash;but
+      almost as handsome as you yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, aunty, I've heard that before,&rdquo; said Rose, springing up, in order to
+      change the discourse; &ldquo;but Harry Mulford will never become like Stephen
+      Spike. I wish we had never known the man, dearest aunty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was all your own doings, child. He's a cousin of your most intimate
+      friend, and she brought him to the house; and one could n't offend Mary
+      Mulford, by telling her we did n't like her cousin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose seemed vexed, and she kept her little foot in motion, patting the
+      sail that formed the carpet, as girls will pat the ground with their feet
+      when vexed. This gleam of displeasure was soon over, however, and her
+      countenance became as placid as the clear, blue sky that formed the vault
+      of the heavens above her head. As if to atone for the passing rebellion of
+      her feelings, she threw her arms around her aunt's neck; after which she
+      walked away, along the beach, ruminating on her present situation, and of
+      the best means of extricating their party from the power of Spike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It requires great familiarity with vessels and the seas, for one to think,
+      read, and pursue the customary train of reasoning on board a ship that one
+      has practised ashore. Rose had felt this embarrassment during the past
+      month, for the whole of which time she had scarcely been in a condition to
+      act up to her true character, suffering her energies, and in some measure
+      her faculties, to be drawn into the vortex produced by the bustle,
+      novelties, and scenes of the vessel and the ocean. But, now she was once
+      more on the land, diminutive and naked as was the islet that composed her
+      present world, and she found leisure and solitude for reflection and
+      decision. She was not ignorant of the nature of a vessel of war, or of the
+      impropriety of unprotected females placing themselves on board of one; but
+      gentlemen of character, like the officers of the ship in sight, could
+      hardly be wanting in the feelings of their caste; and anything was better
+      than to return voluntarily within the power of Spike. She determined
+      within her own mind that voluntarily she would not. We shall leave this
+      young girl, slowly wandering along the beach of her islet, musing on
+      matters like these, while we return to the vessels and the mariners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A good breeze had come in over the reef from the Gulf, throwing the
+      sloop-of-war dead to leeward of the brigantine's anchorage. This was the
+      reason that the former had closed so slowly. Still the distance between
+      the vessels was so small, that a swift cruiser, like the ship of war,
+      would soon have been alongside of the wreckers, but for the intervening
+      islets and the intricacies of their channels. She had made sail on the
+      wind, however, and was evidently disposed to come as near to the danger as
+      her lead showed would be safe, even if she did not venture among them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike noted all these movements, and he took his measures accordingly. The
+      pumping and bailing had been going on since the appearance of light, and
+      the flour had been quite half removed from the schooner's hold. That
+      vessel consequently floated with sufficient buoyancy, and no further
+      anxiety was felt on account of her sinking. Still, a great deal of water
+      remained in her, the cabin itself being nearly half full. Spike's object
+      was to reduce this water sufficiently to enable him to descend into the
+      state-room which Se¤or Montefalderon had occupied, and bring away the
+      doubloons that alone kept him in the vicinity of so ticklish a neighbour
+      as the Poughkeepsie. Escape was easy enough to one who knew the passages
+      of the reef and islets; more especially since the wind had so fortunately
+      brought the cruiser to leeward. Spike most apprehended a movement upon him
+      in the boats, and he had almost made up his mind, should such an
+      enterprise be attempted, to try his hand in beating it off with his guns.
+      A good deal of uncertainty on the subject of Mulford's consenting to
+      resist the recognised authorities of the country, as well as some doubts
+      of a similar nature in reference to two or three of the best of the
+      foremast hands, alone left him at all in doubt as to the expediency of
+      such a course. As no boats were lowered from the cruiser, however, the
+      necessity of resorting to so desperate a measure, did not occur, and the
+      duty of lightening the schooner had proceeded without interruption. As
+      soon as the boatswain came off from the islet, he and the men with him
+      were directed to take the hands and lift the anchors, of which it will be
+      remembered the Swash had several down. Even Mulford was shortly after set
+      at work on the same duty; and these expert and ready seamen soon had the
+      brig clear of the ground. As the schooner was anchored, and floated
+      without assistance, the Swash rode by her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was the state of things when the men turned to, after having had
+      their dinners. By this time, the sloop-of-war was within half a league of
+      the bay, her progress having been materially retarded by the set of the
+      current, which was directly against her. Spike saw that a collision of
+      some sort or other must speedily occur, and he determined to take the
+      boatswain with him, and descend into the cabin of the schooner in quest of
+      the gold. The boatswain was summoned, and Se¤or Montefalderon repeated in
+      this man's presence the instructions that he thought it necessary for the
+      adventurers to follow, in order to secure the prize. Knowing how little
+      locks would avail on board a vessel, were the men disposed to rob him,
+      that gentleman had trusted more to secreting his treasure, than to
+      securing it in the more ordinary way. When the story had again been told,
+      Spike and his boatswain went on board the schooner, and, undressing, they
+      prepared to descend into the cabin. The captain paused a single instant to
+      take a look at the sloop-of-war, and to examine the state of the weather.
+      It is probable some new impression was made on him by this inquiry, for,
+      hailing Mulford, he ordered him to loosen the sails, and to sheet home,
+      and hoist the foretopsail. In a word, to &ldquo;see all ready to cast off, and
+      make sail on the brig at the shortest notice.&rdquo; With this command he
+      disappeared by the schooner's companion-way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike and his companion found the water in the cabin very much deeper than
+      they had supposed. With a view to comfort, the cabin-floor had been sunk
+      much lower than is usual on board American vessels, and this brought the
+      water up nearly to the arm-pits of two men as short as our captain and his
+      sturdy little boatswain. The former grumbled a good deal, when he
+      ascertained the fact, and said something about the mate's being better
+      fitted to make a search in such a place, but concluding with the remark,
+      that &ldquo;the man who wants ticklish duty well done, must see to it himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The gold-hunters groped their way cautiously about the cabin for some
+      time, feeling for a drawer, in which they had been told they should find
+      the key of Se¤or Montefalderon's state-room door. In this Spike himself
+      finally succeeded, he being much better acquainted with cabins and their
+      fixtures, than the boatswain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here it is, Ben,&rdquo; said the captain, &ldquo;now for a dive among the Don's
+      val'ables. Should you pick up anything worth speaking of, you can condemn
+      it for salvage, as I mean to cast off, and quit the wrack the moment we've
+      made sure of the doubloons.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what will become of all the black flour that is lying about, sir?&rdquo;
+       asked the boatswain with a grin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may take care of itself. My agreement will be up as soon as the
+      doubloons are found. If the Don will come down handsomely with his share
+      of what will be left, I may be bought to put the kegs we have in the brig
+      ashore for him somewhere in Mexico; but my wish is to get out of the
+      neighbourhood of that bloody sloop-of-war, as soon as possible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She makes but slow headway ag'in the current, sir; but a body would think
+      she might send in her boats.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The boats might be glad to get back again,&rdquo; muttered Spike. &ldquo;Ay, here is
+      the door unlocked, and we can now fish for the money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Some object had rolled against the state-room door, when the vessel was
+      capsized, and there was a good deal of difficulty in forcing it open. They
+      succeeded at last, and Spike led the way by wading into the small
+      apartment. Here they began to feel about beneath the water, and by a very
+      insufficient light, in quest of the hidden treasure. Spike and his
+      boatswain differed as to the place which had just been described to them,
+      as men will differ even in the account of events that pass directly before
+      their eyes. While thus employed, the report of a heavy gun came through
+      the doors of the cabin, penetrating to the recess in which they were thus
+      employed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, that's the beginning of it!&rdquo; exclaimed Spike. &ldquo;I wonder that the fool
+      has put it off so long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That gun was a heavy fellow, Captain Spike,&rdquo; returned the boatswain; &ldquo;and
+      it sounded in my ears as if't was shotted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, I dare say you're right enough in both opinions. They put such
+      guns on board their sloops-of-war, now-adays, as a fellow used to find in
+      the lower batteries of a two-decker only in old times; and as for shot,
+      why Uncle Sam pays, and they think it cheaper to fire one out of a gun,
+      than to take the trouble of drawing it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe here's one of the bags, Captain Spike,&rdquo; said the boatswain,
+      making a dip, and coming up with one-half of the desired treasure in his
+      fist. &ldquo;By George, I've grabbed him, sir; and the other bag can't be far
+      off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hand that over to me,&rdquo; said the captain, a little authoritatively, &ldquo;and
+      take a dive for the next.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the boatswain was obeying this order, a second gun was heard, and Spike
+      thought that the noise made by the near passage of a large shot was
+      audible also. He called out to Ben to &ldquo;bear a hand, as the ship seems in
+      'arnest.&rdquo; But the head of the boatswain being under water at the time, the
+      admonition was thrown away. The fellow soon came up, however, puffing like
+      a porpoise that has risen to the surface to blow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hand it over to me at once,&rdquo; said Spike, stretching out his unoccupied
+      hand to receive the prize; &ldquo;we have little time to lose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's sooner said than done, sir,&rdquo; answered the boat-swain; &ldquo;a box has
+      driven down upon the bag, and there's a tight jam. I got hold of the neck
+      of the bag, and pulled like a horse, but it wouldn't come no how.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Show me the place, and let me have a drag at it. There goes another of
+      his bloody guns!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Down went Spike, and the length of time he was under water, proved how
+      much he was in earnest. Up he came at length, and with no better luck than
+      his companion. He had got hold of the bag, satisfied himself by feeling
+      its outside that it contained the doubloons, and hauled with all his
+      strength, but it would not come. The boatswain now proposed to take a
+      jamming hitch with a rope around the neck of the bag, which was long
+      enough to admit of such a fastening, and then to apply their united force.
+      Spike assented, and the boatswain rummaged about for a piece of small rope
+      to suit his purpose. At this moment Mulford appeared at the companion-way
+      to announce the movements on the part of the sloop-of-war. He had been
+      purposely tardy, in order to give the ship as much time as possible; but
+      he saw by the looks of the men that a longer delay might excite suspicion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Below there!&rdquo; called out the mate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's wanting, sir?&mdash;what's wanting, sir?&rdquo; answered Spike; &ldquo;let's
+      know at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you heard the guns, Captain Spike?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, every grumbler of them. They've done no mischief, I trust, Mr.
+      Mulford?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None as yet, sir; though the last shot, and it was a heavy fellow, passed
+      just above the schooner's deck. I've the topsail sheeted home and hoisted,
+      and it's that which has set them at work. If I clewed up again, I dare say
+      they'd not fire another gun.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Clew up nothing, sir, but see all clear for casting off and making sail
+      through the South Pass. What do you say, Ben, are you ready for a drag?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All ready, sir,&rdquo; answered the boatswain, once more coming up to breathe.
+      &ldquo;Now for it, sir; a steady pull, and a pull all together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They did pull, but the hitch slipped, and both went down beneath the
+      water. In a moment they were up again, puffing a little and swearing a
+      great deal. Just then another gun, and a clatter above their heads,
+      brought them to a stand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What means that, Mr. Mulford?&rdquo; demanded Spike, a good deal startled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It means that the sloop-of-war has shot away the head of this schooner's
+      foremast, sir, and that the shot has chipp'd a small piece out of the heel
+      of our maintop-mast&mdash;that's all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Though excessively provoked at the mate's cool manner of replying, Spike
+      saw that he might lose all by being too tenacious about securing the
+      remainder of the doubloons. Pronouncing in very energetic terms on Uncle
+      Sam, and all his cruisers, an anathema that we do not care to repeat, he
+      gave a surly order to Ben to &ldquo;knock-off,&rdquo; and abandoned his late design.
+      In a minute he was on deck and dressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cast off, lads,&rdquo; cried the captain, as soon as on the deck of his own
+      brig again, &ldquo;and four of you man that boat. We have got half of your
+      treasure, Se¤or Wan, but have been driven from the rest of it, as you see.
+      There is the bag; when at leisure we'll divide it, and give the people
+      their share. Mr. Mulford, keep the brig in motion, hauling up toward the
+      South Pass, while I go ashore for the ladies. I'll meet you just in the
+      throat of the passage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This said, Spike tumbled into his boat, and was pulled ashore. As for
+      Mulford, though he cast many an anxious glance toward the islet, he obeyed
+      his orders, keeping the brig standing off and on, under easy canvas, but
+      working her up toward the indicated passage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike was met by Jack Tier on the beach of the little island.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Muster the women at once,&rdquo; ordered the captain, &ldquo;we have no time to lose,
+      for that fellow will soon be firing broad-sides, and his shot now range
+      half a mile beyond us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll no more move the widow and her maid, than you'll move the island,&rdquo;
+       answered Jack, laconically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should I not move them? Do they wish to stay here and starve?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's little that they think of that. The sloop-of-war no sooner begun to
+      fire than down went Mrs. Budd on the canvas floor of the tent, and set up
+      just such a screaming as you may remember she tried her hand at the night
+      the revenue craft fired into us. Biddy lay down alongside of her mistress,
+      and at every gun, they just scream as loud as they can, as if they fancied
+      they might frighten off Uncle Sam's men from their duty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Duty!&mdash;You little scamp, do you call tormenting honest traders in
+      this fashion the duty of any man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, captain, I'm no ways partic'lar about a word or two. Their 'ways,'
+      if you like that better than duty, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where's Rose? Is she down too, screaming and squalling?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Captain Spike, no. Miss Rose is endeavouring, like a handsome young
+      Christian lady as she is, to pacify and mollify her aunt and Biddy; and
+      right down sensible talk does she give them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then she at least can go aboard the brig,&rdquo; exclaimed Spike, with a sudden
+      animation, and an expression of countenance that Jack did not at all like.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ray-y-ther think she'll wish to hold on to the old lady,&rdquo; observed the
+      steward's-mate, a little emphatically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You be d&mdash;d,&rdquo; cried Spike, fiercely; &ldquo;when your opinion is wanted,
+      I'll ask for it. If I find you've been setting that young woman's mind
+      ag'in me, I'll toss you overboard, as I would the offals of a shark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Young women's minds, when they are only nineteen, get set ag'in boys of
+      fifty-six without much assistance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fifty-six yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm fifty-three&mdash;that I'll own without making faces at it,&rdquo; returned
+      Jack, meekly; &ldquo;and, Stephen Spike, you logged fifty-six your last
+      birthday, or a false entry was made.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This conversation did not take place in the presence of the boat's crew,
+      but as the two walked together toward the tent. They were now in the
+      verandah, as we have called the shaded opening in front, and actually
+      within sound of the sweet voice of Rose, as she exhorted her aunt, in
+      tones a little louder than usual for her to use, to manifest more
+      fortitude. Under such circumstances Spike did not deem it expedient to
+      utter that which was uppermost in his mind, but, turning short upon Tier,
+      he directed a tremendous blow directly between his eyes. Jack saw the
+      danger and dodged, falling backward to avoid a concussion which he knew
+      would otherwise be fearful, coming as it would from one of the best
+      forecastle boxers of his time. The full force of the blow was avoided,
+      though Jack got enough of it to knock him down, and to give him a pair of
+      black eyes. Spike did not stop to pick the assistant steward up, for
+      another gun was fired at that very instant, and Mrs. Budd and Biddy
+      renewed their screams. Instead of pausing to kick the prostrate Tier, as
+      had just before been his intention, the captain entered the tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A scene that was sufficiently absurd met the view of Spike, when he found
+      himself in the presence of the females. The widow had thrown herself on
+      the ground, and was grasping the cloth of the sail on which the tent had
+      been erected with both her hands, and was screaming at the top of her
+      voice. Biddy's imitation was not exactly literal, for she had taken a
+      comfortable seat at the side of her mistress, but in the way of cries, she
+      rather outdid her principal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must be off,&rdquo; cried Spike, somewhat unceremoniously. &ldquo;The man-of-war
+      is blazing away, as if she was a firin' minute-guns over our destruction,
+      and I can wait no longer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll not stir,&rdquo; answered the widow&mdash;&ldquo;I can't stir&mdash;I shall be
+      shot if I go out. No, no, no&mdash;I'll not stir an inch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll be kilt!&mdash;we'll be kilt!&rdquo; echoed Biddy, &ldquo;and a wicket
+      murther't will be in that same man, war or no war.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The captain perceived the uselessness of remonstrance at such a moment,
+      and perhaps he was secretly rejoiced thereat; but it is certain that he
+      whipped Rose up under his arm, and walked away with her, as if she had
+      been a child of two or three years of age. Rose did not scream, but she
+      struggled and protested vehemently. It was in vain. Already the captain
+      had carried her half the distance between the tent and the boat, in the
+      last of which, a minute more would have deposited his victim, when a
+      severe blow on the back of his head caused Spike to stumble, and he
+      permitted Rose to escape from his grasp, in the effort to save himself
+      from a fall. Turning fiercely toward his assailant, whom he suspected to
+      be one of his boat's crew, he saw Tier standing within a few yards,
+      levelling a pistol at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Advance a step, and you're a dead man, villain!&rdquo; screamed Jack, his voice
+      almost cracked with rage, and the effort he made to menace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike muttered an oath too revolting for our pages; but it was such a
+      curse as none but an old salt could give vent to, and that in the
+      bitterness of his fiercest wrath. At that critical moment, while Rose was
+      swelling with indignation and wounded maiden pride, almost within reach of
+      his arms, looking more lovely than ever, as the flush of anger deepened
+      the colour in her cheeks, a fresh and deep report from one of the guns of
+      the sloop-of-war drew all eyes in her direction. The belching of that gun
+      seemed to be of double the power of those which had preceded it, and jets
+      of water, that were twenty feet in height, marked the course of the
+      formidable missile that was projected from the piece. The ship had,
+      indeed, discharged one of those monster-cannons that bear the name of a
+      distinguished French engineer, but which should more properly be called by
+      the name of the ingenious officer who is at the head of our own ordnance,
+      as they came originally from his inventive faculties, though somewhat
+      improved by their European adopter. Spike suspected the truth, for he had
+      heard of these &ldquo;Pazans,&rdquo; as he called them, and he watched the booming,
+      leaping progress of the eight-inch shell that this gun threw, with the
+      apprehension that unknown danger is apt to excite. As jet succeeded jet,
+      each rising nearer and nearer to his brig, the interval of time between
+      them seeming fearfully to diminish, he muttered oath upon oath. The last
+      leap that the shell made on the water was at about a quarter of a mile's
+      distance of the islet on which his people had deposited at least a hundred
+      and fifty barrels of his spurious flour:-thence it flew, as it might be
+      without an effort, with a grand and stately bound into the very centre of
+      the barrels, exploding at the moment it struck. All saw the scattering of
+      flour, which was instantly succeeded by the heavy though slightly
+      straggling explosion of all the powder on the island. A hundred kegs were
+      lighted, as it might be, in a common flash, and a cloud of white smoke
+      poured out and concealed the whole islet, and all near it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose stood confounded, nor was Jack Tier in a much better state of mind,
+      though he still kept the pistol levelled, and menaced Spike. But the last
+      was no longer dangerous to any there. He recollected that piles of the
+      barrels encumbered the decks of his vessel, and he rushed to the boat,
+      nearly frantic with haste, ordering the men to pull for their lives. In
+      less than five minutes he was alongside, and on the deck of the Swash&mdash;his
+      first order being to&mdash;&ldquo;Tumble every barrel of this bloody powder into
+      the sea, men. Over with it, Mr. Mulford, clear away the midship ports, and
+      launch as much as you can through them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Remonstrance on the part of Se¤or Montefalderon would have been useless,
+      had he been disposed to make it; but, sooth to say, he was as ready to get
+      rid of the powder as any there, after the specimen he had just witnessed
+      of the power of a Paixhan gun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus it is ever with men. Had two or three of those shells been first
+      thrown without effect, as might very well have happened under the
+      circumstances, none there would have cared for the risk they were running;
+      but the chance explosion which had occurred, presented so vivid a picture
+      of the danger, dormant and remote as it really was, as to throw the entire
+      crew of the Swash into a frenzy of exertion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor was the vessel at all free from danger. On the contrary, she ran very
+      serious risk of being destroyed, and in some degree, in the very manner
+      apprehended. Perceiving that Spike was luffing up through one of the
+      passages nearest the reef, which would carry him clear of the group, a
+      long distance to windward of the point where he could only effect the same
+      object, the commander of the sloop-of-war opened his fire in good earnest,
+      hoping to shoot away something material on board the Swash, before she
+      could get beyond the reach of his shot. The courses steered by the two
+      vessels, just at that moment, favoured such an attempt, though they made
+      it necessarily very short-lived. While the Swash was near the wind, the
+      sloop-of-war was obliged to run off to avoid islets ahead of her, a
+      circumstance which, while it brought the brig square with the ship's
+      broadside, compelled the latter to steer on a diverging line to the course
+      of her chase. It was in consequence of these facts, that the sloop-of-war
+      now opened in earnest, and was soon canopied in the smoke of her own fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Great and important changes, as has been already mentioned, have been made
+      in the armaments of all the smaller cruisers within the last few years.
+      Half a generation since, a ship of the rate&mdash;we do not say of the
+      size&mdash;of the vessel which was in chase of Spike and his craft, would
+      not have had it in her power to molest an enemy at the distance these two
+      vessels were now apart. But recent improvements have made ships of this
+      nominal force formidable at nearly a league's distance; more especially by
+      means of their Paixhans and their shells.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some little time the range carried the shot directly over the islet of
+      the tent; Jack Tier and Rose, both of whom were watching all that passed
+      with intense interest, standing in the open air the whole time, seemingly
+      with no concern for themselves, so absorbed was each, notwithstanding all
+      that had passed, in the safety of the brig. As for Rose, she thought only
+      of Harry Mulford, and of the danger he was in by those fearful explosions
+      of the shells. Her quick intellect comprehended the peculiar nature of the
+      risk that was incurred by having the flour-barrels on deck, and she could
+      not but see the manner in which Spike and his men were tumbling them into
+      the water, as the quickest manner of getting rid of them. After what had
+      just passed between Jack Tier and his commander, it might not be so easy
+      to account for his manifest, nay, intense interest in the escape of the
+      Swash. This was apparent by his troubled countenance, by his exclamations,
+      and occasionally by his openly expressed wishes for her safety. Perhaps it
+      was no more than the interest the seaman is so apt to feel in the craft in
+      which he has so long sailed, and which to him has been a home, and of
+      which Mulford exhibited so much, in his struggles between feeling and
+      conscience&mdash;between a true and a false duty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Spike and his people, we have already mentioned their efforts to
+      get rid of the powder. Shell after shell exploded, though none very near
+      the brig, the ship working her guns as if in action. At length the
+      officers of the sloop-of-war detected a source of error in their aim, that
+      is of very common occurrence in sea-gunnery. Their shot had been thrown to
+      ricochet, quartering a low, but very regular succession of little waves.
+      Each shot striking the water at an acute angle to its agitated surface,
+      was deflected from a straight line, and described a regular curve toward
+      the end of its career; or, it might be truer to say, an irregular
+      curvature, for the deflection increased as the momentum of the missile
+      diminished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No sooner did the commanding officer of the sloop-of-war discover this
+      fact, and it was easy to trace the course of the shots by the jets of
+      water they cast into the air, and to see as well as to hear the explosions
+      of the shells, than he ordered the guns pointed more to windward, as a
+      means of counteracting the departure from the straight lines. This
+      expedient succeeded in part, the solid shot falling much nearer to the
+      brig the moment the practice was resorted to. No shell was fired for some
+      little time after the new order was issued, and Spike and his people began
+      to hope these terrific missiles had ceased their annoyance. The men
+      cheered, finding their voices for the first time since the danger had
+      seemed so imminent, and Spike was heard animating them to their duty. As
+      for Mulford, he was on the coach-house deck, working the brig, the captain
+      having confided to him that delicate duty, the highest proof he could
+      furnish of confidence in his seamanship. The handsome young mate had just
+      made a half-board, in the neatest manner, shoving the brig by its means
+      through a most difficult part of the passage, and had got her handsomely
+      filled again on the same tack, looking right out into open water, by a
+      channel through which she could now stand on a very easy bowline.
+      Everything seemed propitious, and the sloop-of-war's solid shot began to
+      drop into the water, a hundred yards short of the brig. In this state of
+      things one of the Paixhans belched forth its angry flame and sullen roar
+      again. There was no mistaking the gun. Then came its mass of iron, a globe
+      that would have weighed just sixty-eight pounds, had not sufficient metal
+      been left out of its interior to leave a cavity to contain a single pound
+      of powder. Its course, as usual, was to be marked by its path along the
+      sea, as it bounded, half a mile at a time, from wave to wave. Spike saw by
+      its undeviating course that this shell was booming terrifically toward his
+      brig, and a cry to &ldquo;look out for the shell,&rdquo; caused the work to be
+      suspended. That shell struck the water for the last time, within two
+      hundred yards of the brig, rose dark and menacing in its furious leap, but
+      exploded at the next instant. The fragments of the iron were scattered on
+      each side, and ahead. Of the last, three or four fell into the water so
+      near the vessel as to cast their spray on her decks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Overboard with the rest of the powder!&rdquo; shouted Spike. &ldquo;Keep the brig off
+      a little, Mr. Mulford&mdash;keep her off, sir; you luff too much, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir,&rdquo; answered the mate. &ldquo;Keep her off, it is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There comes the other shell!&rdquo; cried Ben, but the men did not quit their
+      toil to gaze this time. Each seaman worked as if life and death depended
+      on his single exertions. Spike alone watched the course of the missile. On
+      it came, booming and hurtling through the air, tossing high the jets, at
+      each leap it made from the surface, striking the water for its last bound,
+      seemingly in a line with the shell that had just preceded it. From that
+      spot it made its final leap. Every hand in the brig was stayed and every
+      eye was raised as the rushing tempest was heard advancing. The mass went
+      muttering directly between the masts of the Swash. It had scarcely seemed
+      to go by when the fierce flash of fire and the sharp explosion followed.
+      Happily for those in the brig, the projectile force given by the gun
+      carried the fragments from them, as in the other instance it had brought
+      them forward; else would few have escaped mutilation, or death, among
+      their crew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The flashing of fire so near the barrels of powder that still remained on
+      their deck, caused the frantic efforts to be renewed, and barrel after
+      barrel was tumbled overboard, amid the shouts that were now raised to
+      animate the people to their duty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Luff, Mr. Mulford&mdash;luff you may, sir,&rdquo; cried Spike. No answer was
+      given.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;D'ye hear there, Mr. Mulford?&mdash;it is luff you may, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Mulford is not aft, sir,&rdquo; called out the man at the helm&mdash;&ldquo;but
+      luff it is, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Mulford not aft! Where's the mate, man? Tell him he is wanted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      No Mulford was to be found! A call passed round the decks, was sent below,
+      and echoed through the entire brig, but no sign or tidings could be had of
+      the handsome mate. At that exciting moment the sloop-of-war seemed to
+      cease her firing, and appeared to be securing her guns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Thou art the same, eternal sea!
+  The earth has many shapes and forms,
+  Of hill and valley, flower and tree;
+  Fields that the fervid noontide warms,
+  Or winter's rugged grasp deforms,
+  Or bright with autumn's golden store;
+  Thou coverest up thy face with storms,
+  Or smilest serene,&mdash;but still thy roar
+  And dashing foam go up to vex the sea-beat shore:
+
+  Lunt.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      We shall now advance the time eight-and-forty hours. The baffling winds
+      and calms that succeeded the tornado had gone, and the trades blew in
+      their stead. Both vessels had disappeared, the brig leading, doubling the
+      western extremity of the reef, and going off before both wind and current,
+      with flowing sheets, fully three hours before the sloop-of-war could beat
+      up against the latter, to a point that enabled her to do the same thing.
+      By that time, the Swash was five-and-twenty miles to the eastward, and
+      consequently but just discernible in her loftiest sails, from the ship's
+      royal yards. Still, the latter continued the chase; and that evening both
+      vessels were beating down along the southern margin of the Florida Reef,
+      against the trades, but favoured by a three or four knot current, the brig
+      out of sight to windward. Our narrative leads us to lose sight of both
+      these vessels, for a time, in order to return to the islets of the Gulf.
+      Eight-and-forty hours had made some changes in and around the haven of the
+      Dry Tortugas. The tent still stood, and a small fire that was boiling its
+      pot and its kettle, at no great distance from it, proved that the tent was
+      still inhabited. The schooner also rode at her anchors, very much as she
+      had been abandoned by Spike. The bag of doubloons, however, had been
+      found, and there it lay, tied but totally unguarded, in the canvas
+      verandah of Rose Budd's habitation. Jack Tier passed and repassed it with
+      apparent indifference, as he went to and fro, between his pantry and
+      kitchen, busy as a bee in preparing his noontide meal for the day. This
+      man seemed to have the islet all to himself, however, no one else being
+      visible on any part of it. He sang his song, in a cracked, contre alto
+      voice, and appeared to be happy in his solitude. Occasionally he talked to
+      himself aloud, most probably because he had no one else to speak to. We
+      shall record one of his recitatives, which came in between the strains of
+      a very inharmonious air, the words of which treated of the seas, while the
+      steward's assistant was stirring an exceedingly savoury mess that he had
+      concocted of the ingredients to be found in the united larders of the
+      Swash and the Mexican schooner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stephen Spike is a capital willian!&rdquo; exclaimed Jack, smelling at a ladle
+      filled with his soup&mdash;&ldquo;a capital willian, I call him. To think, at
+      his time of life, of such a handsome and pleasant young thing as this Rose
+      Budd; and then to try to get her by underhand means, and by making a fool
+      of her silly old aunt. It 's wonderful what fools some old aunts be! Quite
+      wonderful! If I was as great a simpleton as this Mrs. Budd, I'd never
+      cross my threshhold. Yes, Stephen Spike is a prodigious willian, as his
+      best friend must own! Well, I gave him a thump on the head that he'll not
+      forget this v'y'ge. To think of carryin' off that pretty Rose Budd in his
+      very arms, in so indecent a manner! Yet, the man has his good p'ints, if a
+      body could only forget his bad ones. He's a first-rate seaman. How he
+      worked the brig till he doubled the reef, a'ter she got into open water;
+      and how he made her walk off afore the wind, with stun'sails alow and
+      aloft, as soon as ever he could make 'em draw! My life for it, he 'll tire
+      the legs of Uncle Sam's man, afore he can fetch up with him. For running
+      away, when hard chased, Stephen Spike has n't his equal on 'arth. But,
+      he's a great willian&mdash;a prodigious willian! I cannot say I actually
+      wish him hanged; but I would rather have him hanged than see him get
+      pretty Rose in his power. What has he to do with girls of nineteen? If the
+      rascal is one year old, he's fifty-six. I hope the sloop-of-war will find
+      her match, and I think she will. The Molly's a great traveller, and not to
+      be outdone easily. 'T would be a thousand pities so lovely a craft should
+      be cut off in the flower of her days, as it might be, and I do hope she'll
+      lead that bloody sloop on some sunken rock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, there's the other bag of doubloons. It seems Stephen could not get
+      it. That's odd, too, for he's great at grabbin' gold. The man bears his
+      age well; but he's a willian! I wonder whether he or Mulford made that
+      half-board in the narrow channel. It was well done, and Stephen is a
+      perfect sailor; but he says Mulford is the same. Nice young man, that
+      Mulford; just fit for Rose, and Rose for him. Pity to part them. Can find
+      no great fault with him, except that he has too much conscience. There's
+      such a thing as having too much, as well as too little conscience. Mulford
+      has too much, and Spike has too little. For him to think of carryin' off a
+      gal of nineteen! I say he's fifty-six, if he's a day. How fond he used to
+      be of this very soup! If I've seen him eat a quart of it, I've seen him
+      eat a puncheon full of it, in my time. What an appetite the man has when
+      he's had a hard day's duty on 't! There 's a great deal to admire, and a
+      great deal to like in Stephen Spike, but he's a reg'lar willian. I dare
+      say he fancies himself a smart, jaunty youth ag'in, as I can remember him;
+      a lad of twenty, which was about his years when I first saw him, by the
+      sign that I was very little turned of fifteen myself. Spike was comely
+      then, though I acknowledge he's a willian. I can see him now, with his
+      deep blue roundabout, his bell-mouthed trowsers, both of fine cloth&mdash;too
+      fine for such a willian&mdash;but fine it was, and much did it become
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here Jack made a long pause, during which, though he may have thought
+      much, he said nothing. Nevertheless, he was n't idle the while. On the
+      contrary, he passed no less than three several times from the fire to the
+      tent, and returned. Each time, in going and coming, he looked intently at
+      the bag of doubloons, though he did not stop at it or touch it. Some
+      associations connected with Spike's fruitless attempts to obtain it must
+      have formed its principal interest with this singular being, as he
+      muttered his captain's name each time in passing, though he said no more
+      audibly. The concerns of the dinner carried him back and forth; and in his
+      last visit to the tent, he began to set a small table&mdash;one that had
+      been brought for the convenience of Mrs. Budd and her niece, from the
+      brig, and which of course still remained on the islet. It was while thus
+      occupied, that Jack Tier recommenced his soliloquy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope that money may do some worthy fellow good yet. It's Mexican gold,
+      and that's inemy's gold, and might be condemned by law, I do suppose.
+      Stephen had a hankerin' a'ter it, but he did not get it. It come easy
+      enough to the next man that tried. That Spike 's a willian, and the gold
+      was too good for him. He has no conscience at all to think of a gal of
+      nineteen! And one fit for his betters, in the bargain. The time has been
+      when Stephen Spike might have pretended to Rose Budd's equal. That much
+      I'll ever maintain, but that time's gone; and, what is more, it will never
+      come again. I should like Mulford better if he had a little less
+      conscience. Conscience may do for Uncle Sam's ships, but it is sometimes
+      in the way aboard a trading craft. What can a fellow do with a conscience
+      when dollars is to be smuggled off, or tobacco smuggled ashore? I do
+      suppose I've about as much conscience as it is useful to have, and I've
+      got ashore in my day twenty thousand dollars' worth of stuff, of one sort
+      or another, if I've got ashore the valie of ten dollars. But Spike carries
+      on business on too large a scale, and many's the time I've told him so. I
+      could have forgiven him anything but this attempt on Rose Budd; and he's
+      altogether too old for that, to say nothing of other people's rights. He's
+      an up-and-down willian, and a body can make no more, nor any less of him.
+      That soup must be near done, and I'll hoist the signal for grub.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This signal was a blue-peter of which one had been brought ashore to
+      signal the brig; and with which Jack now signalled the schooner. If the
+      reader will turn his eyes toward the last named vessel, he will find the
+      guests whom Tier expected to surround his table. Rose, her aunt, and Biddy
+      were all seated, under an awning made by a sail, on the deck of the
+      schooner, which now floated so buoyantly as to show that she had
+      materially lightened since last seen. Such indeed was the fact, and he who
+      had been the instrument of producing this change, appeared on deck in the
+      person of Mulford, as soon as he was told that the blue-peter of Jack Tier
+      was flying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boat of the light-house, that in which Spike had landed in quest of
+      Rose, was lying alongside of the schooner, and sufficiently explained the
+      manner in which the mate had left the brig. This boat, in fact, had been
+      fastened astern, in the hurry of getting from under the sloop-of-war's
+      fire, and Mulford had taken the opportunity of the consternation and
+      frantic efforts produced by the explosion of the last shell thrown, to
+      descend from his station on the coach-house into this boat, to cut the
+      painter, and to let the Swash glide away from him. This the vessel had
+      done with great rapidity, leaving him unseen under the cover of her stern.
+      As soon as in the boat, the mate had seized an oar, and sculled to an
+      islet that was within fifty yards, concealing the boat behind a low
+      hummock that formed a tiny bay. All this was done so rapidly, that united
+      to the confusion on board the Swash, no one discovered the mate or the
+      boat. Had he been seen, however, it is very little probable that Spike
+      would have lost a moment of time, in the attempt to recover either. But he
+      was not seen, and it was the general opinion on board the Swash, for quite
+      an hour, that her handsome mate had been knocked overboard and killed, by
+      a fragment of the shell that had seemed to explode almost in the ears of
+      her people. When the reef was doubled, however, and Spike made his
+      preparations for meeting the rough water, he hove to, and ordered his own
+      yawl, which was also towing astern, to be hauled up alongside, in order to
+      be hoisted in. Then, indeed, some glimmerings of the truth were shed on
+      the crew, who missed the light-house boat. Though many contended that its
+      painter must also have been cut by a fragment of the shell, and that the
+      mate had died loyal to roguery and treason. Mulford was much liked by the
+      crew, and he was highly valued by Spike, on account of his seamanship and
+      integrity, this latter being a quality that is just as necessary for one
+      of the captain's character to meet with in those he trusts as to any other
+      man. But Spike thought differently of the cause of Mulford's
+      disappearance, from his crew. He ascribed it altogether to love for Rose,
+      when, in truth, it ought in justice to have been quite as much imputed to
+      a determination to sail no longer with a man who was clearly guilty of
+      treason. Of smuggling, Mulford had long suspected Spike, though he had no
+      direct proof of the fact; but now he could not doubt that he was not only
+      engaged in supplying the enemy with the munitions of war, but was actually
+      bargaining to sell his brig for a hostile cruiser, and possibly to
+      transfer himself and crew along with her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is scarcely necessary to speak of the welcome Mulford received when he
+      reached the islet of the tent. He and Rose had a long private conference,
+      the result of which was to let the handsome mate into the secret of his
+      pretty companion's true feelings toward himself. She had received him with
+      tears, and a betrayal of emotion that gave him every encouragement, and
+      now she did not deny her preference. In that interview the young people
+      plighted to each other their troth. Rose never doubted of obtaining her
+      aunt's consent in due time, all her prejudices being in favour of the sea
+      and sailors; and should she not, she would soon be her own mistress, and
+      at liberty to dispose of herself and her pretty little fortune as she
+      might choose. But a cypher as she was, in all questions of real moment,
+      Mrs. Budd was not a person likely to throw any real obstacle in the way of
+      the young people's wishes; the true grounds of whose present apprehensions
+      were all to be referred to Spike, his intentions, and his well-known
+      perseverance. Mulford was convinced that the brig would be back in quest
+      of the remaining doubloons, as soon as she could get clear of the
+      sloop-of-war, though he was not altogether without a hope that the latter,
+      when she found it impossible to overhaul her chase, might also return in
+      order to ascertain what discoveries could be made in and about the
+      schooner. The explosion of the powder, on the islet, must have put the
+      man-of-war's men in possession of the secret of the real quality of the
+      flour that had composed her cargo, and it doubtless had awakened all their
+      distrust on the subject of the Swash's real business in the Gulf. Under
+      all the circumstances, therefore, it did appear quite as probable that one
+      of the parties should reappear at the scene of their recent interview as
+      the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bearing all these things in mind, Mulford had lost no time in completing
+      his own arrangements. He felt that he had some atonement to make to the
+      country, for the part he had seemingly taken in the late events, and it
+      occurred to him, could he put the schooner in a state to be moved, then
+      place her in the hands of the authorities, his own peace would be made,
+      and his character cleared. Rose no sooner understood his plans and
+      motives, than she entered into them with all the ardour and self-devotion
+      of her sex; for the single hour of confidential and frank communication
+      which had just passed, doubled the interest she felt in Mulford and in all
+      that belonged to him. Jack Tier was useful on board a vessel, though his
+      want of stature and force rendered him less so than was common with
+      sea-faring men. His proper sphere certainly had been the cabins, where his
+      usefulness was beyond all cavil; but he was now very serviceable to
+      Mulford on the deck of the schooner. The first two days, Mrs. Budd had
+      been left on the islet, to look to the concerns of the kitchen, while
+      Mulford, accompanied by Rose, Biddy and Jack Tier, had gone off to the
+      schooner, and set her pumps in motion again. It was little that Rose could
+      do, or indeed attempt to do, at this toil, but the pumps being small and
+      easily worked, Biddy and Jack were of great service. By the end of the
+      second day the pumps sucked; the cargo that remained in the schooner, as
+      well as the form of her bottom, contributing greatly to lessen the
+      quantity of the water that was to be got out of her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then it was that the doubloons fell into Mulford's hands, along with
+      everything else that remained below decks. It was perhaps fortunate that
+      the vessel was thoroughly purified by her immersion, and the articles that
+      were brought on deck to be dried were found in a condition to give no
+      great offence to those who removed them. By leaving the hatches off, and
+      the cabin doors open, the warm winds of the trades effectually dried the
+      interior of the schooner in the course of a single night; and when Mulford
+      repaired on board of her, on the morning of the third day, he found her in
+      a condition to be fitted for his purposes. On this occasion Mrs. Budd had
+      expressed a wish to go off to look at her future accommodations, and Jack
+      was left on the islet to cook the dinner, which will explain the actual
+      state of things as described in the opening of this chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As those who toil usually have a relish for their food, the appearance of
+      the blue-peter was far from being unwelcome to those on board of the
+      schooner. They got into the boat, and were sculled ashore by Mulford, who,
+      seaman-like, used only one hand in performing this service. In a very few
+      minutes they were all seated at the little table, which was brought out
+      into the tent-verandah for the enjoyment of the breeze.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So far, well,&rdquo; said Mulford, after his appetite was mainly appeased; Rose
+      picking crumbs, and affecting to eat, merely to have the air of keeping
+      him company; one of the minor proofs of the little attentions that spring
+      from the affections. &ldquo;So far, well. The sails are bent, and though they
+      might be never and better, they can be made to answer. It was fortunate to
+      find anything like a second suit on board a Mexican craft of that size at
+      all. As it is, we have foresail, mainsail, and jib, and with that canvas I
+      think we might beat the schooner down to Key West in the course of a day
+      and a night. If I dared to venture outside of the reef, it might be done
+      sooner even, for they tell me there is a four-knot current sometimes in
+      that track; but I do not like to venture outside, so short-handed. The
+      current inside must serve our turn, and we shall get smooth water by
+      keeping under the lee of the rocks. I only hope we shall not get into an
+      eddy as we go further from the end of the reef, and into the bight of the
+      coast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there danger of that?&rdquo; demanded Rose, whose quick intellect had taught
+      her many of these things, since her acquaintance with vessels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There may be, looking at the formation of the reef and islands, though I
+      know nothing of the fact by actual observation. This is my first visit in
+      this quarter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eddies are serious matters,&rdquo; put in Mrs. Budd, &ldquo;and my poor husband could
+      not abide them. Tides are good things; but eddies are very disagreeable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, aunty, I should think eddies might sometimes be as welcome as
+      tides. It must depend, however, very much on the way one wishes to go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rose, you surprise me! All that you have read, and all that you have
+      heard, must have shown you the difference. Do they not say 'a man is
+      floating with the tide,' when things are prosperous with him&mdash;and
+      don't ships drop down with the tide, and beat the wind with the tide? And
+      don't vessels sometimes 'tide it up to town,' as it is called, and is n't
+      it thought an advantage to have the tide with you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All very true, aunty; but I do not see how that makes eddies any the
+      worse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because eddies are the opposite of tides, child. When the tide goes one
+      way, the eddy goes another&mdash;is n't it so, Harry Mulford? You never
+      heard of one's floating in an eddy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's what we mean by an eddy, Mrs. Budd,&rdquo; answered the handsome mate,
+      delighted to hear Rose's aunt call him by an appellation so kind and
+      familiar,&mdash;a thing she had never done previously to the intercourse
+      which had been the consequence of their present situation. &ldquo;Though I agree
+      with Rose in thinking an eddy may be a good or a bad thing, and very much
+      like a tide, as one wishes to steer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You amaze me, both of you! Tides are always spoken of favourably, but
+      eddies never. If a ship gets ashore, the tide can float her off; that I've
+      heard a thousand times. Then, what do the newspapers say of President&mdash;,
+      and Governor&mdash;, and Congressman&mdash;? Why, that they all 'float in
+      the tide of public opinion,' and that must mean something particularly
+      good, as they are always in office. No, no, Harry; I'll acknowledge that
+      you do know something about ships; a good deal, considering how young you
+      are; but you have something to learn about eddies. Never trust one as long
+      as you live.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford was silent, and Rose took the occasion to change the discourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope we shall soon be able to quit this place,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;for I
+      confess to some dread of Captain Spike's return.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captain Stephen Spike has greatly disappointed me,&rdquo; observed the aunt,
+      gravely. &ldquo;I do not know that I was ever before deceived in judging a
+      person. I could have sworn he was an honest, frank, well-meaning sailor&mdash;a
+      character, of all others, that I love; but it has turned out otherwise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's a willian!&rdquo; mutttered Jack Tier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford smiled; at which speech we must leave to conjecture; but he
+      answered Rose, as he ever did, promptly and with pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The schooner is ready, and this must be our last meal ashore,&rdquo; he said.
+      &ldquo;Our outfit will be no great matter; but if it will carry us down to Key
+      West, I shall ask no more of it. As for the return of the Swash, I look
+      upon it as certain. She could easily get clear of the sloop-of-war, with
+      the start she had, and Spike is a man that never yet abandoned a doubloon,
+      when he knew where one was to be found.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stephen Spike is like all his fellow-creatures,&rdquo; put in Jack Tier,
+      pointedly. &ldquo;He has his faults, and he has his virtues.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Virtue is a term I should never think of applying to such a man,&rdquo;
+       returned Mulford, a little surprised at the fellow's earnestness. &ldquo;The
+      word is a big one, and belongs to quite another class of persons.&rdquo; Jack
+      muttered a few syllables that were unintelligible, when again the
+      conversation changed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose now inquired of Mulford as to their prospects of getting to Key West.
+      He told her that the distance was about sixty miles; their route lying
+      along the north or inner side of the Florida Reef. The whole distance was
+      to be made against the trade-wind, which was then blowing about an
+      eight-knot breeze, though, bating eddies, they might expect to be favoured
+      with the current, which was less strong inside than outside of the reef.
+      As for handling the schooner, Mulford saw no great difficulty in that. She
+      was not large, and was both lightly sparred and lightly rigged. All her
+      top-hamper had been taken down by Spike, and nothing remained but the
+      plainest and most readily-managed gear. A fore-and-aft vessel, sailing
+      close by the wind, is not difficult to steer; will almost steer herself,
+      indeed, in smooth water. Jack Tier could take his trick at the helm, in
+      any weather, even in running before the wind, the time when it is most
+      difficult to guide a craft, and Rose might be made to understand the use
+      of the tiller, and taught to govern the motions of a vessel so small and
+      so simply rigged, when on a wind and in smooth water. On the score of
+      managing the schooner, therefore, Mulford thought there would be little
+      cause for apprehension. Should the weather continue settled, he had little
+      doubt of safely landing the whole party at Key West, in the course of the
+      next four-and-twenty hours. Short sail he should be obliged to carry, as
+      well on account of the greater facility of managing it, as on account of
+      the circumstance that the schooner was now in light ballast trim, and
+      would not bear much canvas. He thought that the sooner they left the
+      islets the better, as it could not be long ere the brig would be seen
+      hovering around the spot. All these matters were discussed as the party
+      still sat at table; and when they left it, which was a few minutes later,
+      it was to remove the effects they intended to carry away to the boat. This
+      was soon done, both Jack Tier and Biddy proving very serviceable, while
+      Rose tripped backward and forward, with a step elastic as a gazelle's,
+      carrying light burdens. In half an hour the boat was ready. &ldquo;Here lies the
+      bag of doubloons still,&rdquo; said Mulford, smiling. &ldquo;Is it to be left, or
+      shall we give it up to the admiralty court at Key West, and put in a claim
+      for salvage?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better leave it for Spike,&rdquo; said Jack unexpectedly. &ldquo;Should he come back,
+      and find the doubloons, he may be satisfied, and not look for the
+      schooner. On the other hand, when the vessel is missing, he will think
+      that the money is in her. Better leave it for old Stephen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not agree with you, Tier,&rdquo; said Rose, though she looked as amicably
+      at the steward's assistant, as she thus opposed his opinion, as if anxious
+      to persuade rather than coerce. &ldquo;I do not quite agree with you. This money
+      belongs to the Spanish merchant; and, as we take away with us his vessel,
+      to give it up to the authorities at Key West, I do not think we have a
+      right to put his gold on the shore and abandon it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This disposed of the question. Mulford took the bag, and carried it to the
+      boat, without waiting to ascertain if Jack had any objection; while the
+      whole party followed. In a few minutes everybody and everything in the
+      boat were transferred to the deck of the schooner. As for the tent, the
+      old sails of which it was made, the furniture it contained, and such
+      articles of provisions as were not wanted, they were left on the islet,
+      without regret. The schooner had several casks of fresh water, which were
+      found in her hold, and she had also a cask or two of salted meats, besides
+      several articles of food more delicate, that had been provided by Se¤or
+      Montefalderon for his own use, and which had not been damaged by the
+      water. A keg of Boston crackers were among these eatables, quite half of
+      which were still in a state to be eaten. They were Biddy's delight; and it
+      was seldom that she could be seen when not nibbling at one of them. The
+      bread of the crew was hopelessly damaged. But Jack had made an ample
+      provision of bread when sent ashore, and there was still a hundred barrels
+      of the flour in the schooner's hold. One of these had been hoisted on deck
+      by Mulford, and opened. The injured flour was easily removed, leaving a
+      considerable quantity fit for the uses of the kitchen. As for the keg of
+      gunpowder, it was incontinently committed to the deep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus provided for, Mulford decided that the time had arrived when he ought
+      to quit his anchorage. He had been employed most of that morning in
+      getting the schooner's anchor, a work of great toil to him, though
+      everybody had assisted. He had succeeded, and the vessel now rode by a
+      kedge, that he could easily weigh by means of a deck tackle. It remained
+      now, therefore, to lift this kedge and to stand out of the bay of the
+      islets. No sooner was the boat secured astern, and its freight disposed
+      of, than the mate began to make sail. In order to hoist the mainsail well
+      up, he was obliged to carry the halyards to the windlass. Thus aided, he
+      succeeded without much difficulty. He and Jack Tier and Biddy got the jib
+      hoisted by hand; and as for the fore-sail, that would almost set itself.
+      Of course, it was not touched until the kedge was aweigh. Mulford found
+      little difficulty in lifting the last, and he soon had the satisfaction of
+      finding his craft clear of the ground. As Jack Tier was every way
+      competent to take charge of the forecastle, Mulford now sprang aft, and
+      took his own station at the helm; Rose acting as his pretty assistant on
+      the quarter-deck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is little mystery in getting a fore-and-aft vessel under way. Her
+      sails fill almost as a matter of course, and motion follows as a necessary
+      law. Thus did it prove with the Mexican schooner, which turned out to be a
+      fast-sailing and an easily-worked craft. She was, indeed, an American
+      bottom, as it is termed, having been originally built for the Chesapeake;
+      and, though not absolutely what is understood by a Baltimore clipper, so
+      nearly of that mould and nature as to possess some of the more essential
+      qualities. As usually happens, however, when a foreigner gets hold of an
+      American schooner, the Mexicans had shortened her masts and lessened her
+      canvas. This circumstance was rather an advantage to Mulford, who would
+      probably have had more to attend to than he wished under the original rig
+      of the craft.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody, even to the fastidious Mrs. Budd, was delighted with the easy
+      and swift movement of the schooner. Mulford, now he had got her under
+      canvas, handled her without any difficulty, letting her stand toward the
+      channel through which he intended to pass, with her sheets just taken in,
+      though compelled to keep a little off, in order to enter between the
+      islets. No difficulty occurred, however, and in less than ten minutes the
+      vessel was clear of the channels, and in open water. The sheets were now
+      flattened in, and the schooner brought close by the wind. A trial of the
+      vessel on this mode of sailing was no sooner made, than Mulford was
+      induced to regret he had taken so many precautions against any increasing
+      power of the wind. To meet emergencies, and under the notion he should
+      have his craft more under command, the young man had reefed his mainsail,
+      and taken the bonnets off of the foresail and jib. As the schooner stood
+      up better than he had anticipated, the mate felt as all seamen are so apt
+      to feel, when they see that their vessels might be made to perform more
+      than is actually got out of them. As the breeze was fresh, however, he
+      determined not to let out the reef; and the labour of lacing on the
+      bonnets again was too great to be thought of just at that moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We all find relief on getting in motion, when pressed by circumstances.
+      Mulford had been in great apprehension of the re-appearance of the Swash
+      all that day; for it was about the time when Spike would be apt to return,
+      in the event of his escaping from the sloop-of-war, and he dreaded Rose's
+      again falling into the hands of a man so desperate. Nor is it imputing
+      more than a very natural care to the young man, to say that he had some
+      misgivings concerning himself. Spike, by this time, must be convinced that
+      his business in the Gulf was known; and one who had openly thrown off his
+      service, as his mate had done, would unquestionably be regarded as a
+      traitor to his interests, whatever might be the relation in which he would
+      stand to the laws of the country. It was probable such an alleged offender
+      would not be allowed to appear before the tribunals of the land, to
+      justify himself and to accuse the truly guilty, if it were in the power of
+      the last to prevent it. Great, therefore, was the satisfaction of our
+      handsome young mate when he found himself again fairly in motion, with a
+      craft under him, that glided ahead in a way to prove that she might give
+      even the Swash some trouble to catch her, in the event of a trial of
+      speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody entered into the feelings of Mulford, as the schooner passed
+      gallantly out from between the islets, and entered the open water. Fathom
+      by fathom did her wake rapidly increase, until it could no longer be
+      traced back as far as the sandy beaches that had just been left. In a
+      quarter of an hour more, the vessel had drawn so far from the land, that
+      some of the smaller and lowest of the islets were getting to be
+      indistinct. At that instant everybody had come aft, the females taking
+      their seats on the trunk, which, in this vessel as in the Swash herself,
+      gave space and height to the cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; exclaimed Mrs. Budd, who found the freshness of the sea air
+      invigorating, as well as their speed exciting, &ldquo;this is what I call
+      maritime, Rosy, dear. This is what is meant by the Maritime States, about
+      which we read so much, and which are commonly thought to be so important.
+      We are now in a Maritime State, and I feel perfectly happy after all our
+      dangers and adventures!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, aunty, and I am delighted that you are happy,&rdquo; answered Rose, with
+      frank affection. &ldquo;We are now rid of that infamous Spike, and may hope
+      never to see his face more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stephen Spike has his good p'ints as well as another,&rdquo; said Jack Tier,
+      abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know that he is an old shipmate of yours, Tier, and that you cannot
+      forget how he once stood connected with you, and am sorry I have said so
+      much against him,&rdquo; answered Rose, expressing her concern even more by her
+      looks and tones, than by her words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack was mollified by this, and he let his feeling be seen, though he said
+      no more than to mutter, &ldquo;He's a willian!&rdquo; words that had frequently issued
+      from his lips within the last day or two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stephen Spike is a capital seaman, and that is something in any man,&rdquo;
+       observed the relict of Captain Budd. &ldquo;He learned his trade from one who
+      was every way qualified to teach him, and it's no wonder he should be
+      expert. Do you expect, Mr. Mulford, to beat the wind the whole distance to
+      Key West?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not possible for any one to look more grave than the mate did
+      habitually, while the widow was floundering through her sea-terms. Rose
+      had taught him that respect for her aunt was to be one of the conditions
+      of her own regard, though Rose had never opened her lips to him on the
+      subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, ma'am,&rdquo; answered the mate, respectfully, &ldquo;we are in the trades, and
+      shall have to turn to windward, every inch of the way to Key West.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of what lock is this place the key, Rosy?&rdquo; asked the aunt, innocently
+      enough. &ldquo;I know that forts and towns are sometimes called keys, but they
+      always have locks of some sort or other. Now, Gibraltar is the key of the
+      Mediterranean, as your uncle has told me fifty times; and I have been
+      there, and can understand why it should be,&mdash;but I do not know of
+      what lock this West is the key.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not that sort of key which is meant, aunty, at all&mdash;but quite
+      a different thing. The key meant is an island.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why should any one be so silly as to call an island a key?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The place where vessels unload is sometimes called a key,&rdquo; answered
+      Mulford;&mdash;&ldquo;the French calling it a quai, and the Dutch kaye. I
+      suppose our English word is derived from these. Now, a low, sandy island,
+      looking somewhat like keys, or wharves, seamen have given them this name.
+      Key West is merely a low island.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then there is no lock to it, or anything to be unfastened,&rdquo; said the
+      widow, in her most simple manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may turn out to be the key to the Gulf of Mexico, one of these days,
+      ma'am. Uncle Sam is surveying the reef, and intends to do something here,
+      I believe. When Uncle Sam is really in earnest, he is capable of
+      performing great things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Budd was satisfied with this explanation, though she told Biddy that
+      evening, that &ldquo;locks and keys go together, and that the person who
+      christened the island to which they were going, must have been very weak
+      in his upper story.&rdquo; But these reflections on the intellects of her
+      fellow-creatures were by no means uncommon with the worthy relict; and we
+      cannot say that her remarks made any particular impression on her Irish
+      maid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time, the Mexican schooner behaved quite to Mulford's
+      satisfaction. He thought her a little tender in the squalls, of which they
+      had several that afternoon; but he remarked to Rose, who expressed her
+      uneasiness at the manner in which the vessel lay over in one of them, that
+      &ldquo;she comes down quite easy to her bearings, but it is hard forcing her
+      beyond them. The vessel needs more cargo to ballast her, though, on the
+      whole, I find her as stiff as one could expect. I am now glad that I
+      reefed, and reduced the head sails, though I was sorry at having done so
+      when we first came out. At this rate of sailing, we ought to be up with
+      Key West by morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But that rate of sailing did not continue. Toward evening, the breeze
+      lessened almost to a calm again, the late tornado appearing to have quite
+      deranged the ordinary stability of the trades. When the sun set, and it
+      went down into the broad waters of the Gulf a flood of flame, there was
+      barely a two-knot breeze, and Mulford had no longer any anxiety on the
+      subject of keeping his vessel on her legs. His solicitude, now, was
+      confined to the probability of falling in with the Swash. As yet, nothing
+      was visible, either in the shape of land or in that of a sail. Between the
+      islets of the Dry Tortugas and the next nearest visible keys, there is a
+      space of open water, of some forty miles in width. The reef extends across
+      it, of course; but nowhere does the rock protrude itself above the surface
+      of the sea. The depth of water on this reef varies essentially. In some
+      places, a ship of size might pass on to it, if not across it; while in
+      others a man could wade for miles. There is one deep and safe channel&mdash;safe
+      to those who are acquainted with it&mdash;through the centre of this open
+      space, and which is sometimes used by vessels that wish to pass from one
+      side to the other; but it is ever better for those whose business does not
+      call them in that direction, to give the rocks a good berth, more
+      especially in the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford had gleaned many of the leading facts connected with the channels,
+      and the navigation of those waters, from Spike and the older seamen of the
+      brig, during the time they had been lying at the Tortugas. Such questions
+      and answers are common enough on board ships, and, as they are usually put
+      and given with intelligence, one of our mate's general knowledge of his
+      profession, was likely to carry away much useful information. By
+      conversations of this nature, and by consulting the charts, which Spike
+      did not affect to conceal after the name of his port became known, the
+      young man, in fact, had so far made himself master of the subject, as to
+      have tolerably accurate notions of the courses, distances, and general
+      peculiarities of the reef. When the sun went down, he supposed himself to
+      be about half-way across the space of open water, and some five-and-twenty
+      miles dead to windward of his port of departure. This was doing very well
+      for the circumstances, and Mulford believed himself and his companions
+      clear of spike, when, as night drew its veil over the tranquil sea,
+      nothing was in sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A very judicious arrangement was made for the watches on board the Mexican
+      schooner, on this important night. Mrs. Budd had a great fancy to keep a
+      watch, for once in her life, and, after the party had supped, and the
+      subject came up in the natural course of things, a dialogue like this
+      occurred:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Harry must be fatigued,&rdquo; said Rose, kindly, &ldquo;and must want sleep. The
+      wind is so light, and the weather appears to be so settled, that I think
+      it would be better for him to 'turn in,' as he calls it;&rdquo;&mdash;here Rose
+      laughed so prettily that the handsome mate wished she would repeat the
+      words,&mdash;&ldquo;better that he should 'turn in' now, and we can call him,
+      should there be need of his advice or assistance. I dare say Jack Tier and
+      I can take very good care of the schooner until daylight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Budd thought it would be no more than proper for one of her
+      experience and years to rebuke this levity, as well as to enlighten the
+      ignorance her niece had betrayed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You should be cautious, my child, how you propose anything to be done on
+      a ship's board,&rdquo; observed the aunt. &ldquo;It requires great experience and a
+      suitable knowledge of rigging to give maritime advice. Now, as might have
+      been expected, considering your years, and the short time you have been at
+      sea, you have made several serious mistakes in what you have proposed. In
+      the first place, there should always be a mate on the deck, as I have
+      heard your dear departed uncle say, again and again; and how can there be
+      a mate on the deck if Mr. Mulford 'turns in,' as you propose, seeing that
+      he's the only mate we have. Then you should never laugh at any maritime
+      expression, for each and all are, as a body might say, solemnized by
+      storms and dangers. That Harry is fatigued I think is very probable; and
+      he must set our watches, as they call it, when he can make his
+      arrangements for the night, and take his rest as is usual. Here is my
+      watch to begin with; and I'll engage he does not find it two minutes out
+      of the way, though yours, Rosy dear, like most girl's time-pieces, is,
+      I'll venture to say, dreadfully wrong. Where is your chronometer, Mr.
+      Mulford? let us see how this excellent watch of mine, which was once my
+      poor departed Mr. Budd's, will agree with that piece of your's, which I
+      have heard you say is excellent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here was a flight in science and nautical language that poor Mulford could
+      not have anticipated, even in the captain's relict! That Mrs. Budd should
+      mistake &ldquo;setting the watch&rdquo; for &ldquo;setting our watches,&rdquo; was not so very
+      violent a blunder that one ought to be much astonished at it in her; but
+      that she should expect to find a chronometer that was intended to keep the
+      time of Greenwich, agreeing with a watch that was set for the time of New
+      York, betrayed a degree of ignorance that the handsome mate was afraid
+      Rose would resent on him, when the mistake was made to appear. As the
+      widow held out her own watch for the comparison, however, he could not
+      refuse to produce his own. By Mrs. Budd's watch it was past seven o'clock,
+      while by his own, or the Greenwich-set chronometer, it was a little past
+      twelve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How very wrong your watch is, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo; cried the good lady,
+      &ldquo;notwithstanding all you have said in its favour. It's quite five hours
+      too fast, I do declare; and now, Rosy dear, you see the importance of
+      setting watches on a ship's board, as is done every evening, my departed
+      husband has often told me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Harry's must be what he calls a dog-watch, aunty,&rdquo; said Rose, laughing,
+      though she scarce knew at what.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The watch goes, too,&rdquo; added the widow, raising the chronometer to her
+      ear, &ldquo;though it is so very wrong. Well, set it, Mr. Mulford; then we will
+      set Rose's, which I'll engage is half an hour out of the way, though it
+      can never be as wrong as yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford was a good deal embarrassed, but he gained courage by looking at
+      Rose, who appeared to him to be quite as much mystified as her aunt. For
+      once he hoped Rose was ignorant; for nothing would be so likely to
+      diminish the feeling produced by the exposure of the aunt's mistake, as to
+      include the niece in the same category.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My watch is a chronometer, you will recollect, Mrs. Budd,&rdquo; said the young
+      man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it; and they ought to keep the very best time&mdash;that I've
+      always heard. My poor Mr. Budd had two, and they were as large as
+      compasses, and sold for hundreds after his lamented decease.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They were ship's chronometers, but mine was made for the pocket. It is
+      true, chronometers are intended to keep the most accurate time, and
+      usually they do; this of mine, in particular, would not lose ten seconds
+      in a twelvemonth, did I not carry it on my person.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, it does not seem to lose any, Harry; it only gains,&rdquo; cried Rose,
+      laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford was now satisfied, notwithstanding all that had passed on a
+      previous occasion, that the laughing, bright-eyed, and quick-witted girl
+      at his elbow, knew no more of the uses of a chronometer than her unusually
+      dull and ignorant aunt; and he felt himself relieved from all
+      embarrassment at once. Though he dared not even seem to distrust Mrs.
+      Budd's intellect or knowledge before Rose, he did not scruple to laugh at
+      Rose herself, to Rose. With her there was no jealousy on the score of
+      capacity, her quickness being almost as obvious to all who approached her
+      as her beauty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rose Budd, you do not understand the uses of a chronometer, I see,&rdquo; said
+      the mate, firmly, &ldquo;notwithstanding all I have told you concerning them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is to keep time, Harry Mulford, is it not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True, to keep time&mdash;but to keep the time of a particular meridian;
+      you know what meridian means, I hope?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose looked intently at her lover, and she looked singularly lovely, for
+      she blushed slightly, though her smile was as open and amicable as
+      ingenuousness and affection could make it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A meridian means a point over our heads&mdash;the spot where the sun is
+      at noon,&rdquo; said Rose, doubtingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite right; but it also means longitude, in one sense. If you draw a
+      line from one pole to the other, all the places it crosses are on the same
+      meridian. As the sun first appears in the east, it follows that he rises
+      sooner in places that are east, than in places that are further west. Thus
+      it is, that at Greenwich, in England, where there is an observatory made
+      for nautical purposes, the sun rises about five hours sooner than it does
+      here. All this difference is subject to rules, and we know exactly how to
+      measure it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can that be, Harry? You told me this but the other day, yet have I
+      forgotten it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite easily. As the earth turns round in just twenty-four hours, and its
+      circumference is divided into three hundred and sixty equal parts, called
+      degrees, we have only to divide 360 by 24, to know how many of these
+      degrees are included in the difference produced by one hour of time. There
+      are just fifteen of them, as you will find by multiplying 24 by 15. It
+      follows that the sun rises just one hour later, each fifteen degrees of
+      longitude, as you go west, or one hour earlier each fifteen degrees of
+      longitude as you go east. Having ascertained the difference by the hour,
+      it is easy enough to calculate for the minutes and seconds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; said Rose, eagerly, &ldquo;I see all that&mdash;go on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now a chronometer is nothing but a watch, made with great care, so as not
+      to lose or gain more than a few seconds in a twelvemonth. Its whole merit
+      is in keeping time accurately.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still I do not see how that can be anything more than a very good watch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will see in a minute, Rose. For purposes that you will presently
+      understand, books are calculated for certain meridians, or longitudes, as
+      at Greenwich and Paris, and those who use the books calculated for
+      Greenwich, get their chronometers set at Greenwich, and those who use the
+      Paris, get their chronometers set to Paris time. When I was last in
+      England, I took this watch to Greenwich, and had it set at the Observatory
+      by the true solar time. Ever since it has been running by that time, and
+      what you see here is the true Greenwich time, after allowing for a second
+      or two that it may have lost or gained.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All that is plain enough,&rdquo; said the much interested Rose&mdash;&ldquo;but of
+      what use is it all?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To help mariners to find their longitude at sea, and thus know where they
+      are. As the sun passes so far north, and so far south of the equator each
+      year, it is easy enough to find the latitude, by observing his position at
+      noon-day; but for a long time seamen had great difficulty in ascertaining
+      their longitudes. That, too, is done by observing the different heavenly
+      bodies, and with greater accuracy than by any other process; but this
+      thought of measuring the time is very simple, and so easily put in
+      practice, that we all run by it now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still I cannot understand it,&rdquo; said Rose, looking so intently, so
+      eagerly, and so intelligently into the handsome mate's eyes, that he found
+      it was pleasant to teach her other things besides how to love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will explain it. Having the Greenwich time in the watch, we observe the
+      sun, in order to ascertain the true time, wherever we may happen to be. It
+      is a simple thing to ascertain the true time of day by an observation of
+      the sun, which marks the hours in his track; and when we get our
+      observation, we have some one to note the time at a particular instant on
+      the chronometer. By noting the hour, minutes, and seconds, at Greenwich,
+      at the very instant we observe here, when we have calculated from that
+      observation the time here, we have only to add, or subtract, the time here
+      from that of Greenwich, to know precisely how far east or west we are from
+      Greenwich, which gives us our longitude.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I begin to comprehend it again,&rdquo; exclaimed Rose, delighted at the
+      acquisition in knowledge she had just made. &ldquo;How beautiful it is, yet how
+      simple&mdash;but why do I forget it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perfectly simple, and perfectly sure, too, when the chronometer is
+      accurate, and the observations are nicely made. It is seldom we are more
+      than eight or ten miles out of the way, and for them we keep a look-out.
+      It is only to ascertain the time where you are, by means that are easily
+      used, then look at your watch to learn the time of day at Greenwich, or
+      any other meridian you may have selected, and to calculate your distance,
+      east or west, from that meridian, by the difference in the two times.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose could have listened all night, for her quick mind readily
+      comprehended the principle which lies at the bottom of this useful
+      process, though still ignorant of some of the details. This time she was
+      determined to secure her acquisition, though it is quite probable that,
+      woman-like, they were once more lost, almost as easily as made. Mulford,
+      however, was obliged to leave her, to look at the vessel, before he
+      stretched himself on the deck, in an old sail; it having been previously
+      determined that he should sleep first, while the wind was light, and that
+      Jack Tier, assisted by the females, should keep the first watch. Rose
+      would not detain the mate, therefore, but let him go his way, in order to
+      see that all was right before he took his rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Budd had listened to Mulford's second explanation of the common mode
+      of ascertaining the longitude, with all the attention of which she was
+      capable; but it far exceeded the powers of her mind to comprehend it.
+      There are persons who accustom themselves to think so superficially, that
+      it becomes a painful process to attempt to dive into any of the arcana of
+      nature, and who ever turn from such investigations wearied and disgusted.
+      Many of these persons, perhaps most of them, need only a little patience
+      and perseverance to comprehend all the more familiar phenomena, but they
+      cannot command even that much of the two qualities named to obtain the
+      knowledge they would fain wish to possess. Mrs. Budd did not belong to a
+      division as high in the intellectual scale as even this vapid class. Her
+      intellect was unequal to embracing anything of an abstracted character,
+      and only received the most obvious impressions, and those quite half the
+      time it received wrong. The mate's reasoning, therefore, was not only
+      inexplicable to her, but it sounded absurd and impossible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rosy, dear,&rdquo; said the worthy relict, as soon as she saw Mulford stretch
+      his fine frame on his bed of canvas, speaking at the same time in a low,
+      confidential tone to her niece, &ldquo;what was it that Harry was telling you a
+      little while ago? It sounded to me like rank nonsense; and men will talk
+      nonsense to young girls, as I have so often warned you, child. You must
+      never listen to their nonsense, Rosy; but remember your catechism and
+      confirmation vow, and be a good girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To how many of the feeble-minded and erring do those offices of the church
+      prove a stay and support, when their own ordinary powers of resistance
+      would fail them! Rose, however, viewed the matter just as it was, and
+      answered accordingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this was nothing of that nature, aunty,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and only an
+      account of the mode of finding out where a ship is, when out of sight of
+      land, in the middle of the ocean. We had the same subject up the other
+      day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how did Harry tell you, this time, that was done, my dear?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By finding the difference in the time of day between two places&mdash;just
+      as he did before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But there is no difference in the time of day, child, when the clocks go
+      well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, there is, aunty dear, as the sun rises in one place before it does
+      in another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rose you've been listening to nonsense now! Remember what I have so often
+      told you about young men, and their way of talking. I admit Harry Mulford
+      is a respectable youth, and has respectable connections, and since you
+      like one another, you may have him, with all my heart, as soon as he gets
+      a full-jiggered ship, for I am resolved no niece of my poor dear husband's
+      shall ever marry a mate, or a captain even, unless he has a full-jiggered
+      ship under his feet. But do not talk nonsense with him. Nonsense is
+      nonsense, though a sensible man talks it. As for all this stuff about the
+      time of day, you can see it is nonsense, as the sun rises but once in
+      twenty-four hours, and of course there cannot be two times, as you call
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, aunty dear, it is not always noon at London when it is noon at New
+      York.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fiddle-faddle, child; noon is noon, and there are no more two noons than
+      two suns, or two times. Distrust what young men tell you, Rosy, if you
+      would be safe, though they should tell you you are handsome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Rose sighed, and gave up the explanation in despair. Then a smile
+      played around her pretty mouth. It was not at her aunt that she smiled;
+      this she never permitted herself to do, weak as was that person, and weak
+      as she saw her to be; she smiled at the recollection how often Mulford had
+      hinted at her good looks&mdash;for Rose was a female, and had her own
+      weaknesses, as well as another. But the necessity of acting soon drove
+      these thoughts from her mind, and Rose sought Jack Tier, to confer with
+      him on the subject of their new duties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Harry Mulford, his head was no sooner laid on its bunch of sail
+      than he fell into a profound sleep. There he lay, slumbering as the seaman
+      slumbers, with no sense of surrounding things. The immense fatigues of
+      that and of the two preceding days,&mdash;for he had toiled at the pumps
+      even long after night had come, until the vessel was clear,&mdash;weighed
+      him down, and nature was now claiming her influence, and taking a respite
+      from exertion. Had he been left to himself, it is probable the mate would
+      not have arisen until the sun had reappeared some hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is now necessary to explain more minutely the precise condition, as
+      well as the situation of the schooner. On quitting his port, Mulford had
+      made a stretch of some two leagues in length, toward the northward and
+      eastward, when he tacked and stood to the southward. There was enough of
+      southing in the wind, to make his last course nearly due south. As he
+      neared the reef, he found that he fell in some miles to the eastward of
+      the islets,&mdash;proof that he was doing very well, and that there was no
+      current to do him any material harm, if, indeed, there were not actually a
+      current in his favour. He next tacked to the northward again, and stood in
+      that direction until near night, when he once more went about. The wind
+      was now so light that he saw little prospect of getting in with the reef
+      again, until the return of day; but as he had left orders with Jack Tier
+      to be called at twelve o'clock, at all events, this gave him no
+      uneasiness. At the time when the mate lay down to take his rest,
+      therefore, the schooner was quite five-and-twenty miles to windward of the
+      Dry Tortugas, and some twenty miles to the northward of the Florida Reef,
+      with the wind quite light at east-south-east. Such, then, was the position
+      or situation of the schooner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As respects her condition, it is easily described. She had but the three
+      sails bent,&mdash;mainsail, foresail, and jib. Her topmasts had been
+      struck, and all the hamper that belonged to them was below. The mainsail
+      was single reefed, and the foresail and jib were without their bonnets, as
+      has already been mentioned. This was somewhat short canvas, but Mulford
+      knew that it would render his craft more manageable in the event of a
+      blow. Usually, at that season and in that region, the east trades
+      prevailed with great steadiness, sometimes diverging a little south of
+      east, as at present, and generally blowing fresh. But, for a short time
+      previously to, and ever since the tornado, the wind had been unsettled,
+      the old currents appearing to regain their ascendancy by fits, and then
+      losing it, in squalls, contrary currents, and even by short calms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conference between Jack Tier and Rose was frank and confidential.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must depend mainly on you,&rdquo; said the latter, turning to look toward
+      the spot where Mulford lay, buried in the deepest sleep that had ever
+      gained power over him. &ldquo;Harry is so fatigued! It would be shameful to
+      awaken him a moment sooner than is necessary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay; so it is always with young women, when they lets a young man gain
+      their ears,&rdquo; answered Jack, without the least circumlocution; &ldquo;so it is,
+      and so it always will be, I'm afeard. Nevertheless, men is willians.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose was not affronted at this plain allusion to the power that Mulford
+      had obtained over her feelings. It would seem that Jack had got to be so
+      intimate in the cabins, that his sex was, in a measure, forgotten; and it
+      is certain that his recent services were not. Without a question, but for
+      his interference, the pretty Rose Budd would, at that moment, have been
+      the prisoner of Spike, and most probably the victim of his design to
+      compel her to marry him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All men are not Stephen Spikes,&rdquo; said Rose, earnestly, &ldquo;and least of all
+      is Harry Mulford to be reckoned as one of his sort. But, we must manage to
+      take care of the schooner the whole night, and let Harry get his rest. He
+      wished to be called at twelve, but we can easily let the hour go by, and
+      not awaken him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The commanding officer ought not to be sarved so, Miss Rose. What he says
+      is to be done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it, Jack, as to ordinary matters; but Harry left these orders that
+      we might have our share of rest, and for no other reason at all. And what
+      is to prevent our having it? We are four, and can divide ourselves into
+      two watches; one watch can sleep while the other keeps a look-out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, and pretty watches they would be! There's Madam Budd, now; why,
+      she's quite a navigator, and knows all about weerin' and haulin', and I
+      dares to say could put the schooner about, to keep her off the reef, on a
+      pinch; though which way the craft would come round, could best be told
+      a'ter it has been done. It's as much as I'd undertake myself, Miss Rose,
+      to take care of the schooner, should it come on to blow; and as for you,
+      Madam Budd, and that squalling Irishwoman, you'd be no better than so many
+      housewives ashore.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have strength, and we have courage, and we can pull, as you have seen.
+      I know very well which way to put the helm now, and Biddy is as strong as
+      you are yourself, and could help me all I wished. Then we could always
+      call you, at need, and have your assistance. Nay, Harry himself can be
+      called, if there should be a real necessity for it, and I do wish he may
+      not be disturbed until there is that necessity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was with a good deal of reluctance that Jack allowed himself to be
+      persuaded into this scheme. He insisted, for a long time, that an officer
+      should be called at the hour mentioned by himself, and declared he had
+      never known such an order neglected, &ldquo;marchant-man, privateer, or
+      man-of-war.&rdquo; Rose prevailed over his scruples, however, and there was a
+      meeting of the three females to make the final arrangements. Mrs. Budd, a
+      kind-hearted woman, at the worst, gave her assent most cheerfully, though
+      Rose was a little startled with the nature of the reasoning, with which it
+      was accompanied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are quite right, Rosy dear,&rdquo; said the aunt, &ldquo;and the thing is very
+      easily done. I've long wanted to keep one watch, at sea; just one watch;
+      to complete my maritime education. Your poor uncle used to say, 'Give my
+      wife but one night-watch, and you'd have as good a seaman in her as heart
+      could wish.' I'm sure I've had night-watches enough with him and his
+      ailings; but it seems that they were not the sort of watches he meant.
+      Indeed, I did n't know till this evening there were so many watches in the
+      world, at all. But this is just what I want, and just what I'm resolved to
+      have. Tier shall command one watch and I'll command the other. Jack's
+      shall be the 'dog-watch,' as they call it, and mine shall be the
+      'middle-watch,' and last till morning. You shall be in Jack's watch, Rose,
+      and Biddy shall be in mine. You know a good deal that Jack do n't know,
+      and Biddy can do a good deal I'm rather too stout to do. I do n't like
+      pulling ropes, but as for ordering, I'll turn my back on no captain's
+      widow out of York.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose had her own misgivings on the subject of her aunt's issuing orders on
+      such a subject to any one, but she made the best of necessity, and
+      completed the arrangements without further discussion. Her great anxiety
+      was to secure a good night's rest for Harry, already feeling a woman's
+      care in the comfort and ease of the man she loved. And Rose did love Harry
+      Mulford warmly and sincerely. If the very decided preference with which
+      she regarded him before they sailed, had not absolutely amounted to
+      passion, it had come so very near it as to render that access of feeling
+      certain, under the influence of the association and events which
+      succeeded. We have not thought it necessary to relate a tithe of the
+      interviews and intercourse that had taken place between the handsome mate
+      and the pretty Rose Budd, during the month they had now been shipmates,
+      having left the reader to imagine the natural course of things, under such
+      circumstances. Nevertheless, the plighted troth had not been actually
+      given until Harry joined her on the islet, at a moment when she fancied
+      herself abandoned to a fate almost as serious as death. Rose had seen
+      Mulford quit the brig, had watched the mode and manner of his escape, and
+      in almost breathless amazement, and felt how dear to her he had become, by
+      the glow of delight which warmed her heart, when assured that he could
+      not, would not, forsake her, even though he remained at the risk of life.
+      She was now, true to the instinct of her sex, mostly occupied in making
+      such a return for an attachment so devoted as became her tenderness and
+      the habits of her mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Mrs. Budd chose what she was pleased to term the 'middle-watch,' giving
+      to Jack Tier and Rose her 'dog-watch,' the two last were first on duty. It
+      is scarcely necessary to say, the captain's widow got the names of the
+      watches all wrong, as she got the names of everything else about a vessel;
+      but the plan was to divide the night equally between these quasi mariners,
+      giving the first half to those who were first on the look-out, and the
+      remainder to their successors. It soon became so calm, that Jack left the
+      helm, and came and sat by Rose, on the trunk, where they conversed
+      confidentially for a long time. Although the reader will, hereafter, be
+      enabled to form some plausible conjectures on the subject of this
+      dialogue, we shall give him no part of it here. All that need now be said,
+      is to add, that Jack did most of the talking, that his past life was the
+      principal theme, and that the terrible Stephen Spike, he from whom they
+      were now so desirous of escaping, was largely mixed up with the adventures
+      recounted. Jack found in his companion a deeply interested listener,
+      although this was by no means the first time they had gone over together
+      the same story and discussed the same events. The conversation lasted
+      until Tier, who watched the glass, seeing that its sands had run out for
+      the last time, announced the hour of midnight. This was the moment when
+      Mulford should have been called, but when Mrs. Budd and Biddy Noon were
+      actually awakened in his stead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, dear aunty,&rdquo; said Rose, as she parted from the new watch to go and
+      catch a little sleep herself, &ldquo;remember you are not to awaken Harry first,
+      but to call Tier and myself. It would have done your heart good to have
+      seen how sweetly he has been sleeping all this time. I do not think he has
+      stirred once since his head was laid on that bunch of sails, and there he
+      is, at this moment, sleeping like an infant!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; returned the relict, &ldquo;it is always so with your true maritime
+      people. I have been sleeping a great deal more soundly, the whole of the
+      dog-watch, than I ever slept at home, in my own excellent bed. But it's
+      your watch below, Rosy, and contrary to rule for you to stay on the deck,
+      after you've been relieved. I've heard this a thousand times.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose was not sorry to lie down; and her head was scarcely on its pillow,
+      in the cabin, before she was fast asleep. As for Jack, he found a place
+      among Mulford's sails, and was quickly in the same state.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To own the truth, Mrs. Budd was not quite as much at ease, in her new
+      station, for the first half hour, as she had fancied to herself might
+      prove to be the case. It was a flat calm, it is true; but the widow felt
+      oppressed with responsibility and the novelty of her situation. Time and
+      again had she said, and even imagined, she should be delighted to fill the
+      very station she then occupied, or to be in charge of a deck, in a &ldquo;middle
+      watch.&rdquo; In this instance, however, as in so many others, reality did not
+      equal anticipation. She wished to be doing everything, but did not know
+      how to do anything. As for Biddy, she was even worse off than her
+      mistress. A month's experience, or for that matter a twelvemonth's, could
+      not unravel to her the mysteries of even a schooner's rigging. Mrs. Budd
+      had placed her &ldquo;at the wheel,&rdquo; as she called it, though the vessel had no
+      wheel, being steered by a tiller on deck, in the 'long-shore fashion. In
+      stationing Biddy, the widow told her that she was to play &ldquo;tricks at the
+      wheel,&rdquo; leaving it to the astounded Irish woman's imagination to discover
+      what those tricks were. Failing in ascertaining what might be the nature
+      of her &ldquo;tricks at the wheel,&rdquo; Biddy was content to do nothing, and
+      nothing, under the circumstances, was perhaps the very best thing she
+      could have done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Little was required to be done for the first four hours of Mrs. Budd's
+      watch. All that time, Rose slept in her berth, and Mulford and Jack Tier
+      on their sail, while Biddy had played the wheel a &ldquo;trick,&rdquo; indeed, by
+      lying down on deck, and sleeping, too, as soundly as if she were in the
+      county Down itself. But there was to be an end of this tranquillity.
+      Suddenly the wind began to blow. At first, the breeze came in fitful
+      puffs, which were neither very strong nor very lasting. This induced Mrs.
+      Budd to awaken Biddy. Luckily, a schooner without a topsail could not very
+      well be taken aback, especially as the head-sheets worked on travellers,
+      and Mrs. Budd and her assistant contrived to manage the tiller very well
+      for the first hour that these varying puffs of wind lasted. It is true,
+      the tiller was lashed, and it is also true, the schooner ran in all
+      directions, having actually headed to all the cardinal points of the
+      compass, under her present management. At length, Mrs. Budd became
+      alarmed. A puff of wind came so strong, as to cause the vessel to lie over
+      so far as to bring the water into the lee scuppers. She called Jack Tier
+      herself, therefore, and sent Biddy down to awaken Rose. In a minute, both
+      these auxiliaries appeared on deck. The wind just then lulled, and Rose,
+      supposing her aunt was frightened at trifles, insisted on it that Harry
+      should be permitted to sleep on. He had turned over once, in the course of
+      the night, but not once had he raised his head from his pillow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as reinforced, Mrs. Budd began to bustle about, and to give
+      commands, such as they were, in order to prove that she was unterrified.
+      Jack Tier gaped at her elbow, and by way of something to do, he laid his
+      hand on the painter of the Swash's boat, which boat was towing astern, and
+      remarked that &ldquo;some know-nothing had belayed it with three half-hitches.&rdquo;
+       This was enough for the relict. She had often heard the saying that &ldquo;three
+      half-hitches lost the king's long-boat,&rdquo; and she busied herself, at once,
+      in repairing so imminent an evil. It was far easier for the good woman to
+      talk than to act; she became what is called &ldquo;all fingers and thumbs,&rdquo; and
+      in loosening the third half-hitch, she cast off the two others. At that
+      instant, a puff of wind struck the schooner again, and the end of the
+      painter got away from the widow, who had a last glimpse at the boat, as
+      the vessel darted ahead, leaving its little tender to vanish in the gloom
+      of the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack was excessively provoked at this accident, for he had foreseen the
+      possibility of having recourse to that boat yet, in order to escape from
+      Spike. By abandoning the schooner, and pulling on to the reef, it might
+      have been possible to get out of their pursuer's hands, when all other
+      means should fail them. As he was at the tiller, he put his helm up, and
+      ran off, until far enough to leeward to be to the westward of the boat,
+      when he might tack, fetch and recover it. Nevertheless, it now blew much
+      harder than he liked, for the schooner seemed to be unusually tender. Had
+      he had the force to do it, he would have brailed the foresail. He desired
+      Rose to call Mulford, but she hesitated about complying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Call him&mdash;call the mate, I say,&rdquo; cried out Jack, in a voice that
+      proved how much he was in earnest. &ldquo;These puffs come heavy, I can tell
+      you, and they come often, too. Call him&mdash;call him, at once, Miss
+      Rose, for it is time to tack if we wish to recover the boat. Tell him,
+      too, to brail the foresail, while we are in stays&mdash;that's right;
+      another call will start him up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The other call was given, aided by a gentle shake from Rose's hand. Harry
+      was on his feet in a moment. A passing instant was necessary to clear his
+      faculties, and to recover the tenor of his thoughts. During that instant,
+      the mate heard Jack Tier's shrill cry of &ldquo;Hard a-lee&mdash;get in that
+      foresail&mdash;bear a-hand&mdash;in with it, I say!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The wind came rushing and roaring, and the flaps of the canvas were
+      violent and heavy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In with the foresail, I say,&rdquo; shouted Jack Tier. &ldquo;She files round like a
+      top, and will be off the wind on the other tack presently. Bear a-hand!&mdash;bear
+      a-hand! It looks black as night to windward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford then regained all his powers. He sprang to the fore-sheet, calling
+      on the others for aid. The violent surges produced by the wind prevented
+      his grasping the sheet as soon as he could wish, and the vessel whirled
+      round on her heel, like a steed that is frightened. At that critical and
+      dangerous instant, when the schooner was nearly without motion through the
+      water, a squall struck the flattened sails, and bowed her down as the
+      willow bends to the gale. Mrs. Budd and Biddy screamed as usual, and Jack
+      shouted until his voice seemed cracked, to &ldquo;let go the head-sheets.&rdquo;
+       Mulford did make one leap forward, to execute this necessary office, when
+      the inclining plane of the deck told him it was too late. The wind fairly
+      howled for a minute, and over went the schooner, the remains of her cargo
+      shifting as she capsized, in a way to bring her very nearly bottom upward.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     1. We suppress the names used by Mrs. Budd, out of delicacy
+     to the individuals mentioned, who are still living.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Ay, fare you well, fair gentleman.
+
+  As You Like it.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      While the tyro believes the vessel is about to capsize at every puff of
+      wind, the practised seaman alone knows when danger truly besets him in
+      this particular form. Thus it was with Harry Mulford, when the Mexican
+      schooner went over, as related in the close of the preceding chapter. He
+      felt no alarm until the danger actually came. Then, indeed, no one there
+      was so quickly, or so thoroughly apprized of what the result would be, and
+      he directed all his exertions to meet the exigency. While there was the
+      smallest hope of success, he did not lessen, in the least, his endeavours
+      to save the vessel; making almost superhuman efforts to cast off the
+      fore-sheet, so as to relieve the schooner from the pressure of one of her
+      sails. But, no sooner did he hear the barrels in the hold surging to
+      leeward, and feel by the inclination of the deck beneath his feet, that
+      nothing could save the craft, than he abandoned the sheet, and sprang to
+      the assistance of Rose. It was time he did; for, having followed him into
+      the vessel's lee-waist, she was the first to be submerged in the sea, and
+      would have been hopelessly drowned, but for Mulford's timely succour.
+      Women might swim more readily than men, and do so swim, in those portions
+      of the world where the laws of nature are not counteracted by human
+      conventions. Rose Budd, however, had received the vicious education which
+      civilized society inflicts on her sex, and, as a matter of course, was
+      totally helpless in an element in which it was the design of Divine
+      Providence she should possess the common means of sustaining herself, like
+      every other being endued with animal life. Not so with Mulford: he swam
+      with ease and force, and had no difficulty in sustaining Rose until the
+      schooner had settled into her new berth, or in hauling her on the vessel's
+      bottom immediately after.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Luckily, there was no swell, or so little as not to endanger those who
+      were on the schooner's bilge; and Mulford had no sooner placed her in
+      momentary safety at least, whom he prized far higher than his own life,
+      than he bethought him of his other companions. Jack Tier had hauled
+      himself up to windward by the rope that steadied the tiller, and he had
+      called on Mrs. Budd to imitate his example. It was so natural for even a
+      woman to grasp anything like a rope at such a moment, that the widow
+      instinctively obeyed, while Biddy seized, at random, the first thing of
+      the sort that offered. Owing to these fortunate chances, Jack and Mrs.
+      Budd succeeded in reaching the quarter of the schooner, the former
+      actually getting up on the bottom of the wreck, on to which he was enabled
+      to float the widow, who was almost as buoyant as cork, as indeed was the
+      case with Jack himself. All the stern and bows of the vessel were under
+      water, in consequence of her leanness forward and aft; but though
+      submerged, she offered a precarious footing, even in these extremities, to
+      such as could reach them. On the other hand, the place where Rose stood,
+      or the bilge of the vessel, was two or three feet above the surface of the
+      sea, though slippery and inclining in shape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not half a minute from the time that Mulford sprang to Rose's
+      succour, ere he had her on the vessel's bottom. In another half minute, he
+      had waded down on the schooner's counter, where Jack Tier was lustily
+      calling to him for &ldquo;help!&rdquo; and assisted the widow to her feet, and
+      supported her until she stood at Rose's side. Leaving the last in her
+      aunt's arms, half distracted between dread and joy, he turned to the
+      assistance of Biddy. The rope at which the Irish woman had caught, was a
+      straggling end that had been made fast to the main channels of the
+      schooner, for the support of a fender, and had been hauled partly in-board
+      to keep it out of the water. Biddy had found no difficulty in dragging
+      herself up to the chains, therefore; and had she been content to sustain
+      herself by the rope, leaving as much of her body submerged as comported
+      with breathing, her task would have been easy. But, like most persons who
+      do not know how to swim, the good woman was fast exhausting her strength,
+      by vain efforts to walk on the surface of an element that was never made
+      to sustain her. Unpractised persons, in such situations, cannot be taught
+      to believe that their greatest safety is in leaving as much of their
+      bodies as possible beneath the water, keeping the mouth and nose alone
+      free for breath. But we have seen even instances in which men, who were in
+      danger of drowning, seemed to believe it might be possible for them to
+      craw! over the waves on their hands and knees. The philosophy of the
+      contrary course is so very simple, that one would fancy a very child might
+      be made to comprehend it; yet, it is rare to find one unaccustomed to the
+      water, and who is suddenly exposed to its dangers, that does not resort,
+      under the pressure of present alarm, to the very reverse of the true means
+      to save his or her life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford had no difficulty in finding Bridget, whose exclamations of
+      &ldquo;murther!&rdquo; &ldquo;help!&rdquo; &ldquo;he-l-lup!&rdquo; &ldquo;Jasus!&rdquo; and other similar cries, led him
+      directly to the spot, where she was fast drowning herself by her own
+      senseless struggles. Seizing her by the arm, the active young mate soon
+      placed her on her feet, though her cries did not cease until she was
+      ordered by her mistress to keep silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having thus rescued the whole of his companions from immediate danger,
+      Mulford began to think of the future. He was seized with sudden surprise
+      that the vessel did not sink, and for a minute he was unable to account
+      for the unusual fact. On the former occasion, the schooner had gone down
+      almost as soon as she fell over; but now she floated with so much buoyancy
+      as to leave most of her keel and all of her bilge on one side quite clear
+      of the water. As one of the main hatches was off, and the cabin-doors, and
+      booby-hatch doors forward were open, and all were under water, it required
+      a little reflection on the part of Mulford to understand on what
+      circumstance all their lives now depended. The mate soon ascertained the
+      truth, however, and we may as well explain it to the reader in our own
+      fashion, in order to put him on a level with the young seaman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The puff of wind, or little squall, had struck the schooner at the most
+      unfavourable moment for her safety. She had just lost her way in tacking,
+      and the hull not moving ahead, as happens when a craft is thus assailed
+      with the motion on her, all the power of the wind was expended in the
+      direction necessary to capsize her. Another disadvantage arose from the
+      want of motion. The rudder, which acts solely by pressing against the
+      water as the vessel meets it, was useless, and it was not possible to
+      luff, and throw the wind from the sails, as is usually practised by
+      fore-and-aft rigged craft, in moments of such peril. In consequence of
+      these united difficulties, the shifting of the cargo in the hold, the
+      tenderness of the craft itself, and the force of the squall, the schooner
+      had gone so far over as to carry all three of the openings to her interior
+      suddenly under water, where they remained, held by the pressure of the
+      cargo that had rolled to leeward. Had not the water completely covered
+      these openings, or hatches, the schooner must have sunk in a minute or
+      two, or by the time Mulford had got all his companions safe on her bilge.
+      But they were completely submerged, and so continued to be, which
+      circumstance alone prevented the vessel from sinking, as the following
+      simple explanation will show.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Any person who will put an empty tumbler, bottom upwards, into a bucket of
+      water, will find that the water will not rise within the tumbler more than
+      an inch at most. At that point it is arrested by the resistance of the
+      air, which, unable to escape, and compressed into a narrow compass, forms
+      a body that the other fluid cannot penetrate. It is on this simple and
+      familiar principle, that the chemist keeps his gases, in inverted glasses,
+      placing them on shelves, slightly submerged in water. Thus it was, then,
+      that the schooner continued to float, though nearly bottom upward, and
+      with three inlets open, by which the water could and did penetrate. A
+      considerable quantity of the element had rushed in at the instant of
+      capsizing, but meeting with resistance from the compressed and pent air,
+      its progress had been arrested, and the wreck continued to float,
+      sustained by the buoyancy that was imparted to it, in containing so large
+      a body of a substance no heavier than atmospheric air. After displacing
+      its weight of water, enough of buoyancy remained to raise the keel a few
+      feet above the level of the sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as Mulford had ascertained the facts of their situation, he
+      communicated them to his companions, encouraging them to hope for eventual
+      safety. It was true, their situation was nearly desperate, admitting that
+      the wreck should continue to float for ever, since they were almost
+      without food, or anything to drink, and had no means of urging the hull
+      through the water. They must float, too, at the mercy of the winds and
+      waves, and should a sea get up, it might soon be impossible for Mulford
+      himself to maintain his footing on the bottom of the wreck. All this the
+      young man had dimly shadowed forth to him, through his professional
+      experience; but the certainty of the vessel's not sinking immediately had
+      so far revived his spirits, as to cause him to look on the bright side of
+      the future, pale as that glimmering of hope was made to appear whenever
+      reason cast one of its severe glances athwart it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harry had no difficulty in making Rose comprehend their precise situation.
+      Her active and clear mind understood at once the causes of their present
+      preservation, and most of the hazards of the future. It was not so with
+      Jack Tier. He was composed, even resigned; but he could not see the reason
+      why the schooner still floated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know that the cabin-doors were open,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and if they wasn't, of
+      no great matter would it be, since the joints ar'n't caulked, and the
+      water would run through them as through a sieve. I'm afeard, Mr. Mulford,
+      we shall find the wreck going from under our feet afore long, and when we
+      least wish it, perhaps.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell you the wreck will float so long as the air remains in its hold,&rdquo;
+       returned the mate, cheerfully. &ldquo;Do you not see how buoyant it is?&mdash;the
+      certain proof that there is plenty of air within. So long as that remains,
+      the hull must float.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've always understood,&rdquo; said Jack, sticking to his opinion, &ldquo;that
+      wessels floats by vartue of water, and not by vartue of air; and, that
+      when the water gets on the wrong side on 'em, there's little hope left of
+      keepin' 'em up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What has become of the boat?&rdquo; suddenly cried the mate. &ldquo;I have been so
+      much occupied as to have forgotten the boat. In that boat we might all of
+      us still reach Key West. I see nothing of the boat!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A profound silence succeeded this sudden and unexpected question. All knew
+      that the boat was gone, and all knew that it had been lost by the widow's
+      pertinacity and clumsiness; but no one felt disposed to betray her at that
+      grave moment. Mulford left the bilge, and waded as far aft as it was at
+      all prudent for him to proceed, in the vain hope that the boat might be
+      there, fastened by its painter to the schooner's tafferel, as he had left
+      it, but concealed from view by the darkness of the night. Not finding what
+      he was after, he returned to his companions, still uttering exclamations
+      of surprise at the unaccountable loss of the boat. Rose now told him that
+      the boat had got adrift some ten or fifteen minutes before the accident
+      befell them, and that they were actually endeavouring to recover it when
+      the squall which capsized the schooner struck them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why did you not call me, Rose?&rdquo; asked Harry, with a little of gentle
+      reproach in his manner. &ldquo;It must have soon been my watch on deck, and it
+      would have been better that I should lose half an hour of my watch below,
+      than that we should lose the boat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose was now obliged to confess that the time for calling him had long
+      been past, and that the faint streak of light, which was just appearing in
+      the east, was the near approach of day. This explanation was made gently,
+      but frankly; and Mulford experienced a glow of pleasure at his heart, even
+      in that moment of jeopardy, when he understood Rose's motive for not
+      having him disturbed. As the boat was gone, with little or no prospect of
+      its being recovered again, no more was said about it; and the window, who
+      had stood on thorns the while, had the relief of believing that her
+      awkwardness was forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was such a relief from an imminent danger to have escaped from drowning
+      when the schooner capsized, that those on her bottom did not, for some
+      little time, realize all the terrors of their actual situation. The
+      inconvenience of being wet was a trifle not to be thought of, and, in
+      fact, the light summer dresses worn by all, linen or cotton as they were
+      entirely, were soon effectually dried in the wind. The keel made a
+      tolerably convenient seat, and the whole party placed themselves on it to
+      await the return of day, in order to obtain a view of all that their
+      situation offered in the way of a prospect. While thus awaiting, a broken
+      and short dialogue occurred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had you stood to the northward the whole night?&rdquo; asked Mulford, gloomily,
+      of Jack Tier; for gloomily he began to feel, as all the facts of their
+      case began to press more closely on his mind. &ldquo;If so, we must be well off
+      the reef, and out of the track of wreckers and turtlers. How had you the
+      wind, and how did you head before the accident happened?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The wind was light the whole time, and for some hours it was nearly
+      calm,&rdquo; answered Jack, in the same vein; &ldquo;I kept the schooner's head to the
+      nor'ard, until I thought we were getting too far off our course, and then
+      I put her about. I do not think we could have been any great distance from
+      the reef, when the boat got away from us, and I suppose we are in its
+      neighbourhood now, for I was tacking to fall in with the boat when the
+      craft went over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To fall in with the boat! Did you keep off to leeward of it, then, that
+      you expected to fetch it by tacking?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, a good bit; and I think the boat is now away here to windward of us,
+      drifting athwart our bows.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was important news to Mulford. Could he only get that boat, the
+      chances of being saved would be increased a hundred fold, nay, would
+      almost amount to a certainty; whereas, so long as the wind held to the
+      southward and eastward, the drift of the wreck must be toward the open
+      water, and consequently so much the further removed from the means of
+      succor. The general direction of the trades, in that quarter of the world,
+      is east, and should they get round into their old and proper quarter, it
+      would not benefit them much; for the reef running south-west, they could
+      scarcely hope to hit the Dry Tortugas again, in their drift, were life
+      even spared them sufficiently long to float the distance. Then there might
+      be currents, about which Mulford knew nothing with certainty; they might
+      set them in any direction; and did they exist, as was almost sure to be
+      the case, were much more powerful than the wind in controlling the
+      movements of a wreck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mate strained his eyes in the direction pointed out by Jack Tier, in
+      the hope of discovering the boat through the haze of the morning, and he
+      actually did discern something that, it appeared to him, might be the much
+      desired little craft. If he were right, there was every reason to think
+      the boat would drift down so near them as to enable him to recover it by
+      swimming. This cheering intelligence was communicated to his companions,
+      who received it with gratitude and delight. But the approach of day
+      gradually dispelled that hope, the object which Mulford had mistaken for
+      the boat, within two hundred yards of the wreck, turning out to be a
+      small, low, but bare hummock of the reef, at a distance of more than two
+      miles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a proof that we are not far from the reef, at least,&rdquo; cried
+      Mulford, willing to encourage those around him all he could, and really
+      much relieved at finding himself so near even this isolated fragment of
+      terra firma. &ldquo;This fact is the next encouraging thing to finding ourselves
+      near the boat, or to falling in with a sail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay,&rdquo; said Jack, gloomily; &ldquo;boat or no boat, 't will make no great
+      matter of difference now. There's customers that'll be sartain to take all
+      the grists you can send to their mill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What things are those glancing about the vessel?&rdquo; cried Rose, almost in
+      the same breath; &ldquo;those dark, sharp-looking sticks&mdash;see, there are
+      five or six of them! and they move as if fastened to something under the
+      water that pulls them about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Them's the customers I mean, Miss Rose,&rdquo; answered Jack, in the same
+      strain as that in which he had first spoken; &ldquo;they're the same thing at
+      sea as lawyers be ashore, and seem made to live on other folks. Them's
+      sharks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yonder is truly the boat!&rdquo; added Mulford, with a sigh that almost
+      amounted to a groan. The light had, by this time, so far returned as to
+      enable the party not only to see the fins of half a dozen sharks, which
+      were already prowling about the wreck, the almost necessary consequence of
+      their proximity to a reef in that latitude, but actually to discern the
+      boat drifting down toward them, at a distance that promised to carry it
+      past, within the reach of Mulford's powers of swimming, though not as near
+      as he could have wished, even under more favourable circumstances. Had
+      their extremity been greater, or had Rose begun to suffer from hunger or
+      thirst, Mulford might have attempted the experiment of endeavoring to
+      regain the boat, though the chances of death by means of the sharks would
+      be more than equal to those of escape; but still fresh, and not yet
+      feeling even the heat of the sun of that low latitude, he was not quite
+      goaded into such an act of desperation. All that remained for the party,
+      therefore, was to sit on the keel of the wreck, and gaze with longing eyes
+      at a little object floating past, which, once at their command, might so
+      readily be made to save them from a fate that already began to appear
+      terrible in the perspective. Near an hour was thus consumed, ere the boat
+      was about half a mile to leeward; during which scarcely an eye was turned
+      from it for one instant, or a word was spoken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is beyond my reach now,&rdquo; Mulford at length exclaimed, sighing heavily,
+      like one who became conscious of some great and irretrievable loss. &ldquo;Were
+      there no sharks, I could hardly venture to attempt swimming so far, with
+      the boat drifting from me at the same time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should never consent to let you make the trial, Harry,&rdquo; murmured Rose,
+      &ldquo;though it were only half as far.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Another pause succeeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have now the light of day,&rdquo; resumed the mate, a minute or two later,
+      &ldquo;and may see our true situation. No sail is in sight, and the wind stands
+      steadily in its old quarter. Still I do not think we leave the reef.
+      There, you may see breakers off here at the southward, and it seems as if
+      more rocks rise above the sea, in that direction. I do not know that our
+      situation would be any the better, however, were we actually on them,
+      instead of being on this floating wreck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The rocks will never sink,&rdquo; said Jack Tier, with so much emphasis as to
+      startle the listeners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not think this hull will sink until we are taken off it, or are
+      beyond caring whether it sink or swim,&rdquo; returned Mulford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not know that, Mr. Mulford. Nothing keeps us up but the air in the
+      hold, you say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly not; but that air will suffice as long as it remains there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what do you call these things?&rdquo; rejoined the assistant steward,
+      pointing at the water near him, in or on which no one else saw anything
+      worthy of attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford, however, was not satisfied with a cursory glance, but went nearer
+      to the spot where Tier was standing. Then, indeed, he saw to what the
+      steward alluded, and was impressed by it, though he said nothing. Hundreds
+      of little bubbles rose to the surface of the water, much as one sees them
+      rising in springs. These bubbles are often met with in lakes and other
+      comparatively shallow waters, but they are rarely seen in those of the
+      ocean. The mate understood, at a glance, that those he now beheld were
+      produced by the air which escaped from the hold of the wreck; in small
+      quantities at a time, it was true, but by a constant and increasing
+      process. The great pressure of the water forced this air through crevices
+      so minute that, under ordinary circumstances, they would have proved
+      impenetrable to this, as they were still to the other fluid, though they
+      now permitted the passage of the former. It might take a long time to
+      force the air from the interior of the vessel by such means, but the
+      result was as certain as it might be slow. As constant dropping will wear
+      a stone, so might the power that kept the wreck afloat be exhausted by the
+      ceaseless rising of these minute air-bubbles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although Mulford was entirely sensible of the nature of this new source of
+      danger, we cannot say he was much affected by it at the moment. It seemed
+      to him far more probable that they must die of exhaustion, long before the
+      wreck would lose all of its buoyancy by this slow process, than that even
+      the strongest of their number could survive for such a period. The new
+      danger, therefore, lost most of its terrors under this view of the
+      subject, though it certainly did not add to the small sense of security
+      that remained, to know that inevitably their fate must be sealed through
+      its agency, should they be able to hold out for a sufficient time against
+      hunger and thirst. It caused Mulford to muse in silence for many more
+      minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope we are not altogether without food,&rdquo; the mate at length said. &ldquo;It
+      sometimes happens that persons at sea carry pieces of biscuit in their
+      pockets, especially those who keep watch at night. The smallest morsel is
+      now of the last importance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this suggestion, every one set about an examination. The result was,
+      that neither Mrs. Budd nor Rose had a particle of food, of any sort, about
+      their persons. Biddy produced from her pockets, however, a whole biscuit,
+      a large bunch of excellent raisins that she had filched from the steward's
+      stores, and two apples,&mdash;the last being the remains of some fruit
+      that Spike had procured a month earlier in New York. Mulford had half a
+      biscuit, at which he had been accustomed to nibble in his watches; and
+      Jack lugged out, along with a small plug of tobacco, a couple of sweet
+      oranges. Here, then, was everything in the shape of victuals or drink,
+      that could be found for the use of five persons, in all probability for
+      many days. The importance of securing it for equal distribution, was so
+      obvious, that Mulford's proposal to do so met with a common assent. The
+      whole was put in Mrs. Budd's bag, and she was intrusted with the keeping
+      of this precious store.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be harder to abstain from food at first, when we have not suffered
+      from its want, than it will become after a little endurance,&rdquo; said the
+      mate. &ldquo;We are now strong, and it will be wiser to fast as long as we
+      conveniently can, to-day, and relieve our hunger by a moderate allowance
+      toward evening, than to waste our means by too much indulgence at a time
+      when we are strong. Weakness will be sure to come if we remain long on the
+      wreck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you ever suffered in this way, Harry?&rdquo; demanded Rose, with interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have, and that dreadfully. But a merciful Providence came to my rescue
+      then, and it may not fail me now. The seaman is accustomed to carry his
+      life in his hand, and to live on the edge of eternity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The truth of this was so apparent as to produce a thoughtful silence.
+      Anxious glances were cast around the horizon from time to time, in quest
+      of any sail that might come in sight, but uselessly. None appeared, and
+      the day advanced without bringing the slightest prospect of relief.
+      Mulford could see, by the now almost sunken hummocks, that they were
+      slowly drifting along the reef, toward the southward and eastward, a
+      current no doubt acting slightly from the north-west. Their proximity to
+      the reef, however, was of no advantage, as the distance was still so great
+      as to render any attempt to reach it, even on the part of the mate,
+      unavailable. Nor would he have been any better off could he have gained a
+      spot on the rocks that was shallow enough to admit of his walking, since
+      wading about in such a place would have been less desirable than to be
+      floating where he was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The want of water to drink threatened to be the great evil. Of this, the
+      party on the wreck had not a single drop! As the warmth of the day was
+      added to the feverish feeling produced by excitement, they all experienced
+      thirst, though no one murmured. So utterly without means of relieving this
+      necessity did each person know them all to be, that no one spoke on the
+      subject at all. In fact, shipwreck never produced a more complete
+      destitution of all the ordinary agents of helping themselves, in any form
+      or manner, than was the case here. So sudden and complete had been the
+      disaster, that not a single article, beyond those on the persons of the
+      sufferers, came even in view. The masts, sails, rigging, spare spars, in a
+      word, everything belonging to the vessel was submerged and hidden from
+      their sight, with the exception of a portion of the vessel's bottom, which
+      might be forty feet in length, and some ten or fifteen in width, including
+      that which was above water on both sides of the keel, though one only of
+      these sides was available to the females, as a place to move about on. Had
+      Mulford only a boat-hook, he would have felt it a relief; for not only did
+      the sharks increase in number, but they grew more audacious, swimming so
+      near the wreck that, more than once, Mulford apprehended that some one of
+      the boldest of them might make an effort literally to board them. It is
+      true, he had never known of one of these fishes attempting to quit his own
+      element in pursuit of his prey; but such things were reported, and those
+      around the wreck swam so close, and seemed so eager to get at those who
+      were on it, that there really might be some excuse for fancying they might
+      resort to unusual means of effecting their object. It is probable that,
+      like all other animals, they were emboldened by their own numbers, and
+      were acting in a sort of concert, that was governed by some of the many
+      mysterious laws of nature that have still escaped human observation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus passed the earlier hours of that appalling day. Toward noon, Mulford
+      had insisted on the females dividing one of the oranges between them, and
+      extracting its juice by way of assuaging their thirst. The effect was most
+      grateful, as all admitted, and even Mrs. Budd urged Harry and Tier to take
+      a portion of the remaining orange; but this both steadily refused. Mulford
+      did consent to receive a small portion of one of the apples, more with a
+      view of moistening his throat than to appease his hunger, though it had,
+      in a slight degree, the latter effect also. As for Jack Tier, he declined
+      even the morsel of apple, saying that tobacco answered his purpose, as
+      indeed it temporarily might.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was near sunset, when the steward's assistant called Mulford aside, and
+      whispered to him that he had something private to communicate. The mate
+      bade him say on, as they were out of ear-shot of their companions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've been in sitiations like this afore,&rdquo; said Jack, &ldquo;and one l'arns
+      exper'ence by exper'ence. I know how cruel it is on the feelin's to have
+      the hopes disapp'inted in these cases, and therefore shall proceed with
+      caution. But, Mr. Mulford, there's a sail in sight, if there is a drop of
+      water in the Gulf!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A sail, Jack! I trust in Heaven you are not deceived!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Old eyes are true eyes in such matters, sir. Be careful not to start the
+      women. They go off like gunpowder, and, Lord help 'em! have no more
+      command over themselves, when you loosen 'em once, than so many
+      flying-fish with a dozen dolphins a'ter them. Look hereaway, sir, just
+      clear of the Irishwoman's bonnet, a little broad off the spot where the
+      reef was last seen&mdash;if that an't a sail, my flame is not Jack Tier.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A sail there was, sure enough! It was so very distant, however, as to
+      render its character still uncertain, though Mulford fancied it was a
+      square-rigged vessel heading to the northward. By its position, it must be
+      in one of the channels of the reef, and by its course, if he were not
+      deceived, it was standing through, from the main passage along the
+      southern side of the rocks, to come out on the northern. All this was
+      favourable, and at first the young mate felt such a throbbing of the heart
+      as we all experience when great and unexpected good intelligence is
+      received. A moment's reflection, however, made him aware how little was to
+      be hoped for from this vessel. In the first place, her distance was so
+      great as to render it uncertain even which way she was steering. Then,
+      there was the probability that she would pass at so great a distance as to
+      render it impossible to perceive an object as low as the wreck, and the
+      additional chance of her passing in the night. Under all the circumstances,
+      therefore, Mulford felt convinced that there was very little probability
+      of their receiving any succour from the strange sail; and he fully
+      appreciated Jack Tier's motive in forbearing to give the usual call of
+      &ldquo;Sail, ho!&rdquo; when he made this discovery. Still, he could not deny himself
+      the pleasure of communicating to Rose the cheering fact that a vessel was
+      actually in sight. She could not reason on the circumstances as he had
+      done, and might at least pass several hours of comparative happiness by
+      believing that there was some visible chance of delivery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The females received the intelligence with very different degrees of hope.
+      Rose was delighted. To her their rescue appeared an event so very probable
+      now, that Harry Mulford almost regretted he had given rise to an
+      expectation which he himself feared was to be disappointed. The feelings
+      of Mrs. Budd were more suppressed. The wreck and her present situation
+      were so completely at variance with all her former notions of the sea and
+      its incidents, that she was almost dumb-founded, and feared either to
+      speak or to think. Biddy differed from either of her mistresses&mdash;the
+      young or the old; she appeared to have lost all hope, and her physical
+      energy was fast giving way under her profound moral debility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the return of light that day, Mulford had thought, if it were to
+      prove that Providence had withdrawn its protecting hand from them, Biddy,
+      who to all appearance ought to be the longest liver among the females at
+      least, would be the first to sink under her sufferings. Such is the
+      influence of moral causes on the mere animal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose saw the night shut in around them, amid the solemn solitude of the
+      ocean, with a mingled sensation of awe and hope. She had prayed devoutly,
+      and often, in the course of the preceding day, and her devotions had
+      contributed to calm her spirits. Once or twice, while kneeling with her
+      head bowed to the keel, she had raised her eyes toward Harry with a look
+      of entreaty, as if she would implore him to humble his proud spirit and
+      place himself at her side, and ask that succour from God which was so much
+      needed, and which indeed it began most seriously to appear that God alone
+      could yield. The young mate did not comply, for his pride of profession
+      and of manhood offered themselves as stumbling-blocks to prevent
+      submission to his secret wishes. Though he rarely prayed, Harry Mulford
+      was far from being an unbeliever, or one altogether regardless of his
+      duties and obligations to his Divine Creator. On the contrary, his heart
+      was more disposed to resort to such means of self-abasement and
+      submission, than he put in practice, and this because he had been taught
+      to believe that the Anglo-Saxon mariner did not call on Hercules, on every
+      occasion of difficulty and distress that occurred, as was the fashion with
+      the Italian and Romish seamen, but he put his own shoulder to the wheel,
+      confident that Hercules would not forget to help him who knew how to help
+      himself. But Harry had great difficulty in withstanding Rose's silent
+      appeal that evening, as she knelt at the keel for the last time, and
+      turned her gentle eyes upward at him, as if to ask him once more to take
+      his place at her side. Withstand the appeal he did, however, though in his
+      inward spirit he prayed fervently to God to put away this dreadful
+      affliction from the young and innocent creature before him. When these
+      evening devotions were ended, the whole party became thoughtful and
+      silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was necessary to sleep, and arrangements were made to do so, if
+      possible, with a proper regard for their security. Mulford and Tier were
+      to have the look-out, watch and watch. This was done that no vessel might
+      pass near them unseen, and that any change in the weather might be noted
+      and looked to. As it was, the wind had fallen, and seemed about to vary,
+      though it yet stood in its old quarter, or a little more easterly,
+      perhaps. As a consequence, the drift of the wreck, insomuch as it depended
+      on the currents of the air, was more nearly in a line with the direction
+      of the reef, and there was little ground for apprehending that they might
+      be driven further from it in the night. Although that reef offered in
+      reality no place of safety, that was available to his party, Mulford felt
+      it as a sort of relief, to be certain that it was not distant, possibly
+      influenced by a vague hope that some passing wrecker or turtler might yet
+      pick them up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bottom of the schooner and the destitute condition of the party
+      admitted of only very simple arrangements for the night. The females
+      placed themselves against the keel in the best manner they could, and thus
+      endeavoured to get a little of the rest they so much needed. The day had
+      been warm, as a matter of course, and the contrast produced by the setting
+      of the sun was at first rather agreeable than otherwise. Luckily Rose had
+      thrown a shawl over her shoulders, not long before the vessel capsized,
+      and in this shawl she had been saved. It had been dried, and it now served
+      for a light covering to herself and her aunt, and added essentially to
+      their comfort. As for Biddy, she was too hardy to need a shawl, and she
+      protested that she should not think of using one, had she been better
+      provided. The patient, meek manner in which that humble, but
+      generous-hearted creature submitted to her fate, and the earnestness with
+      which she had begged that &ldquo;Miss Rosy&rdquo; might have her morsel of the portion
+      of biscuit each received for a supper, had sensibly impressed Mulford in
+      her favour; and knowing how much more necessary food was to sustain one of
+      her robust frame and sturdy habits, than to Rose, he had contrived to give
+      the woman, unknown to herself, a double allowance. Nor was it surprising
+      that Biddy did not detect this little act of fraud in her favour, for this
+      double allowance was merely a single mouthful. The want of water had made
+      itself much more keenly felt than the want of food, for as yet anxiety,
+      excitement and apprehension prevented the appetite from being much
+      awakened, while the claims of thirst were increased rather than the
+      reverse, by these very causes. Still, no one had complained, on this or
+      any other account, throughout the whole of the long and weary day which
+      had passed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford took the first look-out, with the intention of catching a little
+      sleep, if possible, during the middle hours of the night, and of returning
+      to his duty as morning approached. For the first hour nothing occurred to
+      divert his attention from brooding on the melancholy circumstances of
+      their situation. It seemed as if all around him had actually lost the
+      sense of their cares in sleep, and no sound was audible amid that ocean
+      waste, but the light washing of the water, as the gentle waves rolled at
+      intervals against the weather side of the wreck. It was now that Mulford
+      found a moment for prayer, and seated on the keel, that he called on the
+      Divine aid, in a fervent but silent petition to God, to put away this
+      trial from the youthful and beautiful Rose, at least, though he himself
+      perished. It was the first prayer that Mulford had made in many months, or
+      since he had joined the Swash&mdash;a craft in which that duty was very
+      seldom thought of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes succeeded this petition, when Biddy spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Missus&mdash;Madam Budd&mdash;dear Missus&rdquo;&mdash;half whispered the Irish
+      woman, anxious not to disturb Rose, who lay furthest from her&mdash;&ldquo;Missus,
+      bees ye asleep at sich a time as this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Biddy; sleep and I are strangers to each other, and are likely to be
+      till morning. What do you wish to say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anything is better than my own t'oughts, missus dear, and I wants to talk
+      to ye. Is it no wather at all they'll give us so long as we stay in this
+      place?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no one to give it to us but God, poor Biddy, and he alone can
+      say what, in his gracious mercy, it may please him to do. Ah! Biddy, I
+      fear me that I did an unwise and thoughtless thing, to bring my poor Rose
+      to such a place as this. Were it to be done over again, the riches of Wall
+      Street would not tempt me to be guilty of so wrong a thing!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The arm of Rose was thrown around her aunt's neck, and its gentle pressure
+      announced how completely the offender was forgiven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I's very sorry for Miss Rose,&rdquo; rejoined Biddy &ldquo;and I suffers so much the
+      more meself in thinking how hard it must be for the like of her to be
+      wantin' in a swallow of fresh wather.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is no harder for me to bear it, poor Biddy,&rdquo; answered the gentle voice
+      of our heroine, &ldquo;than it is for yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it meself then? Sure am I, that if I had a quar-r-t of good, swate
+      wather from our own pump, and that's far betther is it than the Crothon
+      the best day the Crothon ever seed&mdash;but had I a quar-r-t of it, every
+      dhrap would I give to you, Miss Rose, to app'ase your thirst, I would.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Water would be a great relief to us all, just now, my excellent Biddy,&rdquo;
+       answered Rose, &ldquo;and I wish we had but a tumbler full of that you name, to
+      divide equally among the whole five of us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it divide? Then it would be ag'in dividin' that my voice would be
+      raised, for that same ra'son that the tumbler would never hold as much as
+      you could dhrink yourself, Miss Rose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet the tumbler full would be a great blessing for us all, just now,&rdquo;
+       murmured Mrs. Budd.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And is n't mutthon good 'atin', ladies! Och! if I had but a good swate
+      pratie, now, from my own native Ireland, and a dhrap of milk to help wash
+      it down! It's mighty little that a body thinks of sich thrifles when
+      there's abundance of them; but when there's none at all, they get to be
+      stronger in the mind than riches and honours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say the truth, Biddy,&rdquo; rejoined the mistress, &ldquo;and there is a
+      pleasure in talking of them, if one can't enjoy them. I've been thinking
+      all the afternoon, Rose, what a delicious food is a good roast turkey,
+      with cranberry sauce; and I wonder, now, that I have not been more
+      grateful for the very many that Providence has bestowed on me in my time.
+      My poor Mr. Budd was passionately fond of mutton, and I used wickedly to
+      laugh at his fondness for it, sometimes, when he always had his answer
+      ready, and that was that there are no sheep at sea. How true that is, Rosy
+      dear! there are indeed no sheep at sea!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, aunty,&rdquo; answered Rose's gentle voice from beneath the shawl;&mdash;&ldquo;there
+      are no such animals on the ocean, but God is with us here as much as he
+      would be in New York.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A long silence succeeded this simple remark of his well beloved, and the
+      young mate hoped that there would be no more of a dialogue, every syllable
+      of which was a dagger to his feelings. But nature was stronger than
+      reflection in Mrs. Budd and Biddy, and the latter spoke again, after a
+      pause of near a quarter of an hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray for me, Missus,&rdquo; she said, moaningly, &ldquo;that I may sleep. A bit of
+      sleep would do a body almost as much good as a bit of bread&mdash;I won't
+      say as much as a dhrap of wather.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be quiet, Biddy, and we will pray for you,&rdquo; answered Rose, who fancied by
+      her breathing that her aunt was about to forget her sufferings for a brief
+      space, in broken slumbers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it for you I'll do that&mdash;and sure will I, Miss Rose. Niver would
+      I have quitted Ireland, could I have thought there was sich a spot on this
+      earth as a place where no wather was to be had.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the last of Biddy's audible complaints, for the remainder of this
+      long and anxious watch of Mulford. He then set himself about an
+      arrangement which shall be mentioned in its proper place. At twelve
+      o'clock, or when he thought it was twelve, he called Jack Tier, who in
+      turn called the mate again at four.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It looks dark and threatening,&rdquo; said Mulford, as he rose to his feet and
+      began to look about him once more, &ldquo;though there does not appear to be any
+      wind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a flat calm, Mr. Mate, and the darkness comes from yonder cloud,
+      which seems likely to bring a little rain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rain! Then God is indeed with us here. You are right, Jack; rain must
+      fall from that cloud. We must catch some of it, if it be only a drop to
+      cool Rose's parched tongue.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what?&rdquo; answered Tier, gloomily. &ldquo;She may wring her clothes when the
+      shower is over, and in that way get a drop. I see no other method.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have bethought me of all that, and passed most of my watch in making
+      the preparations.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford then showed Tier what he had been about, in the long and solitary
+      hours of the first watch. It would seem that the young man had dug a
+      little trench with his knife, along the schooner's bottom, commencing two
+      or three feet from the keel, and near the spot where Rose was lying, and
+      carrying it as far as was convenient toward the run, until he reached a
+      point where he had dug out a sort of reservoir to contain the precious
+      fluid, should any be sent them by Providence. While doing this, there were
+      no signs of rain; but the young man knew that a shower alone could save
+      them from insanity, if not from death; and in speculating on the means of
+      profiting by one, should it come, he had bethought him of this expedient.
+      The large knife of a seaman had served him a good turn, in carrying on his
+      work, to complete which there remained now very little to do, and that was
+      in enlarging the receptacle for the water. The hole was already big enough
+      to contain a pint, and it might easily be sufficiently enlarged to hold
+      double that quantity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack was no sooner made acquainted with what had been done, than he out
+      knife and commenced tearing splinter after splinter from the planks, to
+      help enlarge the reservoir. This could only be done by cutting on the
+      surface, for the wood was not three inches in thickness, and the smallest
+      hole through the plank, would have led to the rapid escape of the air and
+      to the certain sinking of the wreck. It required a good deal of judgment
+      to preserve the necessary level also, and Mulford was obliged to interfere
+      more than once to prevent his companion from doing more harm than good. He
+      succeeded, however, and had actually made a cavity that might contain more
+      than a quart of water, when the first large drop fell from the heavens.
+      This cavity was not a hole, but a long, deep trench&mdash;deep for the
+      circumstances&mdash;so nicely cut on the proper level, as to admit of its
+      holding a fluid in the quantity mentioned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rose&mdash;dearest&mdash;rise, and be ready to drink,&rdquo; said Mulford,
+      tenderly disturbing the uneasy slumbers of his beloved. &ldquo;It is about to
+      rain, and God is with us here, as he might be on the land.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wather!&rdquo; exclaimed Biddy, who was awoke with the same call. &ldquo;What a
+      blessed thing is good swate wather, and sure am I we ought all to be
+      thankful that there is such a precious gift in the wor-r-ld.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, then,&rdquo; said Mulford, hurriedly, &ldquo;it will soon rain&mdash;I hear it
+      pattering on the sea. Come hither, all of you, and drink, as a merciful
+      God furnishes the means.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This summons was not likely to be neglected. All arose in haste, and the
+      word &ldquo;water&rdquo; was murmured from every lip. Biddy had less self-command than
+      the others, and she was heard saying aloud,&mdash;&ldquo;Och! and did n't I
+      dhrame of the blessed springs and wells of Ireland the night, and haven't
+      I dhrunk at 'em all? but now it's over, and I am awake, no good has't done
+      me, and I'm ready to die for one dhrap of wather.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That drop soon came, however, and with it the blessed relief which such a
+      boon bestows. Mulford had barely time to explain his arrangements, and to
+      place the party on their knees, along his little reservoir and the gutter
+      which led to it, when the pattering of the rain advanced along the sea,
+      with a deep rushing sound. Presently, the uplifted faces and open mouths
+      caught a few heavy straggling drops, to cool the parched tongues, when the
+      water came tumbling down upon them in a thousand little streams. There was
+      scarcely any wind, and merely the skirt of a large black cloud floated
+      over the wreck, on which the rain fell barely one minute. But it fell as
+      rain comes down within the tropics, and in sufficient quantities for all
+      present purposes. Everybody drank, and found relief, and, when all was
+      over, Mulford ascertained by examination that his receptacle for the fluid
+      was still full to overflowing. The abstinence had not been of sufficient
+      length, nor the quantity taken of large enough amount, to produce injury,
+      though the thirst was generally and temporarily appeased. It is probable
+      that the coolness of the hour, day dawning as the cloud moved past, and
+      the circumstance that the sufferers were wetted to their skins,
+      contributed to the change.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, blessed, blessed wather!&rdquo; exclaimed Biddy, as she rose from her
+      knees; &ldquo;America, afther all, isn't as dhry a country as some say. I've
+      niver tasted swater wather in Ireland itself!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose murmured her thanksgiving in more appropriate language. A few
+      exclamations also escaped Mrs. Budd, and Jack Tier had his sententious
+      eulogy on the precious qualities of sweet water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wind rose as the day advanced, and a swell began to heave the wreck
+      with a power that had hitherto been dormant. Mulford understood this to be
+      a sign that there had been a blow at some distance from them, that had
+      thrown the sea into a state of agitation, which extended itself beyond the
+      influence of the wind. Eagerly did the young mate examine the horizon, as
+      the curtain of night arose, inch by inch, as it might be, on the watery
+      panorama, in the hope that a vessel of some sort or other might be brought
+      within the view. Nor was he wholly disappointed. The strange sail seen the
+      previous evening was actually there; and what was more, so near as to
+      allow her hull to be distinctly visible. It was a ship, under her square
+      canvas, standing from between divided portions of the reef, as if getting
+      to the northward, in order to avoid the opposing current of the Gulf
+      Stream. Vessels bound to Mobile, New Orleans, and other ports along the
+      coast of the Republic, in that quarter of the ocean, often did this; and
+      when the young mate first caught glimpses of the shadowy outline of this
+      ship, he supposed it to be some packet, or cotton-droger, standing for her
+      port on the northern shore. But a few minutes removed the veil, and with
+      it the error of this notion. A seaman could no longer mistake the craft.
+      Her length, her square and massive hamper, with the symmetry of her spars,
+      and the long, straight outline of the hull, left no doubt that it was a
+      cruiser, with her hammocks unstowed. Mulford now cheerfully announced to
+      his companions, that the ship they so plainly saw, scarcely a gun-shot
+      distant from them, was the sloop-of-war which had already become a sort of
+      an acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If we can succeed in making them see our signal,&rdquo; cried Mulford, &ldquo;all
+      will yet be well. Come, Jack, and help me to put abroad this shawl, the
+      only ensign we can show.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The shawl of Rose was the signal spread. Tier and Mulford stood on the
+      keel, and holding opposite corners, let the rest of the cloth blow out
+      with the wind. For near an hour did these two extend their arms, and try
+      all possible expedients to make their signal conspicuous. But,
+      unfortunately, the wind blew directly toward the cruiser, and instead of
+      exposing a surface of any breadth to the vision of those on board her, it
+      must, at most, have offered little more than a flitting, waving line.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the day advanced, sail was made on the cruiser. She had stood through
+      the passage, in which she had been becalmed most of the night, under short
+      canvas; but now she threw out fold after fold of her studding-sails, and
+      moved away to the westward, with the stately motion of a ship before the
+      wind. No sooner had she got far enough to the northward of the reef, than
+      she made a deviation from her course as first seen, turning her stern
+      entirely to the wreck, and rapidly becoming less and less distinct to the
+      eyes of those who floated on it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford saw the hopelessness of their case, as it respected relief from
+      this vessel; still, he persevered in maintaining his position on the keel,
+      tossing and waving the shawl, in all the variations that his ingenuity
+      could devise. He well knew, however, that their chances of being seen
+      would have been trebled could they have been ahead instead of astern of
+      the ship. Mariners have few occasions to look behind them, while a hundred
+      watchful eyes are usually turned ahead, more especially when running near
+      rocks and shoals. Mrs. Budd wept like an infant when she saw the
+      sloop-of-war gliding away, reaching a distance that rendered sight
+      useless, in detecting an object that floated as low on the water as the
+      wreck. As for Biddy, unable to control her feelings, the poor creature
+      actually called to the crew of the departing vessel, as if her voice had
+      the power to make itself heard, at a distance which already exceeded two
+      leagues. It was only by means of the earnest remonstrances of Rose, that
+      the faithful creature could be quieted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why will ye not come to our relaif?&rdquo; she cried at the top of her voice.
+      &ldquo;Here are we, helpless as new-born babies, and ye sailing away from us in
+      a conthrary way! D'ye not bethink you of the missus, who is much of a
+      sailor, but not sich a one as to sail on a wrack; and poor Miss Rose, who
+      is the char-rm and delight of all eyes. Only come and take off Miss Rose,
+      and lave the rest of us, if ye so likes; for it's a sin and a shame to
+      lave the likes of her to die in the midst of the ocean, as if she was no
+      betther nor a fish. Then it will be soon that we shall ag'in feel the want
+      of wather, and that, too, with nothing but wather to be seen on all sides
+      of us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is of no use,&rdquo; said Harry, mournfully, stepping down from the keel,
+      and laying aside the shawl. &ldquo;They cannot see us, and the distance is now
+      so great as to render it certain they never will. There is only one hope
+      left. We are evidently set to and fro by the tides, and it is possible
+      that by keeping in or near this passage, some other craft may appear, and
+      we be more fortunate. The relief of the rain is a sign that we are not
+      forgotten by Divine Providence, and with such a protector we ought not to
+      despair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A gloomy and scanty breaking of the fast succeeded. Each person had one
+      large mouthful of bread, which was all that prudence would authorize
+      Mulford to distribute. He attempted a pious fraud, however, by placing his
+      own allowance along with that of Rose's, under the impression that her
+      strength might not endure privation as well as his own. But the tender
+      solicitude of Rose was not to be thus deceived. Judging of his wishes and
+      motives by her own, she at once detected the deception, and insisted on
+      retaining no more than her proper share. When this distribution was
+      completed, and the meagre allowance taken, only sufficient bread remained
+      to make one more similar scanty meal, if meal a single mouthful could be
+      termed. As for the water, a want of which would be certain to be felt as
+      soon as the sun obtained its noon-day power, the shawl was extended over
+      it, in a way to prevent evaporation as much as possible, and at the same
+      time to offer some resistance to the fluid's being washed from its shallow
+      receptacle by the motion of the wreck, which was sensibly increasing with
+      the increase of the wind and waves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford had next an anxious duty to perform. Throughout the whole of the
+      preceding day he had seen the air escaping from the hull, in an incessant
+      succession of small bubbles, which were formidable through their numbers,
+      if not through their size. The mate was aware that this unceasing loss of
+      the buoyant property of the wreck, must eventually lead to their
+      destruction, should no assistance come, and he had marked the floating
+      line, on the bottom of the vessel with his knife, ere darkness set in, on
+      the previous evening. No sooner did his thoughts recur to this fact, after
+      the excitement of the first hour of daylight was over, than he stepped to
+      the different places thus marked, and saw, with an alarm that it would be
+      difficult to describe, that the wreck had actually sunk into the water
+      several inches within the last few hours. This was, indeed, menacing their
+      security in a most serious manner, setting a limit to their existence,
+      which rendered all precaution on the subject of food and water useless. By
+      the calculations of the mate, the wreck could not float more than
+      eight-and-forty hours, should it continue to lose the air at the rate at
+      which it had been hitherto lost. Bad as all this appeared, things were
+      fated to become much more serious. The motion of the water quite sensibly
+      increased, lifting the wreck at times in a way greatly to increase the
+      danger of their situation. The reader will understand this movement did
+      not proceed from the waves of the existing wind, but from what is
+      technically called a ground-swell, or the long, heavy undulations that are
+      left by the tempest that is past, or by some distant gale. The waves of
+      the present breeze were not very formidable, the reef making a lee; though
+      they might possibly become inconvenient from breaking on the weather side
+      of the wreck, as soon as the drift carried the latter fairly abreast of
+      the passage already mentioned. But the dangers that proceeded from the
+      heavy ground-swell, which now began to give a considerable motion to the
+      wreck, will best explain itself by narrating the incidents as they
+      occurred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harry had left his marks, and had taken his seat on the keel at Rose's
+      side, impatiently waiting for any turn that Providence might next give to
+      their situation, when a heavy roll of the wreck first attracted his
+      attention to this new circumstance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If any one is thirsty,&rdquo; he observed quietly, &ldquo;he or she had better drink
+      now, while it may be done. Two or three more such rolls as this last will
+      wash all the water from our gutters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wather is a blessed thing,&rdquo; said Biddy, with a longing expression of the
+      eyes, &ldquo;and it would be betther to swallow it than to let it be lost.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then drink, for Heaven's sake, good woman&mdash;it may be the last
+      occasion that will offer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure am I that I would not touch a dhrap, while the missus and Miss Rosy
+      was a sufferin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no thirst at all,&rdquo; answered Rose, sweetly, &ldquo;and have already taken
+      more water than was good for me, with so little food on my stomach.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eat another morsel of the bread, beloved,&rdquo; whispered Harry, in a manner
+      so urgent that Rose gratefully complied. &ldquo;Drink, Biddy, and we will come
+      and share with you before the water is wasted by this increasing motion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Biddy did as desired, and each knelt in turn and took a little of the
+      grateful fluid, leaving about a gill in the gutters for the use of those
+      whose lips might again become parched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wather is a blessed thing,&rdquo; repeated Biddy, for the twentieth time&mdash;&ldquo;a
+      blessed, blessed thing is wather!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A little scream from Mrs. Budd, which was dutifully taken up by the maid,
+      interrupted the speech of the latter, and every eye was turned on Mulford,
+      as if to ask an explanation of the groaning sound that had been heard
+      within the wreck. The young mate comprehended only too well. The rolling
+      of the wreck had lifted a portion of the open hatchway above the
+      undulating surface of the sea, and a large quantity of the pent air within
+      the hold had escaped in a body. The entrance of water to supply the vacuum
+      had produced the groan. Mulford had made new marks on the vessel's bottom
+      with his knife, and he stepped down to them, anxious and nearly
+      heart-broken, to note the effect. That one surging of the wreck had
+      permitted air enough to escape to lower it in the water several inches. As
+      yet, however, the visible limits of their floating foundation had not been
+      sufficiently reduced to attract the attention of the females; and the
+      young man said nothing on the subject. He thought that Jack Tier was
+      sensible of the existence of this new source of danger, but if he were,
+      that experienced mariner imitated his own reserve, and made no allusion to
+      it. Thus passed the day. Occasionally the wreck rolled heavily, when more
+      air escaped, the hull settling lower and lower in the water as a necessary
+      consequence. The little bubbles continued incessantly to rise, and Mulford
+      became satisfied that another day must decide their fate. Taking this view
+      of their situation, he saw no use in reserving their food, but encouraged
+      his companions to share the whole of what remained at sunset. Little
+      persuasion was necessary, and when night once more came to envelope them
+      in darkness, not a mouthful of food or a drop of water remained to meet
+      the necessities of the coming morn. It had rained again for a short time,
+      in the course of the afternoon, when enough water had been caught to allay
+      their thirst, and what was almost of as much importance to the females
+      now, a sufficiency of sun had succeeded to dry their clothes, thus
+      enabling them to sleep without enduring the chilling damps that might
+      otherwise have prevented it. The wind had sensibly fallen, and the
+      ground-swell was altogether gone, but Mulford was certain that the relief
+      had come too late. So much air had escaped while it lasted as scarce to
+      leave him the hope that the wreck could float until morning. The rising of
+      the bubbles was now incessant, the crevices by which they escaped having
+      most probably opened a little, in consequence of the pressure and the
+      unceasing action of the currents, small as the latter were.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as darkness was shutting in around them for the second time, Rose
+      remarked to Mulford that it seemed to her that they had not as large a
+      space for their little world as when they were first placed on it. The
+      mate, however, successfully avoided an explanation; and when the watch was
+      again set for the night, the females lay down to seek their repose, more
+      troubled with apprehensions for a morrow of hunger and thirst, than by any
+      just fears that might so well have arisen from the physical certainty that
+      the body which alone kept them from being engulfed in the sea, could float
+      but a few hours longer. This night Tier kept the look-out until Jupiter
+      reached the zenith, when Mulford was called to hold the watch until light
+      returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may seem singular that any could sleep at all in such a situation. But
+      we get accustomed, in an incredibly short time, to the most violent
+      changes; and calamities that seem insupportable, when looked at from a
+      distance, lose half their power if met and resisted with fortitude. The
+      last may, indeed, be too insignificant a word to be applied to all of the
+      party on the wreck, on the occasion of which we are writing, though no one
+      of them all betrayed fears that were troublesome. Of Mulford it is
+      unnecessary to speak. His deportment had been quiet, thoughtful, and full
+      of a manly interest in the comfort of others, from the first moment of the
+      calamity. That Rose should share the largest in his attentions was natural
+      enough, but he neglected no essential duty to her companions. Rose,
+      herself, had little hope of being rescued. Her naturally courageous
+      character, however, prevented any undue exhibitions of despair, and now it
+      was that the niece became the principal support of the aunt, completely
+      changing the relations that had formerly existed between them. Mrs. Budd
+      had lost all the little buoyancy of her mind. Not a syllable did she now
+      utter concerning ships and their manoeuvres. She had been, at first, a
+      little disposed to be querulous and despairing, but the soothing and pious
+      conversation of Rose awakened a certain degree of resolution in her, and
+      habit soon exercised its influence over even her inactive mind. Biddy was
+      a strange mixture of courage, despair, humility, and consideration for
+      others. Not once had she taken her small allowance of food without first
+      offering it, and that, too, in perfect good faith, to her &ldquo;Missus and Miss
+      Rosy;&rdquo; yet her moanings for this sort of support, and her complaints of
+      bodily suffering much exceeded that of all the rest of the party put
+      together. As for Jack Tier, his conduct singularly belied his appearance.
+      No one would have expected any great show of manly resolution from the
+      little rotund, lymphatic figure of Tier; but he had manifested a calmness
+      that denoted either great natural courage, or a resolution derived from
+      familiarity with danger. In this particular, even Mulford regarded his
+      deportment with surprise, not unmingled with respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have had a tranquil watch, Jack,&rdquo; said Harry, when he was called by
+      the person named, and had fairly aroused himself from his slumbers. &ldquo;Has
+      the wind stood as it is since sunset?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No change whatever, sir. It has blown a good working breeze the whole
+      watch, and what is surprising not as much lipper has got up as would
+      frighten a colt on a sea-beach.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must be near the reef, by that. I think the only currents we feel come
+      from the tide, and they seem to be setting us back and forth, instead of
+      carrying us in any one settled direction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite likely, sir; and this makes my opinion of what I saw an hour since
+      all the more probable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What you saw! In the name of a merciful Providence, Tier, do not trifle
+      with me! Has any thing been seen near by?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't talk to me of your liquors and other dhrinks,&rdquo; murmured Biddy in
+      her sleep. &ldquo;It's wather that is a blessed thing; and I wish I lived, the
+      night and the day, by the swate pump that's in our own yard, I do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The woman has been talking in her sleep, in this fashion, most of the
+      watch,&rdquo; observed Jack, coolly, and perhaps a little contemptuously. &ldquo;But,
+      Mr. Mulford, unless my eyes have cheated me, we are near that boat again.
+      The passage through the reef is close aboard us, here, on our larboard
+      bow, as it might be, and the current has sucked us in it in a fashion to
+      bring it in a sort of athwart-hawse direction to us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If that boat, after all, should be sent by Providence to our relief! How
+      long is it since you saw it, Jack.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But a bit since, sir; or, for that matter, I think I see it now. Look
+      hereaway, sir, just where the dead-eyes of the fore-rigging would bear
+      from us, if the craft stood upon her legs, as she ought to do. If that
+      isn't a boat, it's a rock out of water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford gazed through the gloom of midnight, and saw, or fancied he saw,
+      an object that might really be the boat. It could not be very distant
+      either; and his mind was instantly made up as to the course he would
+      pursue. Should it actually turn out to be that which he now so much hoped
+      for, and its distance in the morning did not prove too great for human
+      powers, he was resolved to swim for it at the hazard of his life. In the
+      meantime, or until light should return, there remained nothing to do but
+      to exercise as much patience as could be summoned, and to confide in God,
+      soliciting his powerful succour by secret prayer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford was no sooner left alone, as it might be, by Tier's seeking a
+      place in which to take his rest, than he again examined the state of the
+      wreck. Little as he had hoped from its long-continued buoyancy, he found
+      matters even worse than he apprehended they would be. The hull had lost
+      much air, and had consequently sunk in the water in an exact proportion to
+      this loss. The space that was actually above the water, was reduced to an
+      area not more than six or seven feet in one direction, by some ten or
+      twelve in the other. This was reducing its extent, since the evening
+      previous, by fully one-half; and there could be no doubt that the air was
+      escaping, in consequence of the additional pressure, in a ratio that
+      increased by a sort of arithmetical progression. The young man knew that
+      the whole wreck, under its peculiar circumstances, might sink entirely
+      beneath the surface, and yet possess sufficient buoyancy to sustain those
+      that were on it for a time longer, but this involved the terrible
+      necessity of leaving the females partly submerged themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our mate heard his own heart beat, as he became satisfied of the actual
+      condition of the wreck, and of the physical certainty that existed of its
+      sinking, at least to the point last mentioned, ere the sun came to throw
+      his glories over the last view that the sufferers would be permitted to
+      take of the face of day. It appeared to him that no time was to be lost.
+      There lay the dim and shapeless object that seemed to be the boat,
+      distant, as he thought, about a mile. It would not have been visible at
+      all but for the perfect smoothness of the sea, and the low position
+      occupied by the observer. At times it did disappear altogether, when it
+      would rise again, as if undulating in the ground-swell. This last
+      circumstance, more than any other, persuaded Harry that it was not a rock,
+      but some floating object that he beheld. Thus encouraged, he delayed no
+      longer. Every moment was precious, and all might be lost by indecision. He
+      did not like the appearance of deserting his companions, but, should he
+      fail, the motive would appear in the act. Should he fail, every one would
+      alike soon be beyond the reach of censure, and in a state of being that
+      would do full justice to all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harry threw off most of his clothes, reserving only his shirt and a pair
+      of light summer trowsers. He could not quit the wreck, however, without
+      taking a sort of leave of Rose. On no account would he awake her, for he
+      appreciated the agony she would feel during the period of his struggles.
+      Kneeling at her side, he made a short prayer, then pressed his lips to her
+      warm cheek, and left her. Rose murmured his name at that instant, but it
+      was as the innocent and young betray their secrets in their slumbers.
+      Neither of the party awoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a moment to prove the heart of man, that in which Harry Mulford, in
+      the darkness of midnight, alone, unsustained by any encouraging eye, or
+      approving voice, with no other aid than his own stout arm, and the unknown
+      designs of a mysterious Providence, committed his form to the sea. For an
+      instant he paused, after he had waded down on the wreck to a spot where
+      the water already mounted to his breast, but it was not in misgivings. He
+      calculated the chances, and made an intelligent use of such assistance as
+      could be had. There had been no sharks near the wreck that day, but a
+      splash in the water might bring them back again in a crowd. They were
+      probably prowling over the reef, near at hand. The mate used great care,
+      therefore, to make no noise. There was the distant object, and he set it
+      by a bright star, that wanted about an hour before it would sink beneath
+      the horizon. That star was his beacon, and muttering a few words in
+      earnest prayer, the young man threw his body forward, and left the wreck,
+      swimming lightly but with vigour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      VOLUME II.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  The night has been unruly: where we lay,
+  Our chimneys were blown down: and, as they say,
+  Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death;
+  And prophesying, with accents terrible,
+  Of dire combustion, and confused events,
+  New hatched to the woful time.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Macbeth.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It is seldom that man is required to make an exertion as desperate and
+      appalling, in all its circumstances, as that on which Harry Mulford was
+      now bent. The night was starlight, it was true, and it was possible to see
+      objects near by with tolerable distinctness; still, it was midnight, and
+      the gloom of that hour rested on the face of the sea, lending its solemn
+      mystery and obscurity to the other trying features of the undertaking.
+      Then there was the uncertainty whether it was the boat at all, of which he
+      was in pursuit; and, if the boat, it might drift away from him as fast as
+      he could follow it. Nevertheless, the perfect conviction that, without
+      some early succour, the party on the wreck, including Rose Budd, must
+      inevitably perish, stimulated him to proceed, and a passing feeling of
+      doubt, touching the prudence of his course, that came over the young mate,
+      when he was a few yards from the wreck, vanished under a vivid renewal of
+      this last conviction. On he swam, therefore, riveting his eye on the
+      &ldquo;thoughtful star&rdquo; that guided his course, and keeping his mind as tranquil
+      as possible, in order that the exertions of his body might be the easier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford was an excellent swimmer. The want of food was a serious obstacle
+      to his making one of his best efforts, but, as yet, he was not very
+      sensible of any great loss of strength. Understanding fully the necessity
+      of swimming easily, if he would swim long, he did not throw out all his
+      energy at first, but made the movements of his limbs as regular,
+      continued, and skilful as possible. No strength was thrown away, and his
+      progress was in proportion to the prudence of this manner of proceeding.
+      For some twenty minutes he held on his course, in this way, when he began
+      to experience a little of that weariness which is apt to accompany an
+      unremitted use of the same set of muscles, in a monotonous and undeviating
+      mode. Accustomed to all the resources of his art, he turned on his back,
+      for the double purpose of relieving his arms for a minute, and of getting
+      a glimpse of the wreck, if possible, in order to ascertain the distance he
+      had overcome. Swim long in this new manner, however, he could not with
+      prudence, as the star was necessary in order to keep the direct line of
+      his course. It may be well to explain to some of our readers, that, though
+      the surface of the ocean may be like glass, as sometimes really happens,
+      it is never absolutely free from the long, undulating motion that is known
+      by the name of a &ldquo;ground swell.&rdquo; This swell, on the present occasion, was
+      not very heavy, but it was sufficient to place our young mate, at moments,
+      between two dark mounds of water, that limited his view in either
+      direction to some eighty or a hundred yards; then it raised him on the
+      summit of a rounded wave, that enabled him to see, far as his eye could
+      reach under that obscure light. Profiting by this advantage, Mulford now
+      looked behind him, in quest of the wreck, but uselessly. It might have
+      been in the trough, while he was thus on the summit of the waves, or it
+      might be that it floated so low as to be totally lost to the view of one
+      whose head was scarcely above the surface of the water. For a single
+      instant, the young man felt a chill at his heart, as he fancied that the
+      wreck had already sunk; but it passed away when he recalled the slow
+      progress by which the air escaped, and he saw the certainty that the
+      catastrophe, however inevitable, could not yet have really arrived. He
+      waited for another swell to lift him on its summit, when, by &ldquo;treading
+      water,&rdquo; he raised his head and shoulders fairly above the surface of the
+      sea, and strained his eyes in another vain effort to catch a glimpse of
+      the wreck. He could not see it. In point of fact, the mate had swum much
+      further than he had supposed, and was already so distant as to render any
+      such attempt hopeless. He was fully a third of a mile distant from the
+      point of his departure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Disappointed, and in a slight degree disheartened, Mulford turned, and
+      swam in the direction of the sinking star. He now looked anxiously for the
+      boat. It was time that it came more plainly into view, and a new source of
+      anxiety beset him, as he could discover no signs of its vicinity. Certain
+      that he was on the course, after making a due allowance for the direction
+      of the wind, the stout-hearted young man swam on. He next determined not
+      to annoy himself by fruitless searches, or vain regrets, but to swim
+      steadily for a certain time, a period long enough to carry him a material
+      distance, ere he again looked for the object of his search.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For twenty minutes longer did that courageous and active youth struggle
+      with the waste of waters, amid the obscurity and solitude of midnight. He
+      now believed himself near a mile from the wreck, and the star which had so
+      long served him for a beacon was getting near to the horizon. He took a
+      new observation of another of the heavenly bodies nigh it, to serve him in
+      its stead when it should disappear altogether, and then he raised himself
+      in the water, and looked about again for the boat. The search was in vain.
+      No boat was very near him, of a certainty, and the dreadful apprehension
+      began to possess his mind, of perishing uselessly in that waste of gloomy
+      waters. While thus gazing about him, turning his eyes in every quarter,
+      hoping intently to catch some glimpse of the much-desired object in the
+      gloom, he saw two dark, pointed objects, that resembled small stakes, in
+      the water within twenty feet of him. Mulford knew them at a glance, and a
+      cold shudder passed through his frame, as he recognised them. They were,
+      out of all question, the fins of an enormous shark; an animal that could
+      not measure less than eighteen or twenty feet in length.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is scarcely necessary to say, that when our young mate discovered the
+      proximity of this dangerous animal, situated as he was, he gave himself up
+      for lost. He possessed his knife, however, and had heard of the manner in
+      which even sharks were overcome, and that too in their own element, by the
+      skilful and resolute. At first, he was resolved to make one desperate
+      effort for life, before he submitted to a fate as horrible as that which
+      now menaced him; but the movements of his dangerous neighbour induced him
+      to wait. It did not approach any nearer, but continued swimming back and
+      fro, on the surface of the water, according to the known habits of the
+      fish, as if watching his own movements. There being no time to be wasted,
+      our young mate turned on his face, and began again to swim in the
+      direction of the setting star, though nearly chilled by despair. For ten
+      minutes longer did he struggle on, beginning to feel exhaustion, however,
+      and always accompanied by those two dark, sharp and gliding fins. There
+      was no difficulty in knowing the position of the animal, and Mulford's
+      eyes were oftener on those fins than on the beacon before him. Strange as
+      it may appear, he actually became accustomed to the vicinity of this
+      formidable creature, and soon felt his presence a sort of relief against
+      the dreadful solitude of his situation. He had been told by seamen of
+      instances, and had once witnessed a case himself, in which a shark had
+      attended a swimming man for a long distance, either forbearing to do him
+      harm, from repletion, or influenced by that awe which nature has instilled
+      into all of the inferior, for the highest animal of the creation. He began
+      to think that he was thus favoured, and really regarded the shark as a
+      friendly neighbour, rather than as a voracious foe. In this manner did the
+      two proceed, nearly another third of a mile, the fins sometimes in sight
+      ahead, gliding hither and thither, and sometimes out of view behind the
+      swimmer, leaving him in dreadful doubts as to the movements of the fish,
+      when Mulford suddenly felt something hard hit his foot. Believing it to be
+      the shark, dipping for his prey, a slight exclamation escaped him. At the
+      next instant both feet hit the unknown substance again, and he stood
+      erect, the water no higher than his waist! Quick, and comprehending
+      everything connected with the sea, the young man at once understood that
+      he was on a part of the reef where the water was so shallow as to admit of
+      his wading.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford felt that he had been providentially rescued from death. His
+      strength had been about to fail him, when he was thus led, unknown to
+      himself, to a spot where his life might yet be possibly prolonged for a
+      few more hours, or days. He had leisure to look about him, and to reflect
+      on what was next to be done. Almost unwittingly, he turned in quest of his
+      terrible companion, in whose voracious mouth he had actually believed
+      himself about to be immolated, a few seconds before. There the two
+      horn-like fins still were, gliding about above the water, and indicating
+      the smallest movement of their formidable owner. The mate observed that
+      they went a short distance ahead of him, describing nearly a semi-circle,
+      and then returned, doing the same thing in his rear, repeating the
+      movements incessantly, keeping always on his right. This convinced him
+      that shoaler water existed on his left hand, and he waded in that
+      direction, until he reached a small spot of naked rock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a time, at least, he was safe! The fragment of coral on which the mate
+      now stood, was irregular in shape, but might have contained a hundred feet
+      square in superficial measurement, and was so little raised above the
+      level of the water as not to be visible, even by daylight, at the distance
+      of a hundred yards. Mulford found it was perfectly dry, however, an
+      important discovery to him, as by a close calculation he had made of the
+      tides, since quitting the Dry Tortugas, he knew it must be near high
+      water. Could he have even this small portion of bare rock secure, it made
+      him, for the moment, rich as the most extensive landholder living. A
+      considerable quantity of sea-weed had lodged on the rock, and, as most of
+      this was also quite dry, it convinced the young sailor that the place was
+      usually bare. But, though most of this sea-weed was dry, there were
+      portions of the more recent accessions there that still lay in, or quite
+      near to the water, which formed exceptions. In handling these weeds, in
+      order to ascertain the facts, Mulford caught a small shell-fish, and
+      finding it fresh and easy to open, he swallowed it with the eagerness of a
+      famishing man. Never had food proved half so grateful to him as that
+      single swallow of a very palatable testaceous animal. By feeling further,
+      he found several others of the same family, and made quite as large a
+      meal, as, under the circumstances, was probably good for him. Then,
+      grateful for his escape, but overcome by fatigue, he hastily arranged a
+      bed of sea-weed, drew a portion of the plant over his body, to keep him
+      warm, and fell into a deep sleep that lasted for hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford did not regain his consciousness until the rays of the rising sun
+      fell upon his eye-lids, and the genial warmth of the great luminary shed
+      its benign influence over his frame. At first his mind was confused, and
+      it required a few seconds to bring a perfect recollection of the past, and
+      a true understanding of his real situation. They came, however, and the
+      young man moved to the highest part of his little domain, and cast an
+      anxious, hurried look around in quest of the wreck. A knowledge of the
+      course in which he had swum, aided by the position of the sun, told him on
+      what part of the naked waste to look for the object he sought. God had not
+      yet forsaken them! There was the wreck; or, it might be more exact to say,
+      there were those whom the remaining buoyancy of the wreck still upheld
+      from sinking into the depths of the gulf. In point of fact, but a very
+      little of the bottom of the vessel actually remained above water, some two
+      or three yards square at most, and that little was what seamen term nearly
+      awash. Two or three hours must bury that small portion of the still naked
+      wood beneath the surface of the sea, though sufficient buoyancy might
+      possibly remain for the entire day still to keep the living from death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There the wreck was, however, yet floating; and, though not visible to
+      Mulford, with a small portion of it above water. He saw the four persons
+      only; and what was more, they saw him. This was evident by Jack Tier's
+      waving his hat like a man cheering. When Mulford returned this signal, the
+      shawl of Rose was tossed into the air, in a way to leave no doubt that he
+      was seen and known. The explanation of this early recognition and
+      discovery of the young mate was very simple. Tier was not asleep when
+      Harry left the wreck, though, seeing the importance of the step the other
+      was taking, he had feigned to be so. When Rose awoke, missed her lover,
+      and was told what had happened, her heart was kept from sinking by his
+      encouraging tale and hopes. An hour of agony had succeeded, nevertheless,
+      when light returned and no Mulford was to be seen. The despair that burst
+      upon the heart of our heroine was followed by the joy of discovering him
+      on the rock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is scarcely necessary to say how much the parties were relieved on
+      ascertaining their respective positions. Faint as were the hopes of each
+      of eventual delivery, the two or three minutes that succeeded seemed to be
+      minutes of perfect happiness. After this rush of unlooked-for joy, Mulford
+      continued his intelligent examination of surrounding objects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wreck was fully half a mile from the rock of the mate, but much nearer
+      to the reef than it had been the previous night. &ldquo;Could it but ground on
+      the rocks,&rdquo; thought the young man, &ldquo;it would be a most blessed event.&rdquo; The
+      thing was possible, though the first half hour of his observations told
+      him that its drift was in the direction of the open passage so often
+      named, rather than toward the nearest rocks. Still, that drift brought
+      Rose each minute nearer and nearer to himself again. In looking round,
+      however, the young man saw the boat. It was a quarter of a mile distant,
+      with open water between them, apparently grounded on a rock, for it was
+      more within the reef than he was himself. He must have passed it in the
+      dark, and the boat had been left to obey the wind and currents, and to
+      drift to the spot where it then lay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford shouted aloud when he saw the boat, and at once determined to swim
+      in quest of it, as soon as he had collected a little refreshment from
+      among the sea-weed. On taking a look at his rock by daylight, he saw that
+      its size was quadrupled to the eye by the falling of the tide, and that
+      water was lying in several of the cavities of its uneven surface. At first
+      he supposed this to be sea-water, left by the flood; but, reflecting a
+      moment, he remembered the rain, and hoped it might be possible that one
+      little cavity, containing two or three gallons of the fluid, would turn
+      out to be fresh. Kneeling beside it, he applied his lips in feverish
+      haste, and drank the sweetest draught that had ever passed his lips.
+      Slaking his thirst, which had begun again to be painfully severe, he arose
+      with a heart overflowing with gratitude&mdash;could he only get Rose to
+      that narrow and barren rock, it would seem to be an earthly paradise.
+      Mulford next made his scanty, but, all things considered, sufficient meal,
+      drank moderately afterward, and then turned his attention and energies
+      toward the boat, which, though now aground and fast, might soon float on
+      the rising tide, and drift once more beyond his reach. It was his first
+      intention to swim directly for his object; but, just when about to enter
+      the water, he saw with horror the fins of at least a dozen sharks, which
+      were prowling about in the deeper water of the reef, and almost encircling
+      his hold. To throw himself in the midst of such enemies would be madness,
+      and he stopped to reflect, and again to look about him. For the first time
+      that morning, he took a survey of the entire horizon, to see if anything
+      were in sight; for, hitherto, his thoughts had been too much occupied with
+      Rose and her companions, to remember anything else. To the northward and
+      westward he distinctly saw the upper sails of a large ship, that was
+      standing on a wind to the northward and eastward. As there was no port to
+      which a vessel of that character would be likely to be bound in the
+      quarter of the Gulf to which such a course would lead, Mulford at once
+      inferred it was the sloop-of-war, which, after having examined the islets,
+      at the Dry Tortugas, and finding them deserted, was beating up, either to
+      go into Key West, or to pass to the southward of the reef again, by the
+      passage through which she had come as lately as the previous day. This was
+      highly encouraging; and could he only get to the boat, and remove the
+      party from the wreck before it sunk, there was now every prospect of a
+      final escape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the southward, also, the mate fancied he saw a sail. It was probably a
+      much smaller vessel than the ship in the north-west, and at a greater
+      distance. It might, however, be the lofty sails of some large craft;
+      standing along the reef, going westward, bound to New Orleans, or to that
+      new and important port, Point Isabel: or it might be some wrecker, or
+      other craft, edging away into the passage. As it was, it appeared only as
+      a speck in the horizon; and was too far off to offer much prospect of
+      succour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus acquainted with the state of things around him, Mulford gave his
+      attention seriously to his duties. He was chiefly afraid that the
+      returning tide might lift the boat from the rock on which it had grounded,
+      and that it would float beyond his reach. Then there was the frightful and
+      ever-increasing peril of the wreck, and the dreadful fate that so
+      inevitably menaced those that it held, were not relief prompt. This
+      thought goaded him nearly to desperation, and he felt at moments almost
+      ready to plunge into the midst of the sharks, and fight his way to his
+      object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But reflection showed him a less hazardous way of making an effort to
+      reach the boat. The sharks' fins described a semicircle only, as had been
+      the case of his single attendant during the night, and he thought that the
+      shealness of the water prevented their going further than they did, in a
+      south-easterly direction, which was that of the boat. He well knew that a
+      shark required sufficient water to sink beneath its prey, ere it made its
+      swoop, and that it uniformly turned on its back, and struck upward
+      whenever it gave one of its voracious bites. This was owing to the greater
+      length of its upper than of its lower jaw, and Mulford had heard it was a
+      physical necessity of its formation. Right or wrong, he determined to act
+      on this theory, and began at once to wade along the part of the reef that
+      his enemies seemed unwilling to approach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had our young mate a weapon of any sort larger than his knife, he would
+      have felt greater confidence in his success. As it was, however, he drew
+      that knife, and was prepared to sell his life dearly should a foe assail
+      him. No sooner was his step heard in the water, than the whole group of
+      sharks were set in violent motion, glancing past, and frequently quite
+      near him, as if aware their intended prey was about to escape. Had the
+      water deepened much, Harry would have returned at once, for a conflict
+      with such numbers would have been hopeless; but it did not; on the
+      contrary, it shoaled again, after a very short distance, at which it had
+      been waist-deep; and Mulford found himself wading over a long, broad
+      surface of rock, and that directly toward the boat, through water that
+      seldom rose above his knees, and which, occasionally, scarce covered his
+      feet. There was no absolutely naked rock near him, but there seemed to be
+      acres of that which might be almost said to be awash. Amid the greedy
+      throng that endeavoured to accompany him, the mate even fancied he
+      recognised the enormous fins of his old companion, who sailed to and fro
+      in the crowd in a stately manner, as if merely a curious looker-on of his
+      own movements. It was the smaller, and probably the younger sharks, that
+      betrayed the greatest hardihood and voracity. One or two of these made
+      fierce swoops toward Harry, as if bent on having him at every hazard; but
+      they invariably glided off when they found their customary mode of attack
+      resisted by the shoalness of the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our young mate got ahead but slowly, being obliged to pay a cautious
+      attention to the movements of his escort. Sometimes he was compelled to
+      wade up to his arms in order to cross narrow places, that he might get on
+      portions of the rock that were nearly bare; and once he was actually
+      compelled to swim eight or ten yards. Nevertheless, he did get on, and
+      after an hour of this sort of work, he found himself within a hundred
+      yards of the boat, which lay grounded near a low piece of naked rock, but
+      separated from it by a channel of deep water, into which all the sharks
+      rushed in a body, as if expressly to cut off his escape. Mulford now
+      paused to take breath, and to consider what ought to be done. On the spot
+      where he stood he was quite safe, though ancle-deep in the sea, the
+      shallow water extending to a considerable distance on all sides of him,
+      with the single exception of the channel in his front. He stood on the
+      very verge of that channel, and could see in the pellucid element before
+      him, that it was deep enough to float a vessel of some size.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To venture into the midst of twenty sharks required desperation, and Harry
+      was not yet reduced to that. He had been so busy in making his way to the
+      point where he stood as to have no leisure to look for the wreck; but he
+      now turned his eyes in quest of that all-interesting object. He saw the
+      shawl fluttering in the breeze, and that was all he could see. Tier had
+      contrived to keep it flying as a signal where he was to be found, but the
+      hull of the schooner had sunk so low in the water that they who were
+      seated on its keel were not visible even at the short distance which now
+      separated them from Mulford. Encouraged by this signal, and animated by
+      the revived hope of still saving his companions, Harry turned toward the
+      channel, half inclined to face every danger rather than to wait any
+      longer. At that moment the fins were all gliding along the channel from
+      him, and in the same direction. Some object drew the sharks away in a
+      body, and the young mate let himself easily into the water, and swam as
+      noiselessly as he could toward the boat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a fearful trial, but Mulford felt that everything depended on his
+      success. Stimulated by his motive, and strengthened by the food and water
+      taken an hour before, never had he shown so much skill and power in the
+      water. In an incredibly short period he was half-way across the channel,
+      still swimming strong and unharmed. A few strokes more sent him so near
+      the boat that hope took full possession of his soul, and he shouted in
+      exultation. That indiscreet but natural cry, uttered so near the surface
+      of the sea, turned every shark upon him, as the pack springs at the fox in
+      view. Mulford was conscious of the folly of his cry the instant it escaped
+      him, and involuntarily he turned his head to note the effect on his
+      enemies. Every fin was gliding toward him&mdash;a dark array of swift and
+      furious foes. Ten thousand bayonets, levelled in their line, could not
+      have been one-half as terrible, and the efforts of the young man became
+      nearly frantic. But strong as he was, and ready in the element, what is
+      the movement of a man in the water compared to that of a vigorous and
+      voracious fish? Mulford could see those fins coming on like a tempest, and
+      he had just given up all hope, and was feeling his flesh creep with
+      terror, when his foot hit the rock. Giving himself an onward plunge, he
+      threw his body upward toward the boat, and into so much shoaler water, at
+      least a dozen feet by that single effort. Recovering his legs as soon as
+      possible, he turned to look behind him. The water seemed alive with fins,
+      each pair gliding back and forth, as the bull-dog bounds in front of the
+      ox's muzzle. Just then a light-coloured object glanced past the young man,
+      so near as almost to touch him. It was a shark that had actually turned on
+      its back to seize its prey, and was only prevented from succeeding by
+      being driven from the line of its course by hitting the slimy rock, over
+      which it was compelled to make its plunge. The momentum with which it came
+      on, added to the inclination of the rock, forced the head and half of the
+      body of this terrible assailant into the air, giving the intended victim
+      an opportunity of seeing from what a fate he had escaped. Mulford avoided
+      this fish without much trouble, however, and the next instant he threw
+      himself into the boat, on the bottom of which he lay panting with the
+      violence of his exertions, and unable to move under the reaction which now
+      came over his system.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mate lay in the bottom of the boat, exhausted and unable to rise, for
+      several minutes; during that space he devoutly returned thanks to God for
+      his escape, and bethought him of the course he was next to pursue, in
+      order to effect the rescue of his companions. The boat was larger than
+      common. It was also well equipped&mdash;a mast and sail lying along with
+      the oars, on its thwarts. The rock placed Harry to windward of the wreck,
+      and by the time he felt sufficiently revived to rise and look about him,
+      his plan of proceeding was fully arranged in his own mind. Among other
+      things that he saw, as he still lay in the bottom of the boat, was a
+      breaker which he knew contained fresh water, and a bread-bag. These were
+      provisions that it was customary for the men to make, when employed on
+      boat duty; and the articles had been left where he now saw them, in the
+      hurry of the movements, as the brig quitted the islets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harry rose the instant he felt his strength returning. Striking the
+      breaker with his foot, and feeling the basket with a hand, he ascertained
+      that the one held its water, and the other its bread. This was immense
+      relief, for by this time the sufferings of the party on the wreck must be
+      returning with redoubled force. The mate then stepped the mast, and fitted
+      the sprit to the sail, knowing that the latter would be seen fluttering in
+      the wind by those on the wreck, and carry joy to their hearts. After this
+      considerate act, he began to examine into the position of the boat. It was
+      still aground, having been left by the tide; but the water had already
+      risen several inches, and by placing himself on a gunwale, so as to bring
+      the boat on its bilge, and pushing with an oar, he soon got it into deep
+      water. It only remained to haul aft the sheet, and right the helm, to be
+      standing through the channel, at a rate that promised a speedy deliverance
+      to his friends, and, most of all, to Rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford glanced past the rocks and shoals, attended by the whole company
+      of the sharks. They moved before, behind, and on each side of him, as if
+      unwilling to abandon their prey, even after he had got beyond the limits
+      of their power to do him harm. It was not an easy thing to manage the boat
+      in that narrow and crooked channel, with no other guide for the courses
+      than the eye, and it required so much of the mate's vigilance to keep
+      clear of the sharp angles of the rocks, that he could not once cast his
+      eyes aside, to look for the fluttering shawl, which now composed the
+      standing signal of the wreck. At length the boat shot through the last
+      passage of the reef, and issued into open water. Mulford knew that he must
+      come out half a mile at least to leeward of his object, and, without even
+      raising his head, he flattened in the sheet, put his helm down, and luffed
+      close to the wind. Then, and then only, did he venture to look around him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our mate felt his heart leap toward his mouth, as he observed the present
+      state of the wreck. It was dead to windward of him, in the first place,
+      and it seemed to be entirely submerged. He saw the shawl fluttering as
+      before; for Tier had fastened one corner to a button-hole of his own
+      jacket, and another to the dress of Biddy, leaving the part which might be
+      called the fly, to rise at moments almost perpendicularly in the air, in a
+      way to render it visible at some distance. He saw also the heads and the
+      bodies of those on the schooner's bottom, but to him they appeared to be
+      standing in, or on, the water. The distance may have contributed a little
+      to this appearance, but no doubt remained that so much air had escaped
+      from the hold of the vessel, as to permit it to sink altogether beneath
+      the surface of the sea. It was time, indeed, to proceed to the relief of
+      the sufferers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding the boat sailed particularly fast, and worked beautifully,
+      it could not equal the impatience of Mulford to get on. Passing away to
+      the north-east a sufficient distance, as he thought, to weather on the
+      wreck, the young man tacked at last, and had the happiness to see that
+      every foot he proceeded was now in a direct line toward Rose. It was only
+      while tacking he perceived that all the fins had disappeared. He felt
+      little doubt that they had deserted him, in order to push for the wreck,
+      which offered so much larger, and so much more attainable prey. This
+      increased his feverish desire to get on, the boat seeming to drag, in his
+      eyes, at the very moment it was leaving a wake full of eddies and little
+      whirlpools. The wind was steady, but it seemed to Mulford that the boat
+      was set to leeward of her course by a current, though this could hardly
+      have been the case, as the wreck, the sole mark of his progress, would
+      have had at least as great a drift as the boat. At length Mulford&mdash;to
+      him it appeared to be an age; in truth it was after a run of about twenty
+      minutes&mdash;came near the goal he so earnestly sought, and got an
+      accurate view of the state of the wreck, and of those on it. The hull of
+      the schooner had, in truth, sunk entirely beneath the surface of the sea;
+      and the party it sustained stood already knee-deep in the water. This was
+      sufficiently appalling; but the presence of the sharks, who were crowding
+      around the spot, rendered the whole scene frightful. To the young mate it
+      seemed as if he must still be too late to save Rose from a fate more
+      terrible than drowning, for his boat fell so far to leeward as to compel
+      him to tack once more. As he swept past the wreck, he called out to
+      encourage his friends, begging them to be of good heart for five minutes
+      longer, when he should be able to reach them. Rose held out her arms
+      entreatingly, and the screams of Mrs. Budd and Biddy, which were extorted
+      by the closer and closer approach of the sharks, proclaimed the imminency
+      of the danger they ran, and the importance of not losing a moment of time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford took his distance with a seaman's eye, and the boat went about
+      like a top. The latter fell off, and the sail filled on the other tack.
+      Then the young mariner saw, with a joy no description can pourtray, that
+      he looked to windward of the fluttering shawl, toward which his little
+      craft was already flying. He afterward believed that shawl alone prevented
+      the voracious party of fish from assailing those on the wreck, for, though
+      there might not yet be sufficient depth of water to allow of their
+      customary mode of attack, creatures of their voracity did not always wait
+      for such conveniences. But the boat was soon in the midst of the fins,
+      scattering them in all directions; and Mulford let go his sheet, put his
+      helm down, and sprang forward to catch the extended arms of Rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It might have been accident, or it might have been the result of skill and
+      interest in our heroine, but certain it is, that the bows of the boat came
+      on the wreck precisely at the place where Rose stood, and her hand was the
+      first object that the young man touched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take my aunt first,&rdquo; cried Rose, resisting Mulford's efforts to lift her
+      into the boat; &ldquo;she is dreadfully alarmed, and can stand with difficulty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Although two of Rose's activity and lightness might have been drawn into
+      the boat, while the process was going on in behalf of the widow, Mulford
+      lost no time in discussion, but did as he was desired. First directing
+      Tier to hold on to the painter, he applied his strength to the arms of
+      Mrs. Budd, and, assisted by Rose and Biddy, got her safely into the boat,
+      over its bows. Rose now waited not for assistance, but followed her aunt
+      with a haste that proved fear lent her strength in despite her long fast.
+      Biddy came next, though clumsily, and not without trouble, and Jack Tier
+      followed the instant he was permitted so to do. Of course, the boat, no
+      longer held by its painter, drifted away from the spot, and the hull of
+      the schooner, relieved from the weight of four human beings, rose so near
+      the surface again as to bring a small line of its keel out of water. No
+      better evidence could have been given of the trifling power which
+      sustained it, and of the timely nature of the succour brought by Mulford.
+      Had the boat remained near the schooner, it would have been found half an
+      hour later that the hull had sunk slowly out of sight, finding its way,
+      doubtless, inch by inch, toward the bottom of the Gulf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the sun was well up, and the warmth of the hour, season, and
+      latitude, was shed on the sufferers. There was an old sail in the boat,
+      and in this the party dried their limbs and feet, which were getting to be
+      numb by their long immersion. Then the mate produced the bag and opened
+      it, in quest of bread. A small portion was given to each, and, on looking
+      farther, the mate discovered that a piece of boiled ship's beef had been
+      secreted in this receptacle. Of this also he gave each a moderate slice,
+      taking a larger portion for himself, as requiring less precaution. The
+      suffering of the party from hunger was far less than that they endured
+      from thirst. Neither had been endured long enough seriously to enfeeble
+      them or render a full meal very dangerous, but the thirst had been much
+      the hardest to be borne. Of this fact Biddy soon gave audible evidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The mate is good,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and the bread tastes swate and refreshing,
+      but wather is a blessed thing. Can you no give us one dhrap of the wather
+      that falls from heaven, Mr. Mulford; for this wather of the saa is of no
+      use but to drown Christians in?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In an instant the mate had opened a breaker, and filled the tin pot which
+      is almost always to be found in a boat. Biddy said no more, but her eyes
+      pleaded so eloquently, that Rose begged the faithful creature might have
+      the first drink. One eager swallow went down, and then a cry of
+      disappointment succeeded. The water was salt, and had been put in the
+      breaker for ballast. The other breaker was tried with the same success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is terrible to be without one drop of water,&rdquo; murmured Rose, &ldquo;and this
+      food makes it more necessary than ever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Patience, patience, dearest Rose&mdash;patience for ten minutes, and you
+      shall all drink,&rdquo; answered the mate, filling the sail and keeping the boat
+      away while speaking. &ldquo;There is water, God be praised, on the rock to which
+      I first swam, and we will secure it before another day's sun help to make
+      it evaporate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This announcement quieted the longings of those who endured a thirst which
+      disappointment rendered doubly hard to bear; and away the boat glided
+      toward the rock. As he now flew over the distance, lessened more than
+      one-half by the drift of the wreck, Mulford recalled the scene through
+      which he had so painfully passed the previous night. As often happens, he
+      shuddered at the recollection of things which, at the moment, a desperate
+      resolution had enabled him to encounter with firmness. Still, he thought
+      nothing less than the ardent desire to save Rose could have carried him
+      through the trial with the success which attended his struggles. The dear
+      being at his side asked a few explanations of what had passed; and she
+      bowed her head and wept, equally with pain and delight, as imagination
+      pictured to her the situation of her betrothed, amid that waste of water,
+      with his fearful companions, and all in the hours of deep night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But that was over now. There was the rock&mdash;the blessed rock on which
+      Mulford had so accidentally struck, close before them&mdash;and presently
+      they were all on it. The mate took the pot and ran to the little
+      reservoir, returning with a sweet draught for each of the party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A blessed, blessed thing, is wather!&rdquo; exclaimed Biddy, this time finding
+      the relief she sought, &ldquo;and a thousand blessings on <i>you,</i> Mr.
+      Mulford, who have niver done us anything but good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose looked a still higher eulogy on the young man, and even Mrs. Budd had
+      something commendatory and grateful to say. Jack Tier was silent, but he
+      had all his eyes about him, as he now proved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We've all on us been so much taken up with our own affairs,&rdquo; remarked the
+      steward's assistant, &ldquo;that we've taken but little notice of the
+      neighbourhood. If that is n't the brig, Mr. Mulford, running through this
+      very passage, with stun'sails set alow and aloft, I do n't know the Molly
+      Swash when I see her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The brig!&rdquo; exclaimed the mate, recollecting the vessels he had seen at
+      the break-of-day, for the first time in hours. &ldquo;Can it be possible that
+      the craft I made out to the southward, is the brig?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look, and judge for yourself, sir. There she comes, like a race-horse,
+      and if she holds her present course, she must pass somewhere within a mile
+      or so of us, if we stay where we are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford did look, as did all with him. There was the Swash, sure enough,
+      coming down before the wind, and under a cloud of canvas. She might be
+      still a league, or a league and a half distant, but, at the rate at which
+      she was travelling, that distance would soon be past. She was running
+      through the passage, no doubt with a view to proceed to the Dry Tortugas,
+      to look after the schooner, Spike having the hope that he had dodged his
+      pursuers on the coast of Cuba. The mate now looked for the ship, in the
+      north-western board, believing, as he did, that she was the sloop-of-war.
+      That vessel had gone about, and was standing to the southward, on a taut
+      bowline. She was still a long way off, three or four leagues at least, but
+      the change she had made in her position, since last seen, proved that she
+      was a great sailer. Then she was more than hull down, whereas, now, she
+      was near enough to let the outline of a long, straight fabric be
+      discovered beneath her canvas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is hardly possible that Spike should not see the vessel here in the
+      northern board,&rdquo; Mulford observed to Tier, who had been examining the ship
+      with him. &ldquo;The lookout is usually good on board the Swash, and, just now,
+      should certainly be as good as common. Spike is no dawdler with serious
+      business before him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's a willain!&rdquo; muttered Jack Tier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mate regarded his companion with some surprise. Jack was a very
+      insignificant-looking personage in common, and one would scarcely pause to
+      give him a second look, unless it might be to laugh at his rotundity and
+      little waddling legs. But, now, the mate fancied he was swelling with
+      feelings that actually imparted somewhat more than usual stature and
+      dignity to his appearance. His face was full of indignation, and there was
+      something about the eye, that to Mulford was inexplicable. As Rose,
+      however, had related to him the scene that took place on the islet, at the
+      moment when Spike was departing, the mate supposed that Jack still felt a
+      portion of the resentment that such a collision would be apt to create.
+      From the expression of Jack's countenance at that instant, it struck him
+      Spike might not be exactly safe, should accident put it in the power of
+      the former to do him an injury.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now necessary to decide on the course that ought to be pursued. The
+      bag contained sufficient food to last the party several days, and a gallon
+      of water still remained in the cavity of the rock. This last was collected
+      and put in one of the breakers, which was emptied of the salt water in
+      order to receive it. As water, however, was the great necessity in that
+      latitude, Mulford did not deem it prudent to set sail with so small a
+      supply, and he accordingly commenced a search, on some of the adjacent
+      rocks, Jack Tier accompanying him. They succeeded in doubling their stock
+      of water, and collected several shell-fish, that the females found
+      exceedingly grateful and refreshing. On the score of hunger and thirst,
+      indeed, no one was now suffering. By judiciously sipping a little water at
+      a time, and retaining it in the mouth before swallowing, the latter
+      painful feeling had been gotten rid of; and as for food, there was even
+      more than was actually needed, and that of a very good quality. It is
+      probable that standing in the water for hours, as Rose, and her aunt, and
+      Biddy had been obliged to do, had contributed to lessen the pain endured
+      from thirst, though they had all suffered a good deal from that cause,
+      especially while the sun shone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford and Tier were half an hour in obtaining the water. By the end of
+      that period the brigantine was so near as to render her hull distinctly
+      visible. It was high time to decide on their future course. The sail had
+      been brailed when the boat reached the rock, and the boat itself lay on
+      the side of the latter opposite to the brig, and where no part of it could
+      be seen to those on board the Swash, with the exception of the mast. Under
+      the circumstances, therefore, Mulford thought it wisest to remain where
+      they were, and let the vessel pass, before they attempted to proceed
+      toward Key West, their intended place of refuge. In order to do this,
+      however, it was necessary to cause the whole party to lie down, in such a
+      way as to be hid by the inequalities in the rock, as it was now very
+      evident the brig would pass within half a mile of them. Hitherto, it was
+      not probable that they had been seen, and by using due caution, the
+      chances of Spike's overlooking them altogether amounted nearly to
+      certainty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The necessary arrangements were soon made, the boat's masts unstepped, the
+      party placed behind their covers, and the females comfortably bestowed in
+      the spare sail, where they might got a little undisturbed sleep after the
+      dreadful night, or morning, they had passed. Even Jack Tier lay down to
+      catch his nap, as the most useful manner of bestowing himself for a couple
+      of hours; the time Mulford had mentioned as the period of their stay where
+      they were.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for the mate, vigilance was his portion, and he took his position, hid
+      like all the rest, where he could watch the movements of his old craft. In
+      about twenty minutes, the brig was quite near; so near that Mulford not
+      only saw the people on board her, who showed themselves in the rigging,
+      but fancied he could recognise their persons. As yet, nothing had occurred
+      in the way of change, but, just as the Swash got abreast of the rock, she
+      began to take in her studding-sails, and that hurriedly, as is apt to
+      occur on board a vessel in sudden emergencies. Our young man was a little
+      alarmed at first, believing that they might have been discovered, but he
+      was soon induced to think that the crew of the brigantine had just then
+      begun to suspect the character of the ship to the northward. That vessel
+      had been drawing near all this time, and was now only some three leagues
+      distant. Owing to the manner in which she headed, or bows on, it was not a
+      very easy matter to tell the character of this stranger, though the
+      symmetry and squareness of his yards rendered it nearly certain he was a
+      cruiser. Though Spike could not expect to meet his old acquaintance here,
+      after the chase he had so lately led her, down on the opposite coast, he
+      might and would have his misgivings, and Mulford thought it was his
+      intention to haul up close round the northern angle of the reef, and
+      maintain his advantage of the wind, over the stranger. If this were
+      actually done, it might expose the boat to view, for the brig would pass
+      within a quarter of a mile of it, and on the side of the rock on which it
+      lay. It was too late, however, to attempt a change, since the appearance
+      of human beings in such a place would be certain to draw the brig's
+      glasses on them, and the glasses must at once let Spike know who they
+      were. It remained, therefore, only to await the result as patiently as
+      possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A very few minutes removed all doubt. The brig hauled as close round the
+      reef as she dared to venture, and in a very short time the boat lay
+      exposed to view to all on board her. The vessel was now so near that
+      Mulford plainly saw the boatswain get upon the coach-house, or little
+      hurricane-house deck, where Spike stood examining the ship with his glass,
+      and point out the boat, where it lay at the side of the rock. In an
+      instant, the glass was levelled at the spot, and the movements on board
+      the brig immediately betrayed to Mulford that the boat was recognised.
+      Sail was shortened on board the Swash, and men were seen preparing to
+      lower her stern boat, while everything indicated that the vessel was about
+      to be hove-to. There was no time now to be lost, but the young man
+      immediately gave the alarm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No sooner did the party arise and show themselves, than the crew of the
+      Swash gave three cheers. By the aid of the glass, Spike doubtless
+      recognised their persons, and the fact was announced to the men, by way of
+      stimulating their exertions. This gave an additional spur to the movements
+      of those on the rock, who hastened into their own boat, and made sail as
+      soon as possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was far easier to do all that has been described, than to determine on
+      the future course. Capture was certain if the fugitives ventured into the
+      open water, and their only hope was to remain on the reef. If channels for
+      the passage of the boat could be found, escape was highly probable, as the
+      schooner's boat could sail much faster than the brig's boat could row,
+      fast as Mulford knew the last to be. But the experience of the morning had
+      told the mate that the rock rose too near the surface, in many places, for
+      the boat, small as it was, to pass over it; and he must trust a great deal
+      to chance. Away he went, however, standing along a narrow channel, through
+      which the wind just permitted him to lay, with the sail occasionally
+      shaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the Swash had her boat in the water, manned with four
+      powerful oars, Spike steering it in his own person. Our young mate placed
+      Tier in the bows, to point out the deepest water, and kept his sail a rap
+      full, in order to get ahead as fast as possible. Ahead he did get, but it
+      was on a course that soon brought him out in the open water of the main
+      passage through the reef, leaving Spike materially astern. The latter now
+      rose in his boat, and made a signal with his hat, which the boatswain
+      perfectly understood. The latter caused the brig to ware short round on
+      her heel, and boarded his foretack in chase, hauling up into the passage
+      as soon as he could again round the reef. Mulford soon saw that it would
+      never do for him to venture far from the rocks, the brig going two feet to
+      his one, though not looking quite as high as he did in the boat. But the
+      Swash had her guns, and it was probable they would be used rather than he
+      should escape. When distant two hundred yards from the reef, therefore, he
+      tacked. The new course brought the fugitives nearly at right angles to
+      that steered by Spike, who stood directly on, as if conscious that, sooner
+      or later, such a rencounter must occur. It would seem that the tide was
+      setting through the passage, for when the boat of Mulford again reached
+      the reef, it was considerably to windward of the channel out of which she
+      had issued, and opposite to another which offered very opportunely for her
+      entrance. Into this new channel, then, the mate somewhat blindly ran,
+      feeling the necessity of getting out of gun-shot of the brig at every
+      hazard. She at least could not follow him among the rocks, let Spike, in
+      his boat, proceed as he might.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to appearances, Spike was not likely to be very successful. He
+      was obliged to diverge from his course, in order to go into the main
+      passage at the very point where Mulford had just before done the same
+      thing, and pull along the reef to windward, in order to get into the new
+      channel, into which the boat he was pursuing had just entered. This
+      brought him not only astern again, but a long bit astern, inasmuch as he
+      was compelled to make the circuit described. On he went, however, as eager
+      in the chase as the hound with his game in view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford's boat seemed to fly, and glided ahead at least three feet to that
+      of Spike's two. The direction of the channel it was in, brought it pretty
+      close to the wind, but the water was quite smooth, and our mate managed to
+      keep the sail full, and his little craft at the same time quite near the
+      weatherly side of the rocks. In the course of ten minutes the fugitives
+      were fully a mile from the brig, which was unable to follow them, but kept
+      standing off and on, in the main passage, waiting the result. At one time
+      Mulford thought the channel would bring him out into open water again, on
+      the northern side of the reef, and more than a mile to the eastward of the
+      point where the ship-channel in which the Swash was plying commenced; but
+      an accidental circumstance prevented his standing in far enough to
+      ascertain the fact. That circumstance was as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In running a mile and a half over the reef, in the manner described,
+      Mulford had left the boat of Spike quite half a mile astern. He was now
+      out of gun-shot from the brig, or at least beyond the range of her grape,
+      the only missile he feared, and so far to windward that he kept his eye on
+      every opening to the southward, which he fancied might allow of his making
+      a stretch deeper into the mazes of the reef, among which he believed it
+      easiest for him to escape, and to weary the oarsmen of his pursuers. Two
+      or three of these openings offered as he glided along, but it struck him
+      that they all looked so high that the boat would not lay through them&mdash;an
+      opinion in which he was right. At length he came abreast of one that
+      seemed straight and clear of obstacles as far as he could see, and through
+      which he might run with a flowing sheet. Down went his helm, and about
+      went his boat, running away to the southward as fast as ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had Spike followed, doubled the same shoal, and kept away again in the
+      same channel as had been done by the boat he chased, all his hopes of
+      success must have vanished at once. This he did not attempt, therefore;
+      but, sheering into one of the openings which the mate had rejected, he cut
+      off quite half a mile in his distance. This was easy enough for him to
+      accomplish, as a row-boat would pull even easier, near to the wind, than
+      with the wind broad on its bow. In consequence of this short cut,
+      therefore, Spike was actually crossing out into Mulford's new channel,
+      just as the latter had handsomely cleared the mouth of the opening through
+      which he effected his purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is scarcely necessary to say that the two boats must have been for a
+      few minutes quite near to each other; so near, indeed, did the fugitives
+      now pass to their pursuers, that it would have been easy for them to have
+      conversed, had they been so disposed. Not a word was spoken, however, but
+      Mulford went by, leaving Spike about a hundred yards astern. This was a
+      trying moment to the latter, and the devil tempted him to seek his
+      revenge. He had not come unarmed on his enterprise, but three or four
+      loaded muskets lay in the stern-sheets of his yawl. He looked at his men,
+      and saw that they could not hold out much longer to pull as they had been
+      pulling. Then he looked at Mulford's boat, and saw it gliding away from
+      him at a rate that would shortly place it another half mile in advance. He
+      seized a musket, and raised it to his shoulder, nay, was in the act of
+      taking aim at his mate, when Rose, who watched his movements, threw
+      herself before Harry, and if she did not actually save his life, at least
+      prevented Spike's attempt on it for that occasion. In the course of the
+      next ten minutes the fugitives had again so far gained on their pursuers,
+      that the latter began to see that their efforts were useless. Spike
+      muttered a few bitter curses, and told his men to lay on their oars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's well for the runaway,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;that the gal put herself between
+      us, else would his grog have been stopped for ever. I've long suspected
+      this; but had I been sure of it, the Gulf Stream would have had the
+      keeping of his body, the first dark night we were in it together. Lay on
+      your oars, men, lay on your oars; I'm afeared the villian will get through
+      our fingers, a'ter all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The men obeyed, and then, for the first time, did they turn their heads,
+      to look at those they had been so vehemently pursuing. The other boat was
+      quite half a mile from them, and it had again tacked. This last occurrence
+      induced Spike to pull slowly ahead, in quest of another short passage to
+      cut the fugitives off; but no such opening offered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There he goes about again, by George!&rdquo; exclaimed Spike. &ldquo;Give way, lads&mdash;give
+      way; an easy stroke, for if he is embayed, he can't escape us!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sure enough, poor Mulford <i>was</i> embayed, and could see no outlet by
+      which to pass ahead. He tacked his boat two or three times, and he wore
+      round as often; but on every side shoals, or rocks that actually rose
+      above the surface of the water, impeded his course. The fact was not to be
+      concealed; after all his efforts, and so many promises of success, not
+      only was his further progress ahead cut off, but equally so was retreat.
+      The passage was not wide enough to admit the hope of getting by his
+      pursuers, and the young man came to the conclusion that his better course
+      was to submit with dignity to his fate. For himself he had no hope&mdash;he
+      knew Spike's character too well for that; but he did not apprehend any
+      great immediate danger to his companions. Spike had a coarse, brutal
+      admiration for Rose! but her expected fortune, which was believed to be of
+      more amount than was actually the case, was a sort of pledge that he would
+      not willingly put himself in a situation that would prevent the
+      possibility of enjoying it. Strange, hurried, and somewhat confused
+      thoughts passed through Harry Mulford's mind, as he brailed his sail, and
+      waited for his captors to approach and take possession of his boat and
+      himself. This was done quietly, and with very few words on the part of
+      Spike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford would have liked the appearance of things better had his old
+      commander cursed him, and betrayed other signs of the fury that was
+      boiling in his very soul. On the contrary, never had Stephen Spike seemed
+      more calm, or under better self-command. He smiled, and saluted Mrs. Budd,
+      just as if nothing unpleasant had occurred, and alluded to the sharpness
+      of the chase with facetiousness and seeming good-humour. The females were
+      deceived by this manner, and hoped, after all, that the worst that would
+      happen would be a return to their old position on board the Swash. This
+      was being so much better off than their horrible situation on the wreck,
+      that the change was not frightful to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What has become of the schooner, Mr. Mulford?&rdquo; asked Spike, as the boats
+      began to pass down the channel to return to the brig&mdash;two of the
+      Swash's men taking their seats in that which had been captured, along with
+      their commander, while the other two got a tow from the use of the sail.
+      &ldquo;I see you have the boat here that we used alongside of her, and suppose
+      you know something of the craft itself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She capsized with us in a squall,&rdquo; answered the mate, &ldquo;and we only left
+      the wreck this morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Capsized!&mdash;hum&mdash;that was a hard fate, to be sure, and denotes
+      bad seamanship. Now I've sailed all sorts of craft these forty years, or
+      five-and-thirty at least, and never cap-sized anything in my life. Stand
+      by there for'ard to hold on by that rock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A solitary cap of the coral rose above the water two or three feet, close
+      to the channel, and was the rock to which Spike alluded. It was only some
+      fifty feet in diameter, and of an oval form, rising quite above the
+      ordinary tides, as was apparent by its appearance. It is scarcely
+      necessary to say it had no other fresh water than that which occasionally
+      fell on its surface, which surface being quite smooth, retained very
+      little of the rain it received. The boat was soon alongside of this rock,
+      where it was held broadside-to by the two seamen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Mulford, do me the favour to step up here,&rdquo; said Spike, leading the
+      way on to the rock himself. &ldquo;I have a word to say to you before we get on
+      board the old Molly once more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford silently complied, fully expecting that Spike intended to blow his
+      brains out, and willing the bloody deed should be done in a way to be as
+      little shocking to Rose as circumstances would allow. But Spike manifested
+      no such intention. A more refined cruelty was uppermost in his mind; and
+      his revenge was calculated, and took care to fortify itself with some of
+      the quibbles and artifices of the law. He might not be exactly right in
+      his legal reservations, but he did not the less rely on their virtue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hark'e, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo; said Spike, sharply, as soon as both were on the
+      rock, &ldquo;you have run from my brig, thereby showing your distaste for her;
+      and I've no disposition to keep a man who wishes to quit me. Here you are,
+      sir, on <i>terrum firm,</i> as the scholars call it; and here you have my
+      full permission to remain. I wish you a good morning, sir; and will not
+      fail to report, when we get in, that you left the brig of your own
+      pleasure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will not have the cruelty to abandon me on this naked rock, Captain
+      Spike, and that without a morsel of food, or a drop of water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wather is a blessed thing!&rdquo; exclaimed Biddy. &ldquo;Do not think of lavin' the
+      gentleman widout wather.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You left <i>me,</i> sir, without food or water, and you can fit out your
+      own rock&mdash;yes, d&mdash;e, sir, you left me <i>under fire,</i> and
+      that is a thing no true-hearted man would have thought of. Stand by to
+      make sail, boys; and if he offer to enter the boat, pitch him out with the
+      boat-hooks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike was getting angry, and he entered the boat again, without perceiving
+      that Rose had left it. Light of foot, and resolute of spirit, the
+      beautiful girl, handsomer than ever perhaps, by her excited feelings and
+      dishevelled hair, had sprung on the rock, as Spike stepped into the boat
+      forward, and when the latter turned round, after loosening the sail, he
+      found he was drifting away from the very being who was the object of all
+      his efforts. Mulford, believing that Rose was to be abandoned as well as
+      himself, received the noble girl in his arms, though ready to implore
+      Spike, on his knees, to return and at least to take her off. But Spike
+      wanted no solicitation on that point. He returned of his own accord, and
+      had just reached the rock again when a report of a gun drew all eyes
+      toward the brig.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Swash had again run out of the passage, and was beating up, close to
+      the reef as she dared to go, with a signal flying. All the seamen at once
+      understood the cause of this hint. The strange sail was getting too near,
+      and everybody could see that it was the sloop-of-war. Spike looked at
+      Rose, a moment, in doubt. But Mulford raised his beloved in his arms, and
+      carried her to the side of the rock, stepping on board the boat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike watched the movements of the young man with jealous vigilance, and
+      no sooner was Rose placed on her seat, than he motioned significantly to
+      the mate to quit the boat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot and will not voluntarily, Captain Spike,&rdquo; answered Harry,
+      calmly. &ldquo;It would be committing a sort of suicide.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A sign brought two of the men to the captain's assistance. While the
+      latter held Rose in her place, the sailors shoved Harry on the rock again.
+      Had Mulford been disposed to resist, these two men could not very easily
+      have ejected him from the boat, if they could have done it at all; but he
+      knew there were others in reserve, and feared that blood might be shed, in
+      the irritated state of Spike, in the presence of Rose. While, therefore,
+      he would not be accessary to his own destruction, he would not engage in
+      what he knew would prove not only a most harassing, but a bootless
+      resistance. The consequence was that the boats proceeded, leaving him
+      alone on the rock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was perhaps fortunate for Rose that she fainted. Her condition occupied
+      her aunt and Biddy, and Spike was enabled to reach his brig without any
+      further interruption. Rose was taken on board still nearly insensible,
+      while her two female companions were so much confused and distressed, that
+      neither could have given a reasonably clear account of what had just
+      occurred. Not so with Jack Tier, however. That singular being noted all
+      that passed, seated in the eyes of the boat, away from the confusion that
+      prevailed in its stern-sheets, and apparently undisturbed by it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the party was sailing back toward the brig, the lighthouse boat towing
+      the Swash's yawl, Jack took as good an observation of the channels of that
+      part of the reef as his low position would allow. He tried to form in his
+      mind a sort of chart of the spot, for, from the instant Mulford was thus
+      deserted, the little fellow had formed a stern resolution to attempt his
+      rescue. How that was to be done, however, was more than he yet knew; and
+      when they reached the brig's side, Tier may be said to have been filled
+      with good intentions, rather than with any very available knowledge to
+      enable him to put them in execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As respects the two vessels, the arrival of Spike on board his own was not
+      a moment too soon. The Poughkeepsie, for the stranger to the northward was
+      now ascertained to be that sloop-of-war, was within long gun-shot by this
+      time, and near enough to make certain, by means of her glasses, of the
+      character of the craft with which she was closing. Luckily for the brig
+      she lay in the channel so often mentioned, and through which both she and
+      her present pursuer had so lately come, on their way to the northward.
+      This brought her to windward, as the wind then stood, with a clear passage
+      before her. Not a moment was lost. No sooner were the females sent below,
+      than sail was made on the brig, and she began to beat through the passage,
+      making long legs and short ones. She was chased, as a matter of course,
+      and that hard, the difference in sailing between the two crafts not being
+      sufficiently great to render the brigantine's escape by any means certain,
+      while absolutely within the range of those terrible missiles that were
+      used by the man-of-war's men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Spike soon determined not to leave a point so delicate as that of his
+      own and his vessel's security to be decided by a mere superiority in the
+      way of heels. The Florida Reef, with all its dangers, windings, and rocks,
+      was as well known to him as the entrances to the port of New York. In
+      addition to its larger channels, of which there are three or four, through
+      which ships of size can pass, it had many others that would admit only
+      vessels of a lighter draught of water. The brig was not flying light, it
+      is true, but she was merely in good ballast trim, and passages would be
+      available to her, into which the Poughkeepsie would not dare to venture.
+      One of these lesser channels was favourably placed to further the escape
+      of Spike, and he shoved the brig into it after the struggle had lasted
+      less than an hour. This passage offered a shorter cut to the south side of
+      the reef than the main channel, and the sloop-of-war, doubtless perceiving
+      the uselessness of pursuit, under such circumstances, wore round on her
+      heel, and came down through the main channel again, just entering the open
+      water, near the spot where the schooner had sunk, as the sun was setting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Shallow.</i> Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pound?
+
+     <i>Evans.</i> Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny.
+
+     <i>Shallow.</i> I know the young gentlewoman; she has good gifts.
+
+     <i>Evans.</i> Seven hundred pounds, and possibilities, is good gifts.
+
+     Shakspeare.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      As for Spike, he had no intention of going to the southward of the Florida
+      Reef again until his business called him there. The lost bag of doubloons
+      was still gleaming before his imagination, and no sooner did the
+      Poughkeepsie bear up, than he shortened sail, standing back and forth in
+      his narrow and crooked channel, rather losing ground than gaining, though
+      he took great pains not to let his artifice be seen. When the Poughkeepsie
+      was so far to the northward as to render it safe, he took in everything
+      but one or two of his lowest sails, and followed easily in the same
+      direction. As the sloop-of-war carried her light and loftier sails, she
+      remained visible to the people of the Swash long after the Swash had
+      ceased to be visible to her. Profiting by this circumstance, Spike entered
+      the main channel again some time before it was dark, and selected a safe
+      anchorage there that was well known to him; a spot where sufficient sand
+      had collected on the coral to make good holding ground, and where a vessel
+      would be nearly embayed, though always to windward of her channel going
+      out, by the formation of the reef. Here he anchored, in order to wait
+      until morning ere he ventured further north. During the whole of that
+      dreadful day, Rose had remained in her cabin, disconsolate, nearly unable,
+      as she was absolutely unwilling to converse. Now it was that she felt the
+      total insufficiency of a mind feeble as that of her aunt's to administer
+      consolation to misery like her own. Nevertheless, the affectionate
+      solicitude of Mrs. Budd, as well as that of the faithful creature, Biddy,
+      brought some relief, and reason and resignation began slowly to resume
+      their influence. Yet was the horrible picture of Harry, dying by inches,
+      deserted in the midst of the waters on his solitary rock, ever present to
+      her thoughts, until, once or twice, her feelings verged on madness. Prayer
+      brought its customary relief, however; and we do not think that we much
+      exaggerate the fact, when we say that Rose passed fully one-half of that
+      terrible afternoon on her knees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Jack Tier, he was received on board the brig much as if nothing had
+      happened. Spike passed and repassed him fifty times, without even an angry
+      look, or a word of abuse; and the deputy-steward dropped quietly into the
+      duties of his office, without meeting with either reproach or hindrance.
+      The only allusion, indeed, that was made to his recent adventures, took
+      place in a conversation that was held on the subject in the galley, the
+      interlocutors being Jack himself, Josh, the steward, and Simon, the cook.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where you been scullin' to, 'bout on dat reef, Jack, wid dem' ere women,
+      I won'er now?&rdquo; demanded Josh, after tasting the cabin soup, in order to
+      ascertain how near it was to being done. &ldquo;It'ink it no great fun to dodge
+      'bout among dem rock in a boat, for anudder hurricane might come when a
+      body least expeck him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; said Jack, cavalierly, &ldquo;two hurricanes no more come in one month,
+      than two shot in the same hole. We've been turtlin', that's all. I wish we
+      had in your coppers, cook, some of the critturs that we fell in with in
+      our cruise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wish'e had, master steward, wid all my heart,&rdquo; answered the fat,
+      glistening potentate of the galley. &ldquo;But, hark'ee, Jack; what became of
+      our young mate, can 'e tell? Some say he get kill at'e Dry Tortugas, and
+      some say he war' scullin' round in dat boat you hab, wid'e young woman,
+      eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, boys,&rdquo; answered Jack, mournfully, &ldquo;sure enough, what <i>has</i>
+      become of him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know, why can't you tell? What good to hab secret among friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Are</i> ye his friends, lads? Do you really feel as if you could give
+      a poor soul in its agony a helpin' hand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not?&rdquo; said Josh, in a reproachful way. &ldquo;Misser Mulford'e bess mate
+      dis brig ebber get; and I don't see why Cap'in Spike-want to be rid of
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because he's a willian!&rdquo; returned Jack between his grated teeth. &ldquo;D'ye
+      know what that means in English, master Josh; and can you and cook here,
+      both of whom have sailed with the man years in and years out, say whether
+      my words be true or not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat as a body understand 'em. Accordin' to some rule, Stephen Spike not a
+      werry honest man; but accordin' to 'nudder some, he as good as any body
+      else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, dat just be upshot of de matter,&rdquo; put in Simon, approvingly. &ldquo;De
+      whole case lie in dat meanin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;D'ye call it right to leave a human being to starve, or to suffer for
+      water, on a naked rock, in the midst of the ocean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who do dat?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The willian who is captain of this brig; and all because he thinks young
+      eyes and bloomin' cheeks prefar young eyes and bloomin' cheeks to his own
+      grizzly beard and old look-outs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat bad; dat werry bad,&rdquo; said Josh, shaking his head, a way of denoting
+      dissatisfaction, in which Simon joined him; for no crime appeared
+      sufficiently grave in the eyes of these two sleek and well-fed officials
+      to justify such a punishment. &ldquo;Dat mons'ous bad, and cap'in ought to know
+      better dan do <i>dat</i>. I nebber starves a mouse, if I catches him in de
+      bread-locker. Now, dat a sort of reason'ble punishment, too; but I nebber
+      does it. If mouse eat my bread, it do seem right to tell mouse dat he hab
+      enough, and dat he must not eat any more for a week, or a mont', but it
+      too cruel for me, and I nebber does it; no, I t'rows de little debil
+      overboard, and lets him drown like a gentle'em.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Y-e-s,&rdquo; drawled out Simon, in a philanthropical tone of voice, &ldquo;dat'e
+      best way. What good it do to torment a fellow critter? If Misser Mulford
+      run, why put him down run, and let him go, I say, on'y mulk his wages; but
+      what good it do anybody to starve him? Now dis is my opinion, gentle'em,
+      and dat is, dat starwation be wuss dan choleric. Choleric kill, I knows,
+      and so does starwation kill; but of de two, gib me de choleric fuss; if I
+      gets well of dat, den try starwation if you can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm glad to hear you talk in this manner, my hearties,&rdquo; put in Jack; &ldquo;and
+      I hope I may find you accommodatin' in a plan I've got to help the maty
+      out of this difficulty. As a friend of Stephen Spike's I would do it; for
+      it must be a terrible thing to die with such a murder on one's soul.
+      Here's the boat that we pick'd up at the light-house, yonder, in tow of
+      the brig at this minute; and there's everything in her comfortable for a
+      good long run, as I know from having sailed in her; and what I mean is
+      this: as we left Mr. Mulford, I took the bearings and distance of the rock
+      he was on, d'ye understand, and think I could find my way back to it. You
+      see the brig is travelin' slowly north ag'in, and afore long we shall be
+      in the neighbourhood of that very rock. We, cook and stewards, will be
+      called on to keep an anchor-watch, if the brig fetches up, as I heard the
+      captain tell the Spanish gentleman he thought she would; and then we can
+      take the boat that's in the water and go and have a hunt for the maty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The two blacks looked at Tier earnestly; then they turned their heads to
+      look at each other. The idea struck each as bold and novel, but each saw
+      serious difficulties in it. At length Josh, as became his superior
+      station, took on himself the office of expressing the objections that
+      occurred to his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat nebber do!&rdquo; exclaimed the steward. &ldquo;We be's quite willin' to sarve'e
+      mate, who's a good gentle'em, and as nice a young man as ever sung out,
+      'hard a-lee,' but we must t'ink little bit of number one; or, for dat
+      matter, of number two, as Simon would be implercated as well as myself. If
+      Cap'in Spike once knew we've lent a hand in sich a job, he'd never
+      overlook it. I knows him, <i>well;</i> and that is sayin' as much as need
+      be said of any man's character. You nebber catch <i>me</i> runnin' myself
+      into his jaws; would rather fight a shark widout any knife. No, no&mdash;I
+      knows him <i>well</i>. Den comes anudder werry unanswerable objecsh'un,
+      and dat is, dat'e brig owe bot' Simon and I money. Fifty dollars, each on
+      us, if she owe one cent. Now, do you t'ink in cander, Jack, dat two
+      colour' gentle'em, like us, can t'row away our fortins like two sons of a
+      York merchant dat has inherited a hundred t'ousand dollar tudder day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no occasion for running at all, or for losing your wages.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How you get'e mate off, den? Can he walk away on de water? If so, let him
+      go widout us. A werry good gentle'em is Misser Mulford, but not good
+      enough to mulk Simon and me out of fifty dollar each.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will not hear my project, Josh, and so will never know what I would
+      be at.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, come, tell him jest as you surposes him. Now listen, Simon, so dat
+      not a word be loss.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My plan is to take the boat, if we anchor, as anchor I know we shall, and
+      go and find the rock and bring Mr. Mulford off; then we can come back to
+      the brig, and get on board ourselves, and let the mate sail away in the
+      boat by himself. On this plan nobody will run, and no wages be mulcted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But dat take time and an anchor-watch last but two hour, surposin' even
+      dat'ey puts all t'ree of us in de same watch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spike usually does that, you know. 'Let the cook and the stewards keep
+      the midnight watch,' he commonly says, 'and that will give the foremost
+      hands a better snooze.&rdquo;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he do say <i>dat,</i> Josh,&rdquo; put in Simon, &ldquo;most ebbery time we
+      comes-to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know he does, and surposes he will say it to-night, if he comes-to
+      to-night. But a two hour watch may not be long enough to do all you wants;
+      and den, jest t'ink for a moment, should 'e cap'in come on deck and hail'e
+      forecastle, and find us all gone, I wouldn't be in your skin, Jack, for
+      dis brig, in sich a kerlamity. I knows Cap'in Spike well; t'ree time I
+      endebber to run myself, and each time he bring me up wid a round turn; so,
+      now-a-days, I nebber t'inks of sich a projeck any longer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I do not intend to leave the forecastle without some one on it to
+      answer a hail. No, all I want is a companion; for I do not like to go out
+      on the reef at midnight, all alone. If one of you will go with me, the
+      other can stay and answer the captain's hail, should he really come on
+      deck in our watch&mdash;a thing very little likely to happen. When once
+      his head is on his pillow, a'ter a hard day's work, it's not very apt to
+      be lifted ag'in without a call, or a squall. If you do know Stephen Spike
+      <i>well,</i> Josh, I know him better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Jack, dis here is a new idee, d'ye see, and a body must take time
+      to consider on it. If Simon and I do ship for dis v'y'ge, 't will be for
+      lub of Mr. Mulford, and not for <i>his</i> money or <i>your'n&rdquo;</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was all the encouragement of his project Jack Tier could obtain, on
+      that occasion, from either his brother steward, or from the cook. These
+      blacks were well enough disposed to rescue an innocent and unoffending man
+      from the atrocious death to which Spike had condemned his mate, but
+      neither lost sight of his own security and interest. They promised Tier
+      not to betray him, however; and he had the fullest confidence in their
+      pledges. They who live together in common, usually understand the feeling
+      that prevails, on any given point, in their own set; and Jack felt pretty
+      certain that Harry was a greater favourite in and about the camboose than
+      the captain. On that feeling he relied, and he was fain to wait the course
+      of events, ere he came to any absolute conclusion as to his own course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The interview in the galley took place about half an hour before the brig
+      anchored for the night. Tier, who often assisted on such occasions, went
+      aloft to help secure the royal, one of the gaskets of which had got loose,
+      and from the yard he had an excellent opportunity to take a look at the
+      reef, the situation of the vessel, and the probable bearings of the rock
+      on which poor Mulford had been devoted to a miserable death. This
+      opportunity was much increased by Spike's hailing him, while on the yard,
+      and ordering him to take a good look at the sloop-of-war, and at the same
+      time to ascertain if any boats were &ldquo;prowlin' about, in order to make a
+      set upon us in the night.&rdquo; On receiving this welcome order, Jack answered
+      with a cheerful &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir,&rdquo; and standing up on the yard, he placed an
+      arm around the mast, and remained for a long time making his observations.
+      The command to look-out for boats would have been a sufficient excuse had
+      he continued on the yard as long as it was light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack had no difficulty in finding the Poughkeepsie, which was already
+      through the passage, and no longer visible from the deck. She appeared to
+      be standing to the northward and westward, under easy canvas, like a craft
+      that was in no hurry. This fact was communicated to Spike in the usual
+      way. The latter seemed pleased, and he answered in a hearty manner, just
+      as if no difficulty had ever occurred between him and the steward's
+      assistant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Jack! bravo, Jack!&mdash;now take a good look for boats;
+      you'll have light enough for that this half hour,&rdquo; cried the captain. &ldquo;If
+      any are out, you'll find them pulling down the channel, or maybe they'll
+      try to shorten the cut, by attempting to pull athwart the reef. Take a
+      good and steady look for them, my man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir; I'll do all I can with naked eyes,&rdquo; answered Jack, &ldquo;but I
+      could do better, sir, if they would only send me up a glass by these here
+      signal-halyards. With a glass, a fellow might speak with some sartainty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike seemed struck with the truth of this suggestion; and he soon sent a
+      glass aloft by the signal-halyards. Thus provided, Jack descended as low
+      as the cross-trees, where he took his seat, and began a survey at his
+      leisure. While thus employed, the brig was secured for the night, her
+      decks were cleared, and the people were ordered to get their suppers,
+      previously to setting an anchor-watch, and turning-in for the night. No
+      one heeded the movements of Tier,&mdash;for Spike had gone into his own
+      state-room,&mdash;with the exception of Josh and Simon. Those two worthies
+      were still in the galley, conversing on the subject of Jack's recent
+      communications; and ever and anon one of them would stick his head out of
+      the door and look aloft, withdrawing it, and shaking it significantly, as
+      soon as his observations were ended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Tier, he was seated quite at his ease; and having slung his glass
+      to one of the shrouds, in a way to admit of its being turned as on a
+      pivot, he had every opportunity for observing accurately, and at his
+      leisure. The first thing Jack did, was to examine the channel very
+      closely, in order to make sure that no boats were in it, after which he
+      turned the glass with great eagerness toward the reef, in the almost
+      hopeless office of ascertaining something concerning Mulford. In point of
+      fact, the brig had anchored quite three leagues from the solitary rock of
+      the deserted mate, and, favoured as he was by his elevation, Jack could
+      hardly expect to discern so small and low an object as that rock at so
+      great a distance. Nevertheless, the glass was much better than common. It
+      had been a present to Spike from one who was careful in his selections of
+      such objects, and who had accidentally been under a serious obligation to
+      the captain. Knowing the importance of a good look, as regards the boats,
+      Spike had brought this particular instrument, of which, in common, he was
+      very chary, from his own state-room, and sent it aloft, in order that Jack
+      might have every available opportunity of ascertaining his facts. It was
+      this glass, then, which was the means of the important discoveries the
+      little fellow, who was thus perched on the fore-topmast cross-trees of the
+      Swash, did actually succeed in making.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack actually started, when he first ascertained how distinctly and near
+      the glass he was using brought distant objects. The gulls that sailed
+      across its disk, though a league off, appeared as if near enough to be
+      touched by the hand, and even their feathers gave out not only their hues,
+      but their forms. Thus, too, was it with the surface of the ocean, of which
+      the little waves that agitated the water of the reef, might be seen
+      tossing up and down, at more than twice the range of the Poughkeepsie's
+      heaviest gun. Naked rocks, low and subdued as they were in colour, too,
+      were to be noted, scattered up and down in the panorama. At length Tier
+      fancied his glass covered a field that he recognized. It was distant, but
+      might be seen from his present elevation. A second look satisfied him he
+      was right; and he next clearly traced the last channel in which they had
+      endeavoured to escape from Spike, or that in which the boat had been
+      taken. Following it along, by slowly moving the glass, he actually hit the
+      rock on which Mulford had been deserted. It was peculiar in shape, size,
+      and elevation above the water, and connected with the circumstance of the
+      channel, which was easily enough seen by the colour of the water, and more
+      easily from his height than if he had been in it, he could not be
+      mistaken. The little fellow's heart beat quick as he made the glass move
+      slowly over its surface, anxiously searching for the form of the mate. It
+      was not to be seen. A second, and a more careful sweep of the glass, made
+      it certain that the rock was deserted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although a little reflection might have satisfied any one Mulford was not
+      to be sought in that particular spot, so long after he had been left
+      there, Jack Tier felt grievously disappointed when he was first made
+      certain of the accuracy of his observations. A minute later he began to
+      reason on the matter, and he felt more encouraged. The rock on which the
+      mate had been abandoned was smooth, and could not hold any fresh water
+      that might have been left by the late showers. Jack also remembered that
+      it had neither sea-weed nor shell-fish. In short, the utmost malice of
+      Spike could not have selected, for the immolation of his victim, a more
+      suitable place. Now Tier had heard Harry's explanation to Rose, touching
+      the manner in which he had waded and swum about the reef that very
+      morning, and it at once occurred to him that the young man had too much
+      energy and spirit to remain helpless and inactive to perish on a naked
+      rock, when there might be a possibility of at least prolonging existence,
+      if not of saving it. This induced the steward to turn the glass slowly
+      over the water, and along all the ranges of visible rock that he could
+      find in that vicinity. For a long time the search was useless, the
+      distance rendering such an examination not only difficult but painful. At
+      length Jack, about to give up the matter in despair, took one sweep with
+      the glass nearer to the brig, as much to obtain a general idea of the
+      boat-channels of the reef, as in any hope of finding Mulford, when an
+      object moving in the water came within the field of the glass. He saw it
+      but for an instant, as the glass swept slowly past, but it struck him it
+      was something that had life, and was in motion. Carefully going over the
+      same ground again, after a long search, he again found what he so
+      anxiously sought. A good look satisfied him that he was right. It was
+      certainly a man wading along the shallow water of the reef, immersed to
+      his waist&mdash;and it must be Mulford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So excited was Jack Tier by this discovery that he trembled like a leaf. A
+      minute or two elapsed before he could again use the glass; and when he
+      did, a long and anxious search was necessary before so small an object
+      could be once more found. Find it he did, however, and then he got its
+      range by the vessel, in a way to make sure of it. Yes, it was a man, and
+      it was Mulford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Circumstances conspired to aid Jack in the investigation that succeeded.
+      The sun was near setting, but a stream of golden light gleamed over the
+      waters, particularly illuminating the portion which came within the field
+      of the glass. It appeared then that Harry, in his efforts to escape from
+      the rock, and to get nearer to the edge of the main channel, where his
+      chances of being seen and rescued would be ten-fold what they were on his
+      rock, had moved south, by following the naked reef and the shallow places,
+      and was actually more than a league nearer to the brig than he would have
+      been had he remained stationary. There had been hours in which to make
+      this change, and the young man had probably improved them to the utmost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack watched the form that was wading slowly along with an interest he had
+      never before felt in the movements of any human being. Whether Mulford saw
+      the brig or not, it was difficult to say. She was quite two leagues from
+      him, and, now that her sails were furled, she offered but little for the
+      eye to rest on at that distance. At first, Jack thought the young man was
+      actually endeavouring to get nearer to her, though it must have been a
+      forlorn hope that should again place him in the hands of Spike. It was,
+      however, a more probable conjecture that the young man was endeavouring to
+      reach the margin of the passage, where a good deal of rock was above
+      water, and near to which he had already managed to reach. At one time Jack
+      saw that the mate was obliged to swim, and he actually lost sight of him
+      for a time. His form, however, reappeared, and then it slowly emerged from
+      the water, and stood erect on a bare rock of some extent. Jack breathed
+      freer at this; for Mulford was now on the very margin of the channel, and
+      might be easily reached by the boat, should he prevail on Josh, or Simon,
+      to attempt the rescue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first, Jack Tier fancied that Mulford had knelt to return thanks on his
+      arrival at a place of comparative safety; but a second look satisfied him
+      that Harry was drinking from one of the little pools of fresh water left
+      by the late shower. When he rose from drinking, the young man walked about
+      the place, occasionally stooping, signs that he was picking up shell-fish
+      for his supper. Suddenly, Mulford darted forward, and passed beyond the
+      field of the glass. When Jack found him again, he was in the act of
+      turning a small turtle, using his knife on the animal immediately after.
+      Had Jack been in danger of starvation himself, and found a source of food
+      as ample and as grateful as this, he could scarcely have been more
+      delighted. The light now began to wane perceptibly, still Harry's
+      movements could be discerned. The turtle was killed and dressed,
+      sufficiently at least for the mate's purposes, and the latter was seen
+      collecting sea-weed, and bits of plank, boards, and sticks of wood, of
+      which more or less, in drifting past, had lodged upon the rocks. &ldquo;Is it
+      possible,&rdquo; thought Jack, &ldquo;that he is so werry partic'lar he can't eat his
+      turtle raw! Will he, indeed, venture to light a fire, or has he the
+      means?&rdquo; Mulford was so particular, however, he did venture to light a
+      fire, and he had the means. This may be said to be the age of matches&mdash;not
+      in a connubial, though in an inflammatory sense&mdash;and the mate had a
+      small stock in a tight box that he habitually carried on his person. Tier
+      saw him at work over a little pile he had made for a long time, the beams
+      of day departing now so fast as to make him fearful he should soon lose
+      his object in the increasing obscurity of twilight. Suddenly a light
+      gleamed, and the pile sent forth a clear flame. Mulford went to and fro,
+      collecting materials to feed his fire, and was soon busied in cooking his
+      turtle. All this Tier saw and understood, the light of the flames coming
+      in proper time to supply the vacuum left by the departure of that of day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a minute Tier had no difficulty in seeing the fire that Mulford had
+      lighted on his low and insulated domains with the naked eye. It gleamed
+      brightly in that solitary place; and the steward was much afraid it would
+      be seen by some one on deck, get to be reported to Spike, and lead to
+      Harry's destruction after all. The mate appeared to be insensible to his
+      danger, however, occasionally casting piles of dry sea-weed on his fire,
+      in a way to cause the flames to flash up, as if kindled anew by gunpowder.
+      It now occurred to Tier that the young man had a double object in lighting
+      this fire, which would answer not only the purposes of his cookery, but as
+      a signal of distress to anything passing near. The sloop-of-war, though
+      more distant than the brig, was in his neighbourhood; and she might
+      possibly yet send relief. Such was the state of things when Jack was
+      startled by a sudden hail from below. It was Spike's voice, and came up to
+      him short and quick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fore-topmast cross-trees, there! What are ye about all this time, Master
+      Jack Tier, in them fore-topmast cross-trees, I say?&rdquo; demanded Spike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keeping a look-out for boats from the sloop-of-war, as you bade me, sir,&rdquo;
+       answered Jack, coolly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;D'ye see any, my man? Is the water clear ahead of us, or not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's getting to be so dark, sir, I can see no longer. While there was
+      day-light, no boat was to be seen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come down, man&mdash;come down; I've business for you below. The sloop is
+      far enough to the nor'ard, and we shall neither see nor hear from her
+      to-night. Come down, I say, Jack&mdash;come down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack obeyed, and securing the glass, he began to descend the rigging. He
+      was soon as low as the top, when he paused a moment to take another look.
+      The fire was still visible, shining like a torch on the surface of the
+      water, casting its beams abroad like &ldquo;a good deed in a naughty world.&rdquo;
+       Jack was sorry to see it, though he once more took its bearing from the
+      brig, in order that he might know where to find the spot, in the event of
+      a search for it. When on the stretcher of the fore-rigging, Jack stopped
+      and again looked for his beacon. It had disappeared, having sunk below the
+      circular formation of the earth. By ascending two or three ratlins, it
+      came into view, and by going down as low as the stretcher again, it
+      disappeared. Trusting that no one, at that hour, would have occasion to go
+      aloft, Jack now descended to the deck, and went aft with the spy-glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike and the Señor Montefalderon were under the coach-house, no one else
+      appearing on any part of the quarter-deck. The people were eating their
+      suppers, and Josh and Simon were busy in the galley. As for the females,
+      they chose to remain in their own cabin, where Spike was well pleased to
+      leave them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come this way, Jack,&rdquo; said the captain, in his best-humoured tone of
+      voice, &ldquo;I've a word to say to you. Put the glass in at my state-room
+      window, and come hither.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Tier did as ordered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you can make out no boats to the nor'ard, ha, Jack! nothing to be seen
+      thereaway?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing in the way of a boat, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, I dare say there's plenty of water, and some rock. The Florida
+      Reef has no scarcity of either, to them that knows where to look for one,
+      and to steer clear of the other. Hark'e, Jack; so you got the schooner
+      under way from the Dry Tortugas, and undertook to beat her up to Key West,
+      when she fancied herself a turtle, and over she went with you&mdash;is
+      that it, my man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The schooner turned turtle with us, sure enough, sir; and we all came
+      near drowning on her bottom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No sharks in that latitude and longitude, eh Jack?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Plenty on 'em, sir; and I thought they would have got us all, at one
+      time. More than twenty set of fins were in sight at once, for several
+      hours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You could hardly have supplied the gentlemen with a leg, or an arm, each.
+      But where was the boat all this time&mdash;you had the light-house boat in
+      tow, I suppose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She had been in tow, sir; but Madam Budd talked so much dictionary to the
+      painter, that it got adrift.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet I found you all in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true, sir. Mr. Mulford swam quite a mile to reach the rocks, and
+      found the boat aground on one on 'em. As soon as he got the boat, he made
+      sail, and came and took us off. We had reason to thank God he could do
+      so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike looked dark and thoughtful. He muttered the words &ldquo;swam,&rdquo; and
+      &ldquo;rocks,&rdquo; but was too cautious to allow any expressions to escape him, that
+      might betray to the Mexican officer that which was uppermost in his mind.
+      He was silent, however, for quite a minute, and Jack saw that he had
+      awakened a dangerous source of distrust in the captain's breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Jack,&rdquo; resumed Spike, after the pause, &ldquo;can you tell us anything of
+      the doubloons? I nat'rally expected to find them in the boat, but there
+      were none to be seen. You scarcely pumped the schooner out, without
+      overhauling her lockers, and falling in with them doubloons.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We found them, sure enough, and had them ashore with us, in the tent,
+      down to the moment when we sailed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When you took them off to the schooner, eh? My life for it, the gold was
+      not forgotten.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was not, sure enough, sir; but we took it off with us to the schooner,
+      and it went down in her when she finally sunk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Another pause, during which Señor Montefalderon and Captain Spike looked
+      significantly at each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think, Jack, you could find the spot where the schooner went
+      down?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I could come pretty near it, sir, though not on the very spot itself.
+      Water leaves no mark over the grave of a sunken ship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you can take us within a reasonable distance, we might find it by
+      sweeping for it. Them doubloons are worth some trouble; and their recovery
+      would be better than a long v'y'ge to us, any day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They would, indeed, Don Esteban,&rdquo; observed the Mexican; &ldquo;and my poor
+      country is not in a condition to bear heavy losses. If Señor Jack Tier can
+      find the wreck, and we regain the money, ten of those doubloons shall be
+      his reward, though I take them from my own share, much diminished as it
+      will be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You hear, Jack&mdash;here is a chance to make your fortune! You say you
+      sailed with me in old times&mdash;and old times were good times with this
+      brig, though times has changed; but if you sailed with me, in <i>old</i>
+      times, you must remember that whatever the Swash touched she turned to
+      gold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you do n't doubt, Captain Spike, my having sailed in the brig, not
+      only in old times, but in her best times.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack seemed hurt as he put this question, and Spike appeared in doubt. The
+      latter gazed at the little, rotund, queer-looking figure before him, as if
+      endeavouring to recognise him; and when he had done, he passed his hand
+      over his brow, like one who endeavoured to recall past objects by
+      excluding those that are present.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will then show us the spot where my unfortunate schooner did sink,
+      Señor Jack Tier?&rdquo; put in the Mexican.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With all my heart, señor, if it is to be found. I think I could take you
+      within a cable's length of the place, though hunger, and thirst, and
+      sharks, and the fear of drowning, will keep a fellow from having a very
+      bright look-out for such a matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what water do you suppose the craft to lie, Jack?&rdquo; demanded the
+      captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know as much of that as I do myself, sir. She went down about a
+      cable's length from the reef, toward which she was a settin' at the time;
+      and had she kept afloat an hour longer, she might have grounded on the
+      rocks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She 's better where she is, if we can only find her by sweeping. On the
+      rocks we could do nothing with her but break her up, and ten to one the
+      doubloons would be lost. By the way, Jack, do you happen to know where
+      that scoundrel of a mate of mine stowed the money?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When we left the island, I carried it down to the boat myself&mdash;and a
+      good lift I had of it. As sure as you are there, señor, I was obliged to
+      take it on a shoulder. When it came out of the boat, Mr. Mulford carried
+      it below; and I heard him tell Miss Rose, a'terwards that he had thrown it
+      into a bread-locker.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where we shall find it, Don Wan, notwithstanding all this veering and
+      hauling. The old brig has luck when, doubloons are in question, and ever
+      has had since I've commanded her. Jack, we shall have to call on the cook
+      and stewards for an anchor-watch to-night. The people are a good deal
+      fagged with boxing about this reef so much, and I shall want 'em all as
+      fresh to-morrow as they can be got. You idlers had better take the middle
+      watches, which will give the fore-castle chaps longer naps.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir; we'll manage that for 'em. Josh and Simon can go on at
+      twelve, and I will take the watch at two, which will give the men all the
+      rest they want, as I can hold out for four hours full. I'm as good for an
+      anchor-watch as any man in the brig, Captain Spike.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That you are, Jack, and better than some on 'em. Take you all round, and
+      round it is, you 're a rum 'un, my lad&mdash;the queerest little jigger
+      that ever lay out on a royal-yard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack might have been a little offended at Spike's compliments, but he was
+      certainly not sorry to find him so good-natured, after all that had
+      passed. He now left the captain, and his Mexican companion, seemingly in
+      close conference together, while he went below himself, and dropped as
+      naturally into the routine of his duty, as if he had never left the brig.
+      In the cabin he found the females, of course. Rose scarce raising her face
+      from the shawl which lay on the bed of her own berth. Jack busied himself
+      in a locker near this berth, until an opportunity occurred to touch Rose,
+      unseen by her aunt or Biddy. The poor heart-stricken girl raised her face,
+      from which all the colour had departed, and looked almost vacantly at
+      Jack, as if to ask an explanation. Hope is truly, by a most benevolent
+      provision of Providence, one of the very last blessings to abandon us. It
+      is probable that we are thus gifted, in order to encourage us to rely on
+      the great atonement to the last moment, since, without this natural
+      endowment to cling to hope, despair might well be the fate of millions,
+      who, there is reason to think, reap the benefit of that act of divine
+      mercy. It would hardly do to say that anything like hope was blended with
+      the look Rose now cast on Jack, but it was anxious and inquiring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The steward bent his head to the locker, bringing his face quite near to
+      that of Rose, and whispered&mdash;&ldquo;There is hope, Miss Rose&mdash;but do
+      not betray me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These were blessed words for our heroine to hear, and they produced an
+      immediate and great revolution in her feelings. Commanding herself,
+      however, she looked her questions, instead of trusting even to a whisper.
+      Jack did not say any more, just then; but, shortly after, he called Rose,
+      whose eyes were now never off him, into the main cabin, which was empty.
+      It was so much pleasanter to sleep in an airy state-room on deck, that
+      Señor Montefalderon, indeed, had given up the use of this cabin, in a
+      great measure, seldom appearing in it, except at meals, having taken
+      possession of the deserted apartment of Mulford. Josh was in the galley,
+      where he spent most of his time, and Rose and Jack had no one to disturb
+      their conference.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is safe, Miss Rose&mdash;God be praised!&rdquo; whispered Jack. &ldquo;Safe for
+      the present, at least; with food, and water, and fire to keep him warm at
+      night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was impossible for Rose not to understand to whom there was allusion,
+      though her head became dizzy under the painful confusion that prevailed in
+      it. She pressed her temples with both hands, and asked a thousand
+      questions with her eyes. Jack considerately handed her a glass of water
+      before he proceeded. As soon as he found her a little more composed, he
+      related the facts connected with his discovery of Mulford, precisely as
+      they had occurred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is now on a large rock&mdash;a little island, indeed&mdash;where he is
+      safe from the ocean unless it comes on to blow a hurricane,&rdquo; concluded
+      Jack, &ldquo;has fresh water and fresh turtle in the bargain. A man might live a
+      month on one such turtle as I saw Mr. Mulford cutting up this evening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there no way of rescuing him from the situation you have mentioned,
+      Jack? In a year or two I shall be my own mistress, and have money to do as
+      I please with; put me only in the way of taking Mr. Mulford from that
+      rock, and I will share all I am worth on earth with you, dear Jack.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, so it is with the whole sex,&rdquo; muttered Tier; &ldquo;let them only once give
+      up their affections to a man, and he becomes dearer to them than pearls
+      and rubies! But you know me, Miss Rose, and know <i>why</i> and <i>how
+      well</i> I would sarve you. My story and my feelin's are as much your
+      secret, as your story and your feelin's is mine. We shall pull together,
+      if we do n't pull so very strong. Now, hearken to me, Miss Rose, and I
+      will let you into the secret of my plan to help Mr. Mulford make a
+      launch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack then communicated to his companion his whole project for the night.
+      Spike had, of his own accord, given to him and his two associates, Simon
+      and Josh, the care of the brig between midnight and morning. If he could
+      prevail on either of these men to accompany him, it was his intention to
+      take the light-house boat, which was riding by its painter astern of the
+      brig, and proceed as fast as they could to the spot whither Mulford had
+      found his way. By his calculations, if the wind stood as it then was,
+      little more than an hour would be necessary to reach the rock, and about
+      as much more to return. Should the breeze lull, of which there was no
+      great danger, since the easterly trades were again blowing, Jack thought
+      he and Josh might go over the distance with the oars in about double the
+      time. Should both Josh and Simon refuse to accompany him, he thought he
+      should attempt the rescue of the mate alone, did the wind stand, trusting
+      to Mulford's assistance, should he need it, in getting back to the brig.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You surely would not come back here with Harry, did you once get him safe
+      from off that rock!&rdquo; exclaimed Rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, you know how it is with me, Miss Rose,&rdquo; answered Jack. &ldquo;<i>My</i>
+      business is here, on board the Swash, and I must attend to it. Nothing
+      shall tempt me to give up the brig so long as she floats, and sartain folk
+      float in her, unless it might be some such matter as that which happened
+      on the bit of an island at the Dry Tortugas. Ah! he's a willian! But if I
+      do come back, it will be only to get into my own proper berth ag'in, and
+      not to bring Mr. Mulford into the lion's jaws. He will only have to put me
+      back on board the Molly here, when he can make the best of his own way to
+      Key West. Half an hour would place him out of harm's way; especially as I
+      happen to know the course Spike means to steer in the morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go with you, Jack,&rdquo; said Rose, mildly, but with great firmness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You, Miss Rose! But why should I show surprise! It's like all the sex,
+      when they have given away their affections. Yes, woman will be woman, put
+      her on a naked rock, or put her in silks and satins in her parlour at
+      home. How different is it with men! They dote for a little while, and turn
+      to a new face. It must be said, men's willians!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not Mulford, Jack&mdash;no, not Harry Mulford! A truer or a nobler heart
+      never beat in a human breast; and you and I will drown together, rather
+      than he should not be taken from that rock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It shall be as you say,&rdquo; answered Jack, a little thoughtfully. &ldquo;Perhaps
+      it would be best that you should quit the brig altogether. Spike is
+      getting desperate, and you will be safer with the young mate than with so
+      great an old willian. Yes, you shall go with me, Miss Rose; and if Josh
+      and Simon both refuse, we will go alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With you, Jack, but not with Mr. Mulford. I cannot desert my aunt, nor
+      can I quit the Swash alone in company with her mate. As for Spike, I
+      despise him too much to fear him. He must soon go into port somewhere, and
+      at the first place where he touches we shall quit him. He dare not detain
+      us&mdash;nay, he <i>cannot</i>&mdash;and I do not fear him. We will save
+      Harry, but I shall remain with my aunt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll see, Miss Rose, we'll see,&rdquo; said Tier, smiling. &ldquo;Perhaps a handsome
+      young man, like Mr. Mulford, will have better luck in persuading you than
+      an old fellow like me. If he should fail, 't will be his own fault.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So thought Jack Tier, judging of women as he had found them, but so did
+      not think Rose Budd. The conversation ended here, however, each keeping in
+      view its purport, and the serious business that was before them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The duty of the vessel went on as usual. The night promised to be clouded,
+      but not very dark, as there was a moon. When Spike ordered the
+      anchor-watches, he had great care to spare his crew as much as possible,
+      for the next day was likely to be one of great toil to them. He intended
+      to get the schooner up again, if possible; and though he might not
+      actually pump her out so as to cause her to float, enough water was to be
+      removed to enable him to get at the doubloons. The situation of the
+      bread-locker was known, and as soon as the cabin was sufficiently freed
+      from water to enable one to move about in it, Spike did not doubt his
+      being able to get at the gold. With his resources and ingenuity, the
+      matter in his own mind was reduced to one of toil and time.
+      Eight-and-forty hours, and some hard labour, he doubted not would effect
+      all he cared for.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In setting the anchor-watches for the night, therefore, Stephen Spike
+      bethought him as much of the morrow as of the present moment. Don Juan
+      offered to remain on deck until midnight, and as he was as capable of
+      giving an alarm as any one else, the offer was accepted. Josh and Simon
+      were to succeed the Mexican, and to hold the lookout for two hours, when
+      Jack was to relieve them, and to continue on deck until light returned,
+      when he was to give the captain a call. This arrangement made, Tier turned
+      in at once, desiring the cook to call him half an hour before the proper
+      period of his watch commenced. That half hour Jack intended to employ in
+      exercising his eloquence in endeavouring to persuade either Josh or Simon
+      to be of his party. By eight o'clock the vessel lay in a profound quiet,
+      Señor Montefalderon pacing the quarterdeck alone, while the deep breathing
+      of Spike was to be heard issuing through the open window of his
+      state-room; a window which it may be well to say to the uninitiated,
+      opened in-board, or toward the deck, and not outboard, or toward the sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For four solitary hours did the Mexican pace the deck of the stranger,
+      resting himself for a few minutes at a time only, when wearied with
+      walking. Does the reader fancy that a man so situated had not plenty of
+      occupation for his thoughts? Don Juan Montefalderon was a soldier and a
+      gallant cavalier; and love of country had alone induced him to engage in
+      his present duties. Not that patriotism which looks to political
+      preferment through a popularity purchased by the valgar acclamation which
+      attends success in arms, even when undeserved, or that patriotism which
+      induces men of fallen characters to endeavour to retrieve former offences
+      by the shortest and most reckless mode, or that patriotism which shouts
+      &ldquo;our country right or wrong,&rdquo; regardless alike of God and his eternal
+      laws, that are never to be forgotten with impunity; but the patriotism
+      which would defend his home and fire-side, his altars and the graves of
+      his fathers, from the ruthless steps of the invader. We shall not pretend
+      to say how far this gentleman entered into the merits of the quarrel
+      between the two republics, which no arts of European jealousy can ever
+      conceal from the judgment of truth, for, with him, matters had gone beyond
+      the point when men feel the necessity of reasoning, and when, perhaps, if
+      such a condition of the mind is ever to be defended, he found his perfect
+      justification in feeling. He had travelled, and knew life by observation,
+      and not through traditions and books. He had never believed, therefore,
+      that his countrymen could march to Washington, or even to the Sabine; but
+      he had hoped for better things than had since occurred. The warlike
+      qualities of the Americans of the North, as he was accustomed to call
+      those who term themselves, <i>par excellence,</i> Americans, a name they
+      are fated to retain, and to raise high on the scale of national power and
+      national pre-eminence, unless they fall by their own hands, had taken him
+      by surprise, as they have taken all but those who knew the country well,
+      and who understood its people. Little had he imagined that the small,
+      widely-spread body of regulars, that figured in the blue books, almanacs
+      and army-registers of America, as some six or seven thousand men,
+      scattered along frontiers of a thousand leagues in extent, could, at the
+      beck of the government, swell into legions of invaders, men able to carry
+      war to the capitals of his own states, thousands of miles from their
+      doors, and formidable alike for their energy, their bravery, their
+      readiness in the use of arms, and their numbers. He saw what is perhaps
+      justly called the boasting of the American character, vindicated by their
+      exploits; and marches, conquests and victories that, if sober truth were
+      alone to cover the pages of history, would far outdo in real labour and
+      danger the boasted passage of the Alps under Napoleon, and the exploits
+      that succeeded it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Don Juan Montefalderon was a grave and thoughtful man, of pure Iberian
+      blood. He might have had about him a little of the exaltation of the
+      Spanish character; the overflowings of a generous chivalry at the bottom;
+      and, under its influence, he may have set too high an estimate on Mexico
+      and her sons, but he was not one to shut his eyes to the truth. He saw
+      plainly that the northern neighbours of his country were a race formidable
+      and enterprising, and that of all the calumnies that had been heaped upon
+      them by rivalries and European superciliousness, that of their not being
+      military by temperament was, perhaps, the most absurd of all. On the
+      contrary, he had himself, though anticipating evil, been astounded by the
+      suddenness and magnitude of their conquests, which in a few short months
+      after the breaking out of hostilities, had overrun regions larger in
+      extent than many ancient empires. All this had been done, too, not by
+      disorderly and barbarous hordes, seeking in other lands the abundance that
+      was wanting at home; but with system and regularity, by men who had turned
+      the ploughshare into the sword for the occasion, quitting abundance to
+      encounter fatigue, famine, and danger. In a word, the Señor Montefalderon
+      saw all the evils that environed his own land, and foresaw others, of a
+      still graver character that menaced the future. On matters such as these
+      did he brood in his walk, and bitter did he find the minutes of that sad
+      and lonely watch. Although a Mexican, he could feel; although an avowed
+      foe of this good republic of ours, he had his principles, his affections,
+      and his sense of right. Whatever may be the merits of the quarrel, and we
+      are not disposed to deny that our provocation has been great, a sense of
+      right should teach every man that what may be patriotic in an American,
+      would not be exactly the same thing in a Mexican, and that we ought to
+      respect in others sentiments that are so much vaunted among ourselves.
+      Midnight at length arrived, and, calling the cook and steward, the unhappy
+      gentleman was relieved, and went to his berth to dream, in sorrow, over
+      the same pictures of national misfortunes, on which, while waking, he had
+      brooded in such deep melancholy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The watch of Josh and Simon was tranquil, meeting with no interruption
+      until it was time to summon Jack. One thing these men had done, however,
+      that was of some moment to Tier, under a pledge given by Josh, and which
+      had been taken in return for a dollar in hand. They had managed to haul
+      the light-house boat alongside, from its position astern, and this so
+      noiselessly as not to give the alarm to any one. There it lay, when Jack
+      appeared, ready at the main-rigging, to receive him at any moment he might
+      choose to enter it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes after Jack appeared on deck, Rose and Biddy came stealthily
+      out of the cabin, the latter carrying a basket filled with bread and
+      broken meat, and not wanting in sundry little delicacies, such as woman's
+      hands prepare, and, in this instance, woman's tenderness had provided. The
+      whole party met at the galley, a place so far removed from the state-rooms
+      aft as to be out of ear-shot. Here Jack renewed his endeavours to persuade
+      either Josh or Simon to go in the boat, but without success. The negroes
+      had talked the matter over in their watch, and had come to the conclusion
+      the enterprise was too hazardous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell you, Jack, you does n't know Cap'in Spike as well as I does,&rdquo; Josh
+      said, in continuance of the discourse. &ldquo;No, you does n't know him at all
+      as well as I does. If he finds out that anybody has quit dis brig dis
+      werry night, woful will come! It no good to try to run; I run t'ree time,
+      an' Simon here run twice. What good it all do? We got cotched, and here we
+      is, just as fast as ever. I knows Cap'in Spike, and does n't want to fall
+      in athwart his hawse any more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Y-e-s, dat my judgment too,&rdquo; put in the cook. &ldquo;We wishes you well, Jack,
+      and we wishes Miss Rose well, and Mr. Mulford well, but we can't, no how,
+      run ath'art hawse, as Josh says. Dat is my judgment, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, if your minds are made up to this, my darkies, I s'pose there'll be
+      no changing them,&rdquo; said Jack. &ldquo;At all ewents you'll lend us a hand, by
+      answering any hail that may come from aft, in my watch, and in keepin' our
+      secret. There's another thing you can do for us, which may be of service.
+      Should Captain Spike miss the boat, and lay any trap to catch us, you can
+      just light this here bit of lantern and hang it over the brig's bows,
+      where he'll not be likely to see it, that we may know matters are going
+      wrong, and give the craft a wide berth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sartain,&rdquo; said Josh, who entered heartily into the affair, so far as good
+      wishes for its success were concerned, at the very moment when he had a
+      most salutary care of his own back. &ldquo;Sartain; we do all dat, and no t'ank
+      asked. It no great matter to answer a hail, or to light a lantern and
+      sling him over de bows; and if Captain Spike want to know who did it, let
+      him find out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here both negroes laughed heartily, manifesting so little care to suppress
+      their mirth, that Rose trembled lest their noise should awaken Spike.
+      Accustomed sounds, however, seldom produce this effect on the ears of the
+      sleeper, and the heavy breathing from the state-room, succeeded the
+      merriment of the blacks, as soon as the latter ceased. Jack now announced
+      his readiness to depart. Some little care and management were necessary to
+      get into the boat noiselessly, more especially with Biddy. It was done
+      however, with the assistance of the blacks, who cast off the painter, when
+      Jack gave the boat a shove to clear the brig, and suffered it to drift
+      astern for a considerable distance before he ventured to cast loose the
+      sail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know Spike well,&rdquo; said Jack, in answer to a remonstrance from the
+      impatient Rose concerning his delay: &ldquo;A single flap of that canvas would
+      wake him up, with the brig anchored, while he would sleep through a salute
+      of heavy guns if it came in regular course. Quick ears has old Stephen,
+      and it's best to humour them. In a minute more we'll set our canvas and be
+      off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All was done as Jack desired, and the boat got away from the brig unheard
+      and undetected. It was blowing a good breeze, and Jack Tier had no sooner
+      got the sail on the boat, than away it started at a speed that would have
+      soon distanced Spike in his yawl, and with his best oarsmen. The main
+      point was to keep the course, though the direction of the wind was a great
+      assistant. By keeping the wind abeam, Jack thought he should be going
+      toward the rock of Mulford. In one hour, or even in less time, he expected
+      to reach it, and he was guided by time, in his calculations, as much as by
+      any other criterion. Previously to quitting the brig, he had gone up a few
+      ratlins of the fore-rigging to take the bearings of the fire on Mulford's
+      rock, but the light was no longer visible. As no star was to be seen, the
+      course was a little vague, but Jack was navigator enough to understand
+      that by keeping on the weather side of the channel he was in the right
+      road, and that his great danger of missing his object was in over-running
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So much of the reef was above water, that it was not difficult to steer a
+      boat along its margin. The darkness, to be sure, rendered it a little
+      uncertain how near they were running to the rocks, but, on the whole, Jack
+      assured Rose he had no great difficulty in getting along.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These trades are almost as good as compasses,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and the rocks
+      are better, if we can keep close aboard them without going on to them. I
+      do not know the exact distance of the spot we seek from the brig, but I
+      judged it to be about two leagues, as I looked at it from aloft. Now, this
+      boat will travel them two leagues in an hour, with this breeze and in
+      smooth water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish you had seen the fire again before we left the brig,&rdquo; said Rose,
+      too anxious for the result not to feel uneasiness on some account or
+      other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The mate is asleep, and the fire has burned down; that's the explanation.
+      Besides, fuel is not too plenty on a place like that Mr. Mulford inhabits
+      just now. As we get near the spot, I shall look out for embers, which may
+      sarve as a light-house, or beacon, to guide us into port.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Mulford will be charmed to see us, now that we take him wather!&rdquo;
+       exclaimed Biddy. &ldquo;Wather is a blessed thing, and it's hard will be the
+      heart that does not fale gratitude for a planty of swate wather.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The maty has plenty of food and water where he is,&rdquo; said Jack. &ldquo;I'll
+      answer for both them sarcumstances. I saw him turn a turtle as plain as if
+      I had been at his elbow, and I saw him drinking at a hole in the rock, as
+      heartily as a boy ever pulled at a gimblet-hole in a molasses hogs-head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the distance was so great, Jack, I should hardly think you could have
+      distinguished objects so small.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I went by the motions altogether. I saw the man, and I saw the movements,
+      and I knowed what the last meant. It's true I couldn't swear to the
+      turtle, though I saw something on the rock that I knowed, by the way in
+      which it was handled, <i>must</i> be a turtle. Then I saw the mate kneel,
+      and put his head low, and then I knowed he was drinking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps he prayed,&rdquo; said Rose, solemnly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not he. Sailors isn't so apt to pray, Miss Rose; not as apt as they ought
+      to be. Women for prayers, and men for work. Mr. Mulford is no worse than
+      many others, but I doubt if he be much given to <i>that</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To this Rose made no answer, but Biddy took the matter up, and, as the
+      boat went briskly ahead, she pursued the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then more is the shame for him,&rdquo; said the Irish woman, &ldquo;and Miss Rose,
+      and missus, and even I prayin' <i>for</i> him, all as if he was our own
+      brudder. It's seldom I ask anything for a heretic, but I could not forget
+      a fine young man like Mr. Mulford, and Miss Rose so partial to him, and he
+      in so bad a way. He ought to be ashamed to make his brags that he is too
+      proud to pray.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Harry has made no such wicked boast,&rdquo; put in Rose, mildly; &ldquo;nor do we
+      know that he has not prayed for us, as well as for himself. It may all be
+      a mistake of Jack's, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; added Jack, coolly, &ldquo;it <i>may</i> be a mistake, a'ter all, for I
+      was lookin' at the maty six miles off, and through a spy-glass. No one can
+      be sure of anything at such a distance. So overlook the matter, my good
+      Biddy, and carry Mr. Mulford the nice things you've mustered in that
+      basket, all the same as if he was pope.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a subject we had better drop,&rdquo; Rose quietly observed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anything to oblige you, Miss Rose, though religion is a matter it would
+      do me no harm to talk about once and awhile. It's many a long year since
+      I've had time and opportunity to bring my thoughts to dwell on holy
+      things. Ever since I left my mother's side, I've been a wanderer in my
+      mind, as much as in my body.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor Jack! I understand and feel for your sufferings; but a better time
+      will come, when you may return to the habits of your youth, and to the
+      observances of your church.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do n't know that, Miss Rose; I do n't know that,&rdquo; answered Tier,
+      placing the elbow of his short arm on the seemingly shorter leg, and
+      bending his head so low as to lean his face on the palm of the hand, an
+      attitude in which he appeared to be suffering keenly through his
+      recollections. &ldquo;Childhood and innocence never come back to us in this
+      world. What the grave may do, we shall all learn in time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Innocence can return to all with repentance, Jack; and the heart that
+      prompts you to do acts as generous as this you are now engaged in, must
+      contain some good seed yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If Jack will go to a praste and just confess, when he can find a father,
+      it will do his sowl good,&rdquo; said Biddy, who was touched by the mental
+      suffering of the strange little being at her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the necessity of managing the boat soon compelled its coxswain to
+      raise his head, and to attend to his duty. The wind sometimes came in
+      puffs, and at such moments Jack saw that the large sail of the light-house
+      boat required watching, a circumstance that induced him to shake off his
+      melancholy, and give his mind more exclusively to the business before him.
+      As for Rose, she sympathised deeply with Jack Tier, for she knew his
+      history, his origin, the story of his youth, and the well-grounded causes
+      of his contrition and regrets. From her, Jack had concealed nothing, the
+      gentle commiseration of one like Rose being a balm to wounds that had bled
+      for long and bitter years. The great poet of our language, and the
+      greatest that ever lived, perhaps, short of the inspired writers of the
+      Old Testament, and old Homer and Dante, has well reminded us that the
+      &ldquo;little beetle,&rdquo; in yielding its breath, can &ldquo;feel a pang as great as when
+      a giant dies.&rdquo; Thus is it, too, in morals. Abasement, and misery, and
+      poverty, and sin, may, and all do, contribute to lower the tone of our
+      moral existence; but the principle that has been planted by nature, can be
+      eradicated by nature only. It exists as long as we exist; and if dormant
+      for a time, under the pressure of circumstances, it merely lies, in the
+      moral system, like the acorn, or the chestnut, in the ground, waiting its
+      time and season to sprout, and bud, and blossom. Should that time never
+      arrive, it is not because the seed is not there, but because it is
+      neglected. Thus was it with the singular being of whose feelings we have
+      just spoken. The germ of goodness had been implanted early in him, and was
+      nursed with tenderness and care, until, self-willed, and governed by
+      passion; he had thrown off the connections of youth and childhood, to
+      connect himself with Spike&mdash;a connection that had left him what he
+      was. Before closing our legend, we shall have occasion to explain it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have run our hour; Miss Rose,&rdquo; resumed Jack, breaking a continued
+      silence, during which the boat had passed through a long line of water;
+      &ldquo;we have run our hour, and ought to be near the rock we are in search of.
+      But the morning is so dark that I fear we shall have difficulty in finding
+      it. It will never do to run past it, and we must haul closer into the
+      reef, and shorten sail, that we may be sartain to make no such mistake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose begged her companion to omit no precaution, as it would be dreadful
+      to fail in their search, after incurring so much risk in their own
+      persons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Harry may be sleeping on the sea-weed of which you spoke,&rdquo; she added,
+      &ldquo;and the danger of passing him will be much increased in such a case. What
+      a gloomy and frightful spot is this, in which to abandon a human being! I
+      fear, Jack, that we have come faster than we have supposed, and may
+      already have passed the rock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope not, Miss Rose&mdash;it seemed to me a good two leagues to the
+      place where I saw him, and the boat is fast that will run two leagues in
+      an hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We do not know the time, Jack, and are obliged to guess at that as well
+      as at the distance. How very dark it is!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dark, in one sense, it was not, though Rose's apprehensions, doubtless,
+      induced her to magnify every evil. The clouds certainly lessened the light
+      of the moon; but there was still enough of the last to enable one to see
+      surrounding objects; and most especially to render distinct the character
+      of the solitude that reigned over the place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The proximity of the reef, which formed a weather shore to the boat,
+      prevented anything like a swell on the water, notwithstanding the
+      steadiness and strength of the breeze, which had now blown for near
+      twenty-four hours. The same wind, in open water, would have raised sea
+      enough to cause a ship to pitch, or roll; whereas, the light-house boat,
+      placed where she was, scarce rose and fell under the undulations of the
+      channel through which she was glancing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a good boat, and a fast boat too,&rdquo; observed Jack Tier, after he
+      had luffed up several minutes, in order to make sure of his proximity to
+      the reef; &ldquo;and it might carry us all safe enough to Key West, or certainly
+      back to the Dry Tortugas, was we inclined to try our hands at either.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot quit my aunt,&rdquo; said Rose, quickly, &ldquo;so we will not even think of
+      any such thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, 't would never do to abandon the missus,&rdquo; said Biddy, &ldquo;and she on the
+      wrack wid us, and falin' the want of wather as much as ourselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We three have sartainly gone through much in company,&rdquo; returned Jack,
+      &ldquo;and it ought to make us friends for life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I trust it will, Jack; I hope, when we return to New York, to see you
+      among us, anchored, as you would call it, for the rest of your days under
+      my aunt's roof, or under my own, should I ever have one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Miss Rose, my business is with the Swash and her captain. I shall
+      stick by both, now I've found 'em again, until they once more desart me. A
+      man's duty is <i>his</i> duty, and a woman's duty is <i>her</i> duty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You same to like the brig and her captain, Jack Tier,&rdquo; observed Biddy,
+      &ldquo;and there's no use in gainsaying such a likin'. What <i>will</i> come to
+      pass, must come to pass. Captain Spike is a mighty great sailor, anyway.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's a willian!&rdquo; muttered Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There!&rdquo; cried Rose, almost breathless, &ldquo;there is a rock above the water,
+      surely. Do not fly by it so swiftly, Jack, but let us stop and examine
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a rock, sure enough, and a large piece it is,&rdquo; answered Tier.
+      &ldquo;We will go alongside of it, and see what it is made of. Biddy shall be
+      boat-keeper, while you and I, Miss Rose, explore.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack had thrown the boat into the wind, and was shooting close alongside
+      of the reef, even while speaking. The party found no difficulty in
+      landing; the margin of the rock admitting the boat to lie close alongside
+      of it, and its surface being even and dry. Jack had brailed the sail, and
+      he brought the painter ashore, and fastened it securely to a fragment of
+      stone, that made a very sufficient anchor. In addition to this precaution,
+      a lazy painter was put into Biddy's hands, and she was directed not to let
+      go of it while her companions were absent. These arrangements concluded,
+      Rose and Jack commenced a hurried examination of the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes sufficed to give our adventurers a tolerably accurate notion
+      of the general features of the place on which they had landed. It was a
+      considerable portion of the reef that was usually above water, and which
+      had even some fragments of soil, or sand, on which was a stinted growth of
+      bushes. Of these last, however, there were very few, nor were there many
+      spots of the sand. Drift-wood and sea-weed were lodged in considerable
+      quantities about its margin, and, in places, piles of both had been tossed
+      upon the rock itself, by the billows of former gales of wind. Nor was it
+      long before Jack discovered a turtle that had been up to a hillock of
+      sand, probably to deposit its eggs. There was enough of the sportsman in
+      Jack, notwithstanding the business he was on, to turn this animal; though
+      with what object, he might have been puzzled himself to say. This exploit
+      effected, Jack followed Rose as fast as his short legs would permit, our
+      heroine pressing forward eagerly, though almost without hope, in order to
+      assertain if Mulford were there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid this is not the rock,&rdquo; said Rose, nearly breathless with her
+      own haste, when Jack had overtaken her. &ldquo;I see nothing of him, and we have
+      passed over most of the place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true, Miss Rose,&rdquo; answered her companion, who was in a good humour
+      on account of his capture of the turtle; &ldquo;but there are other rocks
+      besides this. Ha! what was that, yonder,&rdquo; pointing with a finger, &ldquo;here,
+      more toward the brig. As I'm a sinner, there was a flashing, as of fire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If a fire, it must be that made by Harry. Let us go to the spot at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack led the way, and, sure enough, he soon reached a place where the
+      embers of what had been a considerable body of fire, were smouldering on
+      the rock. The wind had probably caused some brand to kindle momentarily,
+      which was the object that had caught Tier's eye. No doubt any longer
+      remained of their having found the very place where the mate had cooked
+      his supper, and lighted his beacon, though he himself was not near it.
+      Around these embers were all the signs of Mulford's having made the meal,
+      of which Jack had seen the preparations. A portion of the turtle, much the
+      greater part of it, indeed, lay in its shell; and piles of wood and
+      sea-weed, both dry, had been placed at hand, ready for use. A ship's
+      topgallant-yard, with most of its rope attached, lay with a charred end
+      near the fire, of where the fire had been, the wood having burned until
+      the flames went out for want of contact with other fuel. There were many
+      pieces of boards of pitch-pine in the adjacent heap, and two or three
+      beautiful planks of the same wood, entire. In short, from the character
+      and quantity of the materials of this nature that had thus been heaped
+      together, Jack gave it as his opinion that some vessel, freighted with
+      lumber, had been wrecked to windward, and that the adjacent rocks had been
+      receiving the tribute of her cargo. Wrecks are of very, very frequent
+      occurrence on the Florida Reef; and there are always moments when such
+      gleanings are to be made in some part of it or other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see no better way to give a call to the mate, Miss Rose, than to throw
+      some of this dry weed, and some of this lumber on the fire,&rdquo; said Jack,
+      after he had rummaged about the place sufficiently to become master of its
+      condition. &ldquo;There is plenty of amunition, and here goes for a broadside.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack had no great difficulty in effecting his object. In a few minutes he
+      succeeded in obtaining a flame, and then he fed it with such fragments of
+      the brands and boards as were best adapted to his purpose. The flames
+      extended gradually, and by the time Tier had dragged the topgallant-yard
+      over the pile, and placed several planks, on their edges, alongside of it,
+      the whole was ready to burst into a blaze. The light was shed athwart the
+      rock for a long distance, and the whole place, which was lately so gloomy
+      and obscure, now became gay, under the bright radiance of a blazing fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a beacon-light that might almost be seen on board!&rdquo; said Jack,
+      exulting in his success. &ldquo;If the mate is anywhere in this latitude, he
+      will soon turn up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see nothing of him,&rdquo; answered Rose, in a melancholy voice. &ldquo;Surely,
+      surely, Jack, he cannot have left the rock just as we have come to rescue
+      him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose and her companion had turned their faces from the fire to look in an
+      opposite direction in quest of him they sought. Unseen by them, a human
+      form advanced swiftly toward the fire, from a point on its other side. It
+      advanced nearer, then hesitated, afterward rushed forward with a tread
+      that caused the two to turn, and at the next moment, Rose was clasped to
+      the heart of Mulford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  I might have pass'd that lovely cheek,
+  Nor, perchance, my heart have left me;
+  But the sensitive blush that came trembling there,
+  Of my heart it for ever bereft me.
+  Who could blame had I loved that face,
+  Ere my eyes could twice explore her;
+  Yet it is for the fairy intelligence there,
+  And her warm, warm heart I adore her.
+
+  Wolfe.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The stories of the respective parties who had thus so strangely met on
+      that barren and isolated rock, were soon told. Harry confirmed all of
+      Jack's statements as to his own proceedings, and Rose had little more to
+      say than to add how much her own affections had led her to risk in his
+      behalf. In a word, ten minutes made each fully acquainted with the other's
+      movements. Then Tier considerately retired to the boat, under the pretence
+      of minding it, and seeing everything ready for a departure, but as much to
+      allow the lovers the ten or fifteen minutes of uninterrupted discourse
+      that they now enjoyed, as for any other reason.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a strange scene that now offered on the rock. By this time the fire
+      was burning not only brightly, but fiercely, shedding its bright light far
+      and near. Under its most brilliant rays stood Harry and Rose, both smiling
+      and happy, delighted in their meeting, and, for the moment, forgetful of
+      all but their present felicity. Never, indeed, had Rose appeared more
+      lovely than under these circumstances. Her face was radiant with those
+      feelings which had so recently changed from despair to delight&mdash;a
+      condition that is ever most propitious to beauty; and charms that always
+      appeared feminine and soft, now seemed elevated to a bright benignancy
+      that might best be likened to our fancied images of angels. The mild,
+      beaming, serene and intelligent blue eyes, the cheeks flushed with
+      happiness, the smiles that came so easily, and were so replete with
+      tenderness, and the rich hair, deranged by the breeze, and moistened by
+      the air of the sea, each and all, perhaps, borrowed some additional lustre
+      from the peculiar light under which they were exhibited. As for Harry,
+      happiness had thrown all the disadvantages of exposure, want of dress, and
+      a face that had not felt the razor for six-and-thirty hours, into the
+      back-ground. When he left the wreck, he had cast aside his cap and his
+      light summer jacket, in order that they might not encumber him in
+      swimming, but both had been recovered when he returned with the boat to
+      take off his friends. In his ordinary sea attire, then, he now stood,
+      holding Rose's two hands in front of the fire, every garment clean and
+      white as the waters of the ocean could make them, but all betraying some
+      of the signs of his recent trials. His fine countenance was full of the
+      love he bore for the intrepid and devoted girl who had risked so much in
+      his behalf; and a painter might have wished to preserve the expression of
+      ardent, manly admiration which glowed in his face, answering to the gentle
+      sympathy and womanly tenderness it met in that of Rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The back-ground of this picture was the wide, even surface of the coral
+      reef, with its exterior setting of the dark and gloomy sea. On the side of
+      the channel, however, appeared the boat, already winded, with Biddy still
+      on the rock, looking kindly at the lovers by the fire, while Jack was
+      holding the painter, beginning to manifest a little impatience at the
+      delay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They'll stay there an hour, holding each other's hands, and looking into
+      each other's faces,&rdquo; half grumbled the little, rotund, assistant-steward,
+      anxious to be on his way back to the brig, &ldquo;unless a body gives 'em a
+      call. Captain Spike will be in no very good humour to receive you and me
+      on board ag'in, if he should find out what sort of a trip we've been
+      making hereaway.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let 'em alone&mdash;let 'em alone, Jacky,&rdquo; answered the good-natured and
+      kind-hearted Irish woman. &ldquo;It's happy they bees, jist now, and it does my
+      eyes good to look at 'em.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, they're happy enough, <i>now;</i> I only hope it may last.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Last! what should help its lasting? Miss Rose is so good, and so handsome&mdash;and
+      she's a fortin', too; and the mate so nice a young man. Think of the likes
+      of them, Jack, wantin' the blessed gift of wather, and all within one day
+      and two nights. Sure it's Providence that takes care of, and not we
+      ourselves! Kings on their thrones is n't as happy as <i>them</i> at this
+      moment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Men's willians!&rdquo; growled Jack; &ldquo;and more fools women for trustin' 'em.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not sich a nice young man as our mate, Jacky; no, not he. Now the mate of
+      the ship I came from Liverpool in, this time ten years agone, he was a
+      villain. He grudged us our potaties, and our own bread; and he grudged us
+      every dhrap of swate wather that went into our mouths. Call him a villain,
+      if you will, Jack; but niver call the likes of Mr. Mulford by so hard a
+      name.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish him well, and nothing else; and for that very reason must put a
+      stop to his looking so fondly into that young woman's face. Time wont
+      stand still, Biddy, to suit the wishes of lovers; and Stephen Spike is a
+      man not to be trifled with. Halloo, there, maty! It's high time to think
+      of getting under way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this summons both Harry and Rose started, becoming aware of the
+      precious moments they were losing. Carrying a large portion of the turtle,
+      the former moved toward the craft, in which all were seated in less than
+      three minutes, with the sail loose, and the boat in motion. For a few
+      moments the mate was so much occupied with Rose, that he did not advert to
+      the course; but one of his experience could not long be misled on such a
+      point, and he turned suddenly to Tier, who was steering, to remonstrate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How's this, Jack!&rdquo; cried Mulford; &ldquo;you've got the boat's head the wrong
+      way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not I, sir. She's heading for the brig as straight as she can go. This
+      wind favours us on both legs; and it's lucky it does, for't will be hard
+      on upon daylight afore we are alongside of her. You'll want half an hour
+      of dark, at the very least, to get a good start of the Swash, in case she
+      makes sail a'ter you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Straight for the brig!&mdash;what have we to do with the brig? Our course
+      is for Key West, unless it might be better to run down before the wind to
+      the Dry Tortugas again, and look for the sloop-of-war. Duty, and perhaps
+      my own safety, tells me to let Captain Mull know what Spike is about with
+      the Swash; and I shall not hesitate a moment about doing it, after all
+      that has passed. Give me the helm, Jack, and let us ware short round on
+      our heel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never, master maty&mdash;never. I must go back to the brig. Miss Rose,
+      there, knows that my business is with Stephen Spike, and with him only.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I must return to my aunt, Harry,&rdquo; put in Rose, herself. &ldquo;It would
+      never do for me to desert my aunt, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I have been taken from that rock, to be given up to the tender
+      mercies of Spike again?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was said rather in surprise, than in a complaining way; and it at
+      once induced Rose to tell the young man the whole of their project.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never, Harry, never,&rdquo; she said firmly. &ldquo;It is our intention to return to
+      the brig ourselves, and let you escape in the boat afterwards. Jack Tier
+      is of opinion this can be done without much risk, if we use proper caution
+      and do not lose too much time. On no account would I consent to place you
+      in the hands of Spike again&mdash;death would be preferable to that,
+      Harry!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And on no account can or will I consent to place <i>you</i> again in the
+      hands of Spike, Rose,&rdquo; answered the young man. &ldquo;Now that we know his
+      intentions, such an act would be almost impious.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Remember my aunt, dear Harry. What would be her situation in the morning,
+      when she found herself deserted by her niece and Biddy&mdash;by me, whom
+      she has nursed and watched from childhood, and whom she loves so well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall not deny your obligations to your aunt, Rose, and your duty to
+      her under ordinary circumstances. But these are not ordinary
+      circumstances; and it would be courting the direst misfortunes, nay,
+      almost braving Providence, to place yourself in the hands of that
+      scoundrel again, now that you are clear of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spike's a willian!&rdquo; muttered Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And my desartin' the missus would be a sin that no praste would overlook
+      aisily,&rdquo; put in Biddy. &ldquo;When Miss Rose told me of this v'y'ge that she
+      meant to make in the boat wid Jack Tier, I asked to come along, that I
+      might take care of her, and see that there was plenty of wather; but
+      ill-luck befall me if I would have t'ought of sich a thing, and the missus
+      desarted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We can then run alongside of the brig, and put Biddy and Jack on board of
+      her,&rdquo; said Mulford, reflecting a moment on what had just been said, &ldquo;when
+      you and I can make the best of our way to Key West, where the means of
+      sending government vessels out after the Swash will soon offer. In this
+      way we can not only get our friends out of the lion's jaws, but keep out
+      of them ourselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Reflect a moment, Harry,&rdquo; said Rose, in a low voice, but not without
+      tenderness in its tones; &ldquo;it would not do for me to go off alone with you
+      in this boat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not when you have confessed your willingness to go over the wide world
+      with me, Rose&mdash;with me, and with me only?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not even then, Harry. I know you will think better of this, when your
+      generous nature has time to reason with your heart, on my account.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can only answer in your own words, Rose&mdash;never. If you return to
+      the Swash, I shall go on board with you, and throw defiance into the very
+      teeth of Spike. I know the men do not dislike me, and, perhaps, assisted
+      by Señor Montefalderon, and a few friends among the people, I can muster a
+      force that will prevent my being thrown into the sea.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose burst into tears, and then succeeded many minutes, during which
+      Mulford was endeavouring, with manly tenderness, to soothe her. As soon as
+      our heroine recovered her self-command, she began to discuss the matter at
+      issue between them more coolly. For half an hour everything was urged by
+      each that feeling, affection, delicacy, or distrust of Spike could well
+      urge, and Mulford was slowly getting the best of the argument, as well he
+      might, the truth being mostly of his side. Rose was bewildered, really
+      feeling a strong reluctance to quit her aunt, even with so justifiable a
+      motive, but principally shrinking from the appearance of going off alone
+      in a boat, and almost in the open sea, with Mulford. Had she loved Harry
+      less, her scruples might not have been so active, but the consciousness of
+      the strength of her attachment, as well as her fixed intention to become
+      his wife the moment it was in her power to give him her hand with the
+      decencies of her sex, contributed strangely to prevent her yielding to the
+      young man's reasoning. On the subject of the aunt, the mate made out so
+      good a case, that it was apparent to all in the boat Rose would have to
+      abandon that ground of refusal. Spike had no object to gain by
+      ill-treating Mrs. Budd; and the probability certainly was that he would
+      get rid of her as soon as he could, and in the most easy manner. This was
+      so apparent to all, that Harry had little difficulty in getting Rose to
+      assent to its probability. But there remained the reluctance to go off
+      alone with the mate in a boat. This part of the subject was more difficult
+      to manage than the other; and Mulford betrayed as much by the awkwardness
+      with which he managed it. At length the discussion was brought to a close
+      by Jack Tier suddenly saying,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yonder is the brig; and we are heading for her as straight as if she was
+      the pole, and the keel of this boat was a compass. I see how it is, Miss
+      Rose, and a'ter all, I must give in. I suppose some other opportunity will
+      offer for me to get on board of the brig ag'in, and I'll trust to that. If
+      you won't go off with the mate alone, I suppose you'll not refuse to go
+      off in my company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you accompany us, Jack? This is more than I had hoped for! Yes,
+      Harry, if Jack Tier will be of the party, I will trust my aunt to Biddy,
+      and go with you to Key West, in order to escape from Spike.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was said so rapidly, and so unexpectedly, as to take Mulford
+      completely by surprise. Scarce believing what he heard, the young man was
+      disposed, at first, to feel hurt, though a moment's reflection showed him
+      that he ought to rejoice in the result let the cause be what it might.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More than I had hoped for!&rdquo; he could not refrain from repeating a little
+      bitterly; &ldquo;is Jack Tier, then, of so much importance, that <i>his</i>
+      company is thought preferable to mine!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush, Harry!&rdquo; said Rose, laying her hand on Mulford's arm, by way of
+      strengthening her appeal. &ldquo;Do not say <i>that</i>. You are ignorant of
+      circumstances; at another time you shall know them, but not now. Let it be
+      enough for the present, that I promise to accompany you if Jack will be of
+      our party.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, Miss Rose, I will be of the party, seeing there is no other way
+      of getting the lamb out of the jaws of the wolf. A'ter all, it may be the
+      wisest thing I can do, though back to the Swash I must and <i>will</i>
+      come, powder or no powder, treason or no treason, at the first
+      opportunity. Yes, <i>my</i> business is with the Molly, and to the Molly I
+      shall return. It's lucky, Miss Rose, since you have made up your mind to
+      ship for this new cruise, that I bethought me of telling Biddy to make up
+      a bundle of duds for you. This carpet-bag has a change or two in it, and
+      all owing to my forethought. Your woman said 'Miss Rose will come back wid
+      us, Jack, and what's the use of rumplin' the clothes for a few hours' sail
+      in the boat;' but I knew womankind better, and foreseed that if master
+      mate fell in alongside of you ag'in, you would not be apt to part company
+      very soon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you, Jack, for the provision made for my comfort; though some
+      money would have added to it materially. My purse has a little gold in it,
+      but a very little, and I fear you are not much better off, Harry. It will
+      be awkward to find ourselves in Key West penniless.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall not be quite that. I left the brig absolutely without a cent,
+      but foreseeing that necessity might make them of use, I borrowed half a
+      dozen of the doubloons from the bag of Señor Montefalderon, and,
+      fortunately, they are still in my pocket. All I am worth in the world is
+      in a bag of half-eagles, rather more than a hundred altogether, which I
+      left in my chest, in my own state-room aboard the brig.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll find that in the carpet-bag too, master mate,&rdquo; said Jack, coolly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Find what, man&mdash;not my money, surely?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, every piece of it. Spike broke into your chest this a'ternoon, and
+      made me hold the tools while he was doing it. He found the bag, and
+      overhauled it&mdash;a hundred and seven half, eleven quarter, and one
+      full-grown eagle, was the count. When he had done the job, he put all back
+      ag'in, a'ter giving me the full-grown eagle for my share of the plunder,
+      and told me to say nothing of what I had seen. I did say nothing, but I
+      did a good bit of work, for, while he was at supper. I confiserated that
+      bag, as they call it&mdash;and you will find it there among Miss Rose's
+      clothes, with the full-grown gentleman back in his nest ag'in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is being not only honest, Tier,&rdquo; cried Mulford, heartily, &ldquo;but
+      thoughtful. One-half that money shall be yours for this act.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank'e, sir; but I'll not touch a cent of it. It came hard, I know,
+      Mr. Mulford; for my own hands have smarted too much with tar, not to know
+      that the seaman 'earns his money like the horse.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still it would not be 'spending it like an ass,' Jack, to give you a
+      portion of mine. But there will be other opportunities to talk of this. It
+      is a sign of returning to the concerns of life, Rose, that money begins to
+      be of interest to us. How little did we think of the doubloons, or
+      half-eagles, a few hours since, when on the wreck!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was wather that we t'ought of then,&rdquo; put in Biddy. &ldquo;Goold is good in a
+      market, or in a town, or to send back to Ireland, to help a body's aged
+      fader or mudder in comfort wid; but wather is the blessed thing on a
+      wrack!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The brig is coming quite plainly into view, and you had better give me
+      the helm, Jack. It is time to bethink us of the manner of approaching her,
+      and how we are to proceed when alongside.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was so obviously true, that everybody felt disposed to forget all
+      other matters, in order to conduct the proceedings of the next twenty
+      minutes, with the necessary prudence and caution. When Mulford first took
+      the helm, the brig was just coming clearly into view, though still looking
+      a little misty and distant. She might then have been half a league
+      distant, and would not have been visible at all by that light, but for the
+      circumstance that she had no back-ground to swallow up her outlines. Drawn
+      against clouds, above which the rays of the moon were shed, her tracery
+      was to be discerned, however, and, minute by minute, it was getting to be
+      more and more distinct, until it was now so plainly to be seen as to
+      admonish the mate of the necessity of preparation in the manner mentioned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tier now communicated to the mate his own proposed manner of proceeding.
+      The brig tended to the trades, the tides having very little influence on
+      her, in the bight of the reef where she lay. As the wind stood at about
+      east south-east, the brig's stern pointed to about west north-west, while
+      the boat was coming down the passage from a direction nearly north from
+      her, having, as a matter of course, the wind just free enough to lay her
+      course. Jack's plan was to pass the brig to windward, and having got well
+      on her bow, to brail the sail, and drift down upon her, expecting to fall
+      in alongside, abreast of the fore-chains, into which he had intended to
+      help Biddy, and to ascend himself, when he supposed that Mulford would
+      again make sail, and carry off his mistress. To this scheme the mate
+      objected that it was awkward, and a little lubberly. He substituted one in
+      its place that differed in seamanship, and which was altogether better.
+      Instead of passing to wind-ward, Mulford suggested the expediency of
+      approaching to leeward, and of coming alongside under the open bow-port,
+      letting the sheet fly and brailing the sail, when the boat should be near
+      enough to carry her to the point of destination without further assistance
+      from her canvass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack Tier took his officer's improvement on his own plan in perfect good
+      part, readily and cheerfully expressing his willingness to aid the
+      execution of it all that lay in his power. As the boat sailed unusually
+      well, there was barely time to explain to each individual his or her part
+      in the approaching critical movements, ere the crisis itself drew near;
+      then each of the party became silent and anxious, and events were regarded
+      rather than words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is scarcely necessary to say that Mulford sailed a boat well. He held
+      the sheet in his hand, as the little craft came up under the lee-quarter
+      of the brig, while Jack stood by the brail. The eyes of the mate glanced
+      over the hull of the vessel to ascertain, if possible, who might be
+      stirring; but not a sign of life could he detect on board her. This very
+      silence made Mulford more distrustful and anxious, for he feared a trap
+      was set for him. He expected to see the head of one of the blacks at least
+      peering over the bulwarks, but nothing like a man was visible. It was too
+      late to pause, however, and the sheet was slowly eased off, Jack hauling
+      on the brail at the same time; the object being to prevent the sail's
+      flapping, and the sound reaching the ears of Spike. As Mulford used great
+      caution, and had previously schooled Jack on the subject, this important
+      point was successfully achieved. Then the mate put his helm down, and the
+      boat shot up under the brig's lee-bow. Jack was ready to lay hold of one
+      of the bow-sprit shrouds, and presently the boat was breasted up under the
+      desired port, and secured in that position. Mulford quitted the
+      stern-sheets, and cast a look in upon deck. Nothing was to be seen, though
+      he heard the heavy breathing of the blacks, both of whom were sound asleep
+      on a sail that they had spread on the forecastle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mate whispered for Biddy to come to the port. This the Irishwoman did
+      at once, having kissed Rose, and taken her leave of her previously. Tier
+      also came to the port, through which he passed, getting on deck with a
+      view to assist Biddy, who was awkward, almost as a matter of course, to
+      pass through the same opening. He had just succeeded, when the whole party
+      was startled, some of them almost petrified, indeed, by a hail from the
+      quarter-deck in the well-known, deep tones of Spike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For'ard, there?&rdquo; hailed the captain. Receiving no answer, he immediately
+      repeated, in a shorter, quicker call, &ldquo;Forecastle, there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; answered Jack Tier, who by this time had come to his senses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who has the look-out on that forecastle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have it, sir&mdash;I, Jack Tier. You know, sir, I was to have it from
+      two 'till daylight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, I remember now. How does the brig ride to her anchor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As steady as a church, sir. She's had no more sheer the whole watch than
+      if she was moored head and starn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does the wind stand as it did?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No change, sir. As dead a trade wind as ever blowed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What hard breathing is that I hear for'ard?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'T is the two niggers, sir. They've turned in on deck, and are napping it
+      off at the rate of six knots. There's no keepin' way with a nigger in
+      snorin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought I heard loud whispering, too, but I suppose it was a sort of
+      half-dream. I'm often in that way now-a-days. Jack!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go to the scuttle-butt and get me a pot of fresh water&mdash;my coppers
+      are hot with hard thinking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack did as ordered, and soon stood beneath the coach-house deck with
+      Spike, who had come out of his state-room, heated and uneasy at he knew
+      not what. The captain drank a full pint of water at a single draught.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's refreshing,&rdquo; he said, returning Jack the tinpot, &ldquo;and I feel the
+      cooler for it. How much does it want of daylight, Jack?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two hours, I think, sir. The order was passed to me to have all hands
+      called as soon as it was broad day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, that is right. We must get our anchor and be off as soon as there is
+      light to do it in. Doubloons may melt as well as flour, and are best cared
+      for soon when cared for at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall see and give the call as soon as it is day. I hope, Captain
+      Spike, I can take the liberty of an old ship-mate, however, and say one
+      thing to you, which is this&mdash;look out for the Poughkeepsie, which is
+      very likely to be on your heels when you least expect her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's your way of thinking, is it, Jack. Well, I thank you, old one, for
+      the hint, but have little fear of that craft. We've had our legs together,
+      and I think the brig has the longest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the captain said this, he gaped like a hound, and went into his
+      state-room. Jack lingered on the quarter-deck, waiting to hear him fairly
+      in his berth, when he made a sign to Biddy, who had got as far aft as the
+      galley, where she was secreted, to pass down into the cabin, as silently
+      as possible. In a minute or two more, he moved forward, singing in a low,
+      cracked voice, as was often his practice, and slowly made his way to the
+      forecastle. Mulford was just beginning to think the fellow had changed his
+      mind, and meant to stick by the brig, when the little, rotund figure of
+      the assistant-steward was seen passing through the port, and to drop
+      noiselessly on a thwart. Jack then moved to the bow, and cast off the
+      painter, the head of the boat slowly falling off under the pressure of the
+      breeze on that part of her mast and sail which rose above the hull of the
+      Swash. Almost at the same moment, the mate let go the stern-fast, and the
+      boat was free.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It required some care to set the sail without the canvas flapping. It was
+      done, however, before the boat fairly took the breeze, when all was safe.
+      In half a minute the wind struck the sail, and away the little craft
+      started, passing swiftly ahead of the brig. Soon as far enough off,
+      Mulford put up his helm and wore short round, bringing the boat's head to
+      the northward, or in its proper direction; after which they flew along
+      before the wind, which seemed to be increasing in force, with a velocity
+      that really appeared to defy pursuit. All this time the brig lay in its
+      silence and solitude, no one stirring on board her, and all, in fact,
+      Biddy alone excepted, profoundly ignorant of what had just been passing
+      alongside of her. Ten minutes of running off with a flowing sheet, caused
+      the Swash to look indistinct and hazy again; in ten minutes more she was
+      swallowed up, hull, spars, and all, in the gloom of night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford and Rose now felt something like that security, without the sense
+      of which happiness itself is but an uneasy feeling, rendering the
+      anticipations of evil the more painful by the magnitude of the stake.
+      There they sat, now, in the stern-sheets by themselves, Jack Tier having
+      placed himself near the bows of the boat, to look out for rocks, as well
+      as to trim the craft. It was not long before Rose was leaning on Harry's
+      shoulder, and ere an hour was past, she had fallen into a sweet sleep in
+      that attitude, the young man having carefully covered her person with a
+      capacious shawl, the same that had been used on the wreck. As for Jack, he
+      maintained his post in silence, sitting with his arms crossed, and the
+      hands thrust into the breast of his jacket, sailor fashion, a picture of
+      nautical vigilance. It was some time after Rose had fallen asleep, that
+      this singular being spoke for the first time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep her away a bit, maty,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;keep her away, half a point or so.
+      She's been travelin' like a racer since we left the brig; and yonder's the
+      first streak of day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the time we have been running,&rdquo; observed Mulford, &ldquo;I should think we
+      must be getting near the northern side of the reef.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All of that, sir, depend on it. Here's a rock close aboard on us, to
+      which we're comin' fast&mdash;just off here, on our weather-bow, that
+      looks to me like the place where you landed a'ter that swim, and where we
+      had stowed ourselves when Stephen Spike made us out, and gave chase.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is surprising to me, Jack, that you should have any fancy to stick by
+      a man of Spike's character. He is a precious rascal, as we all can see,
+      now, and you are rather an honest sort of fellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you love the young woman there, that's lying in your arms, as it might
+      be, and whom you say you wish to marry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The question is a queer one, but it is easily answered. More than my
+      life, Jack.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, how happens it that <i>you</i> succeed, when the world has so many
+      other young men who might please her as well as yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be that no other loves her as well, and she has had the sagacity
+      to discover it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite likely. So it is with me and Stephen Spike. I fancy a man whom
+      other folk despise and condemn. <i>Why</i> I stand by him is my own
+      secret; but stand by him I do and will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is all very strange, after your conduct on the island, and your
+      conduct to-night. I shall not disturb your secret, however, Jack, but
+      leave you to enjoy it by yourself. Is this the rock of which you spoke,
+      that we are now passing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The same; and there's the spot in which we was stowed when they made us
+      out from the brig; and here-away, a cable's length, more or less, the
+      wreck of that Mexican craft must lie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that rising above the water, thereaway, Jack; more on our
+      weather-beam?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see what you mean, sir; it looks like a spar. By George! there's two on
+      'em; and they <i>do</i> seem to be the schooner's masts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sure enough! a second look satisfied Mulford that two mast-heads were out
+      of water, and that within a hundred yards of the place the boat was
+      running past. Standing on a short distance, or far enough to give himself
+      room, the mate put his helm down, and tacked the boat. The flapping of the
+      sail, and the little movement of shifting over the sheet, awoke Rose, who
+      was immediately apprized of the discovery. As soon as round, the boat went
+      glancing up to the spars, and presently was riding by one, Jack Tier
+      having caught hold of a topmast-shroud, when Mulford let fly his sheet
+      again, and luffed short up to the spot. By this time the increasing light
+      was sufficiently strong to render objects distinct, when near by, and no
+      doubt remained any longer in the mind of Mulford about the two mast-heads
+      being those of the unfortunate Mexican schooner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, of all I have ever seen I've never see'd the like of this afore!&rdquo;
+       exclaimed Jack. &ldquo;When we left this here craft, sir, you'll remember, she
+      had almost turned turtle, laying over so far as to bring her upper
+      coamings under water; now she stands right side up, as erect as if docked!
+      My navigation can't get along with this, Mr. Mulford, and it does seem
+      like witchcraft.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is certainly a very singular incident, Jack, and I have been trying to
+      come at its causes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you succeeded, Harry?&rdquo; asked Rose, by this time wide awake, and
+      wondering like the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must have happened in this wise. The wreck was abandoned by us some
+      little distance out here, to windward. The schooner's masts, of course,
+      pointed to leeward, and when she drifted in here, they have first touched
+      on a shelving rock, and as they have been shoved up, little by little,
+      they have acted as levers to right the hull, until the cargo has shifted
+      back into its proper berth, which has suddenly set the vessel up again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir,&rdquo; answered Jack, &ldquo;all that might have happened had she been
+      above water, or any part of her above water; but you'll remember, maty,
+      that soon after we left her she went down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not entirely. The wreck settled in the water no faster after we had left
+      it, than it had done before. It continued to sink, inch by inch, as the
+      air escaped, and no faster after it had gone entirely out of sight than
+      before; not as fast, indeed, as the water became denser the lower it got.
+      The great argument against my theory, is the fact, that after the hull got
+      beneath the surface, the wind could not act on it. This is true in one
+      sense, however, and not in another. The waves, or the pressure of the
+      water produced by the wind, might act on the hull for some time after we
+      ceased to see it. But the currents have set the craft in here, and the
+      hull floating always, very little force would cant the craft. If the rock
+      were shelving and slippery, I see no great difficulty in the way; and the
+      barrels may have been so lodged, that a trifle would set them rolling back
+      again, each one helping to produce a change that would move another. As
+      for the ballast, that, I am certain, could not shift, for it was stowed
+      with great care. As the vessel righted, the air still in her moved, and as
+      soon as the water permitted, it escaped by the hatches, when the craft
+      went down, as a matter of course. This air may have aided in bringing the
+      hull upright by its movements in the water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the only explanation to which the ingenuity of Mulford could help
+      him, under the circumstances, and it may have been the right one, or not.
+      There lay the schooner, however, in some five or six fathoms of water,
+      with her two topmasts, and lower mast-heads out of the element, as upright
+      as if docked! It may all have occurred as the mate fancied, or the unusual
+      incident may have been owing to some of the many mysterious causes which
+      baffle inquiry, when the agents are necessarily hidden from examination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spike intends to come and look for this wreck, you tell me, Jack; in the
+      hope of getting at the doubloons it contains?&rdquo; said Mulford; when the boat
+      had lain a minute or two longer, riding by the mast-head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir; that's his notion, sir, and he'll be in a great stew, as
+      soon as he turns out, which must be about this time, and finds me missing;
+      for I was to pilot him to the spot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He'll want no pilot now. It will be scarcely possible to pass anywhere
+      near this and not see these spars. But this discovery almost induces me to
+      change my own plans. What say <i>you,</i> Rose? We have now reached the
+      northern side of the reef, when it is time to haul close by the wind, if
+      we wish to beat up to Key West. There is a moral certainty, however, that
+      the sloop-of-war is somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Dry Tortugas,
+      which are much the most easily reached, being to leeward. We might run
+      down to the light-house by mid-day, while it is doubtful if we could reach
+      the town until to-morrow morning. I should like exceedingly to have five
+      minutes conversation with the commander of the Poughkeepsie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, to let him know where he will be likely to fall in with the Molly
+      Swash and her traitor master, Stephen Spike,&rdquo; cried Jack Tier. &ldquo;Never
+      mind, maty; let 'em come on; both the Molly and her master have got long
+      legs and clean heels. Stephen Spike will show 'em how to thread the
+      channels of a reef.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is amazing to me, Jack, that you should stand by your old captain in
+      feeling, while you are helping to thwart him, all you can, in his warmest
+      wishes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's a willian!&rdquo; muttered Jack&mdash;&ldquo;a reg'lar willian is Stephen
+      Spike!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If a villain, why do you so evidently wish to keep him out of the hands
+      of the law? Let him be captured and punished, as his crimes require.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Men's willians, all round,&rdquo; still muttered Jack. &ldquo;Hark'e, Mr. Mulford,
+      I've sailed in the brig longer than you, and know'd her in her comeliest
+      and best days&mdash;when she was young, and blooming, and lovely to the
+      eye, as the young creature at your side&mdash;and it would go to my heart
+      to have anything happen to <i>her</i>. Then, I've know'd Stephen a long
+      time, too, and old shipmates get a feelin' for each other, sooner or
+      later. I tell you now, honestly, Mr. Mulford, Captain Adam Mull shall
+      never make a prisoner of Stephen Spike, if I can prevent it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The mate laughed at this sally, but Rose appeared anxious to change the
+      conversation, and she managed to open a discussion on the subject of the
+      course it might be best to steer. Mulford had several excellent reasons to
+      urge for wishing to run down to the islets, all of which, with a single
+      exception, he laid before his betrothed. The concealed reason was one of
+      the strongest of them all, as usually happens when there is a reason to
+      conceal, but of that he took care to say nothing. The result was an
+      acquiescence on the part of Rose, whose consent was yielded more to the
+      influence of one particular consideration than to all the rest united.
+      That one was this: Harry had pointed out to her the importance to himself
+      of his appearing early to denounce the character and movements of the
+      brig, lest, through his former situation in her, his own conduct might be
+      seriously called in question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the matter was determined, Jack was told to let go his hold,
+      the sheet was drawn aft, and away sped the boat. No sooner did Mulford
+      cause the little craft to keep away than it almost flew, as if conscious
+      it were bound to its proper home, skimming swiftly over the waves, like a
+      bird returning eagerly to its nest. An hour later the party breakfasted.
+      While at this meal, Jack Tier pointed out to the mate a white speck, in
+      the south-eastern board, which he took to be the brig coming through the
+      passage, on her way to the wreck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No matter,&rdquo; returned the mate. &ldquo;Though we can see her, she cannot see us.
+      There is that much advantage in our being small, Rose, if it do prevent
+      our taking exercise by walking the deck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after, Mulford made a very distant sail in the north-western board,
+      which he hoped might turn out to be the Poughkeepsie. It was but another
+      speck, but its position was somewhat like that in which he had expected to
+      meet the sloop-of-war. The two vessels were so far apart that one could
+      not be seen from the other, and there was little hope that the
+      Poughkeepsie would detect Spike at his toil on the wreck; but the mate
+      fully expected that the ship would go into the anchorage, among the
+      islets, in order to ascertain what had become of the schooner. If she did
+      not go in herself, she would be almost certain to send in a boat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The party from the brigantine had run down before the wind more than two
+      hours before the light-house began to show itself, just rising out of the
+      waves. This gave them the advantage of a beacon, Mulford having steered
+      hitherto altogether by the sun, the direction of the wind, and the
+      treading of the reef. Now he had his port in sight, it being his intention
+      to take possession of the dwelling of the light-house keeper, and to
+      remain in it, until a favourable opportunity occurred to remove Rose to
+      Key West. The young man had also another important project in view, which
+      it will be in season to mention as it reaches the moment of its
+      fulfillment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rate of sailing of the light-house boat, running before a brisk trade
+      wind, could not be much less than nine miles in the hour. About eleven
+      o'clock, therefore, the lively craft shot through one of the narrow
+      channels of the islets, and entered the haven. In a few minutes all three
+      of the adventurers were on the little wharf where the light-house people
+      were in the habit of landing. Rose proceeded to the house, while Harry and
+      Jack remained to secure the boat. For the latter purpose a sort of slip,
+      or little dock, had been made, and when the boat was hauled into it, it
+      lay so snug that not only was the craft secure from injury, but it was
+      actually hid from the view of all but those who stood directly above it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a snug berth for the boat, Jack,&rdquo; observed the mate, when he had
+      hauled it into the place mentioned, &ldquo;and by unstepping the mast, a
+      passer-by would not suspect such a craft of lying in it. Who knows what
+      occasion there may be for concealment, and I'll e'en do that thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To a casual listener, Harry, in unstepping the mast, might have seemed
+      influenced merely by a motiveless impulse; but, in truth, a latent
+      suspicion of Jack's intentions instigated him, and as he laid the mast,
+      sprit and sail on the thwarts, he determined, in his own mind, to remove
+      them all to some other place, as soon as an opportunity for doing so
+      unobserved should occur. He and Jack now followed Rose to the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The islets were found deserted and tenantless. Not a human being had
+      entered the house since Rose left it, the evening she had remained so long
+      ashore, in company with her aunt and the Señor Montefalderon. This our
+      heroine knew from the circumstance of finding a slight fastening of the
+      outer door in the precise situation in which she had left it with her own
+      hands. At first a feeling of oppression and awe prevailed with both Harry
+      and Rose, when they recollected the fate of those who had so lately been
+      tenants of the place; but this gradually wore off, and each soon got to be
+      more at home. As for Jack, he very coolly rummaged the lockers, as he
+      called the drawers and closets of the place, and made his preparations for
+      cooking a very delicious repast, in which <i>callipash</i> and <i>callipee</i>
+      were to be material ingredients. The necessary condiments were easily
+      enough found in that place, turtle being a common dish there, and it was
+      not long before steams that might have quickened the appetite of an
+      alderman filled the kitchen. Rose rummaged, too, and found a clean
+      table-cloth, plates, glasses, bowls, spoons, and knives; in a word, all
+      that was necessary to spread a plain but plentiful board. While all this
+      was doing, Harry took some fishing-tackle, and proceeded to a favourable
+      spot among the rocks. In twenty minutes he returned with a fine mess of
+      that most delicious little fish that goes by the very unpoetical name of
+      &ldquo;hog-fish,&rdquo; from the circumstance of its giving a grunt not unlike that of
+      a living porker, when rudely drawn from its proper element. Nothing was
+      now wanting to not only a comfortable, but to what was really a most
+      epicurian meal, and Jack just begged the lovers to have patience for an
+      hour or so, when he promised them dishes that even New York could not
+      furnish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harry and Rose first retired to pay a little attention to their dress, and
+      then they joined each other in a walk. The mate had found some razors, and
+      was clean shaved. He had also sequestered a shirt, and made some other
+      little additions to his attire, that contributed to give him the
+      appearance of being, that which he really was, a very gentleman-like
+      looking young sailor. Rose had felt no necessity for taking liberties with
+      the effects of others, though a good deal of female attire was found in
+      the dwelling. As was afterward ascertained, a family ordinarily dwelt
+      there, but most of it had gone to Key West, on a visit, at the moment when
+      the man and boy left in charge had fallen into the hands of the Mexicans,
+      losing their lives in the manner mentioned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While walking together, Harry opened his mind to Rose, on the subject
+      which lay nearest to his heart, and which had been at the bottom of this
+      second visit to the islets of the Dry Tortugas. During the different
+      visits of Wallace to the brig, the boat's crew of the Poughkeepsie had
+      held more or less discourse with the people of the Swash. This usually
+      happens on such occasions, and although Spike had endeavoured to prevent
+      it, when his brig lay in this bay, he had not been entirely successful.
+      Such discourse is commonly jocular, and sometimes witty; every speech,
+      coming from which side it may, ordinarily commencing with &ldquo;shipmate,&rdquo;
+       though the interlocutors never saw each other before that interview. In
+      one of the visits an allusion was made to cargo, when &ldquo;the pretty gal
+      aft,&rdquo; was mentioned as being a part of the cargo of the Swash. In answer
+      to this remark, the wit of the Poughkeepsie had told the brig's man, &ldquo;you
+      had better send her on board us, for we carry a chaplain, a regular-built
+      one, that will be a bishop some day or other, perhaps, and we can get her
+      spliced to one of our young officers.&rdquo; This remark had induced the sailor
+      of the Molly to ask if a sloop-of-war really carried such a piece of
+      marine luxury as a chaplain, and the explanation given went to say that
+      the clergyman in question did not properly belong to the Poughkeepsie, but
+      was to be put on board a frigate, as soon as they fell in with one that he
+      named. Now, all this Mulford overheard, and he remembered it at a moment
+      when it might be of use. Situated as he and Rose were, he felt the wisdom
+      and propriety of their being united, and his present object was to
+      persuade his companion to be of the same way of thinking. He doubted not
+      that the sloop-of-war would come in, ere long, perhaps that very day, and
+      he believed it would be an easy matter to induce her chaplain to perform
+      the ceremony. America is a country in which every facility exists, with
+      the fewest possible impediments, to getting married; and, we regret to be
+      compelled to add, to getting unmarried also. There are no banns, no
+      licenses, no consent of parents even, usually necessary, and persons who
+      are of the age of discretion, which, as respects females and matrimony, is
+      a very tender age indeed, may be married, if they see fit, almost without
+      form or ceremony. There existed, therefore, no legal impediment to the
+      course Mulford desired to take; and his principal, if not his only
+      difficulty, would be with Rose. Over her scruples he hoped to prevail, and
+      not without reason, as the case he could and did present, was certainly
+      one of a character that entitled him to be heard with great attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the first place, Mrs. Budd had approved of the connection, and it was
+      understood between them, that the young people were to be united at the
+      first port in which a clergyman of their own persuasion could be found,
+      and previously to reaching home. This had been the aunt's own project,
+      for, weak and silly as she was, the relict had a woman's sense of the
+      proprieties. It had occured to her that it would be more respectable to
+      make the long journey which lay before them, escorted by a nephew and
+      husband, than escorted by even an accepted lover. It is true that she had
+      never anticipated a marriage in a light-house, and under the circumstances
+      in which Rose was now placed, though it might be more reputable that her
+      niece should quit the islets as the wife of Harry than as his betrothed.
+      Then Mulford still apprehended Spike. In that remote part of the world,
+      almost beyond the confines of society, it was not easy to foretell what
+      claims he might set up, in the event of his meeting them there. Armed with
+      the authority of a husband, Mulford could resist him, in any such case,
+      with far better prospects of success than if he should appear only in the
+      character of a suitor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose listened to these arguments, ardently and somewhat eloquently put, as
+      a girl of her years and habits would be apt to listen to a favoured lover.
+      She was much too sincere to deny her own attachment, which the events of
+      the last few days had increased almost to intenseness, so apt is our
+      tenderness to augment in behalf of those for whom we feel solicitude; and
+      her judgment told her that the more sober part of Harry's reasoning was
+      entitled to consideration. As his wife, her situation would certainly be
+      much less equivocal and awkward, than while she bore a different name, and
+      was admitted to be a single woman, and it might yet be weeks before the
+      duty she owed her aunt would allow her to proceed to the north. But, after
+      all, Harry prevailed more through the influence of his hold on Rose's
+      affections, as would have been the case with almost every other woman,
+      than through any force of reasoning. He truly loved, and that made him
+      eloquent when he spoke of love; sympathy in all he uttered being his great
+      ally. When summoned to the house, by the call of Jack, who announced that
+      the turtle-soup was ready, they returned with the understanding that the
+      chaplain of the Poughkeepsie should unite them, did the vessel come in,
+      and would the functionary mentioned consent to perform the ceremony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be awkward&mdash;nay, it would be distressing, Harry, to have
+      him refuse,&rdquo; said the blushing Rose, as they walked slowly back to the
+      house, more desirous to prolong their conversation than to partake of the
+      bountiful provision of Jack Tier. The latter could not but be acceptable,
+      nevertheless, to a young man like Mulford, who was in robust health, and
+      who had fared so badly for the last eight-and-forty hours. When he sat
+      down to the table, therefore, which was covered by a snow-white cloth,
+      with smoking and most savoury viands on it, it will not be surprising if
+      we say it was with a pleasure that was derived from one of the great
+      necessities of our nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sancho calls for benediction &ldquo;on the man who invented sleep.&rdquo; It would
+      have been more just to have asked this boon in behalf of him who invented
+      eating and turtle-soup. The wearied fall into sleep, as it might be
+      unwittingly; sometimes against their will, and often against their
+      interests; while many a man is hungry without possessing the means of
+      appeasing his appetite. Still more daily feel hunger without possessing
+      turtle-soup. Certain persons impute this delicious compound to the genius
+      of some London alderman, but we rather think unjustly. Aldermanic genius
+      is easily excited and rendered active, no doubt, by strong appeals on such
+      a theme, but our own experience inclines us to believe that the tropics
+      usually send their inventions to the less fruitful regions of the earth
+      along with their products. We have little doubt, could the fact be now
+      ascertained, that it would be found turtle-soup was originally invented by
+      just some such worthy as Jack Tier, who in filling his coppers to tickle
+      the captain's appetite, had used all the condiments within his reach;
+      ventured on a sort of Regent's punch; and, as the consequence, had brought
+      forth the dish so often eulogized, and so well beloved. It is a little
+      extraordinary that in Paris, the seat of gastronomy, one rarely, if ever,
+      hears of or sees this dish; while in London it is to be met in almost as
+      great abundance as in one of our larger commercial towns. But so it is,
+      and we cannot say we much envy a <i>cuisine</i> its <i>patés,</i> and <i>soufflets,</i>
+      and its <i>à la</i> this and <i>à la</i> thats, but which was never
+      redolent with the odours of turtle-soup.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Upon my word, Jack, you have made out famously with your dinner, or
+      supper, whichever you may please to call it,&rdquo; cried Mulford gaily, as he
+      took his seat at table, after having furnished Rose with a chair. &ldquo;Nothing
+      appears to be wanting; but here is good pilot bread, potatoes even, and
+      other little niceties, in addition to the turtle and the fish. These good
+      people of the light seem to have lived comfortably, at any rate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should they not, maty?&rdquo; answered Jack, beginning to help to soup.
+      &ldquo;Living on one of these islets is like living afloat. Everything is laid
+      in, as for an outward bound craft; then the reef must always furnish fish
+      and turtle. I've overhauled the lockers pretty thoroughly, and find a
+      plenty of stores to last <i>us</i> a month. Tea, sugar, coffee, bread,
+      pickles, potatoes, onions, and all other knick-knacks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The poor people who own these stores will be heavy-hearted enough when
+      they come to learn the reason why we have been put in undisturbed
+      possession of their property,&rdquo; said Rose. &ldquo;We must contrive some means of
+      repaying them for such articles as we may use, Harry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's easily enough done, Miss Rose. Drop one of the half-eagles in a
+      tea-pot, or a mug, and they'll be certain to fall in with it when they
+      come back. Nothin' is easier than to pay a body's debts, when a body has
+      the will and the means. Now, the worst enemy of Stephen Spike must own
+      that his brig never quits port with unsettled bills. Stephen has his
+      faults, like other mortals; but he has his good p'ints, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still praising Spike, my good Jack,&rdquo; cried the mate, a little provoked at
+      this pertinacity in the deputy-steward, in sticking to his ship and his
+      shipmate. &ldquo;I should have thought that you had sailed with him long enough
+      to have found him out, and to wish never to put your foot in his cabin
+      again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, no, maty, a craft is a craft, and a body gets to like even the
+      faults of one in which a body has gone through gales, and squalls, with a
+      whole skin. I like the Swash, and, for sartain things I like her captain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Meaning by that, it is your intention to get on board of the one, and to
+      sail with the other, again, as soon as you can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do, Mr. Mulford, and make no bones in telling on't. You know that I
+      came here without wishing it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Jack, no one will attempt to control your movements, but you shall
+      be left your own master. I feel it to be a duty, however, as one who may
+      know more of the law than yourself, as well as more of Stephen Spike, to
+      tell you that he is engaged in a treasonable commerce with the enemy, and
+      that he, and all who voluntarily remain with him, knowing this fact, may
+      be made to swing for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I'll swing for it,&rdquo; returned Jack, sullenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a little obstinacy in this, my good fellow, and you must be
+      reasoned out of it. I am under infinite obligations to you, Jack, and
+      shall ever be ready to own them. Without you to sail the boat, I might
+      have been left to perish on that rock,&mdash;for God only knows whether
+      any vessel would have seen me in passing. Most of those who go through
+      that passage keep the western side of the reef aboard, they tell me, on
+      account of there being better water on that side of the channel, and the
+      chance of a man's being seen on a rock, by ships a league or two off,
+      would be small indeed. Yes, Jack, I owe my life to you, and am proud to
+      own it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You owe it to Miss Rose, maty, who put me up to the enterprise, and who
+      shared it with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To her I owe more than life,&rdquo; answered Harry, looking at his beloved as
+      she delighted in being regarded by him, &ldquo;but even she, with all her wishes
+      to serve me, would have been helpless without your skill in managing a
+      boat. I owe also to your good-nature the happiness of having Rose with me
+      at this moment; for without you she would not have come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll not deny it, maty&mdash;take another ladle-full of the soup, Miss
+      Rosy: a quart of it would n't hurt an infant&mdash;I'll not deny it, Mr.
+      Mulford&mdash;I know by the way you've got rid of the first bowl-full that
+      <i>you</i> are ready for another, and there it is&mdash;I'll not deny it,
+      and all I can say is that you are heartily welcome to my sarvices.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you, Jack; but all this only makes me more desirous of being of
+      use to you, now, when it's in my power. I wish you to stick by me, and not
+      to return to the Swash. As soon as I get to New York I shall build or buy
+      a ship, and the berth of steward in her shall always be open to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank'e, maty; thank'e, with all my heart. It's something to know that a
+      port is open to leeward, and, though I cannot <i>now</i> accept your
+      offer, the day <i>may</i> come when I shall be glad to do so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you like living ashore better, our house will always be ready to
+      receive you. I should be glad to leave as handy a little fellow as
+      yourself behind me whenever I went to sea. There are a hundred things in
+      which you might be useful, and fully earn your biscuit, so as to have no
+      qualms about eating the bread of idleness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank'e, thank'e, maty,&rdquo; cried Jack, dashing a tear out of his eye with
+      the back of his hand, &ldquo;thank'e, sir, from the bottom of my heart. The time
+      <i>may</i> come, but not now. My papers is signed for this v'y'ge. Stephen
+      Spike has a halter round his neck, as you say yourself, and it's necessary
+      for me to be there to look to't. We all have our callin's and duties, and
+      this is mine. I stick by the Molly and her captain until both are out of
+      this scrape, or both are condemned. I know nothin' of treason; but if the
+      law wants another victim, I must take my chance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford was surprised at this steadiness of Jack's, in what he thought a
+      very bad cause, and he was quite as much surprised that Rose did not join
+      him, in his endeavours to persuade the steward not to be so foolhardy, as
+      to endeavour to go back to the brig. Rose did not, however; sitting
+      silently eating her dinner the whole time, though she occasionally cast
+      glances of interest at both the speakers the while. In this state of
+      things the mate abandoned the attempt, for the moment, intending to return
+      to the subject, after having had a private conference with his betrothed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding the little drawback just related, that was a happy as well
+      as a delicious repast. The mate did full justice to the soup, and
+      afterward to the fish with the unpoetical name; and Rose ate more than she
+      had done in the last three days. The habits of discipline prevented Jack
+      from taking his seat at table, though pressed by both Rose and Harry to do
+      so, but he helped himself to the contents of a bowl and did full justice
+      to his own art, on one aside. The little fellow was delighted with the
+      praises that were bestowed on his dishes; and for the moment, the sea, its
+      dangers, its tornadoes, wrecks and races, were all forgotten in the
+      security and pleasures of so savoury a repast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Folk ashore do n't know how sailors sometimes live,&rdquo; said Jack, holding a
+      large spoon filled with the soup ready to plunge into a tolerably
+      capacious mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or how they sometimes starve,&rdquo; answered Rose. &ldquo;Remember our own
+      situation, less than forty-eight hours since!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All very true, Miss Rose; yet, you see, turtle-soup brings us up, a'ter
+      all. Would you like a glass of wine, maty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very much indeed, Jack, after so luscious a soup; but wishing for it will
+      not bring it here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That remains to be seen, sir. I call this a bottle of something that
+      looks wery much like a wine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Claret, as I live! Why, where should light-house keepers get the taste
+      for claret?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've thought of that myself, Mr. Mulford, and have supposed that some of
+      Uncle Sam's officers have brought the liquor to this part of the world. I
+      understand a party on 'em was here surveyin' all last winter. It seems
+      they come in the cool weather, and get their sights and measure their
+      distances, and go home in the warm weather, and work out their traverses
+      in the shade, as it might be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This seems likely, Jack; but, come whence it may it is welcome, and we
+      will taste it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford then drew the cork of this mild and grateful liquor, and helped
+      his companions and himself. In this age of moral <i>tours de force,</i>
+      one scarcely dare say anything favourable of a liquid that even bears the
+      name of wine, or extol the shape of a bottle. It is truly the era of
+      exaggeration. Nothing is treated in the old-fashioned, natural, common
+      sense way. Virtue is no longer virtue, unless it get upon stilts; and, as
+      for sin's being confined to &ldquo;transgression against the law of God,&rdquo;
+       audacious would be the wretch who should presume to limit the sway of the
+      societies by any dogma so narrow! A man may be as abstemious as an
+      anchorite and get no credit for it, unless &ldquo;he sigu the pledge;&rdquo; or,
+      signing the pledge, he may get fuddled in corners, and be cited as a
+      miracle of sobriety. The test of morals is no longer in the abuse of the
+      gifts of Providence, but in their use; prayers are deserting the closet
+      for the corners of streets, and charity (not the giving of alms) has got
+      to be so earnest in the demonstration of its nature, as to be pretty
+      certain to &ldquo;begin at home,&rdquo; and to end where it begins. Even the art of
+      mendacity has been aroused by the great progress which is making by all
+      around it, and many manifest the strength of their ambition by telling ten
+      lies where their fathers would have been satisfied with telling only one.
+      This art has made an extraordinary progress within the last quarter of a
+      century, aspiring to an ascendency that was formerly conceded only to
+      truth, until he who gains his daily bread by it has some such contempt for
+      the sneaking wretch who does business on the small scale, as the slayer of
+      his thousands in the field is known to entertain for him who kills only a
+      single man in the course of a long life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the risk of damaging the reputations of our hero and heroine, we shall
+      frankly aver the fact that both Harry and Rose partook of the <i>vin de
+      Bordeaux,</i> a very respectable bottle of <i>Medoc,</i> by the way, which
+      had been forgotten by Uncle Sam's people, in the course of the preceding
+      winter, agreeably to Jack Tier's conjecture. One glass sufficed for Rose,
+      and, contrary as it may be to all modern theory, she was somewhat the
+      better for it; while the mate and Jack Tier quite half emptied the bottle,
+      being none the worse. There they sat, enjoying the security and abundance
+      which had succeeded to their late danger, happy in that security, happy in
+      themselves, and happy in the prospects of a bright future. It was just as
+      practicable for them to remain at the Dry Tortugas, as it was for the
+      family which ordinarily dwelt at the light. The place was amply supplied
+      with everything that would be necessary for their wants, for months to
+      come, and Harry caused his betrothed to blush, as he whispered to her,
+      should the chaplain arrive, he should delight in passing the honey-moon
+      where they then were.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I could tend the light,&rdquo; he added, smiling, &ldquo;which would be not only an
+      occupation, but a useful occupation; you could read all those books from
+      beginning to end, and Jack could keep us suplied with fish. By the way,
+      master steward, are you in the humour for motion, so soon after your
+      hearty meal?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anything to be useful,&rdquo; answered Jack, cheerfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then do me the favour to go up into the lantern of the light-house, and
+      take a look for the sloop-of-war. If she's in sight at all, you'll find
+      her off here to the northward; and while you are aloft you may as well
+      make a sweep of the whole horizon. There hangs the light-house keeper's
+      glass, which may help your eyes, by stepping into the gallery outside of
+      the lantern.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack willingly complied, taking the glass and proceeding forthwith to the
+      other building. Mulford had two objects in view in giving this commission
+      to the steward. He really wished to ascertain what was the chance of
+      seeing the Poughkeepsie, in the neighbourhood of the islets, and felt just
+      that indisposition to move himself, that is apt to come over one who has
+      recently made a very bountiful meal, while he also desired to have another
+      private conversation with Rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A good portion of the time that Jack was gone, and he stayed quite an hour
+      in the lantern, our lovers conversed as lovers are much inclined to
+      converse; that is to say, of themselves, their feelings, and their
+      prospects. Mulford told Rose of his hopes and fears, while he visited at
+      the house of her aunt, previously to sailing, and the manner in which his
+      suspicions had been first awakened in reference to the intentions of Spike&mdash;intentions,
+      so far as they were connected with an admiration of his old commander's
+      niece, and possibly in connection also with the little fortune she was
+      known to possess, but not in reference to the bold project to which he
+      had, in fact, resorted. No distrust of the scheme finally put in practice
+      had ever crossed the mind of the young mate, until he received the
+      unexpected order, mentioned in our opening chapter, to prepare the brig
+      for the reception of Mrs. Budd and her party. Harry confessed his jealousy
+      of one youth whom he dreaded far more even than he had ever dreaded Spike,
+      and whose apparent favour with Rose, and actual favour with her aunt, had
+      given him many a sleepless night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They next conversed of the future, which to them seemed full of flowers.
+      Various were the projects started, discussed, and dismissed, between them,
+      the last almost as soon as proposed. On one thing they were of a mind, as
+      soon as proposed. Harry was to have a ship as quick as one could be
+      purchased by Rose's means, and the promised bride laughingly consented to
+      make one voyage to Europe along with her husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder, dear Rose, my poverty has never presented any difficulties in
+      the way of our union,&rdquo; said Harry, sensibly touched with the free way his
+      betrothed disposed of her own money in his behalf; &ldquo;but neither you nor
+      Mrs. Budd has ever seemed to think of the difference there is between us
+      in this respect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the trifle I possess, Harry, set in the balance against your
+      worth? My aunt, as you say, has thought I might even be the gainer by the
+      exchange.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sure I feel a thousand times indebted to Mrs. Budd&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Aunt</i> Budd. You must learn to say, '<i>my</i> Aunt Budd,' Mr. Henry
+      Mulford, if you mean to live in peace with her unworthy niece.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Aunt</i> Budd, then,&rdquo; returned Harry, laughing, for the laugh came
+      easily that evening; &ldquo;Aunt Budd, if you wish it, Rose. I can have no
+      objection to call any relative of yours, uncle or aunt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think we are intimate enough, now, to ask you a question or two, Harry,
+      touching my aunt,&rdquo; continued Rose, looking stealthily over her shoulder,
+      as if apprehensive of being overheard. &ldquo;You know how fond she is of
+      speaking of the sea, and of indulging in nautical phrases?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Any one must have observed that, Rose,&rdquo; answered the young man, gazing up
+      at the wall, in order not to be compelled to look the beautiful creature
+      before him in the eyes&mdash;&ldquo;Mrs. Budd has very strong tastes that way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now tell me, Harry&mdash;that is, answer me frankly&mdash;I mean&mdash;she
+      is not <i>always</i> right, is she?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, no; not absolutely so&mdash;that is, not absolutely <i>always</i> so&mdash;few
+      persons are <i>always</i> right, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose remained silent and embarrassed for a moment; after which she pursued
+      the discourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But aunty does not know as much of the sea and of ships as she thinks she
+      does?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps not. We all overrate our own acquirements. I dare say that even I
+      am not as good a seaman as I fancy myself to be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even Spike admits that you are what he calls 'a prime seaman.' But it is
+      not easy for a woman to get a correct knowledge of the use of all the
+      strange, and sometimes uncouth, terms that you sailors use.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly not, and for that reason I would rather you should never
+      attempt it, Rose. We rough sons of the ocean would prefer to hear our
+      wives make divers pretty blunders, rather than to be swaggering about like
+      so many 'old salts.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Mulford! Does Aunt Budd swagger like an old salt?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dearest Rose, I was not thinking of your aunt, but of <i>you</i>. Of you,
+      as you are, feminine, spirited, lovely alike in form and character, and of
+      you a graduate of the ocean, and full of its language and ideas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was probable Rose was not displeased at this allusion to herself, for a
+      smile struggled around her pretty mouth, and she did not look at all
+      angry. After another short pause, she resumed the discourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My aunt did not very clearly comprehend those explanations of yours about
+      the time of day, and the longitude,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;nor am I quite certain
+      that I did myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You understood them far better than Mrs. Budd, Rose. Women are so little
+      accustomed to <i>think</i> on such subjects at all, that it is not
+      surprising they sometimes get confused. I do wish, however, that your aunt
+      could be persuaded to be more cautious in the presence of strangers, on
+      the subject of terms she does not understand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I feared it might be so, Harry,&rdquo; answered Rose, in a low voice, as if
+      unwilling even he should know the full extent of her thoughts on this
+      subject; &ldquo;but my aunt's heart is most excellent, though she may make
+      mistakes occasionally, I owe her a great deal, if not absolutely my
+      education, certainly my health and comfort through childhood, and more
+      prudent, womanly advice than you may suppose, perhaps, since I have left
+      school. How she became the dupe of Spike, indeed, is to me unaccountable;
+      for in all that relates to health, she is, in general, both acute and
+      skilful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spike is a man of more art than he appears to be to superficial
+      observers. On my first acquaintance with him, I mistook him for a frank,
+      fearless but well-meaning sailor, who loved hazardous voyages and
+      desperate speculation&mdash;a sort of innocent gambler; but I have learned
+      to know better. His means are pretty much reduced to his brig, and she is
+      getting old, and can do but little more service. His projects are plain
+      enough, now. By getting you into his power, he hoped to compel a marriage,
+      in which case both your fortune and your aunt's would contribute to repair
+      his.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He might have killed me, but I never would have married him,&rdquo; rejoined
+      Rose, firmly. &ldquo;Is not that Jack coming down the steps of the light-house?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is. I find that fellow's attachment to Spike very extraordinary, Rose.
+      Can you, in any manner, account for it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose at first seemed disposed to reply. Her lips parted, as if about to
+      speak, and closed again, as glancing her eyes toward the open door, she
+      seemed to expect the appearance of the steward's little, rotund form on
+      its threshold, which held her tongue-tied. A brief interval elapsed,
+      however, ere Jack actually arrived, and Rose, perceiving that Harry was
+      curiously expecting her answer, said hurriedly&mdash;&ldquo;It may be hatred,
+      not attachment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next instant Jack Tier entered the room. He had been gone rather more
+      than an hour, not returning until just as the sun was about to set in a
+      flame of fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Jack, what news from the Poughkeepsie?&rdquo; demanded the mate. &ldquo;You
+      have been gone long enough to make sure of your errand. Is it certain that
+      we are not to see the man-of-war's-men to-night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whatever you see, my advice to you is to keep close, and to be on your
+      guard,&rdquo; answered Jack, evasively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have little fear of any of Uncle Sam's craft. A plain story, and an
+      honest heart, will make all clear to a well-disposed listener. We have not
+      been accomplices in Spike's treasons, and cannot be made to answer for
+      them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take my advice, maty, and be in no hurry to hail every vessel you see.
+      Uncle Sam's fellows may not always be at hand to help you. Do you not know
+      that this island will be tabooed to seamen for some time to come?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why so, Jack? The islet has done no harm, though others may have
+      performed wicked deeds near it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two of the drowned men lie within a hundred yards of this spot, and
+      sailors never go near new-made graves, if they can find any other place to
+      resort to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You deal in enigmas, Jack; and did I not know that you are very
+      temperate, I might suspect that the time you have been gone has been
+      passed in the company of a bottle of brandy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will explain my meanin',&rdquo; said Jack, laconically, pointing as he
+      spoke seemingly at some object that was to be seen without.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door of the house was wide open, for the admission of air. It faced
+      the haven of the islets, and just as the mate's eyes were turned to it,
+      the end of a flying-jib-boom, with the sail down, and fluttering beneath
+      it, was coming into the view. &ldquo;The Poughkeepsie!&rdquo; exclaimed Mulford, in
+      delight, seeing all his hopes realized, while Rose blushed to the eyes. A
+      pause succeeded, during which Mulford drew aside, keeping his betrothed in
+      the back-ground, and as much out of sight as possible. The vessel was
+      shooting swiftly into view, and presently all there could see it was the
+      Swash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  But no&mdash;he surely is not dreaming.
+  Another minute makes it clear,
+  A scream, a rush, a burning tear,
+  From Inez' cheek, dispel the fear
+  That bliss like his is only seeming.
+
+  Washington Alston.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A moment of appalled surprise succeeded the instant when Harry and Rose
+      first ascertained the real character of the vessel that had entered the
+      haven of the Dry Tortugas. Then the first turned toward Jack Tier, and
+      sternly demanded an explanation of his apparent faithlessness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rascal,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;has this treachery been intended? Did you not see the
+      brig and know her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush, Harry&mdash;<i>dear</i> Harry,&rdquo; exclaimed Rose, entreatingly. &ldquo;My
+      life for it, Jack has <i>not</i> been faithless.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, then, has he not let us know that the brig was coming? For more than
+      an hour has he been aloft, on the look-out, and here are we taken quite by
+      surprise. Rely on it, Rose, he has seen the approach of the brig, and
+      might have sooner put us on our guard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, lay it on, maty,&rdquo; said Jack, coolly, neither angry nor mortified,
+      so far as appearances went, at these expressions of dissatisfaction; &ldquo;my
+      back is used to it. If I did n't know what it is to get hard raps on the
+      knuckles, I should be but a young steward. But, as for this business, a
+      little reflection will tell you I am not to blame.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give us your own explanations, for without them I shall trust you no
+      longer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sir, what good would it have done, <i>had</i> I told you the brig
+      was standing for this place? There she came down, like a race-horse, and
+      escape for you was impossible. As the wind is now blowin', the Molly would
+      go two feet to the boat's one, and a chase would have been madness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know that, sirrah&rdquo; answered the mate. &ldquo;The boat might have got
+      into the smaller passages of the reef, where the brig could not enter, or
+      she might have dodged about among these islets, until it was night, and
+      then escaped in the darkness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought of all that, Mr. Mulford, but it came too late. When I first
+      went aloft, I came out on the north-west side of the lantern, and took my
+      seat, to look out for the sloop-of-war, as you bade me, sir. Well, there I
+      was sweepin' the horizon with the glass for the better part of an hour,
+      sometimes fancyin' I saw her, and then givin' it up; for to this moment I
+      am not sartain there is n't a sail off here to the westward, turning up
+      toward the light on a bowline; but if there be, she's too far off to know
+      anything partic'lar about her. Well, sir, there I sat, looking for the
+      Poughkeepsie, for the better part of an hour, when I thought I would go
+      round on t' other side of the lantern and take a look to windward. My
+      heart was in my mouth, I can tell you, Miss Rose, when I saw the brig; and
+      I felt both glad and sorry. Glad on my own account, and sorry on your'n.
+      There she was, however, and no help for it, within two miles of this very
+      spot, and coming down as if she despised touching the water at all. Now,
+      what could I do? There was n't time, Mr. Mulford, to get the boat out, and
+      the mast stepped, afore we should have been within reach of canister, and
+      Stephen Spike would not have spared <i>that,</i> in order to get you again
+      within his power.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Depend on it, Harry, this is all true,&rdquo; said Rose, earnestly. &ldquo;I know
+      Jack well, and can answer for his fidelity. He wishes to, and if he can he
+      <i>will</i> return to the brig, whither he thinks his duty calls him, but
+      he will never willingly betray <i>us</i>&mdash;least of all, <i>me</i>. Do
+      I speak as I ought, Jack?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gospel truth, Miss Rose, and Mr. Mulford will get over this squall, as
+      soon as he comes to think of matters as he ought. There 's my hand, maty,
+      to show I bear no malice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I take it, Jack, for I must believe you honest, after all you have done
+      for us. Excuse my warmth, which, if a little unreasonable, was somewhat
+      natural under the circumstances. I suppose our case is now hopeless, and
+      that we shall all be soon on board the brig again; for Spike will hardly
+      think of abandoning me again on an island provisioned and fitted as is
+      this!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's not so sartain, sir, that you fall into his hands at all,&rdquo; put in
+      Jack. &ldquo;The men of the brig will never come here of their own accord,
+      depend on that, for sailors don't like graves. Spike has come in here
+      a'ter the schooner's chain, that he dropped into the water when he made
+      sail from the sloop-of-war, at the time he was here afore, and is not
+      expectin' to find us here. No&mdash;no&mdash;he thinks we are beatin' up
+      toward Key West this very minute, if, indeed, he has missed us at all. 'T
+      is possible he believes the boat has got adrift by accident, and has no
+      thought of our bein' out of the brig.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is impossible, Jack. Do you suppose he is ignorant that Rose is
+      missing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sartain of it, maty, if Mrs. Budd has read the letter well that Miss Rose
+      left for her, and Biddy has obeyed orders. If they've followed
+      instructions, Miss Rose is thought to be in her state-room, mournin' for a
+      young man who was abandoned on a naked rock, and Jack Tier, havin' eat
+      somethin' that has disagreed with him, is in his berth. Recollect, Spike
+      will not be apt to look into Miss Rose's state-room or my berth, to see if
+      all this is true. The cook and Josh are both in my secret, and know I mean
+      to come back, and when the fit is over I have only to return to duty, like
+      any other hand. It is my calculation that Spike believes both Miss Rose
+      and myself on board the Molly at this very moment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the boat&mdash;what can he suppose has become of the boat?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sartainly, the boat makes the only chance ag'in us. But the boat was
+      ridin' by its painter astarn, and accidents sometimes happen to such
+      craft. Then we two are the wery last he will suspect of havin' made off in
+      the boat by ourselves. There'll be Mrs. Budd and Biddy as a sort of pledge
+      that Miss Rose is aboard, and as for Jack Tier, he is too insignificant to
+      occupy the captain's thoughts just now. He will probably muster the people
+      for'ard, when he finds the boat is gone, but I do not think he'll trouble
+      the cabins or state-rooms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford admitted that this was <i>possible,</i> though it scarcely seemed
+      probable to him. There was no help, however, for the actual state of
+      things, and they all now turned their attention to the brig, and to the
+      movements of those on board her. Jack Tier had swung-to the outer-door of
+      the house, as soon as the Swash came in view through it, and fortunately
+      none of the windows on that side of the building had been opened at all.
+      The air entered to windward, which was on the rear of the dwelling, so
+      that it was possible to be comfortable and yet leave the front, in view
+      from the vessel, with its deserted air. As for the brig, she had already
+      anchored and got both her boats into the water. The yawl was hauled
+      alongside, in readiness for any service that might be required of it,
+      while the launch had been manned at once, and was already weighing the
+      anchor, and securing the chain to which Tier had alluded. All this served
+      very much to lessen the uneasiness of Mulford and Rose, as it went far to
+      prove that Spike had not come to the Dry Tortugas in quest of them, as, at
+      first, both had very naturally supposed. It might, indeed, turn out that
+      his sole object was to obtain this anchor and chain, with a view to use
+      them in raising the ill-fated vessel that had now twice gone to the
+      bottom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish an explanation with you, Jack, on one other point,&rdquo; said the mate,
+      after all three had been for sometime observing the movements on board and
+      around the Swash. &ldquo;Do you actually intend to get on board the brig?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it's to be done, maty. My v'y'ge is up with you and Miss Rose. I may
+      be said to have shipped for Key West and a market, and the market's found
+      at this port.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will hardly leave us <i>yet,</i> Jack,&rdquo; said Rose, with a manner and
+      emphasis that did not fail to strike her betrothed lover, though he could
+      in no way account for either. That Rose should not wish to be left alone
+      with him in that solitary place was natural enough; or, might rather be
+      referred to education and the peculiar notions of her sex; but he could
+      not understand why so much importance should be attached to the presence
+      of a being of Jack Tier's mould and character. It was true, that there was
+      little choice, under present circumstances, but it occurred to Mulford
+      that Rose had manifested the same strange predilection when there might
+      have been something nearer to a selection. The moment, however, was not
+      one for much reflection on the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will hardly leave us yet, Jack?&rdquo; said Rose, in the manner related.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's now or never, Miss Rose. If the brig once gets away from this
+      anchorage without me, I may never lay eyes on her ag'in. Her time is
+      nearly up, for wood and iron wont hold together always, any more than
+      flesh and blood. Consider how many years I've been busy in huntin' her up,
+      and how hard 't will be to lose that which has given me so many weary days
+      and sleepless nights to find.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose said no more. If not convinced, she was evidently silenced, while
+      Harry was left to wonder and surmise, as best he might. Both quitted the
+      subject, to watch the people of the brig. By this time the anchor had been
+      lifted, and the chain was heaving in on board the vessel, by means of a
+      line that had been got around its bight. The work went on rapidly, and
+      Mulford observed to Rose that he did not think it was the intention of
+      Spike to remain long at the Tortugas, inasmuch as his brig was riding by a
+      very short range of cable. This opinion was confirmed, half an hour later,
+      when it was seen that the launch was hooked on and hoisted in again, as
+      soon as the chain and anchor of the schooner were secured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack Tier watched every movement with palpable uneasiness. His
+      apprehensions that Spike would obtain all he wanted, and be off before he
+      could rejoin him, increased at each instant, and he did not scruple to
+      announce an intention to take the boat and go alongside of the Swash at
+      every hazard, rather than be left.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not reflect on what you say, Jack,&rdquo; answered Harry; &ldquo;unless,
+      indeed, it be your intention to betray us. How could you appear in the
+      boat, at this place, without letting it be known that we must be hard by?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That don't follow at all, maty,&rdquo; answered Jack. &ldquo;Suppose I go alongside
+      the brig and own to the captain that I took the boat last night, with the
+      hope of findin' you, and that failin' to succeed, I bore up for this port,
+      to look for provisions and water. Miss Rose he thinks on board at this
+      moment, and in my judgment he would take me at my word, give me a good
+      cursing, and think no more about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would never do, Jack,&rdquo; interposed Rose, instantly. &ldquo;It would cause the
+      destruction of Harry, as Spike would not believe you had not found him,
+      without an examination of this house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are they about with the yawl, Mr. Mulford?&rdquo; asked Jack, whose eye
+      was never off the vessel for a single moment. &ldquo;It's gettin' to be so dark
+      that one can hardly see the boat, but it seems as if they're about to man
+      the yawl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are, and there goes a lantern into it. And that is Spike himself
+      coming down the brig's side this instant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They can only bring a lantern to search this house,&rdquo; exclaimed Rose. &ldquo;Oh!
+      Harry, you are lost!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I rather think the lantern is for the light-house,&rdquo; answered Mulford,
+      whose coolness, at what was certainly a most trying moment, did not desert
+      him. &ldquo;Spike may wish to keep the light burning, for once before, you will
+      remember, he had it kindled after the keeper was removed. As for his
+      sailing, he would not be apt to sail until the moon rises; and in beating
+      back to the wreck the light may serve to let him know the bearings and
+      position of the reef.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There they come,&rdquo; whispered Rose, half breathless with alarm. &ldquo;The boat
+      has left the brig, and is coming directly hither!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All this was true enough. The yawl had shoved off, and with two men to row
+      it, was pulling for the wharf in front of the house, and among the timbers
+      of which lay the boat, pretty well concealed beneath a sort of bridge.
+      Mulford would not retreat, though he looked to the fastenings of the door
+      as a means of increasing his chances of defence. In the stern-sheets of
+      the boat sat two men, though it was not easy to ascertain who they were by
+      the fading light. One was known to be Spike, however, and the other, it
+      was conjectured, must be Don Juan Montefalderon, from the circumstance of
+      his being in the place of honour. Three minutes solved this question, the
+      boat reaching the wharf by that time. It was instantly secured, and all
+      four of the men left it. Spike was now plainly to be discerned by means of
+      the lantern which he carried in his own hands, He gave some orders, in his
+      customary authoritative way, and in a high key, after which he led the way
+      from the wharf, walking side by side with the Señor Montefalderon. These
+      two last came up within a yard of the door of the house, where they
+      paused, enabling those within not only to see their persons and the
+      working of their countenances, but to hear all that was said; this last
+      the more especially, since Spike never thought it necessary to keep his
+      powerful voice within moderate limits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's hardly worth while, Don Wan, for you to go into the light-house,&rdquo;
+       said Spike. &ldquo;'T is but a greasy, dirty place at the best, and one's
+      clothes are never the better for dealin' with ile. Here, Bill, take the
+      lantern, and get a filled can, that we may go up and trim and fill the
+      lamp, and make a blaze. Bear a hand, lads, and I'll be a'ter ye afore you
+      reach the lantern. Be careful with the flame about the ile, for seamen
+      ought never to wish to see a lighthouse destroyed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you expect to gain by lighting the lamps above, Don Esteban?&rdquo;
+       demanded the Mexican, when the sailors had disappeared in the light-house,
+      taking their own lantern with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's wisest to keep things reg'lar about this spot, Don Wan, which will
+      prevent unnecessary suspicions. But, as the brig stretches in toward the
+      reef to-night, on our way back, the light will be a great assistance. I am
+      short of officers, you know, and want all the help of this sort I can
+      get.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sincere with you, Don Esteban, I greatly regret you <i>are</i> so
+      short of officers, and do not yet despair of inducing you to go and take
+      off the mate, whom I hear you have left on a barren rock. He was a fine
+      young fellow, Señor Spike, and the deed was not one that you will wish to
+      remember a few years hence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The fellow run, and I took him at his word, Don Wan. I'm not obliged to
+      receive back a deserter unless it suits me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are all obliged to see we do not cause a fellow creature the loss of
+      life. This will prove the death of the charming young woman who is so much
+      attached to him, unless you relent and are merciful!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Women have tender looks but tough hearts,&rdquo; answered Spike, carelessly,
+      though Mulford felt certain, by the tone of his voice, that great
+      bitterness of feeling lay smothered beneath the affected indifference of
+      his manner; &ldquo;few die of love.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The young lady has not been on deck all day; and the Irish woman tells me
+      that she does nothing but drink water&mdash;the certain proof of a high
+      fever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, she keeps her room if you will, Don Wan, but she is not about to
+      make a dupe of me by any such tricks. I must go and look to the lamps,
+      however, and you will find the graves you seek in the rear of this house,
+      about thirty yards behind it, you'll remember. That's a very pretty cross
+      you've made, señor, and the skipper of the schooner's soul will be all the
+      better for settin' it up at the head of his grave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will serve to let those who come after us know that a Christian sleeps
+      beneath the sand, Don Esteban,&rdquo; answered the Mexican, mildly. &ldquo;I have no
+      other expectation from this sacred symbol.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The two now separated, Spike going into the light-house, little in a
+      hurry, while Don Juan Montefalderon walked round the building to its rear
+      in quest of the grave. Mulford waited a moment for Spike to get a short
+      distance up the stairs of the high tower he had to ascend, when placing
+      the arm of Rose within his own, he opened the door in the rear of the
+      house, and walked boldly toward the Mexican. Don Juan was actually forcing
+      the pointed end of his little cross into the sand, at the head of his
+      countryman's grave, when Mulford and his trembling companion reached the
+      spot. Although night had shut in, it was not so dark that persons could
+      not be recognised at small distances. The Señor Montefalderon was startled
+      at an apparition so sudden and unexpected, when Mulford saluted him by
+      name; but recognising first the voice of Harry, and then the persons of
+      himself and his companion, surprise, rather than alarm, became the emotion
+      that was uppermost. Notwithstanding the strength of the first of these
+      feelings, he instantly saluted the young couple with the polished ease
+      that marked his manner, which had much of the courtesy of a Castilian in
+      it, tempered a little, perhaps, by the greater flexibility of a Southern
+      American.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I <i>see</i> you,&rdquo; exclaimed Don Juan, &ldquo;and must believe my eyes. Without
+      their evidence, however, I could scarce believe it can be you two, one of
+      whom I thought on board the brig, and the other suffering a most miserable
+      death on a naked rock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am aware of your kind feelings in our behalf, Don Juan,&rdquo; said Mulford,
+      &ldquo;and it is the reason I now confide in you. I was taken off that rock by
+      means of the boat, which you doubtless have missed; and this is the gentle
+      being who has been the means of saving my life. To her and Jack Tier, who
+      is yonder, under the shadows of the house, I owe my not being the victim
+      of Spike's cruelty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I now comprehend the whole matter, Don Henriquez. Jack Tier has managed
+      the boat for the señorita; and those whom we were told were too ill to be
+      seen on deck, have been really out of the brig!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such are the facts, señor, and from <i>you</i> there is no wish to
+      conceal them. We are then to understand that the absence of Rose and Jack
+      from the brig is not known to Spike.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe not, señor. He has alluded to both, once or twice to-day, as
+      being ill below; but would you not do well to retire within the shade of
+      the dwelling, lest a glance from the lantern might let those in it know
+      that I am not alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is little danger, Don Juan, as they who stand near a light cannot
+      well see those who are in the darkness. Beside, they are high in the air,
+      while we are on the ground, which will greatly add to the obscurity down
+      here. We can retire, nevertheless, as I have a few questions to ask, which
+      may as well be put in perfect security, as put where there is any risk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The three now drew near the house, Rose actually stepping within its door,
+      though Harry remained on its exterior, in order to watch the proceedings
+      of those in the light-house. Here the Señor Montefalderon entered into a
+      more detailed explanation of what had occurred on board the brig, since
+      the appearance of day, that very morning. According to his account of the
+      matter, Spike had immediately called upon the people to explain the loss
+      of the boat. Tier was not interrogated on this occasion, it being
+      understood he had gone below and turned in, after having the look-out for
+      fully half the night. As no one could, or would, give an account of the
+      manner in which the boat was missing, Josh was ordered to go below and
+      question Jack on the subject. Whether it was from consciousness of his
+      connection with the escape of Jack, and apprehensions of the consequences,
+      or from innate good-nature, and a desire to befriend the lovers, this
+      black now admitted that Jack confessed to him that the boat had got away
+      from him while endeavouring to shift the turns of its painter from a cleet
+      where they ought not to be, to their proper place. This occurred early in
+      Jack's watch, according to Josh's story, and had not been reported, as the
+      boat did not properly belong to the brig, and was an incumbrance rather
+      than an advantage. The mate admired the negro's cunning, as Don Juan
+      related this part of his story, which put him in a situation to throw all
+      the blame on Jack's mendacity in the event of a discovery, while it had
+      the effect to allow the fugitives more time for their escape. The result
+      was, that Spike bestowed a few hearty curses, as usual, on the clumsiness
+      of Jack Tier, and seemed to forget all about the matter. It is probable he
+      connected Jack's abstaining from showing himself on deck, and his alleged
+      indisposition, with his supposed delinquency in this matter of the boat.
+      From that moment the captain appeared to give himself no further concern
+      on the subject, the boat having been, in truth, an incumbrance rather than
+      a benefit, as stated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Rose, her keeping her room, under the circumstances, was so very
+      natural, that the Señor Montefalderon had been completely deceived, as,
+      from his tranquillity on this point, there was no question was the case
+      with Spike also. Biddy appeared on deck, though the widow did not, and the
+      Irish woman shook her head anxiously when questioned about her young
+      mistress, giving the spectators reason to suppose that the latter was in a
+      very bad way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As respects the brig and her movements, Spike had got under way as soon as
+      there was light enough to find his course, and had run through the
+      passage. It is probable that the boat was seen; for something that was
+      taken for a small sail had just been made out for a single instant, and
+      then became lost again. This little sail was made, if made at all, in the
+      direction of the Dry Tortugas, but so completely was all suspicion at rest
+      in the minds of those on the quarter-deck of the Swash, that neither Spike
+      nor the Mexican had the least idea what it was. When the circumstance was
+      reported to the former, he answered that it was probably some small
+      wrecker, of which many were hovering about the reef, and added,
+      laughingly, though in a way to prove how little he thought seriously on
+      the subject at all, &ldquo;who knows but the light-house boat has fallen into
+      their hands, and that they've made sail on <i>her;</i> if they have, my
+      word for it, that she goes, hull, spars, rigging, canvas, and cargo, all
+      in a lump, for salvage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the brig came out of the passage, in broad day, the heads of the
+      schooner's masts were seen, as a matter of course. This induced Spike to
+      heave-to, lower a boat, and to go in person to examine the condition of
+      the wreck. It will be seen that Jack's presence could now be all the
+      better dispensed with. The examination, with the soundings, and other
+      calculations connected with raising the vessel, occupied hours. When they
+      were completed, Spike returned on board, run up his boat, and squared away
+      for the Dry Tortugas. Señor Montefalderon confirmed the justice of Jack
+      Tier's surmises, as to the object of this unexpected visit. The brig had
+      come solely for the chain and anchor mentioned, and having secured them,
+      it was Spike's intention to get under way and beat up to the wreck again
+      as soon as the moon rose. As for the sloop-of-war, he believed she had
+      given him up; for by this time she must know that she had no chance with
+      the brig, so long as the latter kept near the reef, and that she ran the
+      constant hazard of shipwreck, while playing so near the dangers herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before the Señor Montefalderon exhausted all he had to communicate, he was
+      interrupted by Jack Tier with a singular proposition. Jack's great desire
+      was to get on board the Swash; and he now begged the Mexican to let
+      Mulford take the yawl and scull him off to the brig, and return to the
+      islet before Spike and his companions should descend from the lantern of
+      the light-house. The little fellow insisted there was sufficient time for
+      such a purpose, as the three in the lantern had not yet succeeded in
+      filling the lamps with the oil necessary to their burning for a night&mdash;a
+      duty that usually occupied the regular keeper for an hour. Five or six
+      minutes would suffice for him; and if he were seen going up the brig's
+      side, it would be easy for him to maintain that he had come ashore in the
+      boat. No one took such precise note of what was going on; as to be able to
+      contradict him; and as to Spike and the men with him, they would probably
+      never hear anything about it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Don Juan Montefalderon was struck with the boldness of Jack Tier's plan,
+      but refused his assent to it. He deemed it too hazardous, but substituted
+      a project of his own. The moon would not rise until near eleven, and it
+      wanted several hours before the time of sailing. When they returned to the
+      brig, he would procure his cloak, and scull himself ashore, being
+      perfectly used to managing a boat in this way, under the pretence of
+      wishing to pass an hour longer near the grave of his countryman. At the
+      expiration of that hour he would take Jack off, concealed beneath his
+      cloak&mdash;an exploit of no great difficulty in the darkness, especially
+      as no one would be on deck but a hand or two keeping the anchor-watch.
+      With this arrangement, therefore, Jack Tier was obliged to be content.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some fifteen or twenty minutes more passed; during which the Mexican again
+      alluded to his country, and his regrets at her deplorable situation. The
+      battles of the 8th and 9th of May; two combats that ought to, and which
+      will reflect high honour on the little army that won them, as well as on
+      that hardly worked, and in some respects hardly used, service to which
+      they belong, had been just fought. Don Juan mentioned these events without
+      reserve; and frankly admitted that success had fallen to the portion of
+      much the weaker party. He ascribed the victory to the great superiority of
+      the American officers of inferior rank; it being well known that in the
+      service of the &ldquo;Republic of the North,&rdquo; as he termed America, men who had
+      been regularly educated at the military academy, and who had reached the
+      period of middle life, were serving in the stations of captains, and
+      sometimes in that of lieutenants; men who, in many cases, were fitted to
+      command regiments and brigades, having been kept in these lower stations
+      by the tardiness with which promotion comes in an army like that of this
+      country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Don Juan Montefalderon was not sufficiently conversant with the subject,
+      perhaps, else he might have added, that when occasions <i>do</i> offer to
+      bestow on these gentlemen the preferment they have so hardly and patiently
+      earned, they are too often neglected, in order to extend the circle of
+      vulgar political patronage. He did not know that when a new regiment of
+      dragoons was raised, one permanent in its character, and intended to be
+      identified with the army in all future time, that, instead of giving its
+      commissions to those who had fairly earned them by long privations and
+      faithful service, they were given, with one or two exceptions, to
+      strangers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No government trifles more with its army and navy than our own. So
+      niggardly are the master-spirits at Washington of the honours justly
+      earned by military men, that we have fleets still commanded by captains,
+      and armies by officers whose regular duty it would be to command brigades.
+      The world is edified with the sight of forces sufficient, in numbers, and
+      every other military requisite, to make one of Napoleon's <i>corps de
+      armée,</i> led by one whose commission would place him properly at the
+      head of a brigade, and nobly led, too. Here, when so favourable an
+      occasion offers to add a regiment or two to the old permanent line of the
+      army, and thus infuse new life into its hope deferred, the opportunity is
+      overlooked, and the rank and file are to be obtained by cramming, instead
+      of by a generous regard to the interests of the gallant gentlemen who have
+      done so much for the honour of the American name, and, unhappily, so
+      little for themselves. The extra-patriots of the nation, and they form a
+      legion large enough to trample the &ldquo;Halls of the Montezumas&rdquo; under their
+      feet, tell us that the reward of those other patriots beneath the shadows
+      of the Sierra Madre, is to be in the love and approbation of their fellow
+      citizens, at the very moment when they are giving the palpable proof of
+      the value of this esteem, and of the inconstancy of popular applause, by
+      pointing their fingers, on account of an inadvertent expression in a
+      letter, at the gallant soldier who taught, in our own times, the troops of
+      this country to stand up to the best appointed regiments of England, and
+      to carry off victory from the pride of Europe, in fair field-fights. Alas!
+      alas! it is true of nations as well as of men, in their simplest and
+      earliest forms of association, that there are &ldquo;secrets in all families;&rdquo;
+       and it will no more do to dwell on our own, than it would edify us to
+      expose those of poor Mexico.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The discourse between the Señor Montefalderon and Mulford was interesting,
+      as it ever has been when the former spoke of his unfortunate country. On
+      the subject of the battles of May he was candid, and admitted his deep
+      mortification and regrets. He had expected more from the force collected
+      on the Rio Grande, though, understanding the northern character better
+      than most of his countrymen, he had not been as much taken by surprise as
+      the great bulk of his own nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nevertheless, Don Henrique,&rdquo; he concluded, for the voice of Spike was
+      just then heard as he was descending the stairs of the light-house,
+      &ldquo;nevertheless, Don Henrique, there is one thing that your people, brave,
+      energetic, and powerful as I acknowledge them to be, would do well to
+      remember, and it is this&mdash;no nation of the numbers of ours can be, or
+      ever was conquered, unless by the force of political combinations. In a
+      certain state of society a government may be overturned, or a capital
+      taken, and carry a whole country along with it, but our condition is one
+      not likely to bring about such a result. We are of a race different from
+      the Anglo-Saxon, and it will not be easy either to assimilate us to your
+      own, or wholly to subdue us. In those parts of the country, where the
+      population is small, in time, no doubt, the Spanish race might be
+      absorbed, and your sway established; but ages of war would be necessary
+      entirely to obliterate our usages, our language, and our religion from the
+      peopled portions of Mexico.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It might be well for some among us to reflect on these matters. The
+      opinions of Don Juan, in our judgment, being entitled to the consideration
+      of all prudent and considerate men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Spike descended to the door of the light-house, Harry, Rose, and Jack
+      Tier retired within that of the dwelling. Presently the voice of the
+      captain was heard hailing the Mexican, and together they walked to the
+      wharf, the former boasting to the latter of his success in making a
+      brilliant light. Brilliant it was, indeed; so brilliant as to give Mulford
+      many misgivings on the subject of the boat. The light from the lantern
+      fell upon the wharf, and he could see the boat from the window where he
+      stood, with Spike standing nearly over it, waiting for the men to get his
+      own yawl ready. It is true, the captain's back was toward the dangerous
+      object, and the planks of the bridge were partly between him and it; but
+      there was a serious danger that was solely averted by the circumstance
+      that Spike was so earnestly dilating on some subject to Don Juan, as to
+      look only at that gentleman's face. A minute later they were all in the
+      yawl, which pulled rapidly toward the brig.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Don Juan Montefalderon was not long absent. Ten minutes sufficed for the
+      boat to reach the Swash, for him to obtain his cloak, and to return to the
+      islet alone, no one in the vessel feeling a desire to interfere with his
+      imaginary prayers. As for the people, it was not probable that one in the
+      brig could have been induced to accompany him to the graves at that hour;
+      though everybody but Josh had turned-in, as he informed Mulford, to catch
+      short naps previously to the hour of getting the brig under way. As for
+      the steward, he had been placed on the look-out as the greatest idler on
+      board. All this was exceedingly favourable to Jack Tier's project, since
+      Josh was already in the secret of his absence, and would not be likely to
+      betray his return. After a brief consultation, it was agreed to wait half
+      an hour or an hour, in order to let the sleepers lose all consciousness,
+      when Don Juan proposed returning to the vessel with his new companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The thirty or forty minutes that succeeded were passed in general
+      conversation. On this occasion the Señor Montefalderon spoke more freely
+      than he had yet done of recent events. He let it be plainly seen how much
+      he despised Spike, and how irksome to him was the intercourse he was
+      obliged to maintain, and to which he only submitted through a sense of
+      duty. The money known to be in the schooner, was of a larger amount than
+      had been supposed; and every dollar was so important to Mexico, at that
+      moment, that he did not like to abandon it, else, did he declare, that he
+      would quit the brig at once, and share in the fortunes of Harry and Rose.
+      He courteously expressed his best wishes for the happiness of the young
+      couple, and delicately intimated that, under the circumstances, he
+      supposed that they would be united as soon as they could reach a place
+      where the marriage rite could be celebrated. This was said in the most
+      judicious way possible; so delicately as not to wound any one's feelings,
+      and in a way to cause it to resemble the announcement of an expectation,
+      rather than the piece of paternal advice for which it was really intended.
+      Harry was delighted with this suggestion of his Mexican friend&mdash;the
+      most loyal American may still have a sincere friend of Mexican birth and
+      Mexican feelings, too&mdash;since it favoured not only his secret wishes,
+      but his secret expectations also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the appointed moment, Don Juan Montefalderon and Jack Tier took their
+      leave of the two they left behind them. Rose manifested what to Harry
+      seemed a strange reluctance to part with the little steward; but Tier was
+      bent on profiting by this excellent opportunity to get back to the brig.
+      They went, accordingly, and the anxious listeners, who watched the
+      slightest movement of the yawl, from the shore, had reason to believe that
+      Jack was smuggled in without detection. They heard the familiar sound of
+      the oar falling in the boat, and Mulford said that Josh's voice might be
+      distinguished, answering to a call from Don Juan. No noise or clamour was
+      heard, such as Spike would certainly have made, had he detected the
+      deception that had been practised on himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harry and Rose were now alone. The former suggested that the latter should
+      take possession of one of the little bed-rooms that are usually to be
+      found in American dwellings of the dimensions and humble character of the
+      lighthouse abode, while he kept watch until the brig should sail. Until
+      Spike was fairly off, he would not trust himself to sleep; but there was
+      no sufficient reason why Rose should not endeavour to repair the evil of a
+      broken night's rest, like that which had been passed in the boat. With
+      this understanding, then, our heroine took possession of her little
+      apartment, where she threw herself on the bed in her clothes, while
+      Mulford walked out into the air, as the most effective means of helping to
+      keep his eyes open.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now some time past ten, and before eleven the moon would rise. The
+      mate consequently knew that his watch could not be long before Spike would
+      quit the neighbourhood&mdash;a circumstance pregnant with immense relief
+      to him, at least. So long as that unscrupulous, and now nearly desperate,
+      man remained anywhere near Rose, he felt that she could not be safe; and
+      as he paced the sands, on the off, or outer side of the islet, in order to
+      be beyond the influence of the light in the lantern, his eye was scarcely
+      a moment taken away from the Swash, so impatiently and anxiously did he
+      wait for the signs of some movement on board her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon rose, and Mulford heard the well-known raps on the booby-hatch,
+      which precedes the call of &ldquo;all hands,&rdquo; on board a merchant-man. &ldquo;All
+      hands up anchor, ahoy!&rdquo; succeeded, and in less than five minutes the
+      bustle on board the brig announced the fact, that her people were &ldquo;getting
+      the anchor.&rdquo; By this time it had got to be so light that the mate deemed
+      it prudent to return to the house, in order that he might conceal his
+      person within its shadows. Awake Rose he would not, though he knew she
+      would witness the departure of the Swash with a satisfaction little short
+      of his own. He thought he would wait, that when he did speak to her at
+      all, it might be to announce their entire safety. As regarded the aunt,
+      Rose was much relieved on her account, by the knowledge that Jack Tier
+      would not fail to let Mrs. Budd know everything connected with her own
+      situation and prospects. The desertion of Jack, after coming so far with
+      her, had pained our heroine in a way we cannot at present explain; but go
+      he would, probably feeling assured there was no longer any necessity for
+      his continuance with the lovers, in order to prevail on Rose to escape
+      from Spike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Swash was not long in getting her ground-tackle, and the brig was soon
+      seen with her topsail aback, waiting to cat the anchor. This done, the
+      yards swung round, and the topsail filled. It was blowing just a good
+      breeze for such a craft to carry whole sail on a bow-line with, and away
+      the light and active craft started, like the racer that is galloping for
+      daily exercise. Of course there were several passages by which a vessel
+      might quit the group of islets, some being larger, and some smaller, but
+      all having sufficient water for a brigantine of the Molly's draught.
+      Determined not to lose an inch of distance unnecessarily, Spike luffed
+      close up to the wind, making an effort to pass out to windward of the
+      light. In order to do this, however, it became necessary for him to make
+      two short tacks within the haven, which brought him far enough to the
+      southward and eastward to effect his purpose. While this was doing, the
+      mate, who perfectly understood the object of the manoeuvres, passed to the
+      side of the light-house that was opposite to that on which the dwelling
+      was placed, with a view to get a better sight of the vessel as she stood
+      out to sea. In order to do this, however, it was necessary for the young
+      man to pass through a broad bit of moonlight but he trusted for his not
+      being seen, to the active manner in which all hands were employed on board
+      the vessel. It would seem that, in this respect, Mulford trusted without
+      his host, for as the vessel drew near, he perceived that six or eight
+      figures were on the guns of the Swash, or in her rigging, gesticulating
+      eagerly, and seemingly pointing to the very spot where he stood. When the
+      brig got fairly abeam of the light, she would not be a hundred yards
+      distant from it, and fearful to complete the exposure of his person, which
+      he had so inadvertently and unexpectedly commenced, our mate drew up close
+      to the wall of the light-house, against which he sustained himself in a
+      position as immovable as possible. This movement had been seen by a single
+      seaman on board the Swash, and the man happened to be one of those who had
+      landed with Spike only two hours before. His name was Barlow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captain Spike, sir,&rdquo; called out Barlow, who was coiling up rigging on the
+      forecastle, and was consequently obliged to call out so loud as to be
+      heard by all on board, &ldquo;yonder is a man at the foot of the light-house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time, the moon coming out bright through an opening in the clouds,
+      Mulford had become conscious of the risk he ran, and was drawn up, as
+      immovable as the pile itself, against the stones of the light-house. Such
+      an announcement brought everybody to leeward, and every head over the
+      bulwarks. Spike himself sprang into the lee main-chains, where his view
+      was unobstructed, and where Mulford saw and recognised him, even better
+      than he was seen and recognised in his own person. All this time the brig
+      was moving ahead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A man, Barlow!&rdquo; exclaimed Spike, in the way one a little bewildered by an
+      announcement expresses his surprise. &ldquo;A man! that can never be. There is
+      no one at the light-house, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There he stands, sir, with his back to the tower, and his face this way.
+      His dark figure against the white-washed stones is plain enough to be
+      seen. Living, or dead, sir, that is the mate!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Living</i> it cannot be,&rdquo; answered Spike, though he gulped at the
+      words the next moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A general exclamation now showed that everybody recognised the mate, whose
+      figure, stature, dress, and even features, were by this time all tolerably
+      distinct. The fixed attitude, however, the immovable statue-like rigidity
+      of the form, and all the other known circumstances of Harry's case, united
+      to produce a common and simultaneous impression among the superstitious
+      mariners, that what they saw was but the ghostly shadow of one lately
+      departed to the world of spirits. Even Spike was not free from this
+      illusion, and his knees shook beneath him, there where he stood, in the
+      channels of a vessel that he had handled like a top in so many gales and
+      tempests. With him, however, the illusion was neither absolute nor
+      lasting. A second thought told him it could scarcely be so, and then he
+      found his voice. By this time the brig was nearly abreast of where Harry
+      stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You Josh!&rdquo; called out Spike, in a voice of thunder, loud enough to
+      startle even Mrs. Budd and Biddy in their berths.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lor' help us all!&rdquo; answered the negro, &ldquo;what <i>will</i> come next t'ing
+      aboard dis wessel! Here I be, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pass the fowling-piece out of my state-room. Both barrels are loaded with
+      ball; I'll try him, though the bullets <i>are</i> only lead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A common exclamation of dissatisfaction escaped the men, while Josh was
+      obeying the order. &ldquo;It's no use.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You never can hurt one of them things.&rdquo; &ldquo;Something will befall the brig
+      on account of this,&rdquo; and &ldquo;It's the mate's sperit, and sperits can't be
+      harmed by lead or iron,&rdquo; were the sort of remarks made by the seamen,
+      during the short interval between the issuing the order for the
+      fowling-piece and its execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There 't is, Cap'in Spike,&rdquo; said Josh, passing the piece up through the
+      rigging, &ldquo;but 't will no more shoot <i>that</i> thing, than one of our
+      carronades would blow up Gibraltar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time Spike was very determined, his lips being compressed and his
+      teeth set, as he took the gun and cocked it. Then he hailed. As all that
+      passed occurred, as it might be, at once, the brig even at that moment was
+      little more than abreast of the immovable mate, and about eighty yards
+      from him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Light-house, there!&rdquo; cried Spike&mdash;&ldquo;Living or dead, answer or I
+      fire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      No answer came, and no motion appeared in the dark figure that was now
+      very plainly visible, under a bright moon, drawn in high relief against
+      the glittering white of the tower. Spike dropped the muzzle to its aim,
+      and fired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So intense was the attention of all in the Swash, that a wink of Harry's
+      could almost have been seen, had he betrayed even that slight sign of
+      human infirmity at the flash and the report. The ball was flattened
+      against a stone of the building, within a foot of the mate's body; but he
+      did not stir. All depended now on his perfect immovability, as he well
+      knew; and he so far commanded himself, as to remain rigid as if of stone
+      himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There! one can see how it is&mdash;no life in that being,&rdquo; said one. &ldquo;I
+      know'd how it would end,&rdquo; added another. &ldquo;Nothing but silver, and that
+      cast on purpose, will ever lay it,&rdquo; continued a third. But Spike
+      disregarded all. This time he was resolved that his aim should be better,
+      and he was inveterately deliberate in getting it. Just as he pulled the
+      trigger, however, Don Juan Montefalderon touched his elbow, the piece was
+      fired, and there stood the immovable figure as before, fixed against the
+      tower. Spike was turning angrily to chide his Mexican friend for deranging
+      his aim, when the report of an answering musket came back like an echo.
+      Every eye was turned toward the figure, but it moved not. Then the humming
+      sound of an advancing ball was heard, and a bullet passed, whistling
+      hoarsely, through the rigging, and fell some distance to windward. Every
+      head disappeared below the bulwarks. Even Spike was so far astonished as
+      to spring in upon deck, and, for a single instant, not a man was to be
+      seen above the monkey-rail of the brig. Then Spike recovered himself and
+      jumped upon a gun. His first look was toward the light-house, now on the
+      vessel's lee-quarter; but the spot where had so lately been seen the form
+      of Mulford, showed nothing but the glittering brightness of the
+      white-washed stones!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader will not be surprised to learn that all these events produced a
+      strange and deep impression on board the Molly Swash. The few who might
+      have thrown a little light on the matter were discreetly silent, while all
+      that portion of the crew which was in the dark, firmly believed that the
+      spirit of the murdered mate was visiting them, in order to avenge the
+      wrongs inflicted on it in the flesh. The superstition of sailors is as
+      deep as it is general. All those of the Molly, too, were salts of the old
+      school, sea-dogs of a past generation, properly speaking, and mariners who
+      had got their notions in the early part of the century, when the spirit of
+      progress was less active than it is at present.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike himself might have had other misgivings, and believed that he had
+      seen the living form of his intended victim, but for the extraordinary and
+      ghost-like echo of his last discharge. There was nothing visible, or
+      intelligible, from which that fire could have come, and he was perfectly
+      bewildered by the whole occurrence. An intention to round-to, as soon as
+      through the passage, down boat and land, which had been promptly conceived
+      when he found that his first aim had failed, was as suddenly abandoned,
+      and he gave the command to &ldquo;board fore-tack;&rdquo; immediately after, his call
+      was to &ldquo;pack on the brig,&rdquo; and not without a little tremour in his voice,
+      as soon as he perceived that the figure had vanished. The crew was not
+      slow to obey these orders, and in ten minutes, the Swash was a mile from
+      the light, standing to the northward and eastward, under a press of
+      canvas, and with a freshening breeze.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To return to the islets. Harry, from the first, had seen that everything
+      depended on his remaining motionless. As the people of the brig were
+      partly in shadow, he could not, and did not, fully understand how
+      completely he was himself exposed, in consequence of the brightness of all
+      around him, and he had at first hoped to be mistaken for some accidental
+      resemblance to a man. His nerves were well tried by the use of the
+      fowling-piece, but they proved equal to the necessities of the occasion.
+      But, when an answering report came from the rear, or from the opposite
+      side of the islet, he darted round the tower, as much taken by surprise,
+      and overcome by wonder, as any one else who heard it. It was this rapid
+      movement which caused his flight to be unnoticed, all the men of the brig
+      dodging below their own bulwarks at that precise instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the light-house was now between the mate and the brig, he had no longer
+      any motive for trying to conceal himself. His first thought was of Rose,
+      and, strange as it may seem, for some little time he fancied that she had
+      found a musket in the dwelling, and discharged it, in order to aid his
+      escape. The events had passed so swiftly, that there was no time for the
+      cool consideration of anything, and it is not surprising that some
+      extravagances mingled with the first surmises of all these.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On reaching the door of the house, therefore, Harry was by no means
+      surprised at seeing Rose standing in it, gazing at the swiftly receding
+      brigantine. He even looked for the musket, expecting to see it lying at
+      her feet, or leaning against the wall of the building. Rose, however, was
+      entirely unarmed, and as dependent on him for support, as when he had
+      parted from her, an hour or two before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where did you find that musket, Rose, and what have you done with it?&rdquo;
+       inquired Harry, as soon as he had looked in every place he thought likely
+      to hold such an implement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Musket, Harry! I have had no musket, though the report of fire-arms, near
+      by, awoke me from a sweet sleep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this possible! I had imprudently trusted myself on the other side of
+      the light-house, while the moon was behind clouds, and when they broke
+      suddenly away, its light betrayed me to those on board the brig. Spike
+      fired at me twice, without injuring me; when, to my astonishment, an
+      answering report was heard from the islet. What is more, the piece was
+      charged with a ball-cartridge, for I heard the whistling of the bullet as
+      it passed on its way to the brig.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you supposed I had fired that musket?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whom else could I suppose had done it? You are not a very likely person
+      to do such a thing, I will own, my love; but there are none but us two
+      here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be Jack Tier,&rdquo; exclaimed Rose suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is impossible, since he has left us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One never knows. Jack understood how anxious I was to retain him with us,
+      and he is so capricious and full of schemes, that he may have contrived to
+      get out of the brig, as artfully as he got on board her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If Jack Tier be actually on this islet, I shall set him down as little
+      else than a conjuror.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hist!&rdquo; interrupted Rose, &ldquo;what noise is that in the direction of the
+      wharf? It sounds like an oar falling in a boat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford heard that well-known sound, as well as his companion, and,
+      followed by Rose, he passed swiftly through the house, coming out at the
+      front, next the wharf. The moon was still shining bright, and the mystery
+      of the echoing report, and answering shot, was immediately explained. A
+      large boat, one that pulled ten oars, at least, was just coming up to the
+      end of the wharf, and the manner in which its oars were unshipped and
+      tossed, announced to the mate that the crew were man-of-war's men. He
+      walked hastily forward to meet them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three officers first left the boat together. The gold bands of their caps
+      showed that they belonged to the quarter-deck, a fact that the light of
+      the moon made apparent at once, though it was not strong enough to render
+      features distinct. As Mulford continued to advance, however, the three
+      officers saluted him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see you have got the light under way once more,&rdquo; observed the leader of
+      the party. &ldquo;Last night it was as dark as Erebus in your lantern.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The light-house keeper and his assistant have both been drowned,&rdquo;
+       answered Mulford. &ldquo;The lamps have been lit to-night by the people of the
+      brig which has just gone out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray, sir, what brig may that be?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Molly Swash, of New York; a craft that I lately belonged to myself,
+      but which I have left on account of her evil doings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Molly Swash, Stephen Spike master and owner, bound to Key West and a
+      market, with a cargo of eight hundred barrels of flour, and that of a
+      quality so lively and pungent that it explodes like gunpowder! I beg your
+      pardon, Mr. Mate, for not recognising you sooner. Have you forgotten the
+      Poughkeepsie, Captain Mull, and her far-reaching Paixhans?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ought to ask your pardon, Mr. Wallace, for not recognising <i>you</i>
+      sooner, too. But one does not distinguish well by moonlight. I am
+      delighted to see you, sir, and now hope that, with my assistance, a stop
+      can be put to the career of the brig.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, Mr. Mate, do <i>you</i> turn against your craft?&rdquo; said Wallace,
+      under the impulsive feeling which induces all loyal men to have a distaste
+      for treachery of every sort, &ldquo;the seaman should love the very planks of
+      his vessel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fully understand you, Mr. Wallace, and will own that, for a long time,
+      I was tied to rascality by the opinions to which you allude. But, when you
+      come to hear my explanation, I do not fear your judgment in the least.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford now led the way into the house, whither Rose had already
+      retreated, and where she had lighted candles, and made other womanly
+      arrangements for receiving her guests. At Harry's suggestion, some of the
+      soup was placed over coals, to warm up for the party, and our heroine made
+      her preparations to comfort them also with a cup of tea. While she was
+      thus employed, Mulford gave the whole history of his connection with the
+      brig, his indisposition to quit the latter, the full exposure of Spike's
+      treason, his own desertion, if desertion it could be called, the loss of
+      the schooner, and his abandonment on the rock, and the manner in which he
+      had been finally relieved. It was scarcely possible to relate all these
+      matters, and altogether avoid allusions to the schemes of Spike in
+      connection with Rose, and the relation in which our young man himself
+      stood toward her. Although Mulford touched on these points with great
+      delicacy, it was as a seaman talking to seamen, and he could not entirely
+      throw aside the frankness of the profession. Ashore, men live in the
+      privacy of their own domestic circles, and their secrets, and secret
+      thoughts, are &ldquo;family secrets,&rdquo; of which it has passed into a proverb to
+      say, that there are always some, even in the best of these communities. On
+      shipboard, or in the camp, it is very different. The close contact in
+      which men are brought with each other, the necessity that exists for
+      opening the heart and expanding the charities, gets in time to influence
+      the whole character, and a certain degree of frankness and simplicity,
+      takes the place of the reserve and acting that might have been quickened
+      in the same individual, under a different system of schooling. But Mulford
+      was frank by nature, as well as by his sea-education, and his companions
+      on this occasion were pretty well possessed of all his wishes and plans,
+      in reference to Rose, even to his hope of falling in with the chaplain of
+      the Poughkeepsie, by the time his story was all told. The fact that Rose
+      was occupied in another room, most of the time, had made these
+      explanations all the easier, and spared her many a blush. As for the
+      man-of-war's men, they listened to the tale, with manly interest and a
+      generous sympathy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad to hear your explanation, Mr. Mate,&rdquo; said Wallace, cordially,
+      as soon as Harry had done, &ldquo;and there's my hand, in proof that I approve
+      of your course. I own to a radical dislike of a turncoat, or a traitor to
+      his craft, Brother Hollins&rdquo;&mdash;looking at the elder of his two
+      companions, one of whom was the midshipman who had originally accompanied
+      him on board the Swash&mdash;&ldquo;and am glad to find that our friend Mulford
+      here is neither. A true-hearted sailor can be excused for deserting even
+      his own ship, under such circumstances.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad to hear even this little concession from you, Wallace,&rdquo;
+       answered Hollins, good-naturedly, and speaking with a mild expression of
+      benevolence, on a very calm and thoughtful countenance. &ldquo;Your mess is as
+      heteredox as any I ever sailed with, on the subject of our duties, in this
+      respect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hold it to be a sailor's duty to stick by his ship, reverend and dear
+      sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This mode of address, which was used by the &ldquo;ship's gentleman&rdquo; in the cant
+      of the ward-room, as a pleasantry of an old shipmate, for the two had long
+      sailed together in other vessels, at once announced to Harry that he saw
+      the very chaplain for whose presence he had been so anxiously wishing. The
+      &ldquo;reverend and dear sir&rdquo; smiled at the sally of his friend, a sort of thing
+      to which he was very well accustomed, but he answered with a gravity and
+      point that, it is to be presumed, he thought befitting his holy office.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be well to remark here, that the Rev. Mr. Hollins was not one of
+      the &ldquo;lunch'd chaplains,&rdquo; that used to do discredit to the navy of this
+      country, or a layman dubbed with such a title, and rated that he might get
+      the pay and become a boon companion of the captain, at the table and in
+      his frolics ashore. Those days are gone by, and ministers of the gospel
+      are now really employed to care for the souls of the poor sailors, who so
+      long have been treated by others, and have treated themselves, indeed, as
+      if they were beings without souls, altogether. In these particulars, the
+      world has certainly advanced, though the wise and the good, in looking
+      around them, may feel more cause for astonishment in contemplating what it
+      once was, than to rejoice in what it actually is. But intellect has
+      certainly improved in the aggregate, if not in its especial dispensations,
+      and men will not now submit to abuses that, within the recollections of a
+      generation, they even cherished. In reference to the more intellectual
+      appointments of a ship of war, the commander excepted, for we contend he
+      who directs all, ought to possess the most capacity, but, in reference to
+      what are ordinarily believed to be the more intellectual appointments of a
+      vessel of war, the surgeon and the chaplain, we well recollect opinions
+      that were expressed to us, many years since, by two officers of the
+      highest rank known to the service. &ldquo;When I first entered the navy,&rdquo; said
+      one of these old Benbows, &ldquo;if I had occasion for the amputation of a leg,
+      and the question lay between the carpenter and the doctor, d&mdash;e, but
+      I would have tried the carpenter first, for I felt pretty certain he would
+      have been the most likely to get through with the job.&rdquo; &ldquo;In old times,&rdquo;
+       said the other, &ldquo;when a chaplain joined a ship, the question immediately
+      arose, whether the mess were to convert the chaplain, or the chaplain, the
+      mess; and the mess generally got the best of it.&rdquo; There was very little
+      exaggeration in either of these opinions. But, happily, all this is
+      changed vastly for the better, and a navy-surgeon is necessarily a man of
+      education and experience; in very many instances, men of high talents are
+      to be found among them; while chaplains can do something better than play
+      at backgammon, eat terrapins, when in what may be called terra-pin-ports,
+      and drink brandy and water, or pure Bob Smith.(1)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a great mistake, Wallace, to fancy that the highest duty a man
+      owes, is either to his ship or to his country,&rdquo; observed the Rey. Mr.
+      Hollins, quietly. &ldquo;The highest duty of each and all of us, is to God; and
+      whatever conflicts with that duty, must be avoided as a transgression of
+      his laws, and consequently as sin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You surprise me, reverend and dear sir! I do not remember ever to have
+      heard you broach such opinions before, which might be interpreted to mean
+      that a fellow might be disloyal to his flag.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because the opinion might be liable to misinterpretation. Still, I do not
+      go as far as many of my friends on this subject. If Decatur ever really
+      said, 'Our country, right or wrong,' he said what might be just enough,
+      and creditable enough, in certain cases, and taken with the fair
+      limitations that he probably intended should accompany the sentiment; but,
+      if he meant it as an absolute and controlling principle, it was not
+      possible to be more in error. In this last sense, such a rule of conduct
+      might, and in old times often would, have justified idolatry; nay, it <i>is</i>
+      a species of idolatry in itself, since it is putting country before God.
+      Sailors may not always be able to make the just distinctions in these
+      cases, but the quarter-deck should be so, irreverend and dear sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Wallace laughed, and then he turned the discourse to the subject more
+      properly before them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand you to say, Mr. Mulford,&rdquo; he remarked, &ldquo;that, in your
+      opinion, the Swash has gone to try to raise the unfortunate Mexican
+      schooner, a second time, from the depths of the ocean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From the rock on which she lies. Under the circumstances, I hardly think
+      he would have come hither for the chain and cable, unless with some such
+      object. We know, moreover, that such <i>was</i> his intention when we left
+      the brig.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you can take us to the very spot where that wreck lies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Without any difficulty. Her masts are partly out of water, and we hung on
+      to them, in our boat, no later than last night, or this morning rather.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So far, well. Your conduct in all this affair will be duly appreciated,
+      and Captain Mull will not fail to represent it in a right point of view to
+      the government.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is the ship, sir? I looked for her most anxiously, without success,
+      last evening; nor had Jack Tier, the little fellow I have named to you,
+      any better luck; though I sent him aloft, as high as the lantern in the
+      light-house, for that purpose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The ship is off here to the northward and westward, some six leagues or
+      so. At sunset she may have been a little further. We have supposed that
+      the Swash would be coming back hither, and had laid a trap for her, which
+      came very near taking her alive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the trap you mean, sir&mdash;though taking Stephen Spike alive,
+      is sooner said than done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our plan has been to catch him with our boats. With the greater draft of
+      water of the Poughkeepsie, and the heels of your brig, sir, a regular
+      chase about these reefs, as we knew from experience, would be almost
+      hopeless. It was, therefore, necessary to use head-work, and some
+      man-of-war traverses, in order to lay hold of him. Yesterday afternoon we
+      hoisted out three cutters, manned them, and made sail in them all, under
+      our luggs, working up against the trades. Each boat took its own course,
+      one going off, the west end of the reef, one going more to the eastward,
+      while I came this way, to look in at the Dry Tortugas. Spike will be lucky
+      if he do not fall in with our third cutter, which is under the fourth
+      lieutenant, should he stand on far on the same tack as that on which he
+      left this place. Let him try his fortune, however. As for our boat, as
+      soon as I saw the lamps burning in the lantern, I made the best of my way
+      hither, and got sight of the brig, just as she loosened her sails. Then I
+      took in my own luggs, and came on with the oars. Had we continued under
+      our canvas, with this breeze, I almost think we might have overhauled the
+      rascal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would have been impossible, sir. The moment he got a sight of your
+      sails, he would have been off in a contrary direction, and that brig
+      really seems to fly, whenever there is a pressing occasion for her to
+      move. You did the wisest thing you could have done, and barely missed him,
+      as it was. He has not seen you at all, as it is, and will be all the less
+      on his guard, against the next visit from the ship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not seen me! Why, sir, the fellow fired at us <i>t</i>wice with a musket;
+      why he did not use a carronade, is more than I can tell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Excuse me, Mr. Wallace; those two shots were intended for me, though I
+      now fully comprehend why you answered them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Answered them! yes, indeed; who would not answer such a salute, and gun
+      for gun, if he had a chance. I certainly thought he was firing at us, and
+      having a musket between my legs, I let fly in return, and even the
+      chaplain here will allow that was returning 'good for evil.' But explain
+      your meaning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford now went into the details of the incidents connected with his
+      coming into the moon-light, at the foot of the light-house. That he was
+      not mistaken as to the party for whom the shots were intended, was plain
+      enough to him, from the words that passed aloud among the people of the
+      Swash, as well as from the circumstance that both balls struck the stones
+      of the tower quite near him. This statement explained everything to
+      Wallace, who now fully comprehended the cause and motive of each incident.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now near eleven, and Rose had prepared the table for supper. The
+      gentlemen of the Poughkeepsie manifested great interest in the movements
+      of the Hebe-like little attendant who was caring for their wants. When the
+      cloth was to be laid, the midshipman offered his assistance, but his
+      superior directed him to send a hand or two up from the wharf, where the
+      crew of the cutter were lounging or sleeping after their cruise. These men
+      had been thought of, too; and a vessel filled with smoking soup was taken
+      to them, by one of their own number.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The supper was as cheerful as it was excellent. The dry humour of Wallace,
+      the mild intelligence of the chaplain, the good sense of Harry, and the
+      spirited information of Rose, contributed, each in its particular way, to
+      make the meal memorable in more senses than one. The laugh came easily at
+      that table, and it was twelve o'clock, before the party thought of
+      breaking up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dispositions for the night were soon made. Rose returned to her little
+      room, where she could now sleep in comfort, and without apprehension. The
+      gentlemen made the disposition of their persons, that circumstances
+      allowed; each finding something on which to repose, that was preferable to
+      a plank. As for the men, they were accustomed to hard fare, and enjoyed
+      their present good-luck, to the top of their bent. It was quite late,
+      before they had done &ldquo;spinning their yarns,&rdquo; and &ldquo;cracking their jokes,&rdquo;
+       around the pot of turtle-soup, and the can of grog that succeeded it. By
+      half-past twelve, however, everybody was asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford was the first person afoot the following morning. He left the
+      house just as the sun rose, and perceiving that the &ldquo;coast was clear&rdquo; of
+      sharks, he threw off his light attire, and plunged into the sea. Refreshed
+      with this indulgence, he was returning toward the building, when he met
+      the chaplain coming in quest of him. This gentleman, a man of real piety,
+      and of great discretion, had been singularly struck, on the preceding
+      night, with the narrative of our young mate; and he had not failed to note
+      the allusions, slight as they were, and delicately put as they had been,
+      to himself. He saw, at once, the propriety of marrying a couple so
+      situated, and now sought Harry, with a view to bring about so desirable an
+      event, by intimating his entire willingness to officiate. It is scarcely
+      necessary to say that very few words were wanting, to persuade the young
+      man to fall into his views; and as to Rose, he had handed her a short note
+      on the same subject, which he was of opinion, would be likely to bring her
+      to the same way of thinking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour later, all the officers, Harry and Rose, were assembled in what
+      might be termed the light-house parlour. The Rev. Mr. Hollins had neither
+      band, gown, nor surplice; but he had what was far better, feeling and
+      piety. Without a prayer-book he never moved; and he read the marriage
+      ceremony with a solemnity that was communicated to all present. The ring
+      was that which had been used at the marriage of Rose's parents, and which
+      she wore habitually, though not on the left hand. In a word, Harry and
+      Rose were as firmly and legally united, on that solitary and almost
+      unknown islet, as could have been the case, had they stood up before the
+      altar of mother Trinity itself, with a bishop to officiate, and a legion
+      of attendants. After the compliments which succeeded the ceremony, the
+      whole party sat down to breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the supper had been agreeable, the morning meal was not less so. Rose
+      was timid and blushing, as became a bride, though she could not but feel
+      how much more respectable her position became under the protection of
+      Harry as his wife, than it had been while she was only his betrothed. The
+      most delicate deportment, on the part of her companions, soon relieved her
+      embarrassment however, and the breakfast passed off without cause for an
+      unhappy moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The ship's standing in toward the light, sir,&rdquo; reported the cockswain of
+      the cutter, as the party was still lingering around the table, as if
+      unwilling to bring so pleasant a meal to a close. &ldquo;Since the mist has
+      broke away, we see her, sir, even to her ports and dead-eyes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In that case, Sam, she can't be very far off,&rdquo; answered Wallace. &ldquo;Ay,
+      there goes a gun from her, at this moment, as much as to say, 'what has
+      become of all of my boats?' Run down and let off a musket; perhaps she
+      will make out to hear that, as we must be rather to windward, if
+      anything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The signal was given and understood. A quarter of an hour later, the
+      Poughkeepsie began to shorten sail. Then Wallace stationed himself in the
+      cutter, in the centre of one of the passages, signalling the ship to come
+      on. Ten minutes later still, the noble craft came into the haven, passing
+      the still burning light, with her topsails just lifting, and making a
+      graceful sweep under very reduced sail, she came to the wind, very near
+      the spot where the Swash had lain only ten hours before, and dropped an
+      anchor.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     (1) In the palmy days of the service, when Robert Smith was
+     so long Secretary of the Navy, the ship's whisky went by
+     this familiar <i>sobriquet</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  The gull has found her place on shore;
+  The sun gone down again to rest;
+  And all is still but ocean's roar;
+  There stands the man unbless'd.
+  But see, he moves&mdash;he turns, as asking where
+  His mates? Why looks he with that piteous stare?
+
+  Dana.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Superstition would seem to be a consequence of a state of being, in which
+      so much is shadowed forth, while so little is accurately known. Our
+      far-reaching thoughts range over the vast fields of created things,
+      without penetrating to the secret cause of the existence of even a blade
+      of grass. We can analyze all substances that are brought into our
+      crucibles, tell their combinations and tendencies, give a scientific
+      history of their formation, so far as it is connected with secondary
+      facts, their properties, and their uses; but in each and all, there is a
+      latent natural cause, that baffles all our inquiries, and tells us that we
+      are merely men. This is just as true in morals, as in physics&mdash;no man
+      living being equal to attaining the very faith that is necessary to his
+      salvation, without the special aid of the spirit of the godhead; and even
+      with that mighty support, trusting implicitly for all that is connected
+      with a future that we are taught to believe is eternal, to &ldquo;the substance
+      of things <i>hoped</i> for, and the evidence of things <i>unseen</i>.&rdquo; In
+      a word, this earthly probation of ours, was intended for finite beings, in
+      the sense of our present existence, leaving far more to be conjectured,
+      than is understood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ignorance and superstition ever bear a close, and even a mathematical
+      relation to each other. The degrees of the one, are regulated by the
+      degrees of the other. He who knows the least believes the most; while he
+      who has seen the most, without the intelligence to comprehend that which
+      he has seen, feels, perhaps, the strongest inclination to refer those
+      things which to him are mysteries, to the supernatural and marvellous.
+      Sailors have been, from time immemorial, more disposed than men of their
+      class on the land, to indulge in this weakness, which is probably
+      heightened by the circumstance of their living constantly and vividly in
+      the presence of powers that menace equally their lives and their means,
+      without being in any manner subject to their control.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike, for a seaman of his degree of education, was not particularly
+      addicted to the weakness to which we have just alluded. Nevertheless, he
+      was not altogether free from it; and recent circumstances contributed to
+      dispose him so much the more to admit a feeling which, like sin itself, is
+      ever the most apt to insinuate itself at moments of extraordinary moral
+      imbecility, and through the openings left by previous transgression. As
+      his brig stood off from the light, the captain paced the deck, greatly
+      disturbed by what had just passed, and unable to account for it. The boat
+      of the Poughkeepsie was entirely concealed by the islet, and there
+      existing no obvious motive for wishing to return, in order to come at the
+      truth, not a thought to that effect, for one moment, crossed the mind of
+      the smuggler. So far from this, indeed, were his wishes, that the Molly
+      did not seem to him to go half as fast as usual, in his keen desire to get
+      further and further from a spot where such strange incidents had occurred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for the men forward, no argument was wanting to make <i>them</i>
+      believe that something supernatural had just passed before their eyes. It
+      was known to them all, that Mulford had been left on a naked rock, some
+      thirty miles from that spot; and it was not easy to understand how he
+      could now be at the Dry Tortugas, planted, as it might be, on purpose to
+      show himself to the brig, against the tower, in the bright moonlight,
+      &ldquo;like a pictur' hung up for his old shipmates to look at.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sombre were the tales that were related that night among them, many of
+      which related to the sufferings of men abandoned on desert islands; and
+      all of which bordered, more or less, on the supernatural. The crew
+      connected the disappearance of the boat with Mulford's apparition, though
+      the logical inference would have been, that the body which required planks
+      to transport it, could scarcely be classed with anything of the world of
+      spirits. The links in arguments, however, are seldom respected by the
+      illiterate and vulgar, who jump to their conclusions, in cases of the
+      marvellous, much as politicians find an expression of the common mind in
+      the prepared opinions of the few who speak for them, totally disregarding
+      the dissenting silence of the million. While the men were first comparing
+      their opinions on that which, to them, seemed to be so extraordinary, the
+      Señor Montefalderon joined the captain in his walk, and dropped into a
+      discourse touching the events which had attended their departure from the
+      haven of the Dry Tortugas. In this conversation, Don Juan most admirably
+      preserved his countenance, as well as his self-command, effectually
+      preventing the suspicion of any knowledge on his part, that was not common
+      to them both.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You did leave the port with the salutes observed,&rdquo; the Mexican commenced,
+      with the slightest accent of a foreigner, or just enough to show that he
+      was not speaking in his mother tongue; &ldquo;salutes paid and returned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you call that saluting, Don Wan? To me, that infernal shot sounded
+      more like an echo, than anything else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And to what do <i>you</i> ascribe it, Don Esteban?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish I could answer that question. Sometimes I begin to wish I had not
+      left my mate on that naked rock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is still time to repair the last wrong; we shall go within a few
+      miles of the place where the Señor Enrique was left; and I can take the
+      yawl, with two men, and go in search of him, while you are at work on the
+      wreck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you believe it possible that he can be still there?&rdquo; demanded Spike,
+      looking suddenly and intently at his companion, while his mind was
+      strangely agitated between hatred and dread. &ldquo;If he is there, who and what
+      was <i>he</i> that we all saw so plainly at the foot of the light-house?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How should he have left the rock? He was without food or water; and no
+      man, in all his vigour, could swim this distance. I see no means of his
+      getting here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unless some wrecker, or turtler, fell in with him, and took him off. Ay,
+      ay, Don Wan; I left him that much of a chance, at least. No man can say I
+      <i>murdered</i> my mate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not aware, Don Esteban, that any one <i>has</i> said so hard a thing
+      of you. Still, we have seen neither wrecker nor turtler since we have been
+      here; and that lessens the excellent chance you left Don Enrique.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no occasion, señor, to be so particular,&rdquo; growled Spike, a
+      little sullenly, in reply. &ldquo;The chance, I say, was a <i>good</i> one, when
+      you consider how many of them devils of wreckers hang about these reefs.
+      Let this brig only get fast on a rock, and they would turn up, like
+      sharks, all around us, each with his maw open for salvage. But this is
+      neither here nor there; what puzzles me, was what we saw at the light,
+      half an hour since, and the musket that was fired back at us! I <i>know</i>
+      that the figure at the foot of the tower did not fire, for my eye was on
+      him from first to last; and he had no arms. You were on the island a good
+      bit, and must have known if the light-house keeper was there or not, Don
+      Wan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The light-house keeper <i>was</i> there, Don Esteban&mdash;but he was in
+      his <i>grave</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, one, I know, was drowned, and buried with the rest of them; there
+      might, however, have been more than one. You saw none of the people that
+      had gone to Key West, in or about the house, Don Wan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None. If any persons have left the Tortugas to go to Key West, within a
+      few days, not one of them has yet returned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I supposed. No, it can be none of <i>them</i>. Then I saw his face as
+      plainly as ever I saw it by moon-light, from aft, for'ard. What is your
+      opinion about seeing the dead walk on the 'arth, Don Wan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I have never seen any such thing myself, Don Esteban, and
+      consequently know nothing about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I supposed; I find it hard to believe it, I do. It may be a warning to
+      keep us from-coming any more to the Dry Tortugas; and I must say I have
+      little heart for returning to this place, after all that has fell out
+      here. We can go to the wreck, fish up the doubloons, and be off for
+      Yucatan. Once in one of your ports, I make no question that the merits of
+      the Molly will make themselves understood, and that we shall soon agree on
+      a price.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What use could we put the brig to, Don Esteban, if we had her all ready
+      for sea?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a strange question to ask in time of war! Give <i>me</i> such a
+      craft as the Molly, with sixty or eighty men on board her, in a war like
+      this, and her 'arnin's should not fall short of half a million within a
+      twelvemonth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could we engage you to take charge of her, Don Esteban?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would be ticklish work, Don Wan. But we can see. No one knows what
+      he will do until he is tried. In for a penny, in for a pound. A fellow
+      never knows! Ha! ha! ha! Don Wan, we live in a strange world&mdash;yes, in
+      a strange world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We live in strange <i>times,</i> Don Esteban, as the situation of my poor
+      country proves. But let us talk this matter over a little more in
+      confidence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And they did thus discuss the subject. It was a singular spectacle to see
+      an honourable man, one full of zeal of the purest nature in behalf of his
+      own country, sounding a traitor as to the terms on which he might be
+      induced to do all the harm he could, to those who claimed his allegiance.
+      Such sights, however, are often seen; our own especial objects too
+      frequently blinding us to the obligations that we owe morality, so far as
+      not to be instrumental in effecting even what we conceive to be good, by
+      questionable agencies. But the Señor Montefalderon kept in view,
+      principally, his desire to be useful to Mexico, blended a little too
+      strongly, perhaps, with the wishes of a man who was born near the sun, to
+      avenge his wrongs, real or fancied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While this dialogue was going on between Spike and his passenger, as they
+      paced the quarter-deck, one quite as characteristic occurred in the
+      galley, within twenty feet of them&mdash;Simon, the cook, and Josh, the
+      steward, being the interlocutors. As they talked secrets, they conferred
+      together with closed doors, though few were ever disposed to encounter the
+      smoke, grease, and fumes of their narrow domains, unless called thither by
+      hunger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What <i>you</i> t'ink of dis matter Josh?&rdquo; demanded Simon, whose skull
+      having the well-known density of his race, did not let internal ideas out,
+      or external ideas in as readily as most men's. &ldquo;Our young mate <i>was</i>
+      at de light-house beyond all controwersy; and how can he be den on dat
+      rock over yonder, too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat is imposserbul,&rdquo; answered Josh; &ldquo;derefore I says it is n't true. I
+      surposes you know dat what is imposserbul is n't true, Simon. Nobody can't
+      be out yonder and down here at de same time. Dat is imposserble, Simon.
+      But what I wants to intermate to you, will explain all dis difficulty; and
+      it do show de raal super'ority of a coloured man over de white
+      poperlation. Now, you mark my words, cook, and be full of admiration! Jack
+      Tier came back along wid de Mexican gentle'em, in my anchor-watch, dis
+      very night! You see, in de first place, ebbery t'ing come to pass in
+      nigger's watch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the two dark-skinned worthies haw-haw'd to their heart's content;
+      laughing very much as a magistrate or a minister of the gospel might be
+      fancied to laugh, the first time he saw a clown at a circus. The merriment
+      of a negro will have its course, in spite of ghosts, or of anything else;
+      and neither the cook nor the steward dreamed of putting in another
+      syllable, until their laugh was fairly and duly ended. Then the cook made
+      his remarks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How Jack Tier comin' back explain der differculty, Josh?&rdquo; asked Simon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did n't Jack go away wid Miss Rose and de mate, in de boat dat got
+      adrift, you know, in Jack's watch on deck?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the negroes laughed again, their imaginations happening to picture to
+      each, at the same instant, the mystification about the boat; Biddy having
+      told Josh in confidence, the manner in which the party had returned to the
+      brig, while he and Simon were asleep; which fact the steward had already
+      communicated to the cook. To these two beings, of an order in nature
+      different from all around them, and of a simplicity and of habits that
+      scarce placed them on a level with the intelligence of the humblest white
+      man, all these circumstances had a sort of mysterious connection, out of
+      which peeped much the most conspicuously to their faculties, the absurdity
+      of the captain's imagining that a boat had got adrift, which had, in
+      truth, been taken away by human hands. Accordingly, they laughed it out;
+      and when they had done laughing, they returned again to the matter before
+      them with renewed interest in the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, how all dat explain dis differculty?&rdquo; repeated Simon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In dis wery manner, cook,&rdquo; returned the steward, with a little dignity in
+      his manner. &ldquo;Ebbery t'ing depend on understandin', I s'pose you know. If
+      Mr. Mulford got taken off dat rock by Miss Rose and Jack Tier, wid de
+      boat, and den dey comes here altogedder; and den Jack Tier, he get on
+      board and tell Biddy all dis matter, and den Biddy tell Josh, and den Josh
+      tell de cook&mdash;what for you surprise, you black debbil, one bit?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat all!&rdquo; exclaimed Simon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat just all&mdash;dat ebbery bit of it, do n't I say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here Simon burst into such a fit of loud laughter, that it induced Spike
+      himself to shove aside the galley-door, and thrust his own frowning visage
+      into the dark hole within, to inquire the cause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the meaning of this uproar?&rdquo; demanded the captain, all the more
+      excited because he felt that things had reached a pass that would not
+      permit him to laugh himself. &ldquo;Do you fancy yourself on the Hook, or at the
+      Five Points?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Hook and the Five Points are two pieces of tabooed territory within
+      the limits of the good town of Manhattan, that are getting to be renowned
+      for their rascality and orgies. They probably want nothing but the
+      proclamation of a governor in vindication of their principles, annexed to
+      a pardon of some of their unfortunate children, to render both classical.
+      If we continue to make much further progress in political logic, and in
+      the same direction as that in which we have already proceeded so far,
+      neither will probably long be in want of this illustration. Votes can be
+      given by the virtuous citizens of both these purlieus, as well as by the
+      virtuous citizens of the anti-rent districts, and votes contain the
+      essence of all such principles, as well as of their glorification.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you fancy yourselves on the Hook, or at the Five Points?&rdquo; demanded
+      Spike, angrily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lor', no sir!&rdquo; answered Simon, laughing at each pause with all his heart.
+      &ldquo;Only laughs a little at <i>ghost</i>&mdash;dat all, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Laugh at ghost! Is that a subject to laugh at? Have a care, you black
+      rascal, or he will visit you in your galley here, when you will least want
+      to see him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No care much for <i>him,</i> sir,&rdquo; returned Simon, laughing away as hard
+      as ever. &ldquo;<i>Sich</i> a ghost ought n't to skear little baby.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Such</i> a ghost? And what do you know of <i>this</i> ghost more than
+      any other?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I seed him, Cap'in Spike; and what a body sees, he is acquainted
+      wid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You saw an image that looked as much like Mr. Mulford, my late mate, as
+      one timber-head in this brig is like another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir, he like enough&mdash;must say <i>dat</i>&mdash;so wery like,
+      could n't see any difference.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Simon concluded this remark, he burst out into another fit of laughter,
+      in which Josh joined him, heart and soul, as it might be. The uninitiated
+      reader is not to imagine the laughter of those blacks to be very noisy, or
+      to be raised on a sharp, high key. They <i>could</i> make the welkin ring,
+      in sudden bursts of merriment, on occasion; but, at a time like this, they
+      rather caused their diversion to be developed by sounds that came from the
+      depths of their chests. A gleam of suspicion that these blacks were
+      acquainted with some fact that it might be well for him to know, shot
+      across the mind of Spike; but he was turned from further inquiry by a
+      remark of Don Juan, who intimated that the mirth of such persons never had
+      much meaning to it, expressing at the same time a desire to pursue the
+      more important subject in which they were engaged. Admonishing the blacks
+      to be more guarded in their manifestations of merriment, the captain
+      closed the door on them, and resumed his walk up and down the
+      quarter-deck. As soon as left to themselves, the blacks broke out afresh,
+      though in a way so guarded, as to confine their mirth to the galley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cap'in Spike t'ink <i>dat</i> a ghost!&rdquo; exclaimed Simon, with contempt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Guess if he see <i>raal</i> ghost, he find 'e difference,&rdquo; answered Josh.
+      &ldquo;One look at raal sperit wort' two at dis object.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Simon's eyes now opened like two saucers, and they gleamed, by the light
+      of the lamp they had, like dark balls of condensed curiosity, blended with
+      awe, on his companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You ebber see him, Josh?&rdquo; he asked, glancing over each shoulder
+      hurriedly, as it might be, to make sure that he could not see &ldquo;him,&rdquo; too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How you t'ink I get so far down the wale of life, Simon, and nebber see
+      sich a t'ing? I seed t'ree of the crew of the 'Maria Sheffington,' that
+      was drowned by deir boat's cap-sizin', when we lay at Gibraltar, jest as
+      plain as I see you now. Then&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But it is unnecessary to repeat Josh's experiences in this way, with which
+      he continued to entertain and terrify Simon for the next half-hour. This
+      is just the difference between ignorance and knowledge. While Spike
+      himself, and every man in his brig who belonged forward, had strong
+      misgivings as to the earthly character of the figure they had seen at the
+      foot of the light-house, these negroes laughed at their delusion, because
+      they happened to be in the secret of Mulford's escape from the rock, and
+      of that of his actual presence at the Tortugas. When, however, the same
+      superstitious feeling was brought to bear on circumstances that lay <i>without</i>
+      the sphere of their exact information, they became just as dependent and
+      helpless as all around them; more so, indeed, inasmuch as their previous
+      habits and opinions disposed them to a more profound credulity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was midnight before any of the crew of the Swash sought their rest that
+      night. The captain had to remind them that a day of extraordinary toil was
+      before them, ere he could get one even to quit the deck; and when they did
+      go below, it was to continue to discuss the subject of what they had seen
+      at the Dry Tortugas. It appeared to be the prevalent opinion among the
+      people, that the late event foreboded evil to the Swash, and long as most
+      of these men had served in the brig, and much as they had become attached
+      to her, had she gone into port that night, nearly every man forward would
+      have run before morning. But fatigue and wonder, at length, produced their
+      effect, and the vessel was silent as was usual at that hour. Spike himself
+      lay down in his clothes, as he had done ever since Mulford had left him;
+      and the brig continued to toss the spray from her bows, as she bore
+      gallantly up against the trades, working her way to windward. The light
+      was found to be of great service, as it indicated the position of the
+      reef, though it gradually sunk in the western horizon, until near morning
+      it fell entirely below it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this hour Spike appeared on deck again, where, for the first time since
+      their interview on the morning of Harry's and Rose's escape, he laid his
+      eyes on Jack Tier. The little dumpling-looking fellow was standing in the
+      waist, with his arms folded sailor-fashion, as composedly as if nothing
+      had occurred to render his meeting with the captain any way of a doubtful
+      character. Spike approached near the person of the steward, whom he
+      surveyed from head to foot, with a sort of contemptuous superiority, ere
+      he spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So, Master Tier,&rdquo; at length the captain commenced, &ldquo;you have deigned to
+      turn out at last, have you? I hope the day's duty you've forgotten, will
+      help to pay for the light-house boat, that I understand you've lost for
+      me, also.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What signifies a great clumsy boat that the brig could n't hoist in nor
+      tow,&rdquo; answered Jack, coolly, turning short round at the same time, but not
+      condescending to &ldquo;uncoil&rdquo; his arms as he did so, a mark of indifference
+      that would probably have helped to mystify the captain, had he even
+      actually suspected that anything was wrong beyond the supposed accident to
+      the boat in question. &ldquo;If you had had the boat astarn, Captain Spike, an
+      order would have been given to cut it adrift the first time the brig made
+      sail on the wind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nobody knows, Jack; that boat would have been very useful to us while at
+      work about the wreck. You never even turned out this morning to let me
+      know where that craft lay, as you promised to do, but left us to find it
+      out by our wits.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was no occasion for my tellin' you anything about it, sir, when the
+      mast-heads was to be seen above water. As soon as I heard that them 'ere
+      mast-heads was out of water, I turned over and went to sleep upon it. A
+      man can't be on the doctor's list and on duty at the same time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike looked hard at the little steward, but he made no further allusion
+      to his being off duty, or to his failing to stand pilot to the brig as she
+      came through the passage in quest of the schooner's remains. The fact was,
+      that he had discovered the mast-heads himself, just as he was on the point
+      of ordering Jack to be called, having allowed him to remain in his berth
+      to the last moment after his watch, according to a species of implied
+      faith that is seldom disregarded among seamen. Once busied on the wreck,
+      Jack was forgotten, having little to do in common with any one on board,
+      but that which the captain termed the &ldquo;women's mess.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come aft, Jack,&rdquo; resumed Spike, after a considerable pause, during the
+      whole of which he had stood regarding the little steward as if studying
+      his person, and through that his character. &ldquo;Come aft to the trunk; I wish
+      to catechise you a bit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Catechise!&rdquo; repeated Tier, in an under tone, as he followed the captain
+      to the place mentioned. &ldquo;It's a long time since I've done anything at <i>that!</i>&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, come hither,&rdquo; resumed Spike, seating himself at his ease on the
+      trunk, while Jack stood near by, his arms still folded, and his rotund
+      little form as immovable, under the plunges that the lively brig made into
+      the head-seas that she was obliged to meet, as if a timber-head in the
+      vessel itself. &ldquo;You keep your sea-legs well, Jack, short as they are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No wonder for that, Captain Spike; for the last twenty years I've scarce
+      passed a twelvemonth ashore; and what I did before that, no one can better
+      tell than yourself, since we was ten good years shipmates.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you say, Jack, though I do not remember <i>you</i> as well as you seem
+      to remember <i>me</i>. Do you not make the time too long?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a day, sir. Ten good and happy years did we sail together, Captain
+      Spike; and all that time in this very&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush&mdash;h-u-s-h, man, hush! There is no need of telling the Molly's
+      age to everybody. I may wish to sell her some day, and then her great
+      experience will be no recommendation. You should recollect that the Molly
+      is a female, and the ladies do not like to hear of their ages after
+      five-and-twenty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack made no answer, but he dropped his arms to their natural position,
+      seeming to wait the captain's communication, first referring to his
+      tobacco-box and taking a fresh quid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you was with me in the brig, Jack, at the time you mention,&rdquo; continued
+      Spike, after another long and thoughtful pause, &ldquo;you must remember many
+      little things that I do n't wish to have known; especially while Mrs. Budd
+      and her handsome niece is aboard here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand you, Captain Spike. The ladies shall l'arn no more from me
+      than they know already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank 'e for that Jack&mdash;thank 'e with all my heart Shipmates of our
+      standing ought to be fast friends; and so you'll find me, if you'll only
+      sail under the true colours, my man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment Jack longed to let the captain know how strenuously he had
+      insisted that very night on rejoining his vessel; and this at a time, too,
+      when the brig was falling into disrepute. But this he could not do,
+      without betraying the secret of the lovers&mdash;so he chose to say
+      nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no use in blabbing all a man knows, and the galley is a sad
+      place for talking. Galley news is poor news, I suppose you know, Jack.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've hear'n say as much on board o' man-of-war. It's a great place for
+      the officers to meet and talk, and smoke, in Uncle Sam's crafts; and what
+      a body hears in such places, is pretty much newspaper stuff, I do
+      suppose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, that's it; not to be thought of half-an-hour after it has been
+      spoken. Here's a doubloon for you, Jack; and all for the sake of old
+      times. Now, tell me, my little fellow, how do the ladies come on? Does n't
+      Miss Rose get over her mourning on account of the mate? Ar' n't we to have
+      the pleasure of seein' her on deck soon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't answer for the minds and fancies of young women, Captain Spike.
+      They are difficult to understand; and I would rather not meddle with what
+      I can't understand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poh, poh, man; you must get over that. You might be of great use to me,
+      Jack, in a very delicate affair&mdash;for you know how it is with women;
+      they must be handled as a man would handle this brig among breakers; Rose,
+      in partic'lar, is as skittish as a colt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stephen Spike,&rdquo; said Jack, solemnly, but on so low a key that it entirely
+      changed his usually harsh and cracked voice to one that sounded soft, if
+      not absolutely pleasant, &ldquo;do you never think of hereafter? Your days are
+      almost run; a very few years, in your calling it may be a very few weeks,
+      or a few hours, and time will be done with you, and etarnity will
+      commence.&mdash;Do you never think of a hereafter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike started to his feet, gazing at Jack intently; then he wiped the
+      perspiration from his face, and began to pace the deck rapidly, muttering
+      to himself&mdash;&ldquo;this has been a most accursed night! First the mate, and
+      now <i>this!</i> Blast me, but I thought it was a voice from the grave!
+      Graves! can't they keep those that belong to them, or have rocks and waves
+      no graves?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      What more passed through the mind of the captain must remain a secret, for
+      he kept it to himself; nor did he take any further notice of his
+      companion. Jack, finding that he was unobserved, passed quietly below, and
+      took the place in his berth, which he had only temporarily abandoned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as the day dawned, the Swash reached the vicinity of the wreck again.
+      Sail was shortened, and the brig stood in until near enough for the
+      purpose of her commander, when she was hove-to, so near the mast-heads
+      that, by lowering the yawl, a line was sent out to the fore-mast, and the
+      brig was hauled close alongside. The direction of the reef at that point
+      formed a lee; and the vessel lay in water sufficiently smooth for her
+      object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was done soon after the sun had risen, and Spike now ordered all
+      hands called, and began his operations in earnest. By sounding carefully
+      around the schooner when last here, he had ascertained her situation to
+      his entire satisfaction. She had settled on a shelf of the reef, in such a
+      position that her bows lay in a sort of cradle, while her stern was
+      several feet nearer to the surface than the opposite extremity. This last
+      fact was apparent, indeed, by the masts themselves, the lower mast aft
+      being several feet out of water, while the fore-mast was entirely buried,
+      leaving nothing but the fore-topmast exposed. On these great premises
+      Spike had laid the foundation of the practical problem he intended to
+      solve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No expectation existed of ever getting the schooner afloat again. All that
+      Spike and the Señor Montefalderon now aimed at, was to obtain the
+      doubloons, which the former thought could be got at in the following
+      manner. He knew that it would be much easier handling the wreck, so far as
+      its gravity was concerned, while the hull continued submerged. He also
+      knew that one end could be raised with a comparatively trifling effort, so
+      long as the other rested on the rock. Under these circumstances,
+      therefore, he proposed merely to get slings around the after body of the
+      schooner, as near her stern-post, indeed, as would be safe, and to raise
+      that extremity of the vessel to the surface, leaving most of the weight of
+      the craft to rest on the bows. The difference between the power necessary
+      to effect this much, and that which would be required to raise the whole
+      wreck, would be like the difference in power necessary to turn over a log
+      with one end resting on the ground, and turning the same log by lifting it
+      bodily in the arms, and turning it in the air. With the stern once above
+      water, it would be easy to come at the bag of doubloons, which Jack Tier
+      had placed in a locker above the transoms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first thing was to secure the brig properly, in order that she might
+      bear the necessary strain. This was done very much as has been described
+      already, in the account of the manner in which she was secured and
+      supported in order to raise the schooner at the Dry Tortugas. An anchor
+      was laid abreast and to windward, and purchases were brought to the masts,
+      as before. Then the bight of the chain brought from the Tortugas, was
+      brought under the schooner's keel, and counter-purchases, leading from
+      both the fore-mast and main-mast of the brig, were brought to it, and set
+      taut. Spike now carefully examined all his fastenings, looking to his
+      cables as well as his mechanical power aloft, heaving in upon this, and
+      veering out upon that, in order to bring the Molly square to her work;
+      after which he ordered the people to knock-off for their dinners. By that
+      time, it was high noon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Stephen Spike was thus employed on the wreck, matters and things
+      were not neglected at the Tortugas. The Poughkeepsie had no sooner
+      anchored, than Wallace went on board and made his report. Capt. Mull then
+      sent for Mulford, with whom he had a long personal conference. This
+      officer was getting grey, and consequently he had acquired experience. It
+      was evident to Harry, at first, that he was regarded as one who had been
+      willingly engaged in an unlawful pursuit, but who had abandoned it to push
+      dearer interests in another quarter. It was some time before the commander
+      of the sloop-of-war could divest himself of this opinion, though it
+      gradually gave way before the frankness of the mate's manner, and the
+      manliness, simplicity, and justice of his sentiments. Perhaps Rose had
+      some influence also in bringing about this favourable change.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wallace did not fail to let it be known that turtle-soup was to be had
+      ashore; and many was the guest our heroine had to supply with that
+      agreeable compound, in the course of the morning. Jack Tier had manifested
+      so much skill in the preparation of the dish, that its reputation soon
+      extended to the cabin, and the captain was induced to land, in order to
+      ascertain how far rumour was or was not a liar, on this interesting
+      occasion. So ample was the custom, indeed, that Wallace had the
+      consideration to send one of the ward-room servants to the light-house, in
+      order to relieve Rose from a duty that was getting to be a little irksome.
+      She was &ldquo;seeing company&rdquo; as a bride, in a novel and rather unpleasant
+      manner; and it was in consequence of a suggestion of the &ldquo;ship's
+      gentleman,&rdquo; that the remains of the turtle were transferred to the vessel,
+      and were put into the coppers, <i>secundum artem,</i> by the regular
+      cooks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was after tickling his palate with a bowl of the soup, and enjoying a
+      half-hour's conversation with Rose, that Capt. Mull summoned Harry to a
+      final consultation on the subject of their future proceedings. By this
+      time the commander of the Poughkeepsie was in a better humour with his new
+      acquaintance, more disposed to believe him, and infinitely more inclined
+      to listen to his suggestions and advice, than he had been in their
+      previous interviews. Wallace was present in his character of &ldquo;ship's
+      gentleman,&rdquo; or, as having nothing to do, while his senior, the first
+      lieutenant, was working like a horse on board the vessel, in the execution
+      of his round of daily duties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this consultation, the parties came into a right understanding of each
+      other's views and characters. Capt. Mull was slow to yield his confidence,
+      but when he did bestow it, he bestowed it sailor-fashion, or with all his
+      heart. Satisfied at last that he had to do with a young man of honour, and
+      one who was true to the flag, he consulted freely with our mate, asked his
+      advice, and was greatly influenced in the formation of his final decision
+      by the opinions that Harry modestly advanced, maintaining them, however,
+      with solid arguments, and reasons that every seaman could comprehend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford knew the plans of Spike by means of his own communications with
+      the Señor Montefalderon. Once acquainted with the projects of his old
+      commander, it was easy for him to calculate the time it would require to
+      put them in execution, with the means that were to be found on board the
+      Swash. &ldquo;It will take the brig until near morning,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;to beat up to
+      the place where the wreck lies. Spike will wait for light to commence
+      operations, and several hours will be necessary to moor the brig, and get
+      out the anchors with which he will think it necessary to stay his masts.
+      Then he will hook on, and he may partly raise the hull before night
+      return. More than this he can never do; and it would not surprise me were
+      he merely to get everything ready for heaving on his purchases to-morrow,
+      and suspend further proceedings until the next day, in preference to
+      having so heavy a strain on his spars all night. He has not the force,
+      however, to carry on such duty to a very late hour; and you may count with
+      perfect security, Captain Mull, on his being found alongside of the wreck
+      at sunrise the next day after to-morrow, in all probability with his
+      anchors down, and fast to the wreck. By timing your own arrival well,
+      nothing will be easier than to get him fairly under your guns, and once
+      under your guns, the brig must give up. When you chased her out of this
+      very port, a few days since, you would have brought her up could you have
+      kept her within range of those terrible shells ten minutes longer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would then advise my not sailing from this place immediately,&rdquo; said
+      Mull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will be quite time enough to get under way late in the afternoon, and
+      then under short canvas. Ten hours will be ample time for this ship to
+      beat up to that passage in, and it will be imprudent to arrive too soon;
+      nor do I suppose you will wish to be playing round the reef in the dark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To the justice of all this Capt. Mull assented; and the plan of
+      proceedings was deliberately and intelligently formed. As it was necessary
+      for Mulford to go in the ship, in order to act as pilot, no one else on
+      board knowing exactly where to find the wreck, the commander of the
+      Poughkeepsie had the civility to offer the young couple the hospitalities
+      of his own cabin, with one of his state-rooms. This offer Harry gratefully
+      accepted, it being understood that the ship would land them at Key West,
+      as soon as the contemplated duty was executed. Rose felt so much anxiety
+      about her aunt, that any other arrangement would scarcely have pacified
+      her fears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In consequence of these arrangements, the Poughkeepsie lay quietly at her
+      anchors until near sunset. In the interval her boats were out in all
+      directions, parties of the officers visiting the islet where the powder
+      had exploded, and the islet where the tent, erected for the use of the
+      females, was still standing. As for the light-house island, an order of
+      Capt. Mull's prevented it from being crowded in a manner unpleasant to
+      Rose, as might otherwise have been the case. The few officers who did land
+      there, however, appeared much struck with the ingenuous simplicity and
+      beauty of the bride, and a manly interest in her welfare was created among
+      them all, principally by means of the representations of the second
+      lieutenant and the chaplain. About five o'clock she went off to the ship,
+      accompanied by Harry, and was hoisted on board in the manner usually
+      practised by vessels of war which have no accommodation-ladder rigged.
+      Rose was immediately installed in her state-room, where she found every
+      convenience necessary to a comfortable though small apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was quite late in the afternoon, when the boatswain and his mate piped
+      &ldquo;all hands up anchor!&rdquo; Harry hastened into the state-room for his charming
+      bride, anxious to show her the movements of a vessel of war on such an
+      occasion. Much as she had seen of the ocean, and of a vessel, within the
+      last few weeks, Rose now found that she had yet a great deal to learn, and
+      that a ship of war had many points to distinguish her from a vessel
+      engaged in commerce.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Poughkeepsie was only a sloop-of-war, or a corvette, in construction,
+      number of her guns, and rate; but she was a ship of the dimensions of an
+      old-fashioned frigate, measuring about one thousand tons. The frigates of
+      which we read half a century since, were seldom ever as large as this,
+      though they were differently built in having a regular gun-deck, or one
+      armed deck that was entirely covered, with another above it; and on the
+      quarter-deck and forecastle of the last of which were also batteries of
+      lighter guns. To the contrary of all this, the Poughkeepsie had but one
+      armed deck, and on that only twenty guns. These pieces, however, were of
+      unusually heavy calibre, throwing thirty-two pound shot, with the
+      exception of the Paixhans, or Columbiads, which throw shot of even twice
+      that weight. The vessel had a crew of two hundred souls, all told; and she
+      had the spars, anchors, and other equipments of a light frigate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In another great particular did the Poughkeepsie differ from the
+      corvette-built vessels that were so much in favour at the beginning of the
+      century; a species of craft obtained from the French, who have taught the
+      world so much in connection with naval science, and who, after building
+      some of the best vessels that ever floated, have failed in knowing how to
+      handle them, though not always in that. The Poughkeepsie, while she had no
+      spar, or upper deck, properly speaking, had a poop and a
+      topgallant-forecastle. Within the last were the cabins and other
+      accommodations of the captain; an arrangement that was necessary for a
+      craft of her construction, that carried so many officers, and so large a
+      crew. Without it, sufficient space would not be had for the uses of the
+      last. One gun of a side was in the main cabin, there being a very neat and
+      amply spacious after-cabin between the state-rooms, as is ordinarily the
+      case in all vessels from the size of frigates up to that of three-deckers.
+      It may be well to explain here, while on this subject of construction,
+      that in naval parlance, a ship is called a single-decked vessel; a <i>two-</i>decker,
+      or a <i>three-</i> decker, not from the number of decks she actually
+      possesses, but from the number of <i>gun-</i>decks that she has, or of
+      those that are <i>fully</i> armed. Thus a frigate has four decks, the
+      spar, gun, berth, and orlop (or haul-up) decks; but she is called a
+      &ldquo;single-decked ship,&rdquo; from the circumstance that only one of these four
+      decks has a complete range of batteries. The two-decker has two of these
+      fully armed decks, and the three-deckers three; though, in fact, the
+      two-decker has five, and the three-decker six decks. Asking pardon for
+      this little digression, which we trust will be found useful to a portion
+      of our readers, we return to the narrative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harry conducted Rose to the poop of the Poughkeepsie, where she might
+      enjoy the best view of the operation of getting so large a craft under
+      way, man-of-war fashion. The details were mysteries, of course, and Rose
+      knew no more of the process by which the chain was brought to the capstan,
+      by the intervention of what is called a messenger, than if she had not
+      been present. She saw two hundred men distributed about the vessel, some
+      at the capstan, some on the forecastle, some in the tops, and others in
+      the waist, and she heard the order to &ldquo;heave round.&rdquo; Then the shrill fife
+      commenced the lively air of &ldquo;the girl I left behind me,&rdquo; rather more from
+      a habit in the fifer, than from any great regrets for the girls left at
+      the Dry Tortugas, as was betrayed to Mulford by the smiles of the
+      officers, and the glances they cast at Rose. As for the latter, she knew
+      nothing of the air, and was quite unconscious of the sort of parody that
+      the gentlemen of the quarter-deck fancied it conveyed on her own
+      situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose was principally struck with the quiet that prevailed in the ship,
+      Captain Mull being a silent man himself, and insisting on having a quiet
+      vessel. The first lieutenant was not a noisy officer, and from these two,
+      everybody else on board received their cues. A simple &ldquo;all ready, sir,&rdquo;
+       uttered by the first to the captain, in a common tone of voice, answered
+      by a &ldquo;very well, sir, get your anchor,&rdquo; in the same tone, set everything
+      in motion. &ldquo;Stamp and go,&rdquo; soon followed, and taking the whole scene
+      together, Rose felt a strange excitement come over her. There were the
+      shrill, animating music of the fife; the stamping time of the men at the
+      bars; the perceptible motion of the ship, as she drew ahead to her anchor,
+      and now and then the call between Wallace, who stood between the
+      knight-heads, as commander-in-chief on the forecastle, (the second
+      lieutenant's station when the captain does not take the trumpet, as very
+      rarely happens,) and the &ldquo;executive officer&rdquo; aft, was &ldquo;carrying on duty,&rdquo;
+       all conspiring to produce this effect. At length, and it was but a minute
+      or two from the time when the &ldquo;stamp and go&rdquo; commenced, Wallace called out
+      &ldquo;a short stay-peak, sir.&rdquo; &ldquo;Heave and pull,&rdquo; followed, and the men left
+      their bars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The process of making sail succeeded. There was no &ldquo;letting fall&rdquo; a
+      fore-topsail here, as on board a merchant-man, but all the canvas dropped
+      from the yards, into festoons, at the same instant. Then the three
+      topsails were sheeted home and hoisted, all at once, and all in a single
+      minute of time; the yards were counter-braced, and the capstan-bars were
+      again manned. In two more minutes it was &ldquo;heave and she's up and down.&rdquo;
+       Then &ldquo;heave and in sight,&rdquo; and &ldquo;heave and pull again.&rdquo; The cat-fall was
+      ready, and it was &ldquo;hook on,&rdquo; when the fife seemed to turn its attention to
+      another subject as the men catted the anchor. Literally, all this was done
+      in less time than we have taken to write it down in, and in very little
+      more time than the reader has wasted in perusing what we have here
+      written.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Poughkeepsie was now &ldquo;free of bottom,&rdquo; as it is called, with her
+      anchor catted and fished, and her position maintained in the basin where
+      she lay, by the counter-bracing of her yards, and the counteracting force
+      of the wind on her sails. It only remained to &ldquo;fill away,&rdquo; by bracing her
+      head-yards sharp up, when the vast mass overcame its inertia, and began to
+      move through the water. As this was done, the jib and spanker were set.
+      The two most beautiful things with which we are acquainted, are a graceful
+      and high-bred woman entering or quitting a drawing-room, more particularly
+      the last, and a man-of-war leaving her anchorage in a moderate breeze, and
+      when not hurried for time. On the present occasion, Captain Mull was in no
+      haste, and the ship passed out to windward of the light, as the Swash had
+      done the previous night, under her three topsails, spanker and jib, with
+      the light sails loose and flowing, and the courses hanging in the brails.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A great deal is said concerning the defective construction of the light
+      cruisers of the navy, of late years, and complaints are made that they
+      will not sail, as American cruisers ought to sail, and were wont to sail
+      in old times. That there has been some ground for these complaints, we
+      believe; though the evil has been greatly exaggerated, and some
+      explanation may be given, we think, even in the cases in which the
+      strictures are not altogether without justification. The trim of a light,
+      sharp vessel is easily deranged; and officers, in their desire to command
+      as much as possible, often get their vessels of this class too deep. They
+      are, generally, for the sort of cruiser, over-sparred, over-manned, and
+      over-provisioned; consequently, too deep. We recollect a case in which one
+      of these delicate craft, a half-rigged brig, was much abused for &ldquo;having
+      lost her sailing.&rdquo; She did, indeed, lose her fore-yard, and, after that,
+      she sailed like a witch, until she got a new one! If the facts were
+      inquired into, in the spirit which ought to govern such inquiries, it
+      would be found that even most of the much-abused &ldquo;ten sloops&rdquo; proved to be
+      better vessels than common. The St. Louis, the Vincennes, the Concord, the
+      Fairfield, the Boston, and the Falmouth, are instances of what we mean. In
+      behalf of the Warren, and the Lexington, we believe no discreet man was
+      ever heard to utter one syllable, except as wholesome crafts. But the
+      Poughkeepsie was a very different sort of vessel from any of the &ldquo;ten
+      sloops.&rdquo; She was every way a good ship, and, as Jack expressed it, was &ldquo;a
+      good goer.&rdquo; The most severe nautical critic could scarcely have found a
+      fault in her, as she passed out between the islets, on the evening of the
+      day mentioned, in the sort of undress we have described. The whole scene,
+      indeed, was impressive, and of singular maritime characteristics.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The little islets scattered about, low, sandy, and untenanted, were the
+      only land in sight&mdash;all else was the boundless waste of waters. The
+      solitary light rose like an aquatic monument, as if purposely to give its
+      character to the view. Captain Mull had caused its lamps to be trimmed and
+      lighted for the very reason that had induced Spike to do the same thing,
+      and the dim star they presented was just struggling into existence, as it
+      might be, as the brilliance left by the setting sun was gradually
+      diminished, and finally disappeared. As for the ship, the hull appeared
+      dark, glossy, and graceful, as is usual with a vessel of war. Her sails
+      were in soft contrast to the colour of the hull, and they offered the
+      variety and divergence from straight lines which are thought necessary to
+      perfect beauty. Those that were set, presented the symmetry in their trim,
+      the flatness in their hoist, and the breadth that distinguish a
+      man-of-war; while those that were loose, floated in the air in every wave
+      and cloud-like swell, that we so often see in light canvas that is
+      released from the yards in a fresh breeze. The ship had an undress look
+      from this circumstance, but it was such an undress as denotes the man or
+      woman of the world. This undress appearance was increased by the piping
+      down of the hammocks, which left the nettings loose, and with a negligent
+      but still knowing look about them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When half a mile from the islets, the main-yard was braced aback, and the
+      maintopsail was laid to the mast. As soon as the ship had lost her way,
+      two or three boats that had been towing astern, each with its boat-sitter,
+      or keeper, in it, were hauled up alongside, or to the quarters, were
+      &ldquo;hooked on,&rdquo; and &ldquo;run up&rdquo; to the whistling of the call. All was done at
+      once, and all was done in a couple of minutes. As soon as effected, the
+      maintopsail was again filled, and away the ship glided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Mull was not in the habit of holding many consultations with his
+      officers. If there be wisdom in a &ldquo;multitude of counsellors,&rdquo; he was of
+      opinion it was not on board a man-of-war. Napoleon is reported to have
+      said that <i>one</i> bad general was better than <i>two</i> good ones;
+      meaning that one head to an army, though of inferior quality, is better
+      than a hydra of Solomons, or Cæsars. Captain Mull was much of the same way
+      of thinking, seldom troubling his subordinates with anything but orders.
+      He interfered very little with &ldquo;working Willy,&rdquo; though he saw effectually
+      that he did his duty. &ldquo;The ship's gentleman&rdquo; might enjoy his joke as much
+      as he pleased, so long as he chose his time and place with discretion, but
+      in the captain's presence joking was not tolerated, unless it were after
+      dinner, at his own table, and in his own cabin. Even there it was not
+      precisely such joking as took place daily, not to say hourly, in the
+      midshipmen's messes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In making up his mind as to the mode of proceeding on the present
+      occasion, therefore, Captain Mull, while he had heard all that Mulford had
+      to tell him, and had even encouraged Wallace to give his opinions, made up
+      his decision for himself. After learning all that Harry had to
+      communicate, he made his own calculations as to time and distance, and
+      quietly determined to carry whole sail on the ship for the next four
+      hours. This he did as the wisest course of making sure of getting to
+      windward while he could, and knowing that the vessel could be brought
+      under short canvas at any moment when it might be deemed necessary. The
+      light was a beacon to let him know his distance with almost mathematical
+      precision. It could be seen so many miles at sea, each mile being
+      estimated by so many feet of elevation, and having taken that elevation,
+      he was sure of his distance from the glittering object, so long as it
+      could be seen from his own poop. It was also of use by letting him know
+      the range of the reef, though Captain Mull, unlike Spike, had determined
+      to make one leg off to the northward and eastward until he had brought the
+      light nearly to the horizon, and then to make another to the southward and
+      eastward, believing that the last stretch would bring him to the reef,
+      almost as far to windward as he desired to be. In furtherance of this
+      plan, the sheets of the different sails were drawn home, as soon as the
+      boats were in, and the Poughkeepsie, bending a little to the breeze,
+      gallantly dashed the waves aside, as she went through and over them, at a
+      rate of not less than ten good knots in the hour. As soon as all these
+      arrangements were made, the watch went below, and from that time
+      throughout the night, the ship offered nothing but the quiet manner in
+      which ordinary duty is carried on in a well-regulated vessel of war at
+      sea, between the hours of sun and sun. Leaving the good craft to pursue
+      her way with speed and certainty, we must now return to the Swash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Spike had found the mooring of his brig a much more difficult
+      task, on this occasion, than on that of his former attempt to raise the
+      schooner. Then he had to lift the wreck bodily, and he knew that laying
+      the Swash a few feet further ahead or astern, could be of no great moment,
+      inasmuch as the moment the schooner was off the bottom, she would swing in
+      perpendicularly to the purchases. But now one end of the schooner, her
+      bows, was to remain fast, and it became of importance to be certain that
+      the purchases were so placed as to bring the least strain on the masts
+      while they acted most directly on the after body of the vessel to be
+      lifted. This point gave Spike more trouble than he had anticipated. Fully
+      one half of the remainder of the day, even after he had begun to heave
+      upon his purchases, was spent in rectifying mistakes in connection with
+      this matter, and in getting up additional securities to his masts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one respect Spike had, from the first, made a good disposition. The
+      masts of the brig raked materially, and by bringing the head of the Swash
+      in the direction of the schooner, he converted this fact, which might
+      otherwise have been of great disadvantage, into a circumstance that was
+      favourable. In consequence of the brig's having been thus moored, the
+      strain, which necessarily led forward, came nearly in a line with the
+      masts, and the latter were much better able to support it. Notwithstanding
+      this advantage, however, it was found expedient to get up preventer-stays,
+      and to give the spars all the additional support could be conveniently
+      bestowed. Hours were passed in making these preliminary, or it might be
+      better to say, secondary arrangements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was past five in the afternoon when the people of the Swash began to
+      heave on their purchases as finally disposed. After much creaking, and the
+      settling of straps and lashings into their places, it was found that
+      everything stood, and the work went on. In ten minutes Spike found he had
+      the weight of the schooner, so far as he should be obliged to sustain it
+      at all, until the stern rose above the surface; and he felt reasonably
+      secure of the doubloons. Further than this he did not intend to make any
+      experiment on her, the Señor Montefalderon having abandoned all idea of
+      recovering the vessel itself, now so much of the cargo was lost. The
+      powder was mostly consumed, and that which remained in the hull must, by
+      this time, be injured by dampness, if not ruined. So reasoned Don Juan at
+      least.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the utmost care was necessary, the capstan and wind-lass were made to
+      do their several duties with great caution. As inch by inch was gained,
+      the extra supports of the masts were examined, and it was found that a
+      much heavier strain now came on the masts than when the schooner was
+      raised before. This was altogether owing to the direction in which it
+      came, and to the fact that the anchor planted off abeam was not of as much
+      use as on the former occasion, in consequence of its not lying so much in
+      a straight line with the direction of the purchases. Spike began to have
+      misgivings on account of his masts, and this so much the more because the
+      wind appeared to haul a little further to the northward, and the weather
+      to look unsettled. Should a swell roll into the bight of the reef where
+      the brig lay, by raising the hull a little too rudely, there would be the
+      imminent danger of at least springing, if not of absolutely carrying away
+      both the principal spars. It was therefore necessary to resort to
+      extraordinary precautions, in order to obviate this danger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The captain was indebted to his boatswain, who was now in fact acting as
+      his mate, for the suggestion of the plan next adopted. Two of the largest
+      spare spars of the brig were got out, with their heads securely lashed to
+      the links of the chain by which the wreck was suspended, one on each side
+      of the schooner. Pig-iron and shot were lashed to the heels of these
+      spars, which carried them to the bottom. As the spars were of a greater
+      length than was necessary to reach the rock, they necessarily lay at an
+      inclination, which was lessened every inch the after body of the wreck was
+      raised, thus forming props to the hull of the schooner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike was delighted with the success of this scheme, of which he was
+      assured by a single experiment in heaving. After getting the spars well
+      planted at their heels, he even ordered the men to slacken the purchases a
+      little, and found that he could actually relieve the brig from the strain,
+      by causing the wreck to be supported altogether by these shores. This was
+      a vast relief from the cares of the approaching night, and indeed alone
+      prevented the necessity of the work's going on without interruption, or
+      rest, until the end was obtained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The people of the Swash were just assured of the comfortable fact related,
+      as the Poughkeepsie was passing out from among the islets of the Dry
+      Tortugas. They imagined themselves happy in having thus made a sufficient
+      provision against the most formidable of all the dangers that beset them,
+      at the very moment when the best laid plan for their destruction was on
+      the point of being executed. In this respect, they resembled millions of
+      others of their fellows, who hang suspended over the vast abyss of
+      eternity, totally unconscious of the irretrievable character of the fall
+      that is so soon to occur. Spike, as has been just stated, was highly
+      pleased with his own expedient, and he pointed it out with exultation to
+      the Señor Montefalderon, as soon as it was completed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A nicer fit was never made by a Lunnun leg-maker, Don Wan,&rdquo; the captain
+      cried, after going over the explanations connected with the shores&mdash;&ldquo;there
+      she stands, at an angle of fifty, with two as good limbs under her as a
+      body could wish. I could now cast off everything, and leave the wreck in
+      what they call '<i>statu quo,</i>' which, I suppose, means on its pins,
+      like a statue. The tafferel is not six inches below the surface of the
+      water, and half an hour of heaving will bring the starn in sight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your work seems ingeniously contrived to get up one extremity of the
+      vessel, Don Esteban,&rdquo; returned the Mexican; &ldquo;but are you quite certain
+      that the doubloons are in her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This question was put because the functionary of a government in which
+      money was very apt to stick in passing from hand to hand was naturally
+      suspicious, and he found it difficult to believe that Mulford, Jack Tier,
+      and even Biddy, under all the circumstances, had not paid special
+      attention to their own interests.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The bag was placed in one of the transom-lockers before the schooner
+      capsized,&rdquo; returned the captain, &ldquo;as Jack Tier informs me; if so, it
+      remains there still. Even the sharks will not touch gold, Don Wan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would it not be well to call Jack, and hear his account of the matter
+      once more, now we appear to be so near the Eldorado of our wishes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike assented, and Jack was summoned to the quarter-deck. The little
+      fellow had scarce showed himself throughout the day, and he now made his
+      appearance with a slow step, and reluctantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've made no mistake about them 'ere doubloons, I take it, Master
+      Tier?&rdquo; said Spike, in a very nautical sort of style of addressing an
+      inferior. &ldquo;You <i>know</i> them to be in one of the transom-lockers?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack mounted on the breech of one of the guns, and looked over the
+      bulwarks at the dispositions that had been made about the wreck. The
+      tafferel of the schooner actually came in sight, when a little swell
+      passed over it, leaving it for an instant in the trough. The steward thus
+      caught a glimpse again of the craft on board which he had seen so much
+      hazard, and he shook his head and seemed to be thinking of anything but
+      the question which had just been put to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, about that gold?&rdquo; asked Spike, impatiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sight of that craft has brought other thoughts than gold into my
+      mind, Captain Spike,&rdquo; answered Jack, gravely, &ldquo;and it would be well for
+      all us mariners, if we thought less of gold and more of the dangers we
+      run. For hours and hours did I stand over etarnity, on the bottom of that
+      schooner, Don Wan, holdin' my life, as it might be, at the marcy of a few
+      bubbles of air.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What has all that to do with the gold? Have you deceived me about that
+      locker, little rascal?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir, I've <i>not</i> deceived you&mdash;no, Captain Spike, <i>no</i>.
+      The bag is in the upper transom-locker, on the starboard side. There I put
+      it with my own hands, and a good lift it was; and there you'll find it, if
+      you'll cut through the quarter-deck at the spot I can p'int out to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This information seemed to give a renewed energy to all the native
+      cupidity of the captain, who called the men from their suppers, and
+      ordered them to commence heaving anew. The word was passed to the crew
+      that &ldquo;it was now for doubloons,&rdquo; and they went to the bars and handspikes,
+      notwithstanding the sun had set, cheerfully and cheering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All Spike's expedients admirably answered the intended purposes. The stern
+      of the schooner rose gradually, and at each lift the heels of the shores
+      dropped in more perpendicularly, carried by the weights attached to them,
+      and the spars stood as firm props to secure all that was gained. In a
+      quarter of an hour, most of that part of the stern which was within five
+      or six feet of the tafferel, rose above the water, coming fairly in view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike now shouted to the men to &ldquo;pall!&rdquo; then he directed the falls to be
+      very gradually eased off, in order to ascertain if the shores would still
+      do their duty. The experiment was successful, and presently the wreck
+      stood in its upright position, sustained entirely by the two spars. As the
+      last were now nearly perpendicular, they were capable of bearing a very
+      heavy weight, and Spike was so anxious to relieve his own brig from the
+      strain she had been enduring, that he ordered the lashings of the blocks
+      to be loosened, trusting to his shores to do their duty. Against this
+      confidence the boatswain ventured a remonstrance, but the gold was too
+      near to allow the captain to listen or reply. The carpenter was ordered
+      over on the wreck with his tools, while Spike, the Señor Montefalderon,
+      and two men to row the boat and keep it steady, went in the yawl to watch
+      the progress of the work. Jack Tier was ordered to stand in the chains,
+      and to point out, as nearly as possible, the place where the carpenter was
+      to cut.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When all was ready, Spike gave the word, and the chips began to fly. By
+      the use of the saw and the axe, a hole large enough to admit two or three
+      men at a time, was soon made in the deck, and the sounding for the
+      much-coveted locker commenced. By this time, it was quite dark; and a
+      lantern was passed down from the brig, in order to enable those who
+      searched for the locker to see. Spike had breasted the yawl close up to
+      the hole, where it was held by the men, while the captain himself passed
+      the lantern and his own head into the opening to reconnoitre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, it's all right!&rdquo; cried the voice of the captain from within his
+      cell-like cavity. &ldquo;I can just see the lid of the locker that Jack means,
+      and we shall soon have what we are a'ter. Carpenter, you may as well slip
+      off your clothes at once, and go inside; I will point out to you the place
+      where to find the locker. You're certain, Jack, it was the starboard
+      locker?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir, the starboard locker, and no other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The carpenter had soon got into the hole, as naked as when he was born. It
+      was a gloomy-looking place for a man to descend into at that hour, the
+      light from the lantern being no great matter, and half the time it was
+      shaded by the manner in which Spike was compelled to hold it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take care and get a good footing, carpenter,&rdquo; said the captain, in a
+      kinder tone than common, &ldquo;before you let go with your hands; but I suppose
+      you can swim, as a matter of course?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir, not a stroke&mdash;I never could make out in the water at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have the more 'care, then. Had I known as much, I would have sent another
+      hand down; but mind your footing. More to the left, man&mdash;more to the
+      left. That is the lid of the locker&mdash;your hand is on it; why do you
+      not open it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is swelled by the water, sir, and will need a chisel, or some tool of
+      that sort. Just call out to one of the men, sir, if you please, to pass me
+      a chisel from my tool-chest. A good stout one will be best.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This order was given, and, during the delay it caused, Spike encouraged
+      the carpenter to be cool, and above all to mind his footing. His own
+      eagerness to get at the gold was so great that he kept his head in at the
+      hole, completely cutting off the man within from all communication with
+      the outer world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the matter with you?&rdquo; demanded Spike, a little sternly. &ldquo;You
+      shiver, and yet the water cannot be cold in this latitude. No, my hand
+      makes it just the right warmth to be pleasant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's not the water, Captain Spike&mdash;I wish they would come with the
+      chisel. Did you hear nothing, sir? I'm certain I did!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hear!&mdash;what is there here to be heard, unless there may be some fish
+      inside, thrashing about to get out of the vessel's hold?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sure I heard something like a groan, Captain Spike. I wish you would
+      let me come out, sir, and I'll go for the chisel myself; them men will
+      never find it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay where you are, coward! are you afraid of dead men standing against
+      walls? Stay where you are. Ah! here is the chisel&mdash;now let us see
+      what you can do with it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am certain I heard another groan, Captain Spike. I cannot work, sir.
+      I'm of no use here&mdash;<i>do</i> let me come out, sir, and send a hand
+      down that can swim.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike uttered a terrible malediction on the miserable carpenter, one we do
+      not care to repeat; then he cast the light of the lantern full in the
+      man's face. The quivering flesh, the pallid face, and the whole
+      countenance wrought up almost to a frenzy of terror, astonished, as well
+      as alarmed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What ails you, man?&rdquo; said the captain in a voice of thunder. &ldquo;Clap in the
+      chisel, or I'll hurl you off into the water. There is nothing here, dead
+      or alive, to harm ye!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The groan, sir&mdash;I hear it again! <i>Do</i> let me come out, Captain
+      Spike.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike himself, this time, heard what even <i>he</i> took for a groan. It
+      came from the depths of the vessel, apparently, and was sufficiently
+      distinct and audible. Astonished, yet appalled, he thrust his shoulders
+      into the aperture, as if to dare the demon that tormented him, and was met
+      by the carpenter endeavouring to escape. In the struggle that ensued, the
+      lantern was dropped into the water, leaving the half-frenzied combatants
+      contending in the dark. The groan was renewed, when the truth flashed on
+      the minds of both.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The shores! the shores!&rdquo; exclaimed the carpenter from within. &ldquo;The
+      shores!&rdquo; repeated Spike, throwing himself back into the boat, and shouting
+      to his men to &ldquo;see all clear of the wreck!&rdquo; The grating of one of the
+      shores on the coral beneath was now heard plainer than ever, and the lower
+      extremity slipped outward, not astern, as had been apprehended, letting
+      the wreck slowly settle to the bottom again. One piercing shriek arose
+      from the narrow cavity within; then the gurgling of water into the
+      aperture was heard, when naught of sound could be distinguished but the
+      sullen and steady wash of the waves of the gulf over the rocks of the
+      reef.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The impression made by this accident was most profound. A fatality
+      appeared to attend the brig; and most of the men connected the sad
+      occurrence of this night with the strange appearance of the previous
+      evening. Even the Señor Montefalderon was disposed to abandon the
+      doubloons, and he urged Spike to make the best of his way for Yucatan, to
+      seek a friendly harbour. The captain wavered, but avarice was too strong a
+      passion in him to be easily diverted from its object, and he refused to
+      give up his purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the wreck was entirely free from the brig when it went down for the
+      third time, no injury was sustained by the last on this occasion. By
+      renewing the lashings, everything would be ready to begin the work anew&mdash;and
+      this, Spike was resolved to attempt in the morning. The men were too much
+      fatigued, and it was too dark to think of pushing matters any further that
+      night; and it was very questionable whether they could have been got to
+      work. Orders were consequently given for all hands to turn in, the
+      captain, relieved by Don Juan and Jack Tier, having arranged to keep the
+      watches of the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a sad accident, Don Esteban,&rdquo; observed the Mexican, as he and
+      Spike paced the quarter-deck together, just before the last turned in; &ldquo;a
+      sad accident! My miserable schooner seems to be deserted by its patron
+      saint. Then your poor carpenter!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he was a good fellow enough with a saw, or an adze,&rdquo; answered Spike,
+      yawning. &ldquo;But we get used to such things at sea. It's neither more nor
+      less than a carpenter expended. Good night, Señor Don Wan; in the morning
+      we'll be at that gold ag'in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  She's in a scene of nature's war,
+  The winds and waters are at strife;
+  And both with her contending for
+  The brittle thread of human life.
+
+  Miss Gould.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Spike was sleeping hard in his berth, quite early on the following
+      morning, before the return of light, indeed, when he suddenly started up,
+      rubbed his eyes, and sprang upon deck like a man alarmed. He had heard, or
+      fancied he had heard, a cry. A voice once well known and listened to,
+      seemed to call him in the very portals of his ear. At first he had
+      listened to its words in wonder, entranced like the bird by the snake, the
+      tones recalling scenes and persons that had once possessed a strong
+      control over his rude feelings. Presently the voice became harsher in its
+      utterance, and it said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stephen Spike, awake! The hour is getting late, and you have enemies
+      nearer to you than you imagine. Awake, Stephen, awake!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the captain was on his feet, and had plunged his head into a basin of
+      water that stood ready for him in the state-room, he could not have told,
+      for his life, whether he had been dreaming or waking, whether what he had
+      heard was the result of a feverish imagination, or of the laws of nature.
+      The call haunted him all that morning, or until events of importance so
+      pressed upon him as to draw his undivided attention to them alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not yet day. The men were still in heavy sleep, lying about the
+      decks, for they avoided the small and crowded forecastle in that warm
+      climate, and the night was apparently at its deepest hour. Spike walked
+      forward to look for the man charged with the anchor-watch. It proved to be
+      Jack Tier, who was standing near the galley, his arms folded as usual,
+      apparently watching the few signs of approaching day that were beginning
+      to be apparent in the western sky. The captain was in none of the best
+      humours with the steward's assistant; but Jack had unaccountably got an
+      ascendency over his commander, which it was certainly very unusual for any
+      subordinate in the Swash to obtain. Spike had deferred more to Mulford
+      than to any mate he had ever before employed; but this was the deference
+      due to superior information, manners, and origin. It was common-place, if
+      not vulgar; whereas, the ascendency obtained by little Jack Tier was, even
+      to its subject, entirely inexplicable. He was unwilling to admit it to
+      himself in the most secret manner, though he had begun to feel it on all
+      occasions which brought them in contact, and to submit to it as a thing
+      not to be averted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jack Tier,&rdquo; demanded the captain, now that he found himself once more
+      alone with the other, desirous of obtaining his opinion on a point that
+      harassed him, though he knew not why; &ldquo;Jack Tier, answer me one thing. Do
+      you believe that we saw the form of a dead or of a living man at the foot
+      of the light-house?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The dead are never seen leaning against walls in that manner, Stephen
+      Spike,&rdquo; answered Jack, coolly, not even taking the trouble to uncoil his
+      arms. &ldquo;What you saw was a living man; and you would do well to be on your
+      guard against him. Harry Mulford is not your friend&mdash;and there is
+      reason for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Harry Mulford, and living! How can that be, Jack? You know the port in
+      which he chose to run.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know the rock on which you chose to abandon him, Captain Spike.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If so, how could he be living and at the Dry Tortugas. The thing is
+      impossible!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The thing is so. You saw Harry Mulford, living and well, and ready to
+      hunt you to the gallows. Beware of him, then; and beware of his handsome
+      wife!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wife! the fellow has no wife&mdash;he has always professed to be a single
+      man!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The man is married&mdash;and I bid you beware of his handsome wife. She,
+      too, will be a witness ag'in you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This will be news, then, for Rose Budd. I shall delight in telling it to
+      <i>her,</i> at least.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'T will be <i>no</i> news to Rose Budd. She was present at the wedding,
+      and will not be taken by surprise. Rose loves Harry too well to let him
+      marry, and she not present at the wedding.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jack, you talk strangely! What is the meaning of all this? I am captain
+      of this craft, and will not be trifled with&mdash;tell me at once your
+      meaning, fellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My meaning is simple enough, and easily told. Rose Budd is the wife of
+      Harry Mulford.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're dreaming, fellow, or are wishing to trifle with me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be a dream, but it is one that will turn out to be true. If they
+      have found the Poughkeepsie sloop-of-war, as I make no doubt they have by
+      this time, Mulford and Rose are man and wife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fool! you know not what you say! Rose is at this moment in her berth,
+      sick at heart on account of the young gentleman who preferred to live on
+      the Florida Reef rather than to sail in the Molly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rose is <i>not</i> in her berth, sick or well; neither is she on board
+      this brig at all. She went off in the light-house boat to deliver her
+      lover from the naked rock&mdash;and well did she succeed in so doing. God
+      was of her side, Stephen Spike; and a body seldom fails with such a friend
+      to support one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike was astounded at these words, and not less so at the cool and
+      confident manner with which they were pronounced. Jack spoke in a certain
+      dogmatical, oracular manner, it is true, one that might have lessened his
+      authority with a person over whom he had less influence; but this in no
+      degree diminished its effect on Spike. On the contrary, it even disposed
+      the captain to yield an implicit faith to what he heard, and all so much
+      the more because the facts he was told appeared of themselves to be nearly
+      impossible. It was half a minute before he had sufficiently recovered from
+      his surprise to continue the discourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The light-house boat!&rdquo; Spike then slowly repeated. &ldquo;Why, fellow, you told
+      me the light-house boat went adrift from your own hands!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it did,&rdquo; answered Jack, coolly, &ldquo;since I cast off the painter&mdash;and
+      what is more, went in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You! This is impossible. You are telling me a fabricated lie. If you had
+      gone away in that boat, how could you now be here? No, no&mdash;it is a
+      miserable lie, and Rose is below!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go and look into her state-room, and satisfy yourself with your own
+      eyes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike did as was suggested. He went below, took a lamp that was always
+      suspended, lighted in the main cabin, and, without ceremony, proceeded to
+      Rose's state-room, where he soon found that the bird had really flown. A
+      direful execration followed this discovery, one so loud as to awaken Mrs.
+      Budd and Biddy. Determined not to do things by halves, he broke open the
+      door of the widow's state-room, and ascertained that the person he sought
+      was not there. A fierce explosion of oaths and denunciations followed,
+      which produced an answer in the customary screams. In the midst of this
+      violent scene, however, questions were put, and answers obtained, that not
+      only served to let the captain know that Jack had told him nothing but
+      truth, but to put an end to everything like amicable relations between
+      himself and the relict of his old commander. Until this explosion,
+      appearances had been observed between them; but, from that moment, there
+      must necessarily be an end of all professions of even civility. Spike was
+      never particularly refined in his intercourse with females, but he now
+      threw aside even its pretension. His rage was so great that he totally
+      forgot his manhood, and lavished on both Mrs. Budd and Biddy epithets that
+      were altogether inexcusable, and many of which it will not do to repeat.
+      Weak and silly as was the widow, she was not without spirit; and on this
+      occasion she was indisposed to submit to all this unmerited abuse in
+      silence. Biddy, as usual, took her cue from her mistress, and between the
+      two, their part of the wordy conflict was kept up with a very respectable
+      degree of animation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know you&mdash;I know you, now!&rdquo; screamed the widow, at the tope of her
+      voice; &ldquo;and you can no longer deceive me, unworthy son of Neptune as you
+      are! You are unfit to be a lubber, and would be log-booked for an or'nary
+      by every gentleman on board ship. You, a full-jiggered sea-man! No, you
+      are not even half-jiggered, sir; and I tell you so to your face.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and it is n't <i>half</i> that might be tould the likes of yees!&rdquo;
+       put in Biddy, as her mistress stopped to breathe. &ldquo;And it's Miss Rose
+      you'd have for a wife, when Biddy Noon would be too good for ye! We knows
+      ye, and all about ye, and can give yer history as complate from the day ye
+      was born down to the prisent moment; and not find a good word to say in
+      yer favour in all that time&mdash;and a precious time it is, too, for a
+      gentleman that would marry pretthy, <i>young</i> Miss Rose! Och! I scorn
+      to look at ye, yer so ugly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And trying to persuade me you were a friend of my poor, dear Mr. Budd,
+      whose shoe you are unworthy to touch, and who had the heart and soul for
+      the noble profession you disgrace,&rdquo; cut in the widow, the moment Biddy
+      gave her a chance, by pausing to make a wry face as she pronounced the
+      word &ldquo;ugly.&rdquo; &ldquo;I now believe you capasided them poor Mexicans, in order to
+      get their money; and the moment we cast anchor in a road-side, I'll go
+      ashore, and complain of you for murder, I will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do, missus, dear, and I'll be your bail, will I, and swear to all that
+      happened, and more too. Och! yer a wretch, to wish to be the husband of
+      Miss Rose, and she so young and pretthy, and you so ould and ugly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come away&mdash;come away, Stephen Spike, and do not stand wrangling with
+      women, when you and your brig, and all that belongs to you, are in
+      danger,&rdquo; called out Jack Tier from the companion-way. &ldquo;Day is come; and
+      what is much worse for you, your most dangerous enemy is coming with it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike was almost livid with rage, and ready to burst out in awful
+      maledictions; but at this summons he sprang to the ladder, and was on deck
+      in a moment. At first, he felt a strong disposition to wreak his vengeance
+      on Tier, but, fortunately for the latter, as the captain's foot touched
+      the quarter-deck, his eye fell on the Poughkeepsie, then within half a
+      league of the Swash, standing in toward the reef, though fully half a mile
+      to leeward. This spectre drove all other subjects from his mind, leaving
+      the captain of the Swash in the only character in which he could be said
+      to be respectable, or that of a seaman. Almost instinctively he called all
+      hands, then he gave one brief minute to a survey of his situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was, indeed, time for the Swash to be moving. There she lay, with three
+      anchors down, including that of the schooner, all she had, in fact, with
+      the exception of her best bower, and one kedge, with the purchases aloft,
+      in readiness for hooking on to the wreck, and all the extra securities up
+      that had been given to the masts. As for the sloop-of-war, she was under
+      the very same canvas as that with which she had come out from the Dry
+      Tortugas, or her three top-sails, spanker, and jib; but most of her other
+      sails were loose, even to her royals and flying-jibs; though closely
+      gathered into their spars by means of the running gear. In a word, every
+      sailor would know, at a glance, that the ship was merely waiting for the
+      proper moment to spread her wings, when she would be flying through the
+      water at the top of her speed. The weather looked dirty, and the wind was
+      gradually increasing, threatening to blow heavily as the day advanced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unshackle, unshackle!&rdquo; shouted Spike to the boat-swain, who was the first
+      man that appeared on deck. &ldquo;The bloody sloop-of-war is upon us, and there
+      is not a moment to lose. We must get the brig clear of the ground in the
+      shortest way we can, and abandon everything. Unshackle, and cast off
+      for'ard and aft, men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes of almost desperate exertion succeeded. No men work like
+      sailors, when the last are in a hurry, their efforts being directed to
+      counteracting squalls, and avoiding emergencies of the most pressing
+      character. Thus was it now with the crew of the Swash. The clanking of
+      chains lasted but a minute, when the parts attached to the anchors were
+      thrust through the hawse-holes, or were dropped into the water from other
+      parts of the brig. This at once released the vessel, though a great deal
+      remained to be done to clear her for working, and to put her in the best
+      trim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Away with this out-hauler!&rdquo; again shouted Spike, casting loose the
+      main-brails as he did so; &ldquo;loose the jibs!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All went on at once, and the Swash moved away from the grave of the poor
+      carpenter with the ease and facility of motion that marked all her
+      evolutions. Then the top-sail was let fall, and presently all the upper
+      square-sails were sheeted home, and hoisted, and the fore-tack was hauled
+      aboard. The Molly was soon alive, and jumping into the seas that met her
+      with more power than was common, as she drew out from under the shelter of
+      the reef into rough water. From the time when Spike gave his first order,
+      to that when all his canvas was spread, was just seven minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Poughkeepsie, with her vastly superior crew, was not idle the while.
+      Although the watch below was not disturbed, she tacked beautifully, and
+      stood off the reef, in a line parallel to the course of the brig, and
+      distant from her about half a mile. Then sail was made, her tacks having
+      been boarded in stays. Spike knew the play of his craft was short legs,
+      for she was so nimble in her movements that he believed she could go about
+      in half the time that would be required for a vessel of the Poughkeepsie's
+      length. &ldquo;Ready about,&rdquo; was his cry, therefore, when less than a mile
+      distant from the reef&mdash;&ldquo;ready about, and let her go round.&rdquo; Round the
+      Molly did go, like a top, being full on the other tack in just fifty-six
+      seconds. The movement of the corvette was more stately, and somewhat more
+      deliberate. Still, she stayed beautifully, and both Spike and the
+      boatswain shook their heads, as they saw her coming into the wind with her
+      sails all lifting and the sheets flowing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That fellow will fore-reach a cable's length before he gets about!&rdquo;
+       exclaimed Spike. &ldquo;He will prove too much for us at this sport! Keep her
+      away, my man&mdash;keep the brig away for the passage. We must run through
+      the reef, instead of trusting ourselves to our heels in open water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The brig was kept away accordingly, and sheets were eased off, and braces
+      just touched, to meet the new line of sailing. As the wind stood, it was
+      possible to lay through the passage on an easy bowline, though the breeze,
+      which was getting to be fresher than Spike wished it to be, promised to
+      haul more to the southward of east, as the day advanced. Nevertheless,
+      this was the Swash's best point of sailing, and all on board of her had
+      strong hopes of her being too much for her pursuer, could she maintain it.
+      Until this feeling began to diffuse itself in the brig, not a countenance
+      was to be seen on her decks that did not betray intense anxiety; but now
+      something like grim smiles passed among the crew, as their craft seemed
+      rather to fly than force her way through the water, toward the entrance of
+      the passage so often adverted to in this narrative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the other hand, the Poughkeepsie was admirably sailed and handled.
+      Everybody was now on deck, and the first lieutenant had taken the trumpet.
+      Captain Mull was a man of method, and a thorough man-of-war's man.
+      Whatever he did was done according to rule, and with great system. Just as
+      the Swash was about to enter the passage, the drum of the Poughkeepsie
+      beat to quarters. No sooner were the men mustered, in the leeward, or the
+      starboard batteries, than orders were sent to cast loose the guns, and to
+      get them ready for service. Owing to the more leeward position of his
+      vessel, and to the fact that she always head-reached so much in stays,
+      Captain Mull knew that she would not lose much by luffing into the wind,
+      or by making half-boards, while he might gain everything by one
+      well-directed shot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The strife commenced by the sloop-of-war, firing her weather bow-gun,
+      single-shotted, at the Swash. No damage was done, though the fore-yard of
+      the brig had a very narrow escape. This experiment was repeated three
+      times, without even a rope-yarn being carried away, though the gun was
+      pointed by Wallace himself, and well pointed, too. But it is possible for
+      a shot to come very near its object and still to do no injury. Such was
+      the fact on this occasion, though the &ldquo;ship's gentleman&rdquo; was a good deal
+      mortified by the result. Men look so much at success as the test of merit,
+      that few pause to inquire into the reasons of failures, though it
+      frequently happens that adventures prosper by means of their very
+      blunders. Captain Mull now determined on a half-board, for his ship was
+      more to leeward than he desired. Directions were given to the officers in
+      the batteries to be deliberate, and the helm was put down. As the ship
+      shot into the wind, each gun was fired, as it could be brought to bear,
+      until the last of them all was discharged. Then the course of the vessel
+      was changed, the helm being righted before the ship had lost her way, and
+      the sloop-of-war fell off again to her course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this was done in such a short period of time as scarcely to cause the
+      Poughkeepsie to lose anything, while it did the Swash the most serious
+      injury. The guns had been directed at the brig's spars and sails, Captain
+      Mull desiring no more than to capture his chase, and the destruction they
+      produced aloft was such as to induce Spike and his men, at first, to
+      imagine that the whole hamper above their heads was about to come
+      clattering down on deck. One shot carried away all the weather
+      fore-top-mast rigging of the brig, and would no doubt have brought about
+      the loss of the mast, if another, that almost instantly succeeded it, had
+      not cut the spar itself in two, bringing down, as a matter of course,
+      everything above it. Nearly half of the main-mast was gouged out of that
+      spar, and the gaff was taken fairly out of its jaws. The fore-yard was cut
+      in the slings, and various important ropes were carried away in different
+      parts of the vessel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flight, under such circumstances, was impossible, unless some
+      extraordinary external assistance was to be obtained. This Spike saw at
+      once, and he had recourse to the only expedient that remained; which might
+      possibly yet save him. The guns were still belching forth their smoke and
+      flames, when he shouted out the order to put the helm hard up. The width
+      of the passage in which the vessels were was not so great but that he
+      might hope to pass across it, and to enter a channel among the rocks,
+      which was favourably placed for such a purpose, ere the sloop-of-war could
+      overtake him. Whither that channel led, what water it possessed, or
+      whether it were not a shallow <i>cul de sac,</i> were all facts of which
+      Spike was ignorant. The circumstances, however, would not admit of an
+      alternative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Happily for the execution of Spike's present design, nothing from aloft
+      had fallen into the water, to impede the brig's way. Forward, in
+      particular, she seemed all wreck; her fore-yard having come down
+      altogether, so as to encumber the forecastle, while her top-mast, with its
+      dependent spars and gear, was suspended but a short distance above. Still,
+      nothing had gone over the side, so as actually to touch the water, and the
+      craft obeyed her helm as usual. Away she went, then, for the lateral
+      opening in the reef just mentioned, driven ahead by the pressure of a
+      strong breeze on her sails, which still offered large surfaces to the
+      wind, at a rapid rate. Instead of keeping away to follow, the Poughkeepsie
+      maintained her luff, and just as the Swash entered the unknown passage,
+      into which she was blindly plunging, the sloop-of-war was about a quarter
+      of a mile to windward, and standing directly across her stern. Nothing
+      would have been easier, now, than for Captain Mull to destroy his chase;
+      but humanity prevented his firing. He knew that her career must be short,
+      and he fully expected to see her anchor; when it would be easy for him to
+      take possession with his boats. With this expectation, indeed, he
+      shortened sail, furling top-gallant-sails, and hauling up his courage. By
+      this time, the wind had so much freshened, as to induce him to think of
+      putting in a reef, and the step now taken had a double object in view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the surprise of all on board the man-of-war, the brig continued on,
+      until she was fully a mile distant, finding her way deeper and deeper
+      among the mazes of the reef without meeting with any impediment! This fact
+      induced Captain Mull to order his Paixhans to throw their shells beyond
+      her, by way of a hint to anchor. While the guns were getting ready, Spike
+      stood on boldly, knowing it was neck or nothing, and beginning to feel a
+      faint revival of hope, as he found himself getting further and further
+      from his pursuers, and the rocks not fetching him up. Even the men, who
+      had begun to murmur at what seemed to them to be risking too much,
+      partook, in a slight degree, of the same feeling, and began to execute the
+      order they had received to try to get the launch into the water, with some
+      appearance of an intention to succeed. Previously, the work could scarcely
+      be said to go on at all; but two or three of the older seamen now
+      bestirred themselves, and suggestions were made and attended to, that
+      promised results. But it was no easy thing to get the launch out of a
+      half-rigged brig, that had lost her fore-yard, and which carried nothing
+      square abaft. A derrick was used in common, to lift the stern of the boat,
+      but a derrick would now be useless aft, without an assistant forward.
+      While these things were in discussion, under the superintendence of the
+      boatswain, and Spike was standing between the knight-heads, conning the
+      craft, the sloop-of-war let fly the first of her hollow shot. Down came
+      the hurtling mass upon the Swash, keeping every head elevated and all eyes
+      looking for the dark object, as it went booming through the air above
+      their heads. The shot passed fully a mile to leeward, where it exploded.
+      This great range had been given to the first shot, with a view to admonish
+      the captain how long he must continue under the guns of the ship, and as
+      advice to come to. The second gun followed immediately. Its shot was seem
+      to ricochet, directly in a line with the brig, making leaps of about half
+      a mile in length. It struck the water about fifty yards astern of the
+      vessel, bounded directly over her decks, passing through the main-sail and
+      some of the fallen hamper forward, and exploded about a hundred yards
+      ahead. As usually happens with such projectiles, most of the fragments
+      were either scattered laterally, or went on, impelled by the original
+      momentum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The effect of this last gun on the crew of the Swash was instantaneous and
+      deep. The faint gleamings of hope vanished at once, and a lively
+      consciousness of the desperate nature of their condition succeeded in
+      every mind. The launch was forgotten, and, after conferring together for a
+      moment, the men went in a body, with the boatswain at their head, to the
+      forecastle, and offered a remonstrance to their commander, on the subject
+      of holding out any longer, under circumstances so very hazardous, and
+      which menaced their lives in so many different ways. Spike listened to
+      them with eyes that fairly glared with fury. He ordered them back to their
+      duty in a voice of thunder, tapping the breast of his jacket, where he was
+      known to carry revolvers, with a significance that could convey but one
+      meaning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is wonderful the ascendency that men sometimes obtain over their
+      fellows, by means of character, the habits of command, and obedience, and
+      intimidation. Spike was a stern disciplinarian, relying on that and ample
+      pay for the unlimited control he often found it necessary to exercise over
+      his crew. On the present occasion, his people were profoundly alarmed, but
+      habitual deference and submission to their leader counteracted the
+      feeling, and held them in suspense. They were fully aware of the nature of
+      the position they occupied in a legal sense, and were deeply reluctant to
+      increase the appearances of crime; but most of them had been extricated
+      from so many grave difficulties in former instances, by the coolness,
+      nerve and readiness of the captain, that a latent ray of hope was perhaps
+      dimly shining in the rude breast of every old sea-dog among them. As a
+      consequence of these several causes, they abandoned their remonstrance,
+      for the moment at least, and made a show of returning to their duty;
+      though it was in a sullen and moody manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was easier, however, to make a show of hoisting out the launch, than to
+      effect the object. This was soon made apparent on trial, and Spike himself
+      gave the matter up. He ordered the yawl to be lowered, got alongside, and
+      to be prepared for the reception of the crew, by putting into it a small
+      provision of food and water. All this time the brig was rushing madly to
+      leeward, among rocks and breakers, without any other guide than that which
+      the visible dangers afforded. Spike knew no more where he was going than
+      the meanest man in his vessel. His sole aim was to get away from his
+      pursuers, and to save his neck from the rope. He magnified the danger of
+      punishment that he really ran, for he best knew the extent and nature of
+      his crimes, of which the few that have been laid before the reader, while
+      they might have been amongst the most prominent, as viewed through the
+      statutes and international law, were far from the gravest he had committed
+      in the eyes of morals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About this time the Señor Montefalderon went forward to confer with Spike.
+      The calmness of this gentleman's demeanour, the simplicity and coolness of
+      his movements, denoted a conscience that saw no particular ground for
+      alarm. He wished to escape captivity, that he might continue to serve his
+      country, but no other apprehension troubled him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you intend to trust yourself in the yawl, Don Esteban?&rdquo; demanded the
+      Mexican quietly. &ldquo;If so, is she not too small to contain so many as we
+      shall make altogether?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike's answer was given in a low voice; and it evidently came from a very
+      husky throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak lower, Don Wan,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The boat would be greatly overloaded
+      with all hands in it, especially among the breakers, and blowing as it
+      does; but we may leave some of the party behind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The brig <i>must</i> go on the rocks, sooner or later, Don Esteban; when
+      she does, she will go to pieces in an hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I expect to hear her strike every minute, señor; the moment she does, we
+      must be off. I have had my eye on that ship for some time, expecting to
+      see her lower her cutters and gigs to board us. <i>You</i> will not be out
+      of the way, Don Wan; but there is no need of being talkative on the
+      subject of our escape.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike now turned his back on the Mexican, looking anxiously ahead, with
+      the desire to get as far into the reef as possible with his brig, which he
+      conned with great skill and coolness. The Señor Montefalderon left him.
+      With the chivalry and consideration of a man and a gentleman, he went in
+      quest of Mrs. Budd and Biddy. A hint sufficed for them, and gathering
+      together a few necessaries they were in the yawl in the next three
+      minutes. This movement was unseen by Spike, or he might have prevented it.
+      His eyes were now riveted on the channel ahead. It had been fully his
+      original intention to make off in the boat, the instant the brig struck,
+      abandoning not only Don Juan, with Mrs. Budd and Biddy to their fates, but
+      most of the crew. A private order had been given to the boatswain, and
+      three of the ablest-bodied among the seamen, each and all of whom kept the
+      secret with religious fidelity, as it was believed their own personal
+      safety might be connected with the success of this plan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing is so contagious as alarm. It requires not only great natural
+      steadiness of nerve, but much acquired firmness to remain unmoved when
+      sudden terror has seized on the minds of those around us. Habitual respect
+      had prevented the crew from interfering with the movements of the Mexican,
+      who not only descended into the boat with his female companions
+      uninterrupted, but also took with him the little bag of doubloons which
+      fell to his share from the first raising of the schooner. Josh and Jack
+      Tier assisted in getting Mrs. Budd and Biddy over the side, and both took
+      their own places in the yawl, as soon as this pious duty was discharged.
+      This served as a hint to others near at hand; and man after man left his
+      work to steal into the yawl, until every living being had disappeared from
+      the deck of the Swash, Spike himself excepted. The man at the wheel had
+      been the last to desert his post, nor would he have done so then, but for
+      a signal from the boatswain, with whom he was a favourite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is certain there was a secret desire among the people of the Swash, who
+      were now crowded into a boat not large enough to contain more than half
+      their number with safety, to push off from the brig's side, and abandon
+      her commander and owner to his fate. All had passed so soon, however, and
+      events succeeded each other with so much rapidity, that little time was
+      given for consultation. Habit kept them in their places, though the
+      appearances around them were strong motives for taking care of themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding the time necessary to relate the foregoing events, a
+      quarter of an hour had not elapsed, from the moment when the Swash entered
+      this unknown channel among the rocks, ere she struck. No sooner was her
+      helm deserted than she broached-to, and Spike was in the act of denouncing
+      the steerage, ignorant of its cause, when the brig was thrown,
+      broadside-to, on a sharp, angular bed of rocks. It was fortunate for the
+      boat, and all in it, that it was brought to leeward by the broaching-to of
+      the vessel, and that the water was still sufficiently deep around them to
+      prevent the waves from breaking. Breakers there were, however, in
+      thousands, on every side; and the seamen understood that their situation
+      was almost desperately perilous, without shipwreck coming to increase the
+      danger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The storm itself was scarcely more noisy and boisterous than was Spike,
+      when he ascertained the manner in which his people had behaved. At first,
+      he believed it was their plan to abandon him to his fate; but, on rushing
+      to the lee-gangway, Don Juan Montefalderon assured him that no such
+      intention existed, and that he would not allow the boat to be cast off
+      until the captain was received on board. This brief respite gave Spike a
+      moment to care for his portion of the doubloons; and he rushed to his
+      state-room to secure them, together with his quadrant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The grinding of the brig's bottom on the coral, announced a speedy
+      breaking up of the craft, while her commander was thus employed. So
+      violent were some of the shocks with which she came down on the hard bed
+      in which she was now cradled, that Spike expected to see her burst
+      asunder, while he was yet on her decks. The cracking of timbers told him
+      that all was over with the Swash, nor had he got back as far as the
+      gangway with his prize, before he saw plainly that the vessel had broken
+      her back, as it is termed, and that her plank-sheer was opening in a way
+      that threatened to permit a separation of the craft into two sections, one
+      forward and the other aft. Notwithstanding all these portentous proofs
+      that the minutes of the Molly were numbered, and the danger that existed
+      of his being abandoned by his crew, Spike paused a moment, ere he went
+      over the vessel's side, to take a hasty survey of the reef. His object was
+      to get a general idea of the position of the breakers, with a view to
+      avoid them. As much of the interest of that which is to succeed is
+      connected with these particular dangers, it may be well to explain their
+      character, along with a few other points of a similar bearing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The brig had gone ashore fully two miles within the passage she had
+      entered, and which, indeed, terminated at the very spot where she had
+      struck. The Poughkeepsie was standing off and on, in the main channel,
+      with her boats in the water, evidently preparing to carry the brig in that
+      mode. As for the breakers, they whitened the surface of the ocean in all
+      directions around the wreck, far as the eye could reach, but in two. The
+      passage in which the Poughkeepsie was standing to and fro was clear of
+      them, of course; and about a mile and a half to the northward, Spike saw
+      that he should be in open water, or altogether on the northern side of the
+      reef, could he only get there. The gravest dangers would exist in the
+      passage, which led among breakers on all sides, and very possibly among
+      rocks so near the surface as absolutely to obstruct the way. In one sense,
+      however, the breakers were useful. By avoiding them as much as possible,
+      and by keeping in the unbroken water, the boat would be running in the
+      channels of the reef, and consequently would be the safer. The result of
+      the survey, short as it was, and it did not last a minute, was to give
+      Spike something like a plan; and when he went over the side, and got into
+      the boat, it was with a determination to work his way out of the reef to
+      its northern edge, as soon as possible, and then to skirt it as near as he
+      could, in his flight toward the Dry Tortugas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  The screams of rage, the groan, the strife,
+  The blow, the grasp, the horrid cry,
+  The panting, throttled prayer for life,
+  The dying's heaving sigh,
+  The murderer's curse, the dead man's fixed, still glare,
+  And fear's and death's cold sweat&mdash;they all are there.
+
+  Matthew Lee.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was high time that Captain Spike should arrive when his foot touched
+      the bottom of the yawl. The men were getting impatient and anxious to the
+      last degree, and the power of Señor Montefalderon to control them was
+      lessening each instant. They heard the rending of timber, and the grinding
+      on the coral, even more distinctly than the captain himself, and feared
+      that the brig would break up while they lay alongside of her, and crush
+      them amid the ruins. Then the spray of the seas that broke over the
+      weather side of the brig, fell like rain upon them; and everybody in the
+      boat was already as wet as if exposed to a violent shower. It was well,
+      therefore, for Spike that he descended into the boat as he did, for
+      another minute's delay might have brought about his own destruction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike felt a chill at his heart when he looked about him and saw the
+      condition of the yawl. So crowded were the stern-sheets into which he had
+      descended, that it was with difficulty he found room to place his feet; it
+      being his intention to steer, Jack was ordered to get into the eyes of the
+      boat, in order to give him a seat. The thwarts were crowded, and three or
+      four of the people had placed themselves in the very bottom of the little
+      craft, in order to be as much as possible out of the way, as well as in
+      readiness to bail out water. So seriously, indeed, were all the seamen
+      impressed with the gravity of this last duty, that nearly every man had
+      taken with him some vessel fit for such a purpose. Rowing was entirely out
+      of the question, there being no space for the movement of the arms. The
+      yawl was too low in the water, moreover, for such an operation in so heavy
+      a sea. In all, eighteen persons were squeezed into a little craft that
+      would have been sufficiently loaded, for moderate weather at sea, with its
+      four oarsmen and as many sitters in the stern-sheets, with, perhaps, one
+      in the eyes to bring her more on an even keel. In other words, she had
+      twice the weight in her, in living freight, that it would have been
+      thought prudent to receive in so small a craft, in an ordinary time, in or
+      out of a port. In addition to the human beings enumerated, there was a
+      good deal of baggage, nearly every individual having had the forethought
+      to provide a few clothes for a change. The food and water did not amount
+      to much, no more having been provided than enough for the purposes of the
+      captain, together with the four men with whom it had been his intention to
+      abandon the brig. The effect of all this cargo was to bring the yawl quite
+      low in the water; and every sea-faring man in her had the greatest
+      apprehensions about her being able to float at all when she got out from
+      under the lee of the Swash, or into the troubled water. Try it she must,
+      however, and Spike, in a reluctant and hesitating manner, gave the final
+      order to &ldquo;Shove off!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The yawl carried a lugg, as is usually the case with boats at sea, and the
+      first blast of the breeze upon it satisfied Spike that his present
+      enterprise was one of the most dangerous of any in which he had ever been
+      engaged. The puffs of wind were quite as much as the boat would bear; but
+      this he did not mind, as he was running off before it, and there was
+      little danger of the yawl capsizing with such a weight in her. It was also
+      an advantage to have swift way on, to prevent the combing waves from
+      shooting into the boat, though the wind itself scarce outstrips the send
+      of the sea in a stiff blow. As the yawl cleared the brig and began to feel
+      the united power of the wind and waves, the following short dialogue
+      occurred between the boatswain and Spike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare not keep my eyes off the breakers ahead,&rdquo; the captain commenced,
+      &ldquo;and must trust to you, Strand, to report what is going on among the
+      man-of-war's men. What is the ship about?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Reefing her top-sails just now, sir. All three are on the caps, and the
+      vessel is laying-to, in a manner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And her boats?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see none, sir&mdash;ay, ay, there they come from alongside of her in a
+      little fleet! There are four of them, sir, and all are coming down before
+      the wind, wing and wing, carrying their luggs reefed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ours ought to be reefed by rights, too, but we dare not stop to do it;
+      and these infernal combing seas seem ready to glance aboard us with all
+      the way we can gather. Stand by to bail, men; we must pass through a strip
+      of white water&mdash;there is no help for it. God send that we go clear of
+      the rocks!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All this was fearfully true. The adventurers were not yet more than a
+      cable's length from the brig, and they found themselves so completely
+      environed with the breakers as to be compelled to go through them. No man
+      in his senses would ever have come into such a place at all, except in the
+      most unavoidable circumstances; and it was with a species of despair that
+      the seamen of the yawl now saw their little craft go plunging into the
+      foam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Spike neglected no precaution that experience or skill could suggest.
+      He had chosen his spot with coolness and judgment. As the boat rose on the
+      seas he looked eagerly ahead, and by giving it a timely sheer, he hit a
+      sort of channel, where there was sufficient water to carry them clear of
+      the rock, and where the breakers were less dangerous than in the shoaler
+      places. The passage lasted about a minute; and so serious was it, that
+      scarce an individual breathed until it was effected. No human skill could
+      prevent the water from combing in over the gunwales; and when the danger
+      was passed, the yawl was a third filled with water. There was no time or
+      place to pause, but on the little craft was dragged almost gunwale to, the
+      breeze coming against the lugg in puffs that threatened to take the mast
+      out of her. All hands were bailing; and even Biddy used her hands to aid
+      in throwing out the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is no time to hesitate, men,&rdquo; said Spike, sternly. &ldquo;Everything must
+      go overboard but the food and water. Away with them at once, and with a
+      will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a proof how completely all hands were alarmed by this, the first
+      experiment in the breakers, that not a man stayed his hand a single
+      moment, but each threw into the sea, without an instant of hesitation,
+      every article he had brought with him and had hoped to save. Biddy parted
+      with the carpet-bag, and Señor Montefalderon, feeling the importance of
+      example, committed to the deep a small writing-desk that he had placed on
+      his knees. The doubloons alone remained, safe in a little locker where
+      Spike had deposited them along with his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What news astern, boatswain?&rdquo; demanded the captain, as soon as this
+      imminent danger was passed, absolutely afraid to turn his eyes off the
+      dangers ahead for a single instant. &ldquo;How come on the man-of-war's men?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are running down in a body toward the wreck, though one of their
+      boats does seem to be sheering out of the line, as if getting into our
+      wake. It is hard to say, sir, for they are still a good bit to windward of
+      the wreck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the Molly, Strand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, sir, the Molly seems to be breaking up fast; as well as I can see,
+      she has broke in two just abaft the forechains, and cannot hold together
+      in any shape at all many minutes longer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This information drew a deep groan from Spike, and the eye of every seaman
+      in the boat was turned in melancholy on the object they were so fast
+      leaving behind them. The yawl could not be said to be sailing very
+      rapidly, considering the power of the wind, which was a little gale, for
+      she was much too deep for that, but she left the wreck so fast as already
+      to render objects on board her indistinct. Everybody saw that, like an
+      overburthened steed, she had more to get along with than she could well
+      bear; and, dependent as seamen usually are on the judgment and orders of
+      their superiors, even in the direst emergencies, the least experienced man
+      in her saw that their chances of final escape from drowning were of the
+      most doubtful nature. The men looked at each other in a way to express
+      their feelings; and the moment seemed favourable to Spike to confer with
+      his confidential sea-dogs in private; but more white water was also ahead,
+      and it was necessary to pass through it, since no opening was visible by
+      which to avoid it. He deferred his purpose, consequently, until this
+      danger was escaped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this occasion Spike saw but little opportunity to select a place to get
+      through the breakers, though the spot, as a whole, was not of the most
+      dangerous kind. The reader will understand that the preservation of the
+      boat at all, in white water, was owing to the circumstance that the rocks
+      all around it lay so near the surface of the sea as to prevent the
+      possibility of agitating the element very seriously, and to the fact that
+      she was near the lee side of the reef. Had the breakers been of the
+      magnitude of those which are seen where the deep rolling billows of the
+      ocean first meet the weather side of shoals or rocks, a craft of that
+      size, and so loaded, could not possibly have passed the first line of
+      white water without filling. As it was, however, the breakers she had to
+      contend with were sufficiently formidable, and they brought with them the
+      certainty that the boat was in imminent danger of striking the bottom at
+      any moment. Places like those in which Mulford had waded on the reef,
+      while it was calm, would now have proved fatal to the strongest frame,
+      since human powers were insufficient long to withstand the force of such
+      waves as did glance over even these shallows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look out!&rdquo; cried Spike, as the boat again plunged in among the white
+      water. &ldquo;Keep bailing, men&mdash;keep bailing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The men did bail, and the danger was over almost as soon as encountered.
+      Something like a cheer burst out of the chest of Spike, when he saw deeper
+      water around him, and fancied he could now trace a channel that would
+      carry him quite beyond the extent of the reef. It was arrested, only half
+      uttered, however, by a communication from the boatswain, who sat on a
+      midship thwart, his arms folded, and his eye on the brig and the boats.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There goes the Molly's masts, sir! Both have gone together; and as good
+      sticks was they, before them bomb-shells passed through our rigging, as
+      was ever stepped in a keelson.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cheer was changed to something like a groan, while a murmur of regret
+      passed through the boat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What news from the man-of-war's men, boatswain? Do they still stand down
+      on a mere wreck?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir; they seem to give it up, and are getting out their oars to pull
+      back to their ship. A pretty time they'll have of it, too. The cutter that
+      gets to windward half a mile in an hour, ag'in such a sea, and such a
+      breeze, must be well pulled and better steered. One chap, however, sir,
+      seems to hold on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike now ventured to look behind him, commanding an experienced hand to
+      take the helm. In order to do this he was obliged to change places with
+      the man he had selected to come aft, which brought him on a thwart
+      alongside of the boatswain and one or two other of his confidants. Here a
+      whispered conference took place, which lasted several minutes, Spike
+      appearing to be giving instructions to the men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the yawl was more than a mile from the wreck, all the
+      man-of-war boats but one had lowered their sails, and were pulling slowly
+      and with great labour back toward the ship, the cutter that kept on,
+      evidently laying her course after the yawl, instead of standing on toward
+      the wreck. The brig was breaking up fast, with every probability that
+      nothing would be left of her in a few more minutes. As for the yawl, while
+      clear of the white water, it got along without receiving many seas aboard,
+      though the men in its bottom were kept bailing without intermission. It
+      appeared to Spike that so long as they remained on the reef, and could
+      keep clear of breakers&mdash;a most difficult thing, however&mdash;they
+      should fare better than if in deeper water, where the swell of the sea,
+      and the combing of the waves, menaced so small and so deep-loaded a craft
+      with serious danger. As it was, two or three men could barely keep the
+      boat clear, working incessantly, and much of the time with a foot or two
+      of water in her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Josh and Simon had taken their seats, side by side, with that sort of
+      dependence and submission that causes the American black to abstain from
+      mingling with the whites more than might appear seemly. They were squeezed
+      on to one end of the thwart by a couple of robust old sea-dogs, who were
+      two of the very men with whom Spike had been in consultation. Beneath that
+      very thwart was stowed another confidant, to whom communications had also
+      been made. These men had sailed long in the Swash, and having been picked
+      up in various ports, from time to time, as the brig had wanted hands, they
+      were of nearly as many different nations as they were persons. Spike had
+      obtained a great ascendency over them by habit and authority, and his
+      suggestions were now received as a sort of law. As soon as the conference
+      was ended, the captain returned to the helm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A minute more passed, during which the captain was anxiously surveying the
+      reef ahead, and the state of things astern. Ahead was more white water&mdash;the
+      last before they should get clear of the reef; and astern it was now
+      settled that the cutter that held on through the dangers of the place, was
+      in chase of the yawl. That Mulford was in her Spike made no doubt; and the
+      thought embittered even his present calamities. But the moment had arrived
+      for something decided. The white water ahead was much more formidable than
+      any they had passed; and the boldest seamen there gazed at it with dread.
+      Spike made a sign to the boatswain, and commenced the execution of his
+      dire project.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say, you Josh,&rdquo; called out the captain, in the authoritative tones that
+      are so familiar to all on board a ship, &ldquo;pull in that fender that is
+      dragging alongside.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Josh leaned over the gunwale, and reported that there was no fender out. A
+      malediction followed, also so familiar to those acquainted with ships, and
+      the black was told to look again. This time, as had been expected, the
+      negro leaned with his head and body far over the side of the yawl, to look
+      for that which had no existence, when two of the men beneath the thwart
+      shoved his legs after them. Josh screamed, as he found himself going into
+      the water, with a sort of confused consciousness of the truth; and Spike
+      called out to Simon to &ldquo;catch hold of his brother-nigger.&rdquo; The cook bent
+      forward to obey, when a similar assault on <i>his</i> legs from beneath
+      the thwart, sent him headlong after Josh. One of the younger seamen, who
+      was not in the secret, sprang up to rescue Simon, who grasped his extended
+      hand, when the too generous fellow was pitched headlong from the boat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this occurred in less than ten seconds of time, and so unexpectedly
+      and naturally, that not a soul beyond those who were in the secret, had
+      the least suspicion it was anything but an accident. Some water was
+      shipped, of necessity, but the boat was soon bailed free. As for the
+      victims of this vile conspiracy, they disappeared amid the troubled waters
+      of the reef, struggling with each other. Each and all met the common fate
+      so much the sooner, from the manner in which they impeded their own
+      efforts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The yawl was now relieved from about five hundred pounds of the weight it
+      had carried&mdash;Simon weighing two hundred alone, and the youngish
+      seaman being large and full. So intense does human selfishness get to be,
+      in moments of great emergency, that it is to be feared most of those who
+      remained, secretly rejoiced that they were so far benefited by the loss of
+      their fellows. The Señor Montefalderon was seated on the aftermost thwart,
+      with his legs in the stern-sheets, and consequently with his back toward
+      the negroes, and he fully believed that what had happened was purely
+      accidental.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us lower our sail, Don Esteban,&rdquo; he cried, eagerly, &ldquo;and save the
+      poor fellows.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Something very like a sneer gleamed on the dark countenance of the
+      captain, but it suddenly changed to a look of assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good!&rdquo; he said, hastily&mdash;&ldquo;spring forward, Don Wan, and lower the
+      sail&mdash;stand by the oars, men!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Without pausing to reflect, the generous-hearted Mexican stepped on a
+      thwart, and began to walk rapidly forward, steadying himself by placing
+      his hands on the heads of the men. He was suffered to get as far as the
+      second thwart or past most of the conspirators, when his legs were seized
+      from behind. The truth now flashed on him, and grasping two of the men in
+      his front, who knew nothing of Spike's dire scheme, he endeavoured to save
+      himself by holding to their jackets. Thus assailed, those men seized
+      others with like intent, and an awful struggle filled all that part of the
+      craft. At this dread instant the boat glanced into the white water,
+      shipping so much of the element as nearly to swamp her, and taking so wild
+      a sheer as nearly to broach-to. This last circumstance probably saved her,
+      fearful as was the danger for the moment. Everybody in the middle of the
+      yawl was rendered desperate by the amount and nature of the danger
+      incurred, and the men from the bottom rose in their might, underneath the
+      combatants, when a common plunge was made by all who stood erect, one
+      dragging overboard another, each a good deal hastened by the assault from
+      beneath, until no less than five were gone. Spike got his helm up, the
+      boat fell off, and away from the spot it flew, clearing the breakers, and
+      reaching the northern wall-like margin of the reef at the next instant.
+      There was now a moment when those who remained could breathe, and dared to
+      look behind them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great plunge had been made in water so shoal, that the boat had barely
+      escaped being dashed to pieces on the coral. Had it not been so suddenly
+      relieved from the pressure of near a thousand pounds in weight, it is
+      probable that this calamity would have befallen it, the water received on
+      board contributing so much to weight it down. The struggle between these
+      victims ceased, however, the moment they went over. Finding bottom for
+      their feet, they released each other, in a desperate hope of prolonging
+      life by wading. Two or three held out their arms, and shouted to Spike to
+      return and pick them up. This dreadful scene lasted but a single instant,
+      for the waves dashed one after another from his feet, continually forcing
+      them all, as they occasionally regained their footing, toward the margin
+      of the reef, and finally washing them off it into deep water. No human
+      power could enable a man to swim back to the rocks, once to leeward of
+      them, in the face of such seas, and so heavy a blow; and the miserable
+      wretches disappeared in succession, as their strength became exhausted, in
+      the depths of the Gulf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not a word had been uttered while this terrific scene was in the course of
+      occurrence; not a word was uttered for some time afterward. Gleams of grim
+      satisfaction had been seen on the countenances of the boatswain and his
+      associates, when the success of their nefarious project was first assured;
+      but they soon disappeared in looks of horror, as they witnessed the
+      struggles of the drowning men. Nevertheless, human selfishness was strong
+      within them all, and none there was so ignorant as not to perceive how
+      much better were the chances of the yawl now than it had been on quitting
+      the wreck. The weight of a large ox had been taken from it, counting that
+      of all the eight men drowned; and as for the water shipped, it was soon
+      bailed back again into the sea. Not only, therefore, was the yawl in a
+      better condition to resist the waves, but it sailed materially faster than
+      it had done before. Ten persons still remained in it, however, which
+      brought it down in the water below its proper load-line; and the speed of
+      a craft so small was necessarily a good deal lessened by the least
+      deviation from its best sailing, or rowing trim. But Spike's projects were
+      not yet completed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time the man-of-war's cutter had been rushing as madly through
+      the breakers, in chase, as the yawl had done in the attempt to escape.
+      Mulford was, in fact, on board it; and his now fast friend, Wallace, was
+      in command. The latter wished to seize a traitor, the former to save the
+      aunt of his weeping bride. Both believed that they might follow wherever
+      Spike dared to lead. This reasoning was more bold than judicious
+      notwithstanding, since the cutter was much larger, and drew twice as much
+      water as the yawl. On it came, nevertheless, faring much better in the
+      white water than the little craft it pursued, but necessarily running a
+      much more considerable risk of hitting the coral, over which it was
+      glancing almost as swiftly as the waves themselves; still it had thus far
+      escaped&mdash;and little did any in it think of the danger. This cutter
+      pulled ten oars; was an excellent sea boat; had four armed marines in it,
+      in addition to its crew, but carried all through the breakers, receiving
+      scarcely a drop of water on board, on account of the height of its
+      wash-boards, and the general qualities of the craft. It may be well to add
+      here, that the Poughkeepsie had shaken out her reefs, and was betraying
+      the impatience of Captain Mull to make sail in chase, by firing
+      signal-guns to his boats to bear a hand and return. These signals the
+      three boats under their oars were endeavouring to obey, but Wallace had
+      got so far to leeward as now to render the course he was pursuing the
+      wisest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Budd and Biddy had seen the struggle in which the Señor Montefalderon
+      had been lost, in a sort of stupid horror. Both had screamed, as was their
+      wont, though neither probably suspected the truth. But the fell designs of
+      Spike extended to them, as well as to those whom he had already destroyed.
+      Now the boat was in deep water, running along the margin of the reef, the
+      waves were much increased in magnitude, and the comb of the sea was far
+      more menacing to the boat. This would not have been the case had the rocks
+      formed a lee; but they did not, running too near the direction of the
+      trades to prevent the billows that got up a mile or so in the offing, from
+      sending their swell quite home to the reef. It was this swell, indeed,
+      which caused the line of white water along the northern margin of the
+      coral, washing on the rocks by a sort of lateral effort, and breaking, as
+      a matter of course. In many places, no boat could have lived to pass
+      through it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another consideration influenced Spike to persevere. The cutter had been
+      overhauling him, hand over hand, but since the yawl was relieved of the
+      weight of no less than eight men, the difference in the rate of sailing
+      was manifestly diminished. The man-of-war's boat drew nearer, but by no
+      means as fast as it had previously done. A point was now reached in the
+      trim of the yawl, when a very few hundreds in weight might make the most
+      important change in her favour; and this change the captain was determined
+      to produce. By this time the cutter was in deep water, as well as himself,
+      safe through all the dangers of the reef, and she was less than a quarter
+      of a mile astern. On the whole, she was gaining, though so slowly as to
+      require the most experienced eye to ascertain the fact.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madame Budd,&rdquo; said Spike, in a hypocritical tone, &ldquo;we are in great
+      danger, and I shall have to ask you to change your seat. The boat is too
+      much by the starn, now we've got into deep water, and your weight
+      amidships would be a great relief to us. Just give your hand to the
+      boatswain, and he will help you to step from thwart to thwart, until you
+      reach the right place, when Biddy shall follow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Mrs. Budd had witnessed the tremendous struggle in which so many had
+      gone overboard, but so dull was she of apprehension, and so little
+      disposed to suspect anything one-half so monstrous as the truth, that she
+      did not hesitate to comply. She was profoundly awed by the horrors of the
+      scene through which she was passing, the raging billows of the Gulf, as
+      seen from so small a craft, producing a deep impression on her; still a
+      lingering of her most inveterate affectation was to be found in her air
+      and language, which presented a strange medley of besetting weakness, and
+      strong, natural, womanly affection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly, Captain Spike,&rdquo; she answered, rising. &ldquo;A craft should never go
+      astern, and I am quite willing to ballast the boat. We have seen such
+      terrible accidents today, that all should lend their aid in endeavouring
+      to get under way, and in averting all possible hamper. Only take me to my
+      poor, dear Rosy, Captain Spike, and everything shall be forgotten that has
+      passed between us. This is not a moment to bear malice; and I freely
+      pardon you all and everything. The fate of our unfortunate friend, Mr.
+      Montefalderon, should teach us charity, and cause us to prepare for
+      untimely ends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All the time the good widow was making this speech, which she uttered in a
+      solemn and oracular sort of manner, she was moving slowly toward the seat
+      the men had prepared for her, in the middle of the boat, assisted with the
+      greatest care and attention by the boatswain and another of Spike's
+      confidants. When on the second thwart from aft, and about to take her
+      seat, the boatswain cast a look behind him, and Spike put the helm down.
+      The boat luffed and lurched, of course, and Mrs. Budd would probably have
+      gone overboard to leeward, by so sudden and violent a change, had not the
+      impetus thus received been aided by the arms of the men who held her two
+      hands. The plunge she made into the water was deep, for she was a woman of
+      great weight for her stature. Still, she was not immediately gotten rid
+      of. Even at that dread instant, it is probable that the miserable woman
+      did not suspect the truth, for she grasped the hand of the boatswain with
+      the tenacity of a vice, and, thus dragged on the surface of the boiling
+      surges, she screamed aloud for Spike to save her. Of all who had yet been
+      sacrificed to the captain's selfish wish to save himself, this was the
+      first instance in which any had been heard to utter a sound, after falling
+      into the sea. The appeal shocked even the rude beings around her, and
+      Biddy chiming in with a powerful appeal to &ldquo;save the missus!&rdquo; added to the
+      piteous nature of the scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cast off her hand,&rdquo; said Spike reproachfully, &ldquo;she'll swamp the boat by
+      her struggles&mdash;get rid of her at once! Cut her fingers off, if she
+      wont let go!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The instant these brutal orders were given, and that in a fierce,
+      impatient tone, the voice of Biddy was heard no more. The truth forced
+      itself on her dull imagination, and she sat a witness of the terrible
+      scene, in mute despair. The struggle did not last long. The boatswain drew
+      his knife across the wrist of the hand that grasped his own, one shriek
+      was heard, and the boat plunged into the trough of a sea, leaving the form
+      of poor Mrs. Budd struggling with the wave on its summit, and amid the
+      foam of its crest. This was the last that was ever seen of the unfortunate
+      relict.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The boat has gained a good deal by that last discharge of cargo,&rdquo; said
+      Spike to the boatswain, a minute after they had gotten rid of the
+      struggling woman&mdash;&ldquo;she is much more lively, and is getting nearer to
+      her load-line. If we can bring her to <i>that,</i> I shall have no fear of
+      the man-of-war's men; for this yawl is one of the fastest boats that ever
+      floated.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A very little <i>now,</i> sir, would bring us to our true trim.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, we must get rid of more cargo. Come, good woman,&rdquo; turning to Biddy,
+      with whom he did not think it worth his while to use much circumlocution,
+      &ldquo;<i>your</i> turn is next. It's the maid's duty to follow her mistress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know'd it <i>must</i> come,&rdquo; said Biddy, meekly. &ldquo;If there was no mercy
+      for the missus, little could I look for. But ye'll not take the life of a
+      Christian woman widout giving her so much as one minute to say her
+      prayers?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, pray away,&rdquo; answered Spike, his throat becoming dry and husky, for,
+      strange to say, the submissive quiet of the Irish woman, so different from
+      the struggle he had anticipated with <i>her,</i> rendered him more
+      reluctant to proceed than he had hitherto been in all of that terrible
+      day. As Biddy kneeled in the bottom of the stern-sheets, Spike looked
+      behind him, for the double purpose of escaping the painful spectacle at
+      his feet, and that of ascertaining how his pursuers came on. The last
+      still gained, though very slowly, and doubts began to come over the
+      captain's mind whether he could escape such enemies at all. He was too
+      deeply committed, however, to recede, and it was most desirable to get rid
+      of poor Biddy, if it were for no other motive than to shut her mouth.
+      Spike even fancied that some idea of what had passed was entertained by
+      those in the cutter. There was evidently a stir in that boat, and two
+      forms that he had no difficulty, now, in recognizing as those of Wallace
+      and Mulford, were standing on the grating in the eyes of the cutter, or
+      forward of the foresail. The former appeared to have a musket in his hand,
+      and the other a glass. The last circumstance admonished him that all that
+      was now done would be done before dangerous witnesses. It was too late to
+      draw back, however, and the captain turned to look for the Irish woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Biddy arose from her knees, just as Spike withdrew his eyes from his
+      pursuers. The boatswain and another confidant were in readiness to cast
+      the poor creature into the sea, the moment their leader gave the signal.
+      The intended victim saw and understood the arrangement, and she spoke
+      earnestly and piteously to her murderers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's not wanting will be violence!&rdquo; said Biddy, in a quiet tone, but with
+      a saddened countenance. &ldquo;I know it's my turn, and I will save yer sowls
+      from a part of the burden of this great sin. God, and His Divine Son, and
+      the Blessed Mother of Jesus have mercy on me if it be wrong; but I would
+      far radder jump into the saa widout having the rude hands of man on me,
+      than have the dreadful sight of the missus done over ag'in. It's a fearful
+      thing is wather, and sometimes we have too little of it, and sometimes
+      more than we want&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bear a hand, bear a hand, good woman,&rdquo; interrupted the boatswain,
+      impatiently. &ldquo;We must clear the boat of you, and the sooner it is done the
+      better it will be for all of us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't grudge a poor morthal half a minute of life, at the last moment,&rdquo;
+       answered Biddy. &ldquo;It's not long that I'll throuble ye, and so no more need
+      be said.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor creature then got on the quarter of the boat, without any one's
+      touching her; there she placed herself with her legs outboard, while she
+      sat on the gunwale. She gave one moment to the thought of arranging her
+      clothes with womanly decency, and then she paused to gaze with a fixed
+      eye, and pallid cheek, on the foaming wake that marked the rapid course of
+      the boat. The troughs of the sea seemed less terrible to her than their
+      combing crests, and she waited for the boat to descend into the next.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forgive ye all, this deed, as I do!&rdquo; said Biddy, earnestly, and
+      bending her person forward, she fell, as it might be &ldquo;without hands,&rdquo; into
+      the gulf of eternity. Though all strained their eyes, none of the men,
+      Jack Tier excepted, ever saw more of Biddy Noon. Nor did Jack see much. He
+      got a frightful glimpse of an arm, however, on the summit of a wave, but
+      the motion of the boat was too swift, and the water of the ocean too
+      troubled, to admit of aught else.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A long pause succeeded this event. Biddy's quiet submission to her fate
+      had produced more impression on her murderers than the desperate, but
+      unavailing, struggles of those who had preceded her. Thus it is ever with
+      men. When opposed, the demon within blinds them to consequences as well as
+      to their duties; but, unresisted, the silent influence of the image of God
+      makes itself felt, and a better spirit begins to prevail. There was not
+      one in that boat who did not, for a brief space, wish that poor Biddy had
+      been spared. With most, that feeling, the last of human kindness they ever
+      knew, lingered until the occurrence of the dread catastrophe which, so
+      shortly after, closed the scene of this state of being on their eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jack Tier,&rdquo; called out Spike, some five minutes after Biddy was drowned,
+      but not until another observation had made it plainly apparent to him that
+      the man-of-war's men still continued to draw nearer, being now not more
+      than fair musket-shot astern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir,&rdquo; answered Jack, coming quietly out of his hole, from forward
+      of the mast, and moving aft as if indifferent to the danger, by stepping
+      lightly from thwart to thwart, until he reached the stern-sheets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is your turn, little Jack,&rdquo; said Spike, as if in a sort of sorrowful
+      submission to a necessity that knew no law, &ldquo;we cannot spare you the
+      room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have expected this, and am ready. Let me have my own way, and I will
+      cause you no trouble. Poor Biddy has taught me how to die. Before I go,
+      however, Stephen Spike, I must leave you this letter. It is written by
+      myself, and addressed to you. When I am gone, read it, and think well of
+      what it contains. And now, may a merciful God pardon the sins of both,
+      through love for His Divine Son. I forgive you, Stephen; and should you
+      live to escape from those who are now bent on hunting you to the death,
+      let this day cause you no grief on my account. Give me but a moment of
+      time, and I will cause you no trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack now stood upon the seat of the stern-sheets, balancing himself with
+      one foot on the stern of the boat. He waited until the yawl had risen to
+      the summit of a wave, when he looked eagerly for the man-of-war's cutter.
+      At that moment she was lost to view in the trough of the sea. Instead of
+      springing overboard, as all expected, he asked another instant of delay.
+      The yawl sank into the trough itself, and rose on the succeeding billow.
+      Then he saw the cutter, and Wallace and Mulford standing in its bows. He
+      waved his hat to them, and sprang high into the air, with the intent to
+      make himself seen; when he came down the boat had shot her length away
+      from the place, leaving him to buffet with the waves. Jack now managed
+      admirably, swimming lightly and easily, but keeping his eyes on the crests
+      of the waves, with a view to meet the cutter. Spike now saw this
+      well-planned project to avoid death, and regretted his own remissness in
+      not making sure of Jack. Everybody in the yawl was eagerly looking after
+      the form of Tier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There he is on the comb of that sea, rolling over like a keg!&rdquo; cried the
+      boatswain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He 's through it,&rdquo; answered Spike, &ldquo;and swimming with great strength and
+      coolness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Several of the men started up involuntarily and simultaneously to look,
+      hitting their shoulders and bodies together. Distrust was at its most
+      painful height; and bull-dogs do not spring at the ox's muzzle more
+      fiercely than those six men throttled each other. Oaths, curses, and
+      appeals for help, succeeded; each man endeavouring, in his frenzied
+      efforts, to throw all the others overboard, as the only means of saving
+      himself. Plunge succeeded plunge; and when that combat of demons ended, no
+      one remained of them all but the boatswain. Spike had taken no share in
+      the struggle, looking on in grim satisfaction, as the Father of Lies may
+      be supposed to regard all human strife, hoping good to himself, let the
+      result be what it might to others. Of the five men who thus went
+      overboard, not one escaped. They drowned each other by continuing their
+      maddened conflict in an element unsuited to their natures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not so with Jack Tier. His leap had been seen, and a dozen eyes in the
+      cutter watched for his person, as that boat came foaming down before the
+      wind. A shout of &ldquo;There he is!&rdquo; from Mulford succeeded; and the little
+      fellow was caught by the hair, secured, and then hauled into the boat by
+      the second lieutenant of the Poughkeepsie and our young mate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Others in the cutter had noted the incident of the hellish fight. The fact
+      was communicated to Wallace, and Mulford said, &ldquo;That yawl will outsail
+      this loaded cutter, with only two men in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then it is time to try what virtue there is in lead,&rdquo; answered Wallace.
+      &ldquo;Marines, come forward, and give the rascal a volley.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The volley was fired; one ball passed through the head of the boatswain,
+      killing him dead on the spot. Another went through the body of Spike. The
+      captain fell in the stern-sheets, and the boat instantly broached-to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The water that came on board apprised Spike fully of the state in which he
+      was now placed, and by a desperate effort, he clutched the tiller, and got
+      the yawl again before the wind. This could not last, however. Little by
+      little, his hold relaxed, until his hand relinquished its grasp
+      altogether, and the wounded man sank into the bottom of the stern-sheets,
+      unable to raise even his head. Again the boat broached-to. Every sea now
+      sent its water aboard, and the yawl would soon have filled, had not the
+      cutter come glancing down past it, and rounding-to under its lee, secured
+      the prize.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Man hath a weary pilgrimage,
+  As through the world he wends;
+  On every stage, from youth to age,
+  Still discontent attends;
+  With heaviness he casts his eye,
+  Upon the road before,
+  And still remembers with a sigh
+  The days that are no more.
+
+  Southey.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It has now become necessary to advance the time three entire days, and to
+      change the scene to Key West. As this latter place may not be known to the
+      world at large, it may be well to explain that it is a small seaport,
+      situate on one of the largest of the many low islands that dot the Florida
+      Reef, that has risen into notice, or indeed into existence as a town,
+      since the acquisition of the Floridas by the American Republic. For many
+      years it was the resort of few besides wreckers, and those who live by the
+      business dependent on the rescuing and repairing of stranded vessels, not
+      forgetting the salvages. When it is remembered that the greater portion of
+      the vessels that enter the Gulf of Mexico stand close along this reef,
+      before the trades, for a distance varying from one to two hundred miles,
+      and that nearly everything which quits it, is obliged to beat down its
+      rocky coast in the Gulf Stream for the same distance, one is not to be
+      surprised that the wrecks, which so constantly occur, can supply the wants
+      of a considerable population. To live at Key West is the next thing to
+      being at sea. The place has sea air, no other water than such as is
+      preserved in cisterns, and no soil, or so little as to render even a head
+      of lettuce a rarity. Turtle is abundant, and the business of &ldquo;turtling&rdquo;
+       forms an occupation additional to that of wrecking. As might be expected,
+      in such circumstances, a potato is a far more precious thing than a
+      turtle's egg, and a sack of the tubers would probably be deemed a
+      sufficient remuneration for enough of the materials of callipash and
+      callipee to feed all the aldermen extant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of late years, the government of the United States has turned its
+      attention to the capabilities of the Florida Reef, as an advanced naval
+      station; a sort of Downs, or St. Helen's Roads, for the West Indian seas.
+      As yet little has been done beyond making the preliminary surveys, but the
+      day is not probably very distant when fleets will lie at anchor among the
+      islets described in our earlier chapters, or garnish the fine waters of
+      Key West. For a long time it was thought that even frigates would have a
+      difficulty in entering and quitting the port of the latter, but it is said
+      that recent explorations have discovered channels capable of admitting
+      anything that floats. Still Key West is a town yet in its chrysalis state,
+      possessing the promise rather than the fruition of the prosperous days
+      which are in reserve. It may be well to add, that it lies a very little
+      north of the 24th degree of latitude, and in a longitude quite five
+      degrees west from Washington. Until the recent conquests in Mexico it was
+      the most southern possession of the American government, on the eastern
+      side of the continent; Cape St. Lucas, at the extremity of Lower
+      California, however, being two degrees farther south.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will give the foreign reader a more accurate notion of the character of
+      Key West, if we mention a fact of quite recent occurrence. A very few
+      weeks after the closing scenes of this tale, the town in question was, in
+      a great measure, washed away! A hurricane brought in the sea upon all
+      these islands and reefs, water running in swift currents over places that
+      within the memory of man were never before submerged. The lower part of
+      Key West was converted into a raging sea, and everything in that quarter
+      of the place disappeared. The foundation being of rock, however, when the
+      ocean retired the island came into view again, and industry and enterprise
+      set to work to repair the injuries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The government has established a small hospital for seamen at Key West.
+      Into one of the rooms of the building thus appropriated our narrative must
+      now conduct the reader. It contained but a single patient, and that was
+      Spike. He was on his narrow bed, which was to be but the pucursor of a
+      still narrower tenement, the grave. In the room with the dying man were
+      two females, in one of whom our readers will at once recognize the person
+      of Rose Budd, dressed in deep mourning for her aunt. At first sight, it is
+      probable that a casual spectator would mistake the second female for one
+      of the ordinary nurses of the place. Her attire was well enough, though
+      worn awkwardly, and as if its owner were not exactly at ease in it. She
+      had the air of one in her best attire, who was unaccustomed to be dressed
+      above the most common mode. What added to the singularity of her
+      appearance, was the fact, that while she wore no cap, her hair had been
+      cut into short, gray bristles, instead of being long, and turned up, as is
+      usual with females. To give a sort of climax to this uncouth appearance,
+      this strange-looking creature chewed tobacco.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman in question, equivocal as might be her exterior, was employed in
+      one of the commonest avocations of her sex&mdash;that of sewing. She held
+      in her hand a coarse garment, one of Spike's, in fact, which she seemed to
+      be intently busy in mending; although the work was of a quality that
+      invited the use of the palm and sail-needle, rather than that of the
+      thimble and the smaller implement known to seamstresses, the woman
+      appeared awkward in her business, as if her coarse-looking and dark hands
+      refused to lend themselves to an occupation so feminine. Nevertheless,
+      there were touches of a purely womanly character about this extraordinary
+      person, and touches that particularly attracted the attention, and
+      awakened the sympathy of the gentle Rose, her companion. Tears
+      occasionally struggled out from beneath her eyelids, crossed her dark,
+      sun-burnt cheek, and fell on the coarse canvas garment that lay in her
+      lap. It was after one of these sudden and strong exhibitions of feeling
+      that Rose approached her, laid her own little, fair hand, in a friendly
+      way, though unheeded, on the other's shoulder, and spoke to her in her
+      kindest and softest tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do really think he is reviving, Jack,&rdquo; said Rose, &ldquo;and that you may yet
+      hope to have an intelligent conversation with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They all agree he <i>must</i> die,&rdquo; answered Jack Tier&mdash;for it was
+      <i>he,</i> appearing in the garb of his proper sex, after a disguise that
+      had now lasted fully twenty years&mdash;&ldquo;and he will never know who I am,
+      and that I forgive him. He must think of me in another world, though he is
+      n't able to do it in this; but it would be a great relief to his soul to
+      know that I forgive him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure, a man must like to take a kind leave of his own wife before
+      he closes his eyes for ever; and I dare say it would be a great relief to
+      you to tell him that you have forgotten his desertion of you, and all the
+      hardships it has brought upon you in searching for him, and in earning
+      your own livelihood as a common sailor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall not tell him I've <i>forgotten</i> it, Miss Rose; that would be
+      untrue&mdash;and there shall be no more deception between us; but I shall
+      tell him that I <i>forgive</i> him, as I hope God will one day forgive me
+      all <i>my</i> sins.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is, certainly, not a light offence to desert a wife in a foreign land,
+      and then to seek to deceive another woman,&rdquo; quietly observed Rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's a willian!&rdquo; muttered the wife&mdash;&ldquo;but&mdash;but&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forgive him, Jack&mdash;yes, I'm sure you do. You are too good a
+      Christian to refuse to forgive him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm a woman a'ter all, Miss Rose; and that, I believe, is the truth of
+      it. I suppose I ought to do as you say, for the reason you mention; but
+      I'm his wife&mdash;and once he loved me, though that has long been over.
+      When I first knew Stephen, I'd the sort of feelin's you speak of, and was
+      a very different creatur' from what you see me to-day. Change comes over
+      us all with years and sufferin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose did not answer, but she stood looking intently at the speaker more
+      than a minute. Change had, indeed, come over her, if she had ever
+      possessed the power to please the fancy of any living man. Her features
+      had always seemed diminutive and mean for her assumed sex, as her voice
+      was small and cracked; but, making every allowance for the probabilities,
+      Rose found it difficult to imagine that Jack Tier had ever possessed, even
+      under the high advantages of youth and innocence, the attractions so
+      common to her sex. Her skin had acquired the tanning of the sea; the
+      expression of her face had become hard and worldly; and her habits
+      contributed to render those natural consequences of exposure and toil even
+      more than usually marked and decided. By saying &ldquo;habits,&rdquo; however, we do
+      not mean that Jack had ever drunk to excess, as happens with so many
+      seamen, for this would have been doing her injustice, but she smoked and
+      chewed&mdash;practices that intoxicate in another form, and lead nearly as
+      many to the grave as excess in drinking. Thus all the accessories about
+      this singular being, partook of the character of her recent life and
+      duties. Her walk was between a waddle and a seaman's roll, her hands were
+      discoloured with tar, and had got to be full of knuckles, and even her
+      feet had degenerated into that flat, broad-toed form that, perhaps, sooner
+      distinguishes caste, in connection with outward appearances, than any one
+      other physical peculiarity. Yet this being <i>had</i> once been young&mdash;had
+      once been even <i>fair;</i> and had once possessed that feminine air and
+      lightness of form, that as often belongs to the youthful American of her
+      sex, perhaps, as to the girl of any other nation on earth. Rose continued
+      to gaze at her companion for some time, when she walked musingly to a
+      window that looked out upon the port.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not certain whether it would do him good or not to see this sight,&rdquo;
+       she said, addressing the wife kindly, doubtful of the effect of her words
+      even on the latter. &ldquo;But here are the sloop-of-war, and several other
+      vessels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, she is <i>there;</i> but never will his foot be put on board the
+      Swash ag'in. When he bought that brig I was still young, and agreeable to
+      him; and he gave her my maiden name, which was Mary, or Molly Swash. But
+      that is all changed; I wonder he did not change the name with his change
+      of feelin's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you did really sail in the brig in former times, and knew the seaman
+      whose name you assumed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Many years. Tier, with whose name I made free, on account of his size,
+      and some resemblance to me in form, died under my care; and his protection
+      fell into my hands, which first put the notion into my head of hailing as
+      his representative. Yes, I knew Tier in the brig, and we were left ashore
+      at the same time; I, intentionally, I make no question; he, because
+      Stephen Spike was in a hurry, and did not choose to wait for a man. The
+      poor fellow caught the yellow fever the very next day, and did not live
+      eight-and-forty hours. So the world goes; them that wish to live, die; and
+      them that wants to die, live!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have had a hard time for one of your sex, poor Jack&mdash;quite
+      twenty years a sailor, did you not tell me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every day of it, Miss Rose&mdash;and bitter years have they been; for the
+      whole of that time have I been in chase of my husband, keeping my own
+      secret, and slaving like a horse for a livelihood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You could not have been old when he left&mdash;that is&mdash;when you
+      parted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Call it by its true name, and say at once, when he desarted me. I was
+      under thirty by two or three years, and was still like my own sex to look
+      at. All <i>that</i> is changed since; but I <i>was</i> comely <i>then</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Why</i> did Captain Spike abandon you, Jack; you have never told me <i>that</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because he fancied another. And ever since that time he has been fancying
+      others, instead of remembering me. Had he got <i>you,</i> Miss Rose, I
+      think he would have been content for the rest of his days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be certain, Jack, I should never have consented to marry Captain Spike.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're well out of his hands,&rdquo; answered Jack, sighing heavily, which was
+      the most feminine thing she had done during the whole conversation, &ldquo;well
+      out of his hands&mdash;and God be praised it is so. He should have died,
+      before I would let him carry you off the island&mdash;husband or no
+      husband.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It might have exceeded your power to prevent it under other
+      circumstances, Jack.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose now continued looking out of the window in silence. Her thoughts
+      reverted to her aunt and Biddy, and tears rolled down her cheeks as she
+      remembered the love of one, and the fidelity of the other. Their horrible
+      fate had given her a shock that, at first, menaced her with a severe fit
+      of illness; but her strong, good sense, and excellent constitution, both
+      sustained by her piety and Harry's manly tenderness, had brought her
+      through the danger, and left her, as the reader now sees her, struggling
+      with her own griefs, in order to be of use to the still more unhappy woman
+      who had so singularly become her friend and companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader will readily have anticipated that Jack Tier had early made the
+      females on board the Swash her confidants. Rose had known the outlines of
+      her history from the first few days they were at sea together, which is
+      the explanation of the visible intimacy that had caused Mulford so much
+      surprise. Jack's motive in making his revelations might possibly have been
+      tinctured with jealousy, but a desire to save one as young and innocent as
+      Rose was at its bottom. Few persons but a wife would have supposed our
+      heroine could have been in any danger from a lover like Spike; but Jack
+      saw him with the eyes of her own youth, and of past recollections, rather
+      than with those of truth. A movement of the wounded man first drew Rose
+      from the window. Drying her eyes hastily, she turned toward him, fancying
+      she might prove the better nurse of the two, notwithstanding Jack's
+      greater interest in the patient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What place is this&mdash;and why am I here?&rdquo; demanded Spike, with more
+      strength of voice than could have been expected, after all that had
+      passed. &ldquo;This is not a cabin&mdash;not the Swash&mdash;it looks like a
+      hospital.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a hospital, Captain Spike,&rdquo; said Rose, gently drawing near the bed;
+      &ldquo;you have been hurt, and have been brought to Key West, and placed in the
+      hospital. I hope you feel better, and that you suffer no pain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My head is n't right&mdash;I do n't know&mdash;everything seems turned
+      round with me&mdash;perhaps it will all come out as it should. I begin to
+      remember&mdash;where is my brig?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is lost on the rocks. The seas have broken her into fragments.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's melancholy news, at any rate. Ah! Miss Rose! God bless you&mdash;I've
+      had terrible dreams. Well, it's pleasant to be among friends&mdash;what
+      creature is that&mdash;where does <i>she</i> come from?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is Jack Tier,&rdquo; answered Rose, steadily. &ldquo;She turns out to be a
+      woman, and has put on her proper dress, in order to attend on you during
+      your illness. Jack has never left your bedside since we have been here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A long silence succeeded this revelation. Jack's eyes twinkled, and she
+      hitched her body half aside, as if to conceal her features, where emotions
+      that were unusual were at work with the muscles. Rose thought it might be
+      well to leave the man and wife alone&mdash;and she managed to get out of
+      the room unobserved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike continued to gaze at the strange-looking female, who was now his
+      sole companion. Gradually his recollection returned, and with it the full
+      consciousness of his situation. He might not have been fully aware of the
+      absolute certainty of his approaching death, but he must have known that
+      his wound was of a very grave character, and that the result might early
+      prove fatal. Still that strange and unknown figure haunted him; a figure
+      that was so different from any he had ever seen before, and which, in
+      spite of its present dress, seemed to belong quite as much to one sex as
+      to the other. As for Jack, we call Molly, or Mary Swash by her masculine
+      appellation, not only because it is more familiar, but because the other
+      name seems really out of place, as applied to such a person&mdash;as for
+      Jack, then, she sat with her face half averted, thumbing the canvas, and
+      endeavouring to ply the needle, but perfectly mute. She was conscious that
+      Spike's eyes were on her; and a lingering feeling of her sex told her how
+      much time, exposure, and circumstances, had changed her person&mdash;and
+      she would gladly have hidden the defects in her appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mary Swash was the daughter as well as the wife of a ship-master. In her
+      youth, as has been said before, she had even been pretty, and down to the
+      day when her husband deserted her, she would have been thought a female of
+      a comely appearance rather than the reverse. Her hair in particular,
+      though slightly coarse, perhaps, had been rich and abundant; and the
+      change from the long, dark, shining, flowing locks which she still
+      possessed in her thirtieth year, to the short, grey bristles that now
+      stood exposed without a cap, or covering of any sort, was one very likely
+      to destroy all identity of appearance. Then Jack had passed from what
+      might be called youth to the verge of old age, in the interval that she
+      had been separated from her husband. Her shape had changed entirely; her
+      complexion was utterly gone; and her features, always unmeaning, though
+      feminine, and suitable to her sex, had become hard and slightly coarse.
+      Still there was something of her former self about Jack that bewildered
+      Spike; and his eyes continued fastened on her for quite a quarter of an
+      hour in profound silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give me some water,&rdquo; said the wounded man, &ldquo;I wish some water to drink.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack arose, filled a tumbler and brought it to the side of the bed. Spike
+      took the glass and drank, but the whole time his eyes were riveted on the
+      strange nurse. When his thirst was appeased, he asked&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who are you? How came you here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am your nurse. It is common to place nurses at the bedsides of the
+      sick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you man or woman?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a question I hardly know how to answer. Sometimes I think myself
+      each; sometimes neither.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I ever see you before?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Often, and quite lately. I sailed with you in your last voyage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You! That cannot be. If so, what is your name?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jack Tier.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A long pause succeeded this announcement, which induced Spike to muse as
+      intently as his condition would allow, though the truth did not yet flash
+      on his understanding. At length the bewildered man again spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are <i>you</i> Jack Tier?&rdquo; he said slowly, like one who doubted. &ldquo;Yes&mdash;I
+      now see the resemblance, and it was <i>that</i> which puzzled me. Are they
+      so rigid in this hospital that you have been obliged to put on woman's
+      clothes in order to lend me a helping hand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am dressed as you see, and for good reasons.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Jack Tier run, like that rascal Mulford&mdash;ay, I remember now; you
+      were in the boat when I overhauled you all on the reef.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true; I was in the boat. But I never run, Stephen Spike. It was <i>you</i>
+      who abandoned <i>me,</i> on the islet in the Gulf, and that makes the
+      second time in your life that you left me ashore, when it was your duty to
+      carry me to sea.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The first time I was in a hurry, and could not wait for you; this last
+      time you took sides with the women. But for your interference, I should
+      have got Rose, and married her, and all would now have been well with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was an awkward announcement for a man to make to his legal wife. But
+      after all Jack had endured, and all Jack had seen during the late voyage,
+      she was not to be overcome by this avowal. Her self-command extended so
+      far as to prevent any open manifestation of emotion, however much her
+      feelings were excited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I took sides with the women, because I am a woman myself,&rdquo; she answered,
+      speaking at length with decision, as if determined to bring matters to a
+      head at once. &ldquo;It is natural for us all to take sides with our kind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You a woman, Jack! That is very remarkable. Since when have you hailed
+      for a woman? You have shipped with me twice, and each time as a man&mdash;though
+      I've never thought you able to do seaman's duty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nevertheless, I am what you see; a woman born and edicated; one that
+      never had on man's dress until I knew you. <i>You</i> supposed me to be a
+      man, when I came off to you in the skiff to the eastward of Riker's
+      Island, but I was then what you now see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I begin to understand matters,&rdquo; rejoined the invalid, musingly. &ldquo;Ay, ay,
+      it opens on me; and I now see how it was you made such fair weather with
+      Madam Budd and pretty, pretty Rose. Rose <i>is</i> pretty, Jack; you <i>must</i>
+      admit <i>that,</i> though you be a woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rose <i>is</i> pretty&mdash;I do admit it; and what is better, Rose is <i>good.&rdquo;</i>
+      It required a heavy draft on Jack's justice and magnanimity, however, to
+      make this concession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you told Rose and Madam Budd about your sex; and that was the reason
+      they took to you so on the v'y'ge?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I told them who I was, and why I went abroad as a man. They know my whole
+      story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did Rose approve of your sailing under false colours, Jack?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must ask that of Rose herself. My story made her my friend; but she
+      never said anything for or against my disguise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was no great disguise a'ter all, Jack. Now you're fitted out in your
+      own clothes, you've a sort of half-rigged look; one would be as likely to
+      set you down for a man under jury-canvas, as for a woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack made no answer to this, but she sighed very heavily. As for Spike
+      himself, he was silent for some little time, not only from exhaustion, but
+      because he suffered pain from his wound. The needle was diligently but
+      awkwardly plied in this pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike's ideas were still a little confused; but a silence and rest of a
+      quarter of an hour cleared them materially. At the end of that time he
+      again asked for water. When he had drunk, and Jack was once more seated,
+      with his side-face toward him, at work with the needle, the captain gazed
+      long and intently at this strange woman. It happened that the profile of
+      Jack preserved more of the resemblance to her former self, than the full
+      face; and it was this resemblance that now attracted Spike's attention,
+      though not the smallest suspicion of the truth yet gleamed upon him. He
+      saw something that was familiar, though he could not even tell what that
+      something was, much less to what or whom it bore any resemblance. At
+      length he spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was told that Jack Tier was dead,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;that he took the fever,
+      and was in his grave within eight-and-forty hours after we sailed. That
+      was what they told me of <i>him</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what did they tell you of your own wife, Stephen Spike. She that you
+      left ashore at the time Jack was left?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They said she did not die for three years later. I heard of her death at
+      New Or<i>leens,</i> three years later.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how could you leave her ashore&mdash;she, your true and lawful wife?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was a bad thing,&rdquo; answered Spike, who, like all other mortals,
+      regarded his own past career, now that he stood on the edge of the grave,
+      very differently from what he had regarded it in the hour of his health
+      and strength. &ldquo;Yes, it <i>was</i> a very bad thing; and I wish it was
+      ondone. But it is too late now. She died of the fever, too&mdash;that's
+      some comfort; had she died of a broken heart, I could not have forgiven
+      myself. Molly was not without her faults&mdash;great faults, I considered
+      them; but, on the whole, Molly was a good creatur'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You liked her, then, Stephen Spike?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can truly say that when I married Molly, and old Captain Swash put his
+      da'ghter's hand into mine, that the woman was n't living who was better in
+      my judgment, or handsomer in my eyes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay&mdash;when you <i>married</i> her; but how was it a'terwards?&mdash;when
+      you was tired of her, and saw another that was fairer in your eyes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I desarted her; and God has punished me for the sin! Do you know, Jack,
+      that luck has never been with me since that day. Often and often have I
+      bethought me of it; and sartain as you sit there, no great luck has ever
+      been with me, or my craft, since I went off, leaving my wife ashore. What
+      was made in one v'y'ge, was lost in the next. Up and down, up and down the
+      whole time, for so many, many long years, that grey hairs set in, and old
+      age was beginning to get close aboard&mdash;and I as poor as ever. It has
+      been rub and go with me ever since; and I have had as much as I could do
+      to keep the brig in motion, as the only means that was left to make the
+      two ends meet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And did not all this make you think of your poor wife&mdash;she whom you
+      had so wronged?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought of little else, until I heard of her death at New Or<i>leens</i>&mdash;and
+      then I gave it up as useless. Could I have fallen in with Molly at any
+      time a'ter the first six months of my desartion, she and I would have come
+      together again, and everything would have been forgotten. I knowed her
+      very nature, which was all forgiveness to me at the bottom, though
+      seemingly so spiteful and hard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet you wanted to have this Rose Budd, who is only too young, and
+      handsome, and good for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was tired of being a widower, Jack; and Rose <i>is</i> wonderful
+      pretty. She has money, too, and might make the evening of my days
+      comfortable. The brig was old, as you must know, and has long been off of
+      all the Insurance Offices' books; and she could n't hold together much
+      longer. But for this sloop-of-war, I should have put her off on the
+      Mexicans; and they would have lost her to our people in a month.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And was it an honest thing to sell an old and worn-out craft to any one,
+      Stephen Spike?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike had a conscience that had become hard as iron by means of trade. He
+      who traffics much, most especially if his dealings be on so small a scale
+      as to render constant investigations of the minor qualities of things
+      necessary, must be a very fortunate man, if he preserve his conscience in
+      any better condition. When Jack made this allusion, therefore, the dying
+      man&mdash;for death was much nearer to Spike that even be supposed, though
+      he no longer hoped for his own recovery&mdash;when Jack made this
+      allusion, then, the dying man was a good deal at a loss to comprehend it.
+      He saw no particular harm in making the best bargain he could; nor was it
+      easy for him to understand why he might not dispose of anything he
+      possessed for the highest price that was to be had. Still he answered in
+      an apologetic sort of way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The brig was old, I acknowledge,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but she was strong, and <i>might</i>
+      have run a long time. I only spoke of her capture as a thing likely to
+      take place soon, if the Mexicans got her; so that her qualities were of no
+      great account, unless it might be her speed&mdash;and that you know was
+      excellent, Jack.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you regret that brig, Stephen Spike, lying as you do on your
+      death-bed, more than anything else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not as much as I do pretty Rose Budd, Jack; Rosy is so delightful to look
+      at!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The muscles of Jack's face twitched a little, and she looked deeply
+      mortified; for, to own the truth, she hoped that the conversation had so
+      far turned her delinquent husband's thoughts to the past, as to have
+      revived in him some of his former interest in herself. It is true, he
+      still believed her dead; but this was a circumstance Jack overlooked&mdash;so
+      hard is it to hear the praises of a rival, and be just. She felt the
+      necessity of being more explicit, and determined at once to come to the
+      point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stephen Spike,&rdquo; she said, steadily, drawing near to the bed-side, &ldquo;you
+      should be told the truth, when you are heard thus extolling the good looks
+      of Rose Budd, with less than eight-and-forty hours of life remaining. Mary
+      Swash did not die, as you have supposed, three years a'ter you desarted
+      her, but is living at this moment. Had you read the letter I gave you in
+      the boat, just before you made me jump into the sea, <i>that</i> would
+      have told you where she is to be found.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike stared at the speaker intently; and when her cracked voice ceased,
+      his look was that of a man who was terrified as well as bewildered. This
+      did not arise still from any gleamings of the real state of the case, but
+      from the soreness with which his conscience pricked him, when he heard
+      that his much-wronged wife was alive. He fancied, with a vivid and rapid
+      glance at the probabilities, all that a woman abandoned would be likely to
+      endure in the course of so many long and suffering years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you sure of what you say, Jack? You would n't take advantage of my
+      situation to tell me an untruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As certain of it as of my own existence. I have seen her quite lately&mdash;talked
+      with her of <i>you</i>&mdash;in short, she is now at Key West, knows your
+      state, and has a wife's feelin's to come to your bed-side.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding all this, and the many gleamings he had had of the facts
+      during their late intercourse on board the brig, Spike did not guess at
+      the truth. He appeared astounded, and his terror seemed to increase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have another thing to tell you,&rdquo; continued Jack, pausing but a moment
+      to collect her own thoughts. &ldquo;Jack Tier&mdash;the real Jack Tier&mdash;he
+      who sailed with you of old, and whom you left ashore at the same time you
+      desarted your wife, <i>did</i> die of the fever, as you was told, in
+      eight-and-forty hours a'ter the brig went to sea.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then who, in the name of Heaven, are you? How came you to hail by
+      another's name as well as by another sex?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What could a woman do, whose husband had desarted her in a strange land?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is remarkable! So <i>you</i>'ve been married? I should not have
+      thought <i>that</i> possible; and your husband desarted you, too. Well,
+      such things <i>do</i> happen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack now felt a severe pang. She could not but see that her ungainly&mdash;we
+      had almost said her unearthly appearance&mdash;prevented the captain from
+      even yet suspecting the truth; and the meaning of his language was not
+      easily to be mistaken. That any one should have married <i>her,</i> seemed
+      to her husband as improbable as it was probable he would run away from her
+      as soon as it was in his power after the ceremony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stephen Spike,&rdquo; resumed Jack, solemnly, &ldquo;<i>I</i> am Mary Swash&mdash;<i>I</i>
+      am your wife!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike started in his bed; then he buried his face in the coverlet&mdash;and
+      he actually groaned. In bitterness of spirit the woman turned away and
+      wept. Her feelings had been blunted by misfortune and the collisions of a
+      selfish world; but enough of former self remained to make this the hardest
+      of all the blows she had ever received. Her husband, dying as he was, as
+      he must and did know himself to be, shrunk from one of her appearance,
+      unsexed as she had become by habits, and changed by years and suffering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  The trusting heart's repose, the paradise
+  Of home, with all its loves, doth fate allow
+  The crown of glory unto woman's brow.
+
+  Mrs. Hemans.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It has again become necessary to advance the time; and we shall take the
+      occasion thus offered to make a few explanations touching certain events
+      which have been passed over without notice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reason why Captain Mull did not chase the yawl of the brig in the
+      Poughkeepsie herself, was the necessity of waiting for his own boats that
+      were endeavouring to regain the sloop-of-war. It would not have done to
+      abandon them, inasmuch as the men were so much exhausted by the pull to
+      windward, that when they reached the vessel all were relieved from duty
+      for the rest of the day. As soon, however, as the other boats were hoisted
+      in, or run up, the ship filled away, stood out of the passage and ran down
+      to join the cutter of Wallace, which was endeavouring to keep its
+      position, as much as possible, by making short tacks under close-reefed
+      luggs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike had been received on board the sloop-of-war, sent into her sick bay,
+      and put under the care of the surgeon and his assistants. From the first,
+      these gentlemen pronounced the hurt mortal. The wounded man was insensible
+      most of the time, until the ship had beat up and gone into Key West, where
+      he was transferred to the regular hospital, as has already been mentioned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wreckers went out the moment the news of the calamity of the Swash
+      reached their ears. Some went in quest of the doubloons of the schooner,
+      and others to pick up anything valuable that might be discovered in the
+      neighbourhood of the stranded brig. It may be mentioned here, that not
+      much was ever obtained from the brigantine, with the exception of a few
+      spars, the sails, and a little rigging; but, in the end, the schooner was
+      raised, by means of the chain Spike had placed around her, the cabin was
+      ransacked, and the doubloons were recovered. As there was no one to claim
+      the money, it was quietly divided among the conscientious citizens present
+      at its re-visiting &ldquo;the glimpses of the moon,&rdquo; making gold plenty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doubloons in the yawl would have been lost but for the sagacity of
+      Mulford. He too well knew the character of Spike to believe he would quit
+      the brig without taking the doubloons with him. Acquainted with the boat,
+      he examined the little locker in the stern-sheets, and found the two bags,
+      one of which was probably the lawful property of Captain Spike, while the
+      other, in truth, belonged to the Mexican government. The last contained
+      the most gold, but the first amounted to a sum that our young mate knew to
+      be very considerable. Rose had made him acquainted with the sex of Jack
+      Tier since their own marriage; and he at once saw that the claims of this
+      uncouth wife, who was so soon to be a widow, to the gold in question,
+      might prove to be as good in law, as they unquestionably were in morals.
+      On representing the facts of the case to Captain Mull and the legal
+      functionaries at Key West, it was determined to relinquish this money to
+      the heirs of Spike, as, indeed, they must have done under process, there
+      being no other claimant. These doubloons, however, did not amount to the
+      full price of the flour and powder that composed the cargo of the Swash.
+      The cargo had been purchased with Mexican funds; and all that Spike or his
+      heirs could claim, was the high freight for which he had undertaken the
+      delicate office of transporting those forbidden articles, contraband of
+      war, to the Dry Tortugas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford by this time was high in the confidence and esteem of all on board
+      the Poughkeepsie. He had frankly explained his whole connexion with Spike,
+      not even attempting to conceal the reluctance he had felt to betray the
+      brig after he had fully ascertained the fact of his commander's treason.
+      The manly gentlemen with whom he was now brought in contact entered into
+      his feelings, and admitted that it was an office no one could desire, to
+      turn against the craft in which he sailed. It is true, they could not and
+      would not be traitors, but Mulford had stopped far short of this; and the
+      distinction between such a character and that of an informer was wide
+      enough to satisfy all their scruples.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Rose had the greatest success with the gentlemen of the Poughkeepsie.
+      Her youth, beauty, and modesty, told largely in her favour; and the
+      simple, womanly affection she unconsciously betrayed in behalf of Harry,
+      touched the heart of every observer. When the intelligence of her aunt's
+      fate reached her, the sorrow she manifested was so profound and natural,
+      that every one sympathized with her grief. Nor would she be satisfied
+      unless Mulford would consent to go in search of the bodies. The latter
+      knew the hopelessness of such an excursion, but he could not refuse to
+      comply. He was absent on that melancholy duty, therefore, at the moment of
+      the scene related in our last chapter, and did not return until after that
+      which we are now about to lay before the reader. Mrs. Budd, Biddy, and all
+      of those who perished after the yawl got clear of the reef, were drowned
+      in deep water, and no more was ever seen of any of them; or, if wreckers
+      did pass them, they did not stop to bury the dead. It was different,
+      however, with those, who were first sacrificed to Spike's selfishness.
+      They were drowned on the reef, and Harry did actually recover the bodies
+      of the Señor Montefalderon, and of Josh, the steward. They had washed upon
+      a rock that is bare at low water. He took them both to the Dry Tortugas,
+      and had them interred along with the other dead at that place. Don Juan
+      was placed side by side with his unfortunate countryman, the master of his
+      equally unfortunate schooner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Harry was absent and thus employed, Rose wept much and prayed more.
+      She would have felt herself almost alone in the world, but for the youth
+      to whom she had so recently, less than a week before, plighted her faith
+      in wedlock. That new tie, it is true, was of sufficient importance to
+      counteract many of the ordinary feelings of her situation; and she now
+      turned to it as the one which absorbed most of the future duties of her
+      life. Still she missed the kindness, the solicitude, even the weaknesses
+      of her aunt; and the terrible manner in which Mrs. Budd had perished, made
+      her shudder with horror whenever she thought of it. Poor Biddy, too, came
+      in for her share of the regrets. This faithful creature, who had been in
+      the relict's service ever since Rose's infancy, had become endeared to
+      her, in spite of her uncouth manners and confused ideas, by the warmth of
+      her heart, and the singular truth of her feelings. Biddy, of all her
+      family, had come to America, leaving behind her not only brothers and
+      sisters, but parents living. Each year did she remit to the last a moiety
+      of her earnings, and many a half-dollar that had come from Rose's pretty
+      little hand, had been converted into gold, and forwarded on the same pious
+      errand to the green island of her nativity. Ireland, unhappy country! at
+      this moment what are not the dire necessities of thy poor! Here, from the
+      midst of abundance, in a land that God has blessed in its productions far
+      beyond the limits of human wants, a land in which famine was never known,
+      do we at this moment hear thy groans, and listen to tales of suffering
+      that to us seem almost incredible. In the midst of these chilling
+      narratives, our eyes fall on an appeal to the English nation, that appears
+      in what it is the fashion of some to term the first journal of Europe (!)
+      in behalf of thy suffering people. A worthy appeal to the charity of
+      England seldom fails; but it seems to us that one sentiment of this might
+      have been altered, if not spared. The English are asked to be &ldquo;<i>forgetful</i>
+      of the past,&rdquo; and to come forward to the relief of their suffering
+      fellow-subjects. We should have written &ldquo;<i>mindful</i> of the past,&rdquo; in
+      its stead. We say this in charity, as well as in truth. We come of English
+      blood, and if we claim to share in all the ancient renown of that warlike
+      and enlightened people, we are equally bound to share in the reproaches
+      that original misgovernment has inflicted on thee. In this latter sense,
+      then, thou hast a right to our sympathies, and they are not withheld.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As has been already said, we now advance the time eight-and-forty hours,
+      and again transfer the scene to that room in the hospital which was
+      occupied by Spike. The approaches of death, during the interval just
+      named, had been slow but certain. The surgeons had announced that the
+      wounded man could not possibly survive the coming night; and he himself
+      had been made sensible that his end was near. It is scarcely necessary to
+      add that Stephen Spike, conscious of his vigour and strength, in command
+      of his brig, and bent on the pursuits of worldly gains, or of personal
+      gratification, was a very different person from him who now lay stretched
+      on his pallet in the hospital of Key West, a dying man. By the side of his
+      bed still sat his strange nurse, less peculiar in appearance, however,
+      than when last seen by the reader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose Budd had been ministering to the ungainly externals of Jack Tier. She
+      now wore a cap, thus concealing the short, grey bristles of hair, and
+      lending to her countenance a little of that softness which is a requisite
+      of female character. Some attention had also been paid to the rest of her
+      attire; and Jack was, altogether, less repulsive in her exterior than
+      when, unaided, she had attempted to resume the proper garb of her sex. Use
+      and association, too, had contributed a little to revive her woman's
+      nature, if we may so express it, and she had begun, in particular, to feel
+      the sort of interest in her patient which we all come in time to entertain
+      toward any object of our especial care. We do not mean that Jack had
+      absolutely ever ceased to love her husband; strange as it may seem, such
+      had not literally been the case; on the contrary, her interest in him and
+      in his welfare had never ceased, even while she saw his vices and detested
+      his crimes; but all we wish to say here is, that she was getting, in
+      addition to the long-enduring feelings of a wife, some of the interest of
+      a nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the whole time which had elapsed between Jack's revealing her true
+      character, and the moment of which we are now writing, Spike had not once
+      spoken to his wife. Often had she caught his eyes intently riveted on her,
+      when he would turn them away, as she feared, in distaste; and once or
+      twice he groaned deeply, more like a man who suffered mental than bodily
+      pain. Still the patient did not speak once in all the time mentioned. We
+      should be representing poor Jack as possessing more philosophy, or less
+      feeling, than the truth would warrant, were we to say that she was not
+      hurt at this conduct in her husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the contrary, she felt it deeply; and more than once it had so far
+      subdued her pride, as to cause her bitterly to weep. This shedding of
+      tears, however, was of service to Jack in one sense, for it had the effect
+      of renewing old impressions, and in a certain way, of reviving the nature
+      of her sex within her&mdash;a nature which had been sadly weakened by her
+      past life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the hour had at length come when this long and painful silence was to
+      be broken. Jack and Rose were alone with the patient, when the last again
+      spoke to his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Molly&mdash;poor Molly!&rdquo; said the dying man, his voice continuing full
+      and deep to the last, &ldquo;what a sad time you must have had of it after I did
+      you that wrong!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is hard upon a woman, Stephen, to turn her out, helpless, on a cold
+      and selfish world,&rdquo; answered Jack, simply, much too honest to affect a
+      reserve she did not feel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was hard, indeed; may God forgive me for it, as I hope ye do, Molly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      No answer was made to this appeal; and the invalid looked anxiously at his
+      wife. The last sat at her work, which had now got to be less awkward to
+      her, with her eyes bent on her needle,&mdash;her countenance rigid, and,
+      so far as the eye could discern, her feelings unmoved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your husband speaks to you, Jack Tier,&rdquo; said Rose, pointedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May <i>yours</i> never have occasion to speak to you, Rose Budd, in the
+      same way,&rdquo; was the solemn answer. &ldquo;I do not flatter myself that I ever was
+      as comely as you, or that yonder poor dying wretch was a Harry Mulford in
+      his youth; but we were young and happy, and respected once, and loved each
+      other, yet you see what it's all come to!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose was silenced, though she had too much tenderness in behalf of her own
+      youthful and manly bridegroom to dread a fate similar to that which had
+      overtaken poor Jack. Spike now seemed disposed to say something, and she
+      went to the side of his bed, followed by her companion, who kept a little
+      in the back-ground, as if unwilling to let the emotion she really felt be
+      seen, and, perhaps, conscious that her ungainly appearance did not aid her
+      in recovering the lost affections of her husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have been a very wicked man, I fear,&rdquo; said Spike, earnestly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are none without sin,&rdquo; answered Rose. &ldquo;Place your reliance on the
+      mediation of the Son of God, and sins even far deeper than yours may be
+      pardoned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The captain stared at the beautiful speaker, but self-indulgence, the
+      incessant pursuit of worldly and selfish objects for forty years, and the
+      habits of a life into which the thought of God and the dread hereafter
+      never entered, had encased his spiritual being in a sort of brazen armour,
+      through which no ordinary blow of conscience could penetrate. Still he had
+      fearful glimpses of recent events, and his soul, hanging as it was over
+      the abyss of eternity, was troubled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What has become of your aunt?&rdquo; half whispered Spike&mdash;&ldquo;my old
+      captain's widow. She ought to be here; and Don Wan Montezuma&mdash;where
+      is he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose turned aside to conceal her tears&mdash;but no one answered the
+      questions of the dying man. Then a gleaming of childhood shot into the
+      recollection of Spike, and, clasping his hands, he tried to pray. But,
+      like others who have lived without any communication with their Creator
+      through long lives of apathy to his existence and laws, thinking only of
+      the present time, and daily, hourly sacrificing principles and duty to the
+      narrow interests of the moment, he now found how hard it is to renew
+      communications with a being who has been so long neglected. The fault lay
+      in himself, however, for a gracious ear was open, even over the death-bed
+      of Stephen Spike, could that rude spirit only bring itself to ask for
+      mercy in earnestness and truth. As his companions saw his struggles, they
+      left him for a few minutes to his own thoughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Molly,&rdquo; Spike at length uttered, in a faint tone, the voice of one
+      conscious of being very near his end, &ldquo;I hope you will forgive me, Molly.
+      I know you must have a hard, hard time of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is hard for a woman to unsex herself, Stephen; to throw off her very
+      natur', as it might be, and to turn man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has changed you sadly&mdash;even your speech is altered. Once your
+      voice was soft and womanish&mdash;more like that of Rose Budd's than it is
+      now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I speak as them speak among whom I've been forced to live. The forecastle
+      and steward's pantry, Stephen Spike, are poor schools to send women to
+      l'arn language in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Try and forget it all, poor Molly! Say to me, so that I can hear you, 'I
+      forget and forgive, Stephen.' I am afraid God will not pardon my sins,
+      which begin to seem dreadful to me, if my own wife refuse to forget and
+      forgive, on my dying bed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack was much mollified by this appeal. Her interest in her offending
+      husband had never been entirely extinguished. She had remembered him, and
+      often with woman's kindness, in all her wanderings and sufferings, as the
+      preceding parts of our narrative must show; and though resentment had been
+      mingled with the grief and mortification she felt at finding how much he
+      still submitted to Rose's superior charms, in a breast as really generous
+      and humane as that of Jack Tier's, such a feeling was not likely to endure
+      in the midst of a scene like that she was now called to witness. The
+      muscles of her countenance twitched, the hard-looking, tanned face began
+      to lose its sternness, and every way she appeared like one profoundly
+      disturbed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Turn to Him whose goodness and marcy may sarve you, Stephen,&rdquo; she said,
+      in a milder and more feminine tone than she had used now for years, making
+      her more like herself than either her husband or Rose had seen her since
+      the commencement of the late voyage; &ldquo;my sayin' that I forget and forgive
+      cannot help a man on his death-bed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will settle my mind, Molly, and leave me freer to turn my thoughts to
+      God.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack was much affected, more by the countenance and manner of the
+      sufferer, perhaps, than by his words. She drew nearer to the side of her
+      husband's pallet, knelt, took his hands, and said solemnly,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stephen Spike, from the bottom of my heart, I <i>do</i> forgive you; and
+      I shall pray to God that he will pardon your sins as freely and more
+      marcifully than I now pardon all, and try to forget all that you have done
+      to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike clasped his hands, and again he tried to pray; but the habits of a
+      whole life are not to be thrown off at will; and he who endeavours to
+      regain, in his extremity, the moments that have been lost, will find, in
+      bitter reality, that he has been heaping mountains on his own soul, by the
+      mere practice of sin, which were never laid there by the original fall of
+      his race. Jack, however, had disburthened her spirit of a load that had
+      long oppressed it, and, burying her face in the rug, she wept.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish, Molly,&rdquo; said the dying man, several minutes later, &ldquo;I wish I had
+      never seen the brig. Until I got that craft, no thought of wronging human
+      being ever crossed my mind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was the Father of Lies that tempts all to do evil, Stephen, and not
+      the brig which caused the sins.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish I could live a year longer&mdash;<i>only</i> one year; that is not
+      much to ask for a man who is not yet sixty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is hopeless, poor Stephen. The surgeons say you cannot live one day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spike groaned&mdash;for the past, blended fearfully with the future,
+      gleamed on his conscience with a brightness that appalled him. And what is
+      that future, which is to make us happy or miserable through an endless
+      vista of time? Is it not composed of an existence, in which conscience,
+      released from the delusions and weaknesses of the body, sees all in its
+      true colours, appreciates all, and punishes all? Such an existence would
+      make every man the keeper of the record of his own transgressions, even to
+      the most minute exactness. It would of itself mete out perfect justice,
+      since the sin would be seen amid its accompanying facts, every aggravating
+      or extenuating circumstance. Each man would be strictly punished according
+      to his talents. As no one is without sin, it makes the necessity of an
+      atonement indispensable, and, in its most rigid interpretation, it
+      exhibits the truth of the scheme of salvation in the clearest colours. The
+      soul, or conscience, that can admit the necessary degree of faith in that
+      atonement, and in admitting, <i>feels</i> its efficacy, throws the burthen
+      of its own transgressions away, and remains for ever in the condition of
+      its original existence, pure, and consequently happy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We do not presume to lay down a creed on this mighty and mysterious
+      matter, in which all have so deep an interest, and concerning which so
+      very small a portion of the human race think much, or think with any
+      clearness when it does become the subject of their passing thoughts at all
+      We too well know our own ignorance to venture on dogmas which it has
+      probably been intended that the mind of man should not yet grapple with
+      and comprehend. To return to our subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Stephen Spike was now made to feel the incubus-load, which perseverance in
+      sin heaps on the breast of the reckless offender. What was the most
+      grievous of all, his power to shake off this dead weight was diminished in
+      precisely the same proportion as the burthen was increased, the moral
+      force of every man lessening in a very just ratio to the magnitude of his
+      delinquencies. Bitterly did this deep offender struggle with his
+      conscience, and little did his half-unsexed wife know how to console or
+      aid him. Jack had been superficially instructed in the dogmas of her
+      faith, in childhood and youth, as most persons are instructed in what are
+      termed Christian communities&mdash;had been made to learn the Catechism,
+      the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed&mdash;and had been left to set up for
+      herself on this small capital, in the great concern of human existence, on
+      her marriage and entrance on the active business of life. When the manner
+      in which she had passed the last twenty years is remembered, no one can be
+      surprised to learn that Jack was of little assistance to her husband in
+      his extremity. Rose made an effort to administer hope and consolation, but
+      the terrible nature of the struggle she witnessed, induced her to send for
+      the chaplain of the Poughkeepsie. This divine prayed with the dying man;
+      but even he, in the last moments of the sufferer, was little more than a
+      passive but shocked witness of remorse, suspended over the abyss of
+      eternity in hopeless dread. We shall not enter into the details of the
+      revolting scene, but simply add that curses, blasphemy, tremulous cries
+      for mercy, agonized entreaties to be advised, and sullen defiance, were
+      all strangely and fearfully blended. In the midst of one of these
+      revolting paroxysms, Spike breathed his last. A few hours later, his body
+      was interred in the sands of the shore. It may be well to say in this
+      place, that the hurricane of 1846, which is known to have occurred only a
+      few months later, swept off the frail covering, and that the body was
+      washed away to leave its bones among the wrecks and relics of the Florida
+      Reef.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mulford did not return from his fruitless expedition in quest of the
+      remains of Mrs. Budd, until after the death and interment of Spike. As
+      nothing remained to be done at Key West, he and Rose accompanied by Jack
+      Tier, took passage for Charleston in the first convenient vessel that
+      offered. Two days before they sailed, the Poughkeepsie went out to cruise
+      in the Gulf, agreeably to her general orders. The evening previously
+      Captain Mull, Wallace, and the chaplain, passed with the bridegroom and
+      bride, when the matter of the doubloons found in the boat was discussed.
+      It was agreed that Jack Tier should have them; and into her hands the bag
+      was now placed. On this occasion, to oblige the officers, Jack went into a
+      narrative of all she had seen and suffered, from the moment when abandoned
+      by her late husband down to that when she found him again. It was a
+      strange account, and one filled with surprising adventures. In most of the
+      vessels in which she had served, Jack had acted in the steward's
+      department, though she had frequently done duty as a fore-mast hand. In
+      strength and skill she admitted that she had often failed; but in courage,
+      never. Having been given reason to think her husband was reduced to
+      serving in a vessel of war, she had shipped on board a frigate bound to
+      the Mediterranean, and had actually made a whole cruise as a ward-room boy
+      on that station. While thus employed, she had met with two of the
+      gentlemen present; Captain Mull and Mr. Wallace. The former was then
+      first-lieutenant of the frigate, and the latter a passed-midshipman; and
+      in these capacities both had been well known to her. As the name she then
+      bore was the same as that under which she now &ldquo;hailed,&rdquo; these officers
+      were soon made to recollect her, though Jack was no longer the light,
+      trim-built lad he had then appeared to be. Neither of the gentlemen named
+      had made the whole cruise in the ship, but each had been promoted and
+      transferred to another craft, after being Jack's shipmate rather more than
+      a year. This information greatly facilitated the affair of the doubloons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From Charleston the travellers came north by rail-road. Harry made several
+      stops by the way, in order to divert the thoughts of his beautiful young
+      bride from dwelling too much on the fate of her aunt. He knew that home
+      would revive all these recollections painfully, and wished to put off the
+      hour of their return, until time had a little weakened Rose's regrets. For
+      this reason, he passed a whole week in Washington, though it was a season
+      of the year that the place is not in much request. Still, Washington is
+      scarce a town, at any season. It is much the fashion to deride the
+      American capital, and to treat it as a place of very humble performance
+      with very sounding pretensions. Certainly, Washington has very few of the
+      peculiarities of a great European capital, but few as these are, they are
+      more than belong to any other place in this country. We now allude to the
+      <i>distinctive</i> characteristics of a capital, and not to a mere
+      concentration of houses and shops within a given space. In this last
+      respect, Washington is much behind fifty other American towns, even while
+      it is the only place in the whole republic which possesses specimens of
+      architecture, on a scale approaching that of the higher classes of the
+      edifices of the old world. It is totally deficient in churches, and
+      theatres, and markets; or those it does possess are, in an architectural
+      sense, not at all above the level of village or countrytown pretensions,
+      but one or two of its national edifices do approach the magnificence and
+      grandeur of the old world. The new Treasury Buildings are unquestionably,
+      on the score of size, embellishments and finish, <i>the</i> American
+      edifice that comes nearest to first class architecture on the other side
+      of the Atlantic. The Capitol comes next, though it can scarce be ranked,
+      relatively, as high. As for the White House, it is every way sufficient
+      for its purposes and the institutions; and now that its grounds are
+      finished, and the shrubbery and trees begin to tell, one sees about it
+      something that is not unworthy of its high uses and origin. Those grounds,
+      which so long lay a reproach to the national taste and liberality, are now
+      fast becoming beautiful, are already exceedingly pretty, and give to a
+      structure that is destined to become historical, having already associated
+      with it the names of Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, and Quincy Adams,
+      together with the <i>ci polloi</i> of the later Presidents, an <i>entourage</i>
+      that is suitable to its past recollections and its present purposes. They
+      are not quite on a level with the parks of London, it is true; or even
+      with the Tuileries, or Luxembourg, or the Boboli, or the Villa Reale, or
+      fifty more grounds and gardens, of a similar nature, that might be
+      mentioned; but, seen in the spring and early summer, they adorn the
+      building they surround, and lend to the whole neighbourhood a character of
+      high civilization, that no other place in America can show, in precisely
+      the same form, or to the same extent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This much have we said on the subject of the White House and its
+      precincts, because we took occasion, in a former work, to berate the
+      narrow-minded parsimony which left the grounds of the White House in a
+      condition that was discreditable to the republic. How far our philippic
+      may have hastened the improvements which have been made, is more than we
+      shall pretend to say; but having made the former strictures, we are happy
+      to have an occasion to say (though nearly twenty years have intervened
+      between the expressions of the two opinions) that they are no longer
+      merited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And here we will add another word, and that on a subject that is not
+      sufficiently pressed on the attention of a people, who, by position, are
+      unavoidably provincial. We invite those whose gorges rise at any stricture
+      on anything American, and who fancy it is enough to belong to the great
+      republic to be great in itself, to place themselves in front of the State
+      Department, as it now stands, and to examine its dimensions, material and
+      form with critical eyes, then to look along the adjacent Treasury
+      Buildings, to fancy them completed, by a junction with new edifices of a
+      similar construction to contain the department of state; next to fancy
+      similar works completed for the two opposite departments; after which, to
+      compare the past and present with the future as thus finished, and
+      remember how recent has been the partial improvement which even now
+      exists. If this examination and comparison do not show, directly to the
+      sense of sight, how much there was and is to criticise, as put in contrast
+      with other countries, we shall give up the individuals in question, as too
+      deeply dyed in the provincial wool ever to be whitened. The present
+      Trinity church, New York, certainly not more than a third class European
+      church, if as much, compared with its village-like predecessor, may supply
+      a practical homily of the same degree of usefulness. There may be those
+      among us, however, who fancy it patriotism to maintain that the old
+      Treasury Buildings were quite equal to the new, and of these intense
+      Americans we cry their mercy!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose felt keenly on reaching her late aunt's very neat dwelling in
+      Fourteenth Street, New York. But the manly tenderness of Mulford was a
+      great support to her, and a little time brought her to think of that
+      weak-minded, but well-meaning and affectionate relative, with gentle
+      regret, rather than with grief. Among the connexions of her young husband,
+      she found several females of a class in life certainly equal to her own,
+      and somewhat superior to the latter in education and habits. As for Harry,
+      he very gladly passed the season with his beautiful bride, though a fine
+      ship was laid down for him, by means of Rose's fortune, now much increased
+      by her aunt's death, and he was absent in Europe when his son was born; an
+      event that occurred only two months since.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Swash, and the shipment of gunpowder, were thought of no more in the
+      good town of Manhattan. This great emporium&mdash;we beg pardon, this
+      great <i>commercial</i> emporium&mdash;has a trick of forgetting,
+      condensing all interests into those of the present moment. It is much
+      addicted to believing that which never had an existence, and of
+      overlooking that which is occurring directly under its nose. So marked is
+      this tendency to forgetfulness, we should not be surprised to hear some of
+      the Manhattanese pretend that our legend is nothing but a fiction, and
+      deny the existence of the Molly, Captain Spike, and even of Biddy Noon.
+      But we know them too well to mind what they say, and shall go on and
+      finish our narrative in our own way, just as if there were no such
+      raven-throated commentators at all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack Tier, still known by that name, lives in the family of Captain
+      Mulford. She is fast losing the tan on her face and hands, and every day
+      is improving in appearance. She now habitually wears her proper attire,
+      and is dropping gradually into the feelings and habits of her sex. She
+      never can become what she once was, any more than the blackamoor can
+      become white, or the leopard change his spots; but she is no longer
+      revolting. She has left off chewing and smoking, having found a refuge in
+      snuff. Her hair is permitted to grow, and is already turned up with a
+      comb, though constantly concealed beneath a cap. The heart of Jack, alone,
+      seems unaltered. The strange, tiger-like affection that she bore for
+      Spike, during twenty years of abandonment, has disappeared in regrets for
+      his end. It is succeeded by a most sincere attachment for Rose, in which
+      the little boy, since his appearance on the scene, is becoming a large
+      participator. This child Jack is beginning to love intensely; and the
+      doubloons, well invested, placing her above the feeling of dependence, she
+      is likely to end her life, once so errant and disturbed, in tranquillity
+      and a home-like happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE END.
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
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+</pre>
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